Posts by freddo

78

Work Christmas functions: Being a Bible Student (unbaptized)

by rulehayl in

jw
friends

hi all,i have been studying with the witnesses for more than 6 months and regularly attend both midweek & weekend meetings, and i am nearly at the end of the "bible teach" book.

my boss is adamant i attend team christmas functions.

she knows about my studying and potential baptism next year, and has suggested that i attend and just not participate in activities like kris kringle.

freddo

rulehayl ...

Your first post was about your study conductor saying you were on a slippery slope by your associating with your workmates. Ask her how what she says fits with these two verses.

Romans 14 v 5,6 and Colossians 2 v 16

If she has to give convoluted replies that don't seem to make sense that might give you pause for thought.

There is no rush for you to decide to be baptised or not; (after all you wouldn't want to follow those who say that Armageddon is near, would you? Luke 21 v 8)

In fact if you take a while (say a couple of years rather than the expected few months or so) you will see whether the response from your study conductor is loving kind and patient (1 Cor 13 v 4) or exasperated and impatient.

136

List of UK Travelling Overseers in 2013

by soiledumpling in

hi pepeep am attempting to get a current list of uk travelling overseers.

left 4 years ago and have heard rumours of many new ones.

.

freddo

Peter Morgan not on circuit work then? Or is he 70 now?

26

"In a human moment before Jehovah grabbed her"

by truthseeker in

jw
friends

i often wondered how far back the witnesses had been involved with my family.

my grandmother died at the end of 2013 and while going through her photos we found some of my great-grandmother, dora, who was born in 1901 and died in 1994. there is a photo of dora dated 1946 standing outside her house in east riding, yorkshire.

on the back of the photo her husband had written "in a human moment before jehovah grabbed her".. my great grandfather, who died before i was born, did not like the witnesses.

freddo

Wow! 1946. That is so poignant.

It could be written by any UBM down the decades, couldn't it? (Or by anyone that desperately wants his or her spouse to wake up like they did.)

136

List of UK Travelling Overseers in 2013

by soiledumpling in

hi pepeep am attempting to get a current list of uk travelling overseers.

left 4 years ago and have heard rumours of many new ones.

.

freddo

Anthony Manning came off in 2015. Public Reproof I heard. Don't know why.

David Hudson off due to age 70 rule; elder in Swansea South Wales neck of the woods I believe. Alive and well and gave a talk at the Cardiff Regional in 2017.

Don Holley (who took himself off in 2013 in his seventies - did he see the redundancies coming the year after?) was alive and well and gave a talk at Cardiff Regional in 2017.

16

Gradualism for the blood doctrine?

by no-zombie in

here in australia, during the service meeting this week, the local needs part was taken up to quickly discuss a letter from the organization stating that there will no longer be a annual meeting part to discuss or remind the congregations about their blood cards.. i found this quite odd.. its not like that there is a shortage of meeting time to discuss this issue, as the society has recently been hijacking more and more local needs parts for its own messages.

and for a supposedly important doctrine, you would think that it should be mentioned more often rather than less, to keep everyone in line.. could this be a beginning of the movement away from the blood doctrine, through the process of gradualism?.

no-zombie .

freddo

Very interesting indeed.

My guess it is more about distancing themselves from being seen to tell the congregations what to do by the secular authorities in court so that if their sorry asses are sued they will lie in court and say "its not us telling them, they do it of their own free will."

Follow the money ...

15

How do JWs pronounce COBE?

by Wild_Thing in

jw
friends

just wondering.

when i was a witness, we had presiding overseer, and would say p-o for short.

do they spell it out when they say cobe or do they say it with as a word?

freddo

I think before Congregation Servant it was Company Servant as in Company of men (military term not corporate term).

COBE is pronounced CO-BEE.

52

Are Beards becoming more acceptable due to decline in membership?

by UnshackleTheChains in

i noticed a young brother with a beard being given more privelages within our hall.

when he first grew his beard, he lost his privelages.

but more and more recently he has been helping out a lot more.. the cobe is old school and a stickler for rules, but with the hall becoming more empty these days, and the need for young brothers, he seems to have relaxed on this particular watchtower/man made rule.

freddo

Bit softer round our way.

Our circuit has always had congregations which allow beards on MS's and elders and on the platform for public talks. Others in the circuit don't. I don't think any wouldn't let a brother do the microphones because of a beard.

There was a recent WT in usual WT doublespeak which gave permission for beards but also permission for elders to enforce otherwise if they deemed it fit for the area they were in. I know this resulted in a nearby congregation BoE relaxing their rules.

Still not seen any on the circuit assemblies mind!

29

1975... the year that keeps on giving.

by silentbuddha in

so i recently moved back to my really really really small hometown in the south.

it was the place that my parents moved to from a major city up north in the early 1970's.

when we lived here times were very tough financially and i was always told that the reason we did not attend meetings was due to the fact that we had no car / no gas for the car / could not afford repairs for the years we were there.

freddo

You sound a touch jaded Fisherman. Chin up!

12

So, is it the publicity, or act itself that "brings reproach on Jehovah's name"?

by stuckinarut2 in

as we all sadly know, a common expression used by the society and elders in cases of abuse, or scandals, is "if you talk about this, you will bring reproach on jehovah's name!".

this is uttered in order to deter making something known.. but really, if it is a case of abuse, is not the act itself the thing that brings "reproach on jehovah"?.

making it known is not the problem.. rather hiding it, or not disclosing it to authorities is the thing that brings reproach!.

freddo

Yup.

Satan's seen the abuse happen and then the cover up so he's nudges his demon mates and says "See Jehovah's followers trying to hide it to cover their asses? I thought I was supposed to be the bad guy round here. We could take lessons from these guys in Brooklyn."

44

A WTF Moment While In the WTS

by Searching in

has anyone else had a moment, while still within the organization (and before learning ttatt) that caused them to stop and go, "this is kind of messed up.".

for instance, back i believe in the early 2000's, i was attending a dc with my family.

it was announced at the beginning of the convention that there was going to be a special announcement at the end, so for everyone to please try to remain until the very end of the meeting.

freddo

"Skin" said ...

"Here in NZ, the price of fuel was included among the first reasons (read out from a letter at the KH) for the home book study to finish. They then spent the next 6 + months reading more letters out at the KH telling us that the price of fuel had nothing to do with book study ending."

Funny that. Exactly the same statement and follow up denial happened here in the UK.

Maybe Satan put the words into the two brothers mouths (11,500 miles apart) who read the letter just to mess with our heads into thinking that the direction came from Brooklyn.