Their path to Edstone Hall took a trip by the old Ambassador Campus in Bricket Wood, where they planned on buying the old estate on the property.
The PCG had hoped to purchase the old Ambassador College Campus in Bricket Wood, Hertfordshire, England. Thankfully, the lessees refused to sell to them, so the PCG had to start looking elsewhere for a new property.
They were looking at England because of its close proximity to Ireland, where they dreamed they were going to dig up the Hill of Tara and uncover the Ark of the Covenant that Jeremiah supposedly buried there—a myth partially spun by Herman Hoeh and Raymond F. McNair. The idiotic British Israelism myths these two guys dreamed up and sold to the church as "gospel truth" are appalling in their poor scholarship.
In 2014 they wrote:
They were looking at England because of its close proximity to Ireland, where they dreamed they were going to dig up the Hill of Tara and uncover the Ark of the Covenant that Jeremiah supposedly buried there—a myth partially spun by Herman Hoeh and Raymond F. McNair. The idiotic British Israelism myths these two guys dreamed up and sold to the church as "gospel truth" are appalling in their poor scholarship.
In 2014 they wrote:
Edstone Hall, a 24,000-square-foot mansion in the Warwickshire countryside, contains more than 30 rooms. Built in 1939 in the art deco style, the building has an oak double-door entrance into a stained glass vestibule, stone mullion windows, stone fireplaces, balconies, a 5,500-square-foot Georgian cellar, a Cotswold stone roof and a detached garage. The 22-acre campus sits among the meadows about 4 miles north of Stratford-upon-Avon.
The parkland surrounding the hall includes meadows, pastures and woodland including mature oak and beech trees, as well as walking paths, gardens and a cedar of Lebanon; it also overlooks a large pond. The property also includes planning permissions for a 10,000-square-foot additional building, and an indoor swimming pool and a leisure complex.
“I believe God has long been preparing Edstone for His Church,” Mr. Macdonald said. “Edstone is ideal for the pcg—a perfect combination of majesty and functionality. It’s dignified and impressive, yet practical and sensible.”
Receiving the key to Edstone Hall capped off a two-year quest for a new campus in England. In December 2012, pcg Pastor General Gerald Flurry asked Mr. Macdonald to search the London area for estates that could fulfill the needs of an expanded work in Britain and Europe. Mr. Macdonald soon discovered that the former Ambassador College campus in Bricket Wood was for sale. The college there closed 40 years ago, in 1974.
In March 2013, the Church placed an offer on a portion of the Bricket Wood estate, including its mansion, Hanstead House, and a cottage where Ambassador College founder Herbert W. Armstrong stayed during his visits to the campus. Mr. Flurry announced the offer in July during a sermon at Philadelphia Youth Camp in Edmond. But over the next nine months, the sale decelerated. The owner of the Bricket Wood estate, a London real estate development company, was denied planning permission for its residential neighborhood by the St. Albans Council. This prevented an expedient sale to the pcg.
The local residents were not keen on another American cult moving into their neighborhood. So, the PCG decided to take their money elsewhere...
This April, Evangelist Stephen Flurry and his family flew to Britain, and he and Mr. Macdonald spent several days attempting to reconcile with the developer and the town council. On the final evening of their time together in Britain, the Flurry and Macdonald families gathered to discuss the happenings of the trip. During the course of the evening, Mr. Macdonald searched online to see what the £4.5 million the Church had offered could buy elsewhere, and found several estates of similar grandeur and a lower asking price.
“There was a kind of epiphany,” Mr. Macdonald said. “Why not look elsewhere? we thought. We did a quick Internet search, and within minutes we were oohing and aaahing over at least a dozen other magnificent homes, all of which were less expensive and came with greater acreage and more features.”
Later that week, Mr. Gerald Flurry determined that the door to Bricket Wood was closed and directed Mr. Macdonald to search for other estates. Along with regional office manager David Howard and editorial department writer Richard Palmer, Mr. Macdonald spent two weeks parsing dozens of possibilities and visiting more than 20, the last of which was Edstone on May 5. On May 8, Mr. Flurry and his son flew to England and viewed six estates over the next two days. On May 14, the pcg submitted an offer on the estate in Warwickshire, which was quickly accepted and became official in early June.
