Jehovah's Witnesses Practices - Worship

Worship

Meetings for worship and study are held at Kingdom Halls, and are open to the public. Witnesses are assigned to a congregation in which "territory" they reside and are expected to attend weekly meetings as scheduled by the Watch Tower Society and congregation elders. The meetings are largely devoted to study of the Bible and Witness doctrines; traditions of mysticism, glossolalia, creed recitation or periods of silent meditation common in other Christian denominations are absent. During meetings and in other formal circumstances, Witnesses refer to one another as "Brother" and "Sister". Sociologist Andrew Holden claims meetings create an atmosphere of uniformity for Witnesses, intensify their sense of belonging to a religious community, and reinforce the plausibility of the organization's belief system. He says they are also important in helping new converts adopt a different way of life. According to The Watchtower, one role of the frequency and length of meetings is to protect Witnesses from becoming "involved in the affairs of the world."

The form and content of the meetings is established by the religion's Brooklyn headquarters, generally involving a consideration of the same subject matter worldwide each week. Two meetings each week are divided into five distinct sections, lasting a total of about four hours. Meetings are opened and closed with hymns and brief prayers delivered from the platform. Witnesses are urged to prepare for all meetings by studying Watch Tower literature from which the content is drawn. Kingdom Halls are typically functional in character, and contain no religious symbols. Each year, Witnesses from several congregations, which form a "circuit", gather for one-day and two-day assemblies; several circuits meet once a year for a three-day "district convention", and several districts gather every few years for a four-day "international convention". These larger gatherings are usually held at rented stadiums or auditoriums. Their most important and solemn event is the celebration of the "Lord's Evening Meal", or "Memorial of Christ's Death".