Today in Christian History

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Dec. 16, 1870

The Colored Methodist Church of America was established at Jackson, TN. Its name was changed in 1954 to the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. The denomination today is comprised of approximately 3,000 congregations.

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Dec. 17, 1843

Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" was first published. The "social conversion" of Ebenezer Scrooge on Christmas Eve may be seen as a literary symbol (based on the events of the first Christmas night) of the human potential released through spiritual conversion.

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Dec. 18, 1834

Emory College was chartered in Oxford, GA, under Methodist auspices. In 1915 it changed its name to Emory University and in 1919 the campus was relocated in Atlanta, GA.

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Dec. 19, 1855

Birth of William Henry Draper, Anglican clergyman and hymnwriter. His words to "All Creatures of Our God and King" are an English translation of a Latin text believed to have been penned by St. Francis of Assisi.

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Dec. 20, 1552   

Death of Katherine von Bora, 53, a former nun and the widow of German reformer Martin Luther. They married in 1525, when Luther was 42 and Katie was 26, and bore six children. Luther died in 1546; Katie, six years later.

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Dec. 21, 1843

Irish Catholic religious Frances Ward, 33, first arrived in the U.S. in Pittsburgh, where she afterward helped establish successive convents of the Sisters of Mercy, both in Chicago and in Loretto, Pennsylvania.

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Dec. 22, 1921

The first U.S. commercial radio license assigned to a religious broadcaster was awarded to the National Presbyterian Church of Washington, D.C. Within five years, there were over 60 other licensed religious broadcasters, including KJS-Biola (L.A.), KFUO-Concordia Seminary (St. Louis), and WMBI-Moody Bible Institute (Chicago).

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Dec. 23, 1950

Pope Pius XII declared that the tomb of St. Peter had been discovered beneath St. Peter's Basilica in Rome.

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Dec. 24, 1818   

In St. Nicholas Church at Oberndorf, Austria, church organist Franz Gruber, 31, composed a melody on guitar for the poem, "Stille Nacht," written earlier by pastor Joseph Mohr, 26. This evening the world heard "Silent Night" sung for the very first time.

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Dec. 25, 0336   

This is the earliest known year that Jesus' nativity was celebrated on December 25th, as mentioned in the Philocalian Calendar of A.D. 354. Jesus' birth was commemorated on January 6th in Greek Orthodoxy, although by the 400s most of the Eastern churches had accepted the Roman date.

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Dec. 26, 1887   

Birth of Charles Brandon Booth, American social reformer and head of the Volunteers of America, 1949-58. Booth was the grandson of Salvation Army founder William Booth.

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Jan. 4, 1915   

Democrat Moses Alexander, 62, was sworn in as governor of Idaho. He was the first elected Jewish governor in the U.S., and served two terms (1915-19).

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Jan. 5, 1964

Following an unprecedented pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Pope Paul VI met with Greek Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras I in Jerusalem. It was the first such meeting between leaders of the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches in over 500 years (since 1439).

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Jan. 6, 1494

The first mass in America was celebrated in the Roman Catholic church on Isabella Island in Haiti. This was the first church established in the New World, founded by Christopher Columbus.

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Jan. 7, 1856

In London, famed English Baptist preacher Charles H. Spurgeon, 22, married Susannah Thompson, one of the parishioners at the New Park Street Baptist Chapel, where he was pastoring.