Plus they are probably shooting themselves in the foot. There are a number of people who started attending on Zoom who would never have attended meetings at the KH. This means that generally Zoom attendances were higher than typical KH meetings. By forcing people back to the KH they will not succeed in getting these people into the KH, but they will just drift away as it becomes apparent that Zoom participants are viewed as second class, and somewhat unwelcome fellow travellers. Talk about own goal.
2022-07-29-Announcement!
by Atlantis 35 Replies latest jw friends
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hoser
However, it has been observed that some have developed a tendency to attend meetings on a videoconference when, according to their circumstances, they could be physically at the Kingdom Hall.
How do the elders know your circumstances? They have been trained to decide what you can and cannot personally do based on external factors.
Where I live personal medical information is private. That is the law. If a person has a compromised immune system or an anxiety disorder perhaps caused by the convid lockdowns and fear mongering how would the elders know that? I certainly am under no obligation to tell them.
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FFGhost
Plus they are probably shooting themselves in the foot. There are a number of people who started attending on Zoom who would never have attended meetings at the KH.
In the local nearby congregation, Zoom attendance during the pandemic was easily 120% or more of the count of “publishers”, I.e. just about everyone associated with the congregation plus kids plus Bible studies (in most congregations you need about 110 -130% attendance to account for non-publisher kids & studies).
Since the decree from on high at the beginning of April:
— Attendance is consistently 30-40% in person, 60-70% on Zoom
— Adding both in-person and Zoom attendance, it’s back down to the pre-pandemic levels (80-90% of the publisher count attending the meetings).
I’m not sure if that is typical elsewhere, but here, the publishers are not only defying the “thou shalt meet in person” edict but also just generally blowing off meetings entirely, in-person and Zoom.
I’m sure it’s occurred to at least some of them, “if they don’t see me on zoom, they’ll assume I am at the KH….and if they don’t see me at the KH, they’ll assume I’m on Zoom”.
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truth_b_known
Translation: "You should be attended meetings in person...where there are conveniently located contribution boxes to the World Wide Work."
Zoom proved that you can have meetings, even question and answer parts, without physically being present.
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slimboyfat
I don’t know what the official policy was about meeting parts, but locally the rule was initially that talks and meeting parts needed to be taken by people present in the Kingdom Hall. Then after a few weeks they seemed to change the policy and some parts were being handled by brothers and sisters over Zoom. I guess following the new announcement they will go back to the policy of only allowing people to deliver talks and meeting parts in person in the Kingdom Hall. Utter confusion and mixed messages.
The pattern has generally been that most elders and their wives are present at the KH in person and most other publishers view over Zoom. There are a few exceptions in either direction but as a general rule that seems pretty accurate.
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hoser
I can’t seem to find the letter but I thought that when they announced going back to meetings at memorial time we weren’t supposed to criticize those who decide to stay watching on zoom.
Edit:
I found the letter from March 12/22 and it stated
”personal choices regarding vaccination and whether to attend in person should be respected”
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road to nowhere
The fear of covid is NOT a factor in most zoom attendance. Old age, crippling seats, boring parts, travel, dress codes, all are reasons. Doing zoom easily saves an hour or more. The so called association is a joke; tgat would come from a forbidden picnic.
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slimboyfat
I can’t seem to find the letter but I thought that when they announced going back to meetings at memorial time we weren’t supposed to criticize those who decide to stay watching on zoom.
Well that didn’t last long, did it? Judging people is a habit JWs just won’t give up.
It was the same in the UK with the letter writing. At first it was presented as a possible breach of privacy law and each person would have ‘make up their own mind’. People were even told to go read the relevant laws, which caused a bit of confusion because they was no guidance where to find it or how to make sense of it. Within a few weeks everyone was expected to write letters, and there was no such thing as making up your own mind. People who didn’t were certainly judged.
They just can’t help bossing people around it’s deep in the culture. They can’t stand the idea of people arriving at their own conclusions that may differ from their own, so they label any dissenters as disobedient to the Bible. At lot of people are seeing through it however.
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Atlantis
Isn't it true that people who have received the vaccines have also been infected again? How would JW's feel if they went back to the Kingdom Halls and then had to be counseled to stay at home AGAIN?
Haven't JW's been put through enough already? It is easy for the governing body to spew out instructions when they don't have the costs and expenses the rank & file have.
As mentioned by others on this subject, the Tower wants JW's walking by those contribution boxes and reminded to "donate"!
Money is the God of the Watchtower!
Old-Timer!
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dropoffyourkeylee
Ok, I’ll go out on a limb and make a prediction. They will eventually accept that a certain percentage of people will be on zoom, freeing up seats at the KH. Then the number of JWs assigned to a congregation can exceed the number of seats. Result: more KH sales and money for the WT.