CHURCH HISTORY TODAY

What happened in the church today.

April

April 1
1745
David Brainerd begins his missionary work among the Native Americans of New Jersey, after previous efforts in Massachusetts and Pennsylvania. His New Jersey mission was his most fruitful, but he died of tuberculosis after only two years of work there.

1854
Birth of Augustine Tolton, American Catholic leader and the first black American to be ordained as a Roman Catholic priest (1886).

April 2
1524
At the age of forty, Swiss reformer and former Catholic priest Ulrich Zwingli publicly celebrates his marriage with Anna Meyer (nee Reinhard) in the Zurich Cathedral. Their union lasts seven years, until Zwinglfs death in the Battle of Kappel in 1531.

1827
Birth of William Holman Hunt, English painter of religious subjects and cofounder of the pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (1848). Hunt's most famous work, The Light of the World (1854), represents Christ knocking at the door of the soul.

April 3
1851
Irish-born Catholic bishop John J.
Hughes becomes New York's first archbishop, serving until his death in 1864. Hughes's influence leads to the establishment of a parochial school system in modern Catholic parishes.

1883
Scottish clergyman and children's novelist George MacDonald writes in a letter, "When we cannot climb the ladder of prayer, surely God comes down to the foot of it where we lie We are his and he is of our kind—only all that is infinitely better."

April 4
1507
Martin Luther is ordained as a priest in Erfurt, Germany, one year after being consecrated as a monk in the Augustinian order.

1862
Ernest W. Shurtleff, American Congregational clergyman, poet, and hymn writer is born in Boston. Shurtleff organized the American (Congregational) Church in Frankfurt, Germany (1905-06) but is better remembered as the author of the hymn "Lead On, O King Eternal."

April 5
1922
Death of Pandita Sarasvati Ramabai, Indian Christian educator and reformer. During a severe famine in 1896, Ramabai established an orphanage—called Mukti Sadan ("House of Salvation")—for more than three hundred women and children. She also supervised a Marathi translation of the Bible from Sanskrit

1953
In Washington DC President Dwight D. Eisenhower inaugurates the Presidential Prayer Breakfast (later called the National Prayer Breakfast). In 1956 Eisenhower signed an act making "In God We Trust" the national motto.

April 6
1735
The first Moravians from Europe— ten members of the Unitas Fratrum, under the leadership of Augustus G. Spangenberg, John Toltschig, and Anton Siefert—arrive in Savannah, Georgia, by invitation of governor James Oglethorpe.

1810
Birth of Edmund Hamilton Sears, American Unitarian clergyman who penned several hymns, including the Christmas carol "It Came upon the Midnight Clear."

April 7
1628
Jonas Michaelius, the first minister of the Dutch Reformed Church to come to America, arrives in New Amsterdam (now New York City). Michaelius is best remembered for a rather mournful letter he sent to Adrian Smoutius in Amsterdam, which provides a glimpse into early colonial life.

1968
In a letter penned during the final year of his life, Swiss Reformed theologian Karl Barth writes, "How one learns to be thankful for each day on which one can still do something."

April 8
1857
A small group of Dutch immigrants, meeting in Zeeland, Michigan, organizes the Christian Reformed Church. The denomination's Back to God Hour radio program is now broadcast on all the major continents.

1947
Birth of Larry Norman, Christian singer and songwriter known as "the father of Christian rock." As a part of the Jesus Movement in the late 1960s, Norman was known for raising his index finger in the signature "One Way!" gesture. Norman's haunting ballad "I Wish We'd All Been Ready" has since found its way into several church hymnals.

April 9
1816
The first African Methodist Episcopal Church convention opens in Philadelphia. Sixteen delegates from five independent churches meet to form an African-American denomination based on the principles of Methodism. The following day Richard Allen is elected as the new body's first bishop.

1945
Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German Lutheran pastor and theologian is martyred by the Nazis as the result of his involvement in a plot to assassinate Adolph Hitler.

April 10
428
Nestorius is consecrated as bishop of Constantinople. When Nestorius attacked the use of the word theotokos (God-bearer) to describe Mary, and suggested christotokos (Christ-bearer) instead, he was branded a heretic.

1827
Birth of Lewis Wallace, American Civil War soldier, lawyer, diplomat, and author of Ben Hur. A Tale of the Christ (1880), which sold more than three hundred thousand copies in its first decade. Wallace was the best-selling religious author of his day—though he never officially joined a church.

April 11
1836
George Miller, a leader of the Plymouth Brethren, opens his famous orphanage on Wilson Street in Bristol, England. By 1875 his ministry provided care for more than two thousand children. As a preacher at Ebenezer Chapel, Mueller believed that material needs could be supplied through prayer alone; thus he abolished pew rents and refused a salary.

1941
American Trappist monk Thomas Merton affirms in his Secular Journal,"^ we are willing to accept humiliation, tribulation can become, by God's grace, the mild yoke of Christ. His light burden."

