1223 - Through publication of "Regula Bullata," Pope Honorius III formally authorized the "Regula Prima," a settled rule of organization and administration for the Franciscan order.
1644 - The Massachusetts General Court issued a call for local pastors to learn the dialects of neighboring Indian tribes, as an aid toward converting them to the Christian faith.
1776 - Anglican hymnwriter John Newton wrote in a letter: 'He knows our sorrows, not merely as He knows all things, but as one who has been in our situation, and who, though without sin himself, endured when upon earth inexpressibly more for us than He will ever lay upon us.'
1780 - In Connecticut, Lemuel Haynes, 27, was licensed to preach in the Congregational Church, becoming the first black minister to be certified by a predominantly white denomination. Five years later, in 1785, Haynes was ordained pastor of a church in Torrington, CT, also making him the first black minister to pastor a white church.
1970 - In Nagpur, India, six church bodies -- the Anglicans, the United Church of Northern India, the Baptists, the Methodists, the Church of the Brethren and the Disciples of Christ -merged to form the Church of India.
© 1987-2011, William D. Blake. Used by permission of the author, from
Almanac of the Christian Church
