as a private gathering, often in a rented hall. Special meetings last a single day, and include sermons by local and visiting workers. The sermons are interspersed with prayers, hymns, and testimonies. These annual events are attended by members from within a larger geographical area than for the special meetings. Conventions are held over several days, usually in rural areas on properties with facilities to handle housing, feeding, and other necessities for those who attend. These services generally follow the format used for special meetings. Conventions are not open to the public, although outsiders often attend by invitation. Although not now usual, members were at one time segregated by sex during services. These gatherings are not open to either the public or general membership. Attendance and participation are restricted to workers and certain invited members. The meeting may be a regular Bible study, or it may be used to disseminate any instructions from senior workers or to issue decisions about controversial matters. They are held during conventions, or as necessary. These meetings include prayer, a period for testimonies from any workers wishing to share, and may include statements by senior workers in attendance. Organisation Members claim the church does not have a formal organization. Members do not participate in, and many are unaware of, the church's governance. Although in the early years of the church, a headquarters was maintained in Belfast, no official headquarters currently exist and the church remains largely unincorporated. Both expenditures and funds collected remain secret from the membership and no accounting is made public. Funds are handled through stewardships, trusts, and cash transactions. No materials are published by the church for outside circulation other than invitations to open Gospel meetings. Printed materials are published for circulation among the members and include sermon notes, convention notes, Bible study lists, convention lists, and worker lists. In recent years, contact details of members, including phone numbers and home addresses, have been compiled into booklets. These booklets are very secretive and available for workers' use only. Some members of the group refuse to provide their details for these booklets, in the name of privacy. Some members of the group see the internal dissemination of worker letters as continuing the practice of the early Church and the epistolary work of the original apostles. Hierarchy The church is controlled by a small group of senior male overseers with each having oversight of