And now a word from the press ...

I found this on the website for Brandon's CKX TV station:

Church Arsonists Get Jail Time
Last Updated Tue, 27 June 2006 06:23:23 PM

3 people guilty of burning down the Minnedosa United Church are walking out of the courthouse after each receiving jail time of no less than 2 years.

“I can’t say I’m satisfied with the jail time it is what I expected they would get. I think that in terms of what they did it should’ve been longer,” says Church Member Lorraine McKay.

The fire was reported early on the morning of February 12th. Fire crews did all they could to save the 105-year-old building. But it was completely destroyed.

The court heard that night, Kelsey Taylor, Deanna Matthews, and Mark Wishart were all drinking in a cemetery. Wishart took gas from his grandma’s house. At the church, Matthews broke a window and poured gas into the building, Taylor attempted to ignite it with a lighter. After failing on their first try the group returned a second time and the church went up in flames.

“It has just broken my heart to see that brand new organ and brand new piano burnt to crisp,” says Church Organist Eleanor Taylor.

For his involvement, Mark Wishart was sentenced 2 years in a provincial jail.

Deanna Mathews will serve two years in federal jail.

And Kelsey Taylor who’s described as the ring leader of the arson will spend three years also in a federal penitentiary.

The crown says both Taylor and Matthews are people part of a scene denouncing religion, glorifying the genre of black metal anti-Christian music.

The court decided Wishart wasn’t as extreme. Judge Krystyna Tarwid says the arson was motivated by a hate of religion.

“Nothing will replace the building,” says Minister Shawn Ankenmann. “Vindictiveness doesn’t have a place here. It was a sentence they will see time in jail and they’ll get the help they need that’s the important part for me.”

The congregation says it lost a building pointing out its people that make up the church. This sentencing was another step forward in their journey to rebuild.

Church members expect to turn sod in the spring of 2007.