Instruct: Given a question, retrieve passages that can help answer the question.
Query: When was the church of Jehovah's Witnesses established?
Jehovah's Witnesses originated as a branch of the Bible Student movement, which developed in the United States in the 1870s among followers of Christian Restorationist minister Charles Taze Russell. Bible Student missionaries were sent to England in 1881 and the first overseas branch was opened in London in 1900. The group took on the name International Bible Students Association and by 1914 it was also active in Canada, Germany, Australia and other countries. The movement split into several rival organizations after Russell's death in 1916, with one—led by Russell's successor, Joseph "Judge" Rutherford—retaining control of both his magazine, "The Watch Tower", and his legal and publishing corporation, the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania.
A Kingdom Hall is a place of worship used by Jehovah's Witnesses. The term was first suggested in 1935 by Joseph Franklin Rutherford, then president of the Watch Tower Society, for a building in Hawaii. Rutherford's reasoning was that these buildings would be used for "preaching the good news of the Kingdom". Jehovah's Witnesses use Kingdom Halls for the majority of their worship and Bible instruction. Witnesses prefer the term "Kingdom Hall" over "church", noting that the term often translated "church" in the Bible refers to the congregation of people rather than a structure.
Witnesses believe that after the death of the apostles, the Church embarked on a "Great Apostasy", diverging from the original teachings of Jesus on several major points. Influenced by Restorationism in the 19th century, Charles Taze Russell and his associates formed a Bible study group in the 1870s in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, developing teachings that they considered to be a revival of "the great truths taught by Jesus and the Apostles". Watch Tower publications claim both the Great Apostasy and Russell's subsequent "restoration" of original Christianity were a fulfilment of Jesus' parable of the wheat and the weeds at Matthew 13:24-30,36-43. Although many of their eschatological teachings have changed over the years, Jehovah's Witnesses have consistently claimed to be the only true religion. Based on their interpretation of Revelation 18:2-24, Jehovah's Witnesses believe all other religions are part of "Babylon the Great", a "world empire of false religion" under the control of Satan; consequently, they refuse all ecumenical relations with other religious denominations.
In March 2007 Jehovah's Witness centers throughout the country rented local halls and rooms for an April 2, 2007, religious ceremony, and distributed fliers inviting citizens to the event. However, in several cities, including Kyzylorda, Shaktinsk, Shymkent, and Taraz, the landlords called the Jehovah's Witnesses shortly before the event and canceled the reservation. The Jehovah's Witnesses alleged that the landlords were pressured by local government officials. In Semipalatinsk, the Jehovah's Witnesses and their guests arrived on April 2 to find their rented space surrounded by firefighters. A local government representative claimed that they needed a permit for the ceremony and denied them admission to their rented room. In each case, the Jehovah's Witnesses were able to hold their ceremony in other locations. No other religious groups reported similar instances of government interference in their public gatherings.
Jehovah's Witnesses did not have a significant presence in the Soviet Union prior to 1939 when the Soviet Union forcibly incorporated eastern Poland, Moldavia, and Lithuania, each of which had a Jehovah's Witness movement. Although never large in number (estimated by the KGB to be 20,000 in 1968), the Jehovah's Witnesses became one of the most persecuted religious groups in the Soviet Union during the post-World War II era. Members were arrested or deported; some were put in Soviet concentration camps. Witnesses in Moldavian SSR were deported to Tomsk Oblast; members from other regions of the Soviet Union were deported to Irkutsk Oblast. KGB officials, who were tasked with dissolving the Jehovah's Witness movement, were disturbed to discover that the Witnesses continued to practice their faith even within the labor camps.
Jehovah's Witnesses suffered religious persecution in Nazi Germany between 1933 and 1945 after refusing to perform military service, join Nazi organizations or give allegiance to the Hitler regime. An estimated 10,000 Witnesses—half of the number of members in Germany during that period—were imprisoned, including 2000 who were sent to Nazi concentration camps. An estimated 1200 died in custody, including 250 who were executed. They were the first Christian denomination banned by the Nazi government and the most extensively and intensively persecuted.
In 1784, a Catholic parish was formally founded in Stockholm. The members lacked suitable premises, however. Therefore, until 1837, Stockholm's Catholics celebrated mass in the Freemasons hall inside the building of today's Stockholm City Museum, which they were offered to rent for the purposes.
The Holy See dates back to early Christianity, and is the primate episcopal see of the Catholic Church, with 1.3 billion Catholics around the world distributed in the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Catholic Churches. The independent Vatican City-state, on the other hand, came into existence in 11 February 1929 by the Lateran Treaty between the Holy See and Italy, which spoke of it as a new creation, not as a vestige of the much larger Papal States (756–1870), which had previously encompassed much of central Italy.
