Boston's Congregationalists play a little joke on the public
The American Congregational Association's elegant building on 14 Beacon Street in downtown Boston gets a lot of visitors. But not all of them enter looking for the 225,000-title, 125-year-old Congregational Library or other offices. Many are looking for Ally McBeal, the TV character. In the show, 14 Beacon Street houses the characters' law firm on the seventh floor and a hip bar on the ground floor. "It couldn't be more unlike a wacky law office with a trendy bar downstairs," says Larry Meehan of the Greater Boston Convention & Visitors Bureau. (If people want a TV bar, Cheers is just down the street, at 84 Beacon.) But even though Ally McBeal is fictional, the American Congregational Association decided to put her name on the building directory. "Christians do have a sense of humor," notes The Salt Lake Tribune. Neither The Boston Globe nor Religion News Service (where The Salt Lake Tribune got the story) note that there are lawyers on the seventh floor—one of the tenants there is the National Lesbian & Gay Law Association.

Priest abducted, killed in India
Two youths abducted Jacob Chittinapilly, a Roman Catholic priest, in the Thoubal district of Manipur, India, and shot him to death Saturday night. (See more coverage from the BBC.) Meanwhile, the trial of Dara Singh and others accused of murdering Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons has been delayed until next year.

Despite action from churches and House of Lords, Britain lowers gay age of consent to 16 Britain's House of Commons lowered the age of sexual consent for homosexuals from 18 to 16—the same age as it is for heterosexuals. The House of Commons had earlier passed the bill overwhelmingly, ...