Timeline of Christian missions

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents

This timeline of Christian missions chronicles the global expansion of Christianity through a sampling of missionary outreach events.

A more general timeline of Christianity and History of Christianity is also available.

[edit] Apostolic Age

See also: Apostolic Age and Acts of the Apostles

Earliest dates must all be considered approximate

[edit] Early Christianity

See also: Early Christianity
  • 80 - First Christians reported in Tunisia and France (Barrett, p. 23)
  • 100 - First Christians are reported in Monaco, Algeria and Sri Lanka (Barrett, p. 23); a missionary goes to Arbela, old sacred city of the Assyrians (Latourette, 1941, vol. I, p. 103)
  • 110 - Ignatius of Antioch writes to the Smyrnaeans that the Christian church is katholikos ("universal") [3]
  • 112 - Pliny reports rapid growth of Christianity in Bithynia (Neill, p. 28)
  • 140 - Hermas writes: "The Son of God . . . has been preached to the ends of the earth" (Barrett, p. 23)
  • 150 - Gospel reaches Portugal and Morocco (Barrett, p. 23)
  • 166 - Bishop Soter writes that the number of Christians has surpassed the Jews (Neill, p. 30)
  • 167 - At the request of Lucius of Britain, missionaries Fuganus (or Phagan) and Duvianus (or Deruvian) were sent by Pope Eleuterus to convert the Britons to Christianity [2]
  • 174 - First Christians reported in Austria (Barrett, p. 23)
  • 177 - Churches in Lyon and Vienne (southern France) report being persecuted (Neill, p. 24)
  • 190 - Pataenus of Alexandria goes to India in response to an appeal for Christian teachers (Glover, 20)
  • 196 - Bar Daisan writes of Christians among the Parthians, Bactrians (Kushans), and other peoples in the Persian Empire [4]
  • 197 - Tertullian writes that Christianity had penetrated all ranks of society in North Africa (Herbermann, p. 385)
  • 200 - First Christians are reported in Switzerland and Belgium (Barrett, p. 23)
  • 202 - Roman Emperor Severus issues edit forbidding conversion to Christianity (Latourette, 1941, vol. I, 145)
  • 206 - Abgar, King of Edessa, embraces the Christian faith (Herbermann, p. 282)
  • 208 - Tertullian writes that Christ has followers on the far side of the Roman wall in Britain where Roman legions have not yet penetrated (Neill, p. 31)
  • 241 - Mani begins to preach in Seleucia-Ctesiphon in what is now Iraq[5]
  • 250 - Denis (or Denys or Dionysius) is sent from Rome along with six other missionaries to establish the church in Paris (Herbermann, p. 481)
  • 270 - Death of Gregory Thaumaturgus, Christian leader in Pontus. It was said that when Gregory became "bishop" there were only 17 Christians in Pontus while at his death thirty years later there were only 17 non-Christians. (Latourette, 1941, vol. I, p. 89)
  • 280 - First rural churches emerge in northern Italy; Christianity is no longer exclusively in urban areas
  • 287 - Maurice from Egypt is killed at Agauno, Switzerland for refusing to sacrifice to pagan divinities [3]
  • 300 - First Christians reported in Greater Khorasan; an estimated 10% of the world's population is now Christian; parts of the Bible are available in 10 different languages (Barrett, p. 24)
  • 304 - Armenia accepts Christianity as state religion [6]
  • 306 - The first bishop of Nisibis is ordained [4]
  • 313 - Emperor Constantine issues Edict of Milan, legalizing Christianity in the Roman Empire (Kane, p. 33)
  • 314 - Tiridates III of Armenia and King Urnayr of Caucasian Albania converted by Gregory the Illuminator [7]

