by Band on the Run 16 Replies latest jw experiences
I don't think the Watchtower presidents ever rotated; they stayed in for life except for Henschel.
In the early '70s, when the modern elder arrangement came into effect, congregation elders would rotate their positions. After a brief few years the rotation system was abandoned. There was never a shred of scriptural support for it anyway.
What am I getting this mixed up with then? I thought Ray Franz alluded to a rotation every year or couple years? Maybe a COBOE/PO type position within the GB?
Ray Franz was last on the GB in 1980.
Henschel "ascended" to the presidency of the WTS in 1992.
There was no rotation during Henschel's time.
Maybe you are thinking of the short-lived rotation of elders' positions in the congregation, in effect for a few years in the mid-70's.
Each GB Committee had a rotating chairman but permanent coordinator as of the 1975 GB coup. Maybe that's what you're thinking of, Miz. See page 105, footnote 20 of the chapter Internal Upheaval and Restructure.
I think chairmanship of the GB is rotated, a separate matter entirely from the presidency.
My understanding is similar to what sir82 said. By 2000, the GB were given legal advice to rearrange the structure of the Watchtower Organization, because of the legal cases mounting against them. They could, if it came to the crunch, be legally responsible for any doctrinal aberration that was published by the WTBTS. [Similar to the "mentally diseased" absurdity of last year].
The advice was to relegate the position of Watchtower president to a largely ceremonial one, exacting no real power, while the real power remained behind in a nebulous, hermetically sealed body that was all but impenetrable to public scrutiny. This body was to be legally removed from the WTBTS, while at the same time invisibly still controlling the whole shebang.
Thus if any such legal action was taken, these men could always say: "Who us? Don't know wha' your'e talkin' about. We didn't write that stuff".
Even Don Adams who was "kicked upstairs" to keep this position warm could say, "Sorry mate, don't ask me, I don't write this stuff".
This stratagem worked, and now, anyone suing the Watchtower for anything, finds himself in a minefield of legal ambiguities that requires a mind numbing set of complexities to unravel.
band you have a pm.
I remember beign at a small covention with MH, he seemed quite nice then, compared to Knorr.
I heard that he was in one of the African countries when some sort of 'persecution' broke out and suffered some physical abuse. I don't remember the details but a lot was made of it at the time.
