April 22
536: Passing away of Agapetus I, bishop of Rome, during his stay in Constantinople, where he was on a diplomatic mission to avert war. He deposed Bishop Anthimus as a monophysite, during this visit.
1538: John Calvin and William Farel are ordered by the town council of Geneva to leave the city within three days, for having refused to administer the Lord’s Supper the day before, partially because of notorious sins among the city’s folk, and also because they did not want to follow the lead of Bern in serving unleavened bread.
1663: King Charles II charters the Royal Society of London by the name, “for improving Natural Knowledge,” with many of its initial members as Christians. Later it became a leading force for scientific inquiry.
1776: Francis Asbury, pioneer American Methodist bishop, stated in his journal, “I found Christ in me the hope of glory; but felt a pleasing, painful sensation of spiritual hunger and thirst for more of God.”
1864: The motto “In God We Trust” first appears on U.S. coins during the American Civil War, being inscribed on a bronze two-cent piece.
1897: The world’s largest Jewish daily newspaper “The Forward” is first published in New York City, with Abraham Cahan, one of its founders, as its editor until his death in 1951.
1918: Justin Lvovich Olshevksy is elevated as the Archbishop of Omsk, who takes the name Sylvester. He opposed the Soviets and blessed the White Army which resisted Soviet control. Later, as the Soviets defeated the Whites, they arrested and tortured Archbishop Sylvester for two months before killing him.
1922: Olisemeke Samuel Wadei “Martin,” a Baptist leader, opens the first of several schools in Nigeria. Subsequently, he also established a teacher training college and health centers there.
1934: Five thousand pastors and laypeople gather in Ulm where they found the “Confessing Church,” based on the Reformation confessions, rather than Nazi racial theories and propaganda.
1960: Three major Lutheran bodies in the U.S. merge to form the American Lutheran Church at a constitutional convention in Minneapolis, with a combined membership of about two million.
Edited by: T. Chempilayil MCBS
Courtesy: www.studylight.org