CHURCH HISTORY TODAY

What happened in the church today.

September

September 1
1785
Birth of pioneer circuit rider Peter Cartwnght, perhaps the best known of the early Methodist preachers along the American frontier. Cartwright later served in the Illinois state legislature and was defeated in an 1846 race for Congress by Abraham Lincoln.

1836
Missionaries Marcus Whitman and Henry H. Spalding reach Fort Walla Walla on the Columbia River and establish the first U.S. settlement in the territory of northern Oregon. Their wives, Narcissa Whitman and Eliza Spalding, were the first white women to cross the American continent.

September 2
1921
The first general synod of the African Orthodox Church convenes in New York City. This branch of the Protestant Episcopal Church was established in 1919 by George A. McGuire, who was also elected the denomination's first bishop.

1973
Death of J. R. R. Tolkien, English philologist and fantasy novelist. A devout Catholic, Tolkien wrote The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings trilogy (1954-55).

September 3
1752
This date became September 14 when Great Britain (including Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and the American colonies) officially adopted the Gregorian calendar—developed by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 to replace the older, now inaccurate, Julian calendar.

1995
Dutch-born Catholic priest and educator Henri J. M. Nouwen confides in his journal, "Prayer connects my mind with my heart, my will with my passions, my brain with my belly.... Prayer is the divine instrument of my wholeness, unity, and inner peace."

September 4
1803
Birth of Sarah Childress Polk. American Presbyterian fundamentalist and wife of U.S. president James K. Polk. Mrs. Polk banned dancing at presidential functions and was the first First Lady to institute a strict Sabbath observance.

1847
Scottish Anglican clergyman Henry Francis Lyte pens the words to his last (and best-known) hymn: "Abide with Me: Fast Falls the Eventide."

September 5
1802
Birth of Frederick Oakeley, an Anglican clergyman who became a Catholic during the time of the Oxford Movement (1845). Oakeley authored several volumes of poetry, and his translation of the Latin1 Adeste Fidelis" gave the Church the popular carol "O Come, All Ye Faithful."

1810
The American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions is formally organized by the Congregational churches of New England at Farmington, Connecticut. It is the first foreign missions society established in America.

September 6
1529
Martyrdom of George Blaurock, early Swiss Anabaptist evangelist. Blaurock helped to plant the Anabaptist faith throughout much of central Europe before he was arrested and burned for heresy.

1620
With 101 passengers aboard, the Mayflower sails from Plymouth, England, bound for the New World. The ship was ninety feet long and twenty-six feet wide. Two months and five days later, the ship landed near modern-day Cape Cod, Massachusetts.

September 7
1559
Death of Robert Estienne (also known as Robertus Stephanus and Robert Stephens), French scholar and printer who in 1551 became the first to print the Bible with modern verse divisions.

1724
In Germantown, Pennsylvania, the first congregation of German Dunkards (so called for their practice of baptism by three-time immersion) is formed, led by Peter Becker. The group originated in Schwarzenau, Germany, in 1708. Their official name, Church of the Brethren, was adopted in 1908.

September 8
1784
Death of "Mother" Ann Lee. English-born American religious leader and founder of United Society of Believers in Christ's Second Appearing, which came to be known as the Shakers.

1974
At the Naval Air Station in Atlanta, Georgia, Lieutenant Vivian McFadden is sworn in as the first female African-American chaplain of the U.S. Navy.

September 9
1747
Birth of Thomas Coke, the first Methodist consecrated as a bishop to America. He served with Francis Asbury from 1784 to 1797 and later became president of the English Methodist Conference. Coke died at sea in 1814 while sailing to do missionary work in India.

1912
Young millionaire William W Borden is ordained. Borden volunteered to serve with the China Inland Mission and went to Cairo to study Arabic in preparation for working with China's Muslim population. While in Egypt, however, he contracted cerebrospinal meningitis and died at age twenty-six in 1913.

September 10
1832
English Moravian hymn writer James Montgomery pens the words to "Holy, Holy, Holy Lord, God of Hosts." Montgomery is also remembered for authoring "The Lord Is My Shepherd," "Angels from the Realms of Glory," "Go to Dark Gethsemane," and "Prayer Is the Soul's Sincere Desire."

