It may seem like quite a task. But Bishop Katrina Foster is up for it. 

“My goal is to be [on] every pulpit within this term of service. The term of service is six years,” Foster said of her time as the elected bishop for the Metropolitan New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

What You Need To Know

The Rev. Dr. Katrina Foster is the bishop for the Metropolitan New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Foster had been pastor at St. John’s Lutheran Church in Greenpoint, Brooklyn 

The bishop oversees 160 churches in the New York metropolitan area 

When Foster says every pulpit, she means the 160 churches she oversees in the New York metropolitan area.

It’s a job she has been doing since Aug. 1, with the official installation on Nov. 22 during a ceremony at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine. There were friends and family on hand, including the bishop’s wife, Pamela Kallimanis, and people from all walks of life.

“There were people there who were atheists, agnostics [and] Buddhists. Everybody was there because it is an event for everyone. It is for everyone in New York,” Foster said. 

NY1 first met the bishop a year ago as pastor of St. John’s Lutheran Church in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, which Foster turned around under her leadership, including a campaign to pay for restoration of the church built in 1891.

Now as the elected bishop, Foster has big plans for the 160 churches she is in charge of — and is already off to a running start.

“I was out all over the Synod, in our congregations, meeting people there. I don’t ask people to come here. I go out into our congregations all over the synod, and I’m so excited by the ministries that we do. We do some of the most amazing ministries that no one knows about because we are not good at amplifying what we are doing,” Foster said. 

She said she hopes to change that. But humility comes naturally to her as well. She is proud, though, to be the first woman and first openly gay person in the post.

The bishop doesn’t mind being called a pioneer.

“I am, and that just means that it becomes less difficulty for those who come after my ministry will conclude in this capacity,” Foster said. 

And while Foster says she misses aspects of being a pastor at a church, she loves being the bishop, being of service in this unique way.