Behind the Brotherhood: The Elect Vessel, Bruce Hales – National – NZ Herald News.

POSTERS COMMENT: I post the below after searching to see if Wikipeebia had already hosted this article. I could not find that they had. Please forgive me if this is doubling up.

Resident vows to fight on – inMyCommunity – Perth, Western Australia.

A LOCAL government election candidate and Lesmurdie resident has vowed to continue the fight against a place of worship being built in the neighbourhood.

Melanie Eleonora and about 600 other residents spoke out against an application made to the Shire of Kalamunda for a place of worship on Rooth Road in the Stirkwood Estate.

However, their objections fell on deaf ears when the Shire of Kalamunda approved the application at a recent council meeting.

Ms Eleonora said residents had nothing against the applicant – Kalamunda Gospel Trust, or the Plymouth Brethren – that intend to use the property, but was afraid of the impacts on the area from future developments.

“We all bought land and property in this estate for a reason and this building will not look like the houses in the area; it doesn’t complement the estate,” she said.

“The place of worship will not benefit the community because it is exclusive and residents will not be permitted to use it.

“But the main thing is that if it is sold on as a place of worship, there is no guarantee that the next owners won’t be disruptive.”

She said the application was passed with a recommendation that stated “the property (will not be) used for Community Purpose or Club Premises purposes as defined under Local Planning Scheme No. 3”.

“I want to investigate that it is legally binding,” she said.

Ms Eleonora said she was angry the Shire did not appear to consider residents’ views when making the approval decision.

“Two separate petitions were submitted, each with more than 250 signatures, and 80 letters of objection were sent to the Shire, but they didn’t take any notice,” she said.

“A traffic management report was made that said the place of worship would create ‘minimal impact’ but not zero impact, so there will still be an impact.”

“I will keep on this issue… I still have a few tricks up my sleeve,” she said.

Well simply put, we get fed up with censorship. If the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church has nothing to hide, then why delete all posts from a) certain members that have left, b) delete all posts on their site that disagree with their way of thinking, c) delete posts that question the morals and path of their beloved man of god, Bruce Hales?

This Blog is here to repost all of their posts with all copyright acknowledged to the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church just to see if the comment on here and the ones on there match. The following posting rules apply, as with all blogs open to the public:

Please be civil– we will remove anything that: Is considered likely to provoke, attack or offend others Is racist, sexist, homophobic, sexually explicit, abusive or otherwise objectionable Contains swear words or other language likely to offend Breaks the law, condones or encourage unlawful activity or which could endanger the safety or well-being of others Impersonates someone else advertises products or services.

Click the above image to have your say without censorship.

Update: Within 24 hours of this site being created, we had over 280 views and many comments. Clearly there was a need for righting the wrongs this church has caused over the years.

Radio New Zealand : News : National : Brethren school seeks integration.

A private school run by the Brethren religious group has become the largest to apply to join the state sector as an integrated school.

Westmount School has 1600 students scattered across 24 sites from Northland to Southland. The Education Ministry says it is preparing a report on the application for the Education Minister.

The Westmount Education Trust says integration has worked well for Catholic, Jewish and Islamic schools and would be good for Westmount School.

It says it would give the school greater opportunities to share its teaching methods and allow its students to benefit from increased resources.

However, the Post Primary Teachers Association and the Educational Institute oppose the application.

They say government funding for the school will leap from $2.3 million a year to more than $9 million, and that money would be better spent elsewhere.

Post Primary Teachers Association president Angela Roberts says the funding won’t help the Maori, Pasifika and low-income children the Government wants to help most.

Educational Institute secretary Paul Goulter says the state system cannot afford another school.

“This is going to come into a state system that’s already underfunded and it’s really having difficulty with existing levels of resources, and here’s another group of students coming in and that will place even more pressure on it,” he says.

Mr Goulter says the Educational Institute is suspicious of the integration process because the Government late last year agreed to integrate Wanganui Collegiate, even though there is no need for more state school places in Whanganui or the surrounding region.

Writing on wall for hall – inMyCommunity – Perth, Western Australia.

THE fast-growing Mundaring Gospel Trust is unlikely to be able to build a new, 800-person meeting hall on a 6ha block on Coppin Road, Parkerville, after the Shire of Mundaring unanimously voted in favour of changes to its Draft Local Planning Schem

The changes would allow a place of worship to be built only on land zoned Light Industry, Service Commercial and General Agriculture Zoning – not Rural Landscape Living.

Councillors had voted unanimously to reject the trust’s meeting hall proposal in May, on grounds the development was not in keeping with the rural landscape and would have a detrimental visual impact on the scenic values of the locality.

