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February 21, 2017
Dear Sisters and Brothers,
With great sadness, I write to tell you of a significant death in the common life and history of our diocese. On Friday, February 17, 2017, Dr. Philip K. Roskam, husband of retired Bishop Suffragan of New York Catherine S. Roskam, passed peacefully into God's greater glory after a long illness.
Bishop Roskam and Phil moved upon her retirement as Bishop Suffragan in 2011 to Van Nuys, California, to be near their daughter Gemma, son-in-law Greg, and grandson Olen. In 2014, Cathy was called to serve as Bishop-in-Charge of St. James' in-the-City Episcopal Church in Los Angeles, and Phil's funeral will be held there this Saturday, February 25, 2017. Then, on March 25, 2017, Cathy will return to our diocese and cathedral for a memorial service and committal of Phil's ashes to their final resting place, in sure and certain hope of his resurrection to eternal life in Christ Jesus. We expect that current and former bishops of this diocese will participate in the liturgy. I invite your presence and prayers.
Philip K. Roskam
1936 to 2017
Requiem Eucharist
Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine
Saturday, March 25, 2017, 11:00 a.m.
The Rt. Rev. Andrew M. L. Dietsche
Presiding and Preaching
Clergy: White Stoles
Cathy was, by virtue of her ministry as Bishop Suffragan, the more visible of the couple. Yet Phil also contributed significantly to our diocese, and his warmth and legacy are remembered fondly.
Born in Hampton, Iowa, Phil was raised there and in Portland, Oregon. For his undergraduate education, he moved to New York City, graduating from City College. Discovering a passion for helping people in the transformation of their lives, he went on to earn a Ph.D. in Clinical and Counseling Psychology from New York University. He joined the counseling department at Queens College before starting a private practice, which he kept for over forty years.
 Phil married Catherine Scimeca in 1966, and their daughter Gemma was born a decade later. As Phil pursued his vocation as a therapist, Cathy felt a call to the ordained ministry and, after her education and formation at The General Theological Seminary, Bishop Paul Moore, Jr. ordained her in 1984 as priest. The family moved to San Francisco in 1989, and then, upon Cathy's election as Bishop Suffragan, returned in 1995 to New York.
A native New Yorker, Cathy was the first woman to serve as a bishop in our diocese. For the next 16 years, she pursued an energetic and creative episcopacy, locally and globally. Known for her work in education, she founded the Global Women's Fund of New York, whose mission is to support the higher education of Anglican women in the developing world. She also founded All Our Children, an initiative in support of public education in the United States, and with the late Bishop Mdimi Mhogolo of Central Tanganyika, created Carpenter's Kids, which made it possible for congregations of our diocese to fund the primary education of 7,000 AIDS orphans and other vulnerable children in Tanzania.
 Within the wider Church, Bishop Roskam has served on the Episcopal Church's Executive
Council, the Board of Trustees of General Seminary, and the Anglican Consultative Council, a body of Anglican bishops, clergy, and lay leaders that facilitates cooperative work among the Provinces of the Anglican Communion.
During Cathy's years as Bishop Suffragan, Phil worked quietly beside her. He was a gentle, compassionate, and intuitive person with a great sense of humor and a huge heart, and he embraced his role as Bishop's spouse with enthusiasm. Through his continuing practice as a psychologist, Phil participated in the formation of aspirants for ordained ministry by providing the necessary psychological examinations, and by this work helped to shape future generations of clergy leadership.
Among the communities grieving Phil's passing is the SPICE group of clergy spouses and partners in the Diocese of New York. Phil was an active member of that group and a fixture at the annual SPICE retreats. There, he became profoundly loved by all, for his gentleness and kindness, but also for his disarming wit and humor. I am told by Margaret that Phil's quiet presence belied the attention and insight he brought to everything that was happening, and that his humorous remarks and insights were so funny, and so smart, and often so unexpected that the whole room would dissolve into surprise and laughter. At the 2011 retreat, when it was known that it was Phil's last retreat with the SPICE, in the middle of an animated, laughing conversation in which Phil was a full participant in the joking and fun, one of the spouses present suddenly stopped and asked, "How will we go on without Phil?" I am confident that in Los Angeles and in New York, in the House of Bishops, and across a church which loves both of the Roskams, that same question is being asked today in every quarter.
For Cathy and Phil's many friends, his death will not come as a surprise, as he had been courageously living with Parkinson's Disease for some years. Yet many throughout the diocese will feel this loss profoundly, as I do. We note with special poignancy that he and Cathy had celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary only this past September.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research or, reflecting Phil's commitment to social justice, to the American Civil Liberties Union.
If you wish personally to express your condolences to Cathy and her family, cards and letters may be sent to:
The Right Rev. Catherine S. Roskam, 15502 Friar Street, Van Nuys, CA 91411.
Please remember our brother Philip in your prayers and at your altars. Pray also for God to uphold Cathy and her family as they grieve.
With every good wish, I remain
Yours,
The Rt. Rev. Andrew M. L. Dietsche
Bishop of New York
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