On This Day in Church History
A real event from the story of the church on each calendar day, told with its setting and what came of it, and quoted word for word from sources published before 1931.
First Communion on Aniwa
October 24, 1869 · Aniwa, New Hebrides (Vanuatu)
The setting
The Scottish missionary John G. Paton had been driven off Tanna in 1862. In November 1866 he settled on the small island of Aniwa with his family, learned the language and began teaching.
The story
After three years Paton had a class preparing for baptism and the Lord's Supper. He made the requirements strict. Twenty were enrolled, and at the final examination twelve showed that they understood what they were doing and had given their hearts to Christ.
On Sunday, October 24, 1869, after the usual service, Paton explained the Ten Commandments and the way of salvation. The twelve candidates then stood before the whole island and were baptized. Paton then served the first Lord's Supper on Aniwa.
Paton wrote that he imagined the angels and the saints in glory watching the scene.
“It was Sabbath, 24th October 1869; and surely the Angels of God and the Church of the Redeemed in Glory were amongst the "great cloud of witnesses" who eagerly "peered" down upon the scene.”
What happened next
The church kept growing. Paton wrote that although no one was forced to attend, every person on Aniwa, without exception, came in time to worship God openly. The islanders also drew up their own simple laws against theft and other crimes.
Why it matters: Twelve people at one table were the start of a whole island coming to faith.
Source: The Story of John G. Paton, ed. James Paton (A. L. Burt, New York), Chapter LXXIII, First Communion on Aniwa. Public domain.
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Other days
October 16
Latimer and Ridley: "Play the Man"
1555 · Oxford, England
October 19
Disaster at the Surrey Gardens Music Hall
1856 · London, England
October 20
Wesley and the Wednesbury Mob
1743 · Wednesbury and Walsall, England
October 24
First Communion on Aniwa
1869 · Aniwa, New Hebrides (Vanuatu)
October 28
The Battle of the Milvian Bridge
312 · Rome, Italy
October 29
The Last Diary Entry of James Hannington
1885 · Busoga, near Uganda
October 31
Luther's Ninety-Five Theses
1517 · Wittenberg, Germany
November 5
The Patons Land on Tanna
1858 · Tanna, New Hebrides (Vanuatu)
November 6
Jonathan Edwards Writes "A Faithful Narrative"
1736 · Northampton, Massachusetts
November 10
"Dr. Livingstone, I Presume?"
1871 · Ujiji, near Lake Tanganyika
November 11
The Mayflower Compact
1620 · Cape Cod, Massachusetts
November 12
Müller Opens His Second Orphan House
1857 · Ashley Down, Bristol, England
November 14
Samuel Seabury Consecrated America's First Bishop
1784 · Aberdeen, Scotland