Church of Scientology of St. Louis

30 01 2007

 This is another Church of Scientology that I’ve spent some time at — the Church of Scientology of Saint Louis.  It currently occupies a former Freemasons building in University City, which is a few miles from downtown St. Louis.

St. Louis Org

From the Google Earth photo above, you can sort of see the 3D skyline of downtown St. Louis in the distance.  So that you’d be able to get a better perspective, I rotated it, centered on downtown, as well:

St. Louis Org - From the City

There’s a little yellow dot that you can see in the background of this photo (with nicely-modled versions of the St. Louis Gateway Arch and Busch Stadium and such).  That dot is the Scientology Church, which is right next to Blueberry Hill and some other pretty jammin areas of town.

I was there last for the Scientology New Year celebration in 1998, when I worked out in the midwest.  I ended up getting stranded there for 5 days, as we had the worst 2-day snowfall in midwest history on that day, and I happened to be driving a 1993 Mazda RX-7 Twin-Turbo — which is probably the worst car in the world for snow.

In any case, the org there is beautiful, and has the unfortunate circumstance for being too small for all of the various Scientology activities the organization finds itself into.  Right up the river, there’s Applied Scholastics Spanish Lake campus, which is the emanation point for L. Ron Hubbard’s study technology worldwide.  There is also a host of other Scientology activities in the area, and as such the Church there can get pretty busy.  Contact them if you want to arrange a visit!

References: 





Scientology in Portland, Oregon

29 01 2007

Scientology Portland

Here’s the next one in my series of Scientology organizations — this one in Portland, Oregon.  First gaining prominence in the Church of Scientology’s landmark crusade which happened in Portland in 1985 to gain religious recognition, the Church’s parishionership has grown considerably since then.  The world’s most notable school which uses L. Ron Hubbard’s study technology is located near Portland, in Sheridan (the Delphian School).   There are also large companies affiliated with WISE which use Mr. Hubbard’s administrative technology to better the businesses in the Portland area.

Portland’s Scientology Volunteer Ministers are also quite active, and was where I first tried my hand as a Volunteer Minister, following floods which occured in Lake Oswego.

Contact the Church of Scientology of Portland here.

Scientology References:





Scientology Church in Boston – from the Air

28 01 2007

Scientology Boston

I figured I’d start a new little series on this blog, and show you some Churches of Scientology as taken from the new, terribly nifty feature of Google Earth, where it also shows 3D buildings as well as the satillite images.

This one is of the Church of Scientology of Boston, which was where I did some of my first Scientology courses. It’s in the heart of Boston’s Back Bay, a short walk from the Prudential Building and John Hancock building, and with a rocking view of the fireworks on the 4th of July.





Church of Scientology Sydney Helping Sydney Drug Problem

25 01 2007

What do you do when you know drugs are a one-way street down, and yourfriends are taking them? That was the dilemma facing Rama, a teenagerfrom Sydney. “All drugs lead to one place. Nowhere,” said Rama, who hadalready been through it — ecstasy, cocaine, marijuana — all before hewas 18 years old.


Rama counts himself as one of the lucky ones. Because he got help when he needed it.

Things were going downhill at breakneckspeed when a friend of his, a Scientologist, saw Rama was in trouble.His friend told Rama about a program sponsored by the Church of Scientology of Sydney,called the Drug Free Ambassadors and handed him a set of booklets aboutdrugs. The Drug Free Ambassadors and their American counterpart, theDrug Free Marshals, created by the Church of Scientology International13 years ago, have chapters throughout Australia and New Zealand andaround the world.

The booklets Rama read are very special.They were created by the Foundation for a Drug-Free World, and they arewritten for young people giving them the truth about the most commonlyabused street and prescription drugs. What makes these booklets uniqueand effective is that they are easy to understand and they’re factual.With peer pressure pushing kids to take drugs, these booklets arm kidsagainst the false propaganda, giving them information they need to makeeducated and responsible choices about drugs.

Once he decided to quit taking drugs,Rama wanted to get through to his friends who were still using them.And he wanted to reach out to kids throughout Sydney to help them avoidgetting into drugs in the first place.

Picture of the Sydney Church of Scientology

Cyrus Brooks, the spokesman for theDrug-Free Ambassadors of Sydney, was full of praise for the teenager.”Rama is very gung-ho. And he knows what he’s talking about,” saidBrooks. “He wants to make sure other kids don’t fall into the same traphe was in.”

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First Berlin. Now will the Church of Scientology be Opening Additional Churches in Boston?

20 01 2007






The new Church in Berlin is a reflection of the world scope
of Scientology today, which comprises more than 7,500 churches,
missions and groups across 163 nations.

On January 13th, the new Church of Scientology of Berlin opened its doors in Charlottenburg in western Berlin, to over 5000 church members. The new Scientology Church in
Berlin, announced by Scientology leader Mr. David Miscavige at the Scientology New Year Celebration, is a reflection of the world scope of Scientology today, which
comprises more than 7,500 churches, missions and groups across 163
nations. Each is dedicated to achieving the Aims of Scientology
including a world without war, without insanity and without
criminality, where the able may prosper and all are free to rise to
greater heights. Internationally, 1,500 new churches, missions and
groups opened in the past year, and growth in the past five years has
exceeded the previous five decades combined.” Said the Berlin Church’s
president, Sabine Weber. “Our doors are open to you – to everyone. We
want you to find out for yourself who we really are. We want you to
find out for yourself what we really do.”

Thousands of
Scientologists, friends from Germany, across Europe and even parishioners
from Boston visited the new Church on its opening day, including world
famous jazz artist, Chick Corea, originally from Chelsea, MA. Guest
speakers welcoming the Church to its new home in Berlin included Mr.
Bernhard Stitz, a 30-year police officer; Professor Jurgen Redhardt,
Professor emeritus at Giessen University; Dr. Hubertus Mynarek,
theologian and sociologist; and Mr. Almog Burstin, joining the event
from Israel, a founding member of the European Foundation for Human
Rights and Tolerance.

Other new Scientology Churches recently opened include London, Madrid,
New York, San Francisco and Johannesburg. Similar new churches are
under construction and scheduled for completion in 2007 in Belgium,
Italy, Denmark, Australia and Taiwan, as well as other planned churches announced by Mr. Miscavige such as the Founding Church of Scientology in Washington, D.C..

Rev. Gerard Renna, Human Rights Advocate and President of the Church of
Scientology of Boston
was interviewed and asked if there were plans to
expand the Boston facilities he said “ It is inevitable that a world-class city like Boston will be part of the rapid expansion and
international interest in Scientology”. Rev. Renna made no further
comment other than to say, “The Church of Scientology of Boston is
working to accommodate this overwhelming international interest and
expansion of Scientology.”

About Church of Scientology – Boston

Scientology addresses man as a spiritual being and gives people tools
they can apply to their lives to improve conditions. Among these are
the techniques for alleviating spiritual trauma contained in the book
Dianetics, by L. Ron Hubbard.

Community Programs include: “Say No to Drugs, Say Yes to Life” Campaign
Human Rights Programs including Youth for Human Rights Interantional
Scientology Volunteer Ministry serving the inner-city of Boston to the
Boston volunteers who have traveled the world to assist in disaster
relief.

References:

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