#Witness definition free#

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“Our baptisms for the last three years have all been done at private locations, following COVID protocols, at outside pools” and other sites, said Hendriks. Like other faith groups that had to resort to new ways of conducting baptisms, Jehovah’s Witnesses found alternatives to the rituals that usually occurred at their conventions, where hundreds were baptized in a facility.

While congregants gathered online for two years prior to April, the faith group said there were more than 400,000 newly baptized Witnesses who joined some of the 120,000 congregations across the world. “They once again can be done in person as of September 1st.”Įlizabeth and Mark Godoy pose beside a display of Bible-based literature in Herald Square in New York City. “Typically, our Bible studies have always been done in person,” Hendriks said. The return to door knocking comes at the same time that Jehovah’s Witnesses are launching a global campaign about an interactive Bible study program that was developed during the pandemic and involves an instructor and a student. “It’s really going to be a very individual decision based not only on the feeling of the congregant, but also on the feeling of the householder,” he said. Will people be masked? Will they be socially distant? Will they be invited in? branch is based in the Hudson River Valley town of Wallkill, New York. Though the faith group’s decision to return to people’s doorsteps is a global one, the way conversations will take place will depend on the people having the interaction, said Hendriks, whose U.S. “It’s a decision that directly impacts everyone from religious organizations to political candidates to trick-or-treaters.”

#Witness definition free#

“The court said it violated the First Amendment protection of free speech,” noted Hawaii Public Radio in a July report about the anniversary. RELATED: Jehovah’s Witnesses to resume in-person gatherings, door knocking still on hold Village of Stratton, in which they - and other groups that stand on strangers’ stoops - were victorious in protecting the right to continue door knocking without governmental permission. Most notably, they recently marked the 20th anniversary of the 8–1 Supreme Court decision Watchtower v. Photo courtesy of Jehovah’s Witnessesĭoor knocking has not only been a physical mainstay for Jehovah’s Witnesses but an ideal they have fought for in courtrooms. “And when we do that, we have meaningful conversations and meaningful follow-up conversations, which is much more difficult in other aspects of our ministry.” “Even though we have had a very productive two and a half years - letter writing, virtual Bible study, telephone witnessing - we recognize that the primary way that we reach our neighbors is by going to their door,” he told Religion News Service on Monday (Aug. spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses, said the decision, announced earlier this month, was the “next logical step in this ‘living with COVID’ phase.” The return of door knocking will join other outreach efforts that the group has maintained over the last couple of years.

1, adherents of the religious group known for their door-to-door knocking ministry, will return to neighborhoods to share their faith. Those reopened, in hybrid fashion, in April of this year. (RNS) - Like other houses of worship, the Jehovah’s Witnesses shut down their Kingdom Halls in March 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.