South East England - love of the greater number cooling off

by truthseeker 107 Replies latest jw friends

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  truthseeker

  Englishman, that Blown up Witness story is fascianting, I had to read it twice.

  I used to know an old sister who knew many senior people in the org. Her parents were of the anointed, and she was baptized in the London Tabernacle.

  Hillary-Step might know of this, this sister told me a story about an anointed brother who served at the London Bethel. He was known for a drink problem. One day it got so bad, they assigned him to do gardening duties in Bethel. The problem got more severe and they dismissed him. He ended up committing suicide. I'm not sure how long ago this would have been. I believed he jumped off Beachy Head.

  Yes, there are some weird people in the org. I was told that Midhurst congregation is basically 'ruled' by two families.

  Rustington congregation in West Sussex - anyone visited there? They had a brother play the piano for the Kingdom songs.

  Ignored One - you mentioned a CO from South Africa. Was his last name Conradie? I think he is single, serves in the Sussex Circuit, can't remember which number though.
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  ignored_one

  Short and large - Tom Maltby

  Short and thin - Wilf Gregory

  Hmm, don't ring a bell. This was the mid 80's I think.

  Ignored One - you mentioned a CO from South Africa. Was his last name Conradie? I think he is single, serves in the Sussex Circuit, can't remember which number though.

  Ah yes. Colin Conradie. All I remember that he was married living in Dover while he was in our area. Last I heard was that he'd moved back to South Africa. But that was a while ago, maybe he's split and moved again.

  Ignored One.
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  truthseeker

  just brainstorming, and remembered a name of a CO who loved those 'who were up in the truth'

  Richard Cullen, served Sussex and I think Surrey circuits.

  this is a great post, u know.

  Also, anyone heard of an organized 'circuit football team'? You had to definetley be in the 'in crowd'. I heard this from a friend who had just got baptized after leaving the truth in his teens, he was an excellent football player and had been invitied to become part of the cicuit team.

  Anyone know anyone from Worthing? I went to a few football matches there on Sat/Sun afternoons. I think they did line dancing as well.

  I remember going to a tiny little hall in Portsmouth that served the Cosham and Fratton congregations. You would never have guessed it was a hall. The sound system sounded so 'tinny'.
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  ignored_one

  Also, anyone heard of an organized 'circuit football team'? You had to definetley be in the 'in crowd'. I heard this from a friend who had just got baptized after leaving the truth in his teens, he was an excellent football player and had been invitied to become part of the cicuit team.

  I remember that quite a few younger brothers from my old cong used to go somewhere Sussex way to play football quite regularly. Maybe that's what they doing.

  Ignored One.
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  anglise

  Hi Ignored one

  There was Colin Conradie

  I think the 'camp' one was Roddy and Lucy Holyoak.

  What about Clive and Jan Upton?

  The scottish one was Glen McFarlane. We heard he had some kind of nervous breakdown. He was a nice person. Dont remember the spoon though.

  Then of course Br Carter who called all the sisters 'flower and petal' and did impromptu Q&A's from the Haysbridge platform.

  The first one I remember was Maurice Reeder and then Maurice Simpson.

  Wonder what they are all doing now?

  Anglise
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  truthseeker

  Ignored One, spot on. Colin Conradie, this was him. In the Sussex Circuit, been there about 2 years.

  I remember, and I don't know if this happened to anyone else, the CO's gave a talk on the reason that the Society 'made the generation change' A lot of the brothers had been affected by this and had slowed down reasoning that there was more time till the big 'A' came.

  Colin made a point of having the sound turned up full blast for this item. That was in 2001.

  He seemed OK, I didn't care much for the other CO's, if you weren't a pioneer, ministerial servant or elder, they didn't bother with you. Our hall always had a problem putting up the CO and his wife, it was always the same people that had them, every year.
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  aunthill

  So-o-o-o Englishman, did you ever write part 2???? If so, where/how do I find it? I'm dying to read it!

  Aunthill
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  truthseeker

  Anglise - I remember Bro Carter, I thought he was a great speaker, one of the old school. So you went to Haysbridge too huh? I always liked to sit up top, so I could see everything going on.

  I used to help out with maintenance once, gardening etc. The sisters would cook Shepherds Pie for lunch, my favourite.

  I remember when we did maintenance there once, and there was no one with me. I visited behind the stage, went up the stairs (pass the red ropes that stopped you from entering), found all kinds of nooks and crannies.

  I usually travelled by coach to Haysbridge, amazing the conversations you could hear from behind and in front of you.

  At that time, we had to cough up 6 quid for the coach fare.
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  truthseeker

  Ignored One, I remember that somewhere in Sussex, I think Worthing or possibly Horsham where they played football, it all came to a stop because it was getting too competitive. I used to go every other week there. It was very cliquey.

  I have a question for everyone, was your congregation strong regarding meeting attendance? Did some of the pioneers move to get into a more encouraging congregation. London seemed to be the place to go for anyone who wanted excitement and a more progressive ministry.

  If you pioneered, how many hours did you end up working by yourself because you couldn't get any partners to work with you?

  I aux once, half that time was spent on my own doing street witnessing.
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  anglise

  Hi truthseeker

  we used to do maintenence every CA and sometimes in between if they had a problem.

  It was good going to all the roped off bits. Especially in your old clothes.

  We always had to take our own lunch though. I seem to think that you could get a meal years ago when catering was done but of course that gradually changed.

  Also used to do cleaning at the assembly.

  Does anyone remember having to 'sanitize' after cleaning the food areas prior to the end of day inspection by Denis or Chris and the local cleaning dignatries?

  Do I miss this. HELL NO. But it is nice to talk about it with others who where there.

  Anglise