{Brother ?, a copy of this is being passed around here in Bristol, Kent, London, etc. to “certain” Elders by way of Heads Up. Feel free to ignore it or investigate it.}
Do not pass it on to any of the Friends who might be stumbled.
Do NOT allow any suspected apostates to get hold of this, of course.
Let us hope this is all hysteria and things will be back to normal soon.
G.L. Bristol
In the United Kingdom England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland all Kingdom Hall are individually registered as a separate “charity” with the Charity Commission.
Each year, registered Kingdom Halls must surrender an annual report of accounts as a non-profit in much the same manner as any for-profit business or corporation.
Reporting is not voluntary. Expenses and expenditures, etc. must appear for the entire year.
However -
If you go online and check with the local Charity Commission under the heading TRUSTEES and list the names/location of any/all Kingdom Halls you discover:
every last one of them has breached the deadline by {as of this date} 37 days and counting.
In this past year, the Watchtower Society has required every congregation to send ALL their money to a designated KINGDOM HALL TRUST (Charities Commission).
A quick check online of that Trust reveals that $104 million has been extracted leaving individual congregations in arrears and overdue for the last 395 days.
Several Local Elders who are Trustees(speaking on the agreement of anonymity) have frantically revealed that All the Kingdom Halls are being hung out to dry and left to their own devices by the Society {local Bethel}.
[The Kingdom Hall Trust on the other hand has not missed any deadlines for reporting financial activity to the Commission.]
When a Kingdom Hall loses its designated “charity” status it becomes subject to Taxation locally and at large. Elders will become responsible and the designation of “Trustee” will be meaningless. The Society in past years has taken ownership of all the Kingdom Halls even those built without the use of loans from Watchtower. The local autonomy in communities was signed over as well along with the bank accounts.
Scuttlebutt [take it for what it’s worth] is that Watchtower will sell off ALL Kingdom Halls for cash and permanently switch all meetings to ZOOM to eliminate the possibility of any continued liability for child molestation lawsuits springing from wrongful handling at local Kingdom Halls by bad actors.
Watchtower payouts for 13 Million, 28 Million, 35 Million in penalty awards plus a host of Non-Disclosure suits settled out of court added to $4k per day for failure to comply with Court ordered subpoenas for pedophiles records from Watchtower is said to be the cause of great financial drain.
[NYTimes, National Public Radio, NBC] have separately run high-profile stories of abuse in the States whidh were not reported to authorities over many decades because of a 2 Witness loophole resulting in offenders whose abuse was committed repeatedly in secret.
The rumored “return to Kingdom Hall” meetings have recently been suspended. Pilot programs reportedly “didn’t work out” it was officially stated and have been suspended. No new date for resuming physical interaction at the Halls has not been mentioned.
_______
For Your Eyes Only
Link Below
Type on your browser: Jehovah's witnesses+trustees+"your congregation's name" :
KINGDOM HALL TRUST:
https://register-of-charities.charity...
Jehovah’s Witnesses now participating in the National Redress Scheme
10 September 2021
Jehovah’s Witnesses has now joined the National Redress Scheme allowing survivors of this institution to have their applications progressed.
In addition to the Jehovah’s Witnesses, a further 33 institutions are joining the Scheme including Tennis Australia, Ipswich Girl’s Grammar School, St John Ambulance Australia Queensland, Youth Off the Streets and Scripture Union Tasmania. This announcement means that, in total, 37 applications can be progressed.
Minister for Families and Social Services Anne Ruston welcomed the commitment from the latest group of institutions to join the Scheme, many of which had not been named in an application.
"The Morrison Government has been absolutely clear that we expect institutions which have been named by a survivor in an application to join the National Redress Scheme,” Minister Ruston said.
“It is clear that the powerful financial, reputational and legislative levers the Commonwealth has used have been successful at ensuring institutions understand and recognise their moral obligation to survivors.
“We are also working hard to make sure that every institution with a history of working with young people joins the Scheme no matter when a survivor comes forward to access redress through the Scheme.”
Minister Ruston reminded institutions that when the Scheme received an application, that institution then has six months to join the Scheme.
“Any institution which fails to participate will be named and shamed, become ineligible for Commonwealth grants and risk being stripped of their charitable status and, therefore, lose associated tax concessions,” Minister Ruston said.
To date, the Commonwealth, all state and territory governments and 526 non-government institutions across Australia are participating in the Scheme.
As at 3 September 2021, the Scheme has received 11,835 applications. In total 6,208 payments have been made totalling more than $529.3 million.
Further information about the National Redress Scheme is available on the website: www.nationalredress.gov.au