June 20: Today In Church History
The history of the Church is rich and varied, marked by pivotal events and influential figures who have shaped its doctrines, practices, and global influence.
Today, the 20th day of June, here are some of the notable occurrences on this day in Church history. These events, ranging from the birth of a prolific hymn writer to the formalization of doctrinal beliefs and the contributions of religious leaders to peace and societal development, illustrate the dynamic and evolving narrative of the Church.
1. 404: Archbishop John Chrysostom leaves Constantinople under arrest, never to return.
2. 1529: Clement VII and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V signed the Peace of Barcelona, which ended attacks on Rome by the Lutheran armies.
3. 1530: The first Diet at Augsburg gathers. The Augsburg Confession will be presented on the 25th.
4. 1542: Although not a bishop himself, Martin Luther consecrates Nicolaus von Amsdorf as bishop for Naumburg. Elector John Frederick had ousted the regularly elected Roman Catholic bishop, Julius von Pflug.
5. 1599: The Synod of Diamper reunited a native church in India with Rome. Discovered in 1498 by Portuguese explorers, this isolated pocket of worshipers traced their Christian origins back to the missionary efforts of the Apostle Thomas.
6. 1686: Birth of Charles Wesley – Charles Wesley, an English leader of the Methodist movement, was born. He is known for writing over 6,000 hymns, many of which remain popular in Christian worship services today.
5. 1734: The Schwenkfelders leave Rotterdam on what will prove to be a hard voyage to America.
6. 1776: Anglican clergyman and hymnwriter John Newton wrote in a letter: ‘A Christian is not of hasty growth…but rather like the oak, the progress of which is hardly perceptible, but in time becomes a deep-rooted tree.’
7. 1779: Birth of Dorothy Ann Thrupp, English devotional writer and author of the hymn, ‘Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us.’
8. 1837: The Archbishop of Canterbury and the Lord Chamberlain awaken eighteen-year-old Princess Victoria, a Christian, at five in the morning, to inform her she is now the Queen of England and Empress of its far-flung empire.
9. 1870: The First Vatican Council – This council, convoked by Pope Pius IX, officially defined the dogma of papal infallibility. The council concluded in 1870 but was interrupted by the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War.
10. 1880: Death of Samuel R. Brown, missionary-educator to China and Bible translator in Japan.
11. 1885: A band of Moravian missionaries landed on the shores of Alaska and founded the Bethel Mission. During the first year of their mission work among the, eskimoes, winter temperatures outside their makeshift housing plummeted to 50 degrees below zero!
12. 1893: Death of Eliza R. Snow – Eliza R. Snow, a prominent figure in the Latter-day Saint movement, passed away. She was a poet, a plural wife of Joseph Smith and later Brigham Young, and the second general president of the Relief Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
13. 1898: America’s Presbyterian General Assembly opens dialogue with Baptists and Methodists for organizing Protestant mission work in the Philippines, which have recently been ceded to the United States following the Spanish-American War.
14. 1907: Robert A. Torrey receives his DD from Wheaton. He will become a prominent evangelical leader and write the popular What the Bible Teaches.
15. 1910: Birth of Nobel Peace Prize laureate John Hume – John Hume, an Irish Catholic who co-founded the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) and was a key architect in the Northern Ireland peace process, was born.
16. 1926: Minnie Kennedy, mother of Aimee Semple McPherson, tries to end speculation about the evangelist’s sudden disapperance by holding a memorial service for her at Angelus Temple. Three days later McPherson reappears with a tale of having been kidnapped.
17. 1966: Death of Georges Lemaître, a Belgian priest and mathematician, who had been one of the first to recognize that Einstein’s equations required an expanding universe with a beginning at a measurable time in the past. Eventually the so-called “Big Bang” theory will refine and improve similar concepts.
18. 1989: Death of Traian Dorz, a Romanian poet who served as leader of the Orthodox revival movement known as The Lord’s Army. He had suffered imprisonment, harrassment, and restriction by a hostile government and hostile church authorities.
19. 1992: Militant Muslims gun down two Christian businessmen at Dairut, Assiut, and spray responding police officers with machine gun fire, killing two.
20. 1999: All the Christian communions who share control of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre agree to install a new exit door in the church. A century and a half earlier, dozens of Christian pilgrims had been trampled to death when fire broke out in the church.