Jehovah's Witnesses host memorial services on Zoom

The memorial of the death of Jesus Christ is one of the most important days on the calendar of Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Usually, on that day, Kingdom Halls all over the world are filled with people who wish to celebrate the sacrifice Jesus made so that mankind would have the chance at everlasting life.

This year, however, with restrictions placed on gathering in public places, Witnesses had to adjust their arrangements.

Speaking to Sunday Newsday, Brother Frank Pantin, media contact on the public information desk of the TT branch office of Jehovah's Witnesses explained the origin of the celebration and the changes.

He said Jesus died on the Passover of 33AD. The Passover celebration was initiated when the Israelites in Egypt put the blood of a lamb on their doorposts so God’s angel would pass over them and not kill their firstborn during the last of the ten plagues.

Jesus was a Jew so he celebrated the Passover annually but that year, after the Passover with his 12 apostles, he initiated the celebration of his death.

“At the Passover celebration they would have had wine and unleavened bread, so Jesus used the leftover ingredients from the Passover to initiate the Lord’s Evening Meal. And in Luke 22:19 he said, ‘Keep doing this in remembrance of me’,” explained Pantin.

Therefore, Witnesses worldwide celebrate the memorial of Jesus’ death every year on that day, on the first full moon after the spring equinox or Nisan 14 on the Jewish calendar. This year, the memorial fell on April 7.

Pantin said the memorial consisted of a song and prayer to open and close the programme, a lecture highlighting the benefits of Jesus’ death, and a prayer before the passing of unleavened bread and unfermented wine, the emblems, that represent Jesus’ sinless body and blood.

To keep the structure of the programme, Zoom, the video and audio conferencing platform, was used.

“Each congregation had one person at one location zooming the whole programme to their congregants because, as you know, our Kingdom Halls are closed. For anyone who did not have access to Zoom, there is a recorded talk on the JW.org website that they could have looked at.”

On the website, English-speaking viewers had the option of listening to memorial lectures from Nigeria, Australia, Cameroon, and the US. Non-English speakers had options in several languages.

Some congregations arranged to use Zoom to sing and pray with fellow worshippers then watched the recorded lecture instead of a local one. Then, at the indicated time, they passed the emblems among themselves.

“What we did on the memorial is we passed the emblems out beforehand so each congregant in their own home would have the wine and some unleavened bread and they would pass the emblems at the appropriate time.”

Some congregations delivered the bread and wine to their congregants’ homes, while others arranged specific times for a member of each household to pick up the emblems from the Kingdom Halls to ensure there was no crowd and social distancing was observed.

A statement from the branch office stressed that Witnesses were fully committed to cooperating with health authorities to prevent any further spread of covid19.

“Currently, the branch office of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Trinidad has stopped all tours and visits from outside guests. Additionally, local congregations of Jehovah’s Witnesses are implementing the directives from health authorities by adjusting or cancelling their religious services and, where possible, are conducting them via video stream. We have also suspended our door-to-door and public preaching work in order to support efforts to contain the virus.”

It added that helpful information about disease prevention was posted on the official Jehovah’s Witnesses website, JW.org.