In Brief

Saturday, October 28, 2006

Colson Steps Down From Prison Fellowship

Watergate figure Charles W. Colson has stepped down as board chairman of Prison Fellowship USA, the ministry he started three decades ago after serving seven months of a federal sentence.

Colson, 75, will focus on teaching, speaking and writing for the organization, which is based in Lansdowne and runs Christian-based rehabilitation and support programs in prisons in all 50 states and 110 countries, according to a statement from the group.

In 2002, Colson turned over day-to-day operation of the fellowship to former Virginia attorney general Mark Earley, who became the group's president and chief executive.

Michael T. Timmis will succeed Colson as chairman. Timmis is co-owner and vice chairman of Talon, a private investment company focused on leveraged buyouts. He became chairman of the Prison Fellowship International board in 1997.

Colson will remain a member of the Prison Fellowship USA board.

Special counsel in the Nixon administration, Colson pleaded no contest to obstruction of justice in the 1972 Watergate scandal. He became a born-again Christian, and he started Prison Fellowship in 1976.

-- Associated Press

Survey Finds U.S. Jews Back Palestinian State

More than half of American Jews think Israel properly handled its military strike on Hezbollah, but nearly the same percentage believe that neither side emerged as a winner, according to a new survey.

The poll, released Monday by the American Jewish Committee, found that 55 percent of respondents approved of Israel's actions in the conflict this past summer in Lebanon, but 49 percent thought neither Hezbollah nor Israel could be considered victorious.

Regarding the Palestinians, 54 percent of the respondents supported creating a Palestinian state, with 38 percent opposed and 9 percent uncertain.

Yet, Jews overwhelmingly believed that the ultimate goal of Arabs is not the return of the West Bank and Gaza to the Palestinians but the destruction of Israel, the survey found.

Nearly two-thirds of the respondents disapproved of how the United States has been fighting terrorism, and nearly two-thirds thought the United States should have stayed out of Iraq.

Asked to identify their political affiliation, 15 percent said they're Republican; 54 percent, Democrat; 29 percent, independent; and 3 percent, unsure.

-- Associated Press

Virginia Parish Breaks From Episcopal Church

A congregation in the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia has broken away from the denomination and started a parish aligned with the Anglican Church in Uganda.

Christ Our Lord Church, a mission church that has operated since the early 1990s, voted to dissolve as an Episcopal parish and return its Lake Ridge building to the diocese.

The vicar of the church, the Rev. George Beaven, said in a news release that his parishioners made the move because the U.S. denomination has shown "profound disrespect for Scripture and biblical teachings."

Bishop Peter James Lee of the Diocese of Virginia said in a statement that he is "saddened by this departure and by the mission's apparent failure to thrive."

In 2003, Episcopalians consecrated their first openly gay bishop, V. Gene Robinson of New Hampshire, causing an uproar among Anglicans worldwide over the Bible and sexuality. The Episcopal Church is the U.S. branch of the 77 million-member Anglican Communion.

Conservatives, a minority within the Episcopal Church, have been challenging the denomination's national leaders. Some Episcopal parishes have split from the American church, and 10 conservative U.S. dioceses have formed a network that is considering breaking away.

-- Associated Press

Danish Court Rules Against Sikhs' Daggers

A Danish court has upheld a lower court ruling that Sikhs cannot carry knives for religious reasons.

Denmark's Eastern High Court on Tuesday confirmed a decision by Copenhagen City Court that Ripudaman Singh had violated a Danish arms law that prohibits carrying knives with blades longer than 2.8 inches in public places.

Singh repeatedly carried a ritual dagger known as a kirpan in his waist band, a tradition that is a basic tenet of Sikhism, an India-based faith with more than 20 million followers worldwide.

-- Associated Press