Nearly 5,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses pack Leon’s Centre in Kingston, Ont. – Kingston

Worshippers united in song was a welcome sound to the almost 5,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses who packed the halls of the Leon’s Centre for a convention Friday morning.

“It’s emotional actually hearing everyone sing together in such a large group,” says Courtney Thompson, one of the attendees.

For worshippers like Thompson, an in-person event like this was a welcome return to normalcy after missing out the previous years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“This has been like a huge boost already, even though it’s just the first day,” she says.

Friday was the first day of a three-day event that Tourism Kingston predicts will have a huge economic impact on businesses in the city.

“I would guess that when accommodation, spending on food and beverage, the rentals at the Leon’s Centre, all of those things combined, we’re probably in the neighbourhood upwards of half a million dollars,” says Ted Robinson, a business event specialist for Tourism Kingston.

While they acknowledge the economic impact, the Jehovah’s Witnesses say they hope their impact is more substantial.

“We’d like to think that it’s not so much the economic impact, but it’s really the soft impact of showing kindness and love to our neighbours,” says David Docksteader, a public relations spokesperson for the Jehovah’s Witnesses.

That love for their neighbours is one thing Thompson hopes more people understand about Jehovah’s Witnesses.

“There’s a lot of misconceptions about us,” she says.

“But we really love our neighbours, we love Jehovah our God. We really want to be a positive impact on the community.”

In the meantime, she’s just thankful for an event like this that surrounds her with her community.

“It really draws me close to my friends — draws me close to my God.”

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