June 20 in Christian History

Jun 20, 2011 11:18 AM EDT

1529 - Clement VII and Holy Roman Emperor Charles V signed the Peace of Barcelona, which ended attacks on Rome by the Lutheran armies.


1599 - The Synod of Diamper reunited a native church in India with Rome. Discovered in 1498 by Portuguese explorers, this isolated pocket of worshipers traced their Christian origins back to the missionary efforts of the Apostle Thomas.


1776 - Anglican clergyman and hymnwriter John Newton wrote in a letter: 'A Christian is not of hasty growth...but rather like the oak, the progress of which is hardly perceptible, but in time becomes a deep-rooted tree.'


1779 - Birth of Dorothy Ann Thrupp, English devotional writer and author of the hymn, 'Savior, Like a Shepherd Lead Us.'


1885 - A band of Moravian missionaries landed on the shores of Alaska and founded the Bethel Mission. During the first year of their mission work among the, eskimoes, winter temperatures outside their makeshift housing plummeted to 50 degrees below zero!


© 1987-2011, William D. Blake. Used by permission of the author, from

Almanac of the Christian Church