Aussie JW Urban Legend...

TheApostleAK

Anyone in Australia heard this one...

Apparently sometime in the 1980s a congregation in south-east Melbourne had half its publishers resign due to those publishers reading apostate literature.

True?

From AK

Quotes

I never heard that one, but I do remember hearing about a "bomb" ingited at a Kingdom Hall (TM) during a Sunday mtg. That is why they no longer have windows on the buildings.

Recently, my (shared DNA) brother told me that it was a moletov cocktail, and it was deliverd in the middle of the night.

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For interesting Watchtower Society literature quotes, complete with references but without any editorial, check out: http://Quotes.JehovahsWitnesses.com

Beck_Melbourne

I haven't heard that one before AK...Refiners, Marilyn or Chezza may know. If it is true, Horrah for south east Melbourne!!!

Beck

The story of the bomb in the KH was true, but I don't think that's the reason they don't have windows. Here in NZ they built a few halls without windows but I always thought it was for security in high crime areas. It was a phase that didn't last long though, most halls here do have windows.

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To the world you may be one person,
But to one person you may be the world.

Simon

I remember something in a paper or a book about a whole congregation resigning (several in fact). Was it something to do with The Gentile Times Reconsidered manuscript?

Yes, I remember the bomb too.

singsongboi

the bomb was the work of a disgruntled husband ( and former brother)....

he packed it with nails. and set it under or near the platform (memory gone hazy)

the speaker for the day was david winder**, a former bethelite and CO. he had his clothes blown off -- and was indeed lucky not to die.

can't remember the year -- maybe 20 years ago.

** was also chairman of me df committee.

SYN

Did anyone die? That's horrible if they did! Yeesh, argue with them, glare at them, picket their Conventions, but don't blow the poor sods up!

They've been digging in the Euphrates Valley and have uncovered a layer of agrarian culture 8,000 years old, and an older caveman culture. Recently, they reached another layer of fused green glass.

ozziepost

I hope this doesn't go off topic but concerning the bomb explosion, it was no legend but did indeed happen. I was involved with the people concerned and it was a most distressing time. There was one death. The visiting speaker for the Public Talk suffered horrible injuries. A sister from Bethel who was particularly attractive had her face horribly disfigured and had to endure many operations as did the Public Talk speaker. A terrible thing.

Yet, in the light of our own experiences, I can say now that I can understand why someone would be led to do such a terrible thing. Not that we could ever condone it, but it's the feeling of not being in control of your own life and sheer desperation that might lead a shunned person to 'strike out'.

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

spaz

There was the StKilda congregation where most of the ministerial servants resigned when the elder body dismissed them and assigned their duties to several elderesses. This was in the early '80's.