Edgar Schaffer Brown, Jr. (1922-2005)
The Rev. Edgar Schaffer Brown, Jr., ThD., internationally recognized liturgical scholar, writer and lecturer, died at Penn Lutheran Village, Selinsgrove, PA on Sunday, February 6, 2005. He was 82 years of age. Born on August 11, 1922, he was the son of the late Dr. and Mrs. Edgar S. Brown, Sr. of Allentown. In 1972 he married the former Marjorie T. de Huete, who survives.
He was a graduate of Allentown High School in 1939, of Muhlenberg College in 1943 and the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia in 1945.
In 1954 he earned a doctorate in theology from the Divinity School of the Protestant Episcopal Church at Philadelphia. Before joining the staff of the ULCA, he had been a chaplain in the United States Navy from 1945 to 1947 and then Pastor of Grace Lutheran Church in Pottstown, Pennsylvania. He also served as chaplain and a member of the faculty at Susquehanna University in Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania. In retirement he was active in ministry to retarded persons, continued to serve local parishes in pastoral vacancies and was a Visiting Instructor in Liturgy at the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Gettysburg.
Dr. Brown was the first denominational executive for liturgy and church music in a North American church. Appointed Executive Director of the Department of Worship of the United Lutheran Church in America in 1956, he introduced the Service Book and Hymnal (1958) to the eight participating churches. As Director of the Commission on Worship of the Lutheran Church in America he initiated the steps that led to the creation of the Inter-Lutheran Commission on Worship which prepared the Lutheran Book on Worship (1978). Author of several books on the liturgy, including the popular Living the Liturgy (1961), and many more articles in theological journals, Dr. Brown also wrote a weekly column “Worship Notebook” in The Lutheran from 1956 to 1962 and again in 1979. His articles also appeared on the Op-Ed page and in the Sunday Book Review section of The New York Times.
He was a co-founder of Societas Liturgica, an international, ecumenical society of liturgical scholars and was an elected Fellow of the North American Academy of Liturgy. He also served on the International Consultation of English Texts in the Liturgy. He was a former member of the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania German Society. From his days in seminary he was a member of the Society of Saint Ambrose. Dr. Brown participated regularly in workshops of Jewish-Christian Relations and on the Holocaust. He was an invited guest at the Roman Catholic-Protestant Colloquium at Harvard University in 1963, the Mass of Pope Paul VI in Yankee Stadium in 1965 and the Extraordinary Convocation addressed by Pope John Paul II at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. in 1979.
In November of 1992 he was one of 17 North American pastors (Roman Catholic, Anglican and Lutheran) to be received in private audience with Pope John Paul II for the purpose of praying for Christian Unity. He served as liturgical consultant to two Assemblies of the Lutheran World Federation (Minneapolis in 1957, where he was the first to introduce publicly the new liturgy of the Service Book and Hymnal, and Helsinki in 1963.) He also was a consultant to the Commission on Theology and to the Commission on Worship and Spiritual Life of the Federation.
Surviving are two granddaughters, Alison Brown of Houston, Texas and Valerie Brown, of Terre Haute, Indiana. He was preceded in death by his son, John Thomas Brown, III in 1998, his daughter, Christine Anne in 1974 and his brother, Second Lieutenant John Thomas Brown II, USAAF in 1944. He was a member of Beaver Lutheran Church of Beaver Springs where a celebration of the Holy Eucharist will be held in his memory on Saturday, February 12, 2005 at 11:00 a.m. Interment will follow in the Cemetery of Salem Church, Selinsgrove. In lieu of flowers the family requests that contributions in Dr. Brown’s memory be made to All Saints Fund of Beaver Lutheran Church C/O Sue Nerhood, RR4 Box 20, Middleburg, PA 17842. Arrangements are by The V.L. Seebold Funeral Home 601 N. High St., Selinsgrove, PA 17870.
Contact Person: The Reverend Charles A. Brophy First Evangelical Lutheran Church 21 South Bedford Street Carlisle, Pennsylvania 17013 717-249-3310 Email: pastor@firstlutherancarlisle.org
The V.L. Seebold Funeral Home 601 N. High Street Selinsgrove, PA 17870 Phone: 570-374-4131 Fax: 570-374-6327 Email: Seeboldfh@verizon.net