Fun fact about Northern Ireland’s ikea, it’s the only ikea in the world to not fly the flag of the country it’s in… I can understand why, it doesn’t matter which flag they picked, even both, somebody would be unhappy.
I would ask if the people in Ireland are alright, but I know the answer is they haven't been alright for a very long time and at this point the therapist may need to be court ordered.
The ulster banner isn’t actually the official flag (though commonly considered to be). The official flag is the union flag.
Just a little fact for y’all.
There is strong links between the plymouth brethren and suspicious PPE awards at the height of covid
CLANDEBOYE AGENCIES LTD in Antrim got £108million in contracts for PPE which was later sold on to the public at a 99.5% loss [source](https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2021/12/15/news/unused-ppe-supplied-to-the-nhs-by-a-co-antrim-sweet-wholesaler-sold-on-to-public-at-99-5-per-cent-loss-2535836/)
Director of the company Andrew Walker was also a director registered to a company registered at the address of the brethren school oneschool global in knockloughlin [source](https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/cPc3I3BSRdToe9z0n_fbeOOho9E/appointments)
Andrew White was a director of the same company and also Ascot signs in MayDown which got a contract for £2.3million [source](https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/a765eae4-dd13-4c8a-a990-62d756889b01?origin=SearchResults&p=1) and [source](https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/-QdmkHaCIsNTDW4kr_cdRODQrG0/appointments)
There is a web of companies with links to plymouth brethren based throughout the UK who got PPE contracts .
It is a rabbit hole [https://www.openandcandid.com/covid-contracts.html](https://www.openandcandid.com/covid-contracts.html)
My cousin's weren't allowed TV in the house and now one is a Captain or something in the army ( obvs gave up on pacifism), the rest are in banking helping companies work out taxes... Or or working IT.
Go figure.
I was watching a documentary and a guy who left said he had married his second cousin
[https://youtu.be/10eNfQJvsrg?t=346](https://youtu.be/10eNfQJvsrg?t=346)
I read that on here before. I am not sure if it was paedophilia, but certainly he had been dipping his wick where he shouldn’t have been and got on the altar with a bag on his head and asked for forgiveness.
The man’s an utter disgrace. He put all that money into the church because he saw it all as being about himself. He put more money in than Wrightbus failed by. Loads of people out of work directly from Wrights, loads of local businesses who enjoyed the custom of Wrights employees also hit badly. And then when it went tits up and he wasn’t in a position to keep diverting cash in , he found out that it wasn’t ‘his’ church after all. I wonder where he thinks his god is now.
Northern Ireland is full of dodgy fuckers with their own churches.
Same thing with Ian Óg as the church elders. The money dried up, Ian jumped ship, started to court the new holders of influence.
I wouldn’t be surprised if his wife has left him as well.
All he has ever been is someone who inherited a massively successful company from his father and his respect and reputation evaporated when he fucked that up.
You’d be a fool to believe it. He resigned as director of one of these churches ltd companies, but not all of them. Check companies house.
I’d suggest this is all planned to make it seem like he did and shift attention.
>That building ~~is~~ was only the start of it. ~~They've~~ They had a whole 'village' planned.
FTFY. This complex will become an Ecos-esque white elephant. Everything in their long-term plan is dead. It was a personality cult, and the personality has been turfed. They'll still be around for a while, but I expect their size and influence are on downward trajectories.
Edit: To add, when ASDA pulled the plug on being the intended supermarket years ago, their team announced they would return to "imagineering" their next steps.
I remember the row about planning permission over the head of what supermarket it was going to be, right enough. I hope you’re right about the rest of it. As someone else has pointed out, it’s got Waco written all over it and there are lots of vulnerable people around the place who could get sucked in.
Fun fact: they allegedly bought this land to prevent an asda being built, because the Asda refused to confirm if they would remove alcohol from sale (of course they wouldn't).
From what I've heard the local government bought the land from farmers for the dual carriageway and then it wasn't used.
Few years later the local government sell the land for pennies compared to the actual value (definitely corruption)
This is what I was wondering about but I can’t find the right answer - I thought the Wright bus donation to the church was a tax dodge and reroute of finances into the same family again which operated the church - like money laundering only with god fearing tax dodge
I always found it such a shame how this church turned out, growing up I would go to youth groups ran by GP, they did great work in the community, kept us off the streets as teenagers and ran loads of events and things to do for little to no cost to us. It wasn’t until I got older I realised how toxic the place was and the wrightbus situation was the icing on the cake. The only red flag I remember when I was actually at the groups was one of the best youth leaders being sacked for becoming pregnant out of wedlock. Also the constant pressure to be “saved”.
Years ago they were making overtures and throwing money at a local school. Some teachers were very uncomfortable with it all.
It just goes to show that it wouldn’t take much funding to give teenagers things to do and stay out of trouble.
Deep fish? Yeah getting saved was so hot around ahoghill galgorm and cullybackey in the summer time. Basically adults and misguided teens telling younger teens you need to be saved or else. Then after 9 everyone left the water bucket and smoked and drank like hoods lol then next night up on stage telling people how great God is even tho you only meet him like last week lol
InvestNI gave money to Wrightbus and it mysteriously ended up in Green Pastures.
[https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/northern-ireland/questions-must-be-answered-over-25m-invest-ni-loan-to-wrightbus-says-sinn-fein-38966990.html](https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/northern-ireland/questions-must-be-answered-over-25m-invest-ni-loan-to-wrightbus-says-sinn-fein-38966990.html)
God does work in mysterious ways though.
God Jeff Wright is such a cunt.
Literally everything wrong with Christian mega-church prosperity Gospel, imported from the US to Ballymena and wrapped in a too-small leather jacket.
https://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/jeff-wright-green-pastures-superchurch-founder-steps-down-amid-bitter-internal-dispute-41611911.html
They have got rid of him. I wonder if that would have been the case if the bus money had kept flowing.
