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Part 2—The “Triumphant Kingdom” Assemblies of 1955

Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada June 29–July 3, 1955

FROM Chicago the Society’s president and his secretary and the vice-president flew westward to serve at the five-day assembly in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, the second in the “world sweeping series of Christian assemblies,” as one Canadian newspaper termed it. The fact is, this assembly turned out to be the biggest gathering ever to be staged in the history of the province.

The public relations servant of the Watch Tower Society was early on the job, and from the middle of May the newspapers were publishing advance information regarding the coming assembly. German and Swedish newspapers joined in publicizing the assembly, and even the Chinese newspapers from May 13 on. So the general public were alerted well in advance. They were encouraged to receive the thousands of conventioners into their homes by news that requests for accommodations had been received from thirty-four American states, seven Canadian provinces, and England, Hawaii and Australia. Nine thousand room requests were filled and the householders were pleased with their guests. The public was informed that an enormous house-cleaning job was taking place as 400 of Jehovah’s witnesses scrubbed the Empire Stadium, with its seats for 25,557, from top to bottom.

The great oval stadium was given a “religious atmosphere” by the erection of the speakers’ platform with its background of an unusual design and with the convention title above it. Jehovah, too, added his own background, foothills of the Canadian Rockies that stood out boldly in the distance. At the opposite curve of the oval stadium was suspended a huge banner with the year’s text upon it, Psalm 112:7.

The general attitude of the public was friendly, and most of the large department stores, hotels and motels were glad to put up “Welcome Jehovah’s Witnesses” signs. Notices of welcome by business firms were also published in the newspapers, but doubtless no attention was paid to the announcement by one religious organization of a “Special Service for Jehovah’s Witnesses” Sunday night. During the assembly the newspaper publicity grew to grand proportions, 2,112 column inches, all of which amounted to good advertising for the New World society. Add to this the interviews that were had with the Society’s officials and recorded and radiocast, or broadcast direct.

The Vancouver assembly in the polished-up stadium opened up under clouded skies and with cold weather, the friends sitting with their overcoats on or wrapped in blankets. They had come from thirty states of America, eight provinces of Canada and the Yukon, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Hawaii, Japan and Australia. Many who had come up from warmer weather in the South had to act on the welcome of the business firms in town and furnish themselves with heavier garments for the inclement weather. Convention chairman P. Chapman had to give his address of welcome with the rain in his face, and many bright-colored umbrellas “blossomed” throughout the uncovered parts of the stadium. Only two sections on the east and west of the stadium were roofed over, or about only one third of its expanse. While many sat in the rain, others stood and listened to the speeches in the passageways or shelters under the stands. The temperature recording was 56 degrees Fahrenheit, but the conventioners proved that they were not “fair weather Christians.” They supported the assembly and also the speakers, at the cost of good endurance. They were amply repaid, and great was their joy and thanksgiving at receiving the new publications released day after day.

For the president’s opening address there was an attendance of 11,641. The inclement weather continued, and Thursday afternoon the president was obliged to speak while it not only blew and rained but also snowed and hailed. But the program went on, and the attendance had risen to 13,110. The friends were determined to lick the weather, and they did. Outside the stadium they zealously pushed ahead with their united field activities.

Friday morning the sun battled with storm clouds and there was some drip, but as the baptismal candidates stood up to answer Yes to the questions concerning their full dedication to God the sun broke through upon them. In spite of the temperature around 60 degrees F. there were 500 baptized, only two of them privately, all the rest in the open Empire Pool of Vancouver, B.C. Motion pictures taken of this immersion were televised that evening over channel 2, which covers much of British Columbia, and were viewed by many at the stadium.

Saturday afternoon an audience of 17,414, in cloud-dimmed sunshine, received the release of the book You May Survive Armageddon into God’s New World with exclamations of Oh! and hearty applause.

The Sunday morning talks were given in the rain to 13,689 who braved the weather. Knowing that our heavenly Father makes it rain upon the just as well as the unjust, they had no complaints about the weather; they could not imagine Jehovah God as saying: “What a shame that it rained at Vancouver!” Dampened, yes, in body, but not in spirit, they went out to bring householders and people of good will to the public lecture, and many of the public responded of themselves to the tremendous advertising. Though it kept raining up until the public talk, the biggest turnout ever in the records of British Columbia—21,877—filled the greater part of the stadium, where many umbrellas were up. Many sat in parked cars. Many were in the corridors. As the talk by the president on “World Conquest Soon—by God’s Kingdom” progressed, the rain stopped for good. The many newcomers there were invited by the speaker to attend the meetings at the twenty Kingdom Halls in Vancouver. Many hundreds of them remained for the closing remarks of the president, for a crowd of 18,161 were present at the assembly’s close, in bright sunshine.

