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Gabriel Fackre, 'ecumenical evangelical' theologian, dies at age 92

Fackre was influential in the formation of the United Church of Christ and wrote the five-volume work The Christian Story.

Gabriel Fackre, a theologian who called himself an ecumenical evangelical, died on January 31 at age 92 at home in Oregon City, Oregon.

He taught at Lancaster Theological Seminary and Andover Newton Theo­logical School (now Andover Newton Sem­inary at Yale), where he was professor emeritus of Chris­tian theology.

James Ernest, vice president and editor in chief at Eerdmans Publishing, wrote in a tribute about getting to know Fackre first as a teacher at Andover Newton.  “He was indeed both ecumenical and evangelical in his aims and achievements, and also very centrally—to use a word that I think I heard him use more than anyone before or since—ecclesial: he was very much a theologian and teacher of the church, for the church.”