Franklin Joiner was rector of Saint Clement's Church from 1920 to 1955. He was born in Belvidere, New Jersey to Presbyterian Civil War veteran Frank Sellers Joiner and Marietta Mensch from a Pennsylvania German Lutheran family. Joiner was a postulant for ordination from St. Mark's Church, Grand Rapids in the Episcopal Diocese of Western Michigan, transferring to the Episcopal Diocese of Pennsylvania on April 20, 1920 after service as deacon in charge of the Church of the Epiphany, South Haven, Michigan. He was ordained to the diaconate on May 17, 1917 by William Walter Webb, Bishop of Milwaukee, and to the priesthood in May, 1918.