“this was a big shock to me and I knelt in prayer”

Parents – Joseph and Dorothy Chapman. Born – Feb 6/33 Location – Brighton in Sussex

I had a brother Leonard who was three years older than me. From a very early age we were bought up as Jehovah’s Witnesses and I was in that faith for 50 years. There were five meetings a week plus door knocking, street work e.g. standing on the street holding up the watchtower and awake magazines trying to get people to talk about the Kingdom of God.

During the big conventions wore placards advertising the main talks etc. I don’t think that is done now. As well as this we had a phase where we went door knocking with a photograph and records. One day my parents and I called on a lady and my father, after introducing us, asked if he could play a record. The lady said “yes” and Judge Rutherford’s voice boomed out “Women are nothing more than a yank of hair and a bag of bones.” My parents were in shock and apologised profusely and quickly withdrew. The society prepared us for this work by having a theocratic ministry school and service meeting with talks, demonstrations and counselling.

Schooling – Balfour road school which was used as a hospital for the soldiers during the war. We had half-day schooling with Ditchling road school. One year it was mornings and then afternoons. When the sirens went off we all went into the shelter and sang songs and sweets would be given out.

Once when I was going home and the sirens sounded a German plane was dropping its bombs. A lady grabbed me as I was running and threw me into the front porch of a house and threw herself on top of me. One of the bombs hit the back of the house and that part was demolished. We were dusty, but survived.

At the 11+ exams I failed for grammar school and went to Brighton business college and did well in all my exams and then went to work at a solicitor’s office for 10 years. Following that I went to Ontario, Canada where I joined the civil service and stayed for 27 years. I worked in various departments including being the secretary to the chief engineer and director of forestry. All this time I was very active in the JW’s but asked many questions. I was told to wait upon the governing body, which usually meant either no answer at all or being referred to material in the watchtower.

I left the JW’s in 1984 after a Pentecostal man pointed me to John 5v19-23 which points out that we should worship the Son as well as the Father. The witnesses disagreed with this. I met with an elder and a district servant (Bishop) who finally told me that the governing body did not know what Jesus position really was! All of this was a big shock to me and I knelt in prayer to apologise. It felt like a very bright light flooded my room. I recalled the words “seek and you shall find, knock and the door will be opened”. From this point I was a believer in Jesus. The witnesses seem reluctant to use Jesus name either in speech or literature. The witnesses pursued us for a number of years afterwards and when my mother died in 1989 she was given a witness funeral. I went to various Christian churches and chapels. My grandfather was a Methodist. I attended Holy Epiphany CofE in Moordown, Moordown Baptist and finally Hope Church.