Post by rjkee on Feb 29, 2008 4:04:23 GMT -5
Hi,
Below is the Ex-Professor's 'Guide to Workers and Meetings in Ireland'.
Best regards
Robert
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Guide to Workers and Meetings in Ireland
The two fundamentals of 2x2 beliefs in Ireland are Workers and Meetings.
IMO these are the two most important things.
It doesn't really matter what you believe as long as you accept the workers and attend the meetings. For example you may believe in the Trinity, not believe in the Trinity, have no idea whether or not you believe in the Trinity or never have heard of the Trinity it doesn't matter so long as you accept the workers and attend the meetings.
You may believe that the bible is true, follow the teachings of Jesus and be a good Christian but if you don't accept the workers and attend the meetings then you have a problem.
These are the fundamentals: Workers and Meetings.
If you listen to a Workers' sermon you will almost always hear reference to the Workers. You may well hear more reference to the Workers than reference to Jesus.You will often hear reference to the Meetings and you may hear more reference to the Meetings than you will to Jesus.
In the Sunday morning meeting thanks were always given for the Workers and for the Meetings. Some may have been thankful for other things as well but everyone was always thankful for the Workers and the Meetings.
Some people would pray for other professing people and the odd person may actually pray for those outside but everyone always prayed for the Workers and the Meetings.
If you go on a social visit to someone's home, you will rarely hear the Lord's name mentioned. You will however hear plenty about the Workers and the Meetings.
In Ireland, Workers' perceptions of people are based on their attitude to the Workers and their attendance at Meetings.
First Meetings
If you are a good attender at meetings then you are considered to be doing fine. This means all the meetings, the Morning meetings, the Union meetings, the Gospel meetings, the Wednesday night meetings, the Special meetings, the Convention meetings in fact every meeting except the Workers' Meetings. You are not allowed to go to the Workers Meeting. Not even if you are a bishop. In other words attend all the meetings except the meetings about the meetings and you are considered by the Workers to be doing well.
If you miss some meetings you will be considered to be not doing so well. If you miss a lot of meetings you will be considered as not doing well at all (unless you are sick of course). If you miss a lot of meetings for a lot of time you may well get a visit from the workers. I know I did! I think this means that you need to attend more meetings. I certainly never got a visit when I wasn't missing a lot of meetings!
It appears that it is better to attend meetings than visit the sick, help the needy, feed the starving or do other Christian work. There is no better place to be than in whatever meeting happens to be taking place at that particular time and there is nearly always some meeting taking place at any particular time. If there aren't enough meetings taking place in your area you can always attend meetings in a neighbouring area. If there aren't enough meetings at home you can always take your holidays abroad and attend even more meetings. In fact the only thing you can't do is you can never attend too many meetings. (Actually I think I have) And remember when you run out of meetings there are always funerals!
Oh and the meeting MUST be in a home! Apparantly this is scriptural although I've never managed to find it. I have heard some dispute over whether it should be in the upper room or the guest chamber but there is no dispute that it MUST be in a home. Unless of course the workers decide it should be in a tent, a barn, a school, a hall, a garage, a community centre, a town hall, a church hall, an Orange Hall or anywhere else they fancy having it. Oh and the home must be 'worthy'. I'm not sure about whether the tent, barn, garage etc have to be worthy but I would imagine that the church hall didn't have to be because it couldn't possibly be worthy as not only was built by hands but it belonged to the false religions ! Shocking isn't it!
Now what is even better than attending all the meetings is helping with the meetings. This means that you give out cards, give out hymn books, hire halls, attend preps, lend chairs, put up tents, take down tents, make tents, repair tents, drive Workers to meetings, lend Workers cars to drive to meetings, bring 'strangers to gospel meetings', or bring lots of 'strangers' to lots of gospel meetings you will be doing even better. In fact do anything you can to help with the meetings and you'll be considered by the Workers to be doing even better. Except of course decide to hold a meeting. Only the Workers decide when and where to hold a meeting.