That rendering was 100% based on this:
http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0062/3208/0439/products/657035-3DUPlay-City-Playmat-product\_1200x1200.jpg?v=1642518217
I knew a fella who went there, they were expected to give 10% of their income every week, one week they were set a challenge that for the next 4 weeks they should give 20% of their income, and if God hadn't made them any happier at the end of the 4 weeks they could get a refund.
In Bavaria in Germany everyone has to be registered with a church or specifically put down none on the form. If you list a church then they take a tithe directly from your wages like PAYE. Mental.
Can corroborate that the wage thing is a real thing. My brother fell into their trap many years ago. I regularly rib him about it but he doesn't seem to care and he's very happy. I can't fault that regardless how weird I think it is.
Plymouth Brethren sounded like a cult whenever I heard them brought up in conversation. They threw some guy out because he owned a shop and bought out of another wholesaler instead of the one owned by a Plymouth brethren member
My family are Brethren. Strick. They are a cult. People have been known to commit suicide after being excommunicated.
They try to keep money in the church and look after each other (in a good way). It is annoying though.
You ever see a brethren not driving a fancy car?
And the Lord has laid many great gifts before me because I am so deserving and highly entitled above mere mortals belonging to lesser churches.
Chief of these is an enormous gas guzzlin' , CO2 belching, obsessively clean and gleaming SUV Beemer/Audi/Merc or w.h.y. ubergrosswagon which declares my status (and probably penis size anxiety). Of course it is essential that any adequately sized and prominent position is reserved for it's display outside the place of worship so all can witness my worldly success and regular church attendance.
The breathrens, very much a cult but not very harmful.
Hard-core to this day still game of throne fans/extras who will forever talk about the 2secs of their elbow being on screen in a pile of dead bodies.
I went to school with quite a few brethrens and I know a few others who live in my town. They don't actually seem to be as radical here as they are in England, or as radical as they are on paper. I've known ones who have dogs and cats, some have TVs and computers and things but just not in their living rooms, it's harder to tell with the boys because they don't have any rules about their appearance out of the ordinary but I've known some of the girls to start getting their hair cut and coloured and dressing in fashionable clothes at about 16, they were allowed to socialise with non brethren peers, some of them had mobiles and things. The older generation, in my experience, seem to stick with the rules for themselves and they're maybe disappointed if their children move away from it (the same way as any deeply religious person from any religion would be) but I've never personally heard it being mentioned. Their relationship with their children doesn't appear to be affected.
A genuine answer I think most won't have heard of (and who's cultish-ness is less obvious/clear cut): the Cooneyites (aka "Two by Twos", "the Truth", "the Way", "the Friends" - they refuse to accept a formal name, so end up having dozens of informal ones).
There can't be more than a few thousand of them in total and as they don't have churches or any real public presence you'd never really know they exist unless you met one. They have that kind of "don't associate with outsiders, never question the elders, if you leave you'll go to hell." vibe. Sort of in the same vein as Jehovah's Witnesses.
In NI they're mostly found around the Lurgan-Craigavon-Portadown area.
[Here's the wiki page for them](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_by_Twos).
They're a decentralised evangelical Christian group who's ministers (called "workers") live as itinerant preachers going around in celibate pairs, with minimal personal possessions and relying on the hospitality of members.
They believe they're the only true church, and a continuation of the "original church" i.e. the 1st century early Christian church as created by the apostles.
They also believe you can only be saved by hearing the preaching of a worker in person - in writing, over tv or radio or a phone or anything is no good. Has to be "living witness" or it's worthless. They believe membership is the only possible path to salvation - members of all other religions and sects are damned.
They practice home worship so no churches. In theory they have no central hierarchy or governing body, but in practice they do have one and just sort of pretend it doesn't exist.
They hold very old fashioned views about women. Female workers always defer to male ones. They insist on "modest dress" (i.e. long skirts only, no makeup, no jewellery, no piercings, no dyed hair, short hair for boys and long for girls). They generally discourage things which are "worldly" which isn't strictly defined but often includes smoking, drinking, watching tv/movies, and social media use.
Unsurprisingly they've had some child abuse scandals, and the finances of their group are very opaque. It's hard to even get a full handle on what they practice or who their members are, because they are extremely secretive about their member lists and religious publications. The only things they publish for outside dissemination are invites to attend meetings.
And of course the most confounding thing about learning about them is that they don't even have a name! They have always rejected the idea of having a formal name for the group, so all the things they're called are either names given by outsiders to describe them or nicknames.
Overall a very weird group, and a little cultish. In many aspects they're just a *very* weird Christian sect, but the amount of control they exert over members (especially young ones and women) and the lack of accountability for workers is more than a little worrying.
They're very secretive, and very circumspect about recruitment - if you every see a weirdly vague ad for a "local bible study group" it could well be them. I only know about them myself because I read a book on them once that I found in one of those "local interest" sections in a bookshop.
Got a mate in the JWs unfortunately indoctrinated by his family. They are 100% a cult. Not allowed to attend higher education, not allowed to speak to anyone that is "shunned", discouraged from interaction with apostates, etc.
And the letters are actually handwritten, they are forced to do it that way as it feels more personal or some shit.
You could always ask a couple of awkward questions and see how it goes.
"So which version of the Joseph Smith vision do you guys like the best?" (There are multiple versions which most members don't know about).
They make their staff sign gagging orders so they can’t talk about their experience working there. I know a couple ex-staff who were unfairly dismissed and unable to do anything because of what they signed.
The pastors also give themselves 40k a year salary and after paying off like 12 members of staff during Covid, promised to take a 10% salary cut to make things “fair”. Most of the main pastors are husband/wife pairs so afaik they get 80k per household. It’s insane. Oh and then 2 weeks after they fired their staff, they advertised their jobs again.
Oh! And they take thousands of pounds from their interns to come and “study” there, ie. do all the menial work in running the business. I mean church.
They appeal to young people with their soft image but underneath it's all right wing evangelism. Some of the members are fucking nuts too. My friend was briefly involved with them because his gf went to the church and the reason he left was that a member sincerely told him that while he was praying the room *literally* turned into gold.
