December 11
1518: Ulrich Zwingli, a Swiss Reformer, elected the People’s Preacher at the Old Minster Church in Zurich.
1640: English Puritans introduce the “Root and Branch” petition to the Long Parliament in London, demanding abolishment of the English episcopacy, “with all its dependencies, roots and branches” (taking an imagery from Malachi 4,1).
1792: Birth of Joseph Mohr, the Austrian Roman Catholic vicar, who authored the Christmas hymn, “Stille Nacht” (“Silent Night”) on Christmas Eve of 1818, with the support of Franz Gruber, the organist of the Oberndorf Church.
1825: Baptism of Samuel Adjai Crowther at the age of sixteen; formerly a slave, he later became the first Anglican bishop of West Africa.
1897: Murder of Anglican missionary George Pilkington, who worked with British troops in Uganda.
1910: Demise of Lars Olsen Skrefsrud, a famous Norwegian missionary to India, who had translated the Bible into the Santal language and wrote textbooks; he had produced a hymnal using native tunes and published a book of traditional Santal myth. He had also founded training schools for the youth. His greatest achievement was the establishment of a church which the Santalese could run themselves. He could win more than fifteen thousand Santals for Christ.
1920: The Soviets execute Constantine Zverev, a Russian Orthodox deacon, very cruelly, because he tried to defend a priest.
1975: The Central American Mission, an evangelical mission group founded by C.I. Scofield in 1890, changes its name to CAM Intentional, in the context of opening new mission stations in Latin America.
Edited by: T. Chempilayil MCBS
Courtesy: https://studylight.org