Posts by darkspilver

7

California Tubbs Fire photos you might not find find anywhere else...

by La Capra in

jw
friends

to quote someone near and dear: they should have built the whole kingdom hall out of the same thing they built the signs.... i had to wait nearly two weeks to get into the neighborhood to get these pictures for your voyeuristic interests...this is peanuts compared to the over 5,000 homes that were destroyed (this number includes individual units in large apartment complexes that were completely razed).

those pictures and videos are available in the media.

wine country is a community devastated..

darkspilver

Thanks for the pictures.....

Kingdom Hall, 184 Ursuline Rd, Santa Rosa California USA

Used by three congregations:

Mark West Spanish
Mark West English
Larkfield (English)

MAP: https://goo.gl/maps/NoTyLYLXZJC2

Some BEFORE pictures......

LINK for larger picture one

LINK for larger picture two

32

Stagnation of JWs in Britain

by darkspilver in

jw
friends

this is an 'off-topic' continuation of this discussion.

steve2: in britain, growth of publishers is slowing down, if not stagnating.

darkspilver: .

darkspilver

steve2: Special Pioneers... Can anyone verify that?

(Not dates of changes, just WT 'mentions')

Watchtower February 15, 1957
Page 115: It is a grand service wherein regular pioneers spend at least 100 hours a month preaching and special pioneers a minimum of 150 hours.

Yearbook 1977
Page 22: Special pioneer hours were reduced to 140 per month to help them to continue in the full-time service, to give them time to do shepherding work in the congregations and also to find some means of income, if this is necessary in their case

Who Are Doing Jehovah’s Will Today? (Brochure) 2012
Lesson 13 What Is a Pioneer?: Others are selected to serve as special pioneers in areas where the need for Kingdom proclaimers is greater, devoting 130 hours or more to the ministry each month.

steve2: I acknowledge your need to draw this topic out darkspilver

You asked for my comments. I appreciate you taking the time to read and comment on them.

steve2: You also say, "I believe it is therefore a statistical fallacy to use 'peak publishers' - it is much better to use 'average publishers'... could you tell me exactly which statistical fallacy you are referring to when peak publishers are used?

For the Annual Report (covering 1 September to 31 August), the WT is counting, not individual people, but rather the Report forms they submit each month, from the same group of people (ie not random people), and there is a very small increase/decrease over the year.

The Annual Report, as printed in the Yearbook, is distilled from the Monthly Reports submitted by publishers - but remember.....

When publishers forget to submit a Report, they give in a 'late' Report the next month and they get double or triple-counted (or more!);
The 'peak' month is not a random month, it is pre-determined as being the end of the 'Service Year' in August, and it is, by far, significantly higher than ALL the other months, before and after;
The only reason it is higher is because of the 'late' reporting for the 'Service Year' just finishing, and the extra effort put in to collect those late reports (see '1' above).

I believe it is therefore statistically dishonest for the WT to use the 'Peak Publisher' number in the way they do as, in many cases, it gives a knowingly higher figure than what the reality is.

I also think that even comparing like-for-like, peak-with-peak, year-to-year, is not good statistical practice.

If you want a high 'peak' number, you encourage 'late' reporting (!), which would appear to be working against statistical ethics.

The 13-year stretch in my OP started with the 2003 Service Year - therefore the examples below are of the number of publisher's reports submitted each month for the first two years: 2003 and 2004.

NOTE: Admittedly, publishers in some countries are better at Reporting on-time: In 2003, Austria, with annual growth of 0%, reported an average of 20,148, and a peak of 20,331 - but then this causes a statistical problem when comparing 'peak publishers' country-by-country.

26

the beautiful Towers hotel now for sale

by neat blue dog in

its a gorgeous building, and you should see the commercial they made for it.. http://21clarkstreet.com.

the commercial video, as well as the cool 360° vr views are available on the home page of.

https://www.watchtowerbrooklynrealestate.com.

darkspilver

SOLD!