[edit] Era of the Seven Ecumenical Councils

See also: Ecumenical councils#The first seven Ecumenical Councils

[edit] Middle Ages

See also: Middle Ages

[edit] 1000 to 1499

  • 1000 - Leif the Lucky introduces the Gospel to Greenland, possibly Vinland (Newfoundland) [23]
  • 1003 - The Hungarian king sends evangelists to Transylvania [24]
  • 1008 - Sigfrid (or Sigurd), English missionary, baptizes King Olof of Sweden
  • 1009 - Bruno of Querfurt is beheaded in Prussia where he had gone as a missionary (Neill, p. 94)
  • 1015 - Russia is said to have been "comprehensively" converted to the Orthodox faith [10]; Olaf II Haroldsson becomes the first king of the whole of Norway. Over the next 15 years he would organize Norway's final conversion and its integration into Christian Europe. [25]
  • 1200 - The Bible is now available in 22 different languages
  • 1210 - Franciscan Order established (Latourette, 1953, p. 430)
  • 1216 - Dominican Order established (Latourette, 1953, p. 438)
  • 1219 - Francis of Assisi presents the Gospel to the Sultan of Egypt (Neill, p. 99)
  • 1227 - Prince Bort converted and baptized in the Ukraine (Neill, p. 100)
  • 1244 - Christians are reported in Lithuania with King Mindaugas being baptized in 1251 (Neill, p. 95)
  • 1253 - Franciscan William of Rubruck begins his journey to the Mongols (Neill, 104-105)
  • 1266 - Mongol leader Khan sends Marco Polo's father and uncle, Niccolo and Matteo Polo, back to Europe with a request to the Pope to send 100 Christian missionaries (only two responded and one died before reaching Mongol territory) (Neill, p. 107)
  • 1276 - Ramon Llull opens training center to send missionaries to North Africa (Neill, 116)
  • 1291 - Appointment of first indigeneous bishop in Finland (Neill, p. 93)
  • 1294 - Franciscan Giovanni di Monte Corvino arrives in China (Neill, p. 108)
  • 1303 - Arnold of Cologne arrives in China to assist Giovanni di Monte Corvino (Anderson, p. 334)
  • 1321 - Jordanus, a Dominican monk, arrives in India as the first resident Roman Catholic missionary (Herbermann, p. 683)
  • 1322 - Odoric of Pordenone, a Franciscan monk from Italy, arrives in China
  • 1323 - Franciscans make contacts on Sumatra, Java, and Borneo (Barrett, p. 25)
  • 1326 - Chaghatayid Khan Ilchigedai grants permission for a church to be built in Samarkand, Uzbekistan [26]
  • 1329 - Nicaea falls to Muslim Ottoman Turks (Latourette, 1953, p. 602)
  • 1334 - Chaghatayid Khan Buzun allows Christians to rebuild churches and permits Franciscans to establish a missionary episcopate in Almaliq, Azerbaijan [27]
  • 1368 - Collapse of the Franciscan mission in China as Ming Dynasty abolishes Christianity
  • 1379 - Stephen of Perm travels north toward the White Sea and settles as a missionary among the Finno-Ugric speaking Komi peoples living between Pechora and Vychegda Rivers at Ust-Vim (Anderson, 639)
  • 1382 - Bible translated into English from Latin by John Wycliff (Glazier, p. 82)
  • 1386 - Jogaila (baptized - Wladyslaw II), king of the Lithuanians, is baptized (Barrett, p. 25)
  • 1389 - Large numbers of Christians march through the streets of Cairo, denouncing Islam and lamenting that they had abandoned the religion of their fathers from fear of pesecution. They were beheaded, both men and women, and a fresh persecution of Christians followed (Latourette, 1953, p. 611)
  • 1400 - Scriptures translated into Icelandic (Barrett, p. 25)
  • 1408 - Spanish Dominican Vincent Ferrer begins a ministry in Italy in which it is said that thousands of Jews and Muslims were won to faith in Christ (Latourette, 1953, p. 652-653)
  • 1410 - Bible is translated into Hungarian (Barrett, p. 25)
  • 1420 - Franciscan missionaries accompany Portuguese expedition to Madeira (Kane, p. 57)
  • 1431 - Franciscan missionaries accompany Portuguese expedition to the Azores (Kane, p. 57)
  • 1435 - Forced conversion of Jews in Palma de Mallorca, Spain [11]
  • 1445 - First Christians reported in Guinea Bissau (Barrett, p. 25)
  • 1448 - First Christians reported in Mauritania
  • 1450 - Franscian missionaries accompany Portuguese expedition to the Cape Verde Islands (Kane, 57)
  • 1453 - Constantinople falls to the Muslim Ottoman Turks who make it their capital. An Islamic service of thanksgiving is held in the church of Saint Sophia (Latourette, 1953, p. 613-614)
  • 1455 - With the bull Romanus Pontifex the patronage of missions in new countries behind Cape Bojador is given to the Portuguese.
  • 1462 - Johannes Gutenberg begins printing the Bible with his movable-type printing process; Pope Pius II assigns the evangelization of the Portuguese Guinea Coast of Africa to the Franciscans led by Alfonso de Bolano [28]
  • 1485 - After having come into contact with the Portuguese, the King of Benin requests that a church be planted in his kingdom [29]
  • 1486 - Dominicans become active in West Africa, notably among the Wolof people in Senegambia.
  • 1489 - Baptism of Wolof king Behemoi in Senegal [12]
  • 1491 - The Congo sees its first group of missionaries arrive (Kane, 69). Under the ministry of these Franciscan and Dominican priests, the king would soon be baptized and a church built at the royal capital.
  • 1492 - Birth of the church in Angola
  • 1493 - Pope Alexander VI commands Spain to colonize the New World with Catholic missions; Christopher Columbus takes Christian priests with him on his second journey to the New World
  • 1494 - First missionaries arrive in Dominican Republic
  • 1495 - The head of a convent in Seville, Spain, Mercedarian Jorge, makes a trip to the West Indies.
  • 1496 - First Christian baptisms in the New World take place when Guaticaba along with other members of his household are baptized on the island of Hispaniola [13]
  • 1497 - Forced conversion of Jews in Portugal (Barrett, p. 26)
  • 1498 - First Christians are reported in Kenya
  • 1499 - Portuguese Augustinian missionaries arrive at Zanzibar. Their mission will end in 1698 due to the Oman-Arab conquest.

