CHURCH HISTORY TODAY

What happened in the church today.

March

March 1
1633
Beloved English clergyman and poet George Herbert dies of tuberculosis at age thirty-nine. He is best remembered as the author of the hymn "The God of Love My Shepherd Is."

1692
In colonial Massachusetts, the Salem witch trials begin with the conviction of West Indian slave Tituba for witchcraft.

March 2
1930
American missionary Gustav Herbert Schmidt (1891-1958) opens the Danzig
Instytut Biblijny in the Free City of Danzig. It is the first Pentecostal Bible institute established in Eastern Europe.

1959
American Presbyterian missionary and apologist Francis A. Schaeffer observes in a letter, "Christianity is the greatest intellectual system the mind of man has ever touched."

March 3
1865
Congress approves U.S. Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase's mandate to the U.S. mint to prepare a device with which to inscribe the motto "In God We Trust" on U.S. coins.

1921
Death of Jessie Brown Pounds, Ohio-born Christian poet and composer. In her lifetime Pounds authored fifty librettos for cantatas and operettas, nine books, and more than four hundred gospel song texts, including "Anywhere with Jesus," "Beautiful Isle of Somewhere," "I Know That My Redeemer Liveth," "The Way of the Cross Leads Home," and "The Touch of His Hand on Mine."

March 4
1738
Moravian missionary Peter Bonier advises John Wesley, "Preach faith until you have it; and then, because you have it, you will preach faith."

1791
The Reverend John Hurt is appointed as the first chaplain in U.S. Army history. Hurt had previously served as chaplain of the Sixth Virginia Infantry during the American Revolution.

March 5
1743
In the midst of the Great Awakening, clergyman Thomas Prince, an avid collector of colonial historical records, publishes The Christian History, America's first religious magazine.

1820
Birth of Robert L. Dabney, Virginia-born theologian and educator. From his long association with Union Seminary in Virginia (1853-83), Dabney is regarded as the second-greatest theologian (after Charles Hodge) of the Southern Presbyterian Church.

March 6
1858
American Catholic reformer Isaac Hecker and his companions found the Missionary Society of St. Paul (Paulists), whose purpose is to convert Americans to Roman Catholicism.

1475
Birth of Michelangelo Buonarroti, Italian artist extraordinaire. Michelangelo's most famous works include the sculptures Pieta (1498) and David (1504), the architectural plans for rebuilding St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome, and the paintings on the 5,808-square-foot ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (1508-12).

March 7
1804
The nonsectarian British and Foreign Bible Society is founded in London "to promote the circulation of the Holy Scriptures, without note or comment, both at home and in foreign lands." BFBS funds and publications aided such missionary pioneers as William Carey, Robert Morrison, and Henry Martyn.

1825
Birth of Alfred Edersheim, Jewish-born Anglican Bible scholar, theologian, and writer. His most widely read title, The Life and Times of Jesus the Mess/ah (1883), is still in print.

March 8
1740
In Nottingham, Pennsylvania, colonial American Presbyterian revivalist Gilbert Tennent preaches his famous sermon, "The Danger of an Unconverted Ministry." Reaction by opponents of the Great Awakening produces the first split in the Presbyterian Church into Old Side and New Side factions. The two sides reunited in 1758.

1887
Death of Henry Ward Beecher, American Congregational clergyman, abolitionist orator, and writer. The brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, Beecher's dramatic flair made him a leading spokesman for tough social issues of the day.

March 9
1931
Clarence W. Jones and Reuben Larson incorporate the World Radio Missionary Fellowship in Lima, Ohio.
It would become one of the widest-reaching radio ministries, broadcasting the gospel in many countries.

1843
Scottish clergyman Robert Murray McCheyne writes in a letter, "You will never find Jesus so precious as when the world is one vast howling wilderness. Then He is like a rose blooming in the midst of the desolation, a rock rising above the storm."

March 10
1880
English evangelist, writer, and missionary George Scott Railton, along with seven women, lands in New York
City from London and inaugurates the first mission of the Salvation Army in the United States.

1898
Death of George Muller, English pastor, evangelist, philanthropist, and leader in the Christian Brethren movement. An advocate of believing prayer, Muller provided care for more than ten thousand orphans during his life, all without public appeals for support.