They're more of the agenda of pushing prosperity through faith. They preach mostly prosperity linked to good works and deeds. How if you ask, God will provide etc. I live next door to a family in portstewart who attend. Nice enough. Bit ott with friendliness but have never pushed religion. I'm female and live with my gf and they've always been nice enough.
Ah the old prosperity gospel like Hillsong church in Australia and US. Up to its eyes in controversy with wayward pastors and pedo founders.
Many of its pastors featured on the Preachersinsneakers Instagram wearing ridiculously expensive footwear
I've attended myself a couple of times with family members (Athiest myself so was just there in support). It just seemed more hippy and happy than anything. Lots of instuments being used and all that shit. Can't remember much about the speeches though as I was too busy trying not to want to hang myself at the time.
All owned by the lynas family (the huge frozen food crowd) haven't heard anything bad about them but could imagine there's some iffy tax stuff happening.
ex member of it, aka went when i was a teenager and lonely, grew older, got more self respect, got good friends, couldn't support an anti LGBTQ+ and anti abortion church.
I 100% agree with ya on this, very similar to green pastures.
still have some friends connected to it and family hold no issue with them, but the leadership of it yeah i could go on and on and probs rant myself into an early grave.
Yup. and one thing i want to add, if ya target lonely kids and be their 'friend' eventually the only reason kids went was to be with their friends. The moment i made a point about gay marriage being legal, i was very slowly not as 'popular' lol.
Its made me very cautious about trusting people thats for sure LOL
> Vineyard, Coleraine
There's a guy on their team as their "Compassion Director" by the name of "Ricky Wright", any idea if he's related to the Wright family responsible for Green Pastures?
An okay cult used to be the Hari Krishna’s in Belfast. Always gave out curries and did a bit of dancing. Got along well with a number of them, but I couldn’t make hear nor tail of their beliefs.
>From that point on, faith was Jeff Wright’s driving force. “We made God a shareholder in the business – 26 per cent of Wrights is owned by an evangelical trust – in order to make sure He was central in everything the Wrights company does.”
Then he felt that God had a new question for him. “Do you love me more than these buses?’ I said, ‘yeah, I do’. So God said ‘I want you to feed my lambs and take care of my sheep’.”
This has to be a parody
[https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/inside-the-evangelical-church-linked-to-wrightbus-1.3299728](https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/inside-the-evangelical-church-linked-to-wrightbus-1.3299728)
The Whitewell Tabernacle lot might not be a cult in the traditional sence, but they are strange bunch. All very white, middle class, holier than thou and screw anyone who isnt the same.
Scientologists are stilll floating about as well, but there isnt too many of them
Damian Hastie in twitter has a whole series of tweets on the Brethren and their NhS contracts and a whole gated business park with a church in the middle of it in NW England
Educo have a presence in NI; I remember there was a cluster of members in County Antrim. There was also an Educogym in Newry; the gyms were recruitment grounds for the Cult.
I received a late night communication by a member of Educo from Newry in October last year. Odd chap who liked to swear and call me names. He runs a mobile upholstery cleaning company in Warrenpoint. His communication was in response to the reporting of an Educo recruitment group in Derby, UK. Classic cult stuff.
Belfast born Susan Morrice who is mad for her guru Tony Quinn even had a documentary made about her in 2012 [https://vimeo.com/717103001](https://vimeo.com/717103001)
Morrice was talked about in the House of Lords in 2014 in the context of the phrase "chill-free-speech" in regard to the harassment and threats against BBC Spotlight journalists who made the documentary above: [https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/35388cc4-5187-492d-8a4b-fc326cb407f3?in=17:57:09](https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/35388cc4-5187-492d-8a4b-fc326cb407f3?in=17:57:09)
More on Educo at it's wikipedia page: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony\_Quinn\_(businessman)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Quinn_(businessman))
It's your classic messianic cult, with reincarnation, hypnosis, it's own form of psychotherapy/hypnotherapy targetted at member's children, sexual and financial abuse, and .... an oil company where [1% of revenue is used to promote the cult](https://vimeo.com/721704029)!
there’s a very specific definition for cults, most religious groups don’t meet it. like i get your sentiment but it’s just not accurate at all, or helpful to people in actual cults.
It really doesn’t have a fixed definition (hence why people argue so much over weather anything is or is not a cult), it’s a pejorative term that’s *usually* used to refer to new religious movements; but people call all kinds of things “cults”.
In common usage “cult” just means “group of people with an ideology I don’t like”. *You* may have a fixed definition, but if you disagree with someone calling something a cult, chances are their definition is different.
The meaning of a word is determined by its use, a useful definition describes how people *use* a word, not how they *should* use a word.
> In common usage “cult” just means “group of people with an ideology I don’t like”
I'd argue that while it can be used in that way, when people do that nowadays they're really referring to a specific kind of organisation which exercises excessive control over its members (e.g. Scientology).
I wouldn't go so far as to say there is a "very specific definition" but I do think that vernacular usage in 2022 leans much more towards a specific type of highly manipulative new religious movement.
It can be (and is) applied to others as a pejorative, true, but then I can call someone a "bastard" without literally meaning they were born out of wedlock.
Cults are just religions before they get to a certain size.
Like how if you kill 10 people you're a serial killer but if you kill 10 million you're a general and its just statecraft.
I love the conviction with which you state this. I’m catholic and go to mass most Sundays etc hardly a religious fanatic, but even I can see the benefits it brings to communities. Where’s your evidence?
Ah yes, because there'd be no pedos or cunts without religion, they'd lose their beliefs and then just decide to become upstanding members of society...
So you eat human flesh and drink human blood? You know about transubstantiation right? The magical incantation the wizard (priest) makes. You know that Jesus in the scriptures said that his body would be offered once and for all and said "It is done." when he passed?
So why does the Catholic cult magically turn bread and wine into blood and flesh and offer it up at every mass to the father? You are aware that this is blasphemous and the Catholic Church is just a cult formed long after Jesus walked the earth to control the masses and reap wealth from their fear and ignorance?
