Nearly 5,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses pack Leon’s Centre in Kingston, Ont. – Kingston | 24CA News
Worshippers united in music was a welcome sound to the virtually 5,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses who packed the halls of the Leon’s Centre for a conference Friday morning.
“It’s emotional actually hearing everyone sing together in such a large group,” says Courtney Thompson, one of many attendees.
For worshippers like Thompson, an in-person occasion like this was a welcome return to normalcy after lacking out the earlier years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“This has been like a huge boost already, even though it’s just the first day,” she says.
Friday was the primary day of a three-day occasion that Tourism Kingston predicts can have an enormous financial affect on companies within the metropolis.
“I would guess that when accommodation, spending on food and beverage, the rentals at the Leon’s Centre, all of those things combined, we’re probably in the neighbourhood upwards of half a million dollars,” says Ted Robinson, a business occasion specialist for Tourism Kingston.
While they acknowledge the financial affect, the Jehovah’s Witnesses say they hope their affect is extra substantial.
“We’d like to think that it’s not so much the economic impact, but it’s really the soft impact of showing kindness and love to our neighbours,” says David Docksteader, a public relations spokesperson for the Jehovah’s Witnesses.
That love for his or her neighbours is one factor Thompson hopes extra folks perceive about Jehovah’s Witnesses.
“There’s a lot of misconceptions about us,” she says.
“But we really love our neighbours, we love Jehovah our God. We really want to be a positive impact on the community.”
In the meantime, she’s simply grateful for an occasion like this that surrounds her along with her neighborhood.
“It really draws me close to my friends — draws me close to my God.”
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