#Justus Falckner is ordained

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Today in Christian History

Today is Wednesday, November 24th, the 328th day of 2021. There are 37 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight in History:

380: Emperor Theodosius deposes the Arian bishop, Demophilus, with all his clergy from the cathedral in Constantinople, transferring the cathedral church to Gregory of Nazianzus with the words: “This temple God by our hand entrusts to thee as a reward for thy pains.”

1531: Death of Johannes Oecolampadius, a leader in the Swiss Reformation. He had sided with Ulrich Zwingli in the dispute with Martin Luther over the Lord’s Supper.

1555: Catholics in Locarno, Switzerland order that all Protestants who will not embrace Catholicism must go into exile.

1572: Death in Edinburgh of John Knox, the most notable of the reformers of Scotland.

1703: Amidst singing and the music of an organ, viols, hautboys, trombones, trumpets, and kettledrums, Justus Falckner is ordained at Old Swede’s Church in Philadelphia—the first Lutheran pastor ordained in America.

1836: Ordination of Robert Murray McCheyne to the pastorate of St. Peter’s, Dundee. He will become a leader in the ensuing Scottish revival.

1850: Friedrich August Crämer arrives in Fort Wayne where he will begin years of work educating Lutherans for ministry.

1860: Death in London of George Croly, a clergyman of the Church of England. He had been a hymnologist, publishing Psalms and Hymns for Public Worship. He also wrote the hymn, “Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart.”

1880: More than 150 African American delegates meet in Montgomery, Alabama, to form the Baptist Foreign Missions Convention of the United States. Liberian missionary William W. Colley is chief organizer, and the Rev. William H. McAlpine will be elected the convention’s first president.

1964: Congo rebels seize American missionary Bill McChesney. He is suffering so seriously with malaria he needs help and his friend Jim Rodgers, a British missionary, leaps into the truck with him. Despite McChesney’s illness, the rebels beat him mercilessly the whole way to the prison where they will incarcerate him. Both men are beaten and trampled to death the following morning.