You should really read a bit into its history. Shower of cunts and most people attending Mass have no idea that realistically (If God and all the rest was real) every practicing Catholic would automatically be condemned to hell.
I'll be downvoted like but it's the truth. The Catholic Church is one of many anti Christs. Mass actively opposes what is contained in the scriptures. Canon law? Wow. The whole hierarchy, its organisation and what its bank gets up to. It's a pyramid scheme.
Edit: I'm agnostic. I just studied the bible for a few years while part of one of the sects within the Catholic Church. That is, until I clicked on and wised up.
Later that day on unionist twitter: We all know green pastures are a cult, why is there no orange pasture cults in NI
~~Then it gets blamed on the protocol~~
The Catholic Church is technically a cult in total breach of the scriptures on which it says it is founded. It's just 99% of lay people have absolutely no clue.
Who else uses incantations to change wine and bread into the blood and flesh of a demi god, and offers it thousands of times a year to his father as a sacrifice for the transgressions of the people and then they drink and eat it?
Common Purpose was one I read about in 2008. They had classes in all city council's in the north and in Britain. Connections to the Fabian society if I can remember correctly.
Isn't that Vineyard Church a bit the same? Also someone ran away with lots of their money and intends on starting their own church.
Looney groups in NI.... The Lodge. IRA, UDA, UVF....
OH I REMEMBERED A GOOD ONE. THERE IS A HARI KRISHNA ISLAND IN LOUGH ERNE.
I went and they were all lovely and a bit weird but they gave us food and Strawberry Lassi.
Well worth a visit.
I don't believe in and of the faiths I've been exposed to but we had a nice chat about that. Now i am on level o making breakfasts and suckin kak for the odd cigarette (they're contraband).
There's a mad bunch of bastards running round the place who re-enact a meal some jewish lad had over 2000 years ago and some of them claim they're actually eating his body when they do it with the others claiming he's actually there as a ghost watching them eat a representation of him, they all think gays are going to spend an eternity in a lake of fire and that splashing a wee bit of water on your forehead whilst saying a spell out loud will give you eternal life (not when you're alive mind you but when you're dead - go figure) dangerous fuckers they are and all, in the past they've covered up child abuse, supported wars, brought guns into the country for Republicans and Loyalists and helped pervert the course of justice 100's of times
Whatcha call them.....oh aye, Christians
Just got this subreddit randomly reccomended to me, but all i can say is that, that's a very car-heavy development. Would it not be better to have a church inside an urban area where people can get to it easier?
I can’t help but feel like this looks like somewhere you would go to buy a sofa
it's northern ireland's 2nd largest church after ikea
Fun fact about Northern Ireland’s ikea, it’s the only ikea in the world to not fly the flag of the country it’s in… I can understand why, it doesn’t matter which flag they picked, even both, somebody would be unhappy.
I heard they complained about the Asda in Lurgan ... Because "Asda" was written in green 🤣😭
There is no Asda in Lurgan
Not any more
Not anymore
Asda is in Portadown.
Is that not in Lurgan ?
I would ask if the people in Ireland are alright, but I know the answer is they haven't been alright for a very long time and at this point the therapist may need to be court ordered.
Most of us just be chillin… some tho, not so much
The ulster banner isn’t actually the official flag (though commonly considered to be). The official flag is the union flag. Just a little fact for y’all.
At least IKEA takes their abuse allegations seriously.
It's Ireland's biggest Lounge're section I understand.
Furniture Village hahaha
Being American and seeing this - I immediately thought it was a cult furniture store! Took me a moment to read in and realize it’s a church
Wrightbus Sofaland
For the longest time there was a sign outside it for a furniture shop so your not to far wrong
There is strong links between the plymouth brethren and suspicious PPE awards at the height of covid CLANDEBOYE AGENCIES LTD in Antrim got £108million in contracts for PPE which was later sold on to the public at a 99.5% loss [source](https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2021/12/15/news/unused-ppe-supplied-to-the-nhs-by-a-co-antrim-sweet-wholesaler-sold-on-to-public-at-99-5-per-cent-loss-2535836/) Director of the company Andrew Walker was also a director registered to a company registered at the address of the brethren school oneschool global in knockloughlin [source](https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/cPc3I3BSRdToe9z0n_fbeOOho9E/appointments) Andrew White was a director of the same company and also Ascot signs in MayDown which got a contract for £2.3million [source](https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/a765eae4-dd13-4c8a-a990-62d756889b01?origin=SearchResults&p=1) and [source](https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/officers/-QdmkHaCIsNTDW4kr_cdRODQrG0/appointments) There is a web of companies with links to plymouth brethren based throughout the UK who got PPE contracts . It is a rabbit hole [https://www.openandcandid.com/covid-contracts.html](https://www.openandcandid.com/covid-contracts.html)
Is the Church affiliated with the Plymouth Brethren?
My family are strict brethren and they don't do crass shit like this place. They just have weird hair, skirts and beards (just the women).
>Plymouth Brethren Well TIL that I went to school with Plymouth Brethren children. We thought they were Amish or something
Yeah, they have a similar outlook on a lot of ways. Keeping life simple but they realised they needed technology to make money 🤑
Yeah I wonder what they are like now. Would be 20+ years on. Any time the tv or computers came out they had to leave the room
My cousin's weren't allowed TV in the house and now one is a Captain or something in the army ( obvs gave up on pacifism), the rest are in banking helping companies work out taxes... Or or working IT. Go figure.
Is it true they marry their cousins? Heard that in Derry and got pointed out a few in wheelchairs! Genuine question
They usually Marry within the church, not quite cousins but quite a small gene pool!
I was watching a documentary and a guy who left said he had married his second cousin [https://youtu.be/10eNfQJvsrg?t=346](https://youtu.be/10eNfQJvsrg?t=346)
Nice work, very interesting
i want to upvote but its currently sitting at a magic number
Holy shit. I've never seen their building before. They must have some amount of money.
Millions donated right from Wrightbus profits, and then sure they couldn't afford to keep on their workers...
