TRIBUTES TO FRAN BY HER FRIENDS

 

Compiled by Georgia R. Grimes Shaw & Enoch Wan

 

Text Box:

Marilyn Clinton says;

“Fran had a wonderful ministry to younger women and she was the advisor for the Cross Cultural Studies program.  Fran played a significant role in the ministry to women at Fuller and it included all three schools.  In her role as Director of Women’s Concerns in 1984 she developed the Handbook on Nondiscriminatory Language for the seminary and established the Women’s Resource Center in the Fuller library.”

Dr. Roberta King (ethnomusicologist at FTS) remembers how Fran actively participated in FTS events.  

“Fran cared about people and their spirituality.”  
 

 

Ruth Vuong, Dean of Students at FTS;

“Fran had a strong sense of justice, while at the same time she had a very humane way of raising questions for dialogue about issues.  She was persistent and direct to see that everyone was included, that everyone’s gifts were acknowledged in honoring and serving God.  Fran’s “activism” was not about ideology, but about the conviction that God’s Spirit is poured out on all of us, and we honor Him and one another best when we live that truth.  Her courage in calling us to truth, and her grace to us wherever we were on our journeys, was such a mark of her spiritual maturity and made a great impression on me when I was new at Fuller.”
 

 

[Editor’s Note:
the following letters are from the correspondence file for the Women’s Concerns office at FTS]
 
In a 1983 letter to Peter Stuhlmacher, Fran was Director for Women’s Concerns at Fuller and wrote, “I also wish to express sincere personal appreciation to you for making me feel that you were addressing women along with the men who were present.  Both your ideas and your language communicated this commitment.”
 
November 1983, Fran wrote to Dr. James Bradley at Fuller, “. . . I want to thank you for what you did and for your known commitment to the encouragement of women to use their gifts in all forms of Christian ministry.”
 
January 1984 Fran wrote to Dr. Arch Hart, Dean of the School of Psychology at Fuller; “Please allow me to congratulate you for the fine Finch Lectures recently presented on campus.  (the speaker)  addressed an issue (a truly Christian perception of the self) that must be of great concern to anyone who is simultaneously a committed Christian and a part of the “me” and “now” culture of our time. I found his ideas stimulating, challenging, and with a solid biblical-theological foundation.  I speak, of course, as a lay-person, but I feel these lectures were some of the most relevant that Fuller has presented recently . . . . I do have one concern that I would like to share with you. Having by now become accustomed to sensitivity about language that is not discriminatory against women, I soon became very uncomfortable about (the speaker’s) traditional way of speaking.  Please understand, I could sense what a gracious man he must be and that he would never intentionally give offense.  His reputation in all areas of human concerns more than confirms this.”

That speaker responded to Fran by saying; “Your gracious remarks concerning (my lectures) were sincerely appreciated.  I appreciated too your comments regarding my unconscious use of language “discriminatory against women.”  Since I am more than keenly concerned about the attitudes within evangelicalism, best described as reflecting male chauvinism, I apologize for unintentionally causing discomfort and even offense.”  And Fran responded to him by saying: “Thank you so much for your very gracious letter.  The Christ-like spirit in which it was written only adds to my estimation of you and the important work you are doing for Evangelicals.”
 
 
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Published in the special issue “A Memoriam of Paul G. Hiebert”

www.globalmissiology.org April 1, 2007