00:00:02 Good morning, brothers and sisters!
00:00:04 How delightful it is to be gathered together
00:00:07 for this spiritual occasion!
00:00:11 Jehovah’s Witnesses love gathering at conventions
00:00:15 to learn, worship, and sing together.
00:00:19 But large conventions like these,
00:00:21 with tens of thousands meeting together,
00:00:24 weren’t always a part of our modern-day worship.
00:00:27 How did they get started?
00:00:29 Let’s find out in this episode
00:00:31 of Our History in Motion.
00:00:42 The very first large assembly of Jehovah’s people
00:00:45 was actually held thousands of years ago
00:00:48 when the Israelites gathered with Moses at Mount Sinai
00:00:52 for spiritual instruction.
00:00:54 After that, the Israelites attended three festivals each year.
00:00:59 And just like today’s conventions,
00:01:01 those gatherings brought people together from different tribes
00:01:05 to praise Him as one big family.
00:01:08 In modern times,
00:01:09 our first conventions were held in the late 1880’s.
00:01:13 But they weren’t exactly what we’d think of as conventions today.
00:01:18 With just a few hundred in attendance,
00:01:20 they were really just big meetings that brought the Bible Students together
00:01:24 to commemorate the Lord’s Evening Meal.
00:01:26 And they were all held in Allegheny, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.
00:01:32 But that changed in 1893
00:01:36 with the opening of the Chicago World’s Fair.
00:01:39 The fair drew millions of people.
00:01:41 And with the railroads offering discounted rates to Chicago,
00:01:45 the Bible Students saw it as a perfect opportunity
00:01:48 to invite the brothers and sisters for a five-day convention.
00:01:53 About 360 attended
00:01:56 —a small crowd by today’s standards.
00:01:59 But early conventions like this one
00:02:02 helped the Bible Students see just how upbuilding it was
00:02:06 to meet with fellow believers from other areas.
00:02:10 Eventually, conventions became an annual event.
00:02:15 Some were held outdoors or in a tent,
00:02:18 like the 1908 convention at Put-in-Bay,
00:02:21 a summer resort on Lake Erie, Ohio.
00:02:24 This convention was ten days long!
00:02:27 And it was the largest up to that time,
00:02:30 with an estimated 3,500 or more in attendance.
00:02:34 It was a chance for brothers and sisters, young and old,
00:02:38 to be spiritually refreshed, spend time together,
00:02:41 laugh together, eat together,
00:02:44 and build true bonds of friendship and love.
00:02:49 The world then suffered the devastating effects of World War I
00:02:53 and the deadly 1918 influenza pandemic
00:02:57 that had taken an estimated 50 million lives.
00:03:01 But that did not stop God’s people.
00:03:04 Our bonds of love became even more evident
00:03:07 in 1919 at Cedar Point, Ohio.
00:03:10 This was the first major convention held
00:03:12 after Brother Rutherford and his associates
00:03:15 had been released from prison.
00:03:17 Thrilled to finally gather together safely,
00:03:21 the Bible Students just kept coming and coming
00:03:24 until the entire program had to be moved outdoors,
00:03:27 with some 7,000 in attendance.
00:03:32 Just three years later, in 1922,
00:03:36 Cedar Point was the location of an even more exciting convention,
00:03:41 with an average daily attendance of about 10,000.
00:03:47 It energized God’s people to go on preaching with renewed vigor.
00:03:53 Many conventions in the years that followed
00:03:56 helped unite God’s people in even more powerful ways,
00:04:00 like the unforgettable one held in Columbus, Ohio, in 1931.
00:04:06 Imagine stepping into the Coliseum at the Fair Grounds,
00:04:10 there are 15,000 in attendance,
00:04:13 and the place is packed.
00:04:16 Your program has two large letters printed on the front:
00:04:20 JW.
00:04:22 For the first two days of the convention,
00:04:24 everyone is trying to guess what those letters mean.
00:04:28 Just Watch?