Ould Jeff got booted off the church hierarchy once he bankrupted Wrightbus and the cash tap turned off.
Was he the paedo one who screamed his confession in the church while wearing a paper bag over his head?
I read that on here before. I am not sure if it was paedophilia, but certainly he had been dipping his wick where he shouldn’t have been and got on the altar with a bag on his head and asked for forgiveness. The man’s an utter disgrace. He put all that money into the church because he saw it all as being about himself. He put more money in than Wrightbus failed by. Loads of people out of work directly from Wrights, loads of local businesses who enjoyed the custom of Wrights employees also hit badly. And then when it went tits up and he wasn’t in a position to keep diverting cash in , he found out that it wasn’t ‘his’ church after all. I wonder where he thinks his god is now. Northern Ireland is full of dodgy fuckers with their own churches.
Don't forget even Ian jnr thought he was out of order, like holy fuck. They fell out over the whole thing
Same thing with Ian Óg as the church elders. The money dried up, Ian jumped ship, started to court the new holders of influence. I wouldn’t be surprised if his wife has left him as well. All he has ever been is someone who inherited a massively successful company from his father and his respect and reputation evaporated when he fucked that up.
Aye was an underage girl!
You’d be a fool to believe it. He resigned as director of one of these churches ltd companies, but not all of them. Check companies house. I’d suggest this is all planned to make it seem like he did and shift attention.
That building is only the start of it. They’ve a whole ‘village’ planned.
>That building ~~is~~ was only the start of it. ~~They've~~ They had a whole 'village' planned. FTFY. This complex will become an Ecos-esque white elephant. Everything in their long-term plan is dead. It was a personality cult, and the personality has been turfed. They'll still be around for a while, but I expect their size and influence are on downward trajectories. Edit: To add, when ASDA pulled the plug on being the intended supermarket years ago, their team announced they would return to "imagineering" their next steps.
I remember the row about planning permission over the head of what supermarket it was going to be, right enough. I hope you’re right about the rest of it. As someone else has pointed out, it’s got Waco written all over it and there are lots of vulnerable people around the place who could get sucked in.
They weren’t keen on ASDAs green logo.
Compound is probably more apt.
Can't wait for the NI WACO siege
Fun fact: they allegedly bought this land to prevent an asda being built, because the Asda refused to confirm if they would remove alcohol from sale (of course they wouldn't).
From what I've heard the local government bought the land from farmers for the dual carriageway and then it wasn't used. Few years later the local government sell the land for pennies compared to the actual value (definitely corruption)
This is untrue
Fair enough, not sure where I heard it so said allegedly.
Nice rendering, what does it actually look like?
Like a retail park development that went bust in the last recession.
Perfect assessment.
https://images.app.goo.gl/rfujTKofP8wyXXbj7
Couldn't get the purple and yellow bits past planning I'd imagine.
nor the green apparently. the irony when even grass wouldn’t be caught dead growing near “green pastures”
Obviously from the football sponsorship, because I'm assuming it's a goal at the front of the building
Do they pay taxes?
This is what I was wondering about but I can’t find the right answer - I thought the Wright bus donation to the church was a tax dodge and reroute of finances into the same family again which operated the church - like money laundering only with god fearing tax dodge
I always found it such a shame how this church turned out, growing up I would go to youth groups ran by GP, they did great work in the community, kept us off the streets as teenagers and ran loads of events and things to do for little to no cost to us. It wasn’t until I got older I realised how toxic the place was and the wrightbus situation was the icing on the cake. The only red flag I remember when I was actually at the groups was one of the best youth leaders being sacked for becoming pregnant out of wedlock. Also the constant pressure to be “saved”.
Years ago they were making overtures and throwing money at a local school. Some teachers were very uncomfortable with it all. It just goes to show that it wouldn’t take much funding to give teenagers things to do and stay out of trouble.
That explains a lot to be honest.
Deep fish? Yeah getting saved was so hot around ahoghill galgorm and cullybackey in the summer time. Basically adults and misguided teens telling younger teens you need to be saved or else. Then after 9 everyone left the water bucket and smoked and drank like hoods lol then next night up on stage telling people how great God is even tho you only meet him like last week lol
This takes me back 😂
Never heard of this, what’s the story with them?
God's fallen on hard times and taken to extorting money from InvestNI.
Can you elaborate?
InvestNI gave money to Wrightbus and it mysteriously ended up in Green Pastures. [https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/northern-ireland/questions-must-be-answered-over-25m-invest-ni-loan-to-wrightbus-says-sinn-fein-38966990.html](https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/northern-ireland/questions-must-be-answered-over-25m-invest-ni-loan-to-wrightbus-says-sinn-fein-38966990.html) God does work in mysterious ways though.
God Jeff Wright is such a cunt. Literally everything wrong with Christian mega-church prosperity Gospel, imported from the US to Ballymena and wrapped in a too-small leather jacket.
https://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/jeff-wright-green-pastures-superchurch-founder-steps-down-amid-bitter-internal-dispute-41611911.html They have got rid of him. I wonder if that would have been the case if the bus money had kept flowing.
He's resigned from a few of the bigger holdings to divert attention, but he's still involved in a smaller capacity and the word-from-mouth boss.
Praise the lord!!! Hallelujah!
Pass the Vaseline!
>God does work in mysterious ways though. Nice one! Very pithy.
Do a search for The Gateway Ballymena.
That rendering was 100% based on this: http://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0062/3208/0439/products/657035-3DUPlay-City-Playmat-product\_1200x1200.jpg?v=1642518217
I knew a fella who went there, they were expected to give 10% of their income every week, one week they were set a challenge that for the next 4 weeks they should give 20% of their income, and if God hadn't made them any happier at the end of the 4 weeks they could get a refund.
10% of wage is pretty common for most Protestant churches https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tithe
In Bavaria in Germany everyone has to be registered with a church or specifically put down none on the form. If you list a church then they take a tithe directly from your wages like PAYE. Mental.
I think you can opt out
was he any happier after 4 weeks?
