Am I to understand this right, sales and acquisition of halls and remodeling must now be approved by the "branch" not locally?

LevelThePlayingField

Is this the now correct understanding? Does the borg now take over even the local Kingdom Halls?! What the hell?! Is this really true? Can anyone verify this? So am I to understand this correctly that they don't trust the brothers even locally enough to make a local decision as they have done for the last, what 50 years effectively and now, poof, that's gone too?! WTF>?!

pepperheart

If you go onto jw broadcasting itself and look in the video section sam hurd has done two short clips no more than 6 mins telling everybody at the agm and then a later one as well

The Searcher

According to the Org's recent letter to congregations, the phrase "master plan" was used to describe how Kingdom Halls would be consolidated and used by more than one congregation, or how congregations would be merged - to make the best use of "auditorium capacity."

Undeniably the objectives of the exercise amounts to the same thing - sell off Kingdom Halls and send the proceeds to Brooklyn. Let the sheep spend more and travel longer distances!

The decision to select which K.H.'s are "sacrificed", belongs to the Circuit Overseer, who will "discuss the auditorium capacity of the K.H.'s" with the bodies of elders - and then inform the Branch which halls will be worth selling.

committeechairman

Yes, this is correct. From the letter to all bodies of elders dated 2/23/2015:

5. Kingdom Hall Construction and Renovations: Decisions related to what goes into a Kingdom Hall, where a Kingdom Hall should be built, when it should be remodeled, and what congregations should attend the Kingdom Hall are now made by the branch office.

CC

Beth Sarim

yes, the branch is having pretty much all say what the Borg does from now on.

Finkelstein

Its not surprising that the WTS would centralize the wealth and assets of the Organization at this point in time.

In recent years the WTS has influenced each congregation to hand over the property tittle to the WTS. away from named trusties to each Kingdom Hall. $$$

Whether ones sees it or not The Watchtower Corporation is a religious publishing house.

Beth Sarim

Yes, a multi-billion dollar real estate company with the façade as a religion. Very deceptive.

fukitol

What Searcher said.

KH's are not producing enough money anymore and have become a liability, with lots of empty seats and donations drying up. The Watchtower doesn't want it's members spending most of their donations just to maintain an old Kingdom Hall; they want the money coming in to Headquarters. So about two thirds of KHs will be sold off, congregations merged or sharing one hall, and the sale proceeds invested in things that provide a decent return.

Finkelstein

There is a underlining business going on with the JW/WTS organization whether one wants to see that or not.

The WTS money counters are clearly aware of the value of its real estate property holdings as well.

So if one Kingdom Hall / Congregation is weak in numbers and donations, it would be most likely that KH would be dissolved and its remaining congregates would be transferred to another Hall close by.

LevelThePlayingField

Thank you all so much for your answering this for me.

Am I to understand this right, sales and acquisition of halls and remodeling must now be approved by the "branch" not locally?

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