The Rev. Canon Peter G. Kreitler – longtime advocate for the stewardship of creation and a former diocesan minister for the environment – died May 16 at his home in Pacific Palisades. He was 83 and had been in hospice care after treatment for cancer. A full obituary will follow in a future issue of The Episcopal News. At his request, there will be no memorial services.
Survivors include his daughters, Jennifer and Laura; his son, Brad, and their families. His wife, Catharine Bates Kreitler, predeceased him in 2021.
Active in recent years in the parish of St. Aidan’s in Malibu, Kreitler was a prolific author. His recent book, Dear Father Peter: 49 Years of Letters to a Priest, was published by VTS Press, an imprint of Virginia Theological Seminary.
Named diocesan minister for the environment in 1991 by Bishop Frederick H. Borsch, Kreitler was at that time an associate rector of St. Matthew’s, Pacific Palisades, since 1974. He was ordained to the diaconate in 1966 in Newark, N.J., and to the priesthood in 1970 in Kansas City, Mo., where he was a parish priest until coming to St. Matthew’s.