Recent Organizational Changes (2023–2025)

Between late 2022 and mid-2025, the Watchtower organization underwent the most concentrated period of policy changes in its modern history. Beards were permitted. Women could wear pants to meetings.

Whether these changes represent genuine reform or a strategic rebrand designed to deflect legal and governmental pressure is the central question of this era. The answer depends on one test: did the organization change the things that actually harm people? Or did it change the things that make it look like it harms people?

Timeline of Major Changes

^[1]

The Removal of Anthony Morris III

On February 22, 2023, a terse announcement appeared on JW.org: "Brother Anthony Morris III is no longer serving as a member of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses." No explanation was given. No expression of gratitude for his 17 years of service was offered. No health update was provided. The announcement was removed from the site within days.

The speed with which Morris was erased from organizational media was striking. On the same day as the announcement, the JW.org FAQ page "What Is the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses?" was updated to remove his name and replace the feature image — which had shown Morris welcoming Geoffrey Jackson — with a generic photo. All Morning Worship videos featuring Morris were subsequently removed from JW.org. By contrast, when Fleegle and Winder had been added just weeks earlier, it took nine days to update the page and over a month to revise the audio clip.^[2]

No such removal of a Governing Body member had occurred since Raymond Franz's departure in 1980. Governing Body members historically serve until death — even those who become elderly or infirm retain the title. The fact that Morris was removed, rather than retired, and that all trace of him was swiftly purged, led to widespread speculation in the ExJW community. The "Bottlegate" incident — in which Morris had been filmed purchasing a large quantity of premium scotch on a Sunday morning — was frequently cited, though never confirmed as the reason for his removal.

Months later, it was discovered that the Religious Order of Jehovah's Witnesses had purchased a house in Lumberton, North Carolina for Morris and his wife Susan, with the deed dated March 28, 2023 — just over a month after his removal. The property, purchased for approximately $249,000, was permitted as their principal residence for life. No reports of Morris attending meetings, participating in field service, or being seen publicly have surfaced since his removal.

His son Jesse Morris remained a member of the U.S. Branch Committee and appeared on JW Broadcasting shortly after his father's departure.^[3]

The organization has never publicly explained Morris's removal. The silence itself is the most revealing detail: if the cause had been health-related, a compassionate explanation would have been routine. The absence of any explanation places the announcement in the same category as the terse announcements made when ordinary members are removed from congregations — a parallel that was not lost on observers.

The End of Hour Reporting

On October 7, 2023, at the Annual Meeting, Governing Body member Sam Herd announced that effective November 1, 2023, rank-and-file publishers would no longer be required to report the number of hours they spent in field ministry. For 103 years — since 1920 — hourly reporting had been a defining feature of Jehovah's Witness organizational culture. Hours were a key metric for measuring spiritual vitality, determining eligibility for privileges, and applying social pressure. Former members have described the guilt of submitting low numbers and the competitive dynamics that reporting created.^[4]

Under the new arrangement, regular publishers simply check a box indicating they participated in "some form of ministry" during the month. Pioneers and special full-time servants continue to report hours. The change also eliminated reporting of literature placements, return visits, and video showings.

The AP reported the change as a historic shift. A Watchtower spokesperson said ministry hours had been increasing before the pandemic, peaking above 2 billion worldwide. But the data told a different story: in 2022, only 1.5 billion hours were reported — half a billion fewer than peak years.

The number of hours required to produce a single baptism had risen from approximately 2,000 in 1969 to over 10,000 by 2020. Watchtower also lowered the 15-minute threshold for counting as an active publisher, a change that artificially inflated publisher counts.^[5]

The Beard and Dress Code Reversals

In the December 2023 Governing Body Update #10, beards were declared a matter of personal choice. For decades, Jehovah's Witness men had been prohibited from wearing beards if they wanted to hold any congregation privilege — elder, ministerial servant, pioneer, or convention speaker. Men with beards were treated as spiritually weak.

