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Baptist Mission Australia, formerly Global Interaction, the Australian Baptist Missionary Society, and originally the Australian Baptist Foreign Mission, is a Christian missionary society founded by Baptists in Australia in 1864. The national office is in Melbourne.
| Formation | 1864 |
|---|---|
| Type | Mission Organisation |
| Headquarters | Melbourne, Australia |
Executive Director | Scott Pilgrim |
| Website | Official website |
Australian Baptists had been sending money to the Baptist Missionary Society in London as their expression of interest in mission.[1] The South Australian Baptist Missionary Society was founded at Flinders Street Baptist Church on 10 November 1864 under Rev Silas Mead,[2] and the first missionaries, Ellen Arnold and Marie Gilbert, were sent to East Bengal in 1882.[3][4] Arnold returned to Australia in 1884 suffering illness and undertook a tour of the colonies and New Zealand which became known as the "crusade of Ellen Arnold." This led to the establishment of the Queensland and New Zealand Baptist Missionary Societies.[5][6][7] Four other young women decided to join her (becoming known as the "five barley loaves") in East Bengal, which then became the primary mission field for Australian Baptists.[8][9][10][11] Between 1882 and 1913, the colonial societies sent fifty-four women and sixteen men to Bengal, including Mead's son Dr Cecil Mead and his wife Alice.[12] The women visited Indian women in their zenanas.[13] The work of the mission was almost solely focused in India for 80 years.[13] Wilton Hack, a South Australian Baptist pastor, had raised private funds to go to Japan in 1874, not wanting to take money prioritised to the work in Faridpur.[1]
The various state missionary societies federated in 1913 as the Australian Baptist Mission.[14][9] It was renamed the Australian Baptist Missionary Society in 1959 and then Global Interaction in 2002.[9]
Work in Papua New Guinea began in 1949, at the urging of returned World War II chaplains, with focus on Bible translation as well as health and education.[13] By 1995 the Baptist Union of Papua New Guinea had 35,000 members.[15]
Workers were later sent to Papua and Timor, and then to Zambia and Zimbabwe, later moving to Malawi and Mozambique.[13] More recent locations include Thailand in 1972,[16] Cambodia, and Kazakhstan.[9][13] In many locations, the goal has been to develop the indigenous church and work towards handover.[13]
Baptist missionary services to Aboriginal communities in Central Australia began in 1947 under the Australian Baptist Federal Home Mission Board. This became part of ABMS in the 1970s.[17]
As of 2013, Global Interaction had 123 missionaries working in 17 different regions.[14]
The mission has produced a magazine called Vision since 1950.[18] They have also published papers and biographies by a number of their missionaries.[19]
In November 2021, Global Interaction changed its name to Baptist Mission Australia.[20]
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