Today in Christian History: March 16

March 16

1072 – Passing away of Adalbert, Archbishop of Bremen-Hamburg, and missionary to Scandinavia.

1672 – Patriarch Dositheos Notaras of Jerusalem issues a confession of faith (simultaneously with the Synod of Jerusalem!) in which he rejects the Calvinistic interpretation of Orthodoxy. Although seen as his own personal views, sixty eight bishops sign the document with him.

1865 – Bernard Petitjean, a Roman Catholic priest, establishes a church in Nagasaki and is surprised to see some hidden Christians living there, who promise him their support. The Kakure Kirishitan (hidden Christians) had suffered two hundred years of persecution for their faith, but had also assimilated Buddhist elements into their scanty Christian knowledge, since they had no contact with the catholic church for long.

1889 – Death of Alfred Edersheim, a Jewish convert to Christianity who wrote several books, including his masterpiece The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah (1883).

1895 – Death in Kentucky of John Albert Broadus, who had trained a generation of Southern Baptist preachers.

1915 – Birth of Dr. Robert H. Bowman, who helped found the Far East Broadcasting Company in 1945 along with John Broger and William J. Roberts. Christian radio, which belongs to FEBC, has thousands of listeners in Pacific island clusters.

1952 – Debut airing of the first religious program on TV “This Week in Religion” on Dumont television. This ecumenical program on TV ran for two years.

1970 – Publication of the complete text of the New English Bible, simultaneously, by Oxford and Cambridge Presses, after having published the New Testament of the NEB in 1961.

2005 – Demise of Lawrence Olanrewaju Cole Jayesimi, who in spite of blindness, obtained advanced degrees, became a successful businessman, a passionate pastor of the Baptist church, and champion in educating the blind.

Edited by: T. Chempilayil MCBS

Courtesy: www.studylight.org