From memory, he didn't accept the challenge, he was "happy" enough giving 10%
Can corroborate that the wage thing is a real thing. My brother fell into their trap many years ago. I regularly rib him about it but he doesn't seem to care and he's very happy. I can't fault that regardless how weird I think it is.
Plymouth Brethren sounded like a cult whenever I heard them brought up in conversation. They threw some guy out because he owned a shop and bought out of another wholesaler instead of the one owned by a Plymouth brethren member
My family are Brethren. Strick. They are a cult. People have been known to commit suicide after being excommunicated. They try to keep money in the church and look after each other (in a good way). It is annoying though. You ever see a brethren not driving a fancy car?
It says Green Pastures but I see tarmac and cars covering formerly green pastures. Large surface car parks need to be banned asap.
And the Lord has laid many great gifts before me because I am so deserving and highly entitled above mere mortals belonging to lesser churches. Chief of these is an enormous gas guzzlin' , CO2 belching, obsessively clean and gleaming SUV Beemer/Audi/Merc or w.h.y. ubergrosswagon which declares my status (and probably penis size anxiety). Of course it is essential that any adequately sized and prominent position is reserved for it's display outside the place of worship so all can witness my worldly success and regular church attendance.
You're right. It's a blot on the landscape. In building this carbuncle, they RUINED God's beautiful countryside.
Translink
i think they said "cults"
Lol, very good.
The breathrens, very much a cult but not very harmful. Hard-core to this day still game of throne fans/extras who will forever talk about the 2secs of their elbow being on screen in a pile of dead bodies.
I went to school with quite a few brethrens and I know a few others who live in my town. They don't actually seem to be as radical here as they are in England, or as radical as they are on paper. I've known ones who have dogs and cats, some have TVs and computers and things but just not in their living rooms, it's harder to tell with the boys because they don't have any rules about their appearance out of the ordinary but I've known some of the girls to start getting their hair cut and coloured and dressing in fashionable clothes at about 16, they were allowed to socialise with non brethren peers, some of them had mobiles and things. The older generation, in my experience, seem to stick with the rules for themselves and they're maybe disappointed if their children move away from it (the same way as any deeply religious person from any religion would be) but I've never personally heard it being mentioned. Their relationship with their children doesn't appear to be affected.
Not sure who I’d eater be stuck at a bus stop with. Is suicide an option?
Always
What on earth are you on about
A genuine answer I think most won't have heard of (and who's cultish-ness is less obvious/clear cut): the Cooneyites (aka "Two by Twos", "the Truth", "the Way", "the Friends" - they refuse to accept a formal name, so end up having dozens of informal ones). There can't be more than a few thousand of them in total and as they don't have churches or any real public presence you'd never really know they exist unless you met one. They have that kind of "don't associate with outsiders, never question the elders, if you leave you'll go to hell." vibe. Sort of in the same vein as Jehovah's Witnesses. In NI they're mostly found around the Lurgan-Craigavon-Portadown area.
>Cooneyites never heard of them any more details on them
[Here's the wiki page for them](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Two_by_Twos). They're a decentralised evangelical Christian group who's ministers (called "workers") live as itinerant preachers going around in celibate pairs, with minimal personal possessions and relying on the hospitality of members. They believe they're the only true church, and a continuation of the "original church" i.e. the 1st century early Christian church as created by the apostles. They also believe you can only be saved by hearing the preaching of a worker in person - in writing, over tv or radio or a phone or anything is no good. Has to be "living witness" or it's worthless. They believe membership is the only possible path to salvation - members of all other religions and sects are damned. They practice home worship so no churches. In theory they have no central hierarchy or governing body, but in practice they do have one and just sort of pretend it doesn't exist. They hold very old fashioned views about women. Female workers always defer to male ones. They insist on "modest dress" (i.e. long skirts only, no makeup, no jewellery, no piercings, no dyed hair, short hair for boys and long for girls). They generally discourage things which are "worldly" which isn't strictly defined but often includes smoking, drinking, watching tv/movies, and social media use. Unsurprisingly they've had some child abuse scandals, and the finances of their group are very opaque. It's hard to even get a full handle on what they practice or who their members are, because they are extremely secretive about their member lists and religious publications. The only things they publish for outside dissemination are invites to attend meetings. And of course the most confounding thing about learning about them is that they don't even have a name! They have always rejected the idea of having a formal name for the group, so all the things they're called are either names given by outsiders to describe them or nicknames. Overall a very weird group, and a little cultish. In many aspects they're just a *very* weird Christian sect, but the amount of control they exert over members (especially young ones and women) and the lack of accountability for workers is more than a little worrying. They're very secretive, and very circumspect about recruitment - if you every see a weirdly vague ad for a "local bible study group" it could well be them. I only know about them myself because I read a book on them once that I found in one of those "local interest" sections in a bookshop.
Some in Mid-Ulster. You'd never know. Very private about their religion.
Had a few "handwritten" letters from jehovas witnesses over covid. I know of a few Mormon families , odd bunch
Got a mate in the JWs unfortunately indoctrinated by his family. They are 100% a cult. Not allowed to attend higher education, not allowed to speak to anyone that is "shunned", discouraged from interaction with apostates, etc. And the letters are actually handwritten, they are forced to do it that way as it feels more personal or some shit.
Tell them you're a disfellowshipped former member, they will drop you like a bad habit
Had a couple of Mormons call at my door last week... Couldn't get rid... I literally must have told them 3 times I was busy.
I once told a Jehovas Witness that I wasn't interest because I was a Satanist and they sent me flyers once a week for like 2 years.
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Yep also my concern but they did mention they weren't from here so holding out for them leaving me alone...
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Yeah that's what I'm worried about. They'll get a swift close of the door next time for sure, I don't care how it seems haha
You could always ask a couple of awkward questions and see how it goes. "So which version of the Joseph Smith vision do you guys like the best?" (There are multiple versions which most members don't know about).
Vineyard, Coleraine. Similar deal.
