Alvin Barry; Led Missouri Synod Lutherans

The Rev. Alvin L. Barry, president of the nation’s second-largest Lutheran denomination, has died. He was 69.

Barry, president of the 2.6-million-member Missouri Synod, died Friday of complications from kidney and liver failure in Orlando, Fla.

Diagnosed with leukemia in 1995, Barry was hospitalized in Florida in February for treatment of the disease. An antibiotic-resistant staph infection helped accelerate his decline.

Robert T. Kuhn, the synod’s first vice president, will lead the denomination until a new president is elected in July.

As leader of the suburban St. Louis-based synod since 1992, Barry took an active role in pressing the synod’s conservative views in various matters. In recent months, he rejected the Vatican’s assertion that the Roman Catholic Church is the only true Christian church.

Unlike the larger Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Barry’s denomination was not among the world’s Lutheran bodies that reached a historic accord with Rome in 1999 on the meaning of grace. The agreement ended 500 years of mutual condemnations. Nonetheless, the more conservative Missouri Synod has continued its dialogue with Rome.

Barry also wrote the National Institutes of Health, urging the organization to withdraw its draft guidelines to fund research on stem cells obtained from human embryos. He had issued statements on human cloning and the FDA’s approval of the RU-486 abortion pill.

Born in Woodbine, Iowa, Barry attended Bethany Lutheran College and Concordia Theological Seminary. He was ordained in 1956 after finishing his pastoral training at the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Seminary. In 1960, he requested a transfer of pastoral membership to the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.

Barry earned a master of theology degree from Lutheran Seminary. In 1986 he was awarded an honorary doctor of divinity degree by Concordia Theological Seminary.

He is survived by three children, two grandchildren and a brother.

His funeral is scheduled for Friday at 1:30 p.m. at the Chapel of Saints Timothy and Titus on the campus of Concordia Seminary in Clayton, Mo.