End of Financial Year; 12 congregations disappear

by shepherdless 7 Replies latest watchtower scandals

• 

  shepherdless

  Some happifying news. Nett 12 more congregations in Australia have disappeared.

  Around 3 months ago, a search of the Australian Charities Commission website would show the following registered as charities in Australia:

  • 787 congregations,
  • 5 assembly halls, and
  • 1 bethel.

  Plus there were 36 congregations whose registration had been voluntarily revoked in the last 3 years. 12 of those had been revoked in the preceding 12 months.

  These charities all seem to have a financial year ending 31 August, which means they must report by 28 February the following year. Given we are well passed 28 Feb, I checked and the figures are now:

  • 775 congregations,
  • 5 assembly halls, and
  • 1 bethel.

  Plus 49 congregations whose registration had been voluntarily revoked. (I think this figure includes all of the 36 listed before, but I am not 100% certain.)

  So overall, it looks like 13 dissolved and 1 new one created. I went through the list in detail, and the ones whose registration has been revoked in the last 12 months (April 2018 onwards) are as follows:

  Aberfoyle Park (SA)

  Alexandra Hills (Qld)

  Austinmer (NSW)

  Ballajura (WA) (only a month ago)

  Blackburn (VIC)

  Byron Bay (NSW)

  Croydon (VIC)

  Elizabeth Park (SA)

  Fulham Gardens (SA)

  Ginninderra (ACT)

  Hackham (SA)

  Homebush Cantonese (NSW)

  Kempsey South (NSW)

  Marion (SA)

  Montmorency (VIC)

  Mount Hawthorn (WA) (only a month ago)

  Narangba (QLD) (only a month ago)

  Nhulunbuy (NT)

  Paralowie (SA)

  Pomona (QLD)

  Salisbury Heights (SA)

  Springwood (NSW)

  Stirling (WA) (only a month ago)

  To get the data, I went to https://www.acnc.gov.au/ then clicked "Search for a charity", then typed in search categories such as "congregation of Jehovahs Witnesses", and used "advanced search".

  
  
• 

  blondie

  The service year ends 8/31/XXXX (current year)

  That is the year period is what regular pioneers for their schedule.

  I wonder if the WTS uses the numbers from the calendar or service year?
• 

  Ralphusthegreat

  Nice to see oz shrinking.😀
• 

  shepherdless

  Yes Blondie, I didn’t actually know the service year ended 31 August each year, but I figured it must be an important reporting date in the Borg empire. Charities can pick whatever financial year they like, but most would pick one ending on 30 June, to match the fin yr end for individual tax returns, and most of the rest would pick a calendar year.
• 

  dothemath

  Recently the number of congregations in Saskatoon Saskatchewan dropped to 6.

  Many years ago (80's I think) there used to be 14. They had gone down to 9 at some point, and now 6, yet the city and province has been growing in population.

  I guess they will be rather large groups now, they want to make it harder to find seats.
• 

  shepherdless

  Since I last reported on this, about 3 months ago, the number of congregations in Australia have dropped further, from 775 to 769.

  From a quick check, I can identify 9 further congregations that have been voluntarily deregistered. I presume 3 were formed from the ashes, to give an overall decrease of 6.

  The 9 voluntary deregistered congregations are;

  Cheltenham ((VIC)

  Cootamundra (NSW)

  Hastings (VIC)

  Mount Lofty (SA)

  Robinvale (VIC)

  Tom Price (WA)

  Warwick (WA) (wrong Warwick, unfortunately)

  Weipa (QLD)

  Whishart (QLD)
• 

  blondie

  That's one way to find more elders.
• 

  resolute Bandicoot

  Great work Sheperdless!

  R.B.