The Vancouver assembly was a fine demonstration of Christian fortitude and faithfulness to all observers. It registered a fine triumph for God’s kingdom. At a time when the Fraser River flowing past Vancouver was reaching its highest levels since the 1948 flood year, British Columbia was swept with a flood of truth and truth bearers. Of all Canadian provinces British Columbia is most dense with Jehovah’s witnesses; in fact, one of them to every 124 inhabitants. In all Canada there are 29,178 active witnesses, in 723 congregations, which means one witness for every 480 inhabitants. The effect of the Vancouver assembly should be to raise the proportion of witnesses still higher. The assembly provided a mass of news material for a great deal of postconvention newspaper publicity in the local communities of all homecoming conventioners.

LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, U.S.A. JULY 6-10, 1955

The third assembly in the summer series now loomed up in Los Angeles. The day preceding its opening the Society’s president, accompanied by his secretary and the vice-president, flew from Vancouver, B.C., in the region of the towering Douglas fir trees, southward to this California metropolis of stately palms and subtropical vegetation. Again the same assembly place, Wrigley Field, was engaged as had been used for the national assembly back in 1947. Then 45,729 gathered in this baseball park to hear the public talk, thousands being seated in chairs on the grass of the baseball diamond’s outfield; and 705 were baptized. Now the estimate, as published in the newspapers, was that 30,000 would attend the public event of the 1955 regional assembly here.

Suddenly, two weeks before the assembly, a roadblock seemed to be raised up to prevent many willing-spirited persons from getting to the assembly grounds. A tie-up of all the city’s transit lines began by a strike that left Los Angeles almost paralyzed as to public transportation, only taxis continuing to operate. The assembly committee saw itself faced with the problem of getting conventioners who had no cars of their own both to their homes and to all sessions of the assembly. Determined to surmount it, they moved to the task. They got as many car-owning brothers as possible to serve as JW taxis and offer free transportation. At all depots, train and bus, incoming conventioners were met, led to waiting taxis, and driven to their room assignments or to the assembly grounds. More vehicles were needed to get the brothers daily to the assembly sessions and back to their rooms again. So they rented four school buses. Also eight congregations outside Los Angeles brought buses, and these also were used after the congregations had arrived in them. No charges were made, no fares taken, of the passengers for this bus transportation, yet the voluntary contributions exceeded the costs of renting the buses and the gasoline used.

Two routes were planned for the buses that took care of visiting delegates staying in the more than thirty hotels downtown, and time schedules and bus stops were furnished to each hotel in behalf of conventioners there. Still more transportation was needed for those staying in private homes in far corners of this widely spread-out city and who were stranded, some of them twenty and thirty miles away from Wrigley Field. At the call for hundreds of voluntary cars, not only did Los Angeles brothers respond but brothers from as far away as Alaska and Canada freely offered their time, car and gasoline to convey the conventioners back and forth. A system of operation for the entire city and suburbs was arranged and applied, and worked conveniently. Daily the big rush came at night after the last session, for all wanted to leave at the same time. The Transportation Department of the assembly handled this situation capably, putting passengers with drivers going in the same general direction. By about 10 p.m. each night all passengers and drivers were on their way home. Transportation was furnished as far as Reseda and San Pedro Harbor, a distance of at least thirty-five miles from Wrigley Field. With the wisdom of God and the help of his holy spirit, the fruitage of which is love, the New World society proved equal to the task.

One day a worker in the Transportation Department stood in the cafeteria line alongside Wrigley Field. A neatly dressed man behind her said: “Isn’t it wonderful? I have never seen anything like it!” When she agreed, he asked: “Are you a member?” She said: “Yes, I am one of Jehovah’s witnesses,” and then asked: “How did you come here?” He said: “I live in downtown Los Angeles and I saw these buses running and knew there was a bus strike. So I decided to get on one to see where it was going. I tried to give the bus driver some money but he wouldn’t take any. So I just sat down, and we ended up at Wrigley Field. I spent all day here and I think it is wonderful!” The sister did not get much dinner eaten that night, trying to get as much basic information to this already impressed stranger as possible in a short time.

