Berkshire Eagle: Marking haystack meeting [2006-08-21]
By Lauren R. Stevens
The Berkshire Eagle
Monday, August 21
STAMFORD, Vt. — SOME TIME this month, 200 years ago, a handful of students sought whatever shelter a haystack could provide from a thunder storm. The conversation they continued there led to the American foreign missions movement.
A monument, topped by a globe, in a grove of evergreens just north of the First Congregational Church in Williamstown marks the site today.
Sept. 22, 23 and 24 the Haystack Bicentennial Celebration will attract distinguished speakers and artists to consider the haystack prayer meeting, which led to attempts to spread Christianity, health care and education around the globe.
Five Williams College students, caught up in the religious awakening of their time, met regularly for prayer in a maple grove. On the afternoon of the noisy storm they retreated to a farmer’s field, where they managed to carry on a discussion in or by a hay stack in which 23-year-old Samuel Mills, Jr., proposed enlarging the domestic missionary program of the day, usually aimed at Indians and others on the frontier, to Asia’s non-Christians. Not only was the idea revolutionary, but Mills advocated that they themselves should be the instigators.
The students organized the first foreign missionary society in the United States, at Williams, recruiting other students, several of whom took the program with them to the Andover Theological Seminary. These students were able to carry their excitement, as well, to Congregational higher-ups, who voted in 1810 to found the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. (Foreign missions have always been ecumenical, however.) The first missionaries were sent to India, in 1812, followed by thousands more to this day. All of the five haystack students retained their interest, although illness took its toll on their careers.
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Nowadays some are inspired by this tradition; others deeply disapprove of the cultural imperialism that may have been part of its founding. A panel consisting of Dennis Dickerson, formerly of the Williams history department and now at Vanderbilt University; Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz, activist and theologian; Timothy Tennent, director of missions programs at Gordon Cornwell Theological Seminary; and John Thomas, general minister and president, the United Church of Christ, will chew over related issues in a panel discussion Saturday afternoon.
The keynote speaker, Saturday morning, is Lamin Sanneh, professor of missions and world Christianity at Yale. Sunday afternoon’s service, at Thompson Chapel, will be led by Bart Campolo, founder and chaplain of Mission Year, a national Christian service program aimed at inner cities. The worship leader for Friday evening’s hymn sing and story session is C. Michael Hawn, professor of sacred music at Southern Methodist University. A vesper service will be held at the monument Saturday.
Reverend Carrie Bail notes that the conference moves from “gifts coming back,” such as stories and songs, to critical thinking about what has worked and what hasn’t, to coming together in support of contemporary efforts. She observes that young people are still full of idealism, as they were under the haystack, and that tapping that spirit is one way of promoting a better world.
The celebration is hosted by Williams College and the First Congregational Church, as well as dozens of other organizations. Those interested in attending should register in advance through the church, 906 Main Street, Williamstown 01267; (413) 458-8220. For further information: haystack.williams.edu. Arrangements may be made for those who wish to attend part of the event.
Anyway, that’s how it looks from Stamford, Vermont.