December 31
Eve of the Circumcision and Name of Jesus
1384
John
Wyclif (Wycliffe), English reformer and theologian, died
(b. ca. 1320 near Richmond, in Yorkshire, England).
1530 The
Smalcald League
was formed in defense of Lutheranism following the Diet of
Augsburg.
1687 The first shipload of emigrating
Huguenots (French Protestants) left France for South
Africa.
1712
Peter Böhler, Moravian missionary, was born in
Frankfort-am-Main, Germany (d. 27 April 1775, London).
1770 The first
New Year’s Eve
“Watch Night”
service was held at Saint George Methodist Church in
Philadelphia.
1823
William Orcutt Cushing, American Christian Church
clergyman and hymn writer, was born in Hingham,
Massachusetts (d. 19 October 1902, Lisbon Center, New York).
1837
John R. Sweney, American sacred music chorister, was
born in Westchester, Pennsylvania (d. 10 April 1899,
Chester, Pennsylvania).
1838 The first Saxon Lutheran immigrants to
Missouri arrived in New Orleans on the Copernicus.
1862
Otto Frederick Hattstaedt, professor at Concordia
College (Milwaukee), was born in Monroe, Michigan (d. 29
November 1950).
1891
Samuel Ajayi Crowther, first native Anglican bishop in
Africa, died (b. ca. 1807 in Yorubaland, West Africa).
1900
Stephen C. (Charles) Neill, British Anglican clergyman and
scholar, was born in Edinburgh, Scotland (d. 20 July 1984,
Oxford, England). Ordained in 1926, Neill taught at such
prestigious universities as Cambridge, Hamburg, Oxford and
Union Seminary. In addition to preaching and teaching, Neill
served as a foreign missionary and was an international
ecumenical leader. He was the author of A History of
Christian Missions
(1964), The Interpretation of the New Testament, 1861–1961
(1964, 1966) and The Modern Reader’s
Dictionary of the Bible
(1966).
1945
Ernst Friedrich Max Sellin, German exegete, died (b. 26
May 1867 at Altschwerin, Mecklenburg, Germany). He taught at
Erlangen, Vienna, Rostock, Kiel and Berlin.
1946 Bethel Lutheran Church (Manila, Philippines),
the first Missouri Synod church in the Philippines, opened.
1964
George Victor Schick, professor at Concordia College
(Fort Wayne, Indiana) and Concordia Seminary (Saint Louis),
died (b. 3 February 1886 at Chicago, Illinois).
1966 The
National Lutheran Council ceased operation and was
replaced by the Lutheran Council in the USA, which included
the Missouri Synod for the first time as a member of an
inter-Lutheran organization in America.
1979 Herman C. Scherer, president of the Missouri
District of the LCMS from 1966 to 1978, died in Saint Louis
(b. 17 August 1910, Saint Louis).
