{"id":6716,"date":"2023-04-18T17:04:45","date_gmt":"2023-04-18T14:04:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/?p=6716"},"modified":"2023-04-18T17:04:45","modified_gmt":"2023-04-18T14:04:45","slug":"a-history-of-the-1958-new-york-yankee-stadium-polo-grounds-jehovahs-witnesses-convention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/a-history-of-the-1958-new-york-yankee-stadium-polo-grounds-jehovahs-witnesses-convention\/","title":{"rendered":"A history of the 1958 New York Yankee Stadium &#038; Polo Grounds Jehovah&#8217;s Witnesses Convention"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A bright\u2010orange dais covered second base at Yankee Stadium last night and the pitcher&#8217;s mound was transformed into a multicolored floral centerpiece as 60,000 Jehovah&#8217;s Witnesses opened their five \u2010 day \u201cDivine Victory\u201d assembly.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_6717\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-6717\" style=\"width: 735px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-6717 \" src=\"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Jehovahs-Witnesses-Convening-in-Yankee-Stadium.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"735\" height=\"520\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Jehovahs-Witnesses-Convening-in-Yankee-Stadium.jpg 600w, https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/Jehovahs-Witnesses-Convening-in-Yankee-Stadium-300x212.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 735px) 100vw, 735px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-6717\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">JEHOVAH&#8217;S WITNESSES, 1958 Part of the record crowd of 253,922 members of Jehovah&#8217;s Witnesses that filled Yankee Stadium (shown here) and the Polo Grounds in New York City during the final day of the 1958 Divine Will International Assembly.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">All day long, members of the sect arrived by bus, plane and train from 10 Eastern Seaboard states and New England and filtered into the ball park to hear their beliefs expounded once again.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-6718\" src=\"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/stadium.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"2048\" height=\"1536\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/stadium.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/stadium-750x563.jpg 750w, https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/stadium-1500x1125.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/stadium-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/stadium-768x576.jpg 768w, https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/stadium-1536x1152.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2048px) 100vw, 2048px\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Their numbers will swell to 70,000 tomorrow, a spokesman predicted, when L. A. Swingle, a director of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the corporate name for the Witnesses, speaks on \u201cDivine Victory\u2014Its Meaning for Distressed Humanity.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><div style=\"text-algn:center\"><span style=\"display:inline-block;text-align:center;\"><iframe allow=\"autoplay\" class=\"youtube_embed_iframe\"    allowFullScreen=\"true\" style=\"width:900px; height:500px\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/tLKvocpun8w?autoplay=1&theme=dark&loop=0&fs=1&showinfo=1&modestbranding=0&iv_load_policy=3&color=red&autohide=1&disablekb=0&enablejsapi=1&version=3\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Witnesses believe that in the soon\u2010to\u2010come battle of Armageddon, the forces of good will overcome evil. Then, an elect body of 144,000 people, representing all eras in time, will reign with Christ in heaven, and the earth will be transformed into a paradise where the followers of Jehovah will dwell in everlasting peace.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Yankee Stadium assembly is one of 11 regional conventions scheduled for this summer and fall in the United States. These include meetings in Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Houston and Miami.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"1958 Jehovah&#039;s Witnesses New York Yankee Stadium Convention\" width=\"760\" height=\"428\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EN-rhxF5lDk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Witnesses no longer limit their assemblies to one international gathering such as the 1958 meeting when 250,000 members jammed both the stadium and the Polo Grounds \u2014the largest convention gathering in the history of the city.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Since then, the 1.5 millionmember denomination has held its \u201cinternational\u201d gatherings on a regional basis with guests from overseas participating.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The assembly highlight today will be a mass baptism in two pools constructed in Macombs Dam Park, adjacent to the stadium. About 1,500 people of all ages are expected to be immersed.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">About 5,000 volunteers from 200 New York congregations turned out on Thursday night with brooms, buckets and mops to clean up the ball park in preparation for the assembly.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Meetings similar to the present stadium assembly will be held or are being held in Canada, Europe, Asia, Latin America, Africa and the South Pacific.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">John O. Groh, a member of the Witnesses&#8217; headquarters staff in Brooklyn, told the opening night audience that Jesus was separate from worldly governments and urged the Witnesses to emulate His neutrality toward political affairs.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A bright\u2010orange dais covered second base at Yankee Stadium last night and the pitcher&#8217;s mound was transformed into a multicolored floral centerpiece as 60,000 Jehovah&#8217;s Witnesses opened their five \u2010 day \u201cDivine Victory\u201d assembly. All&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6718,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6716","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6716","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6716"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6716\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6719,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6716\/revisions\/6719"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6716"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6716"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jwforum.net\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6716"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}