00:04:30 Just Wait?
00:04:31 Finally, Brother Rutherford steps on stage.
00:04:35 Near the end of his talk, he presents a resolution
00:04:38 that climaxes with the words:
00:04:41 “We desire to be known as and called by the name, to wit,
00:04:46 Jehovah’s witnesses.”
00:04:54 In the 1940’s,
00:04:56 World War II had left many countries devastated and divided,
00:05:01 but Jehovah’s Witnesses were growing in number and in unity.
00:05:06 In 1946,
00:05:08 they gathered in Cleveland, Ohio,
00:05:10 for the “Glad Nations” Theocratic Assembly,
00:05:13 and the name
00:05:15 couldn’t have been more appropriate.
00:05:17 It was a true international convention
00:05:21 with 55,000 delegates
00:05:24 from 33 different nations.
00:05:26 Some even camped in tents and trailers to be there.
00:05:30 Tent cities were a common sight
00:05:32 during big conventions of this era.
00:05:36 With our spiritual family continuing to grow,
00:05:40 conventions during the 1950’s
00:05:42 were held around the world
00:05:44 even in places where resources were limited.
00:05:49 A landmark example
00:05:51 of just how international
00:05:52 conventions had become
00:05:54 was the incredible
00:05:56 1958 Divine Will International Assembly
00:05:59 in New York City,
00:06:01 which was attended
00:06:02 by more than a quarter of a million people
00:06:06 from 123 lands.
00:06:08 This was the largest international convention
00:06:12 ever held in one city,
00:06:14 filling Yankee Stadium
00:06:15 and, just four blocks away, the Polo Grounds.
00:06:19 The greatest assembly of true Christians ever held
00:06:21 is opening this day.
00:06:23 We are certain that Jehovah is with us
00:06:26 and that we are here by divine will.
00:06:31 But what unified God’s people at conventions like this one
00:06:35 wasn’t simply gathering together in large numbers.
00:06:38 It was the spiritual content:
00:06:41 riveting talks,
00:06:43 practical symposiums, new releases
00:06:46 and, starting in the 1960’s,
00:06:48 Bible dramas on stage in full costume.
00:06:53 Those spiritual gifts
00:06:55 along with the joy of meeting new friends and uniting with old ones
00:06:59 have made assembling together a true blessing.
00:07:04 But it hasn’t always been easy.
00:07:06 In the country of Georgia,
00:07:08 where Witnesses had faced severe opposition,
00:07:11 plans were set to hold
00:07:13 the 2006 “Deliverance at Hand!” District Convention
00:07:18 in the Tbilisi Philharmonic concert hall.
00:07:20 But the hall management canceled the contract
00:07:23 just one week before the convention!
00:07:27 With just days before the opening session,
00:07:30 an army of determined brothers and sisters
00:07:33 turned two plots of farmland into a convention site
00:07:38 —harvesting the potatoes planted on the property,
00:07:40 building a stage and benches for seating,
00:07:44 and installing sound equipment.
00:07:47 When it was time for the first session, everything was ready
00:07:51 and more than 17,000 attended
00:07:54 either on site or by telephone tie-in.
00:07:58 Not only did the convention come off without a hitch
00:08:01 but the attendees were overwhelmed with another unexpected blessing
00:08:05 —the New World Translation in Georgian—
00:08:09 unifying them even further
00:08:11 with their brothers and sisters around the world.
00:08:15 In modern times like these,
00:08:17 special and international conventions
00:08:19 have been held in far-flung places around the world.
00:08:23 And when it was impossible to meet in person,
00:08:26 we’ve even met online!
00:08:30 From Poland to Korea,
00:08:32 from Australia to South Africa,
00:08:34 conventions were, and still are,
00:08:37 joyful spiritual occasions
00:08:39 for all of God’s people.
00:08:41 They motivate and encourage us,
00:08:43 unite us as brothers and sisters
00:08:45 and, most important,
00:08:47 draw us closer to Jehovah.