The best you can do is to make your home available for a meeting. Obviously you must be a good attender at meetings before the Workers' will allow you this 'privilage'. Start with a Wednesday night meeting and you may eventually get a Sunday morning meeting. That's if someone more 'suitable' doesn't move into the area. (That can either be a bit of a bummer if you had your heart set on promotion or a bit of a relief if you just didn't fancy having to explain to the neighbours why you suddenly started getting all those happy cheerful visitors on a Wednesday night.) Doing this well will almost certainly lead to you becoming a bishop/elder when a vacancy arises. This is as high as you can go without going in the work although if you have a big house you may go further and get a Union Meeting as well. Once you reach this stage you are doing really fine and you can probably relax for a while. ( I know of a case where they were doing so fine they relaxed so much that thought they could get away with having a telly.)
After this, all that is left is to buy a convention ground. Anyone who disputes the importance of meetings only has to take note of the percentage of time and effort put into convention. There is more time put into conventions by Workers in Ireland than there is to preaching the gospel which I thought was what the Workers were called to do. Shows how much I know! (And remember conventions are not even biblical but rather were an idea which William Irvine took with him when he left the Faith Mission to set up "The Truth". If fact it came as quite a suprise to me that Conventions were actually in existence longer than the Sunday Morning meeting which was supposed to be such a fundamental part of the system.)
Which brings us to the Workers
The workers are the other essential part of the 2x2's.
Remember the Workers are the ONLY true servants of God on this earth - according to the Workers. (The 2x2's adhere to this belief in return for membership of an effective mutual admiration society where the workers refer to the 2x2's as God's only true people.)
Oh and you can only be saved by hearing the gospel through two Workers - according to the Workers (except of course if your name is William Irvine in which case he heard it some other way but we don't know what other way because it was long time ago and by the way we have no records and anyway it's not important - according to the Workers - how convenient especially if you've an IQ west of Zero on the number line and you happen to be asking the questions!) so they are pretty important people as you can imagine.
So important that you must obey them. And not only obey them in regard to what their version is of the doctrine laid down in the bible but any other hair-brained doctrine that the overseer happens to think would be a good idea at the time. If the overseer thinks Christmas cards are a bad idea then no Christmas cards it is. If the overseer thinks that the bishop should act the circus clown and leap up every Sunday morning to prevent any member who happens to be dating an outsider receiving the emblems, then act the circus clown he does.
Basically what this means is the that the overseer decides what the rules are in a particular area ( TV's, radios, ladies' dress code, dating outsiders, meetings etc) and the senior workers implement them. The senior workers must obey the overseer or risk losing place or privilage or even career as the late Edward Cooney found to his cost. (although they couldn't tell the people that so they put around the myth that he went a little crazy and left because he wanted to start his own religion. Note if you are not sure who Edward was you can can find four of his hymns in Hymns Old and New although you won't find him listed as the author as you couldn't possible have the people wondering how a crazy man like Eddie could write such nice hymns.)
It should come as no surprise that since it was a group of Workers who set up the 2x2's that the Workers make the rules. The Workers decide who can be a 2x2 and who can't. It is the Workers who decide if someone has broken the Workers'
rules and they who decide what the punishment is. If your husband buys a TV, then the Workers kick you out for having a TV in your home. If you date an outsider then the Workers kick you out as well. Basically if you don't abide by any of the overseers' rules he can kick you out. Except in Ireland the overseer, Tommie Gamble, doesn't have the balls to do it himself, so he sends the senior Worker in the field to do it for him.
In fact a senior worker in Ireland this year told me quite categorically that when excommunicating people from the group they do NOT take guidance on these matters from God but rather act only on the instruction of the overseer, Tommie Gamble because there was NO SUBSTITUTE for Tommie Gamble's experience. (And you thought they prayed about these decisions.) How's that for faith in God!
Conveniently the Workers also decide who can be a Worker. So it doesn't matter if the Lord himself has called you to be a Worker - if the Workers don't think you are fit to be a Worker, then forget it. However, even if the Lord didn't call you to be a Worker you can still be a Worker if the Workers decide you can. Astonishingly you can even be knowingly engaging in the abuse of children and be allowed to remain in the work!
Now you would think that with this sort of behaviour, 2x2 members would have a word with the Workers. And do they? Not on your flippin' Nelly! Instead they continue to seek favour with the workers and give them their money!
LOADS OF IT!
Yes despite preaching the poor homeless stranger bit the Workers actually accept large amounts of money. In fact it is not the bishops/elders who receive and distribute the funds. Yes, you've guessed it - It's the Workers.
