From the 2000 Yearbook:
Britain
At its peak the British Empire spanned the world. In the days of Queen Victoria (1837-1901), it was said that “the sun never set” on its realm. During the 20th century, however, that great empire came to be replaced by the Commonwealth of Nations.
How extensive is the Commonwealth? It covers about one fourth of the land surface of the earth and includes about one fourth of its population. Although politically independent, the 53 members of the Commonwealth acknowledge Britain’s Queen as the symbolic head of their cultural and economic association.
During the past 50 years, immigrants from these countries and others have transformed Britain itself. It has become a cosmopolitan society of some 58 million inhabitants.
Multiracial, Multifaith
On June 22, 1948, the Empire Windrush, a converted troopship, docked at Tilbury, near London, and 492 Jamaicans stepped ashore—the first of a quarter of a million Caribbean immigrants. These happy, lively West Indians had heartfelt respect for the Bible. But they were shocked to discover that many of the British no longer professed a deep faith in God. What had brought about the change? People were sickened by religion’s involvement in the senseless slaughter during the two world wars. In addition, faith in the Bible had been seriously undermined by critics who held that science and religion were incompatible.
Since the 1960’s, Indians, Pakistanis and, more recently, people from Bangladesh have thronged to Britain’s shores. The 1970’s saw many Asians who had been living in East Africa seek a haven here. From outside the Commonwealth, Greek and Turkish Cypriots arrived, also Poles and Ukrainians. Following the 1956 revolution in Hungary, 20,000 refugees fled from there to Britain. More recently, Vietnamese, Kurds, Chinese, Eritreans, Iraqis, Iranians, Brazilians, and Colombians, among others, have taken up residence here. By the mid-1990’s, 6 out of every 100 residents of Britain belonged to an ethnic minority.
Nowhere is this more evident than in London, the capital of Britain. Visitors who walk the streets, travel on the double-decker buses, or ride trains in the underground tube, or subway, quickly notice the multiracial mix of the city’s residents. Indeed, nearly one quarter of the population of London has come from overseas. Reflecting this diversity, schools now offer children education that accommodates various religious preferences—among them, Christian, Muslim, and Hindu. This does not mean that Britain is especially religious. To the contrary, at this point in history, the vast majority of Britain’s population takes a largely secular, materialistic view of life.
In contrast, there are more than 126,000 of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Britain. They too come from diverse backgrounds. However, they firmly believe in God—not a nameless deity, but Jehovah, who warmly invites people of all national backgrounds to walk in his ways and benefit themselves by applying his loving counsel. (Ex. 34:6; Isa. 48:17, 18; Acts 10:34, 35; Rev. 7:9, 10) Jehovah’s Witnesses recognize the Bible to be God’s inspired Word. They have deep faith in God’s provision for salvation through Jesus Christ. Their hopes for the future are built around God’s Kingdom and the Bible’s teaching that God’s purpose is for the earth to become Paradise. (Gen. 1:28; 2:8, 9; Matt. 6:10; Luke 23:43) They zealously proclaim this good news to others. Their earnest desire is to “do all things for the sake of the good news” so that they might share it with others.—1 Cor. 9:23; Matt. 24:14.
How did the activity of Jehovah’s Witnesses get started in this part of the world?
Sharing With Others
During the last two decades of the 19th century, Britain was in the throes of urbanization. From the villages of rural England, Scotland, and Wales, people flocked to towns and cities. The traditional craftsmen were joined by many unskilled and semiskilled laborers. After 1870, compulsory school education heralded an age in which knowledge would be readily available to more people.
In 1881, J. C. Sunderlin and J. J. Bender—two close associates of Charles T. Russell, who was then taking the lead in the work of the Watch Tower Society—arrived from the United States of America. They brought a message that has changed the lives of thousands in Britain for the better. One starting in Scotland and the other in England, they distributed the heart-stirring publication Food for Thinking Christians. In London, a railroad shunter, Tom Hart, accepted a copy on his way home from work early one morning. What he read awoke his interest and led to many discussions about Christ’s return. Impelled by what he had learned, Tom enthusiastically shared his newfound knowledge with his wife and his workmates. Soon this small group, who became known as Bible Students, began distributing tracts to passersby in their neighborhood. Similar groups sprang up in other cities throughout Britain. All of these were keen to spread Bible truths.
