The Rt. Rev. William George (Bill) Burrill, who led the Diocese of Rochester from 1984 to 1999,and was an advocate for stewardship in the Episcopal Church, died on June 15 at 91.
“Bill had a sunny disposition, was relaxed and even-tempered. He liked to tell jokes and stories particularly about golf, which he loved! Bill was a good preacher and administrator. While he did not take up the social justice causes championed by his predecessor, Bishop Spears, Bishop Burrill was deeply involved ecumenically, particularly with Roman Catholics,” said the Rt. Rev. Kara Wagner Sherer, the ninth Bishop of Rochester.
A native of New York City, he was the son of the Rt. Rev. Gerald Francis Burrill, who later became the eighth Bishop of Chicago, and Janet Burrill. He studied at Sewanee and General Seminary, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1959.
After a curacy in Indiana, he moved to California to become vicar of St. Martin’s in Davis. Under Burrill’s leadership, the congregation experienced strong growth and developed close links with the local University of California campus, where he served as chaplain. He became archdeacon of the Diocese of Northern California in 1981.
He was active in ecumenical work, serving as a delegate to the Nairobi assembly of the World Council of Churches. For five years he was a member of the Episcopal Church’s Joint Standing Committee on Program, Budget, and Finance.
He was elected Bishop Coadjutor of the Diocese of Rochester in November 1983 on the 18th ballot (two electing conventions were required, five months apart, to break the deadlock). He succeeded Bishop Robert R. Spears Jr. the next year.
“Bishop Burrill’s most lasting contribution to the Diocese of Rochester was the reinstatement of an annual parish assessment or apportionment. That assessment had been given up in the early ’70s in favor of free will giving, and giving to the diocese plummeted,” Wagner Sherer said.
“The Diocese of Rochester’s current long-term financial stability is in large part due to Bishop Burrill.”
Burrill became known as the Episcopal Church’s “stewardship guru,” according to a December 1993 article in TLC, which reported that he had made presentations about the subject for half of the church’s domestic dioceses.
Thousands of copies of a video produced by his diocese that focused on stewardship as an expression of gratitude were distributed throughout the Episcopal Church and the wider Anglican world. With the Diocese of Rochester’s Canon for Finance, Bruce Rockwell, he started the network for stewardship education now known as TENS.
“The most iconic gesture by Bishop Burrill was one he frequently made at parish visits,” said Wagner Sherer. “During his sermon or after the service at an adult forum, he would pull out his checkbook and tap it against the mic or against the podium and say, ‘If you want to know about Bill Burrell, look at his checkbook.’
“And then he would go on to talk about what it how we understand money and what our priorities with money are. He talked a lot about gratitude and generosity, and would say, ‘Gratitude is the first response to salvation, the first response after saying I believe.’”
Burrill retired in 1999 and moved to Arizona, where he served as an assistant bishop in the diocese for nine years, and as bishop in residence at All Saints’, Phoenix.
He was preceded in death by his first wife, Kay, with whom he had four children. He is survived by his second wife, Marilyn.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
The fact that the Burrills, father and son, both became bishops of the Episcopal Church is by no means uncommon. Among the 1171 bishops in the church’s succession, there are 28 father-son pairs and one father-daughter pair (Victor and Nedi Rivera). There are also three sets of grandfather-father-son bishops: the Creightons, the Grays (William, Campbell, and Francis) and the Duncan Montgomery Grays (Sr., Jr., and the II—each of whom was Bishop of Mississippi).
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.