Yes despite the fact the Jesus sent them without purse they conveniently forget that part of it and do quite the opposite. So much so I believe that they don't know what to spend it on. I know that they go on plenty of trips abroad when the notion takes them, drive 'pool' cars, wear good clothes, have electronic organisers, own expensive laptop computers, and some even have connection to the internet if you don't mind! Not for them the poor lowly man from Gallilee with no place to lay his head, fasting for forty days and riding on a donkey!
Not for them either to take the lowest place at convention but rather sit at the best table eating the best food. Oh and it's not every home they stay at but the biggest and best and they prefer to have a room each if you don't mind! Oh and last time I saw them they were driving a nice big Mercedes with a personalised number plate! And all this for two hours preaching a week!
So forget all that biblical stuff and keep attending the meetings. Then in the eyes of the Workers you'll be doing fine. Obviously you'll be doing even better if you have a nice house, a nice car and a few spare dollars which they can avail of. That is providing of course you conform outwardly to their rules (or advice as the refer to it). Oh and don't speak about any scripture that doesn't 'fit' in the Sunday Morning meeting - gotta preserve the unity!
Unbelievable isn't it!
Now I don't for one minute dispute that there are some very sincere people in the work nor do I have any idea what the conditions are in other countries. However, this is my perception of the way the system operates here in Ireland.
So much so that some have left the system because they could no longer condone the behaviour of Workers and others who remain in the system have stated that they have lost faith in the Workers. Unlike me who left because I couldn't stand the hypocrisy, the self righteousness, the deceit, the gossip, the cover ups, the false teaching, the outward judging, the teaching for doctrine the commandments of men, the double standards, the lack of Christianity, the superficial unity, the focus on workers and meetings and the position, place and power (and abuse of it) readily sought and accepted by Workers. Oh and the fact that the church was actually started by a man in 1897 contrary to what the Workers' preach. (In fact last year in Belfast they were STILL preaching that any church that can trace its' founder to a man is a false church!)
Sad isn't it!
Pathetic actually!
And that's all I have to say about Workers and Meetings!
The Exprofessor, Ireland
Below is the Ex-Professor's 'Guide to Workers and Meetings in Ireland'.
Best regards
Robert
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Guide to Workers and Meetings in Ireland
The two fundamentals of 2x2 beliefs in Ireland are Workers and Meetings.
IMO these are the two most important things.
It doesn't really matter what you believe as long as you accept the workers and attend the meetings. For example you may believe in the Trinity, not believe in the Trinity, have no idea whether or not you believe in the Trinity or never have heard of the Trinity it doesn't matter so long as you accept the workers and attend the meetings.
You may believe that the bible is true, follow the teachings of Jesus and be a good Christian but if you don't accept the workers and attend the meetings then you have a problem.
These are the fundamentals: Workers and Meetings.
If you listen to a Workers' sermon you will almost always hear reference to the Workers. You may well hear more reference to the Workers than reference to Jesus.You will often hear reference to the Meetings and you may hear more reference to the Meetings than you will to Jesus.
In the Sunday morning meeting thanks were always given for the Workers and for the Meetings. Some may have been thankful for other things as well but everyone was always thankful for the Workers and the Meetings.
Some people would pray for other professing people and the odd person may actually pray for those outside but everyone always prayed for the Workers and the Meetings.
If you go on a social visit to someone's home, you will rarely hear the Lord's name mentioned. You will however hear plenty about the Workers and the Meetings.
In Ireland, Workers' perceptions of people are based on their attitude to the Workers and their attendance at Meetings.
First Meetings
If you are a good attender at meetings then you are considered to be doing fine. This means all the meetings, the Morning meetings, the Union meetings, the Gospel meetings, the Wednesday night meetings, the Special meetings, the Convention meetings in fact every meeting except the Workers' Meetings. You are not allowed to go to the Workers Meeting. Not even if you are a bishop. In other words attend all the meetings except the meetings about the meetings and you are considered by the Workers to be doing well.
If you miss some meetings you will be considered to be not doing so well. If you miss a lot of meetings you will be considered as not doing well at all (unless you are sick of course). If you miss a lot of meetings for a lot of time you may well get a visit from the workers. I know I did! I think this means that you need to attend more meetings. I certainly never got a visit when I wasn't missing a lot of meetings!
