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.

New Life Improvement Center in Plant City, Florida for the Church of Scientology of Tampa

The once bucolic town of Plant City, which began revitalizing its downtown in the 1990's, added the Church of Scientology of Tampa's Life Improvement Center to its roster of buildings, with the March 18th ribbon cutting at 112 North Collins Street. More info here...

scientology Churches Around the World Celebrate the Birthday of L. Ron Hubbard

L. Ron Hubbard In a tradition that dates back to the 1970's, Scientologists in churches and missions around the world commemorate the March 13th birthday of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard in the way he himself asked it to be celebrated—by greatly expanding their service to the communities in which they live. L. Ron Hubbard once wrote, "A being is only as valuable as he can serve others," and taking this to heart, Scientologists contribute many hundreds of thousands of hours each year as Volunteer Ministers, manning tents in and around their home towns or traveling to distant lands to participate in Goodwill Tours or providing emergency relief in times of disaster. Many thousands more provide drug education and prevention to the youth of their cities, promote the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, protect the rights of their fellows by cleaning up the field of mental health and reverse plummeting moral standards in society by distributing copies of The Way to Happiness, a common sense moral code written by L. Ron Hubbard.

Scientologist Robin Hogarth wins Grammy in Los Angeles

A Grammy for the "Best Traditional World Music" was awarded last week at the 49th Grammy Awards in Los Angeles. It went to the Soweto Gospel Choir. Per ScientoloyToday the record producer, Scientologist Robin Hogarth, said that he was inspired in his work by the vision of L. Ron Hubbard of the potential of South Africa (the photo is from there as well). Cool, considering that most of the singers have been living in the poor townships of Johannesburg and learned singing in a church on Sundays. Well, Scientology makes dreams come true.

Source: Scientology Today

Church of Scientology International Receives LA Business Journal's Real Estate Award

The Church of Scientology International is a 2007 recipient of the Los Angeles Business Journal's Real Estate Award. Announced in the February 12th issue of the LA Business Journal, the theme of this year's awards is "adaptive reuse" - a very popular trend in architecture that is efficient and environmentally responsible in which old or historic buildings are converted for new uses while retaining their classic features. All twelve honorees were chosen for their contributions in this field.

With 1.2 million square feet of renovated and restored space in 25 buildings in the greater Los Angeles area alone, the Church of Scientology International and local Scientology Churches are considered pioneers and leaders in the restoration of vintage properties.

But LA is certainly not the only city with new Scientology churches following the adaptive re-use model. Beautifully renovated new churches have been opened in Berlin (January 2007), London (October 2006), Johannesburg, Madrid, New York, San Francisco and Buffalo/NY. Three more opened over the past few years in Silicon Valley. And a program is underway to expand this to include new premises over the next three years for every existing Scientology church and new churches in major cities around the world."

The newest building opened in Berlin, Germany, on 13 January 2007:

International Religious Freedom Report 2006 released by the US State Department!

For those interested, Scientology is being reported about in the chapters on Germany, France and Spain.

Perestroika!

Last weekend the Church of Scientology of Moscow joined the local chapter of Youth for Human Rights International and the Moscow government in organizing the 26th annual International Marathon for Peace.

And when 60 runners carrying the flags of 45 countries joined the race in a symbolic message of peace, the idea of a world without the insanity of war and hatred and where human rights are a fact had already begun the shift from "idealistic dream" to "everyday fact." This is a message of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, who said many decades ago:

"Human Rights must be made a fact, not an idealistic dream."

(Source for photo: Scientology Today)

Scientology Volunteer Ministers Take a Stand Against Crime in Fiji

Yellow shirts mingled with blue ones on the first day of Crime Prevention Week, when the Church of Scientology Volunteer Ministers South Pacific Goodwill Tour brought their anti-crime initiative to the police.

News from Scientology Today here

Scientology Anti-Drug Initiative Receives Charity Status in Australia

The Federal Treasury and the Department of Family and Community Services has granted the Drug-Free Ambassadors full tax deductible status and put them on the register of Harm Prevention Charities.

The timing of this recognition couldn't be better. It coincides with the Ambassadors' plan to release hundreds of thousands of new booklets to let youth know the truth about heroin, marijuana, cocaine, LSD, speed or methamphetamines, ecstasy, crack, kiddie cocaine (ritalin) and painkillers.

(Found in: Scientology Today of 8 September 2006)

Kabbalah and Scientology

Just read the "Observer":

"Hollywood and Divine
Hollywood, USA - Sometimes it seems it is almost impossible to open a newpaper without seeing a celebrity sporting the telltale red string of Kabbalah."

Hmm... Must be a different Hollywood. I have been living in central Hollywood since a while and have not seen any such "string". More likely to meet Scientologists around here. Anyone sharing that experience?