What happens during a shunning or disfellowshipping of a Jehovah's Witness?

Answer 1

First let me state that a disfellowshipping only takes place if the person who commits gross sins, such as adultry, is un repentant and unwilling to change their conduct. This is done to isloate them from influencing the congregation and to hopefully shock the wrongdoer into turning around from his or her bad course of conduct. In order to disfellowship a JW, the congregation elders will review all the information concerning the matter, they will have private meetings with the person, and they will spend long hours in prayerful consideration on how to handle it. The disfellowshipping is a last resort. It only happens if they determine that the person is unrepentant, which is evidenced by their actions. Once the decision to disfellowship has been reached, the congregation will be informed in an announcement from the platform at the next Service Meeting, which is a meeting we have ususally mid-week that is specifically designed to instruct us in our door to door ministry. That announcement will simply say that 'so and so is no longer a member of the congregation.' It will not tell any details or anything that happened, but this simple one-sentence announcement will be sufficient to let the congregation know that this individual has been disfellowshipped. The individual members of the congregation will avoid any unneccessary interaction with that person, meaning that any contact is usually limited only to matters that are absolutely neccessary, usually matters of business. The disfellowshipping is not meant to be punitive, but purposes are to protect the congregation and help the wrongdoer see the need to repent and stop the bad practices. The way is always open for the person to return to the congregation. If one wants to return to the congregation, they need to be at all the meetings and follow that counsel of the elders. If after a relatively short time has passed, usually a few months, they can submit a letter to the congregation elders stating what steps they have taken to correct the situation and asking to be reinstated to the congregation. The elders will meet with the individual, and if it is determined that they have changed and are willing to work to keep this from happening again, they can be reinstated. If the decision to reinstate the individual has been reached, then an annoucement that this person is now once again a member of the christian congregation will be made at the next Service Meeting at the Kingdom Hall.