Assembly Delegates Stop at Greece, Visit Promised Land
AFTER the close of the assemblies in Munich and Milan, the delegates to the “Everlasting Good News” Around-the-World Assembly of Jehovah’s Witnesses traveled to Athens, Greece. Here an assembly was scheduled for July 30 at the Playground of the “Panathenian Athletic Team,” on the basis of a permit granted by the Athens police in April, 1963. But a few days before the assembly, with conventioners already on their way, the permit was canceled by government order, issued at the persistent instigation of the Greek Orthodox clergy, especially the archbishop of Athens, who threatened demonstrations if the government did not yield.
Though no assembly could be held because of the Greek government’s yielding to clergy pressure, more than 1,400 assembly delegates came to Athens. They had come for the assembly from as far away as the Hawaiian Islands, Brazil, South Africa and Spain. They profitably used their time by visiting historical sites, such as the Acropolis of Athens and ancient Corinth.
The delegates also visited the branch office of the Watch Tower Society in Athens. Here the Society’s president, N. H. Knorr, pointed out that the congregations of Witnesses in Greece would still share in the blessings of the assembly. He also said: “Persons of good will in Greece will now wonder why the government repealed the permit once granted for your assembly. You, who know the answer, have now a great work before you. You should answer the questions raised by goodwill people, and provide opportunity for them to hear the ‘everlasting good news.’”
Much publicity thus resulted from the clergy’s efforts to block the assembly. For some fifteen days prior to the scheduled assembly day, the current event reported in the press of Athens and other big cities was whether the Witnesses would have their assembly or not. The publicity was unprecedented in the history of the work of Jehovah’s witnesses in Greece.
Leaving Greece, the delegates went to Jerusalem, in Jordan. From here they had opportunity to visit such places as the Mount of Olives, the Garden of Gethsemane, Bethlehem, Hebron, the Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea, the Jordan River, Jericho, Samaria, Bethany, the Valley of Hinnom (Gehenna), Mount Nebo, the ancient Edomite city of Petra and the Society’s branch office in Amman.
From Jerusalem the delegates moved to Lebanon, the site of a Phoenician civilization at least 4,000 years old. Here there was opportunity for the Witnesses to see the cedars of Lebanon, Mt. Hermon and the ancient Phoenician center of Baal worship, Baalbek. From Lebanon the delegates moved on to an assembly scheduled in Delhi, India.
The Watchtower of October 15, 1963, will contain a fuller report of this Around-the-World Assembly, scheduled to conclude September 1-8 in the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.