Mischief!

Since I have not got around to telling you what happened last saturday, I will put George's account of the story. (sorry to bore those of you who don't know about the exclusive/plymouth brethren).

There were 3 day meetings held a few miles from my house in Whetstone, London by Mr Bruce Hales, the peebs (PB's) so called "Man of God". He came over from Australia, and I considered putting on a pretty frock and scarf and sneaking into the meeting...but alas! I didn't have the guts!

George wrote:

Due to thick fog and several crashes on the Motorway I didn't get there until later than planned.

On each of the two gates leading to the room, there were professional security guards - some of whom were fairly beefy and fit looking but wore ties. In addition to that, several brothers (no ties, white shirt and black pants) took it in turns to patrol the area. Every 15 minutes or so, one of them would leave one entrance and stroll around to the other entrance.

Being on my own I felt rather intimidated - in other words - I chickened out as a solo demonstrator. I retreated to the comfort and warmth of the pub and drank myself silly on coffee - pretending to do the crossword but keeping half-an-eye on THEM. But I had been spotted by one of the patrolling brothers and they kept their eye on me, constantly, and kept looking straight into my eyes. It makes me wonder if they had been given my description as a result of some photos appearing on this site a few months ago.

I then had great moral support from Sharon but alas, unfortunately Laurie Moffatt and companion got misdirected and arrived after they had all gone.

But the four of us toured the area and found several homes where they were crowded round the dining table. Laurie is fearless - if only he had been there earlier - I think it would have made me feel a lot better for two reasons:
1) A witness
2) Well built and could clearly look after himself (and hopefully me!)

Laurie strode purposefully up the garden path of one house in Chandos Avenue and knocked on the door. When the head of the household opened it, Laurie demanded to know where Mr Hales was. He said he didn't know.

He didn't know? He didn't know he was staying in Harrow with Alan Ker? Surely, a lie?

Whilst Laurie was talking to the householder, I took a telephoto pic (from a distance) of the dining room. Instantly, the curtains (drapes) were hurriedly closed. By now, the householder had reinforcements with many white shirted youths emerging from the house. One youth was armed with a camera and insisted on taking my picture.

I am not camera shy, so I straightened my wind-blown hair into place and posed with 26 year old Sharon and asked them to send me a picture of myself and my new young bride. Just at this point, my batteries ran out. (Camera batteries - not my pacemaker.)

I reloaded some fresh batteries and took some pics of the Security Guards who remained on duty.

What was interesting about the young brethren cameraman was that he was the only one NOT wearing a white shirt.

In the next road - Langton Avenue, we came across homes with many SUV's and other cars parked in the driveways and the avenue itself.

Every time Laurie's Range Rover paused outside the houses, despite animated converstions, as soon as we were spotted, the curtains were hurriedly drawn.

By now it was getting dark and too late to take any pics. We gave up.

I was unable to return on Sunday for domestic reasons. Namely, Dinah had to go somewhere with the car!

Apologies for being prolix, but Laurie's companion made a passing remark at one point. I should add, that Laurie's companion was never anything to do with the EB's which is often useful in that she had no pre-conceived ideas about Brethren behaviour - I have been pondering over this comment since Saturday and now offer this opinion:

She said that protesting against Mr Hales was all very well and good, but we should actually be convincing the youngsters of the truth and the facts. On my way home, I turned this over and over again in my mind. Sharon is 26 and left 8 years ago - making her decision to leave at the tender age of 18. I had asked her why and she explained she had looked round the meeting room one day and saw women just slightly older than herself who had become married and their only future was to bear children and the drudgery of constant housekeeping, cooking and being at her husbands beck-and-call for anytime he felt the conjugal urge. All that was not for her. BRAVO I'd say.

I think that is a good point to campaign on and ties in with comments recently made in this topic.

All too often we are very willing to mouth-off about the leaders and their lies and deceit. This may be right and proper in their own way, but whatever we say and do, we are not going to change the leaders. They probably thrive on being "persecuted" by us. The infantry [sic!] need to be convinced of the deceit and lies they have been fed.

We should be aiming our message to the youngsters - particularly the young women (no smutty remarks please - I'm serious).

Thank you George, and I'd just like to say that your idea of targetting the youngsters is a brilliant one...I hope that all together we can find a way of doing it positively and effectively.