Title: Lutheran Church Leader, Franklin Drewes Fry, Dies ELCA NEWS SERVICE
November 16, 2006
Lutheran Church Leader, Franklin Drewes Fry, Dies 06-178-FI
CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The Rev. Franklin Drewes Fry, a Lutheran church leader, ecumenist and retired minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), died Nov. 5 of leukemia in Summit, N.J. He served 54 of his 78 years as a Lutheran pastor.
"Dr. Fry had a profound sense of the responsibilities of pastoral ministry," said the Rev. Lowell G. Almen, ELCA secretary. "He served conscientiously with strength and compassion. He always saw his service as pastor within the context of the whole Church, both in terms of tradition and mission. He also demonstrated constantly a sense of delight in the unbounded dimensions of God's grace."
Almen said Fry's "theological insights and pastoral wisdom served well not only the congregations in which he ministered but also the communities and synods in which he lived. His churchwide service was of major significance, too. He leaves a legacy of wholesome leadership that those who knew him will long cherish."
"This church has lost a leader, and I have lost a friend," Almen added.
Born March 13, 1928, in Yonkers, N.Y., to the Rev. Franklin Clark Fry and Hilda Drewes Fry, Fry graduated from Hamilton College, Clinton, N.Y., and received a master of divinity degree from the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. The former United Lutheran Church of America ordained Fry in 1952, when his father was president of that church body.
Fry served as pastor of St. Philip Lutheran Church, Brooklyn, N.Y.; Christ Lutheran Church, York, Pa.; and St. John's Lutheran Church, Summit. He retired from parish ministry in 1996.
In the former Lutheran Church in America (LCA), Fry served on the board of American Missions, the management committee of the Division for Mission in North America and the Executive Council. The LCA elected him to represent the church on the 70- member Commission for a New Lutheran Church, and he was a member of the commission's task force on church organization. The work of the commission merged the American Lutheran Church, Association of Evangelical Lutheran Churches and LCA into the ELCA.
Fry wrote three studies for the parish life resources of the LCA. "Justice," "Just Right" and "Real Saints" dealt with Lutheran theological principles of creation, justification and sanctification, respectively.
Fry expanded the ecumenical legacy of his father, who was known as "Mr. Protestant" in the post-World War II ecumenical movement. The younger Fry served on the LCA Ecumenical Relations Committee and on the advisory committee for the ELCA Department for Ecumenical Affairs.
Fry was an LCA delegate to Lutheran World Federation Assembly in 1984 in Budapest, Hungary, and ELCA delegate to the World Council of Churches Assembly in 1991 in Canberra, Australia. He was vice chair of the USA National Committee for the Lutheran World Federation.
From 1993 to 1999 Fry was a member of the ELCA Church Council. He was a member of the board of managers of the American Bible Society from 1972 until his death.
Fry served on boards and committees of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia (LTSP), Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago (LSTC), Susquehanna University, Selinsgrove, Pa., and the former Upsala College, East Orange, N.J. LTSP and LSTC are two of the ELCA's eight seminaries; Susquehanna is one of 28 colleges and universities of the ELCA.
Fry is survived by his second wife, the Rev. Sharon Roth Fry, Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Denville, N.J., and her son, Ted Schrafft, New York.
Fry's first wife, Mary Gotwald Fry, died in 1991. They are survived by their children: Anne Fry, New York; Mary Bigini, Basking Ridge, N.J.; Christine Fry, Boston; Martha Fry, Evanston, Ill.; and Franklin G. Fry, Queens, New York.
Memorial services are planned for Dec. 8 at St. John Lutheran Church, Summit; Dec. 9 at Augustus Lutheran Church (Trappe), Collegeville, Pa.; and Dec. 10 at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church, Denville. -- -- --
Details about memorial services are available on the Web sites of St. John Lutheran Church -- http://www.stjohnssummit.org/ -- Augustus Lutheran Church -- http://www.oldaugustus.org/ -- and Prince of Peace Lutheran Church -- http://www.poplutheran.com/
For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or news@elca.org http://www.elca.org/news ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog