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 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 (ABCFM). In 1812 it sent forth 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 (Disciples of Christ), InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, Student Volunteer Movement-2 (SVM-2), and Luke18 Project. More celebrations were held in 2006, at bicentennial events.

Five Williams College students 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: Samuel John Mills, James Richards, Robert C. Robbins, Harvey Loomis, and Byram Green, 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."

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