Joyfully Sing Praise
False Prophet Ronald Weinland spoke from the Detroit area this weekend. Greg Chipps was free and gave the opening prayer, and Terry Wrozek closed. Greg prayed that God would look over the technology, but he must have sin in his life as God wasn’t listening. The audio was plagued with static, and the Cincinnati location lost its connection to the streaming audio feed. Which meant that the older ex-WCG cohort which doesn’t get on the Internet lost its audio feed via the telephone conferencing hookup which originates in Cincinnati. Ron stopped the sermon to give Cincinnati a chance to reconnect and spent 5 minutes blathering about how stirred up things are out there. But then he continued on muttering that he told people to get on the Internet. I hope more PKGers do get on the Internet, and come to visit my site.
Ron must have sin in his life also, as his computer froze up while he was pre-recording the Trumpets sermon for the PKGers in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Trumpets is this coming Thursday, we’ll see if he gives a “live” sermon in the US which has not been the case on these highly prophetic dates the last two years.
Ron did not, as I expected, make even the slightest mention of the earthquake in Christchurch, NZ. Probably checked the cable news shows and noted that the story has already fallen from the news cycle.
Ron announced the titles of 7 songs to be sung during the feast this year, one song at the beginning of each service. Since there are 9 sermons I guess two of them will have to be repeated. These songs, which PKGers are to download and familiarize themselves, are:
- Oh Come and Let Us Worship Him (Psalm 95, lyrics)
- How Excellent is thy Name (Psalm 8, lyrics)
- The Lord Eternal Reigns (Psalm 97, lyrics)
- Joyfully Sing and Praise God (Psalm 66, lyrics)
- I Will Praise Thee Oh Eternal (Psalm 9, lyrics)
- Praise the Eternal with a Psalm (Psalm 81,lyrics)
- Oh Give Thanks and Praise the Eternal (Psalm 105, lyrics)
These songs are from the WCG Purple Hymnal, and were adapted from Psalms by Herbert Armstrong’s younger brother Dwight Armstrong. (Creds to Aggie for transcribing the lyrics). Most of the songs in the WCG Hymnal were written by Dwight. Yet as Dwight lay dying back in 1984, Herbert wrote to his followers:
We have had no experience or precedent to know how one with such musical talent should be compensated for his years of faithful labor, but because of IRS restrictions over us by the government, and the fact he is my brother, I feel he has never been properly rewarded for his efforts. However, if some of you brethren do feel you would like him to know how much his beautiful music has meant to your Christian life, and would care to just write him a few words of appreciation, I know that would brighten the few remaining days he probably has in his life.
What baloney!!! The IRS does not regulate transactions, even drug dealing. The only thing they are able to enforce is that the proper taxes are paid. Despite the IRS, Herbie was able to extract money for silver ice buckets and other such religiously necessary items.
The format for services when I attended WCG were, if I remember correctly
- Three songs
- Opening Prayer
- A sermonette, 10-15 minutes by a junior minister or a member of the congregation
- Song
- Announcements
- Main Sermon
- One or Two Songs
- Closing Prayer
I don’t recall exactly where the announcements fit into this format (it’s about 4 decades since I suffered through one of these), so perhaps one of my readers will help out.
After WCG broke up and Ron struck out on his own, he began changing things. He cut out the sermonette. He cut out songs during the year but still had them during the Feast of Tabernacles. But then he cut out songs during the feast and for the past several years Passover is the only time at which a song is sung.
Maybe the restoration of singing at the feast is the beginning of a trend, which eventually will result in sermonettes being given. Ron has all these new elders who aren’t baptizing, so he’ll have to give them something to do. And Ron needs something to fill the two hours allotted for services — he quit early by 15 minutes or so both this week and last.
Maybe Ron would have them sing songs during regular services if, instead of the word “God”, the word Ron was in the song. And maybe instead of “eternal” they would have “prophet” in there.
“Oh come, and let us worship Ron…”
“How Excellent is thy name (Ron)”
“The Ron-god Prophet reigns”
“Joyfully sing and Praise Ron”
“I Will Praise Thee Oh Ron-god Prophet”
“Praise the Prophet with a Psalm”
“Oh give thanks and praise Ron-god Prophet”
I can’t imagine having church services without singing to the one they are supposed to be worshiping. I guess cutting out the songs gave more time for everyone to focus on Ron-god. Sheesh, it makes me sick. Oh, and those songs…I remember the words to every one of them.
Yes, Mike, you were right about the format. If memory serves me correctly, the announcements were given after the song after the sermonette. And then the one who gave the announcements introduced the minister who gave the sermon. It’s been a long time for me, too, because after the changes, the format was gradually changed. The last time I attended church in Big Sandy, they had a praise band (made up of members and their families) give “Praise and Worship, then announcements and then the sermon. IIRC, the sermonette was cut out, but I could be wrong. And then there was one or two songs sung after services.
Getting back to Ron cutting out the songs, it boggles my mind how he channeled everyone to listen to what HE had to say with NO worship of God at all during services. When he was in Toledo, I don’t recall him doing that. I know he was struggling with the changes (very much), but he didn’t change the format, that I recall. That man is a piece of work, he is.
Thanks for the info, Atrocious. I’ve tweaked my post a bit.
I think Ron removed the songs when he started up his phone hookup citing that as the reason. Although I think there are other groups with phone hookups that include singing. Just as well, one excruciating experience is listening to Ron sing during the Passover service. Ron did state that HE would be the one to lead the song, still not ready to share his podium.
Interesting how there seems to be on so many occasions so many malfunctions with his equipment…hmm
“Ron did not, as I expected, make even the slightest mention of the earthquake in Christchurch, NZ. Probably checked the cable news shows and noted that the story has already fallen from the news cycle.”
Or maybe he read what you and i wrote on your previous article lol