About 24,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses from throughout Western Washington will converge on the Tacoma Dome during the next two weekends for their annual district conventions.

The first convention will start Thursday and end Saturday – starting and ending a day earlier than usual – because of a scheduling conflict with another event at the Dome on Sunday. Convention spokesman Henry Schwerdtfeger said organizers for the Witnesses and Dome staff members came to a mutual agreement over the schedule.

The second convention will run on its customary Friday-through-Sunday schedule, July 3-5. Witnesses do not celebrate the July Fourth holiday.

Each three-day convention will draw about 12,000 people and spotlight the theme “Keep on the Watch!” Talks will focus on world developments in light of biblical prophecy. Witnesses believe these signs show “we are approaching the end of this system of things.”

Schwerdtfeger said the signs of the end include terrorism, economic collapse, divorce and abortion. He called the conventions a “three-day survival course to help families make wise decisions to survive the end of this system.”

As in 2007, Witnesses are going door-to-door during the three weeks before the meetings to attempt to invite every Western Washington household. There are about 34,000 Jehovah’s Witnesses in Washington, including an estimated 3,200 in Pierce County.

The meetings are free and open to the public; no offerings are collected. For more information, visit www.watchtower.org or call 206-295-2962.

Steve Maynard, The News Tribune