A Florida firm just paid $200M for a Jehovah’s Witnesses building, and its plans might surprise you

The Real Deal, Wednesday, November 1, 2017
Kayne Anderson to spend $100M renovating 21 Clark Street
The Jehovah’s Witnesses continued their Brooklyn selling spree, offloading a Brooklyn Heights apartment building to private equity firm Kayne Anderson Real Estate Advisors for $200 million.
The buyer plans to spend another $100 million to renovate the property at 21 Clark Street and convert it into a luxury senior home, the Wall Street Journal reported. The developer hopes to cash in on growing demand for assisted living as baby boomers age.
READ FULL ARTICLE: https://therealdeal.com/2017/11/01/florida-firm-pays-200m-for-jehovahs-witnesses-building-plans-luxury-senior-homes/

32

Stagnation of JWs in Britain

by darkspilver in

jw
friends

this is an 'off-topic' continuation of this discussion.

steve2: in britain, growth of publishers is slowing down, if not stagnating.

darkspilver: .

darkspilver

slimboyfat: Elders are allowed to count various activities including giving talks, I believe. I have no idea how longstanding that “allowance” is.

Just congregation public talks I thought as actual 'preaching' time.

Which used to be one hour long (?), but are now only 30 minutes - counted even if entire audience is baptised, as it is a public meeting.

If they are regular pioneers they may count some other 'theocratic' time as a time 'credit' only, but it is not counted as 'field ministry' time for the WT's Annual Report.

Divine Purpose, pages 312 and 313

1938: Time spent in street advertising of public talks (information marches) first reported
1940: Time spent in street witnessing with magazines first reported
1945: Time spent delivering public talks first reported
1949: Incidental preaching time [AKA informal wwitnessing] first reported

I believe it was around 1976 when the regular pioneers went from 1,200 hours-per-year down to 1,000 hours-per-year (AKA 90-hours-a-month).

9

Grieving Parents Denounce JW Faith (Blood)

by darkspilver in

sad situation for the parents.child death blamed on religious beliefs.

zimbabwe, the sunday mail, sunday, october 29, 2017. a jehovah’s witness lost her baby during childbirth because she and her husband followed church teachings and turned down blood transfusions that could have averted the tragedy.. getrude seneri (28) said she experienced labour complications on september 20, 2017 and doctors said blood transfusions were necessary to save both her and her child.. the couple stuck with their religious beliefs resulting in the child dying and her husband, misheck bande, stepped in to authorise transfusions for her when he was told that his wife’s life was also on the brink.. now, the couple have denounced the church for its teachings on blood transfusions.. opening up to the sunday mail society last week, seneri and bande spoke of how they were initially willing to risk their lives for their religious beliefs – but had changed their minds after the loss of their child.. jehovah’s witnesses are not alone when it comes to rejecting blood transfusions.. prince marezva, an elder of the johane masowe apostolic sect said they were totally against blood transfusions and organ transplants.. zimbabwe national traditional healers association president george kandiero said transfusions were shunned because people feared taking in bad spirits from the donor’s lineage.. another religious group that does not condone blood transfusions is the church of christ, scientist (aka christian science).. read full article: http://www.sundaymail.co.zw/child-death-blamed-on-religious-beliefs/.

related discussion: https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5981654168371200/wonder-if-their-any-parents-theses-children-on-here-now-may-22-1994.

darkspilver

Sad situation for the parents.

Child death blamed on religious beliefs

Zimbabwe, The Sunday Mail, Sunday, October 29, 2017
A Jehovah’s Witness lost her baby during childbirth because she and her husband followed church teachings and turned down blood transfusions that could have averted the tragedy.
Getrude Seneri (28) said she experienced labour complications on September 20, 2017 and doctors said blood transfusions were necessary to save both her and her child.
The couple stuck with their religious beliefs resulting in the child dying and her husband, Misheck Bande, stepped in to authorise transfusions for her when he was told that his wife’s life was also on the brink.
Now, the couple have denounced the church for its teachings on blood transfusions.
Opening up to The Sunday Mail Society last week, Seneri and Bande spoke of how they were initially willing to risk their lives for their religious beliefs – but had changed their minds after the loss of their child.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are not alone when it comes to rejecting blood transfusions.
Prince Marezva, an elder of the Johane Masowe Apostolic Sect said they were totally against blood transfusions and organ transplants.
Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers Association president George Kandiero said transfusions were shunned because people feared taking in bad spirits from the donor’s lineage.
Another religious group that does not condone blood transfusions is the Church of Christ, Scientist (aka Christian Science).
READ FULL ARTICLE: http://www.sundaymail.co.zw/child-death-blamed-on-religious-beliefs/

31

Organizational Accomplishments - Expanded Video Production Facilities at Patterson

by wifibandit in

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rnzlcngtf-8.

darkspilver

FYI

Original discussion from 2015 - includes links to more information

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/153990001/new-wt-property-v-production

Looks like WT bought it for $6.1million

32

Stagnation of JWs in Britain

by darkspilver in

jw
friends

this is an 'off-topic' continuation of this discussion.

steve2: in britain, growth of publishers is slowing down, if not stagnating.

darkspilver: .

darkspilver

slimboyfat: Presumably you mean per year not per month.

haha, yes, thanks for picking that up!!

