The Rev. Canon Dr. Cyril Casper Burke Sr., a U.S. Army veteran of World War II, died January 11 at 96.
Burke was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was a graduate of St. Augustine’s College (now University), George Mercer Memorial Seminary, and Hartford Seminary, where he completed a Doctor of Ministry. He was ordained deacon and priest in 1964.
His being drafted into the Army interrupted his college studies, and he served in a segregated unit at the end of the war. Burke said that he and other Black soldiers were treated worse than prisoners of war, but that it inspired him to make Jesus’ teaching about loving your neighbor a greater reality.
Burke met his soulmate while at St. Augustine’s, and they were married upon his honorable discharge from the Army.
He served parishes in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York, and returned to St. Augustine’s College as its chaplain and professor of ethics (1984-91).
He led St. Monica’s Church in Hartford from a mission to a self-sufficient parish by 1973, served at St. Monica’s from 1966 to 1984, and returned to Connecticut in 1992. St. Monica’s elected him as rector emeritus and named its parish hall in his honor.
He is survived by Gloria, his wife of 75 years; two sons; a daughter, five grandchildren; and 12 great-grandchildren.
The Rev. Dr. Glenn Busch, who served as a small-town mayor and helped build a transition house for homeless men, died January 22 in Lynchburg, Virginia. He was 77.
He was born in Kissimmee, Florida, and grew up near Pittsburgh. He was a graduate of Pennsylvania State University, Virginia Theological Seminary, and Union Theological Seminary in Richmond, Virginia.
He was ordained deacon and priest in 1971. He served at St. Stephen’s, Richmond, Virginia; St. John’s, Bedford, Virginia; and St. Mary’s, High Point, N.C., where he was named rector emeritus on his retirement in 2008.
He served as mayor of Bedford (1978-80), and initiated and oversaw construction of the Arthur Cassell Memorial Transition House in High Point, North Carolina.
Busch had a passion for teaching and writing. He taught religion classes at High Point University, wrote two books, and published a blog for several years.
Busch is survived by his wife of 52 years, Kathleen Cooney Busch; a son; a daughter; and two grandsons.
The Rev. John B. Connell, who was active in Cursillo and interim ministry, died January 21 at 92.
Connell was born in Waukegan, Illinois, but spent most of his life in Hawaii. He was a graduate of the University of Hawaii and Church Divinity School of the Pacific. He was ordained deacon in 1985 and priest in 1996.
He was vicar of St. Barnabas Church, Kapolei, from 1985 to 1998, and then served in multiple interim ministries on the islands. He was a member of the Interim Ministry Network.
He and his wife, Carol, were parents to three children.
The Rev. Herbert (Bert) G. Draesel Jr., rector of Church of the Holy Trinity in New York City for 19 years, died January 14 at 82.
He was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, and was a graduate of Trinity College and General Theological Seminary. He was ordained deacon and priest in 1964. He began his ministry at the House of Prayer in Newark, New Jersey, and remained there until 1972.
He served churches in Chappaqua and White Plains, New York, before becoming rector of Holy Trinity in 1984.
A remembrance by the parish said he “helped grow the parish in virtually every direction: financially, spiritually, programmatically, and musically.” He helped found Holy Trinity Neighborhood Center Inc., the Draesel Fund for Children, and the Property Preservation Trust, which is the church’s small endowment for building preservation.
He is survived by his wife, Ada, and two daughters, and their families.
Canon Lydia Lopez, a lay leader and civil rights advocate in the Diocese of Los Angeles, died January 16 at 80.
Lopez was born in East Los Angeles to Mexican immigrant parents. Her father was a migrant worker who worked in a steel mill, which gave her an early introduction to labor unions.
Lopez was no stranger to being arrested for civil disobedience. “I was pregnant the first time I was arrested,” she recounted in a 2018 talk, referring to a 1970 Christmas Eve mid-Wilshire church protest at which she and her husband joined other Chicanos decrying conditions of poverty among Latino Angelenos.
“I had to wait for a long time, so by the time I was put into my jail cell it is dark, and I am given a mat to sleep on the floor. The door clangs, and I cry quietly,” she told listeners at All Saints Church in Pasadena. “Years later I overheard my son saying to his playmates, ‘Oh, yeah, my mom and I went to jail to make things better.’”
Her survivors include her son and two grandchildren.
