Theologian's Almanac for Week of September 12, 2021
Welcome to SALT’s “Theologian’s Almanac,” a weekly selection of important birthdays, holidays, and other upcoming milestones worth marking — specially created for a) writing sermons and prayers, b) creating content for social media channels, and c) enriching your devotional life.
For the week of Sunday, September 12:
September 14 is the day George Frideric Handel completed the Messiah oratorio in 1741. He wrote virtually nonstop, morning and night, completing the score in just 24 days. It was originally written for the Easter season, but eventually became associated with Christmastime. Even Mozart, when he supervised a new arrangement in 1789, was reluctant to change a thing: “Handel knows better than any of us what will make an effect,” Mozart declared. “When he chooses, he strikes like a thunderbolt!”
September 15 is the day in 1963 that a bomb went off in the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. One of the most segregated cities in the country, Birmingham was a key battleground in the Civil Rights Movement, and the church was a common meeting place for movement leaders. Four schoolgirls — Cynthia Wesley, Carole Robertson, Addie Mae Collins, and Denise McNair — were killed in the terrorist blast, and more than 20 other church members were injured. The press reports were vivid: “Dozens of survivors, their faces dripping blood from the glass that flew out of the church’s stained glass windows, staggered around the building in a cloud of white dust raised by the explosion. The blast crushed two nearby cars like toys and blew out windows blocks away... Parts of brightly painted children’s furniture were strewn about in one Sunday school room, and blood stained the floors.”
A member of the Ku Klux Klan, Robert Chambliss, was convicted of dynamite possession without a permit, and so was sentenced to a $100 fine and six months in jail - but was found not guilty in the murders of the four girls. A subsequent investigation revealed that the FBI, at J. Edgar Hoover’s direction, had suppressed key evidence against Chambliss. He was retried in 1973, found guilty, and sentenced to life in prison. Two of his accomplices were tried and convicted in 2001 and 2002.
September 16 is Yom Kippur this year (it begins at sundown on the 15th, and concludes at sundown on the 16th), the Day of Atonement, considered by many Jews to be the holiest day of the year. Traditionally marked with fasting, intensive prayer, and synagogue services, Yom Kippur concludes the High Holy Days, sometimes called “the Days of Awe.”
September 17 is the day in 1849 Harriet Tubman first escaped enslavement in Maryland, along with two of her brothers. She wrote: “God’s time [Emancipation] is always near. He set the North Star in the heavens; He gave me the strength in my limbs; He meant I should be free.” Harriet Tubman to Ednah Dow Cheney, New York City, circa 1859.
September 17 is also the feast day of Hildegard of Bingen, abbess of Rupertsberg, Germany (1098-1179). A visionary from childhood, she wrote three mystical works, along with many other books — though today she is primarily remembered for her poetic and musical achievements. Her remarkable lyrical collection, Symphonia armonie celestium revelationum (“Symphony of the Harmony of Celestial Revelations”) is seventy-seven songs full of vivid, striking imagery and vision, preserved with musical notation. Have a listen here.