Of your mercy, please pray!
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/1...rchtheft24.html
Capitol Hill church members devastated by theft of Bible, other artifacts
Monday, May 24, 2004
By HECTOR CASTRO
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
On the ground floor of Westminster Presbyterian Church on Capitol Hill, a
venerable brick building behind Seattle Central Community College, the members of
the Holy Protection of the Theotokos Orthodox Church held services yesterday
in much the same way they have for the past three years.
But there were changes -- gone was the large, gold-plated Bible that the Rev.
Serafim Gascoigne usually used, and gone was his gold blessing cross, and
gone was the large pectoral cross and its heavy chain.
Yesterday, Gascoigne prayed from a smaller Bible, blessed with a wooden cross
and wore a smaller one on his chest.
The changes, noticeable only to the parishioners, most of them immigrants
from the former Soviet Union, came because two weeks ago, Gascoigne arrived at
the church to find that it had been burglarized.
"The first thing I noticed was that the money box had been emptied,"
Gascoigne said.
He found cupboards torn open, items strewn about and key artifacts simply
gone.
"It was devastating for everybody," he said.
Seattle police are investigating the burglary and have some leads, said Sgt.
Darryl Williams, supervisor of the Burglary Theft Unit.
Police believe that the burglary took place sometime between May 2 and May 8
when someone forced open a set of double doors leading into the altar area of
the sanctuary.
The church holds its services in a basement-level room of Westminster
Presbyterian, renting the space from the larger church.
Parishioners enter through a narrow main door and the double doors opened by
the burglar lead into a sacred area off-limits to all but the priest and the
acolytes.
The thief or thieves essentially desecrated the area just by entering,
snatching right from the Holy Table a gold-plated Bible, which Gascoigne
traditionally carried in a procession at the beginning of the service.
Anything shiny became a target, everything from a gold-plated box containing
the communion bread Gascoigne had intended for the sick, to a silver bowl,
gold plates and a silver spoon.
But the most valued item stolen, Gascoigne said, was an antique Bible with a
mother-of-pearl cover.
It was printed in Russia and used at a mission in Jerusalem more than 100
years ago.
"That can't be replaced," he said.
Williams, who has supervised the burglary detectives since last fall, said
break-ins at churches are rare.
"This is actually the first one we've had where church antiquities were
stolen," Williams said.
In the handful of other cases he's seen, he said, far less valuable items
were stolen, sometimes nothing more than food.
In a case involving the theft of religious items, Williams said, the motive
could be as simple as an opportunistic burglar making off with what he thought
he could easily sell.
Or it could be someone with a private collector in mind.
Police have made the case a high priority, he said, because the value of the
items goes beyond their cost.
Besides, he said, "I just think it's wrong to have something like this happen
to an immigrant place of worship."
The Orthodox Christian church was founded a little over three years ago and
draws many, although not all, of its 100 members from the immigrant community.
Gascoigne says services in both English and Russian, he said.
And services are generally followed by a meal in a nearby dining area, with
Gascoigne blessing the food just before everyone sits down to dine together.
Parishioner Thomas Kaczmarek was one of those attending yesterday with his
family.
Like many church members, he was shocked and saddened by the theft of the
religious items.
But, he said, his sorrow was more for those who stole them, than for any loss
the church suffered.
"We look at this as a way for us to grow spiritually," he said.
Gascoigne expressed the same thought, saying the burglary had actually
brought the small church community closer together.
"It's given us unity," he said.
SOME PEOPLE!
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