CHURCH HISTORY TODAY

What happened in the church today.

January

January 1
1484
Birth of Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli, whose sermons criticizing the Catholic Mass started the Reformation in Switzerland

1901
Historians trace the beginning of modern Pentecostalism to Bethel Bible School in Topeka, Kansas, operated by former Methodist preacher Charles F. Parham (1873-1929). There, at about 7:00 p.m. on the first day of the twentieth century, student Agnes Ozman begins speaking in tongues.

January 2
1868
Scottish clergyman and biographer Andrew Bonar writes in his diary, "Lord, this year may the Spirit fill my soul, revealing the fullness of Christ to me from day to day."

1921
The first religious radio program in U.S. broadcast history is heard when Calvary Episcopal Church
of Pittsburgh airs its worship service over local station KDKA. The preacher is the Reverend Edwin Jan Van Etten.

January 3
1816
Birth of Ann Ayres, founder of the Sisterhood of the Holy Communion—the first U.S. Episcopal sisterhood. Ayres was thus the first woman in the United States to become a Protestant sister.

1956
The Colored Methodist Episcopal Church officially changes its name to the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. The denomination originated in 1870, when the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, approved the request of its black membership for the formation of a separate ecclesiastical body. Headquartered
today in Memphis, the CME Church has a membership of about half a million.

January 4
1581
Birth of James Ussher, Anglican prelate. Ussher published a biblical chronology that dates the Creation to 4004 BC.

1840
A group of Yale Congregational students opens Illinois College in Jacksonville. The first denominational seminary established in Illinois inspires the rapid spread of Congregationalism in the state.

January 5
1527
Martyrdom of Felix Manz, twenty-nine, Swiss Anabaptist reformer. Manz is drowned as punishment for preaching adult baptism, becoming the first Protestant martyred by other Protestants.

1964
Pope Paul VI and Athenagoras I, ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople, meet in Jerusalem. It's the first meeting between Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox prelates since 1439.

January 6
1740
Birth of John Fawcett, English Baptist preacher and poet. More than 160 of Fawcett's hymns are published during his lifetime, including "Blest Be the Tie That Binds" and "Lord, Dismiss Us with Thy Blessing."

1924
In England the first worship service broadcast over radio from a church is aired by the British Broadcasting Company. The service is conducted by H. R. L. Sheppard at St. Martin-in-the-Fields Church.

January 7
367
Athanasius, the early Church father famous for his battles against the Arian heresy, writes a letter containing a list of what he regards as the authoritative books of the New Testament. Over time his list is adopted as the canon by the Church at large.
1844
Birth of Bernadette Soubirous, French Roman Catholic visionary, in 1858, at age fourteen, she experiences eighteen visions of the Virgin Mary in a grotto at Lourdes. Canonized in 1933, she is the subject of the Oscar-winning 1943 film Song of Bernadette.

January 8
1198
Italian cardinal Lotario de Conti de Segni is elected pope. His reign, as Pope Innocent III, is the most powerful papacy in the Middle Ages and marks the climax of medieval Catholicism. Pope Innocent is the first to adopt the title "Vicar of Christ." His support of the Fourth Crusade results in the capture of Constantinople and the establishment of the Latin Empire.

1956
Death of five American missionaries—Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Roger Youderian, Ed McCully, and Pete Fleming—killed by the Auca Indians of Ecuador, whom they were attempting to evangelize.

January 9
1777
Circuit rider and Methodist bishop Francis Asbury confides in his joumal, "My soul lives constantly as in the presence of God, and enjoys much of His divine favor. His love is better than life!"

1943
The popular World War II song "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition!" reaches number one on the pop music charts. Performed by Kay Kyser, the song was inspired by the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7,1941.

January 10
1863
Death of Lyman Beecher, American Congregational clergyman, educator, social reformer, and adamant abolitionist. Beecher fathered thirteen children (including Henry Ward Beecher and Harriet Beecher Stowe). All nine of his sons became ministers after him.

1984
The United States and the Vatican reestablish full diplomatic relations after severing them in 1867.

January 11
1791
The First Day (or Sunday School) Society is organized in Philadelphia, making it the first interdenominational Sunday school organization in America. In 1824 the group merged with others to form the American Sunday School Union.

1843
Death of Francis Scott Key, Maryland-born lawyer, poet, and author of America's national anthem. Key was also among the organizers of the Domestic and Foreign Missionary Society, founded in 1820.

