April 28
1220: The construction work of the Salisbury Cathedral begins under the auspices of Bishop Richard Poore.
1521: German reformer Martin Luther writes in a letter, “The authority of Scripture is greater than the comprehension of the whole of man’s reason.”
1550: Demise of Georg von Polentz, the first Reformation bishop of Samland and Pomesania, a region in Prussia.
1721: England issues an order denouncing “Hell Fire” societies, whose members allegedly held meetings to mock religion and offer blasphemous toasts.
1848: John Bird Sumner becomes the archbishop of Canterbury, an evangelical, who vigorously improved the diocese of Chester, voted for the removal of restrictions on Catholics and wrote many books. In his book Records of Creation, he tried to show that Moses’ accounts of creation are credible and fit well with the scientific findings.
1872: Frances Ridley Havergal, English devotional author, pens the hymn, “Lord, Speak to Me That I May Speak.”
1874: Birth of Susan Strachan, missions pioneer, who with her husband Harry Strachan, helped found the Latin America Mission in Stony Point, NY.
1911: Thousands demonstrate for five hours against a religiously inspired ban on gambling in Geneva. Karl Barth comes out in public supporting the ban.
1916:Â Death of Josiah Strong, a Congregationalist clergyman and a social gospel advocate from New York City, who had sought to apply Protestant ideals to social problems. Being a strong advocate of missions, he believed that only redemption through Christ could change people’s behaviour.
1939: Soviets arrest Natalya Ivanovna Sundukova, daughter of a priest, accusing her of counter-revolutionary activity, dissemination of Christian teaching among prisoners, and refusal to work for the atheist regime. She was imprisoned and later shot
1955: Albert Lewis, a pilot of the Christian Missionary Alliance, who had won ten thousand souls for Christ in part through his supporting ministry, dies in a flight crash.
1960: The 100th General Assembly of the Southern Presbyterian Church (PCUS) passes a resolution declaring that sexual relations within marriage, even without the intention of procreation, were not sinful.
1973: Death of Jacques Maritain, a leading neo-Thomist philosopher, at Toulouse.
Edited by: T. Chempilayil MCBS
Courtesy:Â www.studylight.org