corporations of Jehovah's Witnesses

{{Main|Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania}}

Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania is a non-stock, not-for-profit organization{{cite web|access-date=December 31, 2012|archive-date=May 26, 2012|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120526210458/https://www.corporations.state.pa.us/corp/soskb/Corp.asp?361674|publisher=Corporations.state.pa.us|title=Pennsylvania Department of State|url-status=dead|url=https://www.corporations.state.pa.us/corp/soskb/Corp.asp?361674}} headquartered in Warwick, New York, United States. It is the main legal entity used worldwide by Jehovah's Witnesses, often referred to as "The Society". It holds the copyrights of most literature published by Jehovah's Witnesses. The society was founded in 1881 with William Henry Conley, a Pittsburgh businessman, as the first president and Charles Taze Russell as secretary-treasurer.{{cite book|page=576|publisher=Watch Tower Society|title=Jehovah's Witnesses—Proclaimers of God's Kingdom|year=1993}} The society was incorporated as Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society in Pennsylvania on December 15, 1884, with Russell as president.{{cite web|archive-date=April 4, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090404131420/http://www.heraldmag.org/olb/Contents/history/gr8%20battle.htm|author=J. F. Rutherford|page=14|title=A Great Battle in the Ecclesiastical Heavens|url=http://www.heraldmag.org/olb/Contents/history/gr8%20battle.htm|year=1915}} The corporation was officially renamed Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society in 1896; similar names had been in unofficial use since at least 1892.{{cite book|page=603|publisher=Watch Tower Society|title=Jehovah's Witnesses—Proclaimers of God's Kingdom|year=1993}}

• President: Robert Louis Ciranko{{cite book|author=George D. Chryssides|page=143|title=Jehovah's Witnesses: Continuity and Change}}
• Vice-Presidents: Richard E. Devine, David W. Schafer{{Cite web |date=September 29, 2017 |title=Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs Nonprofit Corporation Annual Report 2017 |url=https://cofs.lara.state.mi.us/CorpWeb/CorpSearch/CorpSearchRedirector.aspx?Action=PDF&Path=CORP_LEGACY/D201710/2017275/INT0002FC76.TIF |access-date=April 19, 2024 |website=LARA Corporations Online Filing System}}
• Secretary-Treasurer: Danny L. Bland
• Other Directors: Enrique R. Ford, Robert V. Luccioni, Mark J. Noumair

• Zion's Watch Tower Tract Society (1881–1896)
• Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society (1896–1955)
• Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania (since 1955)

{{Redirect|Watchtower Society|the parent corporation|Watch Tower Society}}

Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc. is a corporation used by Jehovah's Witnesses which is responsible for administrative matters, such as real estate, especially within the United States. This corporation is typically cited as the publisher of Jehovah's Witnesses publications, though other publishers are sometimes cited. The corporation's stated purposes are: "Charitable, benevolent, scientific, historical, literary and religious purposes; the moral and mental improvement of men and women, the dissemination of Bible truths in various languages by means of the publication of tracts, pamphlets, papers and other religious documents, and for religious missionary work."{{cite magazine|date=March 1, 1955|magazine=The Watchtower|page=141|publisher=Watch Tower Society|title=The Warning Work (1909-1914)}} In 2001, Newsday listed the Watch Tower Society as one of New York's forty richest corporations, with revenues exceeding $950 million.{{cite web|title=At the Top / NYC Company Profiles / NYC 40|url=http://www.newsday.com/business/technology/at-the-top-nyc-company-profiles-nyc-40-1.365255}}

Originally known as the Peoples Pulpit Association, the organization was incorporated in 1909 when the Society's principal offices moved to Brooklyn, New York. In 1939, it was renamed Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, Inc., and in 1956, the name was changed to Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc.{{cite book|page=229|publisher=Watch Tower Society|title=Jehovah's Witnesses - Proclaimers of God's Kingdom|year=1993}} Until 2000, a member of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses was president of both the Watch Tower (Pennsylvania) and Watchtower (New York) corporations, as well as Britain's International Bible Students Association corporation; in 2001, it was decided that the corporations' directors need not be members of the Governing Body.

• President: Harold L. Corken
• Vice-Presidents: Anthony Griffin, John D. Larson
• Secretary-Treasurer: Mark L. Questell
• Assistant Secretary-Treasurers: Kent E. Fischer, Edgar Rene Llerena, Jesse V. Morris

{{Redirect|Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses|the denomination|Jehovah's Witnesses}}

Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, Inc. was established to organize and administer the congregational affairs of Jehovah's Witnesses in the United States.Letter from Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc., to All Bodies of Elders in the United States, dated February 27, 2001.{{cite magazine|date=January 1, 2002|magazine=Our Kingdom Ministry|page=7|publisher=Watch Tower Society|title=New Corporations Formed}} It filed for incorporation on August 21, 2000, in New York State as a "domestic non-profit corporation" in Putnam County, New York.{{cite web|access-date=May 10, 2009|archive-date=August 20, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090820231303/http://appsext8.dos.state.ny.us/corp_public/CORPSEARCH.ENTITY_INFORMATION?p_nameid=2575466&p_corpid=2544464&p_entity_name=jehovah%27s%20witnesses&p_name_type=A&p_search_type=CONTAINS&p_srch_results_page=0|title=NYS Dept of State, Division of Corporations, site retrieved March 23, 2009|url-status=dead|url=http://appsext8.dos.state.ny.us/corp_public/CORPSEARCH.ENTITY_INFORMATION?p_nameid=2575466&p_corpid=2544464&p_entity_name=jehovah%27s%20witnesses&p_name_type=A&p_search_type=CONTAINS&p_srch_results_page=0}} An incorporation record was also filed with the State of Florida on March 3, 2006, as a "foreign non-profit corporation" with an agency in Collier County, Florida.{{cite web|access-date=December 31, 2012|publisher=Sunbiz.org|title=Florida Department of State, Division of Corporations, site retrieved March 23, 2009|url=http://sunbiz.org/scripts/cordet.exe?action=DETFIL&inq_doc_number=F06000001390&inq_came_from=NAMFWD&cor_web_names_seq_number=0000&names_name_ind=N&names_cor_number=&names_name_seq=&names_name_ind=&names_comp_name=CHRISTIANCONGREGATIONJEHOVAHSW&names_filing_type=}}

