This was today at the Arndale Centre - a shopping mall in the city. This is just them having to leave their carts behind when told to evacuate. Here is the context and another version of the image.
http://news.sky.com/story/manchester-arndale-centre-evacuated-after-security-alert-10889787
short info on interesting changes to the major conventions this year: there will be a new security concept that will be implemented at all regional conventions in 2017.. similar to other major events (e.g.
festivals, concerts), there will be admittance controls in stadiums.. - at each entrance, there will be a massive presence of attendants that look at each visitor.. - there will be pocket checks at the entrance.. - suspicious persons are no longer left on the convention grounds.. - suppliers to the stadium will be intensively inspected by attendants.. - there will be a special sign for attendants that must enter the stadium before 7.30 am.
all others (even all attendants) can only enter after 7.30 am..
It's a terrible event and brings home the vulnerability of places like this to this type of attack.
My point however was not really about any escalation in threat - going back I remember being warned about bomb threats from the IRA at assemblies when I was a child in the late 70s and early 80s.
All I was saying is that mandatory training for attendants has been a feature of assemblies in the UK for years. Bag searches have also been around for at least two years. Brothers have had increasing secular certification requirements here over the past 5 plus years. It's started years ago with low key with mandatory events covering duties, safety etc, having to wear high viz tabards, early morning briefings for the entire cohort before the doors open, special attention being paid to those that don't have a badge etc. but has increased over the years, driven by secular obligations either with the law or from what the venue has imposed.
For example, when we first met at the Brighton Centre (early -mid 90s) the venue said we could not use attendants, we had to use their staff. This represented a significant cost but the assembly team managed to convince the venue that the Witnesses were experienced and could cope with the H&S requirements. They only agreed once the team agreed to a day long training event that would be mandatory for every attendant. This pattern has been followed every year since, continues now the venue is the Amex stadium and has been introduced for every assembly location in the UK for years.
Requirements may once again have increased this year but for the UK it's not a sea change as many of the mechanisms they are talking about for other places have been gradually introduced here already.
It's not a big deal overall but I just don't think that UK attendees will see anything significantly different to that they have already experienced.
okay, that new video about 1975 has got people talking, and yes, the child abuse cases will always require us to remain vigilant...but after my having left in the late 1980s/early 1990s, it seems all the real "exciting" stuff is gone.
when i left the witnesses were still preaching that the "generation that was old enough to understand the events of 1914" will not pass away before armageddon comes.
no blood cards were our badges (not that stupid jw logo) and that card meant what it said, "no blood"!
I had a conversation just last night with a old friend who has recently gone back to the faith. I explained to him much of how I feel and we had a good conversation but I made the point that there is no depth or substance to anything anymore. The old tomes of the 60s and 70s might have been self indulgent and based on sand but they reflected a form of intellectual and scholarly depth that no longer exists.
Everything now is an appeal to emotion not to logic. For years I was proud that as Witnesses we didn't get all happy-clappy, we didn't use emotion but we really studied the Bible. It might seem naive now but there was some substance.
Now the religion is everything it sneered at 20 years ago.
I made the point to my friend that what is happening is the GB having a clear plan to move the faith into something that can survive long term. The change to grab property instead of be a publishing organisation along with the rebranding of the organisation and it's approach is part of the plan to try and make the org sustainable as their predictions once again fail.
It was an interesting chat but completely in line with the OP's thoughts.
assuming anyone cares :-).
https://www.jw.org/en/publications/jw-convention-releases/.
they are releasing another bible story book targeted at kids.. sheesh!
I think it's actually an African elephant. As if that makes it better of course...
assuming anyone cares :-).
https://www.jw.org/en/publications/jw-convention-releases/.
they are releasing another bible story book targeted at kids.. sheesh!
That picture really isn't much different to this one...
assuming anyone cares :-).
https://www.jw.org/en/publications/jw-convention-releases/.
they are releasing another bible story book targeted at kids.. sheesh!
Of course it is if you create your own animal taxonomy based on some random definition of the word "kind".
I just wonder how long it took for the camels to getting peed off with the lion and gorilla crapping and slashing on their heads.
yay!
now kids can help draw lot's wife getting destroyed.. .
It's not even new. It's been on the site for years...
assuming anyone cares :-).
https://www.jw.org/en/publications/jw-convention-releases/.
they are releasing another bible story book targeted at kids.. sheesh!
Looking at the Bible story book I was mildly impressed that they removed all the nightmare inducing graphic imagery that is prominent in other children's books published by them.
Still plenty of room for the stereotypical Caucasian Adam and Eve....
... lots of nonsense about the Flood...
....burning destruction of hundreds of people...
`
... some iron age justice...
... and unkeepable promises about the Paradise...
So no real change there...
is this the reaction you get when you walk into a kingdom hall sporting your new beard 🙄.
.
Beards are now so common I really don't think they can be considered a sign someone is not toeing the line in other respects.
short info on interesting changes to the major conventions this year: there will be a new security concept that will be implemented at all regional conventions in 2017.. similar to other major events (e.g.
festivals, concerts), there will be admittance controls in stadiums.. - at each entrance, there will be a massive presence of attendants that look at each visitor.. - there will be pocket checks at the entrance.. - suspicious persons are no longer left on the convention grounds.. - suppliers to the stadium will be intensively inspected by attendants.. - there will be a special sign for attendants that must enter the stadium before 7.30 am.
all others (even all attendants) can only enter after 7.30 am..
I say again this is essentially old news in the U.K. We had to attend a day long "training" event 20 years ago and be told about our duties or not be allowed to attend. The need for an increasing number of brothers to have certain secular certification has been growing over the more recent years. Bag searches have been around for at least two years. I've not been an attendant for some time now and not aware of the detail but I know from others how much has been required in the recent years past.
