a couple of months ago, i reported on my congregation being disolved and merged with another.. on sept 1, cong b merged with cong a using the same hall, thereafter using cong a's meeting times.
also nearby cong c moved into the hall using cong b's meeting times and cong c's kh is being put up for sale.. i've since been to both sunday meetings and both midweek meetings.
at all, the parking lot is totally full, cars have to park around the corner and on the street.
The WTS policy in the past was to keep a congregation numbers no more than 100, supposedly not to put a burden on the elders regarding shepherding. But now it seems money rules, not spiritual health (if it ever did).
It should help some jws fall through the cracks more easily.
since when has it become cool to pray for the gb?
i noticed that at the begining of my fade back in 2015, it had already been there for a good while and was already getting on my nerves.
i means, i grew up in it, but can't remember much further than the 90s and i don't remember this being always in the payers.
We can pray for the GB publicly, but not individual jws who are having challenges such as severe illness. If it is done, the COBOE has to approve it first.
i've been free of the jws for many years now and have a question about kh finance.. 1. is it true that all khs belong to the wt now?
2. when remodeling is done who pays for it?.
3. how are utilities paid?
As to who "owns" the KHs, assembly halls, etc., in the US, a religious non-profit does not "own" property but administers the funds and property. No individual owns it either, whether in the head organization or the local organization. Trustees (3 elders) from the congregation in which the KH and property is in, administer local requirements as to title and taxes. The WTS as the parent non-profit only can at their discretion dissolve any congregation and dispose of funds and properties putting it back into the main funds.
As far as the utilities, I have never know the WTS to pay them then reimburse the congregation. The congregation is responsible for paying these bills in a timely fashion. If 2 or more share the same building, a maintenance committee is formed with an elder from each congregation serving as the "maintenace" overseer and coordinating how the utility bills will be paid. Using split evenly, but sometimes a smaller congregation (Spanish for example) may pay less or not at all at the discretion of the other congregation(s).
The WTS still has to approve all remodeling and building of new KHs. Of course, basic maintenance does not fall under that.
I only know what my husband says he knows from his years as an accounts servant.
Hopefully, someone else will simplify the info in the documents Atlantis has provided. The legalese is so complicated I wonder how any elder could decipher it.
since june 2016 i have kept a journal of my encounters with jehovah's witnesses at my door or in my street.
i'm a a nosey bastard and a bit of a home body when i'm not at work so i don't miss much of who comes past my home or knocks at the door.. will and dill.. they came to my door on a wednesday morning around 10:30am mid june 2016, i was on afternoon shift and had been reading bart ehrman "misquoting jesus".. what follows is the conversation as best i could recount after they left;.
of the two young gentlemen, dillon, the younger in appearance introduced will and himself, he then proceeded to present me with a brochure about world conditions supposedly getting worse.. me: i could stand at the door nodding in agreement if you like?
A motto that defines jw reaction when confronted with facts that don't fit their world view from the WTS.:
Don't confuse me with the facts.
in one country they're david and sophie.
in another they're petra and olena.
i just chanced across this recently.
i've gone to the a&e channel with no luck.
.
last night they announced that this summers district convention will be held at an assembly hall.. this is the first time i've seen this happen.
there are a couple of congregations in the same hall here and they aren't going to the same ones.
they are having multiple dates.. the hall they are going to use can only hold 1500 people max.. just wondering if maybe they just couldnt get anything bigger this year or if the falling numbers are playing a part in this decision.
I was expecting this. It is cheaper to use your own facility, handle smaller crowds, plus not so many speakers are needed with the videos. Also, the admins/workers in a circuit or a couple of circuits are used to the routine, plus jws don't have to travel as far or use hotels/motels.
And the assembly halls to stand empty when circuit assemblies/special days are being held.
in one country they're david and sophie.
in another they're petra and olena.
i just chanced across this recently.
I know that the WTS has and probably still does use different pictures on the cover reflecting the skin color of the local people. Not wanting to offend anyone at the door with a person of different background than the seemingly prevailing one in their area.
I learned this through 2 behind the scene tours of the writing/publishing area.
psychological changes in the vocabulary of the wts.
i have been reading the publications of the wts since i was 6, 60 years now.
we were too poor to have more than one subscription for each magazine so i had to wait until my mother had read it (she let them pile up).
@Diogenesister
Yes, that was my thinking on the day I quietly left the circuit assembly mid morning on a Sunday. I told my husband I was going to sit in the car waiting until he was ready to go home.
He waited until the break, gathered up our stuff, and then we went home.
He still had to make a quiet fade, but 6 weeks later he came home and told me that was that last jw event he would ever attend.
Twenty years later, that is still true, and will be until each of us passes on to whatever lies beyond if it exists.
the current “news” on jw.borg.
https://www.jw.org/en/news/legal/.
look closely at he picture of “russian” police breaking in to what appears to be a utility shed.. first, you’d have to be a complete moron to believe anything you see.. the “police” are shown using a garden pic to open a door.
When I was still attending assemblies/conventions, I noticed a change in vocabulary:
re-enactments
rather than
demonstrations
I asked the CO, what was the difference
"Reenactments of faithful servants observing the Memorial in the first-century congregation; in the late 1800’s; in a Nazi concentration camp; and in our day in a modest, open-sided Kingdom Hall in a South American country with a warm climate."
https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2019245?q=reenactments&p=par
He said that the people in the re-enactment were not the original people in the account or even were a real family or situation.
For example: An example of a family bible study might be shown on stage; The father and mother might be married to each other, but the children were not their own children, in fact the parents might not even have children of their own. The children would have to be exemplary in the congregation, and fit the cast required for what was being shown as an example of how to conduct a family study. Evidently, there was no family group that was exemplary that fit the cast required by the WTS for the convention. So it was re-enacted.
Perhaps the example wasn't even one found in any congregation, just what an ideal situation could be.
But...except for the jws familiar with the background of the people in the re-enactment, other jws would think it was a real family showing how they handled their family bible study.
Why would I be surprised that the WTS devises re-enactments and takes photos and forgets to mention that this is just a staged situation.
