Rensil you are correct. They are silent about controversial matters, yet talk about members private business between eachother all the time.
A truly vile place.

As I said in a previous post, people that want to control and manipulate others are rarely doing as they say themselves. We've seen this time and time again throughout history. Be suspicious of ANYONE who wants to be a leader in this context.

The way in which the church operates and controls its members is not in any way unique to Struthers. This type of operation is well documented and the survivors all bear similar hallmarks. This can be clearly seen in the posts of contributors here and also in blogposts (of which there are 2 that I know of).

What is difficult to understand is why good, otherwise intelligent people continue to subject themselves to this.

There is no power here whatsoever. The power is an illusion. It exists only because the members enable it and allow it to exist. It can be gone in an instant.

Perhaps the best example of this is Miss Taylor. Outside of the church, in her day to day job, she was a 'nobody' (in the kindest sense of the word). She had no influence, commanded no authority and was what you might describe as very ordinary. Step into Struthers and she becomes a demi-god ready to tell people what to do / act / think / believe. It's a nonsense.

Can anyone shed any light on whether this is significant or not? For anyone that can't see it, it's Chris Jewell's termination as a director.

(See attachment below)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/26/2024 11:01PM by blackwatch.

Plymouth brethren, Mormons, Jehovah’s witnesses and others work on the same ideals. The founder of struthers was brethren.

Interesting to see all these new comments: hello, and thank you. Thanks are also due to Petitor and Rensil for always chivvying things along.

I am not trying to be contrarian, and I acknowledge all the hurt that has been expressed by contributors old and new, but I want to defend Miss Taylor, to some extent. She was, I think, prophetically gifted and to an extraordinary degree. In fact, I know, because I had first-hand experience of it, which helped me - when I was very mixed up - immensely. I will be forever grateful to her.

She was, indeed, a 'nobody' in the world, in the sense that, being a 9-5 secretary, she was not in a high-status profession. However, I think that that is also to her credit. 'God chooses the lowly things of this world...' Many of the spiritual giants of history came from obscure and humble backgrounds: Billy Bray, William Booth, Charles Spurgeon, Willam J. Seymour, etc. It is to my mind impressive that Miss Taylor, as a woman and without the privilege of higher education, accomplished what she did, especially at the time she did it, the sexist, classist 1950s.

However, she had 'the vices of her virtues', and this is the problem with the Struther leadership generally: they think that because they have the Holy Spirit among them they must be pretty much infallible, and are therefore justified in very closely controlling the private lives of their flock. They secede from the healthy environment of the wider church, shunning accountability and seeking to preserve an inevitably fragile and actually unsustainable ideal community. This is why they have not only not grown since the founders died, but contracted and fragmented. It is impossible to maintain an enclosed community for long, unless you shut up shop in a convent or campus somewhere. It is also not God's will, which, to the contrary, is to be 'the salt of the earth', 'in the world, but not of it'.

So, in short, Struthers Memorial Church is a mixture of good and bad, truth and error. I am glad I was led out so clearly. My natural loyalty kept me inside, as no doubt with many of you, until I was driven away. I am amused that Alison Spiers has now stropped out, since it was challenging her and her made-up vision for a new school, which incidentally shifted from a planned special needs school to a cheap private school, proving the shakiness of her claimed divine mandate, that sealed my fate.

Thanks everyone for the replies and lovely welcomes.

Alduff, great to hear your views and I very much respect it. I didn’t know miss Taylor. She was before my time.

All I can share is my experience. I had some happy times. I sometimes wonder if that’s because it’s all I knew. I didn’t have friends or a life outwith at struthers - that was very much frowned upon.

On so many occasions I was taken away and spoken to by individual leaders. I was under 18 and looking back it frightens me. The things I was told. The way I was spoken to. Someone mentioned a documentary about a cult. I just started watching it. Episode 2 got me. It’s the spiritual and mind abuse. Just horrific. Someone should make one about struthers. If the full truth were to be exposed…..

I have shared a fair bit more than I planned too. I have too much I feel I can’t share as it’s so horrific. I know I am not alone. I’m so so sorry for everyone’s experiences. It should never have happened.

Hi rainbow
You have given an amazing gift, putting it out there to save others thinking of going there.
You should put everything out there, to make sure people know.
It’s quite amusing how the leadership try to gloss over this page.

Thanks daisy69. And that’s all I would want to do. I don’t do this for gossip or nastiness. I do genuinely have concerns about the welfare of any children that attend struthers memorial church. They spiritually abuse people. Children, adults. Everyone. The church has not grown. It’s as small as it ever was and it won’t grow.

I know what it did to me. And it actually breaks my heart to see them doing it to other kids. I pray to God that he saves them from it. No one deserves the hell that is the aftermath of attending Struthers Memorial Church.

People who stop by here, need to know the age kiddies are trained to start speaking in tongues, and forced into Demon deliverance.
I would laugh to myself at the unlikely testimonies and miracles, people would feel compelled to talk about.
What did you think of camp?

Hi everyone. I have been reading these posts for a number of years now. This forum has been so valuable in helping me build up the courage to leave the church and also helped in the years of healing from what was quite a traumatic upbringing in SMC. After numerous red flag moments such as a leader encouraging my mum to divorce my dad in front of me when I was a teenager and many times throughout my teenage years getting a rollicking in the vestry for something that went against the teachings of the church leader, I came to the forbidden forum that we were told to stay away from and was the work of Satan. It was eye opening to see similar stories to my own being told on this forum and after many years of feeling like I was the problem and needed some form of deliverance, I felt a lot less isolated and became determined to get out. Finally, I heard on a podcast a leader of the church call me “deceitful” in front of the entire congregation when I was 15 and this was the moment I decided to never go back. Although I felt hurt by being cut off by many people who I grew up around, I couldn’t be happier that I have left such a toxic environment.

Has anyone else found that they are unable to go to another church? I now find it difficult to trust other church ministers or even people in the congregation after my experience at SMC.