Just had the Circuit Assembly this weekend here:
- Surprisingly not much fuss over the new bible considering that this was the first meeting for most here to use it (the Annual Meeting was "invite only" for a select few here, and there was no Thursday meeting because of this assembly) and having a new bible was only referred to fairly briefly in a comment about how "wonderful" it is (and in the closing prayer). I think I was the only one there with an old maroon NWT - I got a confused look from one of the elders - haha! I didn't even know for sure until I got there which one they would be using on the platform (I wasn't sure how everyone would have the new one yet) but they were using the new revised one. Obviously elders must have been driving to everyone's houses to deliver them personally like they did to me.
- Ironically, despite the new bible, the talks used noticeably very few scriptures (even more noticeably than usual) - there were whole talks with maybe just one verse where the audience opened their bible, and often they would go 10 minutes with some crazy illustration, not having looked at any scripture, with the illustration being the sole means of proving the point ("it's true because we told a funny story! Haha!")
- Ephesians 4:14 was used a lot on Saturday. ("... carried hither and thither by every wind of teaching by means of the trickery of men, by means of cunning in contriving error")
- Don't even think about a university or college education - sell everything and pioneer.
- "Brazen conduct" is definitely more than just a simple replacement for sexy-time "loose conduct". Even hanging out with someone of the opposite sex in school is now classed as "brazen conduct". Oh, and apparently if you are a JW in school, you are automatically a sex magnet.
- Paintballing is now officially on the JW "no-no" list, by reason that it is apparently "learning war".
- A kid who must have been about 10-11 years old got baptized.
- Contributions were especially high (most likely due to the new bible) - even by Sunday mid-morning, enough contributions were collected to easily cover the £1000 "cost" of the assembly three times over. £500 was automatically sent to the WWW.
- They have a catchy moniker for the new "grey" bibles: the "silver sword".
- The D.O. used a rather unfortunate acronym in his last talk to make a point about things JW's are supposed to do: Study, Prayer, Association, Meetings, and yes, he held up a can of SPAM. (Is this some sort of a symbol of "spritual food" - horrible processed meat entrails in a can? Unwanted junk mail?)
That's it folks - otherwise a total snooze-fest.