The Governing Body Announces That Some In-Person Meetings Will Resume in Select Areas

[carlos]

13 hours ago, Cheeks said:

Is it wrong to prefer Zoom rather than in person…? Lol

I think a lot of us would prefer to stay with Zoom.

[SUNRAY]

I wonder if only vaccinated publishers will be allowed to attend in person...and what about the public?

[Tortuga]

14 hours ago, Tbs77 said:

The announcement also stated that, in general, in-person organizational activities will remain suspended until at least January 1, 2022

January 2022 will be interesting. LDC has already announced that normal activities are currently scheduled to resume in January. The local assembly hall was told to 'be ready' to resume normal activities in January. 

[Anthony]

22 minutes ago, SUNRAY said:

I wonder if only vaccinated publishers will be allowed to attend in person...and what about the public?

No, everyone will be allowed to come. That’s one of the reasons this is only in select areas, the vaccination rates have to be VERY high and the infection rates VERY low, almost nil. For this first round. Which is why, as far as I’ve heard, I don’t think the US branch will be participating at all, at least not within the contiguous US. The GB wants places where practically everyone in the population is vaccinated or very close to it (think 90+) and/or because of the strict mandates, numbers are extremely low. Like in Australia. You really do see their wisdom. Got to know this is Jehovah’s organization!  

[Anthony]

19 minutes ago, Tortuga said:

January 2022 will be interesting. LDC has already announced that normal activities are currently scheduled to resume in January. The local assembly hall was told to 'be ready' to resume normal activities in January. 

Stay tuned for an announcement about assemblies and conventions coming soon… you will find it interesting 

[Eddie]

What happens after 6 months when vaccine immunity starts waning down? I also wonder if vaccine passports will be required to enter the hall.
 

My congregation we are like 180 not counting visitors so I’m curious what the arrangements will be in the eventuality of a possible reopening 

[Cheeks]

Is it normal to feel extremely anxious about going back to the Kingdom Hall and/or assembly halls…?


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[Brother_Bliss]

13 hours ago, Qapla said:

Just wondering how many threads we are going to have discussing this announcement ...

 

So far just 2 regarding the News article containing the announcement. The one from a month ago though was about wondering when we'll go back doesn't fit the bill.

 

13 hours ago, jwhess said:

 Maybe the moderators will try to merge some of them in the future.

Done

3 hours ago, Adam! said:

Would you mind sharing your location so we know where this is taking place?

It says "Down & Under" on her Displayed Location. We're handing out an extra day of everlasting life to the first person who can guess where that is

[Tortuga]

3 minutes ago, Dismal_Bliss said:

says "Down & Under" on her Displayed Location. We're handing out an extra day of everlasting life to the first person who can guess where that is

[Brother_Bliss]

1 hour ago, carlos said:

I think a lot of us would prefer to stay with Zoom.

At the risk of sounding like a stiff-necked Israelite, Zoom is like manna. Sure, it fills the hole, but I sure miss the spiritual banquets we filled up on at the Kingdom Hall.

 

23 minutes ago, Anthony said:

Stay tuned for an announcement about assemblies and conventions coming soon… you will find it interesting 

Anybody could tyoe those words at any time or day in the year and it would always be true, lol. 

 

13 minutes ago, Eddie said:

What happens after 6 months when vaccine immunity starts waning down?\

Antibodies begin to go down. But your body now retains the information on how to fight a future infection and can produce future antibodies rapidly. Immunity is not dependent on the concentration of antibodies in your blood.

 

2 minutes ago, Cheeks said:

Is it normal to feel extremely anxious about going back to the Kingdom Hall and/or assembly halls…?

Yes, it will anxious for some, exciting for others. Change is strange for all personality types.

[careful]

4 minutes ago, Dismal_Bliss said:

Antibodies begin to go down. But your body now retains the information on how to fight a future infection and can produce future antibodies rapidly. Immunity is not dependent on the concentration of antibodies in your blood.

thats good to know..but why do we need boosters????

 

[BLEmom]

5 minutes ago, careful said:

thats good to know..but why do we need boosters????

 

Sofia is good at explaining this but what I understand is that testing for antibodies the cheap and easy thing to do. So the authorities are just concentrating on that. The antibodies are the front men for fighting infections.
Our body has another memory system the name of which escapes me right now that will produce antibodies when triggered by exposure. 

[Brother_Bliss]

12 minutes ago, careful said:

thats good to know..but why do we need boosters????

 

The FDA has determined we don't, to the Chagrin of Pfizer who would love to keep the government money flowing towards them, lol.