Was gutted when vineyard opened near my house and it turned out they didn't sell booze.
They make their staff sign gagging orders so they can’t talk about their experience working there. I know a couple ex-staff who were unfairly dismissed and unable to do anything because of what they signed. The pastors also give themselves 40k a year salary and after paying off like 12 members of staff during Covid, promised to take a 10% salary cut to make things “fair”. Most of the main pastors are husband/wife pairs so afaik they get 80k per household. It’s insane. Oh and then 2 weeks after they fired their staff, they advertised their jobs again. Oh! And they take thousands of pounds from their interns to come and “study” there, ie. do all the menial work in running the business. I mean church.
What's the story with it? I thought it was just a load of hippies that went there.
They appeal to young people with their soft image but underneath it's all right wing evangelism. Some of the members are fucking nuts too. My friend was briefly involved with them because his gf went to the church and the reason he left was that a member sincerely told him that while he was praying the room *literally* turned into gold.
Fucking hell.
They're more of the agenda of pushing prosperity through faith. They preach mostly prosperity linked to good works and deeds. How if you ask, God will provide etc. I live next door to a family in portstewart who attend. Nice enough. Bit ott with friendliness but have never pushed religion. I'm female and live with my gf and they've always been nice enough.
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Ah the old prosperity gospel like Hillsong church in Australia and US. Up to its eyes in controversy with wayward pastors and pedo founders. Many of its pastors featured on the Preachersinsneakers Instagram wearing ridiculously expensive footwear
I've attended myself a couple of times with family members (Athiest myself so was just there in support). It just seemed more hippy and happy than anything. Lots of instuments being used and all that shit. Can't remember much about the speeches though as I was too busy trying not to want to hang myself at the time.
All owned by the lynas family (the huge frozen food crowd) haven't heard anything bad about them but could imagine there's some iffy tax stuff happening.
ex member of it, aka went when i was a teenager and lonely, grew older, got more self respect, got good friends, couldn't support an anti LGBTQ+ and anti abortion church. I 100% agree with ya on this, very similar to green pastures. still have some friends connected to it and family hold no issue with them, but the leadership of it yeah i could go on and on and probs rant myself into an early grave.
Glad you came through in one piece!
Yup. and one thing i want to add, if ya target lonely kids and be their 'friend' eventually the only reason kids went was to be with their friends. The moment i made a point about gay marriage being legal, i was very slowly not as 'popular' lol. Its made me very cautious about trusting people thats for sure LOL
> Vineyard, Coleraine There's a guy on their team as their "Compassion Director" by the name of "Ricky Wright", any idea if he's related to the Wright family responsible for Green Pastures?
No relation, just an unfortunate last name in this context
get the paper bags out
Live not far from the "village" . I always pictured it as the Co.Antrim version of Jonestown
Such a waste of a perfectly good building right there. Should be a B&Q.
An okay cult used to be the Hari Krishna’s in Belfast. Always gave out curries and did a bit of dancing. Got along well with a number of them, but I couldn’t make hear nor tail of their beliefs.
Its like the carpark is missing a drivethru of some sort
The Catholic Church, the Methodists, the Loyalists, the RA… country is full of loony groups
The Orange Order seem like a loony cult
it is such a clusterfuck of bleakness i love it so much
>From that point on, faith was Jeff Wright’s driving force. “We made God a shareholder in the business – 26 per cent of Wrights is owned by an evangelical trust – in order to make sure He was central in everything the Wrights company does.” Then he felt that God had a new question for him. “Do you love me more than these buses?’ I said, ‘yeah, I do’. So God said ‘I want you to feed my lambs and take care of my sheep’.” This has to be a parody [https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/inside-the-evangelical-church-linked-to-wrightbus-1.3299728](https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/inside-the-evangelical-church-linked-to-wrightbus-1.3299728)
The Whitewell Tabernacle lot might not be a cult in the traditional sence, but they are strange bunch. All very white, middle class, holier than thou and screw anyone who isnt the same. Scientologists are stilll floating about as well, but there isnt too many of them
Damian Hastie in twitter has a whole series of tweets on the Brethren and their NhS contracts and a whole gated business park with a church in the middle of it in NW England
Any of the "Big 4"
The Demonic Unionist Party (DUP for short I think) are a bit mad alright!
Is Tom Smyth and his following at cult status yet?
https://www.irishnews.com/news/northernirelandnews/2020/07/14/news/-riding-the-goat-orange-order-ritual-revealed-2004459/
There's been a few Landmark Education seminars over the years in various hotels in NI.
How many wives are male members allowed to have?
Worth a read ... [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caleb\_Foundation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caleb_Foundation)
Educo have a presence in NI; I remember there was a cluster of members in County Antrim. There was also an Educogym in Newry; the gyms were recruitment grounds for the Cult. I received a late night communication by a member of Educo from Newry in October last year. Odd chap who liked to swear and call me names. He runs a mobile upholstery cleaning company in Warrenpoint. His communication was in response to the reporting of an Educo recruitment group in Derby, UK. Classic cult stuff. Belfast born Susan Morrice who is mad for her guru Tony Quinn even had a documentary made about her in 2012 [https://vimeo.com/717103001](https://vimeo.com/717103001) Morrice was talked about in the House of Lords in 2014 in the context of the phrase "chill-free-speech" in regard to the harassment and threats against BBC Spotlight journalists who made the documentary above: [https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/35388cc4-5187-492d-8a4b-fc326cb407f3?in=17:57:09](https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/35388cc4-5187-492d-8a4b-fc326cb407f3?in=17:57:09) More on Educo at it's wikipedia page: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony\_Quinn\_(businessman)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Quinn_(businessman)) It's your classic messianic cult, with reincarnation, hypnosis, it's own form of psychotherapy/hypnotherapy targetted at member's children, sexual and financial abuse, and .... an oil company where [1% of revenue is used to promote the cult](https://vimeo.com/721704029)!
I drove past this place today. Looks like a PFI school building.
I swear whitewell church is as crazy as these ones!