It appears that it is better to attend meetings than visit the sick, help the needy, feed the starving or do other Christian work. There is no better place to be than in whatever meeting happens to be taking place at that particular time and there is nearly always some meeting taking place at any particular time. If there aren't enough meetings taking place in your area you can always attend meetings in a neighbouring area. If there aren't enough meetings at home you can always take your holidays abroad and attend even more meetings. In fact the only thing you can't do is you can never attend too many meetings. (Actually I think I have) And remember when you run out of meetings there are always funerals!
Oh and the meeting MUST be in a home! Apparantly this is scriptural although I've never managed to find it. I have heard some dispute over whether it should be in the upper room or the guest chamber but there is no dispute that it MUST be in a home. Unless of course the workers decide it should be in a tent, a barn, a school, a hall, a garage, a community centre, a town hall, a church hall, an Orange Hall or anywhere else they fancy having it. Oh and the home must be 'worthy'. I'm not sure about whether the tent, barn, garage etc have to be worthy but I would imagine that the church hall didn't have to be because it couldn't possibly be worthy as not only was built by hands but it belonged to the false religions ! Shocking isn't it!
Now what is even better than attending all the meetings is helping with the meetings. This means that you give out cards, give out hymn books, hire halls, attend preps, lend chairs, put up tents, take down tents, make tents, repair tents, drive Workers to meetings, lend Workers cars to drive to meetings, bring 'strangers to gospel meetings', or bring lots of 'strangers' to lots of gospel meetings you will be doing even better. In fact do anything you can to help with the meetings and you'll be considered by the Workers to be doing even better. Except of course decide to hold a meeting. Only the Workers decide when and where to hold a meeting.
The best you can do is to make your home available for a meeting. Obviously you must be a good attender at meetings before the Workers' will allow you this 'privilage'. Start with a Wednesday night meeting and you may eventually get a Sunday morning meeting. That's if someone more 'suitable' doesn't move into the area. (That can either be a bit of a bummer if you had your heart set on promotion or a bit of a relief if you just didn't fancy having to explain to the neighbours why you suddenly started getting all those happy cheerful visitors on a Wednesday night.) Doing this well will almost certainly lead to you becoming a bishop/elder when a vacancy arises. This is as high as you can go without going in the work although if you have a big house you may go further and get a Union Meeting as well. Once you reach this stage you are doing really fine and you can probably relax for a while. ( I know of a case where they were doing so fine they relaxed so much that thought they could get away with having a telly.)
After this, all that is left is to buy a convention ground. Anyone who disputes the importance of meetings only has to take note of the percentage of time and effort put into convention. There is more time put into conventions by Workers in Ireland than there is to preaching the gospel which I thought was what the Workers were called to do. Shows how much I know! (And remember conventions are not even biblical but rather were an idea which William Irvine took with him when he left the Faith Mission to set up "The Truth". If fact it came as quite a suprise to me that Conventions were actually in existence longer than the Sunday Morning meeting which was supposed to be such a fundamental part of the system.)
Which brings us to the Workers
The workers are the other essential part of the 2x2's.
Remember the Workers are the ONLY true servants of God on this earth - according to the Workers. (The 2x2's adhere to this belief in return for membership of an effective mutual admiration society where the workers refer to the 2x2's as God's only true people.)
Oh and you can only be saved by hearing the gospel through two Workers - according to the Workers (except of course if your name is William Irvine in which case he heard it some other way but we don't know what other way because it was long time ago and by the way we have no records and anyway it's not important - according to the Workers - how convenient especially if you've an IQ west of Zero on the number line and you happen to be asking the questions!) so they are pretty important people as you can imagine.
So important that you must obey them. And not only obey them in regard to what their version is of the doctrine laid down in the bible but any other hair-brained doctrine that the overseer happens to think would be a good idea at the time. If the overseer thinks Christmas cards are a bad idea then no Christmas cards it is. If the overseer thinks that the bishop should act the circus clown and leap up every Sunday morning to prevent any member who happens to be dating an outsider receiving the emblems, then act the circus clown he does.
