Don Rendell recalls: ‘It was just after 10:00 a.m. when I approached the cinema. There were police outside the entrance, and I could see a crowd of young men milling around with the intention of getting into the cinema to cause trouble. As there were brothers who knew many of the troublemakers, they were assisting the police who were keeping the mobsters away from the entrance. I had to push my way through them to get in. At 10:30 a.m., Brother Knorr began his talk with 420 present. But the religious hooligans outside started to bang on the doors. This was quickly stopped by the police. But the question now was, How will we be able to get out of the cinema after the program? The brothers decided that, with the help of the police, they would keep the mobsters at the front of the cinema. Then at the end of the talk, we were asked to leave the building by a rear exit, and this we did quietly, thus avoiding any confrontation.’

Church Bells Signal Another Attack

In 1952, Famagusta was a lovely town with orange and lemon groves and a long sandy beach. This town on the east coast of the island is just a few miles from the ruins of the ancient city of Salamis, where the apostle Paul and his companions preached. But Famagusta today, since the Turkish invasion in 1974, is for the most part a ghost town, with very few inhabitants. However, in 1952, Jehovah’s Witnesses had planned an assembly to be held in one of the town’s cinemas. Well aware that the Greek Orthodox Church had declared all-out war against Jehovah’s Witnesses and because of what had occurred at previous assemblies, we requested that the police be on hand. Sunday morning was beautiful, and the brothers were looking forward to the public talk scheduled for midmorning. However, ten minutes before the talk was due to begin and with 350 already seated in the cinema, there were indications that trouble was brewing. Antonios Karandinos, a missionary in the town, was one of the attendants at the front entrance of the cinema. This is how he described what happened:

“Just 10 minutes before the public talk was due to begin, the bell of a nearby Orthodox church began to peal. This, as we understood later, was the signal for priests and scores of secondary-school youths to begin a march on the cinema. What a sight came into view! There were priests heading a mob of youths bent on getting into the cinema. We braced ourselves for trouble. The door to the cinema was closed, and when they tried to force their way in, I was manhandled by a priest and my clothes were torn. The situation became more menacing, so police reinforcements were requested and were soon on the scene. Thwarted in their endeavor to break up the meeting, the mob shouted and raved against us outside the cinema.”

Their efforts frustrated, the priests led the mob back to the church. Jehovah had given us the victory.

Between 1952 and 1953 two missionaries, Antonios Karandinos and Emmanuel Paterakis, had to leave Cyprus. These brothers had put up a hard fight for the faith while in Cyprus, and they are remembered with affection.

A despicable incident took place on the evening of September 11, 1962. Andreas Psaltis and his wife, Nina, together with Eunice McRae, were in the Famagusta missionary home when masked men entered through a window. They beat up Brother Psaltis. Then they tied up the two sisters and subjected them to indignity by shaving their heads. (Compare 1 Corinthians 11:6.) After ransacking the house, they left.

One of the first incidents in this campaign took place in Famagusta quite close to the Society’s branch office. A British military camp nearby came under attack. Understandably, the five missionaries living at the branch, all of whom were British subjects, felt considerable pressure.

On another occasion, Dennis Matthews and his wife, Mavis, two missionaries, had just arrived home. When they opened the back door, a bomb exploded in the home of a neighbor, a British serviceman. While the person who had placed the bomb was being chased into an orange grove across from the missionary home, shooting broke out. Soon there was a knock on the door, but the missionaries were afraid to open up, so they called out to find out who was there. It was British servicemen, who were anxious to know if the occupants were safe.

Once when Brothers Rendell and Gavrielides were in Xylophagou to help with preparations for a circuit assembly, there was a great commotion outside during the congregation’s weekly Watchtower Study. British soldiers appeared in the doorway. They notified us that on the outskirts of the village, a British soldier had been killed and another severely injured. As a result, the whole area was now under curfew, and they asked Brother Rendell to tell all those in the hall to go to their homes immediately. The following day, all the male inhabitants of the area, including Brother Rendell, though he was British, were rounded up and put into a barbed-wire enclosure for interrogation. Of course, Jehovah’s Witnesses were not involved in the killing, so they were eventually released and continued their preparations for the upcoming assembly.