AUGUST 25
FLEEING THE USSR, ZERNOV DREAMED OF CHRISTIAN UNITY (1980)
“What things should be said to the Donatists are these We greatly desire to rejoice in your conversion for we have been commanded to say even to those...”
Schaff, Philip. The Seven Ecumenical Councils. Grand Rapids: Wm B. Eerdmans
Obedience brings blessings
But because you say so, I will let down the nets —Luke 5:5. Oh, what a blessed formula for us! This path of mine i...
Events
1213
Archbishop Langton meets with several barons and the prelates of England who are unhappy with King John’s despotic behavior. Langton reads aloud Henry I’s coronation charter, on which certain English rights are based, and swears the barons to uphold it, forcing King John to sign the Magna Carta two years later.
Authority for the date: Roberts, Clayton et al. A History of England, Volume 1.1568
The Duke of Alva has eighty-four-year-old widow Elizabeth Vander Kerk executed in Utrecht on the pretext that she allowed her nephew to bring a Reformed minister into her house. Actually, Alva wishes to confiscate her considerable wealth. At the block, when the executioner asks her to lower her hands which she has raised in prayer, she exclaims, “Do your business; when the head is off the fingers will feel no pain.”
Authority for the date: James Anderson, Ladies of the Reformation1649
Death of Thomas Shepard, a well-known Puritan preacher and author.
Authority for the date: Werge: “Chronology,” in Thomas Shepherd, Twayne, 1987.1867
Death of Michael Faraday, an innovator in the field of electricity and a devout Christian.
Authority for the date: Britannica.1887
Death in England of Emma Jane Worboise. In addition to the hymn “Do this in Remembrance of Me,” she wrote many novels and a life of Christian educator Thomas Arnold, and edited Christian magazines. She had sought integration of Christian values into every area of her life, but died an alcoholic.
Authority for the date: E. R. Pitman. Lady Hymn Writers1936
All foreigners are ordered to leave Suchow, compelling Mildred Cable, Francesca French, and Eva French—the China Trio—to abandon their long-time mission work in the remote regions of China.
Authority for the date: Platt, J. Three Women. London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1964.1940
Japanese Christian socialist Kagawa is arrested as a traitor after church services.
Authority for the date: Davey, Cyril. Kagawa of Japan. London: Epworth, 1960.1945
Execution of missionary John Birch in China. The US government, which knows the details of his undercover work, bungles a cover-up. The conservative John Birch Society, which attempts to expose such cover-ups, will take its name from this event.
Authority for the date: Standard encyclopedias.1980
Death of Nicolai Michaelovitch Zernov, a Russian Orthodox expatriate who had taught at Oxford and written many books about the Orthodox Church and Russian Christianity. He also founded the Anglican-Orthodox ecumenical group Fellowship of Saint Alban and Saint Sergius and worked continuously to unite Christians.
Authority for the date: http://www.librarything.com/author/zernovnicolas