TORRINGTON, CONN (SZS) — The Slovak Zion Synod extends our prayers for God’s blessings on one of our ordained ministers as she begins her retirement. The Rev. Linda J. Kraft begins her retirement on May 13, 2015, after over thirteen years of ordained ministry at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Trumbull, CT. On May 9, the congregation honored Pastor Kraft with a special dinner at the church, attended by family, friends, and well-wishers from the congregation. Bishop Wilma S. Kucharek brought greetings from the Slovak Zion Synod and offered special prayers of farewell and Godspeed for the newly retiring pastor. During worship the next day, Pastor Kraft was able to preside and preach a final sermon to parishioners before she and the congregation each embark on their own next chapter of life.
Pastor Kraft was ordained in 1996 and has served in ordained ministry for over 19 years. She is a graduate of Concordia Teacher’s College where she received her B.S. in Education in 1973. She taught at Trinity Lutheran School in Hawthorn, California and served as interim associate pastor (non-ordained) at Hope Lutheran Church in Fresno, California prior to her graduation from Wartburg Seminary in 1993 and ordination in 1996. She served her first call as Pastor at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Stafford Springs, Connecticut from 1996 to 2002. She accepted the call to Holy Trinity in Trumbull in 2002 and was installed on April 14 of that year. In the Slovak Zion Synod, she served as chair of Learning Ministry and Secretary of the Synod.
She looks forward to “days with [her] granddaughter, reading, writing prayers for publication, quilting and walking.”
Pastor Kraft (front-left) with her family.
Bp. Kucharek leads those assembled in a service of farewell and Godspeed
Pr. Kraft presides at her final worship at Holy Trinity.
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