[edit] 1500 to 1599

[edit] 1600 to 1699

[edit] 1700 to 1799

  • 1700 - After a Swedish missionary's sermon in Pennsylvania, one Native American posed such searching questions that the episode was reported in a 1731 history of the Swedish church in America. The interchange is noted in Benjamin Franklin's Remarks Concerning the Savages of North America (1784). [50]
  • 1701 - Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts officially organized (Kane, p. 82)
  • 1702 - George Keith, returns to America as a missionary of the newly-organized Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts
  • 1703 - The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts expands to the West Indies (Herzog, vol. XII, p. 316)
  • 1704 - French missionary priests arrive to evangelize the Chitimacha living along the Mississippi River in what is now the state of Louisiana
  • 1705- Danish-Halle Mission to India begins with Bartholomew Ziegenbalg and Henry Plutschau (Kane, p. 78)
  • 1706- Irish-born Francis Makemie, who has been an itinerant Presbyterian missionary among the colonists of America since 1683, is finally able to organize the first American presbytery
  • 1707 - Italian Capuchin missionaries reach Kathmandu in Nepal. Maillard de Tournon makes public, in Nanjing, the Vatican decisions on rites, including the stipulations against the veneration of ancestors and of Confucius.
  • 1708- Jesuit missionary Giovanni Battista Sidotti is arrested in Japan. He is taken to Edo (now called Tokyo) to be interrogated by Arai Hakuseki
  • 1709 - Experience Mayhew, missionary to the Martha's Vineyard Indians, translates the Psalms and the Gospel of John into the Massachusett language. It will be a work considered second only to John Eliot's Indian Bible in terms of significant Indian-language translations in colonial New England
  • 1710 - First modern Bible Society founded in Germany by Count Canstein [51]
  • 1711 - Jesuit Eusebio Kino, missionary explorer in southern Arizona and northern Sonora, dies suddenly in northern Mexico. Kino, who has been called "the cowboy missionary", had fought against the exploitation of Indians in Mexican silver mines.
  • 1712- Using a press sent by The Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, the Tranquebar Mission in India begins printing books in the Portuguese language
  • 1713 - Jesuit Ippolito Desideri goes to Tibet as a missionary
  • 1714 - New Testament translated into Tamil (India) (Neill, p. 195); a missionary training college is established in Copenhagen
  • 1715 - Eastern Orthodox Church missionary outreach is renewed in Manchuria and Northern China [52]
  • 1716 - The establishment of the Alamo Mission in San Antonio is authorized by the viceroy of Mexico. The mission was to be an educational center for Native Americans who converted to Christianity.
  • 1717 - Chen Mao writes to the Chinese Emperor about his concerns over Catholic missionaries and Western traders. He urgently requested an all-out prohibition of Catholic missionaries in the Qing provinces.
  • 1718 - Bartholomew Ziegenbalg constructs a church building in India that is still in use today
  • 1719 - Isaac Watts writes missionary hymn "Jesus Shall Reign Where'er the Sun" (Kane, p. l83)
  • 1720- Missionary Johann Ernst Gruendler dies in India. He had arrived there in 1709 with the sponsorship of the Danish Mission Society
  • 1721 - Mission San Juan Bautista Malibat in Baja California is abandoned due to the hostility of the Cochimi Indians, as well as to the decimation of the local population by epidemics and a water shortage. Chinese Kangxi Emperor bans Christian missionaries as a result of the Chinese Rites controversy.
  • 1722 - Hans Egede goes to Greenland (Neill, p. 200)
  • 1723 - Robert Millar publishes A History of the Propagation of Christianity and the Overthrow of Paganism advocating prayer as the primary means of converting non-Christians (Kane, 83)
  • 1724 - Yongzheng Emperor bans missionary activities outside the Beijing area
  • 1725 - Knud Leem arrives as a missionary to the Sami people of Finnmark (Norwegian Arctic)
  • 1726 - John Wright, a Quaker missionary to the Native Americans, settles in southeastern Pennsylvania
  • 1728 - Institutum Judaicum founded in Halle as first Protestant mission center for Jewish evangelism (Herzog, vol. IX, p. 65)
  • 1729 - Roman Catholic missionary Du Poisson becomes the first victim in the Natchez massacre. On his way to New Orleans, he had been asked to stop and say Mass at the Natchez post. He was killed in front of the altar
  • 1730- Lombard, French missionary, founds a Christian village with over 600 Indians at the mouth of Kuru river in French Guiana. A Jesuit, Lombard has been called the most successful of all missionaries in converting the Indians of French Guiana
  • 1731 - A missionary movement is born when Count Nicolaus Ludwig Zinzendorf attends the coronation of King Christian VI of Denmark. By the following year, the movement with which Zinzendorf was associated, the Moravian Church, would launch missionary outreach in the Caribbean. (Glover, p. 52)
  • 1732 - Alphonsus Liguori founds the Roman Catholic religious order known as the Redemptorist Fathers with the purpose of doing missionary work among rural people (Glazier, p. 689)
  • 1733 - Moravians go to Greenland (Kane, p. 79)
  • 1734 - A missionary convinces a Groton, Connecticut church to lend its building to the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe for Christian worship services.
  • 1735 - John Wesley goes to Indians in Georgia as missionary with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts (Moreau, p. 913)
  • 1736 - Anti-Christian edicts in China; Moravian missionaries at work among Nenets people of Arkhangelsk