In many congregations, even a neatly trimmed beard would result in loss of privileges. The prohibition had no scriptural basis (Jesus and the apostles are depicted with beards in the organization's own artwork), but it had been enforced as rigidly as any doctrinal rule.

The reversal was immediate and visible. At the March 2024 Governing Body Update #2, Mark Sanderson himself appeared sporting a full beard. Beard jokes became a running theme at the October 2024 Annual Meeting. What had been grounds for discipline just months earlier was now a source of humor among the leadership.^[6]

The same March 2024 update announced that women could wear slacks (trousers) to meetings, assemblies, conventions, and field ministry. Men were no longer required to wear a suit jacket or tie. These changes, while welcomed by many members, were purely cosmetic — they altered the visual appearance of the organization without changing any of the practices that cause harm.

The Shunning Rebranding

The most consequential changes announced in the March 2024 update concerned the treatment of those who leave or are removed from the organization. The key changes were:

Terminology: The term "disfellowshipping" was replaced with "removed from the congregation." "Judicial committees" became "committees of elders." The August 2024 Watchtower Study Edition formalized this language throughout.

Greetings: Congregation members were now permitted to offer a brief greeting to removed persons who attend meetings. Previously, any greeting was prohibited.

Multiple meetings: Committees of elders could now meet with a wrongdoer more than once before making a decision, rather than rendering judgment after a single session. The stated goal was to "lead the wrongdoer to repentance."

Follow-up: Elders were instructed to meet with removed persons after a few months to see if they had "had a change of heart." Previously, such follow-up was rare and typically limited to once per year around the Memorial.

Minor-specific process: For baptized minors who commit wrongdoing, two elders (not a full committee) initially meet with the minor and their "Christian parent(s) or legal guardian(s)." A full committee is convened only if the minor persists in wrongdoing.^[7]

What Did Not Change

Beneath the new terminology, the core mechanism of social control remained intact:

• Removed persons are still publicly announced to the congregation
• Congregation members are still prohibited from "socializing" with removed persons
• Family members are still expected to limit contact with removed relatives (some basic family communication is theoretically permitted but socially enforced shunning continues in practice)
• Apostates are explicitly excluded from all leniency: 2 John 9–11 was cited as applying "specifically to apostates and others who actively promote wrong conduct." Apostates may not be greeted, associated with, or invited to any religious event. This means that anyone who publicly criticizes the organization — regardless of how factual their criticism — remains subject to the harshest form of shunning
• Baptized minors can still be removed from the congregation and subjected to shunning^[8]

Higher Education: The August 2025 Reversal

On August 22, 2025, Governing Body member David Splane announced in Governing Body Update #5 that "additional education" was now a personal decision. Splane stated: "While there are dangers involved in pursuing certain forms of education, basically, whether to obtain additional education or not is a matter for personal decision." He added that "no Christian — including the elders — should judge a fellow Christian's personal decision on this matter."

This was a seismic reversal. For over six decades, Watchtower publications had consistently and aggressively discouraged higher education:

• A 1968 Awake! told young Witnesses not to pursue higher education because "there is very little time left to this old system"
• A 1983 Watchtower linked higher education to apostasy
• A 2005 Kingdom Ministry warned that the "dangers of higher education" were "well-documented"
• In 2023, Governing Body member Stephen Lett compared higher education to "a school of hungry sharks"
• As recently as 2020, the elders' manual (Shepherd the Flock of God) listed a member's pursuit of higher education as grounds for an elder to be removed from his position

New Governing Body Members

The period saw the largest expansion of the Governing Body in decades:

All four followed the standard pattern: long-term Bethel service, appointment as "helper" to a Governing Body committee, then elevation to full membership. All four were internal promotions with little prior public visibility. At the 2023 Annual Meeting, Jeffrey Winder stated that the Governing Body was "not embarrassed about adjustments" and that "an apology [was] not needed for not getting it exactly right previously" — a statement that many ExJWs regarded as dismissive of the harm caused by decades of false prophecies and harmful policies.^[10]

As of October 2024, the Governing Body consists of 11 members: Kenneth Cook Jr., Gage Fleegle, Samuel Herd, Geoffrey Jackson, Jody Jedele, Stephen Lett, Gerrit Lösch, Jacob Rumph, Mark Sanderson, David Splane, and Jeffrey Winder.^[11]

The Norway Factor

The Norway legal battle has cast a long shadow over every change in this period. Norway deregistered Jehovah's Witnesses in 2023 and denied them approximately €1.3 million annually in state subsidies, citing the organization's shunning practices and treatment of minors. The case progressed through multiple courts, with the Supreme Court of Norway hearing oral arguments in February 2026.