Basically what this means is the that the overseer decides what the rules are in a particular area ( TV's, radios, ladies' dress code, dating outsiders, meetings etc) and the senior workers implement them. The senior workers must obey the overseer or risk losing place or privilage or even career as the late Edward Cooney found to his cost. (although they couldn't tell the people that so they put around the myth that he went a little crazy and left because he wanted to start his own religion. Note if you are not sure who Edward was you can can find four of his hymns in Hymns Old and New although you won't find him listed as the author as you couldn't possible have the people wondering how a crazy man like Eddie could write such nice hymns.)
It should come as no surprise that since it was a group of Workers who set up the 2x2's that the Workers make the rules. The Workers decide who can be a 2x2 and who can't. It is the Workers who decide if someone has broken the Workers'
rules and they who decide what the punishment is. If your husband buys a TV, then the Workers kick you out for having a TV in your home. If you date an outsider then the Workers kick you out as well. Basically if you don't abide by any of the overseers' rules he can kick you out. Except in Ireland the overseer, Tommie Gamble, doesn't have the balls to do it himself, so he sends the senior Worker in the field to do it for him.
In fact a senior worker in Ireland this year told me quite categorically that when excommunicating people from the group they do NOT take guidance on these matters from God but rather act only on the instruction of the overseer, Tommie Gamble because there was NO SUBSTITUTE for Tommie Gamble's experience. (And you thought they prayed about these decisions.) How's that for faith in God!
Conveniently the Workers also decide who can be a Worker. So it doesn't matter if the Lord himself has called you to be a Worker - if the Workers don't think you are fit to be a Worker, then forget it. However, even if the Lord didn't call you to be a Worker you can still be a Worker if the Workers decide you can. Astonishingly you can even be knowingly engaging in the abuse of children and be allowed to remain in the work!
Now you would think that with this sort of behaviour, 2x2 members would have a word with the Workers. And do they? Not on your flippin' Nelly! Instead they continue to seek favour with the workers and give them their money!
LOADS OF IT!
Yes despite preaching the poor homeless stranger bit the Workers actually accept large amounts of money. In fact it is not the bishops/elders who receive and distribute the funds. Yes, you've guessed it - It's the Workers.
Yes despite the fact the Jesus sent them without purse they conveniently forget that part of it and do quite the opposite. So much so I believe that they don't know what to spend it on. I know that they go on plenty of trips abroad when the notion takes them, drive 'pool' cars, wear good clothes, have electronic organisers, own expensive laptop computers, and some even have connection to the internet if you don't mind! Not for them the poor lowly man from Gallilee with no place to lay his head, fasting for forty days and riding on a donkey!
Not for them either to take the lowest place at convention but rather sit at the best table eating the best food. Oh and it's not every home they stay at but the biggest and best and they prefer to have a room each if you don't mind! Oh and last time I saw them they were driving a nice big Mercedes with a personalised number plate! And all this for two hours preaching a week!
So forget all that biblical stuff and keep attending the meetings. Then in the eyes of the Workers you'll be doing fine. Obviously you'll be doing even better if you have a nice house, a nice car and a few spare dollars which they can avail of. That is providing of course you conform outwardly to their rules (or advice as the refer to it). Oh and don't speak about any scripture that doesn't 'fit' in the Sunday Morning meeting - gotta preserve the unity!
Unbelievable isn't it!
Now I don't for one minute dispute that there are some very sincere people in the work nor do I have any idea what the conditions are in other countries. However, this is my perception of the way the system operates here in Ireland.
So much so that some have left the system because they could no longer condone the behaviour of Workers and others who remain in the system have stated that they have lost faith in the Workers. Unlike me who left because I couldn't stand the hypocrisy, the self righteousness, the deceit, the gossip, the cover ups, the false teaching, the outward judging, the teaching for doctrine the commandments of men, the double standards, the lack of Christianity, the superficial unity, the focus on workers and meetings and the position, place and power (and abuse of it) readily sought and accepted by Workers. Oh and the fact that the church was actually started by a man in 1897 contrary to what the Workers' preach. (In fact last year in Belfast they were STILL preaching that any church that can trace its' founder to a man is a false church!)
Sad isn't it!
Pathetic actually!
And that's all I have to say about Workers and Meetings!
The Exprofessor, Ireland