Who's Going to the Memorial Tonight? (page 4)

HSS1971

2008 makes 11 years since i been to the memorial.

well apparently I'm the only sucker here who actually went! I just went tonight because it was easier to go at this point then deal with all the drama. But at least we had it the local convention center and not the hall. Attendance? As far as I saw it has plummeted since last year, only about two-thirds full this year yay!

watson

Wow, Bonnie_Clyde, that is a big deal. Must have felt strange.

chrisjoel

I went. Had to ....but....an elder who ive known since childhood ...and havent seen in yrs...gave me a hug knowin full well my "apostate " background.and that im stil lDFd....nice guy i still like him. THe local cong usuallly go to the local assembly hall for their memorial. They had like 1302 ppl there..seemed like less than usual ..lots of emtpy seats beside me...Usual crap ..how do u know if U are to partake of the emblems...blah blah blah....membership drive meeting mostly.

IcingHeart

I went tonite, because my family doesn't know about all the forbidden research I've been doing. They have no idea that I've freed my mind. So I have to go to every meeting, inlcuding memorial.

Ours was at a country club, and it seemed like there were less people than last time, but that could be because it was just our congregation and we weren't sharing.

Nothing too spectacular to report. There was the outline of 12 minutes for jesus and 21 minutes for explaining who partakes and why you should get baptized. But there was one thing: While they were passing the bread and wine, the speaker read from some new book (not sure which one) about jesus's death and what he had to endure. This is the first time I've ever been to a memorial and not have to sit and listen to deafening silence. Did anyone who went tonight had this happen as well?

R.F.

I stayed home and played Xbox instead. LOL

I was surprised that my sister tried to talk me into attending. She's not a JW, and never goes to meetings now. She said that she should at least try to attend this one. I asked what was the difference between this one and the other meetings, she said she didn't know.

My parents didn't even pressure me to go as much as I thought they would. Dad didn't even attend, he worked instead. This is the first Memorial i've missed in my entire life.

daniel-p

Well, I went and I lived. It wasn't bad, except for the whole talk thing. I looked up the scriptures and read them within their context. Funny thing, when you do that, none of their drivel makes any sense. Who would've thought. There seemed to be a lot of attendees, but it wasn't my old congregation, so I don't know if it was more than usual. Oh, and thanks for those words, 5th Generation. I went because I love my wife enough to go when she asks. She does enough for me, so who am I to deny her my company? She knows I don't believe a lick of it anymore, but since its such a big part of her life, she's happy to share what she can with me. I don't feel slighted that she's still in; it's what she wants to do and I respect her decision. It cuts both ways, right? It's got nothing to do with being hypocritical. Neither does it have anything to do with standing up for what's right. It's got to do with saving my goddamn marriage and creating a happy household.

lrkr

It is amazing the mental gymnastics that are done to force applications of various scriptures:

"I have other sheep"- The obvious reference is to non-Jewish belivers not some separate class of Christians
Romans 8- "Only those who cry out Abba Father" should partake- If you read the whole chapter, its pretty obvious that there are two groups- "those that live by spirit" and "those that live by flesh". So, if someone is not in the group adopted by the Father then.....
"Keep doing this" "As often as you drink and eat you proclaim the Lord" - Doesn't seem to be a once a year event
"144,000" the ONLY literal phrase in the entire book of Revelation
"Great crowd standing before the throne" and "in the temple" so they're different from the 144,000 HOW???
2 separate hopes- Just not in there- sorry

Its hard to listen to the foolishness after having read the context. And it makes me ashamed that it took me so long to see it.

Tired of the Hypocrisy

Not much to report. There were 343 in attendance. I don't remember last year's numbers so I have no idea if there were more or less in the rented hall this time. Lots of gangsters were there though, accompanying they baby mama or something. A couple had ms-13 tattoos on their faces. The schpeel was the same as always. I read an outline on here I think, so I timed it. 9 and a half minutes talking about Jesus and His sacrifice, 23 minutes talking about how WE are all not supposed to partake. I also saw no one partake.

ronin1

We decided to go to the memorial on Saturday, here in Palm Beach County where we live. It was at 9:00 EST.

When we arrived the KH was almost full. People were congregating like it was a party and taking pics. I do not remember that type of atmosphere happening years ago. When we were young it was a very solemn, respectful occasion to the point where it was very quiet in the KH. Obviously that has changed.

Anyway, fast forward to the memorial talk, which was quite boring and uneventful. It was not like when we lived up north, in Queens, NY. You always anticpated a talk by a bethel bro and most of the memorial talks were enlightening and kept you awake. My husband and I critiqued the brother who gave the talk. His body language embodied the typical 'I am the PO elder" aura and he acted very standoffish and snobbish. His wife walked around the KH before the talk with the auro that "I am an PO elder's wife".

Nowhere in the talk was it mentioned about the new information that anyone can partake if they deemed themselves of the anointed. The talk outline stuck to the old adage of the anointed being chosen by God and those were the ones to partake. But now we come to the crazy part of this memorial service:

The brother who gave the prayer before the passing of the bread literally gave a 5 minute prayer talk.....I am not joking. The prayer was so long I started squirming. When it came time to pass around the bread or matza, I and my husband had to make sure we did not laugh out loud. You would not believe how horrible the bread looked. It seemed as if they had taken the bread out of storage. It was gray, broken up in pieces and even had crumbs on the plate. It was embarassing. We could not believe that with visitors, the cong would present, to the public, on such an occassion, bread representing Christ's body that looked so bad. After calling my mom, she said that in the South, sometimes the congs used homemade matza bread at the memorial celebrations. My husband, who is from the Carribean, said that when he was younger, the congs also used homemade matza bread for the memorial celebrations because his own mother baked for the memorial- but it looked much better.

Then, when another brother was praying before passing the wine, he kept referring in his prayer that the wine represented Christ's body. I kept cringing everytime he said that in prayer. My husband said because the brother was elderly he made those mistakes. Regardless of that, I feel on such a solemn occasion when you have new visitors, you should not make such a mistake when praying.

P.S- The special announcement at the memorial this year was the attend the Special Talk...........wow!!

Anyway, that was our memoral celebration experience for 2008.

Ronin1

Who's Going to the Memorial Tonight?