It is clear that there are two outcomes that people wish for here -

A) that SMC leaders address issues raised on this thread

B) to warn any people or children who have been approached by SMC from getting involved with or joining this church, its youth activities or its conferences.

Its becoming clear that A will never happen.

That leaves B. And as I said before I think a Youtube clip would greatly help here.

Please bear in mind that my Youtube suggestion was merely to do something in the form of a presentation - the text of peoples stories here, either accompanied by music or an anonymous narrator speaking the text. I was not suggesting in any way that such Youtube clips would be used to “out” anyone or include video or audio recordings of actual posters here.

I’m prepared to put this together myself if necessary. It should be straightforward I think, since I often make and use Powerpoint presentations for my boss at the company where I work, and I think its possible to convert them to video.

Just let me know if you want your story to be included, and if you like, let me know the actual text you want to be shown.

i’ll only start working on this once I get at least five posters giving me the go ahead. And of course i won't make anything public until all participants have seen and approved the YouTube clip.



Edited 6 time(s). Last edit at 04/05/2012 08:07AM by seekingsusan.

Well said Susie and your right we will have to proceed to B as you indicated as SMC arrogantly assume they have no case to answer. Hopefully 5 other posters will also agree. I myself have not experienced membership of SMC, but I have friends who have and I have another concern which I do not want to air publically YET until I decide as to the best way to deal with it. I have been re reading some of the posts and would just like to say what a smart, intelligent, reasonable caring bunch of people you all are and I am proud to be associated with you on this forum.

DEAR seeking susan ... I agree.

I think we have to proceed to B also. I would also like to see the powerpoint first to ensure that safety is paramount. I consider SMC LEADERS to be dangerous, from experience... but we do have to get the truth across..

thanks for the feedback. It would help me if those who wish to have their story included can send me an edited version via private message of the exact text you want shown. We can then discuss further edits via PM. Otherwise i’ll just use the content of your posts here. Try and trim out as many unnecessary words as possible, because only a limited amount of text can be displayed and sensibly viewed in a single screen on video. The text also has to be bigger for readability.

I would very much like to contribute to this Susan

Quote
Anthony
I would very much like to contribute to this Susan

That is encouraging Anthony. If you wish, please do send me your story text by PM , or if you prefer, maybe post it here. I did a quick search here for your posts but none seemed to go into any detail
so would maybe now be a time to do it here ?. Of course if you’d prefer to just submit it to me privately for the time being thats ok too.

To the others who sent me a PM. Many thanks. Please be patient though , as this will take some time and i don’t think theres any need to rush this.

I also want to wait until I get a few more okays before starting in earnest.

I’m sorry to say, that after spending some time trawling all the posts on this thread in preparation for this video task, and taking on board
the very real fears and anxieties expressed of revealing their identities, both here and in private, that I think the effort in getting this right, with all the submission and resubmission of stories that would be necessary to do this properly, that I no longer think I can put in the time to do this youtube thing.

I do hope someone else, maybe someone more experienced with producing professional looking videos etc can take on this project and run with it, since I really do think it is a worthwhile thing to do.

To Lorna
Thanks for your private message "to clear some things up" in response to my post on 12 March 2012 about Struthers 60 Year Celebration event. I don't know why you couldn't reply in the form of a public post on the Forum, if there is no secrecy about it.

We are glad, however, that you read the posts and hope to receive more responses from more people in Struthers. However, I'm wondering in what capacity were you writing me a private message. Are you one of the current leaders of SMC or are you writing on behalf of one of the leaders? What you wrote doesn't really clear things up. I never saw any adverts for the event and I regularly meet Struthers folk at the shopping-centre, but none of them mentioned it to me. There was nothing on the Church website since a lot of stuff was removed from it last year.
I find it strange to hear that "past members" plus their "friends and family", attended the event. Since past members, i.e. people who leave SMC, are usually described as backsliders, compromisers, worldly Christians, those who haven't made the grade or kept to the high calling, etc, then I wouldn't have thought that they were welcome to attend. Re "family", what about the people who have been told not to see certain family members? Did their families attend? What about people who have been banned or told not to come to the church; were they welcome at this event? (I know this is the view taken because, sad to say, I used to think that way myself when I was in SMC and have had to repent and apologise to other Christians for my superior and self-righteous attitudes).

To all on the Forum
Below is the content of Lorna's private message. Quotes from my post, I have placed in inverted commas.
Lorna wrote: I've just seen your post about the "Celebration" and thought I'd just clarify some things for you:

Rensil:"What I also can't understand is why the secrecy over this celebratory event, which was allegedly held as a kind of outreach and with choir performances? It wasn't advertised in advance nor put online, as most events of this kind would be".

Lorna: - The event WAS indeed advertised in advance - both in the Glasgow Herald and online
- Thousands of leaflets were produced and distributed throughout the local area and to friends/relatives of members
- There was no secrecy what-so-ever and the church advertised it more than any other event it has held in recent years

Rensil: "Most celebrations are held for people to share the happiness. So was it a reaction to all the exposure here of the wrongs committed by SMC leaders and others, or to the issues which are discussed on the Latigo site?"

Lorna: - It was an event to share happiness and was enjoyed by hundreds of people who attended (a mixture of current members, past members and friends and family of both). CDs and DVDs have been made of the service and are available to buy if you are interested?
Just thought I'd clear some things up for you,
Lorna

thankyou Rensil for sharing Lorna`s private message.
Perhaps Lorna, if you want to "CLEAR THINGS UP" you should take a look at all previous posts on this forum and attempt to "clear them up too". How can Struthers leaders celebrate knowing how much damage and harm has been caused and never addressed? Celebration is a wonderful thing, but surely your Struthers leaders must examine their conscience in their silent time and wonder why so many awful truths are being revealed and exposed daily about what they put, and continue to put people through? Why don`t they want to "clear that up" , Lorna? I cannot believe that"members past and their families" were present at the "celebration" as all of us know that this was not, and is not, how Struthers operates. Genuine people, all listed here , former members , were treated despicably and never welcomed back. Instead, Lorna, they were despised and banned and shunned and in some cases destroyed.... all the horrible things happened to them which goes against the true teachings and ways of a loving God, who never closes His door on anyone. I dont know you personally, Lorna, but I can only guess that you must read this forum and that you recognise that yes..! there is Iindeed an awful lot of important " clearing up" needed. There is no secrecy about your celebration of 60 years (though I dont recall celebrating ten ..twenty... thirty...?or even 50?? ) There is also NO MORE secrecy about the way that people are and were badly treated and damaged beyond belief . So whilst you may want to celebrate and share happiness and produce dvds and cds , and dance in the Spirit , please remember that many still wait for more attempts to clear things up. It would also be helpful to respond publicly on the forum, Lorna, so that we can all know that you are earnestly trying to clear things up for us all. We look forward to hearing from you soon.
Thankyou, again , Rensil for sharing Lorna`s message. It is good to know that people share happiness still.