History of Jehovah's Witnesses
Jehovah's Witnesses originated as a branch of the Bible Student movement, which developed in the United States in the 1870s among followers of Christian Restorationist minister Charles Taze Russell. Bible Student missionaries were sent to England in 1881 and the first overseas branch was opened in London in 1900. The group took on the name International Bible Students Association and by 1914 it was also active in Canada, Germany, Australia and other countries. The movement split into several rival organizations after Russell's death in 1916, with one—led by Russell's successor, Joseph "Judge" Rutherford—retaining control of both his magazine, "The Watch Tower", and his legal and publishing corporation, the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania.
Jehovah's Witnesses Association of Romania
Following the Romanian Revolution of 1989, Jehovah's Witnesses in Romania received legal status as a religious association on April 9, 1990. That year, their first congresses took place at Brașov and then Bucharest, resulting in the baptism of 1500 new members; they claimed 35,000 adherents by 1996. Since its legalization, opposition has come from the Orthodox Church, which considers the group to be a heretical sect that employs "aggressive proselytism". In July 1996, the Orthodox Church influenced the authorities to cancel a planned international convention of Jehovah's Witnesses that had been scheduled to take place in Bucharest in July 1996. In 1997, at a time when they were encountering difficulty obtaining authorization for new buildings and cemeteries, the Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs rejected a request for the Witnesses' recognition as a religious denomination. In 2000, fourteen young members were involved in cases before the military authorities, having refused both obligatory army service and two years of community service in exchange for a year of conscription duty. They received suspended prison sentences, drawing condemnation from Amnesty International, but these were subsequently annulled by the Supreme Court of Justice. Pursuant to a ruling by the same court in 2000, the Culture Ministry granted the group official recognition in 2003, making it the first denomination to be recognised since the aftermath of the Revolution. As of 2012, there were an estimated 300 Kingdom Halls serving some 500 congregations; the group claimed 100,000 members that year, of whom 20,000 were living abroad. The census held the prior year, the country's first to record Witnesses, found 49,820 adherents or 0.26% of the population for whom data were available. The highest numbers were found in the counties of Mureș (6981), Maramureș (5960), Cluj (5783), Satu Mare (3841) and Brașov (2455), all in Transylvania.