The trust – also known as the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church – appealed to the State Administrative Tribunal and wrote to Housing Minister Bill Marmion, who had to review the scheme because Planning Minister John Day had a conflict of interests.

Mr Marmion said he believed the scheme “could be more flexible” for places of worship and requested the shire modify its local planning scheme and re-|advertise the amendments for public comment.

After receiving 324 submissions during the public comment period from July to August – split equally between those in favour and those opposed to the Draft Local Planning Scheme changes – shire councillors unanimously voted in favour of changes to restrict place of worship construction from Rural Landscape Living zones at a meeting this week.

Stoneville and Par-kerville Progress Association chairman Greg Jones said although the modification to the Draft Local Planning Scheme No.4 related to a place of worship, the issue had never been about religion. “It is not about who or why a place of worship should be developed, but it is about where and how that development affects its surrounds,” Mr Jones said.

He said the recommendations accepted by the council would provide clarity, certainty and more options to religious groups wanting to locate a place of worship in the Shire of Mundaring.

“The modification also provides future certainty to residents in Rural Landscape Living Zones and will help to preserve the amenity of the Hills lifestyle we all value so much.”

The next step is for the WA Planning Commission to review the shire’s resolution and schedule of submissions and make a final report before a decision is made by Mr Marmion.

The Mundaring Gospel Trust could not be reached for comment.

Commission to meet grantmaker to discuss its corporate trustees.

Commission to meet grantmaker to discuss its corporate trustees

Governance | Vibeka Mair 3 Sep 2013

The Charity Commission plans to meet the trustees of the Grace Trust, whose income has grown nearly seven-fold in five years, following enquiries raised about its unusual governance structure which involves two corporate trustees.

A Charity Commission spokeswoman said: “Our concerns about the charity relate to the unusual corporate structure of the organisation whereby the charity has two corporate trustees. We are looking at whether this raises any issues in terms of the processes for decision-making within the charity.”

The practice of having corporate trustees has come under scrutiny in recent months following the case of the Cup Trust, which has one corporate trustee and has been accused of running a gift aid-based tax-avoidance scheme.

There is no suggestion that the Grace Trust has been accused of tax-avoidance or gift aid fraud.

The Grace Trust describes itself as a trust which makes grants in a number of areas including medicine, poverty relief, life preservation and education. Support to educational charities forms the largest part of its charitable activities.

The charity has two corporate trustees – Aller Brook Ltd and Scribefort Ltd, which are based at the same address in Devon. It has no other trustees nor any staff.

It has seen great income growth since 2008. Its income has grown by 673 per cent from £9.5m in 2007/8 to £73.5m for the year ended June 2012.

During 2011/12 the charity made 65 grants totalling £21.4m, 43 of which were made to education charities.

The bulk of its gross income – £60.7m – was from the turnover of its two trading subsidiaries: Onefocus EU Ltd and Technoa SAS. According to the latest accounts, Onefocus EU “provides business services to raise revenue for charitable purposes” while Technoa SAS is “registered in France and carries out wholesale activity”.

The profit after tax for Onefocus EU Ltd, plus the donation it made by way of gift aid to the Grace Trust, totalled £11.8m. If a charity-owned company donates its parent charity an amount equal to its entire profit it can reduce its corporation tax liability to nil.

Onefocus EU changed its name in June to UBT (EU) Ltd, according to Companies House. In 2009, it changed its name from Unifocus Ltd. The nature of its business, under the name UBT (EU) Ltd, is described as “retail sale via mail order houses or via internet”.

Affiliated to Exclusive Brethren

The charity is understood to be affiliated with the Exclusive Brethren, which provides general services to Brethren groups. There has been a long-running dispute over the Charity Commission’s refusal of charitable status for Preston Down Trust, a Plymouth Brethren congregation in Devon.

A spokesman for the Grace Trust said it had provided a written response to the Charity Commission, and that a meeting with the regulator had been postponed and is in the process of being rearranged.

“The Grace Trust is very happy to meet the Charity Commission and actively welcomes the opportunity,” he said. “We operate in line with best-practice principles and are pleased to adopt an ongoing dialogue with the Charity Commission.”

The Commission declined to say who had contacted it with concerns about the Grace Trust.

Hales certainly fancies himself as a great businessman – schooled by his late father as he loves to tell his followers. No doubt he also sees himself as the greatest architect of Brethren structure and makeovers in their checkered and increasingly cruel and illogical history.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. While he’s far too clever by half – he has stuffed up monumentally with some of his recent reversals. By embracing several things that were for years a Brethren no no – (and in so doing insulting the hell out of all those who were dealt with for these issues) he must today be stroking his jaw and wondering whether he did the right thing.  But I’ll ease you into this because the issues and effects are astounding.

