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They came from places such as Grand Isle, Vt., and Coldbrook, N.H. They arrived by the carload from Maine towns and villages such as Auburn, Boothbay, Dexter and Ripley.
More than 400 strong, they descended on a plot of prime land in Bucksport overlooking Route 15 and the Penobscot River.
When they arrived, a bare concrete slab awaited them in a clearing amid the pines.
When they departed three days later, they left behind a completed Kingdom Hall, ready for a congregation of their fellow Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The organizational skills necessary to pull off such a feat were second only to the expression of faith nailed into every board, hammered upon every shingle and glued down with every square foot of carpet laid.
It was reminiscent of an old-fashioned community barn raising, but for the Witnesses it was infused with God’s purpose rather than man’s.
Completion of Bucksport’s newest house of worship might have appeared unusual to people driving by on Route 15 between July 17 and 19, but it was standard for men like Stanley Davidson of Bridgton.
He has worked on similar projects in northern New England for almost 25 years. During that period, he estimates, he has helped build 35 or 40 Kingdom Halls.
In Maine, Jehovah’s Witnesses count some 18,000 active members and 194 congregations. Known for their persistence, courage and discipline, the community stresses simplicity and reverence in its meetings.
The outpouring of help for construction of the Kingdom Hall in Bucksport was typical.
“This is part of our sacred ministry,” shouted Davidson over the noise of hundreds of swinging hammers pounding nails last month. “It protects congregations from being overburdened, and the savings is substantial. A spirit of self-sacrifice, a willingness to help one’s fellow man and a highly organized operation are all that’s required.”
Elders said they couldn’t put a price tag on what the Bucksport Kingdom Hall cost, but estimated the same project would have cost $350,000 to $500,000 if it had been done commercially.
“This isn’t out of the ordinary,” Davidson said, gesturing at the constant activity that he admitted looked like pandemonium.
“Experience and a willing spirit make it possible,” he said. “Otherwise, it wouldn’t work.”
The Jehovah’s Witnesses movement grew out of a Pittsburgh student Bible association founded in 1872.
Its driving force was Charles Taze Russell, the son of Scots-Irish Presbyterians.
By the time he was 20, Russell had left various Congregational, Episcopal and Presbyterian churches because he could not reconcile the idea of an eternal hell with God’s mercy.
A chance encounter with an Adventist preacher introduced Russell to the idea that the Bible could be used to predict God’s plan of salvation, especially as it related to the end of the world. In 1873, at the age of 21, Russell printed about 50,000 copies of his booklet, “The Object and Manner of the Lord’s Return.”
Six years later, Russell began regularly publishing Zion’s Watch Tower and Herald of Christ’s Presence, which evolved into the Witnesses’ best-known publication, The Watchtower. Convinced of the need to promote what he considered to be the truth of the Bible’s message, Russell dissolved his partnership in a clothing business and devoted his considerable fortune to spreading his faith.
He learned Hebrew and Greek so he could study the Scriptures in the languages in which they were first written. Using complex calculations, Russell preached from 1877 on that Christ’s “invisible” return had occurred in 1874, and he designated 1914 as the year of Christ’s Second Coming and the end of the “times of the gentiles.”
Russell, who was never ordained, died at age 64 on a train in Texas while on a lecture tour of the South and Midwest. His own books and booklets reached a circulation of 16 million copies in 35 languages, and 2,000 newspapers published his weekly sermons.
The name Jehovah’s Witnesses was adopted in 1931 by Russell’s successor, Joseph Franklin Rutherford. A judge, he sought to reaffirm Jehovah as the true name of God and to identify those who witness in Jehovah’s name as God’s specially accredited followers. Rutherford gave Witnesses portable phonographs to play his “sermonettes” on the front porches and in the living rooms of potential converts.
Today, the organization is overseen by a governing body made up of Witnesses from all over the world. Date setting and prophecy have given way to a more contemporary analysis of modern life based on world events and what they regard as signs of the times.
After meeting in the nearby Verona Grange Hall for almost four years, the congregation bought the Bucksport land last year and began clearing the plot in April, according to lay leader Ed Bowden of Orrington.
The Witnesses from northern New England went to Bucksport to work either on a portion of or the entire three-day project. They stayed with family, friends, congregation members and in area motels. A few, with recreational vehicles, stayed on site, where they could watch the transformation up close.
Workers, ranging in age from teen to senior, were assigned to teams headed by experienced and, in some cases, licensed tradesmen.
One team installed the framing and put up the outside walls. Once it was in place, the roofing was nailed down. As a section was completed above, a team below stapled in the insulation. Behind it came a team with hammers, nails and wallboard.
Not every volunteer, however, worked construction.
Seth Mantsch, 23, and Sarah Mantsch, 24, a Bucksport husband and wife, made supply runs for the crew and drove workers to and from their cars parked in a field a few hundred yards away.
A makeshift kitchen was set up in a tent pitched in what would become the parking lot. Doing God’s will is hungry work, and all meals were provided. On Thursday, when the most workers were needed, the kitchen crew fed 225 breakfasts and handed out 410 lunches in 15 minutes. By midafternoon, the head cook was napping in a rocking chair while a half-dozen people prepared roast beef sandwiches for the evening meal.
Storage trailers parked on the perimeter kept vinyl siding, ceiling tiles, lights, the building’s sound system and other items safely dry until they were needed. One contained large power tools such as table saws; another was used as an office, complete with fax machine, computer and an accountant. A large generator supplied power for the site.
A first aid station was set up, and nobody could get into the hall under construction without suitable shoes, hard hat and, in many cases, safety glasses.
“We have stricter standards than OSHA,” Davidson said proudly, referring to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the government agency that oversees workplace safety.
One of the congregation’s first Sunday meetings in the new building was conducted with quiet but simple reverence that stood in sharp contrast to the organized chaos of the building process.
The Kingdom Hall in Bucksport looks more like a small-town schoolhouse than a church, with one big classroom and several smaller ones. Jehovah’s Witnesses hold congregational meetings, not worship services, one evening a week and on Sunday mornings.
They are held in a large, carpeted room similar to a sanctuary. But there is no choir loft, baptismal font, Communion table, cross or crucifix. On a raised platform at the front of the room stands a lectern used by lay speakers rather than ordained ministers. The only decoration in the room is a clear, plastic placard bearing a quote from their version of the Book of James – “Draw close to God and He will draw close to you.”
Meetings open with a short prayer, hymn and public lecture on the Bible. The heart of the meeting is the lesson centered on a biblical passage read from The Watchtower magazine. At designated points in the article, a lay leader asks the discussion questions sprinkled throughout the printed matter.
Congregation members raise their hands to respond to the questions, to refer to other Bible passages and share their insights. The meeting closes with a prayer and hymn. A collection plate is not passed, but contributions can be left anonymously in a wooden box in the lobby.
The men and women who gathered last month to build the Bucksport Kingdom Hall and meet there for the first time looked an awful lot like the people who gathered to worship a few miles down the road at the mill town’s Catholic, Congregational, United Methodist and other churches.
“We really love our new building,” said Bowden, who was raised a Catholic. “The atmosphere is conducive to learning and growth. People come here to gather, listen, learn and apply the Scriptures.”
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