Tour Churches of Scientology Around the World on Google Earth

Front-page news in cities around the world, Churches of Scientology around the world have been opening the doors on fantastic new buildings – gorgeous new churches erected to better service their communities.

And now, for the virtual traveler, you can experience many of these buildings in their local surrounds using the ever-amazing Google Earth.   An intrepid Google SketchUp modeler named “dom” has been modeling a number of these new churches in SketchUp and placing them on Google Earth for you to virtually tour.   Make sure you have Google Earth on your computer, and then check out some of the churches below to see what I mean!

Founding Church of Scientology of Washington, D.C. 

Click the above image to view in Google Earth (KMZ format). Or click here to see the model.

Church of Scientology of Melbourne, Australia

Click to see in Google Earth

Church of Scientology of Moscow

Click to view in Google Earth

 

Entirely New Scientology Church of Inglewood, California

On 5 November, an entirely new Church of Scientology was opened in Inglewood, California.  The first of its kind, the facility has two separate buildings – a main Church building, and a magnificent community center.

The Community Center on Vermont Avenue is housed in an historic art deco landmark that dates from the early 1930s and which the Church has meticulously restored. It features a 380-seat event hall, the L. Ron Hubbard Community Auditorium, designed for community events and as a meeting ground for residents of all denominations. In that respect, it is a venue dedicated to community-wide initiatives in the spirit of the Founder’s vision of all church denominations working together to achieve the common dream of all religions. The Center further features numerous classrooms and seminar facilities for a full range of civic programs, including a complete literacy and tutoring center.

Following are photos of the new buildings.   You can contact the center here to arrange a tour.

 

Marking the significance of this day, Mr. David Miscavige, Chairman of the Board Religious Technology Center and ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion, officiated at the ceremony. In pointing to what this day represents he said: “This new Church of Scientology is quite literally imbued with the contributions and global spirit of Scientologists from more than a hundred nations. In that respect, it reflects the greater shape of Scientology—both body and soul. Moreover, it reflects the attributes of greatness all religions traditionally sought to inspire, including decency, nobility, compassion and charity.  And that’s also the spirit in which we provide our new Community Center, open for use by one and all, for the benefit of all its residents.”

Reception: Opening onto the Public Information Center and the entrance to the L. Ron Hubbard Community Auditorium, the Church of Scientology Community Center reception is the welcoming point for all who enter the Center. The iconic mural celebrates the rich cultural history of the area.

The L. Ron Hubbard Community Auditorium: The Church of Scientology Community Center features a 380-seat event hall, the L. Ron Hubbard Community Auditorium, designed for community events and as a meeting ground for residents of all denominations.

Public Information Center: The Public Information Center provides an incisive introduction to Dianetics and Scientology through hundreds of instructional films. Also presented here is the full range of Scientology civic programs, as well as the life and legacy of Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard.

Community Center Atrium and Lounge: The Community Center’s atrium and lounge provides the ideal environment for civic leaders and visitors to meet and collaborate on outreach initiatives.

Café: The café is conveniently located just off the grand reception of the Church of Scientology Community Center. It provides snacks and refreshments to both parishioners and visitors.

Community Center Lounge: The Community Center lounge serves as a meeting ground for civic leaders and visitors to collaborate on humanitarian initiatives based on  L. Ron Hubbard’s vision of all churches working together to achieve the common dream of all religions.

The Seminar Room: This Seminar Room is devoted to Scientology Introductory services and a full range of civic programs. Among those services is the Personal Efficiency Course, providing fundamental Scientology principles applicable to every facet of life and work.

 

The Purification Center:  L. Ron Hubbard developed the Purification Program to free individuals from the mental and spiritual devastation caused by drugs. The Purification Center features an iconic tile mural reflecting local history.

The Way to Happiness Course Room:  This room is exclusively dedicated to delivering The Way To Happiness Course, based on the inspirational work by L. Ron Hubbard and comprising a common sense guide to better living.

Tutoring Center: A tutoring center is specially designed for youth and adults to improve reading and writing skills with the help of L. Ron Hubbard’s groundbreaking Study Technology.