The timing of organizational changes has closely tracked legal developments:

• The March 2024 shunning adjustments came shortly after the Norway Appeals Court upheld the deregistration
• The minor-specific judicial process changes directly addressed issues raised in the Norwegian proceedings
• The rebranding of "disfellowshipping" as "removal" and "judicial committee" as "committee of elders" appeared designed to soften the language the courts were scrutinizing

Membership Statistics: Growth and Decline

In 2025, Jehovah's Witnesses reported a peak membership of approximately 9.2 million publishers worldwide, with an average publisher figure of approximately 9 million and a reported annual increase of 2.5%. Approximately 304,500 new members were baptized, and 20.6 million attended the annual Memorial of Christ's death.^[13]

However, these headline figures mask significant underlying trends:

Growth is concentrated in developing nations: In 2025, 45% of global baptisms were in Africa, with 30% in just five countries — all with literacy rates below the global average. Meanwhile, developed countries with high internet access — the U.S., UK, Australia, Germany, Japan, Canada — have shown stagnation or decline for years.

Retention remains catastrophic: The Pew Research Center found that only 37% of those raised as Jehovah's Witnesses still identify with the group as adults (2008), and 66% no longer identify (2014 update) — the lowest retention rate of any religious tradition in the United States.

Baptisms are increasingly from born-in children: By one estimate, born-in children accounted for up to 94% of all baptisms by 2022, up from roughly 42% in the mid-1990s. The preaching work, once the primary engine of growth, has become almost entirely ineffective in developed countries.

Publisher numbers are artificially inflated: The 2023 introduction of a 15-minute minimum threshold for counting as an active publisher inflated the figures, as members who had previously been inactive could now report with minimal activity.

The aging problem: U.S. census data shows the average age of Jehovah's Witnesses is increasing, with a significant shift toward older demographics between 2007 and 2014. Without adequate replacement by younger converts, the organization faces a demographic cliff in developed nations.^[14]

Reform or Rebrand?

The question that defines this era is whether the 2023–2025 changes represent substantive reform or cosmetic adjustment. The evidence supports the latter interpretation:

What changed: appearance standards (beards, pants, ties), terminology ("removed" instead of "disfellowshipped"), reporting requirements (no more hours), and educational counsel (education now a personal choice). These are real changes that affect members' daily experience — but they do not address the mechanisms of control.

What did not change: shunning of removed members (relabeled but operationally identical); full shunning of apostates (explicitly reaffirmed); removal of baptized minors; the two-witness rule for child sexual abuse allegations; the blood transfusion prohibition; the claim to be God's sole channel of communication on earth; the Governing Body's absolute doctrinal authority; and the fundamental structure that treats leaving as betrayal rather than a right.

Every change that was made could be reversed tomorrow by the same mechanism that enacted it: a Governing Body announcement. No structural reform — no independent oversight, no external accountability, no democratic input from members — was introduced. The Governing Body's power remains absolute and uncheckable. The changes of 2023–2025 were made by the same authority structure, using the same top-down process, and subject to the same potential for reversal, as every harmful policy they replaced.^[15]

See Also

• The Governing Body — Structure, History & Power — The body making these changes
• Disfellowshipping & Shunning — Complete History — What the rebranding attempts to soften
• The Norway Legal Battle (2021–Present) — The legal pressure driving changes
• The Baptism Problem & Born-In Experience — The minor issue at the heart of Norway
• Information Control & Thought Reform — The system that remains intact
• The ExJW Movement — Key Figures & Resources — Those watching and documenting

References