Magic Statistics

Watch out, Winnipegers.  The Church of Scientology has announced plans to spend $10 million to convert the historic Peck Building (at right), a landmark in Winnipeg’s Exchange District, into a church and “community outreach centre”.

Rev. Yvette Shank, president of the church's Canadian office in Toronto, said the church plans to undertake a major refurbishing of the 115-year-old Peck Building, which it quietly acquired last March for a previously unheard of price for the Exchange of $2.2 million.

"We love it," Shank said of the six-storey, brick-and-stone building at the northeast corner of Princess Street and Notre Dame Avenue. "When we're finished with it, it will be a beautiful building."

Shank said the church expects to spend between $7.5 million and $10 million to refurbish the 50,000-square-foot-plus building. It hopes to complete planning by the end of this year "and that will dictate our schedule" for renovations.

A word to the wise for readers from Winnipeg: Be wary of anyone who believes the nonsense taught by that lunatic sect.

In related news, despite Google’s efforts to stop google-bombing, the official Scientology site appears first on a search for “dangerous cult”.

Source of Peck Building photo: Virtual Heritage Winnipeg

h/t: Religion News Blog, which keeps an archive of recent Scientology news stories here

Previous related post: Tom Cruise revises A Charlie Brown Christmas

Found on the Trip Advisor blog.

The blog is named "We are not making this up", so everyone can be sure the photo is genuine. Unfortunately, the exact location where it was taken is not reported.

Previous related post: Dirtiest hotel in Britain "not a complete nightmare"

Tahira Salamat, a 20-year-old Christian woman in Pakistan, was abducted on her way to work last September, forced to convert to Islam, and married to a Muslim, Muhammad Ramazan, against her will.  Her mother and father searched for her frantically and reported her missing to the police, but they offered little help.

In desperation, the victim's family turned to the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace (CCJP), a human rights body of the Catholic Church in Pakistan. The CCJP then approached the Lahore High Court, Multan Bench, on behalf of Salamat Masih [Tahira's father] and his family. Their case was forwarded to the Session Court, Vehari district, by the High Court, which instructed local police officials to locate the girl.

Tahira was finally found at Muhammad Ramazan's house on January 23, 2008, and from there police handed her over to her parents. However, the kidnappers have so far escaped any reprimand. At the time this story was written, none of them had been arrested.

The court has not yet decided on the status of the forced marriage but, whether the court upholds or annuls the marriage, Tahira’s future appears grim.  Even if she is released from the relationship and allowed to stay at her family home, many Muslims would regard her as an apostate deserving of death.

Previous related posts:

• Burqa forced on Christian students in Pakistan
• Christians in Pakistan under intense pressure
• Nigerian Christian children kidnapped, forcibly converted to Islam
• Egyptian Christian girls kidnapped and forced to convert to Islam

The collect for today, The Presentation of Christ in the Temple, commonly called The Purification of Saint Mary the Virgin, from the 1662 Book of Common Prayer:

Almighty and everliving God, we humbly beseech thy Majesty, that, as thy only-begotten Son was this day presented in the temple in substance of our flesh, so we may be presented unto thee with pure and clean hearts, by the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

For the Epistle: Malachi 3:1-5
The Gospel: St Luke 2:22-40

Painting: Rembrandt, The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, 1631. Mauritshuis, The Hague.