Saturday, May 10, 2014

A History of PCG's Addresses: Possible Signs of Decline

Gerald Flurry's PCG is a notoriously secretive organization that, figuratively speaking, keeps its information very close to its chest.

In an attempt to get through this barrier of silence let us look at the fine print in their magazines to attempt to glean more information about has been happening within PCG.

Let us look at the addresses of their various mailing addresses around the world. Have they changed over the years?

The 1998 addresses are taken from the February 1998 issue of The Philadelphia Trumpet.

The 2014 addresses are taken from the April 2014 issue of The Philadelphia Trumpet.

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The following is a list of addresses accompanied with notes regarding address changes.

United States

1998: United States: PO Box 3700, Edmond, OK 73083.

2014: United States P.O. Box 3700, Edmond, OK 73083

(No change in address.)

Latin America

(Same as US address.)

Canada

1998: Canada: P.O. Box 61541, Fennel Postal Outlet, Hamilton, ON L8T 5A1.

2014: Canada P.O. Box 400, Campbellville, on 10P 1B0.

(In the November 2003 issue the Canadian address is listed as P.O. Box 315, Milton, ON L9T 4Y9. The Canadian address changed to its current address with the December 2010 issue.)

Australia

1998: Australia: P.O. Box 6626, Upper Mount Gravatt, [Brisbane,] QLD 4122

2014: Australia, Pacific Isles, India, Sri Lanka: P.O. Box 375, Narellan, [Sydney,] NSW 2567, Australia

(The Australian address changed with the October 2008 issue of The Philadelphia Trumpet.) 

Philippines

1998: Philippines: P.O. Box 1372, Q.C. Central Post Office, Quezon City, Metro Manila

2014: Philippines: P.O. Box 52143, Angeles City Post Office, 2009 Pampanga.

(The address changed with the October 2009 issue of The Philadelphia Trumpet.)

Britian, Europe and Middle East

1998: Britain, Europe, Middle East: P.O. Box 1, Abbots Langley, Herts [Abbriviation for Hertfordshire.] WD5 OBS.

2014: Britain, Europe, Middle East: P. O. Box 900, Northampton, NN5 9AL, England.

(In the November 2003 issue the British address is listed as P.O. Box 9000, Daventry, NN11 5TA, England. The address changed to its current address with the October 2009 issue of the Philadelphia Trumpet.
Also in between November 2005-September 2009 issues of The Philadelphia Trumpet India and Sri Lanka are listed with the British address.)

Africa

1998: Africa: P.O. Box 2057, Edenvale, 1610 South Africa.

2014: Africa P.O. Box 2969, Durbanville, 7551. [South Africa.]

(The address changed to its current address with the May 1998 issue of the Philadelphia Trumpet.)

New Zealand

1998: New Zealand and the Pacific Isles: P.O. Box 38-424, Howick, Auckland, 1730.

2014: New Zealand: P.O. Box 6088, Glenview, Hamilton, 3246. 

(The New Zealand address changed with the October 2009 issue of The Philadelphia Trumpet.
Also the Pacific Isles address was changed with the May 1999 issue of The Philadelphia Trumpet which, for the first time, lists Australia and the Pacific Isles with the same address, as it does to this day.)

The Pacific Isles

1998: New Zealand and the Pacific Isles: P.O. Box 38-424, Howick, Auckland, 1730.

2014: Australia, Pacific Isles, India, Sri Lanka: P.O. Box 375, Narellan, NSW 2567, Australia.

(The Pacific Isles address changed to its current location in Australia with the May 1999 issue of The Philadelphia Trumpet.)

India and Sri Lanka

2003 (November) India and Sri Lanka: P.O. Box 13, Kananda, Sri Lanka.

2014: Australia, Pacific Isles, India, Sri Lanka: P.O. Box 375, Narellan, NSW 2567, Australia.

(The Indian and Sri Lankan addresses changed to Britain (P.O. Box 9000, Daventry, NN11 5TA, England) with the November 2005 issue of The Philadelphia Trumpet. The British address was changed with the October 2009 issue of The Philadelphia Trumpet (P. O. Box 900, Northampton, NN5 9AL, England). The Indian and Sri Lankan addresses then changed to Australia with the September 2010 issue of The Philadelphia Trumpet.)

The Caribbean

1998: N/A.

2014: Caribbean P.O. Box 2237, Chaguanas, Trinidad, W.I.

(Caribbean office appears in the November 2003 issue of The Philadelphia Trumpet with its current address.)

That is the list of addresses.

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Here is a brief timeline of some the address transfers over the years. It is not at present possible for me to provide further details due to PCG's secretiveness.

1998: African address transferred from Edenville to Durbanville.

1999: Pacific Isles address transferred from New Zealand to Australia.

2005: Indian and Sri Lankan addresses are transferred to Britain.

2008: Australian address moved from Upper Mount Gravitt, Queensland to Narellan, New South Wales.

2009: British address moved from Hertfordshire to Northampton.

Philippines address changed from Manila to Pampanga.

New Zealand address moved from Auckland to Hamilton.

2010: Indian and Sri Lankan addresses are transferred from Britain to Australia.

Canada address moved from Milton to Campbellville.

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I am particularly intrigued with the changes of address in the Phillipines, New Zealand and Sri Lanka.

At first PCG's mailing address in the Phillipines was located in Manila, the capital and largest city in the Philippines, which has a population of about 21 million. But in late 2009 it was moved to Pampanga slightly further north. I wonder why PCG's leaders in the Phillipines decided to leave Manila. Would that change make it harder for mail to reach them? Because of PCG's secretiveness it is at present impossible to know.

The change in New Zealand is also intriguing. At first PCG's mailing address was located in Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand with a population of 1.4 million. But in the latter half of 2009 it moved to Hamilton to the south, which only has a population of 212,000 and is inland. This indicates to me that PCG in New Zealand has greatly declined since its early days. Why would PCG's leaders in New Zealand abandon the largest city to move to a smaller, inland city? Why did they view this as an attractive and/or necessary move? Because of PCG's secretiveness it is at present impossible to know.

Also of note is the Indian and Sri Lankan addresses. By 2003 they had their own mailing address in Kananda, Sri Lanka. But in late 2005 they lost this and Britain received their mail for them. But later in late 2010 this was again moved to Australia. None of this is a good sign of PCG church growth in the Indian subcontinent. Why would PCG's leaders decide in late 2005 it was not worth maintaining a separate mailing address in Kananda, Sri Lanka and move it to Britain? Why would PCG's leaders decide in late 2010 that the mail from India and Sri Lanka would be better served going to Australia instead?

It's also not a good sign for PCG in Britain. Losing oversight of the Indian and Sri Lankan mail in late 2010 to Australia cannot be a good sign of growth and prosperity there.

Regarding the African address one can only wonder why PCG's leaders decided to relocate offices to the other side of South Africa in 1998.

The Canadian addresses seem to be so close together I will refrain from trying to infer anything about the state of PCG in Canada from these facts.

As for Australia, to me moving to Sydney sounds like a promotion for me. But it is impossible at present to know why PCG's leaders felt it necessary to move location over the provincial boundary from Queensland to New South Wales in 2008.

Although correlation does not prove causation it must be asked: Did the $25 million construction of Armstrong Auditorium (2008-10) play a role with these address transfers? A lot of these address transfers occur around this time. Did spending so much money on Armstrong Auditorium compel PCG's leaders to cut costs by changing mailing addresses? Because of PCG's secretiveness it is at present impossible to verify matters one way or the other.

So we now capture a glimpse of some of the affairs of PCG around the world and how PCG has organized themselves over the years.

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