CO/DO's in the UK?

by pobthespazz 202 Replies latest jw experiences

  • Farmer Jim1
    Farmer Jim1

    CO's that covered Manchester circuits;

    David Algarve (can't remember much)

    David Bingham

    John Black (very charismatic, wife Elizabeth a bit strange!)

    John Hobden

    David Carter (took my first pioneer school, was quite ill by this point but was still mischievous)

    Steve Clarke (absolute Pratt, not liked among the elders, heard he became a DO)

    Ian Thomasson (quiet man, again not well liked because of his lack of charisma although he was my favourite, low key not looking for worship like the others)

    Derek Casey lovely bloke

    John Hopcraft (crazy as a bucket of frogs but likeable, think he had a nickname of 'the axe man'

    Mike Peak (stand in CO, great speaker)

    John Oldham (another great speaker, think he got overlooked by org for greater things & sometimes showed his frustration

    Edmund Kerr (odd)

    It started to occur to me towards the end that CO visits were more about flashy charismatic personalities creating a 'brotherhood feel' rather than any concrete 'deep thing' being shared. Bell & whistles & shiny paper instead of substance. I'm sure some of the CO's new what the organisation is really like, they must see some things behind closed doors.

  • Researchedandenlightened
    Researchedandenlightened

    Jim and Linda Cleary.....now there,s a story !

  • stan livedeath
    stan livedeath

    i missed this thread five years back, i see the names of now absent friends posting on here. i wish them well as they have moved on.

    a name from 10 years ago--CO Michael Ganderton. i had heard he went as a CO many years ago. i knew him from the i o wight ( UK ) in the early 70's. he tried to get me to come back into the cult as 1975 was getting very close !

  • wizzstick
    wizzstick

    Jim and Linda Cleary.....now there,s a story !

    Jim was our CO in the mid-90s.

    A self righteous idiot, who was a big Trekkie. He would insist that ST:TNG was recorded by his host family when it was on. Got very stressed when someone forgot.

    He was loved and loathed fairly evenly. He told me whillst we were on the ministry how his body of elders had found out that a lad had watched Aliens (an 18 rated film he stressed) so they D'fd him for his lack of repentance.

    He had a habit of moving the podium away so it didn't block him. So he'd be standing there just behind the microphone. Seemed to love everyone being able to see him fully.

    Years later we heard some stories about him.

    Firstly that he'd left his wife amd run with some other woman.

    Then that this was totally untrue.

    Then that it was true.

    So we never got to the bottom of it.

    Is this where he ended up?

    The five-strong team are all Jehovah’s Witnesses, with Liz Henderson and Micah Alford there daily, Natalie Webb works part-time and book-keeper Jim Cleary comes in once a week. “We take our religion seriously, but not ourselves,” said Jim, summing up the warm atmosphere around the place in an instant.

    History of Lamb’s Jeweller

  • BluesBrother
    BluesBrother

    A C/o who was a self confessed Trekkie? He'd have been popular around here!

    I recall several of the characters on this thread... nostalgia is wonderful.

    Today however such individuals have disappeared, replaced by faceless dull born-in company men who dare not depart from the script. Pioneers from school they have no experience of life and just repeat the phrases to support the great God called" The Society '

    I swear they clone them in a Bethel laboratory!

  • Researchedandenlightened
    Researchedandenlightened

    Firstly that he'd left his wife amd run with some other woman.

    Then that this was totally untrue.

    Then that it was true.

    So we never got to the bottom of it.

    Jim,s wife "ran off" with a local elder ( another self righteous arsehole) of around 35 years service to the org, they got married and rejoined another congregation, but unfortunately for the cheating elder he dropped down dead with an heart attack, Linda i dont know what happened to her, apparently Jim is now living in Southern England , dont know if he still serves in any any capacity within the org

  • wizzstick
    wizzstick

    Thanks for the update Researchedandenlightened.

    Hope Linda found happiness. Bit of a Stepford Wife but she deserved better.

  • Researchedandenlightened
    Researchedandenlightened

    Hope Linda found happiness. Bit of a Stepford Wife but she deserved better.

    Was led to believe Jim was the "innocent party" but if he was a trekkie nerd maybe not

    The Elder she ran off with was an arrogant self righteous prick....on reflection most of them were in the Hartlepool Congregation , the elders used to have "wine nights" in Jims house before he became CO , with one of his drinking pals being the very same " brother" who committed adultery with his wife ....corrupt, the lot of them !

  • konceptual99
    konceptual99

    I just happen to know one of the names mentioned in the article about the Hartlepool jewellers. He has a brother dahn sarf who equally represents everything bad about what happens to blokes when they become elders. Their late father reached a rare level of notoriety for his shenanigans as well.

  • jookbeard
    jookbeard

    there used to be a list in the UK Branch of current CO/DO's I wonder if anyone has a current up to date list?

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