Shaping Faith on the East Side Gregory Fryer

“I had never imagined that I would end up living in a city, but I have loved New York City from day one.”

By Angela Barbuti

Pastor Gregory Fryer has spent 23 years at Immanuel Lutheran Church on East 88th Street. Each morning, he prays for our city and the 100 people of his congregation. “Children who were Catechism students years ago, they’ve now grown up and I’ve done their marriages and even baptized some of their children,” he said.

Fryer grew up in the church, as his father was also a pastor. However, he didn’t find his calling right away, and studied philosophy and worked a day job until he was in his late 20s. Then a college friend told him he should enter the seminary to become a pastor, and “it was as if a light had gone off.” He attended Theological Seminary in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where he met his wife, Carol, who is also a Lutheran minister. They started their careers as co-pastors at Stewartstown Lutheran Parish in South York County, Pennsylvania, where their two sons were born. Now, Carol serves as the Director of Pastoral Care at the Wartburg, a Lutheran retirement community in Mount Vernon.

A Maryland native from a small town, he said, “I had never imagined that I would end up living in a city, but I have loved New York City from day one.” When he first got to the parish, he noticed one difference from his days in the countryside. “I was a little unnerved by how quiet and focused the congregation was,” he explained.

Then a parishioner shed light on this behavior, saying, “Pastor, you have to understand, in New York City, we live in a sea of words. By the time Sunday comes around, we’re hungering and thirsting for a few sane words.” The church holds two services per week. “I try to address their hopes, needs and fears,” Fryer said of how he connects his sermons to the gathered community of faith. To prepare his homilies, the pastor weaves the Biblical text with the state of the world in which we live.

When asked what changes he’s implemented since he joined the parish, which was started in the Civil War era, he said, “None. My ambition has been to try to maintain the level of faithfulness and excellence that I inherited from my predecessor, a great man named Raymond Schulze.”

Fryer’s work goes way beyond his congregation. Besides his daily prayers for the police officers, firemen, ambulance drivers and construction workers who serve our city, he works with Immanuel’s Meals on Heels program. The initiative, which was born even before he started there, has parishioners cooking and delivering food to the neighborhood’s elderly every Saturday. Most of the recipients are not members of the congregation, but are recommended through a local social service agency, Search and Care.

As far as Pastor Fryer’s future plans go, the 63-year-old hopes to continue his work at Immanuel until he is 70. “In a way, these last seven years can be our most exciting,” he said. One of his goals is to expand the church’s Sunday school program from the now-15 children to a few hundred. “I want them to be able to go through life with Jesus as their Good Shepherd and their reason for hope in this world,” he said.