April 12
1867
Birth of Samuel M. Zwemer, American missionary to the Arab world. In 1890 Zwemer went to Arabia under sponsorship of the Syrian Mission of the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. He later returned to the United States and taught at Princeton Seminary.

1882
The Evangelical Reformed Church in Northwest Germany is created by royal decree when the king of Prussia orders the 124 reformed congregations scattered throughout the area (then known as the Province of Hanover) to become incorporated as an independent territorial church.

April 13
1742
George Frideric Handel's oratorio Messiah is first performed in Dublin, Ireland, as an oratorio for Lent (rather than for Advent, as it is today).

1828
Birth of Joseph B. Lightfoot, Anglican prelate, Bible critic, and bishop of Durham (1879-89). Lightfoot is best remembered for his analytical work on both the New Testament and the writings of the apostolic fathers.

April 14
1813
In Philadelphia, the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) opens the first privately operated hospital for insane patients. The Asylum for the Relief of Persons Deprived of the Use of Their Reason used no manacles, handcuffs, iron grates, or bars. In 1888 the name of the hospital was changed to the Friends Asylum for the Insane, and later to the Friends Hospital (1914).

1940
English Bible expositor Arthur W. Pink declares in a letter, "Nothing is too great and nothing is too small to commit into the hands of the Lord."

April 15
1452
Birth of Leonardo da Vinci, Italian Renaissance artist, scientist, and inventor. Among his more memorable paintings are The Last Supper (1498) and Mona Lisa (1503).

1729
German composer Johann Sebastian Bach conducts the first and only performance during his lifetime of The Passion according to St. Matthew, at a Good Friday vespers service at the St Thomas Lutheran Church of Leipzig, Germany. The St. Matthew Passion has been called by some "the supreme cultural achievement of all Western civilization."

April 16
1901
Death of John Jacob Esher, Evangelical United Brethren bishop and theologian. Esher was the first bishop of his denomination to visit the missions in Asia and to travel around the world.

1922
Belvin W. Maynard, an ordained Baptist minister known as "the flying parson," delivers the first sermon preached from an airplane by radio.

April 17
1492
Spain's King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella give Christopher Columbus a commission to seek a westward ocean passage to Asia. Though Columbus was also interested in wealth, he saw himself as a new and true "christopher" (Christ-bearer) who would carry Christ across the oceans to a people who had not heard the gospel.

1960
Swedish Christian and secretary general of the United Nations Dag Hammarskjold pens in his Markings, "Forgiveness breaks the chain of causality because he who 'forgives' you out of love takes upon himself the consequences of what you have done. Forgiveness, therefore, always entails a sacrifice."

April 18
1521
Two days after his arrival at the Diet of Worms, Martin Luther defends his doctrines and refuses to recant his teachings. When negotiations over the next few days fail to reach a compromise, Luther is condemned by the council.

1743
Death of James Blair, Scottish-born Episcopal clergyman, educator, and founder and first president of the College of William and Mary (1693-1743).

April 19
526
Justinian I is crowned Roman emperor in Constantinople's magnificent cathedral, the Santa Sophia. Attempting to restore political and religious unity in the eastern and western empires, Justinian ruthlessly attacks paganism and heretics and creates the Code of Justinian.

1836
Birth of Adoniram Judson Gordon, American Baptist clergyman, educator, and hymn composer. His better known works include "Gordon" ("My Jesus, I Love Thee"), "Clarendon" ("In Tenderness He Sought Me"), and "I Shall See the King in His Beauty." Gordon was active in missionary work and also founded what is now Gordon Divinity School.

April 20
1759
Death of George F, Handel, German-born English composer. Of his religious compositions, the most famous are his Messiah oratorio and several hymn tunes, including "Christmas" ("While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks By Night")."Antioch" ("Joy to the World! The Lord Is Come"), and "Maccabeus" ("Thine Be the Glory, Risen. Conquering Son").

1952
Three years after the 1949 revolution that established the People's Republic of China, evangelical leader Watchman Nee is arrested by the Chinese government and imprisoned for "corrupt business practices." Nee spends nearly all of his last twenty years in prison.

April 21

Mark, also known in Scripture as John, is believed to have been the same person identified in history as Mark the evangelist. Mark was a servant of Paul and Barnabas,

and Paul asked churches to accept him as a fellow worker in the kingdom of God. The last mention of Mark in the Bible is in 2 Timothy. Writing from prison, Paul asks Timothy to bring Mark to him, explaining that all of his friends except Luke had left (2 Timothy 4:11).

By the time Paul and Peter had both been martyred, Mark had become a capable evangelist in his own right. At Peter's urging, Mark had traveled through Egypt, converting many to Christianity and spreading the gospel through Lybia, Marmorica, Ammonica and Pentapolis. Finally, Mark moved to Alexandria, where he had a profound influence on the foundation and shape of the church. The leaders of Alexandria, a city deeply rooted in paganism, hated Mark for this, but it took them several years to take action against him.

