Febuary 15th, 2006 (EB news)

Through use of the remarkable Google Earth utility (a free download from http://earth.google.com/) we are able to show satellite photographs of the locations where BDH is currently holding court in the United Kingdom.

Whetstone Exclusive Brethren Meetingroom, just north of Barnet, North London. This hall is possibly the site of the scheduled main events. Google Earth Search String: 51 38 34.44 N 0 13 13.31 W
Just a few minutes away, the Mays Lane Meetingroom is also the scene of marquees, indicating that there are plans to use both halls during the visit. Google Earth Search String: 51 38 06.64 N 0 10 29.01 W

Click here to view further images, maps and photographs of the Exclusive Brethren Meetingrooms involved.

Public access to the halls is, as usual, virtually impossible. Although defined as 'public places of worship', Exclusive Brethren halls are fenced, gated and have security guards and admittance procedures. It is believed that access is by invitation only and that all Exclusive Brethren invitees must carry their invitations in order to gain admittance through several levels of security.

In Brisbane, Australia, Brisbane City Council recently won an appeal against the Exclusive Brethren relating to their claim of being a public place of worship (Peebs.Net News - December 16th, 2005). The steel gates, traffic defences and security precautions are hardly conducive to presenting a welcome to members of the public.

The Brisbane courts agreed. This site hopes that the Brisbane Decision will help to convince local authorities in all countries that the 'gated communities' of the Exclusive Brethren are not entitled to the local taxation and rate subsidies that other genuine public places of worship rightly enjoy.

Febuary 9th, 2006 (EB news)

• Police investigating pledge card spending
- "National is already being investigated for allegedly exceeding the amount it was allowed to spend on broadcasting advertising by $100,000, and its association with the Exclusive Brethren pamphlet drop."

In other news, it is both encouraging and sad to note that the label 'Exclusive Brethren' is becoming frequently used in common speech, particularly in New Zealand, as a term expressing extremism. One of the purposes of this site is to ensure that there are facts available to ratify this changing popular usage of the name.

The following recent press articles contain comparative references to the Exclusive Brethren:

• Leadership mess in National's nest
- "There were gaffes, and Dr Brash was responsible for a good number of them. He was embarrassingly unfamiliar with his own party's policy, and he failed to handle the revelation that the party had received support from the Exclusive Brethren with anything approaching the deft aplomb that was needed."
• Let's just hope the writers aren't Lost
- "On Lost, we could be dealing with anything from the Exclusive Brethren to the Da Vinci Code Believers' Society."
• Screw your morals, today's youth tells us
- "Even sects like Pius X get their own state-funded schools while the Exclusive Brethren are given dispensations denied their more secular colleagues. The problem with giving religion any role in public life, is that any religion can then enter."
• Economy at 'tipping point' - Brash
- "Miss Clark said it was "a little bit rich" stressing the importance of a secular society when Dr Brash had accepted money from the Exclusive Brethren, 'a fundamentalist sect that would very much like to see a different sort of society'."

And the same story, but from a different perspective:

• Dr Brash and his attempt to create a tolerant society
- Miss Clark also said comments by Dr Brash, published in an Auckland newspaper this morning, about the importance of New Zealand's secular society were a "little rich" coming from "someone who was happy to take a great deal of money from a fundamentalist sect (the Exclusive Brethren) which would very much like to see a different sort of society"

Febuary 1st, 2006 (EB Community news)