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Baptist pastor gunned down while praying
Baptist minister Sergei Bessarab was shot 13 times with a Kalashnikov assault rifle Monday evening, apparently while he was praying in his church in the northern Tajikistan town of Isfar, near the borders of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

Reuters quotes officials saying that nothing was taken from the church and a motive is unknown. The Itar-Tass news agency says Bessarab was a missionary from the capital, Dushanbe, and the local leader of the Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists.

According to Operation World, Christians make up only 1.4 percent of Tajikistan's population, with only 4,000 Protestants (about .06 percent of the population). Baptists are the largest Protestant group in the country, with about 500 members and 1,000 affiliates in 20 congregations.

Forum 18, an Oslo-based persecution watchdog/news agency, reported earlier this month that its reporters were "told by some that an official campaign against Christian proselytism may soon be launched." Expect Forum 18 to have more on Bessarab's murder in the next few days.

That's about all Weblog knows at this stage: The only Sergei Bessarab on Google is a Russian landscape artist.

Washington Post: Conservative Episcopalians plan widespread disobedience to church law
"Episcopalians who oppose the consecration of a gay bishop are preparing to engage in widespread disobedience to church law in 2004, according to a confidential document outlining their strategy," Washington Post religion reporter Alan Cooperman reports in today's edition.

The main author of the six-page plan, Geoff Chapman, says the document is legit. "Our ultimate goal," he wrote, "[is a] replacement jurisdiction … closely aligned with the majority of world Anglicanism."

But it's a letter from Chapman, senior pastor of St. Stephen's Church in Sewickley, Pennsylvania, to Episcopalians who have contacted the American Anglican Council. Does it represent Chapman's views or those of the AAC? Likely the latter: Chapman, after all, was in charge of overseeing churches' applications for "alternative oversight" through the AAC.

The two-stage process that the document outlines, however, isn't all that surprising, given recent AAC actions. Phase one is already underway, as parishes say that their relationship with their diocesan bishop is "severely damaged" and apply for alternative oversight.

Phase two, which Chapman says is likely this year, will entail "negotiated settlements" over property and oversight. "If settlements cannot be reached, the document says, 'faithful disobedience of canon law on a widespread basis may be necessary,'" Cooperman writes.

Expect more on this from such sites as Midwest Conservative Journal and Classical Anglican Net News.

More on Anglicanism:

• Vote on gay bishop still echoes in Dallas church | St. Michael rector's support of Gene Robinson puts him at odds with many of his parishioners (The Dallas Morning News)
• A traditional revolutionary | Schism threat in coming battle over women bishops (The Guardian, London)
• Cathedrals to lock doors as debts mount | Dean warns of demise for Anglican traditions if tourists continue to stay away from England's great churches (The Observer, London)
• Support for homosexuals angers local Episcopalians | More than 3,000 conservative Episcopalians met Friday and Saturday in Woodbridge to pledge solidarity against their denomination's decision last summer to consecrate a homosexual priest as bishop (The Washington Times)
• Episcopal dissenters plan their strategy | Many traditionalists prefer not to flee (The Washington Post)

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January (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48