A CHRONOLOGY OF PROTESTANT BEGINNINGS:  HAITI

by Drs. Daryl L. Platt and Clifton L. Holland

(last revised on June 9, 2003)

Historical Overview of Haiti:

Became Spanish Colony:                                                                                                     1492

Became French Colony:                                                                                                      1657

Under Control of French West Indies Company:                                                                     1664

Ceded by Spain to France in the Treaty of Ryswick:                                                               1697

Slave Revolt against French colonial structure:                                                                      1791

Independence from France declared:                                                                                     1795

Independent Republic established under President Toussaint Louverture:                                 1804

Concordat with Rome established:                                                                                        1860

American military occupation:                                                                                      1915-1934

Duvalier dictatorship:                                                                                                   1957-1989

 

Number of North American agencies in 1989:                                                                          121

Number of North American agencies in 1996:                                                                            79        

Indicates European society*

Significant Protestant Beginnings or Events:

     1807       -    *British Methodist pastors arrived to serve the English-speaking black population (English Wesleyan Mission, now the Methodist Church of Great Britain); the Methodist Church of Haiti is now part of the Conference of the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas.

     1816       -    *Wesleyan Methodist Mission Society responded to Haitian presidential request sending two pastors

     1816       -    *Quaker evangelistic campaigns conducted by Etienne de Grellet and John Hancock.

     1820       -    American immigrants (some Protestants) responded to President Boyer's request for colonizers.

     1823       -    Baptist missionaries began work, later withdrew (Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society)

     1861       -    Protestant Episcopal Church begun under Rev. James T. Holly with 110 Afro-American immigrants from the USA.

     1874       -    Apostolic Orthodox Anglican Church of Haiti (under Bishop James T. Holly) becomes autonomous province of the Protestant Episcopal Church; it reunited with the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1917.

     1905       -    Seventh-day Adventist General Conference (incorporate an independent work that began in 1879)

     1920       -    Lott Carey Baptist Foreign Mission Convention of the Negro Baptist Churches in the USA.

     1923       -    American Baptist Home Mission Society (American Baptist Churches in the USA), associated with the Baptist Convention of Haiti (formed in 1960); since 1939 the American Baptists have cooperated with the Haitian Baptist churches founded by the English and Jamaican Baptist missions.

     1927       -    Society of St. Margaret (Episcopal service agency)

     1931       -    Church of God of Prophecy Mission

     1934       -    Church of God World Missions (Cleveland, TN)

     1936       -    World Team (formerly, West Indies Mission), affiliated with the Evangelical Baptist Mission of South Haiti

     1943       -    Evangelical Bible Mission, Inc.

     1943       -    Unevangelized Fields Mission (UFM International) – Evangelical Baptist Mission of Haiti (incorporates the earlier Baptist work by Mr. Pierce in Port-de-Paix and the World Gospel Crusade in Port-au-Prince)

     1946       -    Child Evangelism Fellowship

     1949       -    Wesleyan Methodist Church World Missions (incorporated the work of the Hepzibah Faith Mission that began in the early 1940s)

     1949       -    Baptist Mid-Missions (1934)

     1950       -    Church of the Nazarene, World Missions Division (incorporated an earlier work that began in 1946)

     1952       -    The Missionary Church, World Partners (incorporated the early independent work in Pignon led by Eli Marc and a group of churches that split from the UFM in 1949)

     1954       -    Janz Teach Ministries, Canada

     1957       -    Assemblies of God, General Council (incorporated the work of independent Pentecostals in the hills around Miragoane that was founded in the 1940s)

     1958       -    Mennonite Central Committee

     1958       -    OMS International, Inc. (incorporated the work of the independent East West Indies Bible Mission that began in 1946), affiliated with the Evangelical Church of Haiti.

     1959       -    Greater Europe Mission, Canada

     1960       -    Baptist Convention of Haiti formed by the American Baptists and other affiliated groups; however, a group of Baptist churches in the Jacmel area did not become part of the Convention; these independent Baptist churches were later organized as the Jacmel Baptist Churches.

     1960       -    World-Wide Missions, affiliated with Eben-Ezer Church of God

     1962       -    World Gospel Mission

     1963       -    CSI Ministries

     1964       -    Missionary Flights International

     1966       -    Have Christ Will Travel Ministries

     1966       -    International Child Care

     1966       -    United Pentecostal Church International

     1967       -    Churches of God, General Conference

     1967       -    Macedonian World Baptist Missions

     1968       -    Friends for Missions, Inc.

     1969       -    For Haiti with Love, Inc.

     1969       -    Allegheny Wesleyan Methodist Missions

     1970       -    Ministries in Action

     1970       -    Global Outreach Mission, Canada

     1972       -    Haiti Gospel Mission

     1974       -    Presbyterian Church, USA

     1975       -    Mission to the World, Presbyterian Church in America

     1976       -    International Pentecostal Holiness Church

     1978       -    Baptist International Missions

     1978       -    Southern Baptist Convention (International Mission Board)

     1979       -    Gospel Outreach, Ltd.

