Supposing I Want To Go To An Assembly? (page 4)

topanga

if anybody recognizes you they will attack , don't be suprised to hear comments from the podium that sound like they are directed at you!

Englishman

So you really can't just wander in. You need a badge!

Looks like it's getting close to scan and download time!

Englishman, who has no intentions of trying to get a few dozen ex's into the ground so as to meet up inside and have a little fun....heh heh heh.

SpunkyChick

Oh come on everybody, you know you want to go to an assembly for those yummy hoggies, warm Shasta sodas, and delicious wholesome fruit bags....

blondie

So you really can't just wander in. You need a badge!

Englishman, you don't require a badge, but it will cut down on being asked why you don't have one by security. Just think up an explanation, perhaps coming because of the ad in the paper (if they had one) or being invited by someone who calls on you (who's name you can't remember). Conservative dress is advised and not a lot of roaming around the building. If you aren't doing anything that draws attention, you should be fine. Lack of a badge just means you might not be a JW. But the JWs supposedly want interested ones to come.

Blondie

funkyderek

You don't really need a badge unless they're expecting an apostate presence. When the conventions were held in the RDS in Dublin in the early 1980s, nobody was allowed in or out without a badge. That may have had something to do with the considerable apostate presence outside (made the national news, as I recall).

benext

For anyone worried about not having books, badge, etc. just go on the second day, or late the first day, find the lost and found and stock up!

Room 215

Oz, are you suggesting that if I show up without an I.D. badge, I'm likely to be denied entry to the spiritual banquet? Oh heaven forfend!

BluesBrother

No problem going to Twickenham last summer without a badge, although I was with a couple of family (The only reason for being there).

If challenged , perhaps a good story is called for "I like you people so much, I thought I would come and see for myself" might go down well . Or "I have come to see my grandaughter baptised, was that yesterday? Oh well!"

People I knew on security in the past were only alerted by people who looked out of place. Incidentally , when I served in the first aid tent I met a few bona fide witnesses and genuinely interested ones that looked, and were decidedly off the trolley.

Dont expect to park in their car parks. Strictly pre paid ticket holders only .

Eric

Interesting thread. Makes me marvel at how things have changed.

I remember pre-'75 and how back then at the huge five and seven day international assemblies and on down to the circuit assemblies, the "field work" leading up to the big Sunday public talk was pared down to delivering handbills door to door inviting strangers to join us. I was young but I do believe I recall "All Are Welcome" printed in boldface somewhere across the bottom.

Whole families were involved in assembly week streetcorner work where instead of holding out copies of the Watchtower and Awake, you would walk around wearing sandwich boards advertising the assembly and encouraging walk-up attendees to go down the street and into the stadium for a look-see. There is a photo of me in 1964 at the Milwaukee convention wearing my sandwich board that had to be cut down at the bottom so I would not trip over it. I was a pre-schooler.

From "All are Welcome" assemblies with JW's, sandaled flower-children, truck drivers and curiosity seekers all side by side, to security checks of those "out of uniform".

Very different and yet, both very much the same. Both then and now it is evidence for the unthinking rank and file that the time is short, the end grows near.

Eric

mouthy

I just walked in last year ( got a lot of dirty looks) I think they knew who I was ( been on many TV shows) A friend ( Christian) came with me. We sat & listened to the morning session -The Christian I was with had big tears in his eyes- He said he has never in all his years in churches seen child abuse in such a large way- All the children dressed like little buisness men- Girls in fancy dress not fidgiting, Sat there all morning he saw a few get chastised for dozing.He said it is abnormal for children to behave that way.We left!!!! They were doing a scene of what to do while they were in this town -go into the restaraunts & when the waitress serves you invite her to a Spirituel Feast... Tell her the meal is good for the body at this restraunt but wonderful food is being dished up at the SKY DOME!!!!Leave her a tip>>> a program or phamplet on the convention> of course the waitress took it. BAARF!!!!!

Supposing I Want To Go To An Assembly?

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