Geoffrey W. Jackson

Early life

Jackson was born in Queensland, Australia in 1955 to his parents Ron and Estelle. He was baptized as a member of the Jehovah's Witness religion in 1968 and at the age of 13, became a pioneer, or full-time preacher, in Tasmania.

In June 1974 he married Jeanette (Jenny) Alcock. Together they served as missionaries in Tuvalu, Samoa, and Fiji, from 1979 to 2003. During this time Jackson also served on Branch Committees in Samoa and Fiji. He worked at translating the religious literature of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Target languages included Tuvaluan, Samoan, Tongan, Tokelauan, Fijian, Kiribati, Nauruan, and Rotuman. He and Jeanette's work in the Tuvaluan language led to the two of them producing a Tuvaluan grammar book in 1999, and in 2001 the Australian government published a Tuvaluan dictionary that Jackson had worked on one hour a day for 20 years.

Branch office and Governing Body

In April 2003 Jackson was moved to the United States to work in the Translation Services Department, associated with the headquarters of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Soon thereafter, Jackson was made a helper to the Teaching Committee of the Governing Body.

On August 24, 2005, an announcement was made that Jackson, along with Anthony Morris III, would be added as members of the Governing Body, effective September 1, 2005. Jackson has been serving as a member ever since.

Jeanette died of cancer in 2009, and Jackson was remarried to Loraini Sikivou, also a translator.

In October 2014, at the 130th Annual Meeting of the Watch Tower Society, a new video broadcasting website was announced that, among other things, would broadcast discourses by members of the Governing Body. This included Jackson.

Australian Royal Commission hearing

As part of an ongoing investigation, the Australian Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse held a public hearing to investigate allegations of child sexual abuse among Jehovah's Witnesses in Australia, from July 27 to August 14, 2015. At the time, Jackson was in Australia, and a debate took place during the hearing as to whether Jackson would be able to give testimony before the Royal Commission. Senior Council Angus Stewart, on August 5, during a questioning of Terrence O’Brien, a member of the Australian Branch Office of Jehovah's Witnesses, claimed that O'Brien "sought to mislead the Royal Commission, to protect Mr Jackson from any potential summons to appear." The 2 reasons initially given for Jackson's being unable to appear before the Commission were 1) that Jackson was in Australia to take care of his father, who was sick, and 2) because Jackson's main work was in translating, and thus he could not be of assistance in the matter of child sexual abuse. Though O'Brien insisted Jackson's work was related to translating, Stewart called O'Brien's statement "false" and questioned whether the claim regarding the situation of Jackson's father was trustworthy. (In his own words in his life story, in the August 15, 2015 edition of The Watchtower, Jackson stated: "I... no longer serve as a translator.") Jackson was summoned to appear before the Royal Commission on August 14.

At the introduction of his summons, Jackson answered questions regarding the Governing Body and his specific work as a member of the Writing, Teaching, and Personnel Committees. Jackson was further questioned regarding the teachings and policies of the Governing Body as they relate to handling allegations of child sexual abuse. Jackson referred to various Bible passages to give the basis for such policies.