March 11
843
Ending an eighty-nine-year controversy, a Greek Orthodox synod repeals the iconoclastic decrees of the fifth Council of Constantinople (754), thus restoring the use of icons in Christian worship within the Eastern churches.

1847
Death of Jonathan Chapman, the American pioneer and horticultural evangelist better known as "Johnny Appleseed," Chapman's "nature theology" derived from his Swedenborgian beliefs, and he traveled throughout the Midwest, preaching and distributing apple seeds.

March 12
1607
Birth of German hymn writer Paul Gerhardt, author of "O Sacred Head, Now Wounded."

1904
Syrian-born Raphael Hawaweeny is consecrated as Orthodox bishop of Brooklyn, New York, by the Russian patriarch Archbishop likhon. Hawaweeny is thus the first Eastern Orthodox bishop to be ordained in America.

March 13
1456
German printer Johann Gutenberg completes publication of the Bible on his printing press. It is the first copy of the scriptures produced with movable type.

1868
Birth of Charles E. Cowman, American missionary to Japan and founder of the Oriental Missionary Society. Cowman's wife, Lettie, authored the devotional classic Streams in the Desert.

March 14
1644
Roger Williams is granted a colonial patent by the English Parliament to found Rhode Island, the first American colony where the freedom to worship God was separated from the control of the state.

1871
American holiness author Hannah Whitall Smith writes in a letter, "lt is a mistake to think we must feel good before we pray; we need to pray most of all when we feel poor, and empty, and weak."

March 15
1587
Death of Caspar Olevianus, early German theologian and reformer. He introduced the Calvinist Reformation into parts of Germany and was a founder of the German Reformed Church.

1856
Haverford College is chartered in Haverford, Pennsylvania: the first Quaker college established in the United States.

March 16
1952
This Week in Religion, America's first religious television program, debuts on the Dumont Television Network. Of the early religious offerings on TV, it is the only ecumenical program and airs on Sunday nights for more than two years.

1976
In an interview with Robert L. Turner, presidential candidate jimmy Carter explains the term born again, "We believe that the first time we're born, as children, it's human life given to us; and when we accept Jesus as our Savior, it's a new life. That's what 'born again' means."

March 17
1856
Ex-slave Amanda Smith, renowned evangelist and missionary, is converted. She later dedicates her life to God's service at the Green Street Methodist Episcopal Church in New York and travels to England, Scotland, Liberia, and India.

1911
Death of Joseph Y. Peek, American Civil War veteran and Methodist lay preacher. He became fully ordained less than two months before his death. Peek still ministers to the church today through his hymn tune "Peek" ("I Would Be True").

March 18
1795
Bishop John Carroll ordains Demetrius A. Gallitzin (1770-1840) in Baltimore. Gallitzin is the first Catholic priest to receive full theological training in the United States and the first Catholic priest ordained in the United States.

1789
Birth of British hymnist Charlotte Elliott. Though an invalid during her last fifty years, Elliott penned 150 hymns, of which the best-known is "Just as I Am."

March 19
1944
German Lutheran theologian and Nazi martyr Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes in a letter from prison. "We can have abundant life, even though many wishes remain unfulfilled."

1953
Emmanuel Holiness Church is organized in Whiteville, North Carolina. Its founding members withdrew from the Fire-Baptized Holiness Church because they believed the parent denomination had become lax in its holiness standards.

March 20
1747
Due to his deteriorating health from tuberculosis, colonial American missionary David Brainerd ends his work among the Indians of New England.

1826
American Congregational pioneer missionary Gordon Hall dies of cholera. His enthusiasm for missions while attending Andover Seminary led to the formation in 1810 of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. Hall was also the first American missionary to reach Mumbai, India.

March 21
1685
Birth of Johann Sebastian Bach, German Lutheran composer and musical genius. Nearly three-quarters of his one thousand compositions were written for use in Christian worship.

1843
American Baptist lay preacher William Miller predicted that the second coming of Christ would occur on this date, but the day passes without incident. Miller adjusts his prediction of Christ's return to occur on the same date in 1844. (He was wrong again.)

