Carrie Hazzard

The Rev. Carrie M. Hazzard, 96, Pastor By S. Joseph Hagenmayer, INQUIRER CORRESPONDENT Posted: June 24, 1997 The Rev. Carrie M. Hazzard, 96, who founded churches in Camden and Florence and traveled the world as a missionary, died last Tuesday at the Manor Care Convalescent Center in Yardley, Pa., where she had resided for four years. Born in Madoc, Ontario, Canada, she lived in Camden during the early years of her ministry and then, after traveling the world doing missionary work, settled in Trenton for 44 years. Her lifelong partner in the ministry, the Rev. Lois E. Richardson, died in 1982. The two met at Bible school in Canada and entered the ministry together. Both were graduates of Brockville Seminary in Ontario. ``They met at Bible school and started in youth ministry together and then at old camp meetings'' in Canada and the United States, said Addie Loveless, a niece of Ms. Richardson's. In 1927, the two women answered a calling to jointly serve as pastors of the very young Wesleyan Methodist Church at Seventh and Erie Streets in Camden. They remained at the church for 25 years, sharing pastoral duties with one doing the morning services and the other the evening services. The two also were founders of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, now the First Wesleyan Church, in Florence in 1943. Ms. Hazzard was a member of the church's Women's Missionary Society. The Camden congregation had grown from 12 to 200 when they departed in 1952 for a worldwide missionary tour. As a gift, the Camden congregation paid for their travel arrangements. For four years, the two Wesleyan pastors traveled the world, from Hawaii to Japan, Formosa, Korea, the Middle East, Egypt, South Africa and South America, visiting orphanages, schools, hospitals, and leprosariums. The trip was the beginning of a 40-year affiliation with the Oriental Missionary Society based in Greenwood, Ind. When they returned to the United States, Ms. Hazzard was the principal speaker at a missionary conference at Central South Carolina Methodist College. In 1956, she left for the West Indies to establish a missionary hospital on the island of LaGanove. While there are no immediate survivors, Ms. Hazzard is survived by several nephews and nieces of Ms. Richardson's. Friends may call from 6 p.m. today at the First Wesleyan Church, Fourth and Winter Streets, Florence, where funeral services will begin at 7:30 p.m. Burial is scheduled for 10:30 a.m. tomorrow in Hillside Cemetery, Roslyn, Pa. Memorial donations may be made to the Carrie M. Hazzard Memorial Fund, c/o Oriental Missionary Society International, P.O. Box A, Greenwood, Ind. 46142. The fund will bring the longtime co-pastors together in Christian ministry once again, said Addie Loveless. Ms. Hazzard's memorial fund will be used to create a school in Haiti as part of the Lois E. Richardson Memorial Church that was established after Ms. Richardson's death in 1982.