- 29 December 2013 - During a judicial committee for apostasy in Croatia Lloyd Evans hands in a disassociation letter for both himself and his wife. His letter simply stated that he resigned as a JW. His wife's was longer and evidently ambiguous - enough so that the elders felt they should have their own meeting with her.
There are some issues with this statement I don't go along.
One can handle a disassociation letter in at any time least of all during a JC. Actually one of the reason some do this is because they don't want to attend a JC. Yes undoubtedly the elders would try to speak to the person and in the end a JC could be formed often in absentia in the case of a disassociation letter. Generally disassociation letters must be kept simple and straight to the point. A letter that would list the reasons that one decided to leave the JWs wouldn't be accepted. That explains the elders' request for a revised letter from Dijana. In short no one can write a letter saying they sinned of porneia or celebrated Christmas so they decided to go. That kind of letter won't be accepted and a formal JC would still be the only possible way.
There is another massive problem with this though. No one can be disfellowshipped for apostasy the very same night of their JC. Apostasy is one of those sins that doesn't follow the usual rule. No elder would risk to lose an appeal because they decided to cut corners, speeding the business up a bit. It doesn't work like that. The person who is believed to be apostatising needs to be officially admonished at the very least 2 times and this BEFORE a JC can even be formed.
Apostasy trials often require more elders than normal ones. Often 5. I heard of a trial with 13 elders. I personally assisted one with 7. Generally elders prepare a lot of material before hand. It is really hard work. And they KNOW what sort of teachings the person objects (because of the 2 previous official warnings) No. Apostasy trials are not performed by the chance. They are meticulously prepared and dealt with the massive attention by the elders.
If during a JC for apostasy a person gets frustrated with the elders and declare that they had enough and they would write a letter of disassociation I would be really surprised that it would be accepted.
Did Lloyd Evans attend his own JC for apostasy? From what he writes about the answer is no he did not.