Celebration of Life for Ed Fry

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Announcement of Ed’s Passing

Dear FBC Family:

Our brother, Edward Raymond (Ed) Fry, died peacefully in his sleep this morning, December 2, with family by his side. He was 94.

Ed met future wife Mary Lou in 1958 in the Young Adult group at First Baptist Church. They wed in FBC's sanctuary on May 21, 1960, and were married for 57 years, until Mary Lou's passing in August of 2017. Their four daughters, Susan, Anne, Mary and Karen, grew up at First Baptist.

Ed worked as a senior economist for the Federal Reserve. He also found joy in serving our church in a variety of ways. For more than 60 years, Ed stayed after worship each week to produce recordings of the Sunday service, first in reel-to-reel form, then cassettes, then still later, CDs. He also ran lighting, camera and sound for weddings and church theater productions. Ed took special delight in planting red geraniums in the church's flower beds every year, and he and Mary Lou loved the laughter and fellowship at First Sunday Potlucks. They were devoted members of the Tapestry Class.

Please hold Ed's family in your prayers. A graveside service will take place soon, followed by a memorial service at First Baptist Church in 2023. As soon as plans are settled we will inform the congregation.

In lieu of flowers, Ed's family asks that contributions be made in his memory to the FBC Give It Forward capital campaign.

Ed was a man of prayer, hospitality, kindness and compassion. Please join me in giving thanks to God for his long and fruitful life.

Peace and grace,

Pastor Julie

FBC Members Participate in Prayer Vigil at the U. S. Capitol

At sunrise on January 6, 2023, Pastors Julie and Eric, along with Amanda Tyler and Leslie Alford Mason, gathered with Christian leaders for a prayer vigil marking the 2nd anniversary of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol (organized by BJC's Christians Against Christian Nationalism campaign and Faithful America.

“It’s up to all communities, and I think particularly Christian faith communities, to understand what Christian nationalism is, to talk about what role it plays on attacks on democracy, not just on Jan. 6, but continuing attacks with election denial, and conspiracy theories,” said Amanda Tyler, executive director of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, before the event.

BJC Executive Director Amanda Tyler speaks to the press.

Rev. Dr. Leslie Copeland-Tune, COO of the National Council of Churches, prays at the vigil.

BJC Vigil Group

Winter Forum: The Song and the Story

Dr. Eileen Guenther

Meet God in new ways through a deeper understanding of the music, historical context, and role of the Spiritual tradition and how it can draw us closer to each other and to the love of God.

FBC's annual winter forum will be on Sunday, February 12. Our guest will be Dr. Eileen Guenther who will explore "The Song and the Story," focusing on the music and the context that gave birth to the African-American Spiritual. In worship, she will draw our attention to the role of the Spiritual in the African-American tradition and how it can be important to our faith formation today.

Dr. Eileen Guenther is Lecturer in Organ at The George Washington University and Professor Emerita of Church Music at Wesley Theological Seminary, where she taught music and worship courses and served as Director of Chapel Music. She leads workshops for musical and denominational organizations on music and social justice, Spirituals, and clergy-music relations. Her book, Rivals or a Team: Clergy-Musician Relationships in the 21st Century, has been widely acclaimed with a great deal of media attention, and interviews with Eileen have been published in a variety of venues from blogs and denominational newsletters to The Huffington Post and The Christian Century. A second book, In Their Own Words: Slave Life and Power of Spirituals, has been called “the most comprehensive work done on the Negro Spiritual to date.” The over 100 presentations Eileen has led on this book have taken her from Atlanta, Georgia to Ashland, Oregon and have been called “powerful,” and “life-changing.”

Eileen served as Visiting Lecturer at Africa University in Zimbabwe and a member of the UMC Global praise teams teaching music and worship in Uganda and Ivory Coast. South Africa, too, holds a special place in her heart and she has led nine groups of Wesley Seminary students on intercultural immersion trips there.

Dr. Guenther served with distinction as Director of Music at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Potomac, MD and as Minister of Music and Liturgy at Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, DC, where she led the Concerts for Life, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars for organizations supporting people with HIV/AIDS. Her media appearances include a PBS documentary on Christmas Carols with Amy Grant, the EMMY-Award winning film “Backs Against the Wall: The Howard Thurman Story,” and the video “The Power of Spirituals,” a collaboration with the American Spiritual Ensemble (see below).

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Trisha Miller Manarin to Preach on Jan. 22

Rev. Dr. Trisha Miller Manarin has served as Executive Director/Minister of the District of Columbia Baptist Convention since August 2020. She previously served as a local church pastor, coordinator of the Mid-Atlantic Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, staff member with the Baptist World Alliance, and a professor and mission field personnel in Zambia.

A native of Allentown, Pennsylvania, Dr. Manarin earned a Bachelor of Music from Samford University, a M.Div. from Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary (Palmer), and a D.Min. from Wesley Theological Seminary.

The D.C. Baptist Convention, composed of 160 congregations and ministry partners, is one of the most diverse regional organizations among Baptists. At her installation in 2021, Manarin asked, “Isn’t this just like God to bring together people like you and me to be about God’s good—and sometimes dangerous—work?”

Worship to Celebrate the Legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. with Guest Organist and Liturgist

On Sunday, January 15, FBC will celebrate the legacy of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in worship. We will welcome guest liturgist and organist Dr. Eileen Guenther, retired Professor of Church Music at Wesley Theological Seminary. Her role at the seminary extended to churches and musical and denominational organizations, for which she continues to lead workshops on music and social justice, global music, Spirituals, and clergy-music relations.

Dr. Guenther served with distinction as Director of Music at St. Francis Episcopal Church in Potomac, Maryland, and as Minister of Music and Liturgy at Foundry United Methodist Church in Washington, DC. She also served six years as National President of the 16,000 member American Guild of Organists, and was the third woman to lead this organization since its founding in 1896.

She is internationally acclaimed as a scholar of spirituals, and her book In Their Own Words: Slave Life and Power of Spirituals, published by MorningStar Music Publishers has been enthusiastically received and is in its third printing. For years, she led an annual Concert for Life which raised more than $600,000 for organizations serving those living with HIV/AIDS in southern Africa and in the Washington area. She was recently honored for her leadership at the 20th annual Concert for Life which celebrated the cumulative total of the concerts exceeding $1 million.

Dr. Guenther will return to First Baptist on Sunday, February 12, as our guest for Winter Forum.