  • 1737 - Rev. Pugh, a missionary in Pennsylvania with The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, writes home to London to say that he had begun ministering to blacks. He noted that the masters of the slaves were prejudiced against them becoming Christian.
  • 1738 - Moravian missionary George Schmidt settles in Baviaan Kloof (Kloof of the Baboons) in the Riviersonderend valley of South Africa. He begins working with the Khoikhoi people, who were practically on the threshold of extinction.
  • 1739 - The first missionary to the Mahican (Mohegan) Indians, John Sergeant, builds a home in Stockbridge, Massachusetts that is today a museum.
  • 1740 - Moravian David Zeisberger starts work among Creek people of Georgia [20]
  • 1741 - Dutch missionaries start building Christ Church building in Malacca Town, Malaysia. It will take 12 years to complete.
  • 1742 - Moravian Leader Count Zinzendorf visits Shekomeko, New York and baptizes six Indians
  • 1743 - David Brainerd starts ministry to North American Indians (Tucker, 2004, p. 55)
  • 1744 - Thomas Thompson resigns his position as dean at the University of Cambridge to become a missionary. He was sent by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts to New Jersey. Taking a special interest in the slave population there, he would later request to begin mission work in Africa. In 1751, Thompson would become the first S.P.G. missionary to the Gold Coast (modern-day Ghana).
  • 1745 - David Brainerd, after preaching to Native Americans in December, wrote about the response: "They soon came in, one after another; with tears in their eyes, to know, what they should do to be saved. . . . It was an amazing season of power among them, and seemed as if God had bowed the heavens and come down ... and that God was about to convert the whole world."
  • 1746 - From Boston, Massachusetts a call is issued to the Christians of the New World to enter into a seven-year "Concert of Prayer" for missionary work (Kane, p. 84)
  • 1747 - Jonathan Edwards appeals for prayer for world missions; birth of Thomas Coke, the "Father of Methodist Missions"
  • 1748 - Roman Catholic Pedro Sanz and the four other missionaries are executed, together with 14 Chinese Christians. Prior to his death, Sanz reportedly converted some of his prison guards to Christianity.
  • 1749 - Spanish Franciscan priest Junipero Serra (1713-1784) arrives in Mexico as a missionary. In 1767 he would go north to what is now California, zealously converting Native Americans.
  • 1750 - Jonathan Edwards, preacher of the First Great Awakening, having been banished from his church at Northampton, Massachusetts goes as a missionary to the nearby Housatonic Indians. (Anderson, p. 195) Christian Frederic Schwartz goes to India with Danish-Halle Mission (Latourette, 1941, vol. III, p. 280)
  • 1751 - Samuel Cooke arrives in New Jersey as a missionary for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts
  • 1752 - Thomas Thompson, first Anglican missionary to Africa, arrives in the Gold Coast (now Ghana) (Latourette, 1941, vol. V, p. 446)
  • 1753 - Searchers in Labrador looking for Moravian Johann Christian Erhardt finds the body of one of his traveling companions. The disappearance of Erhardt and six companions had led to temporary abandonment of Moravian missionary initiatives in Labrador.
  • 1754 - Moravian John Ettwein arrives in America from Germany as a missionary. Preaching to Native Americans and establishing missions, Ettwein will travel as far south as Georgia. Eventually, he will become head of the Moravian Church in what is now the United States.
  • 1756 - Civil unrest forces Gideon Halley away from his missionary work among the Six Nations on the Susquehanna River where he has been working for four years under the supervision of Jonathan Edwards with an appointment from the Society for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians.
  • 1757 - Lutherans begin ministering to Blacks in the Caribbean [53]
  • 1758- John Wesley baptizes two African-American slaves, thus breaking the skin color barrier for Methodist societies [54]
  • 1759 - Native American Samson Occom, direct descendant of the great Mahican chief Uncas, is ordained by the Presbyterians. Despite poor eyesight, Occom became the first American Indian to publish works in English. These included sermons, hymns and a short autobiography. (Herzog, vol. VIII, p. 220)
  • 1760 - Adam Voelker and Christian Butler arrive in Tranquebar as the first Moravian missionaries to India
  • 1761 - The first Moravian missionary in Ohio, Frederick Post, settles on the north side of the Muskingum in what is now Bethlehem township
  • 1762 - Moravian Missionary John Heckewelder confers with Koquethagacton ("White Eyes") at the mouth of the Beaver River (Pennsylvania)
  • 1763 - The Presbyterian Synod of New York orders that a collection for missions be taken. In 1767 the Synod will ask that this collection be done annually.
  • 1764 - The Moravians make a decision to expand and begin publicizing their missionary activity, particularly in the British colonies; Moravian Jens Haven makes the first of three exploratory missionary journeys to Greenland
  • 1765 - Suriname Governor General Crommelin convinces three Moravian missionaries to work near the head waters of the Gran Rio. They settle among the Saramaka near the Senthea Creek in Granman Abini's village where they are received with mixed feelings.
  • 1766 - Philip Quaque, a Fetu youth from the Cape Coast area of Ghana who spent twelve years studying in England, returns to Africa. Supported as a missionary by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, Quaque is first non-European ordained priest in the Church of England
  • 1767 - Spain expels the Jesuits from Spanish colonies in the New World