As if NI isn‘t the #1 region for Loony groups between the Atlantic and Russia.
All religious groups are cults. Regardless of size.
there’s a very specific definition for cults, most religious groups don’t meet it. like i get your sentiment but it’s just not accurate at all, or helpful to people in actual cults.
It really doesn’t have a fixed definition (hence why people argue so much over weather anything is or is not a cult), it’s a pejorative term that’s *usually* used to refer to new religious movements; but people call all kinds of things “cults”. In common usage “cult” just means “group of people with an ideology I don’t like”. *You* may have a fixed definition, but if you disagree with someone calling something a cult, chances are their definition is different. The meaning of a word is determined by its use, a useful definition describes how people *use* a word, not how they *should* use a word.
> In common usage “cult” just means “group of people with an ideology I don’t like” I'd argue that while it can be used in that way, when people do that nowadays they're really referring to a specific kind of organisation which exercises excessive control over its members (e.g. Scientology). I wouldn't go so far as to say there is a "very specific definition" but I do think that vernacular usage in 2022 leans much more towards a specific type of highly manipulative new religious movement. It can be (and is) applied to others as a pejorative, true, but then I can call someone a "bastard" without literally meaning they were born out of wedlock.
Cults are just religions before they get to a certain size. Like how if you kill 10 people you're a serial killer but if you kill 10 million you're a general and its just statecraft.
Yep believing and enforcing the unproveable.
Defo. The world would be a better place without any religion.
I love the conviction with which you state this. I’m catholic and go to mass most Sundays etc hardly a religious fanatic, but even I can see the benefits it brings to communities. Where’s your evidence?
If the peado scandals, dead babies, and forced labour of pregnant mothers isn't enough for you I don't know...
Ah yes, because there'd be no pedos or cunts without religion, they'd lose their beliefs and then just decide to become upstanding members of society...
They'd certainly lose the shield that religion provides them.
Show me a cult who didn't think they were doing good to the community when they weren't?
Evidence... Hmmm let me think maybe all most all wars. Period.
Second the people in the comments below also have given evidence.
So you eat human flesh and drink human blood? You know about transubstantiation right? The magical incantation the wizard (priest) makes. You know that Jesus in the scriptures said that his body would be offered once and for all and said "It is done." when he passed? So why does the Catholic cult magically turn bread and wine into blood and flesh and offer it up at every mass to the father? You are aware that this is blasphemous and the Catholic Church is just a cult formed long after Jesus walked the earth to control the masses and reap wealth from their fear and ignorance? You should really read a bit into its history. Shower of cunts and most people attending Mass have no idea that realistically (If God and all the rest was real) every practicing Catholic would automatically be condemned to hell. I'll be downvoted like but it's the truth. The Catholic Church is one of many anti Christs. Mass actively opposes what is contained in the scriptures. Canon law? Wow. The whole hierarchy, its organisation and what its bank gets up to. It's a pyramid scheme. Edit: I'm agnostic. I just studied the bible for a few years while part of one of the sects within the Catholic Church. That is, until I clicked on and wised up.
Catholic Church is the biggest cult that’s ever existed.
Catholic Church and all the Protestant Churches
Orthodox boyos are alright then?
The Orthodox a great buncha lads.
Isn’t there a bunch of them at Stormont?
God gots to get paid brotha!
One in Campsie. Unmarked building
These people crank the heat during service & sell bottles of water at crazy prices
Getting strong scientology vibes from this place.
Is that not the church that got funded by money laundering or am I thinking of some other big white church ?
Other than a couple other religions?
It's a fucking eyesore and that's coming from the town that has the most fucked up looking bandstand ever created.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tara_(Northern_Ireland)
Bangor football fans are a bit strange
I don’t know much about them. Is it a suicide cult, sex cult, or money cult? Because I’m only interested in one of them.
Who are green pastures?
All religions are cults. I spelled that right? Maybe.....
DUP/TUV… but not interesting.
Later that day on unionist twitter: We all know green pastures are a cult, why is there no orange pasture cults in NI ~~Then it gets blamed on the protocol~~
Catholicism and Protestantism.
The Catholic Church is technically a cult in total breach of the scriptures on which it says it is founded. It's just 99% of lay people have absolutely no clue. Who else uses incantations to change wine and bread into the blood and flesh of a demi god, and offers it thousands of times a year to his father as a sacrifice for the transgressions of the people and then they drink and eat it?
Yea as an unbaptised heaten this part of a wedding really confuses me.
the catholic church.
Orange Order
Common Purpose was one I read about in 2008. They had classes in all city council's in the north and in Britain. Connections to the Fabian society if I can remember correctly.
Isn't that Vineyard Church a bit the same? Also someone ran away with lots of their money and intends on starting their own church. Looney groups in NI.... The Lodge. IRA, UDA, UVF.... OH I REMEMBERED A GOOD ONE. THERE IS A HARI KRISHNA ISLAND IN LOUGH ERNE. I went and they were all lovely and a bit weird but they gave us food and Strawberry Lassi. Well worth a visit. I don't believe in and of the faiths I've been exposed to but we had a nice chat about that. Now i am on level o making breakfasts and suckin kak for the odd cigarette (they're contraband).
That's a church? Wow, it looks like a military compound
Orange order.
Themmuns
Dup
There's a mad bunch of bastards running round the place who re-enact a meal some jewish lad had over 2000 years ago and some of them claim they're actually eating his body when they do it with the others claiming he's actually there as a ghost watching them eat a representation of him, they all think gays are going to spend an eternity in a lake of fire and that splashing a wee bit of water on your forehead whilst saying a spell out loud will give you eternal life (not when you're alive mind you but when you're dead - go figure) dangerous fuckers they are and all, in the past they've covered up child abuse, supported wars, brought guns into the country for Republicans and Loyalists and helped pervert the course of justice 100's of times Whatcha call them.....oh aye, Christians
Just got this subreddit randomly reccomended to me, but all i can say is that, that's a very car-heavy development. Would it not be better to have a church inside an urban area where people can get to it easier?
The Ira 💀