In the eighth year of Nero's reign, Pagan priests and a hostile crowd seized Mark as he preached to the church in Alexandria about the suffering of Christ. They tied him with ropes, fastened hooks to his body and dragged him away from the congregation. As they dragged him through the streets and out of the city, his skin was torn by the stones. Bloodied but still alive, Mark found himself in prison at the end of the day. The Lord strengthened and comforted him that night, but the crowd repeated the treatment the next day, again dragging his body through the streets.

According to tradition, Mark commended his spirit to God on April 21 in the year 64, and heaven received another martyr. Mark was dead, but the crowd was still not satisfied. Only a storm prevented them from burning his body. Christians then retrieved and buried his body before the crowd could carry out their plans.

                Sources: Martyrs Mirror, The New Encyclopedia of Christian Martyrs, The New Foxe's Book of     Martyrs

1632
At a conference at Dordrecht, Holland, the Dutch Mennonites adopt a Confession of Faith, which comes to be known as the Dordrecht Confession of Faith.

1142
Death of Peter Abelard. French Scholastic philosopher, theologian, and educator. Abelard also wrote the hymn "O What Their joy and Their Glory Must Be."

April 22
1864
Bronze two-cent pieces are imprinted with the words "In God We Trust," making them the first American coins to carry the motto. The motto is designed to remind the Union that the resolution of the American Civil War is in God's hands.

1907
English mystic Evelyn Underhill explains in a letter, "The material world, although an illusion in the form in which it appears to us, is an illusion which has strict relations to reality. It is the dim shadow of the thought of God. This.. .veil through which.. .we must see the Divine received its final sanction in the Incarnation of Christ"

April 23
1619
The Synod of Dort passes a five-point summary of Calvinist doctrine, which asserts (1) the total depravity of man; (2) unconditional election; (3) limited atonement; (4) the irresistibility of grace; and (5) the final perseverance of the saints. This summary has come to be known by the acronym TULIP.

1982
Death of W. Cameron Townsend, American missionary pioneer and founder of Wycliffe Bible Translators (1935).Wycliffe has since translated the New Testament into more than 130 native languages.

April 24
1576
Birth of Vincent de Paul, Catholic clergyman and philanthropist, who devoted himself to the poor and founded the missionary order of Lazarists (1625) and the Sisters of Charity (1632).Vincent helped to ransom more than one thousand Christian slaves in northern Africa. He was canonized in 1737 by Clement XII.

1886
The Reverend Augustine Tolton becomes the first African-American priest assigned to work in the United States. He is ordained at the College of Propaganda in Rome, and later opens a mission in Quincy, Illinois, in the Springfield diocese.

April 25
ca. 30
This is the latest day in the spring on which Easter can fall. (Easter is determined by the Paschal full moon, which can occur as early as March 21.) Easter has fallen on April 25 only three times during the last three centuries: 1734,1886, and 1943. It will not occur on April 25 again until 2038.

1792
Birth of John Keble. Anglican clergyman, poet, and leader in the Oxford Movement {1833—45). which sought to purify Anglicanism. Keble is the author of the hymn "Sun of My Soul. Thou Savior Dear"

April 26
1518
German reformer Martin Luther states in his disputation of Heidelberg, "Grace is given to heal the spiritually sick, not to decorate spiritual heroes."

1992
Worshipers celebrate Russian Orthodox Easter in Moscow for the first time in seventy-four years.

April 27
1537
The First Genevan Catechism is published, which imposes itself on the inhabitants of Geneva, Switzerland. Based on John Calvin's Institutes, the document was compiled either by Calvin himself or by fellow French Swiss reformer Guillaume Farel.

1775
Death of Peter Bohler, the German Moravian missionary who introduced John Wesley to personal spiritual conversion and self-surrendering Christian faith. Bohler's positive, assuring faith made a permanent mark on Wesley's theology and has characterized Methodism ever since.

April 28
1839
Birth of Vernon J. Charlesworth, English clergyman and hymn writer. He was headmaster of Charles Spurgeon's Stockwell Orphanage but is better remembered as author of the hymn "A Shelter in the Time of Storm."

1960
Leaders of the one hundredth General Assembly of the Southern Presbyterian Church passes a resolution declaring that sexual relations within marriage without intentions of procreation are not sinful.

April 29
1834
Birth of Joseph H. Gilmore, American Baptist clergyman and educator, who taught Hebrew for forty-three years at the University of Rochester, Gilmore is best remembered as the author of the hymn "He Leadeth Me, O Blessed Thought."

1945
Dawson Trotman begins teaching Bible memorization to American servicemen in San Pedro, California, marking the beginning of the Navigators organization. The Navigators formally incorporated in 1943 and are headquartered today in Colorado Springs.

April 30
418
Roman Emperor Honorius (395-423) issues an imperial decree denouncing the teachings of Pelagius, who taught that human nature is able to take the initial and fundamental steps toward salvation by its own efforts, apart from empowerment by divine grace.

1739
English revivalist George Whitefield notes in his journal, "Our extremity is God's opportunity."