  • 1768 - Five United Brethren missionaries from Germany, invited by the Danish Guinea Company, arrive in the Gold Coast (now Ghana), to teach in the Cape Coast Castle schools
  • 1769 - Junípero Serra founds Mission San Diego de Alcalá, first of the 21 Alta California missions (Habermann, p. 370)
  • 1770 - John Marrant, a free black from New York City, begins ministering cross-culturally, preaching to the American Indians. By 1775 he had carried the gospel to the Cherokee and Creek Indians as well as to groups he called the Catawar and Housaw peoples. (Gailey, p. 82)
  • 1771 - Francis Asbury arrives in America; David Avery is ordained as missionary to the Oneida tribe [55]
  • 1772 - After visiting Scilly Cove in Newfoundland, Canada, missionary James Balfour describes it as a "most Barbarous Lawless Place" [56]
  • 1773 - Pope Clement XIV dissolves the Jesuit Order (Latourette, 1941, vol. IV, p. 27); two Dominican order missionaries beheaded in Vietnam
  • 1774 - Moravian missionaries Christoph Brasen and Gottfried Lehmann drown when their sloop sinks in a storm off Greenland [57]
  • 1775 - John Crook is sent by Liverpool Methodists to the Isle of Man
  • 1776 - Cyril Vasilyevich Suchanov builds first church among Evenks of Transbaikal (or Dauria) in (Siberia); The first baptism of an Eskimo by a Lutheran pastor takes place in Labrador.
  • 1777 - Portuguese missionaries build a church at Hashnabad, Bangladesh
  • 1778 - Theodore Sladich is martyred while doing missionary work to counter Islamic influence in the western Balkans
  • 1779 - Charles Simeon is converted while a student at King's College, Cambridge. Twenty years later he helped found what became the Church Missionary Society.
  • 1780 - August Gottlieb Spangenberg writes An Account of the Manner in Which the Protestant Church of the Unitas Fratrum, or United Brethren, Preach the Gospel, and Carry On Their Missions Among the Heathen. Originally written in the German language, the book will be translated into English in 1788.
  • 1781 - In the midst of the American Revolutionary War, the British so feared Moravian missionary David Zeisberger and his influence among the Lenape (also called Delaware) and other Native Americans that they arrested him and his assistant, John Heckewelder, charging them with treason,
  • 1782 - Freed slave George Lisle goes to Jamaica as missionary (Olson, 141)
  • 1783 - Moses Baker and George Gibbions, both former slaves, leave the U.S. to become missionaries in the West Indies
  • 1784 - Thomas Coke (Methodist) submits his Plan for the Society for the Establishment of Missions Among the Heathen. Methodist missions among the "heathen" will begin in 1786 when Coke, destined for Nova Scotia, is driven off course by a storm and lands at Antigua in the British West Indies. (Gailey, p. 46)
  • 1785 - Joseph White's sermon titled "On the Duty of Attempting the Propagation of the Gospel among our Mahometan and Gentoo Subjects in India" is published in the second edition of his book Sermons Containing a View of Christianity and Mahometanism, in their History, their Evidence, and their Effects. The sermon was first preached at the University of Oxford.
  • 1786 - John Marrant, a free black from New York City, writes in his journal that he preached to "a great number of Indians and white people" at Green's Harbor, Newfoundland. [58] Marrant's cross-cultural ministry led him to take the Gospel to the Cherokee, Creek, Catawba (he called them the Catawar), and Housaw Indians.
  • 1787 - William Carey is ordained in England by the Particular Baptists and soon begins to urge that worldwide missions be undertaken.
  • 1788 - Dutch missionaries begin preaching the Gospel among fishermen in Bangladesh
  • 1789 - The Jesuits establish Georgetown University as the first US Catholic college (Habermann, p. 230)
  • 1790 - Prince Williams, a freed slave from South Carolina, goes to Nassau, Bahamas, where he will start Bethel Meeting House (Gailey, p. 82)
  • 1791 - One hundred and twenty Korean Christians are tortured and killed for their faith. It began when Paul Yun Ji-Chung, a noble who had become a Christian, decided not to bury his mother according to traditional Confucian custom.
  • 1792 - William Carey writes An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use means for the conversion of the heathen and forms the Baptist Missionary Society to support him in establishing missionary work in India (Kane, p. 85)
  • 1793 - Stephen Badin ordained in U.S. Although much of Badin's ministry was pastoral work among his own countrymen, he did some outreach among the Potawatomi Indians [59]
  • 1794 - Eight Russian Orthodox missionaries arrive on Kodiak Island in Alaska. Within a few months several thousand people have been baptized (Latourette, 1941, vol. IV, p. 311)
  • 1795 - The London Missionary Society is formed to send missionaries to Tahiti (Kane, 86)
  • 1796 - Scottish and Glasgow Missionary Societies established (Kane, p. 86); In India, Johann Philipp Fabricius' translation of the Bible into Tamil is revised and published [60]
  • 1797 - Netherlands Missionary Society formed (Kane, pp. 80, 86); The Duff, carrying 36 lay and pastoral missionaries, sails to three islands of the South Pacific (Latourette, 1941, vol. V, p. 202-203); The first Christian missionary (from the London Missionary Society) visits Hiva on the Pacific island of Tahuata; he is not well received.
  • 1798 - The Missionary Society of Connecticut is organized by the Congregationalists to take the gospel to the "heathen lands" of Vermont and Ohio. Its missionaries evangelized both European settlers and Native Americans. (Olson, p. 235)
  • 1799 - The Church Missionary Society (Church of England) is formed (Kane, p. 86); John Vanderkemp, Dutch physician goes to Cape Colony, Africa (Glover, p. 256)