By 1891, when C. T. Russell personally made his first visit to Britain, interest in the Bible’s message moved about 150 persons in London and a similar number in Liverpool to attend a lecture on the subject “Come Out of Her, My People”—that is, come out of religions that bear the imprint of ancient Babylon. (Rev. 18:4, King James Version) “England, Ireland and Scotland are fields ready and waiting to be harvested,” Brother Russell reported. The work of sharing the good news with others proved fruitful, and by the turn of the century, ten small Christian congregations had been formed. To make spiritual food in the form of Bible publications more readily available to them, the Watch Tower Society established an office in London.
First Branch Office
In 1900, E. C. Henninges, another close associate of C. T. Russell, arrived at the port of Liverpool, in the northwest of England, and traveled to London in search of premises to lease for use as a literature depot. On April 23 he secured property at 131 Gipsy Lane, Forest Gate, in the east of London. There the first branch office of the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society began operating. Now, a century later, there are more than 100 of such branch offices in strategic locations throughout the world.
On June 30, 1914, a new legal servant for Jehovah’s organization in Britain—the International Bible Students Association—was incorporated in London. At that time the Britain branch cared for the Kingdom work throughout the British Isles, including Ireland. Since 1966, however, the whole of Ireland has been supervised by a separate branch located first in Dublin and now to the south of it.
International Moves
The interest of the brothers in Britain was not limited to the British field. They knew that Jesus Christ had foretold that the good news of God’s Kingdom would be preached in all the inhabited earth before the end would come. (Matt. 24:14) During the 1920’s and early 1930’s, many brothers from Britain sought to expand their field of preaching by taking up missionary work in other lands. It was a big move, and Jehovah blessed their self-sacrificing spirit.
In 1926, Edwin Skinner left Sheffield, in the northern part of England, to serve in India. His humility helped him to persevere in that assignment for 64 years, until his death in 1990. Unforgettable and loving William Dey from Scotland, an inspector of taxes and quite a wealthy man, gave up both his position and his pension to become branch manager of the Society’s new Northern European Office, based in Copenhagen, Denmark. Soon afterward, Fred Gabler accepted Brother Dey’s invitation and traveled to Lithuania, there to be joined by Percy Dunham, who later went on to serve in Latvia. Wallace Baxter took oversight of the work in Estonia. Claude Goodman, Ron Tippin, Randall Hopley, Gerald Garrard, Clarence Taylor, and a host of others from Britain pioneered the work in Asia. Another Scot, George Phillips, served for many years in South Africa. Robert and George Nisbet, also from Scotland, pioneered in East and South Africa.
Stalwarts Help on the Continent
In the 1930’s, many British pioneers answered a call for assistance in publishing the good news in Belgium, France, Spain, and Portugal. John and Eric Cooke were among these.
Arthur and Annie Cregeen recall their activity where there were no congregations in the south of France. They met up with Polish brothers who manifested great zeal and hospitality. Annie remembers the time when they invited the brothers to their accommodation at Le Grand Hôtel de l’Europe, in the town of Albi. “The building may have been grand in Napoleon’s day,” she later wrote, but its glory had faded. She continued: “The group arrived Sunday afternoon, and we had a fascinating study of The Watchtower. Five different nationalities, each with the magazine in its own language, and the common means of communication was ‘Pidgin French.’ We read the paragraph in our own magazine in turn and explained in our broken French what we’d read. But what a good time we all had!”
Sadly, such happy times in foreign service did not last. John Cooke, then in southern France, stayed as long as he could. He finally cycled out and was evacuated to England just before German tanks rolled in. The outbreak of World War II, on September 1, 1939, had led to conflict between Britain and Germany, with serious repercussions for Jehovah’s Witnesses in Britain and elsewhere.
As the nations plunged into all-out war against one another, Jehovah’s Witnesses took a firm stand as Christian neutrals. They clearly understood that obedience to God ought to take priority in a person’s life. (Acts 5:29) Since they sincerely prayed for God’s Kingdom to come and knew what Jesus Christ said about the identity of the ruler of the world, they firmly believed that it would be wrong for them to favor one side or the other in a conflict between factions of the world. (Matt. 6:10; John 14:30; 17:14) Jehovah’s Witnesses personally took to heart what the Bible says about ‘not learning war anymore.’ (Isa. 2:2-4) At first, some of them in Britain were exempted as conscientious objectors to war. Later, however, both judges and the media claimed that people became Witnesses in order to avoid joining the armed forces. As a result, some 4,300 were thrown into prison. This number included many sisters who refused to do work that supported the war effort. Following the war, however, the Witnesses continued to demonstrate that what motivated them was the desire to please God and to advertise his Kingdom as the only hope for humankind. (More details regarding the activity of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Britain during those early days can be found in the 1973 Yearbook.)
See my next post.
