A History of the Floating Societies of the Christian Endeavor

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"One evening in 1890, at the meeting of a local Christian Endeavor Society at the First Congregational Church in Falmouth, Massachusetts, Antoinette Palmer Jones, the secretary of the local society, met with Madison Edwards, a local man who went on board ships to preach and minister to sailors. They discussed adapting the Christian Endeavor Society pledge and program to meet the unique needs of sailors. Antoinette Jones sent the idea to the Christian Endeavor headquarters in Boston and was given permission from the society to try out this new idea." (pg. 8) ?"The first Floating Christian Endeavor Society was established sometime in 1890. Wiseman indicates that the first society was established on the Revenue Cutter Gallatin, although Showalter points to church records, where Antoinette Jones recorded the establishment of a society on May 12, 1890 on the Revenue Cutter Dexter." (pg. 11) "In a short span of eleven years, the work had grown tremendously, not due to the work of traditional missionaries or an ordained chaplaincy. It grew because of to the flexibility of a lay-led movement accompanied by the transient nature of the mission field and a genuine passion for Christ in its members. The movement quickly spread internationally as well, with Clark mentioning Floating Christian Endeavor Societies on British and Japanese vessels." (pg. 48)