[edit] 1800 to 1849

[edit] 1850 to 1899

  • 1850 - On the occasion of Karl Gützlaff's visit to Europe, the Berlin Ladies Association for China is established in conjunction with the Berlin Missionary Association for China. Work in China will commence in 1851 with the arrival of Hermandine Neumann in Hong Kong. Rev. Thomas Valpy French, came to India in 1850, founded St. John's College, Agra, and became first Bishop of Lahore in 1877.
  • 1851 - Allen Gardiner and six missionary colleagues die of exposure and starvation at Patagonia on the southern tip of South America because a re-supply ship from England arrives six months late (Anderson, 235-236)
  • 1852 - Zenana (women) and Medical Missionary Fellowship formed in England to send out single women missionaries (Kane, 94)
  • 1853- The Hermannsburg Missionary Society, founded in 1849 by Louis Harms, has finished training its first group of young missionaries. They are sent to Africa on a ship (the Kandaze) which had been built entirely from donations. [67]
  • 1854 - New York Missionary Conference, guided by Alexander Duff, ponders the question: "To what extent are we authorized by the Word of God to expect the conversion of the world to Christ?" (Barrett, p. 29); Henry Venn, secretary of the Church Missionary Society, sets out ideal of self-governing, self-supporting and self-propagating churches (Neill, 221); Hudson Taylor arrives in China (Neill, p. 282)
  • 1855 - Henry Steinhauer is ordained as a Canadian Methodist missionary to North American Indians and posted to Lac La Biche, Alberta. Steinhauer's missionary work had actually begun 15 years earlier in 1840 when he was assigned to Lac La Pluie to assist in translating, teaching and interpreting the Ojibwa and Cree languages.
  • 1856 - Presbyterians start work in Colombia with the arrival of Henry Pratt (Olson, p. 156)
  • 1857 - Bible translated into Tswana language; Board of Foreign Missions of Dutch Reformed Church set up; four missionary couples killed at the Fatehgarh mission during the Indian Mutiny of 1857; Publication of David Livingstone's book Missionary Travels and Researches in South Africa (Anderson, p. 405)
  • 1858 - John G. Paton begins work in New Hebrides (Tucker, p. 225); Basel Evangelical Missionary Society begins work in western Sumatra (Indonesia)
  • 1859 - Protestant missionaries arrive in Japan (Glover, p. 171); Revivals in North America and the British Isles generate interest in overseas missions; Albert Benjamin Simpson (founder of Christian and Missionary Alliance) is converted by the revival ministry of Henry Grattan Guinness
  • 1860 - United Lutheran Church begins work in Liberia (Latourette, p. 452); Liverpool Missionary Conference (Latourette, 1941, vol. IV, p. 105); Cyrus Hamlin lays groundwork for the establishment of Robert College in Constantinople (Anderson, p. 277)
  • 1861 - Protestant Stundism arises in the village of Osnova of modern-day Ukraine; Sarah Doremus founds the Women's Union Missionary Society; Episcopal Church opens work in Haiti (Glover, p. 429); Rhenish Mission goes to Indonesia under Ludwig Nommensen
  • 1862 - Paris Evangelical Missionary Society opens work in Senegal [68]
  • 1863 - Robert Moffat, missionary to Africa with the London Missionary Society, publishes his book Rivers of Water in a Dry Place, Being an Account of the Introduction of Christianity into South Africa, and of Mr. Moffat's Missionary Labours
  • 1864 - Baptists enter Argentina (Olson, p. 282)
  • 1865 - The China Inland Mission is founded by James Hudson Taylor (Kane, p. 94); James Laidlaw Maxwell plants first viable church in Taiwan. Salvation Army founded in London by William Booth
  • 1866 - Charles Haddon Spurgeon invents The Wordless Book, which is widely used in cross-cultural evangelism [23]; Theodore Jonas Meyer (1819-1894), a converted Jew serving as a Presbyterian missionary in Italy, nurses those dying in a cholera epidemic until he himself falls prey to the disease. Barely surviving, he becomes a peacemaker between Catholics and Protestants; Robert Thomas, the first Protestant martyr in Korea, is beheaded giving a Bible to his executioner. (Gailey, p. 49)
  • 1867 - Methodists start work in Argentina (Olson, pp. 156, 282); Scripture Union established; Lars Olsen Skrefsrud and Hans Peter Børresen begin working among the Santals of India.
  • 1868 - Robert Bruce goes to Iran, Canadian Baptist missionary Americus Timpany begins work among the Telugu people in India.
  • 1869 - The first Methodist women's missionary magazine, The Heathen Women's Friend, begins publication. ; Riot in Yangzhou, China destroys China Inland Mission house and nearly leads to open war between Britain and China.
  • 1870 - Clara Swain, the very first female missionary medical doctor, arrives at Bareilly, India; Orthodox Missionary Society founded (Latourette, 1941, vol. IV, p. 107)
  • 1871 - Henry Stanley finds David Livingstone in central Africa (Anderson, p. 631)
  • 1872 - First All-India Missionary Conference with 136 participants (Olson, p. 163); George Leslie Mackay plants church in northern Taiwan (Anderson, pp. 423-424); ]]); Lottie Moon appointed as missionary to China (Anderson, p. 471)
  • 1873 - Regions Beyond Missionary Union founded in London in connection with the East London Training Institute for Home and Foreign Missions; first Scripture portion (Gospel of Luke) translated into Pangasinan, a language of the Philippines, by Alfonso Lallave (Glover, 134)
  • 1874 - Lord Radstock's first visit to St. Petersburg and the beginning of an evangelical awakening among the St. Petersburg nobility; Albert Sturges initiates the Interior Micronesia Mission in the Mortlock Islands under the leadership of Micronesian students from Ohwa
  • 1875 - The Foreign Christian Missionary Society organized within the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and Church of Christ movements; Clah, a Canadian Indian convert, brought Christianity to natives at Ft. Wangel, Alaska. He assumed the name of Philip McKay.
