Congregations Closing Down

choosing life

I recently heard about a congregation that was "diabanded". The publishers were reassigned to other congregations. Is this happening elsewhere or just a local thing? They closed because of loss of publishers.

stillajwexelder

It has happened in the past - I knew many congregations that shut down after the 1975 fiasco -- about 1978/79

RunningMan

My congregation was shut down a couple of years ago. In many areas, the decrease in the number of JWs is masked by increasing population. In my area, the population is stable, so the decreasing JWs are manifest in closing congregations. Probably two or three are shut down in my province every year.

fullofdoubtnow

That hasn't happened around here yet, but it could do before long. A few years ago, the average attendance at my kh was 95 - 100 on a Sunday, and 110 - 120 for the cong we share the hall with. When I left, ours was down to 65 - 70, and the other one averaged the same, so they are both shrinking. Maybe they'll combine some time in the future.

Personally, I'd like to see them all close down.

jaguarbass

I heard they shut down the Broadview Hts Congregation in the greater Cleveland area in the past few years.

Juni P

I normally just read. I was thinking about the same thing. One way to look at it closer is to do a kind of statistical study.

I can see weak points with it, but maybe you could check phone directories of ten cities and ten small towns for kingdom halls for the years 2005 and 2006 then add up the total per year, and finally subtract the number for 2005 from the number for 2006.

This would not indicate the number or number difference for those attending those years, but it would show the number of deleted or deleted plus consolidated congregations.

I would also like to pass on a special message to any ex- or current elders reading this.

Readers who know of or hear of any elder, elders, ministerial servant or ministerial servants, current or former, saying anything about destroying kingdom hall records of pedophile activities, please send an email to [email protected]. That's Bill Bowen of silentlambs.org. Also pass a copy of this message on to persons on or formerly on Bodies of Elders, their children and other relatives. Persons who turn in these activities can do so as a protection for themselves and the children.

Thank You.

hambeak

One of the investors in this business told me the other day that his church bought a Kingdom Hall to turn it into and east Indian orthodox christian church. I am not sure if it is Mesquite, Tx or Farmers Branch, TX

daniel-p

It happens every once in a while. From my observations its either one of two things: migration of workers and their families affects local demographics and what once may have been, say a bustling mill town is now all boarded up and the once-thriving congregation dwindles down to a trickle of die-hards who simply can't maintain the KH and do all the parts and cover their territory. OR, some scandal goes down and the local body of elders are found at fault... a major shakeup happens and some are DF'd while everyone else gets absorbed into nearby congregations. I've heard of both instances, but actually seen the former a few times.

Tyrion

Yeah, 6 years ago our congregation was closed down because there was constant infighting in the Body of Elders, and it wasn't that big anyway. Every tuesday night after the regular meeting there was an Elder meeting. One time, not long before the cong. was closed down we stayed pretty long after the meeting was over, my parents were talking to someone and I was bored. While I was standing there I looked through the window into the room where the Elders were meeting, and I could see that they were in a pretty heated argument over something. Then suddenly the PO, angry, makes a run for the door, but before he reached it one of the Elders rather violently threw his arm around the PO's neck and pulled him back into the room. I couldn't believe what I'd just seen. It wasn't too long before the CO visited and disbanded the congregation immediately. And thus we went from 4 to 3 congregations.

PoppyR

Where I live there were 4 booming congregations (over 100 pubs each) ours had 9 regular pioneers in at one point. Things got so bad that recently they were only having 40 or so to meetings and 1 pioneer between two congs! So they 'amalgamated' the 4 into 3, and things are supposedly better (although I haven't been since it happened, choosing that time to fade out completely in all the confusion!)

I did attend the memorial this year and the hall wasn't even full, and that's with a third again as many publishers.

I think the only 'increase' in the UK is in the foreign language field where things are still growing, and personally I feel that's because a lot of those people are far from home and it's friendship and someone who speaks their language they seek!

Poppy

Congregations Closing Down

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