January 12
1838
To avoid arrest following the failure of his Mormon bank during the Panic of 1837, a 32-year-old Joseph Smith flees Kirtland, Ohio, and embarks for Missouri Territory, where Smith's attempts to reestablish his religious community are met with resistance. The ensuing Mormon War ends with Smith's imprisonment and the expulsion of his followers from the territory. However, Smith would escape before trial and later rebuild his community in Illinois, before being murdered by an angry mob in 1844 while being held on charges of inciting a riot.

1839
Scottish pastor Robert Murray McCheyne observes in a letter to another pastor, "It is not the tempest, nor the earthquake, nor the fire, but the still small voice of the Spirit that carries on the glorious work of saving souls."

1972
The South Dakota Episcopal Diocese consecrates the Reverend Harold S. Jones as a suffragan bishop. Jones, a Sioux, becomes the first Native American bishop in the Episcopal Church.

January 13
1501
Christianity's first vernacular hymnal is printed in Prague. It contains eighty-nine hymns in the Czech language.

1836
Birth of Alexander Whyte, Scottish clergyman known as "the last of the Puritans." Whyte taught New Testament at New College, Edinburgh, and authored a number of devotional books.

January 14
1604
In England the Hampton Court Conference begins, at which Puritan representatives meet with their new king, James I, to discuss proposed changes in the Church of England.

1875
Birth of Albert Schweitzer. French (Alsatian) theologian, music scholar, physician, and medical missionary. His Quest of the Historical Jesus (1906) is considered a foundational work in that subject. In 1913 he founded Lambarene Hospital in French Equatorial Africa; and in 1953 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

January 15
1535
The Act of Supremacy is passed, in which King Henry VIII declares himself "Protector and Only Supreme Head of the Church and Clergy of England." (Henry had broken with the Roman Catholic Church. Clement VII voided the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon and excommunicated him.)

1832
Birth of Susannah (Thompson) Spurgeon, wife of Charles Spurgeon. Susannah began a ministry enabling students of Spurgeon's Pastors' College to buy their needed textbooks.

January 16
1604
At the Hampton Court Conference in London, Puritan John Rainolds suggests to King James I ""that there might bee a newe translation of the Bible, as consonant as can be to the original Hebrew and Greek." James grants his approval, and the ensuing project leads to the 1611 publication of the Authorized (King James) Version of the Bible.

1819
Birth of Johannes Rebmann, German explorer and missionary to East Africa. Rebmann translated the Gospel of Luke into one of the native languages and helped prepare dictionaries for three African dialects.

January 17
1829
Birth of Catherine (Mumford) Booth, English reformer and wife of William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army. Called "mother of the Salvation Army," Catherine Booth was instrumental in introducing the organization into the United States, Australia, Europe, India, and Japan.

1970
John M. Burgess is installed as bishop of the Protestant Episcopal diocese of Massachusetts, making him the first African-American bishop to head an Episcopal diocese in America.

January 18
1891
The first Armenian church in the United States is consecrated in Worcester, Massachusetts. In 1898 an encyclical of Catholicos Mugurditch I establishes the Diocese of the Armenian Church of America, and by the beginning of the twentieth century, the Armenian community in the United States numbers more than fifteen thousand.

1815
Birth of German theologian and textual scholar L. F. Konstantin von Tischendorf, who is remembered in scholarly circles for discovering and deciphering the Codex Sinaitkus, an important fifth-century Greek manuscript of the Pauline epistles.

January 19
1563
The Heidelberg Catechism is published in the palatinate in southwest Germany where the holy Roman emperor resides. Composed by Peter Ursinus and Caspar Olevianus, the catechism comprises a statement of Calvinist tradition designed to unify conflicting Protestant ideologies. Accepted by nearly all of the Reformed churches in Europe, it is still in use in some Dutch and German Reformed churches.

1798
Birth of Samuel Austin Worcester, American Congregational missionary to the Cherokee Indians in Georgia and Arkansas.

January 20
1669
Birth of Susannah (Annesley) Wesley, wife of clergyman Samuel Wesley and mother of nineteen children, including John and Charles Wesley, the founders of Methodism.

1891
Dr. Charles A. Briggs delivers an address at Union Theological Seminary in New York City titled "The Authority of the Scriptures," resulting in a heresy trial. Briggs was eventually found guilty and was defrocked by his denomination's general assembly.