Totally my inadvertent mistake - sorry - I wrote that post between doing some month-based number crunching.

In January 1999 there was an adjustment in the hour requirement for regular pioneers (reducing it from 90 to 70 hours per month) and for auxiliary pioneers (from 60 to 50).

I think the 30 hour aux pio provision for Memorial and CO visit came into operation from around 2012 and the 15-minute publisher provision came in around 2001.

32

Stagnation of JWs in Britain

by darkspilver in

jw
friends

this is an 'off-topic' continuation of this discussion.

steve2: in britain, growth of publishers is slowing down, if not stagnating.

darkspilver: .

darkspilver

Phoebe: There is no enthusiasm for preaching among the brothers in the UK. Maybe in the foreign field but not in general... Or the well know 'pioneer shuffle' which we've all done because let's face it, no one likes the ministry.

Interesting, and I do not deny your observation.

As I said in my OP - as a whole - over the last 13 years, publishers in the UK are now apparently on average EACH spending 25% more time in the 'preaching work'.

As per the thread title, this is stagnation: increasing preaching but with decreasing growth (the ratio pub-to-pop).

In 2016 it was 184 hours-a-month. Although generally increasing over the last decade, it is still short of the late 1980s when it got up to 205 hours-a-month

23

Irish Elders deleted by Watchtower for reporting child sex abuse allegation to police

by Diogenesister in

two elders have been deleted by watchtower for reporting an allegation of child sexual abuse to the police, contrary to watchtower orders (a jw paedophile with a history, apparently).

when the british branch discovered what the elders had done they arranged for 3 elders to fly over to ireland, at the congregations expense no less, to hold a special jc for the ' rogue' congregation elders.

one elder and the cobe were deleted, two were allowed to continue.

darkspilver

I believe the OP is based on this thread from a couple of days ago

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/4876842550951936/ireland-failure-bear-witness

35

Polish EX-JW Activism compilation video

by WTS Archive in

i'd like to show you a short video i made about exjw activism in poland.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vt3qdtyxgd8.

i'm one of the people responsible for those information campaigns/protests, so you can ask me anything you like.

there's a lot i didn't show on the video because of the limited time i have for editing, i have tons of footage more.

darkspilver

Thank you to both Saename and John Free

steve2: would darkspilver care to comment?

OK, if I have too....

darkspilver: The Polish are/where coming to Britain where there now 50 Polish congegations....

This was a light-hearted comment due to the significant Polish migration that has taken place over the last decade-or-so.

There were an estimated 831,000 Polish-born residents in 2015 - a jump of almost 750,000 compared with the number in 2004, the year the country joined the EU.
READ MORE: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37183733
SEE ALSO: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poles_in_the_United_Kingdom
SEE ALSO: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migrations_from_Poland_since_EU_accession

SUBTEXT: A reference to using 'congregation' as a statistical measure in this current forum thread

steve2: Yet even in Britain, growth of publishers is slowing down, if not stagnating
darkspilver:
Britain has seen 13 consecutive years of increase in average publishers reporting.
Over the last 13 years Britain has seen the ratio of publishers-to-population go from 1-in-456 to 1-in-471.
"lies, damned lies, and statistics"

Two statistics, apparently proving opposite things, but when taken together, actually proving the point they where made in reference too.

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5666875209940992/stagnation-jws-britain

The quote is referencing the fact that the two 'opposing' statistics are actually both correct - the first one in particular being used to prove 'growth', while ignoring, or being unfamiliar with, the second one.

SUBTEXT: A slight reference to the statistics being used in this recently revived forum thread

steve2: Curiously, darkspilver also provided data that perhaps inadvertently supports my post:

Inadvertently? I never do anything 'inadvertently'