by ozziepost 12 Replies latest jw friends
G'day all,
I have a question.
At the beginning of each meeting at the Kingdom hall, the chairman invites us to find our seats and be seated.
After we have got ourselves comfortable and all is (reasonably) quiet, the meeting chairman then invites us to STAND and sing the opening song.
Does anyone else find this a bit strange? Why are we invited to sit, then before we've done anything else, we're invited to stand.
Just seems odd to me. What do you think?
Cheers,
ozzie
Truth or not [and I am hardly likely to defend all of JW doctrine] standing is merely a sign of respect.
The songs are 'praises to Jehovah God', effectively prayers.
You don't have to go along with Watchtower policy to appreciate that many individual JW's, however misled, do have a measure of respect for God.
Nic'
I remember when younger, back in the 70's, we used to SIT and sing before the Ministry school started. And then we'd sit through the prayer.
Maybe the 'brothers' figured we could sing better and louder standing than sitting.
The explanation given was like Nicolau said. Singing was a part of worship, just like prayer. So we starting standing if we were able to.
They ask us to stand to make sure the brothers ain't pitchin' tents after all ... on a witch hunt we must go...
__
zev
Sitting on the Wrong Side of the Fence Class
Agreed Nic about the sign of respect. No problem with that. My question is about the requesting the audience to first of all sit, then in quick succession to stand.
Why not simply call people to sing whilst already standing?
Ozzie
In response to your question..well even in other religions..Baptist for example..everyone gets settled down and seated..then we are asked to stand to sing the first song...and sometimes we are asked to shake hands and welcome those around us..just my commments on the question...
lol, reminded me of funny quirky things involving standing/sitting. with the opening song, ever _try_ just walking to your seat when invited to 'find' it, then just standing there knowing you're about to be asked to anyways? its only like a few seconds but it feels so wierd and uncomfortable... ive done this a few times.
another one. i was at the assembly recently and i laugh every time i hear this expression (generally twice a day) "You may wish to remain standing for some announcements" - its so neutral, not a suggestion of whether sitting or stnding would be preferable, simply a statement that you _may_ wish to remain standing. true, i 'may' wish, i 'may' wish not. i would assume quite a number wouldnt dream of wishing to stand for the announcements until they were informed that they 'may' wish to. yet, once the suggestion is made, everyone suddenly decides they _do_ wish to...
'you may wish to remain standing for some announcements...'
'i may? yay, thank you for permission!'
again, try sitting. 'you know actually, i dont wish to, but thank you for pointing out the fact that i may have'
mox
Why Ozzipost????
Because they can!
Venice
I like that Moxy about the conventions: "You may remain standing..."
Don't you find that if you sit down, you get others giving you stern looks as if you're rebellious!
I guess "You may remain standing... " is theocrateze for "You will remain standing..." LOL
Ozzie (of the seated class)
Could it possibly that it is more difficult to sing when seated because the lungs cannot expand properly also when standing the voice can be projected further?
It's just a thought.