  • 1876 - In September, a rusty ocean steamer arrives at a port on the Calabar River in what is now Nigeria. That part of Africa was then known as the White Man's Grave. The only woman on board that ship is 29-year-old Mary Slessor, a missionary. (Tucker, p. 171)
  • 1877 - James Chalmers goes to New Guinea (Neill, p. 299); Presbyterians Sheldon Jackson and missionary-widow Amanda McFarland arrive at Ft. Wrangel, Alaska where they join Philip McKay (nee Clah) to start missionary work. McFarland was the first white woman in Alaska, and renowned as "Alaska's Courageous Missionary."
  • 1878 - Mass movement to Christ begins in Ongole, India (Moreau, p. 206)
  • 1879 - H. F. Reynolds enters the ministry. He became the missionary secretary of the new Church of the Nazarene in 1907.
  • 1880 - Woman missionary doctor Fanny Butler goes to India (Neill, p. 217); Missionary periodical The Gospel in All Lands is launched by A. B. Simpson (Anderson, p. 622); Justus Henry Nelson and Fannie Bishop Capen Nelson begin 45 years of service in Belém, Pará, Brazil, establishing the first Protestant Church in Amazonia in 1883
  • 1881 - Methodist work in Lahore, Pakistan starts in the wake of revivals under Bishop William Taylor; North Africa Mission (now Arab World Ministries) founded on work of Edward Glenny in Algeria (Olson, p. 152)
  • 1882 - James Gilmour, London Missionary Society missionary to Mongolia, goes home to England for a furlough. During that time he published a book: Among the Mongols. It was so well-written that one critic wrote, "Robinson Crusoe has turned missionary, lived years in Mongolia, and wrote a book about it." Concerning the author, the critic said, "If ever on earth there lived a man who kept the law of Christ, and could give proof of it, and be absolutely unconscious that he was giving it to them, it is this man whom the Mongols called 'our Gilmour.'" [69]
  • 1883 - Salvation Army enters West Pakistan (Glover, p. 92); A.B. Simpson organizes The Missionary Union for the Evangelization of the World. The first classes of the Missionary Training College are held in New York City. Zaire Christian and Missionary Alliance mission field opens.
  • 1884 - David Torrance is sent by the Jewish Mission of the Free Church of Scotland as a medical missionary to Palestine
  • 1885 - Horace Grant Underwood, Presbyterian missionary, and Henry Appenzeller, Methodist missionary, arrive in Korea (Kane, p. 99); Scottish Ion Keith-Falconer goes to Aden on the Arabian peninsula (Olson, p. 157); "Cambridge Seven" -- C. T. Studd, M. Beauchamp, W. W. Cassels, D. E. Hoste, S. P. Smith, A. T. Podhill-Turner, C. H. Polhill-Turner -- go to China as missionaries with the China Inland Mission (Anderson, p. 111)
  • 1886 - Student Volunteer Movement launched as 100 university and seminary students at Moody's conference grounds at Mount Hermon, Massachusetts, sign the Princeton Pledge which says: "I purpose, God willing, to become a foreign missionary." (Tucker, 2004, p. 320)
  • 1887 -The Hundred missionaries deployed in one year in China under the China Inland Mission. Dr. William Cassidy, a Toronto medical doctor, was ordained as the Christian and Missionary Alliance's first missionary preacher. Unfortunately, en route to China, he died of smallpox. However, Cassidy's death has been called the "spark that ignited the Alliance missionary blaze."
  • 1888 - Jonathan Goforth sails to China (Anderson, p. 247); Student Volunteer Movement for foreign missions officially organized with John R. Mott as chairman and Robert Wilder as traveling secretary. The movement's motto, coined by Wilder, was: "The evangelization of the world in this generation" (Kane, p. 103); Scripture Gift Mission (now Lifewords) founded
  • 1889 - Missionary linguist and folklorist Paul Olaf Bodding arrives in India, Santhal Parganas, and continues the work among the Santals started by Skrefsrud and Børresen in 1867; North Africa Mission enters Tripoli as first Protestant mission in Libya (Moreau, p. 577)
  • 1890 - Central American Mission founded by C. I. Scofield, editor of the Scofield Reference Bible (Olson, p. 157); Methodist Charles Gabriel writes missionary song "Send the Light"; John Livingston Nevius of China visits Korea to outline his strategy for missions: 1) Each believer should be a productive member of society and active in sharing his faith; 2) The church in Korea should be distinctly Korean and free of foreign control; 3) The leaders of the Korean church will be selected and trained from its members; 4) Church buildings will be built by Koreans with their own resources (Anderson p. 490)
  • 1891 - Samuel Zwemer goes to Arabia (Moreau, p. 503); Helen Chapman sails for the Congo (Zaire). She married a Danish missionary, William Rasmussen, whom she met during the voyage.
  • 1892 - Redcliffe Missionary Training College founded in Chiswick (London) [70]
  • 1893 - Eleanor Chestnut goes to China as Presbyterian medical missionary (Tucker, 2004, p. 402); Sudan Interior Mission founded by Rowland Bingham, a graduate of Nyack College (Olson, p. 153)
  • 1894 - Soatanana Revival begins among Lutheran and LMS churches in Madagascar, lasting 80 years (Barrett, p. 29)
  • 1895 - Africa Inland Mission formed by Peter Cameron Scott (Kane, p. 95); Japan Bible Society established; Roland Allen sent as missionary for the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts to its North China Mission. (Anderson, p. 12) Amy Carmichael arrives in India.
  • 1896 - Ödön Scholtz founds the first Hungarian Lutheran foreign mission periodical Külmisszió [24]
  • 1897 - Presbyterian Church (USA) begins work in Venezuela
  • 1898 - Theresa Huntington leaves her New England home for the Middle East. For seven years she will work as an American Board missionary in Elazığ (Kharput) in the Ottoman Empire. Her letters home will be published in a book titled Great Need over the Water ; Archibald Reekie of the Canadian Baptist Ministries arrives in Oruro as the first Protestant missionary to Bolivia. The work of Canadian Baptists led to the guarantee of freedom of religion in Bolivia in 1905.
  • 1899 - James Rodgers arrives in Philippines with the Presbyterian Mission (Neill, p. 292); Central American Mission enters Guatemala (Moreau, p. 418)

