wfn.org | Services set for longtime church activist Mildred Hutchinson, 105

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Jan. 21, 2000 News media contact: Tim Tanton·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-21-71B{021}

NOTE: The Rev. DarEll T. Weist's name is spelled correctly.

LOS ANGELES (UMNS) - Mildred Moore Hutchinson, a United Methodist activist
who saw three centuries, died Jan. 14 at age 105. A memorial service is set
for Jan. 22.

Hutchinson left her mark at every level of church life. As a member of the
United Methodist Board of Church and Society, she served on the committee
that wrote the denomination's Social Principles.

"I never understood what the meaning of a saint was until I met Mildred,"
said the Rev. DarEll T. Weist, executive pastor of First United Methodist
Church of Los Angeles. Weist was Hutchinson's pastor for 10 years and worked
with her in his role as chief executive officer and president of the Los
Angeles United Methodist Urban Foundation. 

Hutchinson was chairwoman of the foundation and was preparing for an
executive committee meeting when she died. She was living at Hollenbeck
Home, a retirement community, at the time.

Last Oct. 6, the Claremont (Calif.) School of Theology honored Hutchinson,
who had long been an active supporter of the United Methodist-related
seminary. On that occasion, held before her 105th birthday, she shared some
of her philosophy.

"Our most important goals are too great to be accomplished in one lifetime,"
Hutchinson said. "We must learn all we can from the past and pass it along
with our encouragement to the next generation." 

She was born on Oct. 17, 1894, in Los Angeles. Both of her parents were
active in social or community work, according to a 1997 United Methodist
News Service feature. She followed in their footsteps early in life, serving
as a board member for the Metropolitan YWCA at age 18.

Hutchinson had been called "the conscience of the United Methodist Church,"
the UMNS story noted. She marched with migrant farm workers, went to rallies
where the the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke, protested the Vietnam War
and demonstrated against investments in apartheid-era South Africa. She was
an advocate for the advancement of women in the ministry, pushing for women
to be allowed to serve as bishops, and she also supported the inclusion of
gays and lesbians in the life of the church.

She told UMNS that she and her husband, businessman John E. Hutchinson,
joined the Methodist Church in 1933 to support a "very social-action minded"
minister. She became active in what was then known as the Methodist Woman's
Society of Christian Service after her husband's death in 1952, and
eventually became the first chairwoman of the Conference Board of Christian
Social Concerns.

She was active in 14 or 15 different organizations, Weist said.

Hutchinson was organizer and first president of the Los Angeles Interfaith
Hunger Coalition, and she was a founding member of the United Methodist Los
Angeles District Ministries. She was a conference president of United
Methodist Women. In addition to serving on the churchwide Board of Church
and Society, she also was chairwoman of the conference's board of the same
name.

United Methodist-related Claremont (Calif.) School of Theology has a chair
in urban ministry named after Hutchinson. Two organizations present annual
awards named for her: the Los Angeles Interfaith Hunger Coalition and the
California-Pacific chapter of the Methodist Federation for Social Action.

She was a founding member of Southwest Community College in Los Angeles. She
was a chairwoman and longtime board member of Plaza Community Center, which
operates a school and prenatal clinic and provides family support services.

At Hollenbeck Home, Hutchinson kept the fax machine humming, Weist said. She
attended an average of two or three meetings a week at Hollenbeck, where she
was head of the tenants' association, and a minimum of two or three more
meetings outside the home, according to Weist. 

She received numerous awards throughout her life. She was the first woman to
receive the Bishop Gerald Kennedy Award as Layperson of the Year in 1972,
and plaques from the city of Los Angeles, UMW, MFSA and other organizations
were displayed in her room at Hollenbeck Home. 

The memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. at Hollywood First United
Methodist Church, and 27 people - including former pastors and district
superintendents - will participate. Bishop Roy I. Sano will do the
meditation. Statements by Bishops Jack Tuell and James Thomas will be read
at the service. 

Memorials will go to Plaza Community Center and the Los Angeles United
Methodist Urban Foundation.
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United Methodist News Service
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