This Week in Religious History

March 23

1744

In London, composer George Frederic Handel's famous oratorio "Messiah" was performed for the first time.

1877

Mormon fanatic John Doyle Lee was executed by a firing squad for masterminding the Mountain Meadows Massacre. In 1857, a wagon train of 127 Arkansas Methodist emigrants, bound for California, were killed by a party of Mormon settlers and Paiute Indians at Mountain Meadows (near Cedar City), Utah.

March 24

1818

American statesman Henry Clay wrote: 'All religions united with government are more or less inimical to liberty. All separated from government are compatible with liberty.’

1940

The first religious program to be broadcast over television was carried by local NBC affiliate TV station W2XBS, in NYC.

March 25

1

Roman Church historian Dionysius Exiguus (ca.500-550), in calculating his history of the Christian Church, took this day as the supposed date of the Annunciation. March 25th afterward became the first day of the calendar year, until the Gregorian Calendar Reform of 1582 changed the day to anuary 1st.

1951

American missionary and martyr Jim Elliot reflected in his journal: 'When it comes time to die, make sure that all you have to do is die.’

March 27

1536

Swiss Protestants in Strassbourg and Constance signed the First Helvetic Confession. It became the first major document setting forth the common faith of the Swiss Protestant churches.

1840

Scottish clergyman Robert Murray McCheyne wrote in a letter: 'No person can be a child of God without living in secret prayer; and no community of Christians can be in a lively condition without unity in prayer.’

1962

In Louisiana, Archbishop Joseph Francis Rummel ordered all Roman Catholic schools in the New Orleans diocese to end segregation.

March 29

1638

The first Swedish colonists in America established a Lutheran settlement at Fort Christiana in the Colony of Delaware.

Information gathered from http://www.studylight.org/his/tich/