     1979       -    Mission Possible

     1981       -    International Church of the Foursquare Gospel

     1981       -    Habitat for Humanity International

     1981       -    Medical Ambassadors International

     1981       -    Missionary Aviation Fellowship

     1982       -    Baptist Bible Fellowship International

     1982       -    Harvest

     1982       -    International Partnership Ministries

     1983       -    Childcare International

     1983       -    Hope for the Hungry

     1983       -    New Missions to Haiti

     1985       -    Christian Reformed World Missions

     1985       -    Rehoboth Ministries, Inc.

     1985       -    STEM Ministries

     1986       -    Elim Fellowship World Missions

     1986       -    FOCAS

     1987       -    World Concern

     1988       -    Global Strategy Mission Association

     1988       -    Reciprocal Ministries International

     1989       -    Global Missionary Evangelism

     1989       -    International Teams of Canada

     1991       -    Christian Aid Ministries

     1992       -    Mission to the Americas

     1993       -    Barnabas Ministries, Inc.

     1993       -    ECHO

     1993       -    Evangelical Free Church Mission

     1994       -    TEAM of Canada

     1995       -    Mission Society for United Methodists

     1996       -    FEBInternational (Far East Broadcasting)

 

Date of Origin Unknown:

 

                        African Methodist Episcopal Church

                        Agape Flights

                        AMG International (Advancing the Ministry of the Gospel)

                        Apostolic Overcoming Holy Church of God

                        Evangelistic World Outreach

                        Assembly of Christian Churches

                        Association of International Gospel Assemblies

                        Baptist Evangelistic Mission Association

                        Baptist World Mission

                        Bethany Baptist Missionary Society

                        Bible Holiness Movement (Vancouver, Canada)

                        Christian Church and Churches of Christ

                        Christian & Missionary Alliance

                        Church of God, Evangelical Holiness Union

                        Church of God Holiness

                        Church of God in Christ

                        Church of God in North America

                        Church of Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith

                        Church of the Brethren

                        Compassion International

                        Conservative Baptist Home Missionary Society – Conservative Baptist Haiti Mission

                        Eastern Mennonite Board of Missions

                        Eden Church of God

                        Evangelical Church of Haiti

                        Evangelical Methodist Church, World Mission

                        Faith Holiness Mission

                        Food for the Hungry

                        Free Methodist Church

                        Gedeon’s Band Evangelical Church

                        Haiti Gospel Mission

                        Haiti Independent Baptist Mission

                        Haiti Inland Mission

                        Heifer Project International

                        ISOH/Impact

                        Larry Jones Ministry

                        London Baptist Missionary Society/Jamaican Baptist Missionary Society (Jacmel Baptist Churches)

                        Maranatha Baptist Missions

                        Missionary Revival Crusades

                        National Baptist Convention of America

                        Open Bible Standard Churches

                        Operation Mobilization of Canada

                        Pentecostal Assemblies of the World

                        Pentecostal Church of God, MI (founded prior to 1970 by missionaries from Puerto Rico)

                        Pentecostal Holiness Church of God

                        Progressive National Baptist Convention, USA

                        Sinai Church of God

                        Son-Light Mission

                        Tabernacle Church

                        TEAR Fund England

                        The Salvation Army of Canada

                        Teen Missions International

                        United Evangelical Churches (Monrovia, CA)

                        United Methodist Church

                        World Mission to the Whole Man, Inc. (Miami, FL)

                        World Relief Commission

                        World-Wide New Testament Baptist Mission

                        World Vision International

                        Youth With A Mission (YWAM)

 

 

NOTES:

(1)        Dates listed indicate the earliest recorded ministry or in case of discrepancies, the date most frequently indicated.

 

(2)        North American Agencies include U.S. and Canadian.

 

(3)       Religious tolerance has existed throughout Haiti’s independent history.

SOURCES:

(1) Daryl L. Platt, "Who Represents the Evangelical Churches in Latin America? A Study of the Evangelical Fellowship Organizations." Pasadena, CA: an unpublished Doctor of Missiology Dissertation, School of World Mission, Fuller Theological Seminary, June 1991. Used by permission of the author.

(2) PROLADES (Latin American Socio-religious Studies Program), international headquarters in San José, Costa Rica: www.prolades.com, prolades@racsa.co.cr

            (3) Dayton Roberts and John Siewert, editors:  Mission Handbook of U.S. and Canadian Christian Ministries Overseas (MARC 1989).

            (4) John A. Siewert and Edna G. Valdez, editors: Mission Handbook of U.S. and Canadian Christian Ministries Overseas (MARC 1997).

            (5)   Jean-Jacques Bauswein and Lukas Vischer, The Reformed Family Worldwide (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1999).

            (6) Clifton L. Holland, editor, World Christianity:  Central America and the Caribbean (MARC-World Vision International, 1981)

            (7) Justo L. González, The Development of Christianity in the Latin Caribbean (Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1969).

            (8) Harmon A. Johnson, The Growing Church in Haiti (West Indies Mission, 1970).