[edit] 1900 to 1949

[edit] 1950 to 1999

[edit] 2000 to present

  • 2000 - Asia College of Ministry (ACOM) launched to train national missionaries in Asia.
  • 2001 - New Tribes Missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham are kidnapped in the Philippines by Muslim terrorist group; Baptist missionary Roni Bowers and her infant daughter are killed when a Peruvian Air Force jet fires on their small float-plane. Though severely wounded in both legs, missionary pilot Kevin Donaldson landed the burning plane on the Amazon River.
  • 2003 - Publication of Back To Jerusalem Called to Complete the Great Commission - Three Chinese Church Leaders with Paul Hattaway brings Chinese and Korean mission movement to forefront
  • 2004 - Four Southern Baptist missionaries are killed by gunman in Iraq
  • 2006 - Abdul Rahman, an Afghan Christian convert, is forced out of Afghanistan by local Muslim leaders and exiled to Italy. Missionary Vijay Kumar is publicly stoned by Hindu extremists for Christian preaching. The Book Mission Preparation Training[104] by Mathew Backholer is published.
  • 2007 Kriol Bible completed, the first translation of the entire Bible into an Australian indigenous language [105]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Wood, Roger, Jan Morris and Denis Wright. Persia. Universe Books, 1970, p. 35.
  2. ^ Ingram, James. The Saxon chronicle with an English translation and notes, critical and explanatory, Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1823, p. 10
  3. ^ Walsh, Martin de Porres. The Ancient Black Christians, Julian Richardson Associates, 1969, p. 5
  4. ^ Barrett, David B., Todd M. Johnson, Christopher R. Guidry, and Peter F. Crossing. World Christian Trends, AD 30-AD 2200, William Carey Library Publishers, 2001, p. 115
  5. ^ Fortescue, Adrian. The Eastern Churches Trilogy, Gorgias Press LLC, 2001, p. 17
  6. ^ Korolevsky, Cyril. Living Languages in Catholic Worship: An Historical Inquiry, Longmans, Green, 1957, p. 14
  7. ^ Price, Ira Maurice. The Ancestry of Our English Bible. Harper, 1956, p. 193.
  8. ^ Gaelic Society of Inverness. Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness, The Society, 1985, p. 161
  9. ^ Adams, Henry. Mont Saint Michel and Chartres, Penguin Classics, 1986, p. 19
  10. ^ Tillyrides, Makarios. Adventures in the Unseen: The Silent Witness, Orthodox Research Institute Press, 2004, p. 426
  11. ^ Kamen, Henry. The Spanish Inquisition: A Historical Revision, Yale University Press, 1999, p. 56
  12. ^ De Graft-Johnson. African Glory: The Story of Vanished Negro Civilizations, Praeger, 1954, p. 132
  13. ^ Pané, Ramón, An Account of the Antiquities of the Indians: Chronicles of the New World, edited by Jose Arrom and translated by Susan C. Griswold. Duke University Press, 1999 p. 32
  14. ^ Melady, Thomas Patrick. Faces of Africa, Macmillan, 1964, p. 126
  15. ^ Needham, Joseph. Science and Civilisation in China, Cambridge University Press, 1994, p. 542
  16. ^ Tanis, James. "Reformed Pietism and Protestant Missions," Harvard Theological Review, vol. 67 (1974), p. 65.
  17. ^ Delaney, John J. and James Edward Tobin. Dictionary of Catholic Biography, Doubleday, 1961, p. 227
  18. ^ Elliot, Elisabeth. Through Gates of Splendor, Tyndale House Publishers, 1986, p. 15
  19. ^ Gow, Bonar. Madagascar and the Protestant Impact: The Work of the British Missions, 1818-95, Dalhousie University Press, 1979, p. 2.
  20. ^ Thwaites, Reuben Gold. The Revolution on the Upper Ohio, 1775-1777: Compiled from the Draper Manuscripts in the Library of the Wisconsin Historical Society. Genealogical Publishing Company, 2002, p. 45.
  21. ^ Smith, George. The life of William Carey, D.D., Project Gutenberg, 1885, p. 340
  22. ^ Jones, Francis A. Famous Hymns and Their Authors, Hodder and Stoughton, 1903, pp. 200-203
  23. ^ Balmer, Randall Herbert. Encyclopedia of Evangelicalism, Baylor University Press, 2004, p. 764
  24. ^ Uhalley, Stephen and Xiaoxin Wu. China and Christianity: Burdened Past, Hopeful Future, M.E. Sharpe, 2001, p. 227
  25. ^ Wood, James. History of International Broadcasting, IET, History of Technology Series, 1992, p. 216
  26. ^ Winter, Ralph D., Steven C. Hawthorne, Darrell R. Dorr, D. Bruce Graham, Bruce A. Koch, eds. Perspectives on the World Christian Movement: Reader, William Carey Library Publishers, 1999, p. 536
  27. ^ Schwanz, Keith. Shouts at Sunrise: The Abuction and Rescue of Don Cox, Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 2006
 The references in this article would be clearer with a different or consistent style of citation, footnoting, or external linking.
  • Anderson, Gerald H.,(ed.) Biographical dictionary of Christian missions, Simon & Schuster Macmillan, 1998
  • Barrett, David, ed. World Christian Encyclopedia, Oxford University Press, 1982
  • Gailey, Charles R. and Howard Culbertson. Discovering Missions, Beacon Hill Press of Kansas City, 2007
  • Glazier, Michael and Monika K. Hellwig, eds., The Modern Catholic Encyclopedia, Liturgical Press, 2004
  • Glover, Robert H. The Progress of World-Wide Missions, rev. by J. Herbert Kane., Harper and Row, 1960
  • Herbermann, Charles George. The Catholic Encyclopedia, The Encycylopedia Press, 1913
  • Herzog, Johann Jakob, Philip Schaff, and Albert Hauck. The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 12 volumes, Funk and Wagnalls Company, 1910-11
  • Kane, J. Herbert. A Concise History of the Christian World Mission, Baker, 1982
  • Laroutette, Kenneth Scott. A History of Christianity, Harper & Brothers, 1953
  • Latourette, Kenneth Scott. A History of the Expansion of Christianity, 7 volumes, Harper & Brothers, 1941
  • Moreau, A. Scott, David Burnett, Charles Edward van Engen and Harold A. Netland. Evangelical Dictionary of World Missions, Baker Book House Company, 2000
  • Neill, Stephen. A History of Christian Missions. Penguin Books, 1986
  • Olson, C. Gordon. What in the World is God Doing? Global Gospel Publishers, 2003
  • Parker, J. Fred. Mission to the World. Nazarene Publishing House, 1988
  • Tucker, Ruth. From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya. Zondervan, 2004
  • Tucker, Ruth. Guardians of the Great Commission. Academie Books, 1988
  • Walker, Williston. A History of the Christian Church. Charles Scribner's Sons, 1959


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