 

The FDA has permitted boosters for high-risk individuals, namely, the elderly and those with pre-existing conditions that make them high risk of death. 

 

5 minutes ago, BLEmom said:

Sofia is good at explaining this but what I understand is that testing for antibodies the cheap and easy thing to do. So the authorities are just concentrating on that. The antibodies are the front men for fighting infections.
Our body has another memory system the name of which escapes me right now that will produce antibodies when triggered by exposure. 

T Cells, if I recall. 

Now the FDA might approve boosters for everyone in our efforts to put an end to the pandemic, but over the long term this coronavirus will just become a common cold like the other 4 human coronaviruses that circulate the globe because everyone will have been exposed one way or another - Through the risky form of catching the actual virus, or the safe and effective way by means of these awesome vaccines.

 

[justenoire]

1 minute ago, Cheeks said:

Is it normal to feel extremely anxious about going back to the Kingdom Hall and/or assembly halls…?


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I was feeling pretty anxious about it when I saw the announcement. I have never been this spiritually productive or felt as close to the friends as I do now because I have so many issues and ailments that I couldn't regularly attend meetings/assemblies, going back to childhood. I frequently felt left behind and out of place. All of that has changed and I have to pray and hope it doesn't ever change back for me even if I lose the easy access to the friends and spiritual activities that we have now. I don't know how Jehovah will help us work it out but He will. And many friends are excited and overjoyed, at the very least because this is a real signal that things may genuinely be getting better. So I will also try to listen to that and see if I can take on some of that feeling. 

[careful]

1 hour ago, justenoire said:

I was feeling pretty anxious about it when I saw the announcement. I have never been this spiritually productive or felt as close to the friends as I do now because I have so many issues and ailments that I couldn't regularly attend meetings/assemblies, going back to childhood. I frequently felt left behind and out of place. All of that has changed and I have to pray and hope it doesn't ever change back for me even if I lose the easy access to the friends and spiritual activities that we have now. I don't know how Jehovah will help us work it out but He will. And many friends are excited and overjoyed, at the very least because this is a real signal that things may genuinely be getting better. So I will also try to listen to that and see if I can take on some of that feeling. 

wow im glad to hear someone express this...im sure there are many who have drawn happiness from being able to participate in this very different way.  i hope for these individuals that we can continue to include as many as possible in our close brotherhood.   funny how sometimes, we learn from adversity.

[Tbs77]

January 2022 will be interesting. LDC has already announced that normal activities are currently scheduled to resume in January. The local assembly hall was told to 'be ready' to resume normal activities in January. 

Agreed! Very interesting I was told that Elder School in US is scheduled via Zoom in 2022.

[Tortuga]

3 hours ago, Anthony said:

Stay tuned for an announcement about assemblies and conventions coming soon… you will find it interesting 

I'm sure we will eventually get an announcement and it will be very interesting..

[AH173]

Oh well.

 

I guess I eventually will have to get used to standing up giving parts and wearing socks and dress shoes to the meeting.

 

Oh the freedom.

[MullumMiss]

I have spoken with a friend in Perth Australia to see if her congregation was involved.  This is her message in part:

 

Yes, only 3 Congs 
Ours- PCC, North Beach( my parents Cong) & Scarborough Cong. 
We are all feeling very weird about it & 2 of the 3 halls are really small……The CO assured us that door to door is still out of the question……..We have our CO visit at the hall in a weeks time & hrs associating with all of us!

 

 

We spoke on zoom with them just a couple of weeks ago.  We live on opposite sides of the country to each other.  They in Western Australia we in New South Wales (East Coast).  WA has 1 new case and 6 active with only 9 deaths since Covid started.  NSW has 321 new cases with 5334 active and 514 deaths.  NSW up until a week ago was getting 1000+ cases per day.  Another state, Victoria is currently experiencing a surge.  Queensland is another state whose covid situation is much like WA.  However in WA and Qld the vaccination uptake is way behind those states that have had outbreaks.  WA and Qld borders have been and still are closed to certain states.  

 

Me personally. I love zoom.  I’ve done Pioneer School on it and loved the convenience as ordinarily I would have had to travel.  We travel 45 mins to the Hall so another reason we love zoom.  We live in regional NSW and our council shire (area) has 0 cases but vaccination rates are low compared to the overall state.  My town is dubbed the Anti Vax Capital of Australia.  Regular childhood vaccinations are shunned by many in the area, so naturally the feeling extends to covid vaccine.  At dinner last night with friends we all said we hope we have zoom for a bit longer at least.  

