Sentence:  In this way the Heaven's Gate community were not only escaping the threat of ‘global destruction', they were hurling themselves directly into ‘the lap of God', using their <WSD>suicide</WSD> as a way of ‘bridging the chasm' between an earthly world which had no future and ‘a thousand years of unmitigated peace'. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  A particular instance of a person intentionally killing himself or herself, or of multiple people doing so.