September 23-24, 2006 on the campus of Williams College in northwestern Massachusetts, a weekend conference will celebrate the Haystack bicentennial. Williamstown was the site of the Haystack meeting 200 years ago. On a steamy afternoon five Williams College students, dreaming and praying for a better world, were caught in a thunder storm, sought shelter under a haystack and conceived the American foreign mission movement.
Today, countless people around the globe, trace their Christian lineage to this one event where the needs and hopes of the wider world were addressed and still today spark debates on the meaning of Christian mission in a economically interwoven world. The celebration has been designed by an ecumenical coalition including representatives from the United Church of Christ, United Methodist, American Baptist, Episcopal and Presbyterian denominations, evangelicals and progressives, all of whom trace their involvement in faith-based work around the world to that Haystack prayer meeting of 1806. It will offer 19 workshops and panels, dinners, celebratory worship, and an exciting line up of global music. Haystack Bicentennial Celebration will attract, from all over the region and the world, scholars, students, people involved in missions, those addressing justice and human solidarity.
Saturday morning’s theme, “Need for Transformationâ€, will be addressed by Lamin Sanneh, Ghanian-born author, historian and Yale University D. Willis James Professor of Mission and World History. The afternoon theme will be “The Legacies of Haystack: What Is Mission?†with 18 concurrent workshops followed by a panel discussion with Dennis Dickerson, Professor of History at Vanderbilt University; Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz, Professor of Christian Ethics and Theology at Drew University; Timothy Tennent, Associate Professor of World Missions and Director of Mission Programs at Gordon Conwell Theological Seminary; and John Thomas, General Minister and President of the United Church of Christ. Denise Buell, Associate Professor of Religion, Williams College will be the Moderator. A Vespers service at the base of the Haystack Monument will follow the panel and an evening program, “Celebrating A Global Villageâ€, with world music, jazz, storytelling, dance and meditative imagery with The Oîkos Ensemble will bookend the day.
Sunday’s afternoon worship service will bring the weekend of celebration to a close with Bart Campolo, Founder of Mission Year, as worship leader, and Patrick Evans, Yale University’s Senior Lecturer in the Practice of Sacred Music and specialist in world music introducing music and songs of faith from many cultures.
Conference co-organizer Rick Spalding, Williams College chaplain, said: "We hope this weekend will gather people from the widest array of theological perspectives to celebrate, pray and discuss the nature of Christian mission in a new century." Co-organizer Carrie bail, pastor of the First Congregational Church UCC, added: "Our fondest hope is that a new generation of young people might be inspired by the same haystack spirit to go out in to the world open to having their hearts changed as they serve others around the world." The general public is invited to Williamstown for these weekend events in order to imagine how, in this 21st century, we might find new ways to understand and serve one another through the power of the spirit.â€
More information including a description of all workshops, a complete weekend schedule, and a reservation form can be found at http://haystack.williams.edu or call 413-458-4273.
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State Fire Marshal: New Tracking Tool Identifies 50 Lithium-Ion Battery Fires
STOW, Mass. — The Massachusetts Department of Fire Services' new tool for tracking lithium-ion battery fires has helped to identify 50 such incidents in the past six months, more than double the annual average detected by a national fire data reporting system, said State Fire Marshal Jon M. Davine.
The Department of Fire Services launched its Lithium-Ion Battery Fire Investigative Checklist on Oct. 13, 2023. It immediately went into use by the State Police Fire & Explosion Investigation Unit assigned to the State Fire Marshal's office, and local fire departments were urged to adopt it as well.
Developed by the DFS Fire Safety Division, the checklist can be used by fire investigators to gather basic information about fires in which lithium-ion batteries played a part. That information is then entered into a database to identify patterns and trends.
"We knew anecdotally that lithium-ion batteries were involved in more fires than the existing data suggested," said State Fire Marshal Davine. "In just the past six months, investigators using this simple checklist have revealed many more incidents than we've seen in prior years."
Prior to the checklist, the state's fire service relied on battery fire data reported to the Massachusetts Fire Incident Reporting System (MFIRS), a state-level tool that mirrors and feeds into the National Fire Incident Reporting System (NFIRS). NFIRS tracks battery fires but does not specifically gather data on the types of batteries involved. Some fields do not require the detailed information that Massachusetts officials were seeking, and some fires may be coded according to the type of device involved rather than the type of battery. Moreover, MFIRS reports sometimes take weeks or months to be completed and uploaded.
"Investigators using the Lithium-Ion Battery Fire Checklist are getting us better data faster," said State Fire Marshal Davine. "The tool is helpful, but the people using it are the key to its success."
From 2019 to 2023, an average of 19.4 lithium-ion battery fires per year were reported to MFIRS – less than half the number identified by investigators using the checklist over the past six months. The increase since last fall could be due to the growing number of consumer devices powered by these batteries, increased attention by local fire investigators, or other factors, State Fire Marshal Davine said. For example, fires that started with another item but impinged upon a battery-powered device, causing it to go into thermal runaway, might not be categorized as a battery fire in MFIRS or NFIRS.
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