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 [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/news
ELCA News Blog: http://www.elca.org/news/blog
