Guyana group to rebuild church tied to Jim Jones
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Officials in Guyana are rebuilding a stately, colonial church destroyed by fire that once served as a base for U.S. cult leader Jim Jones.
Construction of the new Sacred Heart Church in the capital of Georgetown will begin Friday, church spokesman Ramsal Alli said Thursday.
The $450,000 church will be built in concrete — the previous one was wood — and is designed to hold 500 parishioners, 200 fewer than the original one, he said.
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Alli declined to answer any questions related to Jones, who obtained permission to use the church in the mid-1970s to provide what turned out to be fake healing services.
On Nov. 18, 1978, Jones led more than 900 cult members — mostly Americans — into a jungle clearing where they drank cyanide-laced, grape-flavored punch while others were shot by guards loyal to Jones.
The original church was built in the late 1860s by Portuguese settlers.
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Investigators have blamed the Christmas Day fire that destroyed the church six years ago on an electrical malfunction.