The World
A Seventh-day Adventist pastor from RWANDA will face the United Nations’ war crimes tribunal for his alleged involvement in that country’s 1994 genocide. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal in January by Elizaphan Ntakirutimana, 75, to block his extradition. U.N. prosecutors allege the pastor participated in the massacre of more than 500,000 people, mainly Tutsis, including those who sought refuge in his church and hospital compound. Ntakirutimana was arrested in the fall of 1996 in Laredo, Texas, where he was living with one of his sons.
Samuel E. Ericsson, founder and president of Advocates International, has received the 2000 Pro Fide Award from the Finnish organization Friends of the Martyred Church for his work in establishing religious liberty in emerging democracies.
The Free Church of Scotland has split over charges of liberalism, resulting in a breakaway church with the support of a fifth of its ministers. The Free Church of Scotland—nicknamed the “Wee Frees”—is known for the austerity of its services and strict observance of the Sabbath.
Before the split, the church had about 120 congregations, 6,000 communicants, and another 10,000 adherents. The Free Church dates from a previous split from the predominant Church of Scotland in 1843.
Bob and Ruth Chapman, Wycliffe staff members in Africa since 1983, died in a Kenya Airways crash off the coast of Abidjan, Ivory Coast, on January 30. They are survived by a daughter, Erin, 19, who is a college student in Canada. The Chapmans’ two sons died of malaria on the same day in 1989. General Secretary of the Bible Society of Nigeria, Gaius Musa, and United Bible Societies consultant Stephen Niyang also died in the crash.
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