Ewart Chitty / Ray Franz

by Decimus 7 Replies latest jw friends

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  Decimus

  In my very first post I mentioned meeting the above and promised to relate my experiences - such as they are.

  Actually I have had a nasty chest cold/virus all wk and have not really felt well so please forgive the delay.

  The meeting with Ewart Chitty took place in the Virgin Islands circa 1980/1981. I believe he was on an expenses paid trip to the islands,nothing official,and the local cong.persuaded him to give a talk.The brother who introduced him made a big play of having a member of the Governing Body visiting us but before starting his talk Chitty stated that he had recently stepped down as a member of the GB.

  He then proceeded to give a run-of-the-mill unremarkale discourse.The next day he spent in field service with us and came to my house for lunch.At lunch he made a statement that left me thunderstruck at the time.

  He said,"I don't get to anything like five meetings a week.I havn't for years." I remember it with crystal clarity - I can assure everyone that is an EXACT quote.I remember thinking that if any member of the congregation had said that he/she would have been in line for some serious counseling.Yet here was a recent member of the GB saying that he didn't get to all the meetings.He seemed amazed when I told him that I actually made it OK to all of them.

  That afternoon I worked with him in field service and was struck by something that seemed to hit me whenever I worked with a so called "bigwig" whether CO,DO or GB. That their responses and answers to questions didn't seem to be beyond what I called thr "Truth" book stage of knowledge.

  Well that's the Chitty story for now.I can feel a hot,clamy sweat coming on. Hope it's just the cold.

  Decimus.
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  one

  I know very well a long time DO and above. he once said that he was surprised or frustrated to find out that nobody knows anything. I agreed.

  In fact my last question many years ago was trying to get and explanation to Revelation 16
  18Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. 19The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed..."

  The red book "babylon" that 'explain' revelation verse by verse skip the above verse and i am still curious.
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  herbert

  Easy;

  :18Then there came flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder and a severe earthquake. No earthquake like it has ever occurred since man has been on earth, so tremendous was the quake. 19The great city split into three parts, and the cities of the nations collapsed..."

  Verse 18 refers to the graet Portguguese e-quake (nothing to do with the internet) that even sent a tidal wave as far as Britian. It crippled the Portuguese Empire and led, as Gibbons noted, to his great book "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" being, like Gaul, split into 3 parts. Gibbons clearly was the Anti-Christ since he joked too much, especially about Christians and French people. This information will be released as New Light sometime in the future
  by God's channel. You heard it here first....

  Herbert
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  terafera

  Decimus,

  Thanks for relaying the experience! I'll be looking forward to hearing about meeting Ray Franz. Also thought it was very interesting that the former GB member didnt make all 5 meetings a week!

  Ugh, I still remember hearing those talks about how, if we miss even one meeting, we might not be supporting a spiritually weak person. I remember thinking, 'gawd, now I'm responsible for everyone else's spirituality too?!?!'

  Good post! Hope you feel better soon!

  
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  one

  herbert,

  are you working?

  just in case there is vacancy in broklyn, SPIRITUAL ARCHITEC, CHRONOLGIST (sp?) and HISTORIAN, Ray Franz's uncle resigned, unvoluntarily, Ray did the same but unvoluntarily voluntary.
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  rmayer32

  That is an interesting story.. Looking forward to the Franze story.

  -Rick
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  ozziepost

  We found it an interesting read here downunder, too! Thanks for posting.

  Cheers,
  Ozzie

  "If our hopes for peace are placed in the hands of imperfect people, they are bound to evaporate."

  
  - Ron Hutchcraft Surviving the Storms of Stress
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  Room 215

  Decimus,
  
  Your experience is entirely consistent with mine. AS I've pointed out in several of my threads and Ray did in hs book, Bethel's Big Boys are notorious slackers when it comes to meetings and field service. What's that scripoture about laying on others onerous burdens that they wouldn't ouch with their little fingers?

  There are/were exceptions, of course, and Ray was one of them; they only validated the rule.