Timeline of Global Mission in the USA

A timeline of the history of mission from that first meeting in 1806 through today.

1806 Original Haystack Prayer Meeting at Sloan’s Meadow by five Williams College students in Williamstown, Massachusetts.

1808 Samuel Mills forms The Brethren, dedicated to spreading the message about missionary service

1810 America’s first foreign mission society, the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions (ABCFM) is formed by Congregationalists in Massachusetts  

1812 ABCFM sends its first group of five missionaries to India, including Adoniram Judson and Luther Rice

1819 ABCFM sends first missionaries to Near East, including Turkey and Palestine; ABCFM sends first missionaries to Sandwich Islands

1821 The Missionary Herald, ABCFM’s magazine of missionary reports, is established

1830 ABCFM sends first missionaries to China

1833 ABCFM sends first missionaries to Africa

1854 Byram Green returns to Williamstown, telling of the original meeting and pointing out the site of the haystack. Consequently, Sloan’s Meadow was purchased and renamed “Mission Park”

1856 Semi-centennial of the Haystack Meeting is celebrated

1867 Marble monument is erected and dedicated on the site of the original meeting

1868 Women’s Boards of Missions established

1906 Centennial anniversary of the Haystack Meeting is celebrated in Williamstown

1931 Merger of Congregational and Christian churches, forming Congregational Christian Church, with the ABCFM

1934 Merger of the Evangelical Synod of North America and Reformed Church in the United States, forming the Evangelical and Reformed Church, with its Board of International Missions

1956 157th Annual Meeting of the ABCFM and Sesquicentennial of the Haystack Meeting celebrated in Williamstown

1957 United Church of Christ established by the merger of the Congregational Christian Church and the Evangelical and Reformed Church

1961 ABCFM merges with Board of International Missions to form the United Church Board for World Ministries (UCBWM)

1981 175th Anniversary of the Haystack Meeting celebrated in Williamstown

1996 Global Ministries is established as a partnership between the UCBWM of the United Church of Christ (UCC) and the Division of Overseas Ministries (DOM) of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

2000 UCBWM becomes Wider Church Ministries, one of four UCC covenanted ministries. Wider Church Ministries remains in partnership with DOM through Global Ministries.

2006 200th anniversary celebration of the Haystack event in Williamstown, MA

2010 200th anniversary commemoration of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions