I’d like to share an anecdote that personalizes Andy Locher on the one hand, and also serves to mark the shift in the PCG from being in the early years a pleasant, pro-brethren, familial atmosphere “church,” to a tyrannical cult system “governed” by a self-proclaimed Prophet, who was really, of course, an autocrat. And that is putting it mildly.
I was in the PCG from January 1993 to March 2001. I was in the San Antonio congregation for 7 of those years, and in Edmond for one. Outside of the year in Edmond, I traveled there on average of 4 times a year, so I did rub shoulders with Andy Locher quite a bit. I call him “Andy” purposefully because in the early days we could call him by his first name, and he was a very down-to-earth guy who preferred to be called Andy. I also want to refer to him as Andy to rebel against the top-down control mindset that Flurry instituted when he made it a decree to call all ordained men “Mr” and their wives “Mrs.” No exceptions. [Note by ESN: HWA was the first one who said we should call members and ordained men in the WCG Mr & Mrs. We don’t know exactly when this started but it was mentioned in a sermon by HWA in 1980.]
In the early days of the San Antonio congregation, we met in the home of Elliot Shiner, who had been a very long-time member of the WCG. Since the 1960s if my memory serves well. He and our local elder Jim Mortenson were very well acquainted and essentially old friends from the WCG. Sometime in 1994 we outgrew Elliot’s home, and then in 1995 he passed away. We all assumed that Jim Mortenson would obviously conduct the funeral. After all, he was our elder, and Elliot’s long-time friend. But Herr Flurry from Edmond on high decided that someone from HQ should come down to San Antonio to do the funeral. Someone who never even met Elliot Shiner. That someone was Andy Locher.
I and quite a few other members in SA felt rather gut punched by this decision. We just didn’t understand the logic. We knew that Elliot would’ve wanted Jim to do the service. But hey, when you’re in a cult with dominating “government,” it doesn’t matter what you think or feel about anything. You either toe the HQ line, or you have a “government problem.” This was the message coming down from Flurry in 1995. In 1993 Flurry penned his Government booklet in which he said that his door was always open. Well, that door slammed shut in 1995, and that became more apparent in subsequent years. Ultimately Jim Mortenson himself, and many others including elders, deacons and regular members left the PCG all across the country in the late 1990s.
Probably the most surprised with Flurry’s decision regarding Eliott’s funeral service was Andy Locher himself. He showed up visibly nervous. He had never conducted a funeral before, and the audience was pretty large. Many, if not most, in the audience were not members of the PCG. Elliott had a lot of friends and family who were never in the WCG or the PCG. I think that there were even some WCG members there who wanted to pay their respects to Elliot. This is probably why Flurry wanted an obedient HQ man to come down and deliver the standard and very preachy “Jeremiad” eulogy. I think Flurry rightly sensed that Jim Mortenson would back off of that approach and be more personal, since he was the deceased’s friend.
As Andy delivered the eulogy I found myself wanting to crawl under the chair several times. It’s not because he was saying anything that I disagreed with at the time, but I was hearing it with the perspective of the non-members in the audience. Plus, Andy’s forte was never public speaking. He was okay, but he was certainly not polished. That day his voice was a bit squeaky, probably due to nerves. But he did deliver the most profound parts of the message with a prophet’s zeal and even anger. “The punishment of sinners in the coming tribulation,” for example. And “the curse of the US being a disobedient tribe of Israel who will be punished by the modern-day Assyria.” I looked around and saw faces of disgust and even anger in the audience. I felt bad for them. They came to pay respects to a nice elderly man who was in a cult they didn’t understand, but they loved him anyway. Now they have this young whipper snapper up there preaching prophetic doom and gloom who never even met the deceased. It was not good. Elliott’s wife, also a non-member, looked especially unhappy. She put up with a lot very graciously over the years, including agreeing to have us meet in their home for services. She was always very sweet and accommodating. And this funeral eulogy was just disastrous for her, her family and friends. I know that she very much wanted Jim to do conduct the service.
Looking backwards from 2026, I also now think that Flurry knew that eventually Jim Mortenson would have to go, either by leaving on his own or by being put out. Jim was a very warm fatherly and friendly figure. He had a good heart. Increasingly, Flurry was ordering him to put this person out, or that person out, especially in Mexico and south America. Jim spoke fluent Spanish, so he was also the regional director for the Spanish speaking countries. Mortenson was very reticent to put people out, and eventually that’s why he did resign from the PCG. In 1998, if memory serves correctly. Anyway, long story short, I think Flurry’s sending a young Andy Locher down to conduct Jim’s old friend’s funeral was a test to see how he’d respond attitudinally. Flurry was establishing his dominance. The decision had been made that elders and pastors were no longer to be the friends of the brethren. They are to be the rulers of the congregations answering only of course to the supreme ruler in Edmond. Period.
Back to Andy the person. During my time in the PCG cult I liked Andy. We were just a few years apart in age, and he was always very cordial and respectful towards me and everyone, that I could see anyway. I absolutely adored his fiancé and then wife Trisha [“Trish”], who also passed away pre-maturely a few years ago. She was such a genuinely sweet person with a sunny smile. I thought that Andy must be doing something right to attract such a high value young woman such as Trish. But, I’m aware of the reports of what he ended up doing to the elderly members of the PCG by cajoling them to sign over their estates to the cult, thus robbing their families. Very despicable, and I wonder if this caused his wife stress. All I can do is wonder because I don’t know for sure. I can say that the Trish of the 1990s wouldn’t have been happy with the practice of essentially swindling the elderly. I don’t think that the Andy of the 1990s would’ve been happy with it either, but over time being attached to a toxic man like Flurry will corrode the best of people. Andy and Stephen Flurry were close friends after all. So, there’s that angle. It probably wasn’t hard to convince Andy to do it. Like I said, he wasn’t a good public speaker. But he was good at one-on-one interactions and was quite smart with a businesslike appearance, so the Flurrys gave him a job they felt he was the most cut out to do. It’s very despicable what he ended up doing, and it is probably appropriate that Locher didn’t end up growing old himself. It certainly leaves a bad taste in my mouth regarding him. He went from, in my mind, a very decent gentleman to a swindling “hit man” for Flurry’s cult.
This is all true according to my best recollections decades later.
By M. Daniel (former member of PCG)
April 12, 2026
Update: Andrew Locher died March 28, 2026. He was 58 years old.
Recommended Letters:
“Shameless Sermonette by Andrew Locher Exploits Members Financially” (April 17, 2020)
“Heard Andrew Locher Lying to Campers” (January 6, 2022)
“Andrew Locher Is Definitely Not a Good Person!” (August 14, 2024)
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