When Hales gave his throng the green light on computers – he in effect- opened up a Pandora’s box that many – having loads of time on their hands – sought to exploit and plunder to its full and wonderful depths. I will wager that there are Exclusive Brethren out there today who know more about computers and how they work and what you can do with them than most of us. (With the exception of course- of Admin!)

For example- scores of Brethren mothers today Skype all over the world to talk to loved ones and friends. Up until two years ago I thought a Skype was an English water-bird. But now – your average Brethren woman might be trussed up in denim dresses and scarves and be devoid of hair dye and makeup- but she can set up her cam and direct her search engine to get her buddies on the line for a nice sit down and some face to face dialogue. The only trouble with this medium is that the young people can do it too. And they are far more adventurous. And quick on the technological uptake.

But – I hear you screaming- this can’t be true! Mister Bruce said they must only use HIS computers with the seriously dumbed down software that doesn’t let you have unfettered access to the internet and which can be accessed by his IT KGB henchmen looking to see what you are looking at – and accessing your turnover for the month. And I respond with the words of a once famous Australian politician- Pig’s arse!

The modern day Peeb is no dill. He gets the same catalogues in the mail as everyone else – and when he reads the ads from Dick Smith or Harvey Norman flogging the latest laptops with ALL the bells and whistles – he (or she) now knows what it all means. So they quietly shelve Bruce’s antiquated, lethargic, wheezing, over-priced old laptop and go and buy the new uncensored model with all the apps and the 2TB memory card.  They can do what they like now with no repercussions.

You might recall that this was a problem that Bruce became aware of  – probably because his IT KGB henchmen said – ‘Woo Bruce- these buggers aren’t using their computers half enough! How are we gonna make money from this – er- going forward?’ So Bruce- issued an official memo to each assembly to be read out loud – offering an amnesty to those who had hidden PC’s and Blackberries and mobile thingummies in their abodes – with a further offer to even buy them back at agreed market prices. According to my source- they didn’t even get a tenth of them.

Which is why today – you will see a faint glow in every Peeb bedroom at night, in every town from here to Barbados. Not forgetting the poor old love in a bedroom somewhere in Australia whom I have reported on in the past, who despite being close to 80 – and never having experienced the joy of a man in her life – who has discovered through the wonder of the Net – entertainment. She has now fallen deeply in love with George Clooney. It’s home from the supper and straight into a re-run of Ocean’s Twelve and Thirteen for her. All courtesy of Bruce’s new thrust for technology and income.

Of course I welcome this. I also urge the Peebs who are suitably set up with a Bruce free model – although God knows I am probably several years too late here- to discover You Tube. The greatest entertainment medium ever devised. Think of something you want to see- type it in and sit back. In three hours you will have been prompted around the world and back again. Start with “Exclusive Brethren” it will fascinate you!

Of course- there is a downside to this sort of wonderful – what’s the word – Worldliness! And that is the kids. They have discovered dating sites – some to their misadventure and most have probably stumbled across something called pornography. Unthinkable in my day. There’s many the Brethren youth today who spends much of his down time as it were, being a Merchant Banker. And many have left because they can see a world of opportunity out there. Many have searched for something called a ‘career’ and planned their getaway in their bedrooms months in advance. All thanks to Bruce’s newly allowed technology.

According to my source – young kids are still leaving in droves. I protested to my informer – “Surely you jest! Mister Bruce’s website says that they practically lose no one and have practically no divorces”. “Rubbish”- was the answer – “there’s a whole new wave of kids who are walking away. Just like they did in the 70’s and 80’s.”

Bruce’s fiscal greed and quest to create a Universal Business model has also created problems. We hear reports recently of a major Brethren business in Australia – which has special Bruce dispensation to operate 24 /7 due to its success in its field. It is currently sacking all of its Brethren employees- but not the worldly ones. Why – we don’t know as yet – but we will. Some younger brothers were working overtime here instead of going to meetings – so this might explain this bizarre reversal of fortune for them.

And – as I reported several years ago- many married Brethren wives work- despite the falsehoods of the official Peeb Website. Each and every day. Especially the poorer ones who are trying to raise and feed a tribe of kids. Apparently Bruce turns a blind eye to this activity – because it means more money into his coffers and family trusts and the Brethren system as a whole.

So while Bruce thinks he is very smart and clever by introducing things into the Brethren arena that they can no longer live without (despite wrecking thousands of families for the same thing) little by little – it is all starting to unravel.

And the news for the future is not good- as more people become disenchanted with his huge business emphasis, his constant grabs for cash, his all seeing Hench-teams – and his general rudeness and arrogance in his dealings with the Brethren themselves. Like making them wait for him constantly and his constant shuffling of the rules that they had gotten used to.
But it will be this technology that does more damage to them than anything else.

Remember I said that.