William H. Lazareth, Jerald C. Brauer Distinguished Professor of Lutheran Studies at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wis., died Feb. 23 in Bar Harbor, Me. From 1988 to 1992, he was bishop of the Metropolitan New York Synod of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

Bishop Lazareth, who accepted the Carthage appointment in 2003, was considered one of world’s foremost Lutheran theologians. As Brauer Distinguished Professor, he said he wanted “to strengthen our mutual ties as a Lutheran, church-related liberal arts college.”

Prior to his election, Bishop Lazareth served as director of the Faith and Order Secretariat of the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland. In that role, he served as the ecumenical liaison officer at the Vatican, working closely with Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI. He later was co-president of the Lutheran-Eastern Orthodox International Doctrinal Dialogues of the Lutheran World Federation for more than a decade.

Bishop Lazareth was author of 13 books and 45 essays, and editor of 15 books. While serving the World Council, he oversaw the drafting of the most widely published religious document of the 20th Century, “Baptism, Eucharist and Ministry.” That work, focused on the theology all Christians share instead of their differences, was published in 40 languages and circulated in more than 100 countries.

Bishop Lazareth was born March 10, 1928, in New York to German immigrant parents, Otto and Marie. His father worked in a paper bag factory and his mother had been an indentured servant.

The elder Lazareths later opened an ice cream parlor in the New Utrecht neighborhood of Brooklyn, where the bishop’s father made ice cream and chocolate, his mother made sandwiches, and Bishop Lazareth, his brother and sister served customers.

Bishop Lazareth graduated from New Utrecht High School, where he was senior class president. The senior class donated a row of trees as a gift. Decades later, a view of the now-mature trees was shown at the start of the television comedy, “Welcome Back Kotter.”

In 1944, he earned a scholarship to Princeton University. He earned a bachelor of arts from Princeton in 1948.

Bishop Lazareth studied for one semester apiece at Harvard Law School and Union Theological Seminary. Volunteer relief work with World War II refugees from the Baltic States convinced him to enter the ministry. He earned a master of divinity degree from Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia in 1953, and a Ph.D. from Columbia University-Union Theological Seminary in 1958.

In 1952, Bishop Lazareth met his future wife, Jacqueline Howell, on a trans-Atlantic voyage. He was en route to studies in Europe while she was a vacationing secretary from Boston. They were married on Jan. 29, 1955.

“They had a symbiotic relationship, a model of two God-given personalities,” said a daughter, Karen Brunette. “Neither could have accomplished what they did without the support of the other.”

From 1956 to 1976, Bishop Lazareth taught at Lutheran Theological Seminary, where he was Hagan Professor of Systematic Theology and Dean of the Faculty. From 1976 to 1980 he was director of the Department for Church in Society of the Lutheran Church in America.

After his service at the World Council, Bishop Lazareth was pastor of Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in New York before his election as bishop. He also served as a visiting professor of theology at such prominent institutions as Princeton Theological Seminary and Union Theological Seminary in New York.

Ecumenical relations were important to Bishop Lazareth. In New York, he preached at St. Patrick’s Cathedral and participated in a conference on biblical scholarship with Cardinal Ratzinger. At a news conference in the 1990s, Cardinal Walter Kasper, leader of the German Roman Catholic bishops, asked Bishop Lazareth to answer an English- language question on an aspect of Catholic doctrine.

In 1995 Bishop Lazareth was named “Lutheran Pastor of the Year” by the Luther Institute in Washington, D.C. From 1996 to 2003, he served on the executive staff of the Center for Theological Inquiry at Princeton.

A friend of 50 years, Pastor Arthur Sziemeister, said Bishop Lazareth “was a strong, confessional Lutheran. He had a strong, clear understanding of who Lutherans are. He challenged the church to live up to its confessional heritage with respect to other great churches of the world.”

Mrs. Brunette said that in retirement, at a hilltop cottage with a 180-degree view of the Atlantic, “he never lost interest in the life of the mind, but he became increasingly engrossed in the natural beauty of Mt. Desert Island, the ocean, and Acadia National Park.”

Bishop Lazareth received seven honorary doctoral degrees, including a doctor of divinity degree from Carthage in 2003, when he delivered the baccalaureate sermon.

“I accepted the honor gratefully on behalf of thousands of faithful pastors also symbolically present,” he said afterwards. “Putting on a doctor of divinity hood is like wearing a wedding ring; it is a public token of that special relation between the church and its functionally related colleges that are fulfilling their complementary roles in modern society. Carthage is carrying out its partner mission with exemplary distinction.”

In an address to the Carthage Board of Trustees on Oct. 17, 2003, Bishop Lazareth stated, “I stand before you to declare my total commitment to the inspiring academic vision and superlative institutional leadership of President F. Gregory Campbell. I am here only because he is here, and truly worthy of my loyal assistance.”

Bishop Lazareth is survived by his wife, Jacqueline; a son, Paul, of Bar Harbor; two daughters, Karen Brunette, of Chicopee, Mass., and Victoria, of Franklin, Mass.; a sister, Dorothy, of Greensboro, N.C., and a brother, Otto, of Princeton, N.J.

A memorial service for family and close friends will be scheduled at Church of Our Father in Hulls Cove, by Fr. Charles Bradshaw. Call 207-288-4849 for the date and time.

A second memorial service will be held at 3 p.m., Saturday, April 26, at St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church in White Plains, N.Y.

The bishop’s family suggests memorials to local Meals on Wheels programs.