1898
Death of Alexander Crummell, African-American Episcopal clergyman, scholar, and missionary to West Africa. Ordained in 1844, Crummell served as president of Liberia College for twenty years.

September 11
1069
Death of English prelate Aldred (Ealdred), archbishop of York. On Christmas Day 1066, Aldred crowned William the Conqueror king of England.Aldred was also the first English bishop to make a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.

1672
American Congregational clergyman Solomon Stoddard is ordained as pastor of the church in Northampton, Massachusetts. He served in that single pulpit for fifty-seven years, assisted after 1727 by his grandson Jonathan Edwards.

September 12
1851
Birth of Francis E. Clark. Canadian-born Congregational minister. In 188! Clark founded the Christian Endeavor movement, a forerunner and prototype of today's church youth fellowships.

1928
The first international conference of the Pocket Testament League convenes in Birmingham, England.

September 13
1771
English founder of Methodism, John Wesley, writes in a letter to a young Christian, "It is right to pour out our whole soul before Him that careth for us. But it is good, likewise, to unbosom ourselves to a friend, in whom we can confide."

1845
The poem "Sweet Hour of Prayer" first appears in print in the New York Observer. It was written in 1842 by William W. Walford, a blind English lay preacher, and first set to music in 1861 by William B. Bradbury.

September 14
1735
Birth of Robert Raikes. English newspaper editor, whose concern for the plight of boys in the local slums led him to experiment with opening a school to teach them reading and religion. The school met on Sundays, the one day of the week when the boys weren't working in the factories, and Raikes's success eventually led to the adoption of "Sunday schools" by churches worldwide.

1741
English composer George Frideric Handel finishes work on his great oratorio Messiah, which he composed in only twenty-four days.

September 15
1870
Birth of Agnes Ozman, U.S. Pentecostal evangelist. In 1901, while a student at Charles Parham's Bethel Bible College in Topeka, Kansas, Miss Ozman began speaking in tongues, and her experience helped to ignite the modern Pentecostal revival.

1966
The American Bible Society publishes its Good News for Modern Man New Testament translation.

September 16
1924
Death of Anthony J. Showalter, American Presbyterian hymn writer, best known for composing the hymn tune "Showalter" ("Leaning on the Everlasting Arms").

1976
In Minneapolis the Episcopal Church approves the ordination of women to the priesthood, specifically approving an action in which four bishops had ordained eleven women to the Episcopal priesthood on July 29,1974— at that time, in defiance of church law.

September 17
1787
Ratified on this date, Article 6, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution reads,"No religious tests shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States."

1929
The Apostolic Orthodox Catholic Church is established in North America as an English-speaking, non-ethnic, independent branch of the Russian Orthodox Church.

September 18
1765
Birth of Oliver Holden, American carpenter and hymn composer. Holden's love for music led him to publish several hymnbooks and to compose the hymn tune "Coronation" ("All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name").

1924
Scottish-born American scholar James Moffatt completes his work on the Old Testament portion of what would become A New Translation of the Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments, published in 1926.

September 19
1740
During his second trip to America, English revivalist George Whitefield writes in his journal,"! saw regenerate souls among the Baptists, among the Presbyterians, among the Independents, and among the church folks—all children of God, and yet all born again in a different way."

1772
Moravian missionaries complete construction of the first Protestant church west of the Alleghenies, in Schoenbrunn, Ohio. In 1773 the same missionaries built the first schoolhouse west of the Alleghenies. The Reverend David Zeisberger became the church's first preacher and the school's first teacher.

September 20
1870
During the Franco-Prussian War, Italian troops occupy Rome, effectively ending the Vatican I Ecumenical Council.

1900
Birth of Visser't Hooft, Dutch Reformed ecumenical leader, who served as secretary of the World Alliance of YMCAs (1924-31), and later became founding general secretary of the World Council of Churches (1948-66).

September 21
1522
Martin Luther publishes his German New Testament, based on Erasmus's 1516 Greek edition.