January 21
1525
At a secret (and illegal) gathering of six men in Zurich, Switzerland, Conrad Grebel (a former protege of Ulrich Zwingli) rebaptizes George Blaurock, a former monk. This meeting is considered the birth of the German Anabaptist movement.

1886
Death of Laura Maria Sheldon Wright, American missionary to the Seneca Indians in western New York. Her work influenced the establishment of the Thomas Asylum for Orphan and Destitute Indian Children (later the Thomas Indian School).

January 22
1588
Birth of John Winthrop in England. He later served twelve terms (1629-48) as the first governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony and helped to banish Anne Hutchinson for alleged heresy

1899
Pope Leo XIII publishes the apostolic letter "Testem benevolentiae." Addressed to James Gibbons, cardinal archbishop of Baltimore, the letter is remembered primarily for the Vatican's condemnation of 'Americanism"—the adaptation of Roman Catholic doctrine to the more independent ideologies of modern civilization, represented primarily by American character.

January 23
1777
Anglican evangelical Henry Venn writes in a letter to his son,"A family fearing God, working righteousness, obtaining promises, living in peace and love, is a picture of Heaven in miniature."

1955
The United Presbyterian Church U.S.A. formally approves the ordination of women as clergy, making it the first mainline Protestant denomination to do so.

January 24
1573
Birth of John Donne, renowned English metaphysical poet and dean of St. Paul's Church, London (1621-24). Donne is known for such memorable lines as "Death be not proud"; "No man is an island"; and "Send not to know for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee."

1989
The Reverend Barbara C. Harris of Boston is confirmed as the first female bishop in the history of the Church of England.

January 25
1944
Anglican Bishop R. O. Hall ordains Florence Tim-Oi Li as a priest at Shie Hing in Kwangtung Province, China. Lee's ordination was an emergency wartime measure, owing to the lack of male priests in Macao. In 1946 the Diocesan Synod of Hong Kong and South China endorsed the action, thereby making Florence Tim-Oi Lee the first female Anglican clergyperson.

1949
Death of Peter Marshall, Scottish-born American Presbyterian minister. He pastored New York Avenue Presbyterian Church in Washington DC (1937-49) and served as U.S. Senate chaplain (1947—49).

January 26
1776
The Reverend Louis Eustace Lotbiniere becomes the first chaplain of the American Continental Army when he is appointed to the regiment of Colonel James Livingston by General Benedict Arnold.

1905
Birth of Maria Augusta vonTrapp, Austrian-American musician, who fled Nazi-occupied Austria in the 1930s and formed the world-famous Trapp Family Singers. Her story \s the subject of the award-winning 1965 film The Sound of Music.

January 27
417
Pelagius, a British monk whose teachings are declared heretical, is excommunicated by Pope Innocent I. Pelagius's doctrine denies original sin and teaches that one could become righteous by the exercise of free will.

1842
Scottish pastor Robert Murray McCheyne exhorts in a letter, "Call upon the name of the Lord. Your time may be short, God only knows. The longest lifetime is short enough. It is all that is given you to be converted in. They are the happiest who are brought soonest to the bosom of Jesus."

January 28
1822
Birth of William D. Longstaff, English philanthropist and hymn writer, who authored the hymn "Take Time to Be Holy."

1916
In Washington DC Louis Brandeis is appointed to the U.S. Supreme Court. He is the first Jewish associate justice.

January 29
1499
Birth of Katherine von Bora, the former German nun who married Martin Luther. Born into a noble family, Katherine became a Cistercian nun in 1515 but ran away from the convent in 1523 and married Luther in 1525.

1972
The historic separation of white and black Methodist conferences in South Carolina ends when the two bodies meet together for the first time and vote to accept a plan of union.

January 30
1536
Parish priest Menno Simons leaves the Catholic Church over his doubts about transubstantiation. He converts to the Anabaptist faith and leads a group of followers who eventually come to be called Mennonites.

1813
Birth of Samuel P. Tregelles, English Presbyterian Bible scholar who conceived of a new critical text of the New Testament to replace the Textus Receptus.The results of his research were published as An Account of the Printed Text of the Greek New Testament (1870).

January 31
1911
In North Carolina the Fire-Baptized Holiness Church and the Pentecostal Holiness Church officially merge. Four years later, the Tabernacle Pentecostal Church also joined the merger. In 1975 the name of this united body officially became the International Pentecostal Holiness Church.

1949
American missionary Jim Elliot concludes in his journal, "One does not surrender a life in an instant—that which is lifelong can only be surrendered in a lifetime."