As announced to congregations in January 2001, the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses is a corporation used by their United States branch committee, which oversees the preaching work of Jehovah's Witnesses in the United States, Bermuda, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.{{cite magazine|date=September 2005|magazine=Our Kingdom Ministry|page=1|title=Branch Letter}} All branch committee members are appointed by and report to the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses.{{cite magazine|date=January 15, 2001|magazine=The Watchtower|pages=14–15|title=Overseers and Ministerial Servants Theocratically Appointed}}{{cite magazine|date=July 15, 2006|magazine=The Watchtower|page=20|title=Focus on the Goodness of Jehovah's Organization}}

As with other agencies of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the Christian Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses may correspond directly with any circuit overseer, local body of elders, or individual, or it may assign someone else to communicate on its behalf. Any of these persons or groups may function as an agency acting at the explicit direction of the Governing Body.{{cite magazine|date=June 1, 2006|magazine=Awake!|page=19|title=Heeding the Warnings Made a Difference}}{{cite magazine|date=April 1, 2007|magazine=The Watchtower|page=25|title=Loyal to Christ and His Faithful Slave}}

• President: Allen E. Shuster
• Vice-Presidents: Gary Breaux, Andrew Sciascia
• Secretary-Treasurer: Mark Turner
• Assistant Secretary-Treasurers: Keith Wolff, Richard L. Ashe, Jr., Thomas Jefferson, Jr.

Reorganization in 2000 resulted in the creation of several additional corporate entities to serve the needs of the United States branch of Jehovah's Witnesses. Since then, most written communication with congregations and individuals in the United States involves the Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses, Inc.; other corporations include:

• Religious Order of Jehovah's Witnesses, New York, incorporated in 2000 for the administration of full-time preaching activities.
• Kingdom Support Services, Inc., New York, incorporated in 2000 for construction and fleet management.

The International Bible Students Association (IBSA) is a corporate not-for-profit organization used by Jehovah's Witnesses in the United Kingdom for the production and distribution of religious literature. Its stated purpose is "to promote the Christian religion by supporting congregations of Jehovah's Witnesses and others in connection with their spiritual and material welfare in Britain and abroad within the charitable purposes of the Association."{{cite web|access-date=June 6, 2013|title=Charity Commission (UK): International Bible Students Association.|url=http://www.charitycommission.gov.uk/search-for-a-charity/?txt=216647}}

The IBSA was founded in 1914 as a corporation of the Bible Students by Charles Taze Russell in London, England, and was the first legal corporation representing Russell's ministry in Europe. The Watch Tower Society stated in 1917 that the IBSA, along with its Pennsylvania and New York based corporations "were organized for identical purposes and they harmoniously work together."See “The History and Operations of Our Society,” Watch Tower, 1917, pp. 327-330, as referred by The Watchtower, March 1, 1955, page 141 Other similarly named corporations operate in various countries to promote the interests of Jehovah's Witnesses.{{cite magazine|date=January 15, 2001|magazine=The Watchtower|page=29|quote=The International Bible Students Association is used in Britain. Other legal entities are used to promote Kingdom interests in other lands.|title=How the Governing Body Differs From a Legal Corporation}}

Since the formation of the International Bible Students Association, many other corporations sanctioned by the Governing Body have been used throughout the world to further the interests of Jehovah's Witnesses{{cite magazine|date=January 2002|magazine=Our Kingdom Ministry|page=7|title=New Corporations Formed}} by supporting the activities of their respective branch offices in different countries, for example:

• Associação Torre de Vigia de Bíblias e Tratados (Brazil)
• Association culturelle des Témoins de Jéhovah de France
• Association of Jehovah's Witnesses of East Africa
• Los Testigos de Jehová en México
• Wachtturm Bibel- und Traktat-Gesellschaft der Zeugen Jehovas e. V., Selters/Taunus (Germany){{Cite web|url=https://www.jehovaszeugen.de/service/wachtturm-gesellschaft/|title = Wachtturm-Gesellschaft | JEHOVAS ZEUGEN}}
• Watchtower Bible & Tract Society Of Australia, Inc.

In some countries, Jehovah's Witnesses use the corporation name Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses or a similar name translated into the local language. In 2005, the branch office in Canada began using this name as a separate Canadian entity for most correspondence, while retaining Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Canada for other matters. In Mexico, the corporation, {{Lang|es|Congregación Cristiana de los Testigos de Jehová}}, is used. Literature of Jehovah's Witnesses has also referred to the denomination generally as the "Christian congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses".{{cite magazine|date=August 1, 2004|magazine=The Watchtower|page=6|title=God's Kingdom Government—A Reality Today}}{{cite magazine|date=January 22, 2005|magazine=Awake!|page=21|title=Young People Ask... What Should I Do When Others Tell Me Their Problems?}}

• Jehovah's Witnesses beliefs
• Jehovah's Witnesses practices
• Organizational structure of Jehovah's Witnesses

{{reflist}}

• {{Official website|http://www.jw.org/ }}

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Category:Organizational structure of Jehovah's Witnesses

Category:Religious corporations

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