Ex-Hostage Weir Heads Church
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MINNEAPOLIS — The Rev. Benjamin Weir, a former missionary to Lebanon who was kidnaped and held hostage by Shia Muslims for 16 months, today was elected to the top position in the Presbyterian Church (USA).
Weir received 356 votes, 23 more than needed, to be elected moderator by delegates to the church’s 198th General Assembly. Weir, 62, who has been on furlough and living in California since his release in September, had said that, if chosen, he would work for peace in a denomination torn by three years of merger negotiations.
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