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MELVIN GRAHAM, 78, younger brother of international evangelist Billy Graham, died August 24 after a heart attack. Melvin Graham was a lay evangelist, dairy farmer, and developer.

• PAUL HILL, convicted of the 1994 murders of a doctor and a volunteer escort at a Pensacola, Florida, abortion clinic, was executed in Florida on September 3 by lethal injection. Hill, 49, did not file an appeal. Prolife leaders unanimously repudiated Hill's violence. "Paul Hill did our cause no favors," Joseph Scheidler of the Pro-Life Action League told The Christian Science Monitor. "You don't kill abortionists. You try to convert them peacefully."

• WILBUR E. NELSON, 92, who in 1944 founded a nationally syndicated radio ministry, The Morning Chapel Hour, died August 22 in Laguna Woods, California, after five weeks of hospitalization for a variety of ailments. The ministry, now called Compassion Radio, continues under the leadership of his son, Norman Nelson.

J. RAYMOND KNIGHTON JR., founder of MAP (formerly Medical Assistance Project) International, died on September 3 of congestive heart failure. Knighton was 81. MAP, based in Brunswick, Georgia, annually provides about $150 million in medicines and medical supplies to hospitals, clinics, and refugee centers around the world.

• KENNETH B. MULHOLLAND, longtime missions professor at Columbia International University and former missionary to Central America under the United Church Board for World Ministries, died September 8. Mulholland, 65, had battled cancer for the last two years.

• Controversial church founder and author Kenneth E. Hagin, 86, died September 19. A former Assemblies of God healing evangelist, Hagin founded the Word of Faith movement. Critics said Hagin emphasized an unbiblical name-it-and-claim-it theology. Hagin started Rhema Bible Training Centers in 14 countries. There are 65 million copies of Hagin's books in print.

BILL McCARTNEY, founder and president of Promise Keepers, resigned October 1. McCartney had been on a board-approved leave of absence since March 1 to care for his wife, Lyndi, who has a severe respiratory illness. PK named VP THOMAS FORTSON, JR. as his successor.

• CARL A. MOELLER, 42, formerly pastor of membership at Saddleback Community Church in Lake Forest, California, was named president/CEO of Open Doors USA in September.

World Evangelical Alliance has named JOHAN CANDELIN its goodwill ambassador. Candelin, from Finland, is the WEA's "key voice" with governments, international organizations, and the United Nations. Candelin is also executive director of the alliance's Religious Liberty Commission.

• On August 28 SAMUEL KOBIA of the Methodist Church in Kenya became the first African to be elected general secretary of the World Council of Churches. Kobia succeeds German Konrad Raiser, who held the position for 11 years.

On September 17, the Canadian House of Commons approved a bill, C-250, adding "sexual orientation" to the protected groups in the hate propaganda section of the Criminal Code. "Canadians who are speaking out against the redefinition of marriage are already being accused of 'hate' speech by homosexual activists," said Brian Rushfeldt, executive director of the Canada Family Action Coalition, in The Vancouver Sun. Rushfeldt expressed concern that under C-250, "the activists will begin to insist on prosecution to silence their critics with criminal sanctions." Under the law, promoting hatred is punishable by up to five years in prison. C-250 now goes to the Senate.

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November 2003, Vol. 47, No. 11