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Baraca
Philathea was an ecumenical movement designed to facilitate adult evangelism
through Bible study. A million strong during the early twentieth century, it tried
to bridge the gap that young people, aged sixteen to twenty-five, felt between their
churches and their own experiences. Marshall Hudson (pictured right),
the movement's founder, was a successful business owner in Syracuse, New York, who
made a name for himself selling crockery. Hudson had grown up in the church. Then,
like most young people - especially young men - of his day, Hudson left the church
behind as he focused on his career. In 1890, he and his pastor decided to help the
young men of the city to avoid making the same mistake of leaving God behind. Hudson
started the first Baraca class for men in his home church, the First Bapist Church
in Syracuse.
The
Baraca class at First Baptist Church met during Sunday school and studied the
Bible together. Hudson gave his boys ownership of the class and began to provide
activities
that assisted the men in their physical and intellectual growth in addition to
his
central provision of spiritual food. In 1893, Hudson's eldest daughter, May
Hudson (pictured left with her father), started a class for young women
based on the same program and named it Philathea. The first Baraca class began
with a membership of sixteen and before the year was over had a roster of more
than 150.
When other churches heard of the success of these classes, they wanted to use
Hudson's ideas and apply them to their own churches. By the early 1900s there
were Baraca
and Philathea classes in every major Protestant denomination, in almost every
state
in the United States, and in Canada, Italy, England, India, and Japan.
(History taken from back cover of A Million for Christ: The Story of Baraca Philathea by Ann Elizabeth Olson)
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