Mr. Gerald Flurry announced the offer during a Bible study in Edmond on May 16 at the beginning of the AC graduation weekend. After nearly five months of routine inspections, legal paperwork and negotiations, contracts were exchanged and the sale was formalized on September 24. At the Feast of Tabernacles on October 8, pcg members at 16 sites around the globe learned the location, name and details of the estate in a taped opening night presentation by Mr. Stephen Flurry.
The estate ad is here: £6,000,000 18 bedroom country house for sale
You will notice several portraits of Herbert adorn the walls as a sad reminder of how his empire is dwindling down to nothing.
12 comments:
Beautiful property except the PCG and its Flurryites made the interior look weird. And, what's up with all the beds having crumpled bedspreads? They lost money with this. Good.
Not a surprise.
Membership is dwindling and aging. So income is way down.
This organisation is toxic and there is plenty online material to scare the h*ll out of anyone considering supporting it. Run a country mile from them folks.
What is evident, is that this is merely a work of men. And men are simply grass that will soon wilt and a flower that soon fades as scripture so aptly puts it, and so this work will fade and eventually perish like us all. Their theology is worthless and demonstrably false. All is vanity. Only God is immortal and His salvation to all time and to all people. And churches will come and go. Armstrongism is simply a blip on the theological time scale.
Maybe they can start repackaging Gerald's sermons as an anesthesia agent or sedative. My dad was usually nodding off in less than 5 minutes.
Trying to create a mini-me AC smells of cargo cult thinking. The solution for these groups is to shed their cult morality and truely embrace biblical morality.
"A cargo cult is a belief system that emerges in societies, often after encountering more advanced cultures, where people believe that by performing specific rituals or actions, they can attract material wealth or "cargo" from supernatural sources".
PCG Forced To Sell Edstone England Campus Due To Dwindling Funds And Poor Health Of Gerald Flurry
If you think that Gerald Flurry's physical health is bad, just think about his absolutely rotten spiritual health.
Gerald Flurry should use any proceeds of any property sale to REFUND some of his victims that he scammed the money out of.
The PLAIN TRUTH about False Advertising
Things like that old 14 minute and 44 second video by Stephen Flurry about the PCG's purchase of Edstone Hall in England might seem nice to some people, but once inside the PCG they see what it is really like. That explains the decline in membership and the dwindling income. Three and a half decades of satanic abuse by the PCG led to the Plain Truth about that satanic imposter cult getting out there.
When Gerald Flurry eventually croaks and his PCG scam really collapses, the Harvest Crock Church probably will not be interested in buying Gerald's old auditorium in Edmond, Oklahoma.
Whenever I here of Steve I remember the confused and fearful look on his face when pulled the crazy man in prayer closet prank on him back in the dorm days. Good times.
If they sell it for that price, they will be making a comfortable profit.
Nck
Real estate site says it was sold in 2014 for 2.8 million pounds. Current asking price is 6 mil pounds. I wonder how much the PCG put into remodeling it. I think that many of these old houses are money pits.
Ok, Im game! I OFFER FULL PRICE PLUS $1 MILLION MORE!
however, my terms! $1 down, and $1 a month for 7 Million Months!!
They appear, at least in this Edstone case, to be doing what a good business person would do to protect their core. I predict a slow decline, as compared to an immediate catastrophic collapse.
Wouldn't it be hilarious if they ended up rebranding PCG as the Church of the Celtic Throne, and the dance troupe became their major earner? At least we know the audience would get to hear "Baba O'Riley, and perhaps some other good classic rock! Hey! Maybe the Who could buy Edstone! Wouldn't that be a gas?
BB
Not so sure about that Nck. They purchased it 11 years ago for around 3M pounds and then put millions into its renovation. 5M investment minimum investment there. Then consider taxes and upkeep. To get 6M (maybe) eleven years later is actually a loss of 1.1M pounds considering the average 3.3% U.K. inflation rate over that time.
But, I'm sure the PCG bigwig leeches enjoyed their time visiting the estate and drinking the top shelf booze.
Post a Comment