The Episcopal Church lost two of its retired bishops in the past week: Joe Goodwin Burnett, 10th Bishop of Nebraska, died on November 14 at 77, and Chester Lovelle Talton, Suffragan Bishop of Los Angeles, died on November 20 at 84.
Joe Goodwin Burnett
Burnett’s successor, Bishop Scott Barker, said “he was a tireless shepherd and champion for his clergy, beloved for his kind heart and caring. … The prayers of all Nebraska are lifted to heaven this day in thanksgiving for Joe’s life and ministry.”
The son of a Methodist minister, Burnett grew up in central Mississippi, and earned a degree in political science from Millsaps College before training for the ministry at Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology.
Burnett spent his first 25 years of ministry in the Diocese of Mississippi, serving congregations in Pascagoula, Jackson, Clinton, Gulfport, and Hattiesburg. He served for many years as a chaplain for the Mississippi Conference on Church Music and Liturgy.
In 1999, he was appointed professor of pastoral theology at the University of the South’s School of Theology. He worked with seminarians and doctor of ministry students there for 11 years, teaching classes in pastoral theology, pastoral care, and congregational leadership.
He was elected Bishop of Nebraska on the first ballot, as the successor to Bishop James E. Krotz. Under his leadership, the diocese developed mission partnerships with the Dominican Republic and the Sudan. Burnett also helped to launch the Tri-Faith Initiative in Omaha, which brings together Christian, Jewish, and Muslim congregations on a large suburban campus for shared education and service projects.
Burnett stepped down as Bishop of Nebraska in 2011, and worked as an assisting bishop in the Diocese of Maryland, and as an interim at congregations in Washington, D.C., Mississippi, and South Dakota. He also returned to Sewanee to teach in the School of Theology’s advanced degree program.
He is survived by three sons and four grandchildren. Burial services will be held on January 9 at Trinity Cathedral in Omaha.
Chester Lovelle (Chet) Talton
“Chet Talton was a pioneer, a prophet, and a pastor for the ages,” said Bishop John Harvey Taylor of Los Angeles, who was ordained to the priesthood by Talton.
“Being elected bishop was an act of justice; but he lived his whole life that way. Traveling around the diocese, I encounter so many who describe their pride at having been confirmed by Chet—the warm voice, the loving smile, the gentlest of old-school slaps,” Taylor added.
Born in El Dorado, Arkansas, Talton grew up in Oakland, California, and found a cherished mentor in the Rev. Lewis Baskerville, rector of St. Augustine’s Church. He went from a degree at Cal State Hayward to Church Divinity School of the Pacific, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1971.
His early ministry involved leading churches in Berkeley and Carmel, California; Chicago; and St. Paul, Minnesota. He was called to New York by Trinity Church, Wall Street, as mission director in 1981. He founded an annual Thanksgiving Dinner for the homeless, and helped to open drop-in centers for teens, and day-care centers for low-wage workers in lower Manhattan. He then served as rector of St. Philip’s in Harlem, then a 900-member congregation with a full-time staff of 50.
He was elected as suffragan bishop by the Diocese of Los Angeles in 1990, becoming the first Black bishop to serve in the Episcopal Church in the Western States. In Los Angeles, he helped to establish the Episcopal Community Federal Credit Union to provide loans for small businesses in the aftermath of the Rodney King riots, and he oversaw diaconal ministries in the diocese and was active in advocacy and pastoral care of the clergy.
He served from 2011 to 2014 as Bishop Provisional of San Joaquin, caring for those congregations and clergy that remained within the Episcopal Church after a majority voted in 2007 to leave and form what is now the Anglican Diocese of San Joaquin.
Talton is survived by his wife, April Grayson Talton, and by four children and eight grandchildren.
The Rev. Mark Michael is editor-in-chief of The Living Church. An Episcopal priest, he has reported widely on global Anglicanism, and also writes about church history, liturgy, and pastoral ministry.