Doctrines of Jehovah's Witnesses are established by the Governing Body. The denomination does not tolerate dissent over doctrines and practices; members who openly disagree with the group's teachings are expelled and shunned. Witness publications strongly discourage followers from questioning doctrine and counsel received from the Governing Body, reasoning that it is to be trusted as part of "God's organization". It also warns members to "avoid independent thinking", claiming such thinking "was introduced by Satan the Devil" and would "cause division". Those who openly disagree with official teachings are condemned as "apostates" who are "mentally diseased".
Founded in 1858, YWCA USA has 225 associations nationwide at more than 1,300 sites serving more than 2 million women and families. Associations were configured into 9 regions until 2012, when the YWCA reorganized with a new CEO and eliminated the regional structure system. Regions varied in size from 19 associations (New England) to 60 associations (Great Lakes). The other regions averaged 32 associations each. In 2015, the associations had over 12,000 staff members and 44,000 volunteers. A YWCA logo was created in 1988 by Saul Bass.
Jehovah's Witnesses or "Bible Researchers" (Bibelforschers) as they were known in Germany, comprised 25,000 members and they were among those persecuted by the Nazi government. All incarcerated members were identified by a unique purple triangle. Some members of the religious group refused to serve in the German military or give allegiance to the Nazi government, for which 250 were executed. An estimated 10,000 were arrested for various crimes, and 2,000 were sent to Nazi concentration camps, where approximately 1,200 were killed. Jehovah's Witnesses were among the few who could leave the concentration camps simply by signing a document renouncing their religious beliefs.
Two missionaries were sent to England in 1881 and overseas branches were opened in London (1900), Germany (1903) and Australia and Switzerland (1904). The Watch Tower Society's headquarters were transferred to Brooklyn, New York in 1908.
In 1910 Russell introduced the name "International Bible Students Association" as a means of identifying his worldwide community of Bible study groups. The name was also used when advertising and conducting conventions of Russell's followers.
The founder of Westminster Cathedral, Cardinal Herbert Vaughan laid great emphasis on the beauty and integrity of the cathedral's liturgy. Initially, he determined there should be a community of Benedictine monks at the new cathedral, performing the liturgies and singing the daily Office. This caused great resentment amongst the secular clergy of the diocese, who felt they were being snubbed. In the end, negotiations with both the English Benedictines and the community of French Benedictines at Farnborough failed and a 'traditional' choir of men and boys was set up instead. Despite great financial problems, the Choir School opened on 5 October 1901 with eleven boy choristers, in the building originally intended for the Benedictine monks. Cardinal Vaughan received the boys with the words "You are the foundation stones". The Cathedral Choir was officially instituted three months later in January 1902. Sung Masses and Offices were immediately established when the cathedral opened for worship in 1903, and have continued without interruption ever since. Today, Westminster Cathedral Choir is the only professional Catholic choir in the world to sing daily Mass and Vespers.
During the World Wars, Jehovah's Witnesses were targeted in the United States, Canada, and many other countries for their refusal to serve in the military or help with war efforts. In Canada, Jehovah's Witnesses were interned in camps along with political dissidents and people of Japanese and Chinese descent. Activities of Jehovah's Witnesses have previously been banned in the Soviet Union and in Spain, partly due to their refusal to perform military service. Their religious activities are currently banned or restricted in some countries, for example in Singapore, China, Vietnam, Russia and many Muslim-majority countries.
The Roman Catholic Westminster Cathedral was built in 1903 filling a site previously occupied by the Tothill Fields Prison.
The PRC was founded in 1924 as a result of a controversy regarding common grace in the Christian Reformed Church. At that time the Christian Reformed Church had adopted three doctrinal points on the subject of common grace. Reverends Herman Hoeksema, George Ophoff, and Henry Danhof rejected these three points and maintained them to be contrary to the Reformed confessions of faith. Soon thereafter, when these men said they could not abide by these three points, they were disciplined through suspension, or deposition, from the ministry by their respective classes. The CRC maintained that the position of these three men was inconsistent with the Bible's teachings. The men objected to this deposition also from a church political point of view, arguing that only the consistory has the right to depose their minister, not a classis. The CRC disagreed, and these ministers, as well as their followers, were deposed by the CRC and organized into a new denomination, taking the name of Protesting Christian Reformed Churches. The denomination later renamed itself the Protestant Reformed Churches in America. Rev Hoeksema become the pastor of the First Protestant Reformed Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
After the English Reformation, Roman Catholic worship was illegal in England for nearly 250 years until 1791, and it grew slowly thereafter in comparison to West Sussex, where many large estates were owned by gentry who secretly kept the faith over many generations. Ill-feeling towards Catholics apparently persisted well into the 19th century in Battle, where the 1886 Church of Our Lady Immaculate and St Michael was set well back from the street (in the garden of its presbytery) and does not have an ecclesiastical appearance. In the early 20th century, bolder architectural statements were made with the Gothic Revival church at Bexhill-on-Sea and the elaborate Italian Romanesque-style church at Rye, both of which are listed buildings. Most of the other Roman Catholic churches in Rother district are simple mid-20th-century buildings, sometimes with distinguishing architectural features such as a modernistic portico-style entrance at Sidley, dalle de verre glass at Burwash and a Mediterranean-style blank-arcaded tower at Little Common.
