The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania is a non-stock, not-for-profit organization headquartered in the New York City borough of Brooklyn, United States. It is the main legal entity used worldwide by Jehovah's Witnesses to direct, administer and develop doctrines for the religion and is often referred to by members of the religion simply as "the Society". It is the parent organization of a number of Watch Tower subsidiaries, including the Watchtower Society of New York and International Bible Students Association. Membership of the society is limited to between 300 and 500 "mature, active and faithful" male Jehovah's Witnesses. About 5800 Jehovah's Witnesses provide voluntary unpaid labour, as members of a religious order, in three large Watch Tower Society facilities in New York; nearly 15,000 other members of the order work at the Watch Tower Society's other facilities worldwide.
The organization was formed in 1881, as Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society, for the purpose of distributing religious tracts. The society was incorporated in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on December 15, 1884. In 1896, the society was renamed Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society. Following a leadership dispute in the Bible Student movement, the Watch Tower Society remained associated with the branch of the movement that became known as Jehovah's Witnesses. In 1955, the corporation was renamed Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania. In 1976, all activities of the Watch Tower Society were brought under the supervision of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses.
Read more about Watch Tower Bible And Tract Society Of Pennsylvania: History, Operations, Criticism
Famous quotes containing the words watch, tower, tract, society and/or pennsylvania:
“If you watch a game, it’s fun. If you play it, it’s recreation. If you work at it, it’s golf.”
—Bob Hope (b. 1903)
“The King’s name is a tower of strength.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“When the State wishes to endow an academy or university, it grants it a tract of forest land: one saw represents an academy, a gang, a university.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“... if the production of any commodity necessitates the sacrifice of human life, society should do without that commodity, but it can not do without that life.”
—Emma Goldman (1869–1940)
“The discovery of Pennsylvania’s coal and iron was the deathblow to Allaire. The works were moved to Pennsylvania so hurriedly that for years pianos and the larger pieces of furniture stood in the deserted houses.”
—For the State of New Jersey, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)