[Honeyflake]

2 hours ago, justenoire said:

I was feeling pretty anxious about it when I saw the announcement. I have never been this spiritually productive or felt as close to the friends as I do now because I have so many issues and ailments that I couldn't regularly attend meetings/assemblies, going back to childhood. I frequently felt left behind and out of place. All of that has changed and I have to pray and hope it doesn't ever change back for me even if I lose the easy access to the friends and spiritual activities that we have now. I don't know how Jehovah will help us work it out but He will. And many friends are excited and overjoyed, at the very least because this is a real signal that things may genuinely be getting better. So I will also try to listen to that and see if I can take on some of that feeling. 

I have the same feelings. I could be pioneering again during the pandemic. It is such a good time for me. I have many health problems and didn‘t miss one single meeting since Zoom.

I was really depressed when I heard this today because I hoped so much that the end would come soon. Now everything seems to be so far away…. And what about my pioneer Service? I can‘t go from door to dir 70 hours but I have no problem to write letters. 
I've always achieved my goal. 
Jehovah will help I Know, but I am really anxious about going to the hall…..

[Eddie]

My mom is also sick and hardly goes out. Only for appointments and zoom has helped her not miss a single meeting and what I love the most is her being able to do service via zoom. She always there supporting the groups.

[carlos]

4 hours ago, Dismal_Bliss said:

At the risk of sounding like a stiff-necked Israelite, Zoom is like manna. Sure, it fills the hole, but I sure miss the spiritual banquets we filled up on at the Kingdom Hall.

I like manna. Attending meetings in person, in our case, requires a considerable amount of time, money and stress. With Zoom we just log in 20 or 15 minutes before the meeting and that's it. After the meeting sometimes we stay talking for hours. But when we finish, we don't have to drive 45 minutes back home. Rain, fog, traffic jams or animals crossing the road are not an issue anymore. And during lockdown I was missing talking to the friends face to face, but now we meet with them quite often. I understand those who miss their in-person meetings but I would pick Zoom a thousand times.

 

3 hours ago, justenoire said:

I frequently felt left behind and out of place. All of that has changed and I have to pray and hope it doesn't ever change back for me even if I lose the easy access to the friends and spiritual activities that we have now. I don't know how Jehovah will help us work it out but He will.

Danielle, Zoom is here to stay. The GB has realized all that you mention there. A lot of friends who often (or always) missed meetings or attended on the phone due to health issues or similar now can have exactly the same activity as anyone: They can comment, have parts at the meeting, go in service... In part the reason for this pilot program of going back to the hall is to test how a hybrid Zoom/in-person meeting works.

[Hope]

1 minute ago, carlos said:

I like manna. Attending meetings in person, in our case, requires a considerable amount of time, money and stress. With Zoom we just log in 20 or 15 minutes before the meeting and that's it. After the meeting sometimes we stay talking for hours. But when we finish, we don't have to drive 45 minutes back home. Rain, fog, traffic jams or animals crossing the road are not an issue anymore. And during lockdown I was missing talking to the friends face to face, but now we meet with them quite often. I understand those who miss their in-person meetings but I absolutely prefer Zoom.

 

Danielle, Zoom is here to stay. The GB has realized all that you mention there. A lot of friends who often (or always) missed meetings or attended on the phone due to health issues or similar now can have exactly the same activity as anyone: They can comment, have parts at the meeting, go in service... In part the reason for this pilot program of going back to the hall is to test how a hybrid Zoom/in-person meeting works.

I'm with you 100%, @carlos- and I don't have any of your struggles. My Hall is under ten minutes away.  But I've gotten more and more quality association over these past two years than any other in the past 17.  I don't feel as separated from groups of people as I did before- it feels so much more inclusive of everyone. Manna is delicious- beats growing my own food!

 

[Janet Hart]

7 hours ago, careful said:

thats good to know..but why do we need boosters????

 

I agree....we WILL need boosters for the same reason we need a flu shot every year. I'm afraid COVID will be around for a long time.....

[GeordieGirl]

11 hours ago, Adam! said:

Would you mind sharing your location so we know where this is taking place?

I'm in Perth Western Australia.

11 hours ago, hatcheckgirl said:

 

Wow! That’s great (I think)! We are not far from you, but we didn’t get that announcement. GeordieGirl and I are in Western Australia and there is no covid here. 

Really? 😭 I'll swap with you. Maybe they aren't going to announce yours till mid-week meeting? I'm hoping for certain qualifications so I can stay on Zoom a while longer.  It has sent my anxiety into overdrive.

 

15 hours ago, Chris7 said:

Apparently some in Perth, Australia start this week. 👋

We aren't starting this week. We will get further information on Wednesday, so maybe next weeks WT meeting.