The Rev. Ramona Rose-Crossley, who for six years served in Guam as part of the Micronesian Ministry of the Episcopal Church, died January 11 at 87.
She was born in Philadelphia, and was a graduate of Barnard College and the University of Maryland in Baltimore. In her life as a social worker, she offered therapy to abused children from broken homes.
In 1978, she and her husband, Remington, moved to Sewanee so she could enroll in the University of the South’s School of Theology. She was ordained deacon in 1986 and priest in 1987. She served parishes in Georgia, Tennessee, and Vermont.
Her husband was hired as the academic vice president of the University of Guam, and they moved there in 1989.
They returned to the United States in 1998, and moved back to Sewanee in 2003, when Remington entered seminary. Ramona offered spiritual direction to seminarians and served several parishes near Sewanee.
She is survived by her husband, a sister, two children, three stepchildren, and four grandchildren.
The Rev. Robert Setmeyer, rector of St. Martin’s Church in Des Plaines, Illinois, for 29 years, died January 15 at 76.
Setmeyer was born in Hammond, Indiana, and was a graduate of DePaul University and Nashotah House Theological Seminary. He was ordained deacon and priest in 1975, and served as curate at Church of the Redeemer in Elgin, Illinois, for three years. He then served at St. Martin’s for the rest of his ordained ministry. He was a youth adviser in the Elgin Deanery from 1974 to 1978.
Setmeyer traveled extensively, including a three-month rail tour of India, and spoke to people of many different faiths. During his travels, he met with the Dalai Lama.
He was preceded in death by his wife, Joyce. He is survived by three daughters, a son, 13 grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
The Rev. Dr. Donald Austin Stivers, a U.S. Army veteran of World War II, died June 28, 2022, at 98.
He was born in Geneva, New York, and was a graduate of Hobart College, Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, and Colgate Rochester Divinity School. He was ordained deacon and priest in 1951.
During the war, he served in the 256th Armored Field Artillery Battalion, which landed in Normandy (Utah Beach), and fought through France, Belgium, Holland, and finally into Germany.
For nearly 25 years, he served as the parish priest of All Saints in Irondequoit, New York, a suburb of Rochester.
He is survived by a sister, a brother, a daughter, a son, and two grandchildren.
The Rev. Dr. Richard Tudor, who served as the Diocese of Missouri’s ecumenical officer during the adoption of Called to Common Mission, died January 20 at 80.
Tudor was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, and was a graduate of the University of Kansas, Church Divinity School of the Pacific, and Eden Theological Seminary. He was ordained deacon in 1971 and priest in 1972, and served congregations in North Dakota and Ohio. He became rector of St. Barnabas Church in Florissant, Missouri, in 1989, and remained its rector until 2008. He taught for several years at the Episcopal School for Ministry in Webster Groves, Missouri.
When Called to Common Mission was accepted by both the Episcopal Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Tudor processed into Washington National Cathedral with the Rev. John Mahs, Bishop of the ELCA’s Central States Synod, for a commemorative service. Tudor regarded his participation in the formation of this agreement as one blow struck in opposition to the constant fragmentation of Western Christianity.
While serving as a priest in North Dakota, he was recruited by the state’s National Guard to serve as a chaplain. He was commissioned a 1st Lieutenant in the National Guard in 1982. He also served in the U.S. Army Reserve. In 1997, he was called to active duty and deployed to Germany for a year in support of Operation Joint Guard. He retired from the Army Reserve in 2002 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
After retiring from the military, he worked with the Missouri Military Funeral Honors Unit and participated in more than 500 services of committal at the National Cemetery and other sites in St. Louis.
Dr. Tudor wrote several articles for The Living Church, beginning in 1990, and for The Anglican Digest.
The Rev. Rodgers (Rodge) Taylor Wood, a U.S. Army veteran and broadcaster before his ordination, died January 13 at 89.
He was born in Pittsburgh, and was a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and Virginia Theological Seminary. He was ordained deacon and priest in 1975, and served parishes in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
His ministry included serving as a chaplain to a group of men incarcerated for life at the State Correctional Institution in Pittsburgh, often called Western Penitentiary.
Before entering the priesthood, he worked in radio and television, most notably as the DJ of Rodge’s Garage on WDAD in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and as the weatherman and, eventually, program director at WJAC-TV in Johnstown.
A family obituary said Fr. Wood considered his family his greatest achievement. He is survived by Roselind Davis Wood, his wife of 67 years; a brother; three daughters; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.