1452
Birth of Italian Dominican reformer Girolamo Savonarola. Preaching against licentiousness of the ruling class and the worldliness of the clergy, Savonarola led in the reformation of Florence. He was later excommunicated, arrested, condemned, and put to death for his attacks on Pope Alexander VI.

September 22
1734
The first Moravian settlement in America begins with the arrival of the Schwenkfelders (followers of reformer Caspar Schwenkfeld von Ossig) in Philadelphia.

1871
Death of Charlotte Elliott, Anglican hymn writer. Though an invalid during her last fifty years, Elliott authored 150 hymns, including "Just as I Am."

September 23
1642
Harvard College holds its first commencement exercises, conferring degrees on nine graduates. Founded
in 1636 as Cambridge College, the school was renamed in 1638 in honor of the Reverend John Harvard, English clergyman and benefactor.

1747
Two weeks before dying from tuberculosis, colonial missionary to the American Indians David Brainerd pens in his journal, "Felt uncommonly peaceful; it seemed as if I had now done all my work in this world, and stood ready for my call to a better. As long as I see anything to be done for God, life is worth having; but O how vain and unworthy it is to live for any lower end!"

September 24
787
The Second Council of Nicaea opens— die seventh of twenty-one ecumenical councils recognized by the Catholic Church. Under Pope Adrian I, the council limited the veneration of icons but condemned iconoclasm.

1939
Death of Juji Nakada, Japanese Christian evangelist, who invited Charles and Lettie Cowman to Japan in 1901. Under the Cowmans' inspiration, the Oriental Missionary Society was established in 1910.

September 25
1800
Revival leaders Philip William Otterbein and Martin Boehm establish the Church of the United Brethren in Christ. Boehm was brought up in the Mennonite tradition, and Otterbein was a pastor of the German Reformed Church.

1866
Birth of Cleland B. McAfee, American Presbyterian clergyman, educator, and hymn writer. He taught systematic theology for eighteen years at McCormick Theological Seminary in Chicago, but he is best remembered for his hymn "There Is a Place of Quiet Rest."

September 26
1651
Birth of Francis Daniel Pastorius, German Lutheran emigration agent, who helped European Mennonites, Pietists, and Quakers relocate to the American colony of Pennsylvania. Pastorius was a central figure in the establishment of Germantown. Pennsylvania.

1835
Eight churches in Florida establish the Suwanee Association, the first official Baptist organization in the state.

September 27
1785
American Anglicans meet in Philadelphia to create a denomination independent from the Church of England. The new denomination came to be known as the Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S.A.

1914
Birth of Catherine Marshall, American Presbyterian inspirational writer. The widow of U.S. Senate chaplain Peter Marshall, she authored A Man Called Peter (1951), following his premature death in 1949.

September 28
929 or 935
Death of "good King" Wenceslas, Bohemian prince and martyr. During his reign (before he was murdered by his brother, Boleslaw), Wenceslas sought to care for the poor and to bring his people into closer connection with the Western world.

1931
C. S. Lewis undergoes a spiritual conversion while riding to the zoo in his brother Warren's motorcycle sidecar. Lewis later wrote, "When we set out, I did not believe that Jesus is the Son of God; and when we reached the zoo I did." Lewis's conversion followed a long conversation he'd had the week before with two Christian friends, J. R. R. Tolkien and Hugo Dyson.

September 29
1770
The day before his premature death at age fifty-six, English revivalist George Whitefield prays, "Lord Jesus. I am weary in thy work, but not of it."

1979
Pope John Paul II becomes the first Roman pontiff to visit Ireland. More than 2.5 million of the country's 3.5 million Catholics saw the pope during his three-day visit, which crisscrossed the country.

September 30
420
Death of Jerome, Bible scholar and one of the most learned of the Latin Fathers. Originally from Rome, Jerome moved to Bethlehem, entered a monastery, and devoted himself to translating the Bible into Latin (bequeathing to the Western church the Vulgate Bible). He also prepared numerous works of ecclesiastical history and biblical interpretation.

1751
Phillip Doddridge, clergyman and author of the influential book The Rise and Progress of Religion in the Soul, sails from Falmouth for a warmer climate, in hopes of recovering from consumption. (He died a month later.)