JW Structure and Acronyms

by greenie 7 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  greenie

  I was wondering if anyone can tell me or point to me to old posts and web sites that explain the structure of a JW congregation, all the acronyms used and how meetings are arranged. Here are the ones I think I know:

  GB - Governing Body

  MS - Ministerial Servant (I have no idea was this means or what this person does)

  DF/DA - Disfellowship/associate

  RF - Rank and File

  Talk - sermon

  Meeting - service

  Field service - going door to door

  RV - return visit

  Etc, etc.

  Just trying to learn more about this curious organization...
• 

  Mastodon

  BOE-Body of Elders

  PO-President Overseer (of a congregation)

  CO-Circuit Overseer (nothing to do with electronics)

  CA-Circuit Assembly

  But most of these are not 'official', is just the way we refer to them on the forum.
• 

  Perry

  This is the big one to know:

  WP - Whirly Person (worldly person)
• 

  creativhoney

  TH - Total Hypocrite

  BW - Brainwashed

  TGIL - Thank god I left

  YHWH - You Hoo Woo Hoo
• 

  blondie

  http://jehovah.to/glos/index.html
• 

  villabolo

  I'll rank the hierarchy first:

  1. Publishers=Active Jehovah's Witness (no acronym).

  2. Ministerial Servant(MS)=Deacon. Lowest rank in the JW hierarchy.

  3. Elder=Minister. Several per congregation. MS are their assistants.

  4. Circuit Overseer(CO)=Equivalent of Bishop. They are the link between the Governing Body and the congregations.

  5. District Overseer(DO)=Equivalent of Archbishop.

  6. There are others above the preceeding which I am not too familiar with such as Zone Overseer but they have little impact on the lives of the ordinary JW

  7. Governing Body(GB)=Supreme Council that makes all decisions and wields all the power.

  8. Faithful and Discreet Slave(FDS)=A spiritual paper tiger with no real power or prestige. They came into existence in JW mythopoetry for complicated reasons that I won't bother getting into.

  villabolo
• 

  Dagney

  Can't forget...

  OR - Overly Righteous (what JW's call other JW's)
• 

  villabolo

  Greenie; other than their hierarchy they have a lot of terms that they've chosen to change so as to make themselves 'spiritually pure' even though there are non JW terms. They want to distance themselves from any term or phrase that other churches use out of a pathological hatred of "Christendom". Here they are:

  1. Podium instead of pulpit.

  2. Kingdom Hall(KH) instead of church.

  3. Information board instead of bulletin board. They changed that based on the fact that the word bulletin has a religious origin. The origin, centuries ago, referring to the fact that the word referred to a Papal Bull that was nailed to the wall of a church building to inform churchgoers (who could read) whatever the Pope wanted to communicate.

  4. Talk instead of sermon.