March 22
ca. 30
The Council of Nicaea (325) decided
that Easter (the celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ) would be observed on the first Sunday following the first full moon after the spring equinox (March 21). This reckoning means that Easter, in any given year, will not occur earlier than March 22 nor later than April 25.

1758
American theologian Jonathan Edwards dies from a smallpox vaccination gone awry. Edwards pastored a church in Northampton, Massachusetts (1726-50), and served briefly as a missionary to the American Indians and as president of the College of New Jersey (now Princeton).

March 23
1729
First performance of Johann Sebastian Bach's "St. Matthew Passion," in Leipzig, Germany. Today, the oratorio is considered one of the most sublime masterpieces in Western music. From its score comes the haunting Good Friday hymn "O Sacred Head, Now Wounded."

1812
Birth of Stephen R. Riggs, American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions missionary to the Dakota Indians (1837-83). Riggs translated the Dakota language into writing, prepared a Dakota dictionary, and translated most of the Bible into the Dakota language.

March 24
1818
In a speech given in the House of Representatives, American statesman Henry Clay declares," All religions united with government are more or less inimical to liberty. All separated from government are compatible with liberty."

1940
The first televised religious program, an Easter service officiated by Samuel Cavert of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, is broadcast by W2XBS, an NBC affiliate station in New York City.

March 25
1634
The Roman Catholic Church gains a permanent foothold in the American colonies when 128 Catholic immigrants arrive on the Potomac River from England. They settle in the colony of Maryland, founded by Cecilius Calvert, Lord Baltimore.

1906
Birth of Dawson Trotman, American Baptist youth ministry pioneer and founder of the Navigators, a youth-centered discipling ministry.

March 26
1775
American-born evangelist, mystic, and hymn writer Henry Alline undergoes a profound spiritual conversion. He later becomes a leader of the "New Light" movement in the Presbyterian Church and evangelizes the people of Nova Scotia.

1833
Birth of Greek ecclesiastic and scholar Philotheos Bryennios. In 1873 he discovered an early manuscript of the Didache (a second-century manual of Christian discipline, now numbered among the writings of the apostolic fathers).

March 27
1667
English Puritan poet John Milton publishes Paradise Lost, an epic-length poem about humanity's creation and fall.

1842
Birth of George Matheson, Scottish Free Church clergyman. Though almost blind from the age of eighteen, Matheson excelled in school and in the pulpit. Matheson also penned two enduring hymns:"0 Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go" and "Make Me a Captive, Lord."

March 28
1646
Baptists hold their first recorded meeting, in Boston.

1811
Birth of John Nepomucene Neumann, Czech-born U.S. Catholic prelate. As fourth bishop of Philadelphia, Neumann organized the first Catholic diocesan school system in America. In 1963 he became the first American male saint in the Catholic Church.

March 29
1882
In Connecticut Father Michael J. McGivney charters the Knights of Columbus, a fraternal benefit society for Roman Catholic men. Today the Knights of Columbus has 1.6 million members, and its magazine, Columbia, has the greatest circulation of any Catholic monthly in North America.

March 30
1788
Death of Charles Wesley, cofounder of Methodism. Charles penned more than eight thousand hymns, including "O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing," "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," "Christ the Lord is Risen Today," "Jesus, Lover of My Soul," "And Can It Be That I Should Gain," and "A Charge to Keep I Have."

1871
The Boston University School of Theology, the first theological school to admit women as students, is formed by a merger of the Boston Theological Seminary and Boston University. (The first Bachelor of Divinity degree awarded to a woman was granted to Anna Oliver in 1876.)

March 31
1820
The first group of American Protestant missionaries arrives in the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii). The party includes Hiram Bingham, Asa Thurston, Dr. Thomas Holman, Samuel Whitney, and Samuel Ruggles.

1986
In The Road to Daybreak Dutch-born Catholic priest and educator Henri J. M. Nouwen writes, "It is such a comfort to know that Jesus' wounds remain visible in his risen body. Our wounds are not taken away, but become sources of hope to others."

I860
Birth of Rodney "Gipsy" Smith, itinerant English evangelist. During his crusades, he visited America several times.