Here is some damning stuff, a lot of words bur worth reading:
65. The high level of control over all aspects of the life of a Jehovah's Witness is arguably a closer relationship than that to be found in an employer/employee relationship. It is at least akin to such a relationship. It is to be contrasted with rather less control that the bishop had over the priest in the case of E. There, the priest was appointed to his office subject to the oversight of his bishop and in a wide sense the priest was found to be accountable to his bishop, but responsibility for running the parish rested with the parish priest. He exercised his ministry in co-operation and collaboration with his bishop rather than one who was subject to the bishop's control.
66. In relation to organisation, the hierarchical organisational structure of Jehovah's Witnesses that has already been referred to has close similarities to the organisational structure of the Roman Catholic Church which was described by Ward LJ in E. The Roman Catholic Church was described as being highly organised with the Pope in the Head Office, with its "regional offices" with their appointed bishops and with "local branches" being the parishes with their appointed priests. Jehovah's Witnesses, too, are highly organised with a governing body, branch offices, districts with a district overseer, circuits with a circuit overseer and congregations with members made up of publishers, ministerial servants and elders. There is no hierarchical structure of setting apart the clergy. However, there is prescriptive guidance as to how a ministerial servant and an elder should serve, act and behave at all times. Members can work their way up from being a publisher to being a ministerial servant to being an elder. Down at local level within the congregations, there are organised meetings, study groups and field service principally supervised or led by Jehovah's Witnesses of differing seniority.
67. 1 The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Britain is a charity dealing with large sums of money. It is notable that, at local level, part of the responsibility of a ministerial servant is to take charge of congregational accounts that feed into the charity's resources. The Watch Tower's Memorandum of Association declares its objects are to advance the Christian religion as practised by Jehovah's Witnesses by preaching the gospel of God's Kingdom under Christ Jesus unto all nations as a witness to the name, word and supremacy of Almighty God, Jehovah; by producing and distributing bibles and other religious literature in any medium and educating the public in respect thereof; promoting religious worship, Christian missionary work; advancing religious education; and maintaining one or more religious orders or communities of special ministers of Jehovah's Witnesses. In order to do that, Jehovah's Witnesses function via its organisational structure.
68. By a simple substitution of words, the organisation of Jehovah's Witnesses is analogous to the way Ward LJ described the Roman Catholic Church at paragraph 77 of his judgment, namely:
"This
looks like a business and operates like a business. Its objective is to spread
the word of God. The priest has a central role in meeting that target.
Ministering, as he does, to the souls of the faithful, can be seen to be the
very life blood of the church, vital to its exis