Celebrating our Heritage: Church History Sites in New England

New England is rich in American Church history sites, and we try to take in a few more each time we visit. Here are several we saw on our most recent trip.

Mission Park, Williamstown, Massachusetts

Mission Park is the location of the famous "haystack prayer meeting" which gave birth to the foreign missions movement of the United States. In August 1806, five Williams College students gathered in a field to discuss the spiritual welfare of the people of Asia. A sudden storm forced them to seek shelter under a nearby haystack. 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.

The monument contains a relief of a haystack and is crowned on top by a globe. As 21st century American missionaries, we consider ourselves spiritual descendants of these young men and this event. It was a special time for us as a family to pray together in the park and ask God to carry on the work for which many have already given their lives.



Northfield, Massachusetts

Leaving Williamstown, we drove east through the beautiful countryside of western Massachusetts to Northfield. D. L. Moody was born here (top middle and right photos below). He also built, among other things, a conference center (bottom, left) in this town where he would bring prominent preachers in to speak. The campus is today deserted (it's up for sale) so it took a good while before we found Moody's grave. Someone called security to report that there were people walking around looking through the windows (that would be us). When the security officer caught up with us, he kindly pointed us to "Little Round Top" (bottom in middle) where Mr. and Mrs. Moody are buried side by side (bottom, right). It turned out to be less than 100 feet from the house where he was born! We read a report of the funeral which was conducted by C. I. Scofield and R. A. Torrey.



Old South Church, Newburyport, Massachusetts

George Whitefield died in the parsonage of Old South Presbyterian Church in Newburyport, Mass., on September 30, 1770. At his own request, he was buried beneath the pulpit of the nearby church he had helped to found. Brian and Johanna Hanson made all the arrangements for this visit and Bill Deans, a member of the church, proved to be a delightful tour guide. The pictures below, clockwise from top left are: the Hanson and Bixby men standing in the pulpit; with our guide in front of the parsonage; the crypt; a hymn Whitefield wrote; the outside of the church building; Whitefield's tomb in the crypt below the pulpit; nails from Whitefield's coffin; signing the guestbook down in the crypt.



Stockbridge, Massachusetts

Stockbridge (western Massachusetts) is the site where the family of Jonathan Edwards served as missionaries among the native Americans following his pastorate in Northampton. His family was still living here when they received word that Jonathan Edwards had died of a small pox vaccination while in Princeton, N.J. We didn't have long, but we did find the grave of the Indian chief who invited the missionaries to come and preach the gospel to his tribe (top, left); a tower which marks the original meeting place of the believers in the town (bottom, left); a monument in honor of Jonathan Edwards (middle); and the family home (bottom right).