The construction was completed in 1906. It is a neoclassical building which still decorates the place near the church of Saint Athanasius, bearing the inscription "ΕΚΠΑΙΔΕΥΤΗΡΙΑ ΕΛΛΗΝΙΚΗΣ ΟΡΘΟΔΟΞΟΥ ΚΟΙΝΟΤΗΤΟΣ ΔΟΒΙΣΤΗΣ 1906" (School of the Greek Orthodox community of Dovista). It was restored in the middle of the first decade of 2000 and today the ground floor serves as museum about the life and activity of the hero Emmanouel Pappas, while the first floor hosts occasionally Municipal Council meetings and other events. The decision to build a new school building was certainly associated with a significant spiritual and cultural flowering that occurred at the same time, which also led to the founding of various associations with social and educational activities and national guidelines. In late 19th-early 20th century, there existed in the village three such associations: the "Fraternity of Saint Demetrius" (Αδελφότης Αγίου Δημητρίου), which built a homonymous church in 1862, the "Progressive Fraternity Dovista" (Φιλοπρόοδος Αδελφότης Δοβίστα), founded in 1883 and the "Music-Gymnastics Society Virtue" (Μουσικογυμναστικός Σύλλογος Αρετή), founded in 1910. In the first years after the liberation of the area from Ottoman yoke and its incorporation to the Greek state, there was also founded the "Music-Gymnastics Club Emmanouil Papas" (Μουσικογυμναστικός Σύλλογος Εμμανουήλ Παπάς), whose board published a short-lived magazine titled "Emmanouil Papas" in 1932.
The site on which the cathedral stands in the City of Westminster was purchased by the Diocese of Westminster in 1885, and construction was completed in 1903. Westminster Cathedral is the largest Catholic church building in England and Wales and the seat of the Archbishop of Westminster.
The Reformed Episcopal Church (REC) is an Anglican church of evangelical Episcopalian heritage. It was founded in 1873 in New York City by George David Cummins, formerly a bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church.
St. Peter's, East Maitland, is one of the oldest Anglican parishes in Australia, having been established in 1834. From 1829, Church of England services were held inside the school house on Stockade Hill, very close to the later site of the first dedicated church.
On March 9, 1953, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned and remanded the Supreme Court of Rhode Island's affirmation of the conviction of a Jehovah's Witnesses member for holding a religious meeting in a city park of Pawtucket. The opinion of the court was that a religious service of Jehovah's Witnesses had been treated differently from the religious services of other denominations. The court stated that the city had not prohibited church services in the park, as Catholics and Protestants could conduct services there without violating the ordinance.
After its formal establishment in 1971, the Governing Body met regularly but, according to Raymond Franz, only briefly; Franz claims meetings were sometimes as short as seven minutes, to make decisions about branch appointments and conduct that should be considered disfellowshipping offenses. Franz claims that in 1971 and again in 1975, the Governing Body debated the extent of the authority it should be given. The Governing Body voted in December 1975 to establish six operating committees to oversee the various administrative requirements of the organization's worldwide activities that formerly had been under the direction of the president; furthermore, each branch overseer was to be replaced by a branch committee of at least three members. The change, which took effect on January 1, 1976, was described in the Watch Tower Society's 1993 history book, "Jehovah's Witnesses—Proclaimers of God's Kingdom", as "one of the most significant organizational readjustments in the modern-day history of Jehovah's Witnesses."
In July 1940 the government of Canada banned the Jehovah's Witnesses. Overnight it became illegal to be a member of this sect. The law, passed under the War Measures Act, was vigorously enforced. Beatings, mob action, police persecution, and state prosecution confronted the Jehovah's Witnesses as they ignored the ban and continued to go about their work spreading the word of God... The struggle was bitter indeed. Jehovah's Witness children who refused to sing the national anthem and salute the flag during patriotic exercises in public schools were often expelled from class, and in a few cases, removed from their parents' care and placed in foster homes and juvenile detention centres. Men of military service age who refused to fight spent the war trying to get out of alternative service camps established across Canada for conscientious objectors. Jehovah's Witness spent a good deal of time in the courts during the war years; they challenged government policies with which they disagreed, and were arrested in the hundreds and charged with being members of an illegal group.
From 1936 to 1959, Jehovah's Witnesses faced religious and civil opposition in Quebec. Historically, the Roman Catholic Church had been the dominant institution in the life of the province of Quebec and a major influence on French Canadian culture. It nurtured the young people of Quebec, in language and faith; and at the same time it endorsed the legitimacy of British rule and of the established economic order.