Haystack Prayer Meeting


The Haystack Prayer Meeting, held in Williamstown, Massachusetts, in August 1806, is viewed by many scholars as the seminal event for the development of American Protestant missions in the subsequent decades and century. Missions are still supported today by American churches.
Five Williams College students gathered in a field to discuss the spiritual welfare of the people of Asia. Within four years of that gathering, some of its members established the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. In 1812 the ABCFM sent its first missionaries to India. During the 19th century, it sent missionaries to China, Hawaii, and other nations in southeast Asia, establishing hospitals and schools at its mission stations. Many of its missionaries undertook translation of the Bible into native languages, and some created written languages where none had existed before. Thousands of missionaries were sent to Asia, and they taught numerous indigenous peoples.
Mission work has continued, with evolving purpose. In 1906, the ABCFM held a centennial commemoration. Groups considered to be spiritual heirs of the HPM include Global Ministries of the United Church of Christ and Christian Church, InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Student Volunteer Movement-2, and Luke18 Project. More celebrations were held in 2006, at bicentennial events.

History

students Samuel Mills, James Richards, Francis LeBaron Robbins, Harvey Loomis, and Byram Green, met in the summer of 1806 in a grove of trees near the Hoosic River, in what was then known as Sloan's Meadow, and debated the theology of missionary service. Their meeting was interrupted by a thunderstorm and the students took shelter under a haystack until the sky cleared. "The brevity of the shower, the strangeness of the place of refuge, and the peculiarity of their topic of prayer and conference all took hold of their imaginations and their memories."
In 1808 the Haystack Prayer group and other Williams students began a group called "The Brethren." This group was organized to "effect, in the persons of its members, a mission to" those who were not Christians. In 1812, the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions sent its first missionaries to the non-Christian world, to India.
Samuel Mills was most influential among the Haystack group to direct the modern mission movement. He played a role in the founding of the American Bible Society and the United Foreign Missionary Society.
Through the work of Byram Green, in 1867 a monument was erected in Mission Park in Williamstown, Massachusetts to honor the five men involved in the Haystack prayer meeting. In 1906 a centennial gathering took place in Mission Park at Williams College in celebration of the earlier prayer meeting. In the summer of 2006, contemporary missioners celebrated the 200th anniversary of the Haystack prayer meeting.
The 1806 meeting was the first documented by Americans to begin foreign missionary work. In addition, this meeting has been seen to have led to the formation of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. The ABCFM gave students an opportunity to go abroad and spread the teachings of Christianity.
In its first fifty years, the ABCFM sent out more than 1250 missionaries. Most were from the smaller towns and farm villages of New England. Few were affluent, but most were trained in colleges where they received a classical education, which included Hebrew, Latin, and Greek. When they reached the mission field, they worked to translate the Bible into new languages, some yet without a system of writing. They built educational systems in their lands of ministry. They were sometimes called upon to advise foreign governments.
Missionary reports were printed in the Missionary Herald, the magazine of the American Board established in 1821. For many Christians in America, the Missionary Herald was their window to the world. Descriptions of native customs, history, economic activities, and geographical features were included, along with accounts of the influence of the Gospel on these far-off lands. In the years before radio, movies, TV, or rapid communications, such missionary reports became primary sources for many Americans of information about foreign lands.
The ABCFM founded schools and hospitals in all the mission fields. Increasingly, native leaders were trained to continue the work of the ministry.
In 1961 the American Board merged to form the United Church Board for World Missions. After 150 years, the American Board had sent out nearly 5000 missionaries to 34 different fields.
In 2000, the UCBWM evolved into Wider Church Ministries of the United Church of Christ. It continues to be involved in mission around the world, in partnership with the Division of Overseas Ministries of the Christian Church.

Mission timeline

1806
1808
1810
1812
1819
1821
1830
1833
1854
1856
1867
1868
1906
1931
1934
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1961
1981
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2006