Harry Butman, 101; Minister in Congregational Church, Writer

The Rev. Harry R. Butman, a Congregational church minister for 72 years and a prolific writer about theology and the spiritual life, has died. He was 101.

Butman died July 29 at his home in Acton of complications from a fall, said Mitchell Abbott, a friend, who called him “the dean of American Congregationalism.”

Butman was pastor of the Congregational Church of the Messiah in Westchester for 25 years until he retired in 1978. He continued on as pastor emeritus. He also worked as a consulting minister to the First Congregational Church of Los Angeles.

In 1955, Butman helped found the National Assn. of Congregational Christian Churches, which includes about 440 churches and 100,000 members. He also held several offices over the years.

The Congregational Church is a protestant denomination that traces its roots in America to the 17th century. Some of its earliest members were passengers on the Mayflower. Some Congregational churches in 1957 joined in a merger that formed the new United Church of Christ.

Butman once defined the basic principle of the individual church congregations as “the autonomy and independence of the gathered local church which is in fellowship with sister churches.”

Butman was the editor of the Congregationalist magazine in the late 1960s. He also wrote more than a dozen books, including “Serve With Gladness” (1971), about his life as a minister.

“I never wanted to be anything but a good Congregational minister,” Butman told the Congregationalist magazine in a 2003 interview.

Butman was born in Beverly, Mass., and graduated from the Bangor Theological Seminary in Maine in 1928. He received an honorary doctorate of divinity from Piedmont College in Demorest, Ga., in 1958.

After serving as pastor of several churches, he moved to California, where he was named senior minister of the Church of the Messiah in Westchester in 1953.

At 100, Butman attributed his health to “good genes, good habits and good luck.”

When asked his views about death, he said: “I believe in heaven. I’m absolutely sure that there is life beyond death. I’d kind of like to see what it is.”

Butman is survived by four children, 10 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held Sept. 11 at 3 p.m. at the Congregational Church of the Messiah, 7300 W. Manchester Ave. in Westchester.

Contributions in his name may be made to the Harry R. Butman Chair of Religious Studies, Department of Religion and Philosophy, Piedmont College, P.O. Box 10, Demorest, GA 30535.