Smallest Mass Wedding Infographic

From what I've heard, polyamorous relationships can work, but require a lot of hard work and communication. This is definitely not an ideal way to start.

©2015 James Mathurin

Apocalyptic 1980s London cult Infographic

So, the apocalypse didn't happen in 1985. Still, you have to admire the tenacity of apocalyptic cults from the East End.

©2014 James Mathurin

The ‘Punchy’ cult (The Fifth Pentecostal Glorification of the Beloved Saviour of the Sinners of East London)

The ‘Punchy’ cult (The Fifth Pentecostal Glorification of the Beloved Saviour of the Sinners of East London) achieved notoriety by predicting the Apocalypse 18 times in one year. Thomas Dobie, the leader of the cult, which was based out of Dagenham, London, preached to his 59 followers that God had revealed to him that the world would end when his son, Dave, brought a jar of mustard to his house, and that this would happen on 15th June 1985.

When Dave forgot the jar of mustard on June 15th, Dobie made the statement,

We know we cannot be wrong. God told me this was the date for the Apocalypse, but it appears not to have happened. What does this mean? That my vision was wrong? That I was misled? Impossible! Clearly our calendars have been altered by demonic forces, and the Apocalypse will happen, according

Unfortunately for Dobie, Dave failed to bring the mustard the next week, forcing Dobie to reset the date of the Apocalypse again, to the 22nd. The mustard being forgotten on that day, Dobie's reinterpretation of the calendar in relation to the Apocalypse once again allowed him to move his prediction to a week later. 

This process continued over 3 months, until September, when Dave finally revealed to his father that he had been deliberately leaving the mustard behind as an act of revenge for the time that Thomas had been devoting to his cult, at the expense of his parental duties. In the fight which ensued, Thomas and several members of the cult were arrested and charged with affray. Both Dobies and 3 of Thomas' followers were sentenced to a total of 19 years in prison, effectively ending the Punchy organisation.

The Punchies headquarters in Dagenham. After the imprisonment of the Dobies and the collapse of the cult, it became an off-license, where 10 ex-members of the cult are still regular customers. Photograph by J@ck!.

©2012 James Mathurin

The Shortest-lived religion on record

The shortest-lived religion on record was the Pondeastic sect of Lithuania, formed and dissolved on July 17th 1956 by Marzo Passakre, 24. Passakre believed that he had been contacted by God, who told him to run back home to prepare for the rapture. Within 4 hours he had recruited some 257 followers in his home town of Bursnabruk, and had written a draft for the first book of his ‘revised bible’. The religion ended when his younger brother Uri told him that the voice he had heard had actually been him passing on a message from their mother to come home to feed their goat. A friend of the family told reporters, “Marzo has always been a natural leader, and not the most thoughtful of people. Really, we should have seen this coming.”

©Copyright 2008 James Mathurin

Smallest Mass Wedding

The smallest mass wedding was conducted by the Muggy Cult of Lisbon, Portugal in May 2004. The Cult leader, Luis De Stanza, had prophesied 5 years earlier that he would perform 3,000 wedding ceremonies for his followers on that day, but since he only had 7 followers, and 4 of them were men, according to the laws of his religion, he had to marry 3 of the men to the 3 women, and then perform 2,997 ceremonies between himself and the 3 women. When one of the women, Nannetta Costa, left the cult later that year, she sued De Stanza for divorce 999 times, on 1,998 counts of bigamy, bankrupting both him and the cult.
©2008 James Mathurin