Franklin Clark Fry

Franklin Clark Fry ( born August 30, 1900 in Bethlehem (Pennsylvania), † June 6, 1968 in New Rochelle, New York) was an American Lutheran theologian and a leading figure of the Ecumenical Movement.

Life

Growing up as the son of a pastor, Fry attended Hamilton College in Clinton, New York and at the Lutheran Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. After the master's examination and ordination in 1925 he was parish priest in Yonkers, New York, and moved in 1929 in the community of the Trinity Lutheran Church in Akron, Ohio. In 1944 he was elected president of his church, the United Lutheran Church in America, was elected. In this office he was re-elected several times, most recently in 1960. He sat up very much for the merger of several smaller Lutheran churches, and was completed as of 1962, the Lutheran Church in America (one of the predecessor churches of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America), Fry was also President of this Church. Because of a cancer suffering he had to give up his post in 1968 and died a few days later.

Work in the ecumenical movement

Fry was not only strives to provide the community of the Lutheran churches in the United States, but also served in the wider ecumenical movement. He was chairman in 1950 at the inaugural meeting of the National Council of Churches in the USA. In the World Council of Churches, at its foundation in 1948, he was also involved, he belonged since 1949 to the Central Committee, from 1954 as its Chairman. The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) from 1948 to 1952, he worked as treasurer, from 1952 to 1957 as vice president and as president from 1957 to 1963.

Honors

For his commitment to the promotion of the Christian community he was awarded 34 honorary doctorates from around the world. In 1953 he received the Great and 1963, the Grand Cross of the Order of Merit.

Writings

• The order in South Africa: April to December 1960; prepared by the delegation of the World Council in consultation in December 1960. Geneva, WCC, 1961.
• (Ed.): Historical reality and faith probation: Festschrift for Friedrich Müller. Stuttgart: Evangelical publishing business, in 1967.
• From New Delhi to Uppsala 1961-1968: Report of the Central Committee of the 4th Assembly of the World Council of Churches. Geneva, WCC, 1968.