Bishop Kurt Burnette was born in 1955 at Sculthorpe Royal Airforce Base in England from American parents. His father was serving in the United States Air Force during the Korean War. Bishop Kurt grew up in Corpus Christi, Texas and then Houston, Texas where he attended Rice University, and where his parents helped found St. John Chrysostom Byzantine Catholic Church. He continued his graduate studies at University of Utah where it took seven years to complete a degree because of skiing and the other outdoor distractions of the Wasatch Front.

In 1985, Bishop Thomas Dolinay called him to be a priest for the Eparchy of Van Nuys, and he attended SS Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Pittsburgh. After ordination on April 26, 1989, he was assigned as administrator or pastor of St. Nicholas Church in Fontana, California, St. Irene Church in Portland Oregon, St. Gabriel Church in Las Vegas, and Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In 2004, his bishop sent him to study canon law in Rome. In October 2012, he was appointed Rector of SS Cyril and Methodius Seminary in Pittsburgh. On December 4, 2013, Bishop Kurt was consecrated a bishop of the Catholic Church in St. Michael Cathedral in Passaic, New Jersey and enthroned as the fifth bishop of the Eparchy of Passaic. Today he also serves as Apostolic Administrator of the Eparchy of Parma, the Eparchy of Phoenix, and the Exarchy of Toronto.

Bishop Kurt was awarded a BA from Rice University, a PhD from the University of Utah, a JD from Newport University, a JCL from the Oriental Institute, and is licensed to practice law by the Supreme Court of the State of California. He has taught mathematics, engineering, computer science, quantum computing, and education at the University of Utah, California State University, the University of California, and the University of Portland.