June (Web-only) 2000

ARTICLE TOOLS

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The Torah scroll was stolen Sunday night from Roei Yisrael synagogue, Jerusalem's messianic congregation. Ten bottles filled with gasoline were also found, which police say indicates a botched arson attempt. A Conservative synagogue was the victim of an arson attack earlier in the weekend, but Yosef Shalom, head of Roei Yisrael, thinks the damage to his church is due more to harassment of messianic Jews by ultraorthodox Jews than by anti-Semitism.

They won't leave, but that doesn't mean they're happy. "The Southern Baptist Convention's recent revision of its basic statement of faith underscores the need for the Baptist General Convention of Texas to redefine its relationship with the Southern Baptist Convention, not cut all ties and start an alternative national body," says Charles Wade, executive director of the largest state convention of the nation's largest Protestant denomination. Outgoing Southern Baptist president Paige Patterson dismisses the talk of schism. "The reason they have to talk in terms of redefining rather than exodus is for the simple reason they would lose too many churches," he tells the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The BBC notes that the 15-part evangelistic course is now in 121 of the U.K.'s 158 prisons. Ian Dingwall, the non-Christian deputy governor at Rochester Prison, thinks Alpha is great. "It certainly affects [prisoners'] behavior within the prison and they start to plan for the future," he says.

Who wants to play with characters called Pikachu and Charizard when you can play with ...