The Era of the New Breed of Ideal Scientology Churches

On March 17th and 18th, over ten thousand Scientologists gathered to hear the latest news about a new breed of Scientology church, at the L. Ron Hubbard Birthday celebrations in Clearwater, Florida and Los Angeles, California. And many thousands more will attend this event in cities around the world over the coming weeks. In October, thousands of Scientologists filled Queen Victoria Street for the grand opening of the Church of Scientology of London in the heart of the English-speaking world. Just three months later over five thousand Scientologists from across Europe converged in the Charlottenburg district of Berlin when the spectacular new Church of Scientology of Berlin opened its doors. But as those attending this weekend's event learned, the expansion represented by these new churches is only a glimpse of what is in store over the coming months. These churches have become known as "Ideal Scientology churches," because of their greatly expanded capability to provide Scientology spiritual training and counseling to their members and to help the community with their acclaimed community outreach and social betterment activities. And with so many today asking, "What IS Scientology?" these churches are fully oriented to answering this question through public information exhibits. The Church of Scientology of Berlin is a case in point. Two entire stories of the magnificently restored 47,000 square foot building have been set aside for this purpose. Dozens of audio visual presentations and displays showing on 15 plasma screens are dedicated to answering virtually any question anyone could ask about L. Ron Hubbard and the Scientology religion and its activities. There are three public film rooms, multiple seminar and lecture rooms and course rooms that can deliver Life Improvement courses to hundreds of people at a time. Two entire stories of the new Church of Scientology of Berlin are public information exhibits to answer people's questions about Scientology. But even more to the point, the Berlin church and each of the new ideal Scientology churches under renovation or currently being planned, offer a full array of programs to help their communities. In fact, service to the community is the cornerstone of these new Scientology churches, which are the generation point of activities aimed at restoring human rights, eradicating the illiteracy, drug abuse, crime and immorality which blight our cities and providing the one-on-one help that have made the bright yellow shirts of our Scientology Volunteer Ministers a symbol of help in cities and towns around the world. And by selecting historical buildings and bringing them up to the most modern and aesthetic standards, the very renovation of these new Scientology churches is a service to the community. In Los Angeles last month the Los Angeles Business Journal recognized the Church of Scientology International as a leader in the field of "adaptive reuse" — an efficient and environmentally responsible trend in architecture in which old or historic buildings are converted for new uses while retaining their classic features. The complete restoration and renovation of the Main Street headquarters of the Church of Scientology of Buffalo, the former Buffalo Public Library, was described as "a work of love" by the Buffalo Business Journal, which heralded the Church's decision to bring new life to the historic landmark as an inspiration to other groups and organizations toward a dramatic rebirth of the downtown area of the city. The mayor personally welcomed the Church to its new home at its grand opening saying, "I know your commitment to helping others is not limited to your own members. And I know the way you extend that help is by building the base from which you operate the organization which is home to every Scientologist here in Buffalo. Not only in the physical sense, but in your numbers and your ability, more importantly, your ability to deliver." In just the same way, when the Church of Scientology of San Francisco moved into the original Transamerica Building after fully refurbishing that turn-of-the-century classic, the Mayor of San Francisco acknowledged Scientologists for "making the Bay Area a better place for persons of all races, colors, creeds and walks of life." But what is coming in terms of new ideal Scientology churches, as covered at the L. Ron Hubbard Birthday Event for 2007, outshines any previously announced. Over the next two weeks every Scientology church and mission in the world will be holding its own celebration honoring L. Ron Hubbard, featuring translated versions of the event held in Florida to share the exciting news and launch a completely new level of expansion for the Scientology religion.