User talk:Elisamkraft

Right Rev Richard Austin Kraft (1936-2001)-Bishop Enthroned

On the 18th of April 1982, a week after Easter- still vibrant with joy of the Resurrection- well over sixteen hundred men women and children from all over the far flung diocese and beyond gathered at Saint Alban's Cathedral to see the Dean enthroned as the 9th Bishop of Pretoria. St. Alban's was packed when young and old of all races gathered to the consecration and enthronement of the Right Rev Richard Kraft. The Right Rev Richard Kraft knelt before the Arch Bishop of Cape Town, the Most Reverend Philip Russell. The service included hundreds of Anglican clergy and office bearers; some eighteen bishops, some 100 clergy of the Cathedral chapter and Diocese and many from further afield (the new Bishop’s father-in-law Fr Roy Schaffer a priest of the Episcopal Church of the United States of America- who brought a message of love and support from his Presiding Bishop and his own congregation) There were representatives from many other denominations: Assemblies of God, Dutch Reformed, Methodist, Presbyterian, Roman Catholic, Salvation Army. The Administrator of the Transvaal and MRs. Cruywagon were there as were the Deputy Mayor of Pretoria and the Town Clerk, The embassies of Great Britain and the United States were represented and so were the ‘homeland’ within the Diocese. The choir stalls were bursting with a choir of over a hundred strong from all over the greater Pretoria, led by celebrated choir masters George King and Michael Rantho. The lessons were read in three of the languages most spoken in the Diocese. The people started arriving very early. The city traffic department closed Schoeman Street below the Cathedral so that the solemnity of the proceedings should not be disrupted. All thoroughfares for blocks around were lined with cars. An Icon One image remains with me. I had knelt for communion at the extreme left of the altar rail. I gazed into the sanctuary-so familiar, yet altered in a subtle dream-like way: flooded with an unaccustomed light and robed presences. Right in front of me, motionless on the bishop’s throne, sat Richard Kraft. His hands were relaxed on his knees, his expression very still. An icon. It seemed to me I had never properly seem him before. And no more had, because the man before me was a new creature: pledged before Almighty God to an unknown ministry in times yet to be born. Dear Richard was gone: before me was the ninth Bishop of Pretoria. “Behold I make all things New….”

The Editor of the SWORD May 1982 PRETORIA NEWS Thursday April 22 1982- Images

Richard A Kraft
The Rt Rev Richard Austin Kraft, was an Anglican Bishop in the last third of the 20th century.Wits Historical Papers Born on 3 June 1936 in the USA, he was educated at Ripon College, WisconsinWho's Who2008: London, A & C Black, 2008 ISBN 978-0-7136-8555-8 and ordained in 1961.Crockfords(London, Church House 1975) ISBN 0-19-200008-X His first post was as an Assistant Priest at St Alphege’s, Pietermaritzburg. From 1963 to 1967 he was Rector of St Chad’s Mission, Klip River. In 1968 he was asked by Bishop Alpheus Zulu to be Director of Christian Education in the Diocese of Zululand, and he was also Rector of All Saints Parish, Melmoth, KwaZulu-Natal from 1974 to 1976. As Director of Christian Education he was responsible for continuing the programme of experienced-based education (also known as group dynamics, sensitivity training or T-groups) pioneered by another American priest, Don Griswold. He also pioneered the training of self-supporting clergy at the diocesan conference centre KwaNzimela, near Melmoth, inspired by the principles enunciated by Roland Allen. In 1976 he was appointed Director of the Education Department of the Church of the Province of South Africa and then Dean of Pretoria. In 1982 he became Bishop of Pretoria, a post he held until 1998. He died on 17 January 2001 in Pretoria.

Kraft Elected Bishop of Pretoria
The Living Church, Volume 184

January 7, 1982	Kraft Elected Bishop of Pretoria	82004 ________________________________________ Episcopal News Service

PRETORIA, South Africa (DPS, Jan. 7) -- The Very Rev. Richard Kraft, an Episcopal missionary and dean of St. Alban's Cathedral here, has been elected Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Pretoria. Kraft, 45 and a native of Chicago, is the first American to be elected to a South African see. Since his graduation from General Theological Seminary in New York in 1961, he has served as an appointed missionary of the Episcopal Church. He has said that the Rt. Rev. Alpheus Zulu, the first black Anglican bishop in South Africa, was the man who most influenced his decision to serve in this country. A Christian education specialist, Kraft has helped train local leaders in Zululand and Natal. He speaks Zulu fluently and said that he hopes to learn the other seven major languages in his new diocese. In 1979 he was appointed dean of Pretoria where he lives with his wife Phyllis and their four children. The Diocese of Pretoria, where the capital of South Africa is located, covers all the Transvaal from a line midway between the cities of Pretoria and Johannesburg upwards, thus stretching to the borders of Swaziland, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Botswana. There are plans to divide the diocese in four centers that eventually will become dioceses. In a letter to the World Mission office at the Episcopal Church Center in New York, Kraft said: "Being a son of the Episcopal Church I hope that we can keep in close contact and relationship. I want to express my deep gratitude for the wonderful way in which we have been loved and supported through the last 21 years. I need your prayers more than ever because we have accepted this new challenge that the Lord has put before us.." His canonical tie to the Episcopal Church will now be severed. Kraft will be consecrated and installed as bishop on Easter Day 1982.