So it was that the first afternoon 18,985 were crowding the grandstand, with a few in the bleachers, to applaud and laugh as the president, Brother Knorr, talked on “The Triumphant Message of ‘The Kingdom,’” and then to accept with loud enthusiasm the second volume of the New World Translation of the Hebrew Scriptures which he released to them. Beneath a yellow umbrella he spoke to them from a stage covered with a carpet of green grass. The stage arrangement with its floral appurtenances was, to quote the president, “colossal.” It followed the baseball-diamond pattern, the stage itself resting on second base, one entrance thereto being near first base and the other near third base. A symmetrical terrace garden of colorful flowers, broken only by light-and dark-green foliage, set on a field of grass, was accented by numerous green trees. Added to this were two circular ponds of blue water with fountains flowing continually. Marking each side of the two entrances were seven-foot column-shaped Eugenia trees, besides other tall ornamental evergreen trees and hedges and green shrubs. On home plate of the baseball diamond was a battery of loud-speakers camouflaged by green shrubs and trees. At the close of this first day the assembly had increased to 20,094 listening to the speeches from this platform. The deaf heard by means of translation into sign language.

Delegates were here from many foreign lands, including one from Seoul, South Korea. Because of the many Spanish-speaking conventioners from Mexico, Honduras and other Latin communities, unprogrammed meetings in Spanish were held Thursday, Friday and Saturday mornings, two hours each. Two of the Society’s representatives from Mexico and the president’s secretary and the vice-president addressed these Spanish gatherings on assembly subjects and displayed the successive English releases. The daily attendances were 494, 563 and 602, and many who knew no English felt more deeply that it had been worthwhile to attend the assembly.

The baptismal participation exceeded all expectations; 1,014 were immersed at a swimming pool in Pasadena. All rejoiced that so many had dedicated themselves recently to God through Christ and were now obediently symbolizing their dedication by water baptism.

Saturday evening the president extemporized on the subject, “Youth’s Place in the New World Society,” before an audience of 25,772, giving the youthful witnesses considerable sage advice in harmony with the Scriptures. This was enjoyed by all, old and young alike, and a group of teen-age girls sent Brother Knorr a note of appreciation, saying about the talk: “The only fault was, it was not long enough. Next time make it an hour.”

The book Jehovah’s Witnesses—the New World Society, some hundreds of copies of which were made available at the assembly, became the fifth on the “best-seller” list there in Los Angeles.

Came Sunday, and the newspaper publicity summed up to a total of 1,833 column inches of space. This day was especially radio and television day for the assembly, what with three telecasts of convention principals and two straight radio broadcasts being beamed out to an aroused public. Fair weather favored the entire assembly, this Sunday being no exception. The special problem of the day was how to get all the interested public to Wrigley Field for the public talk and what to do with them when once there. So the same system of dividing the city area into sections was adopted and car drivers were dispatched on regular pick-up routes. After the drivers got their good-will groups to the field, they sat with them. Thus, regardless of the transit strike, all such goodwill persons were cared for, and they were assured that they would be cared for from then on by the local congregations of Jehovah’s witnesses. In this manner the public attendance was enabled to surpass all estimates, and uproarious applause rang out when the public speaker announced that 36,290 had heard the message on God’s world-conquering kingdom. The bleachers as well as the grandstand were jammed with listeners, and the gates were opened to let the overflow come in and sit on the grass to hear the speech. Many conical Siamese straw hats of bright colors and many bright-hued parasols were in evidence among those sitting in the hot sunshine.

Held bound by the attractive message and the pleasant personal contact with Jehovah’s New World society, many remained to hear the president offer his closing remarks. They heard him urge the expansion of the preaching work until none may say, “I didn’t know about the Kingdom.” At the time there was one Kingdom publisher to every 400 inhabitants in California, but it would be still better if it were one to every 200. In calling regularly upon the inhabitants with the message, “we do not pester people; we love them.”

Some time after 6 p.m. the enthusiastic appreciation-rousing assembly in Los Angeles ended, and the friends made ready to depart, powerfully incited to love and right works by not having forsaken the gathering of themselves together.

(To be continued)