[Dave]

Originally Posted by UntoHim

From my understanding, Santa Cruz was far enough away from LA and Anaheim that it could actually function as a genuine "local church", and not a branch office of the Local Church of Witness Lee/Living Stream Corp. I believe the same was true for Berkeley and maybe some others as well. Having been "born and raised" in Orange County (just minutes from Anaheim) I never got to experience anything like you did in Santa Cruz. The closest thing may have been when Lee initiated "The Young People's churches" (circa 1977) in Orange County - Costa Mesa, Irvine, Fullerton and some others. Those were some exciting times, and brought a breath of fresh air...but of course it was short-lived...Lee and some of his minions cooked up a great "rebellion", which of course had to be quashed. I was bussed up to Berkeley to that crazy, infamous Memorial Day conference (78?). We had barely been back a day or two and there was an emergency meeting called where Lee put down the hatchet. I remember that meeting well...one young person, usually an older one chosen to be the representative, was chosen to stand up and "repent" to Witness Lee as he sat in the front with a smug look of satisfaction. Looking back, if that didn't seal the deal of making us a personality cult, then I don't know what did.

Your comments remind me of an experience both Don O and I went through in Detroit. This was in 1973. Don and I were sent to Berkeley by the elders because of their growth in young people to find out what they were doing. It was exciting being out there seeing what was going on. We came back and over the next several weeks we instituted changes. All I can say is that young people were attending our meetings like never before. It was a little bit crazy but energizing. The problem was that Don and I had some concern about the elders support despite sending us out to Berkeley. They seemed to be putting on the brakes. In any case, some of the sisters painted our metal chairs different colors as they were excited about what was going on. It was fun but kind of crazy. What happened next was that a couple sisters talked to the elders and said we were rebelling. In the next meeting Don and I walked in and it was very solemn and the song was "follow brothers"... Don was overwhelmed and cried like a baby in the meeting and I was like "what just happened"? They never asked us anything and just blasted us. In any case, it was probably the beginning of the end for me. Any further effort in trying to reach young people was over. The next step: in early 1974 everyone "migrated" to Ft. Lauderdale and that was another disaster. Ron K went to Anaheim.