Nursery:  A nursery is provided for the young children of parents attending Scientology services.

The new Church of Scientology of Inglewood now stands in the heart of downtown at 315 South Market Street. The facility reflects the growth of a significant Scientology congregation within the area.

Photos: Church of Scientology of Tampa’s Historic New Ybor City Home

 

The Church of Scientology of Tampa, of the brightest and fastest-growing Churches of Scientology in the world, just expanded into a new home in the historic Ybor Square building in Tampa’s vibrant Ybor City.   Photos of their stunning new quarters and the grand opening follow below.

Scientology Organizations Around the World Blog: 2010 in Review

Following was an auto-generated stats report on this blog, done up automatically by WordPress.  I thought it was quite good, and gave a quite good summary of the past year.   One of many blogs I’m keeping up right now on Scientology – but definitely some of my favorite subject matter!  Also – one more reason I love WordPress.  As a Scientologist, I’m sure you can imagine how I’m totally in agreement with how much work WordPress puts into statistics! 

–

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads Wow.

Crunchy numbers

About 3 million people visit the Taj Mahal every year. This blog was viewed about 26,000 times in 2010. If it were the Taj Mahal, it would take about 3 days for that many people to see it.

 

In 2010, there were 20 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 88 posts. There were 201 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 62mb. That’s about 4 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was April 29th with 352 views. The most popular post that day was Grand Opening of New Ideal Church of Scientology in Los Angeles.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were stumbleupon.com, reddit.com, facebook.com, and digg.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for buenos aires, golden era productions, scientology church, ideal org, and ideal orgs.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Grand Opening of New Ideal Church of Scientology in Los Angeles April 2010
1 Like on WordPress.com,

2

Argentina Recognizes Scientology as a Religion December 2008
4 comments and 1 Like on WordPress.com,

3

What is an Ideal Church of Scientology – an “Ideal Org”? June 2007
16 comments and 2 Likes on WordPress.com

4

Photos: Stunning new Church of Scientology of Las Vegas February 2010
10 comments

5

Jaw-Dropping Video Tour of the Golden Era Productions Facility August 2010
2 Likes on WordPress.com

New Melbourne Church on the Way for one of Scientology’s Oldest Communities

One of the Scientology religion’s oldest communities, with its roots dating back to 1955, Melbourne Scientologists are getting ready to open a massive new Church to house their religious and social betterment activities. 

Their new premises in the Ascot Vale neighborhood, set to open in the coming months, is currently under renovations and represents a massive increase in capacity and facilities for the burgeoning Scientology community in Melbourne, and the first of a new breed of Ideal Scientology organizations for Australia.

Melbourne: A Rich Scientology History

Melbourne’s Scientology presence was first established in 1955, growing out of several smaller Scientology and Dianetics groups that had sprung up around Melbourne.

At this point in time, the Hubbard Association of Scientologists International (HASI), was headquartered on Spring Street, in Melbourne, directly across the road from the Victorian Parliament building.

The first gathering of Australian Scientologists was held later in 1955. This was a milestone as the first large scale organized meeting of Scientologists from all over Australia. And it was only the beginning of one of the largest Scientology Churches across the planet at that time. 

From these beginnings The executives in Melbourne worked to open up Scientology offices in other cities around Australia called “City Offices”, notably in Sydney and Perth.

With the formation of the official Melbourne Church Publication, Communication Magazine, the Melbourne Scientology parishioners were united, sparking a huge interest in Scientology all over Victoria and Australia. The fresh, emerging culture of 1950s Australia was wide open for change, and Scientology was at the cutting edge of that change.

A letter from one of the Melbourne Church executives to L. Ron Hubbard on the 14 April 1959 stated, “Perhaps the difference in Aussie is there is a lot of hope and many possibilities of succeeding in the game down here than elsewhere – perhaps – and also no hidebound old culture bogging them down – tradition, etc., (not to pooh-pooh tradition where they are useful and go ahead) but sitting on past glories (and failures) is no good. They don’t do that in Aussie.”

L. Ron Hubbard would later on that year deliver the Special Congress for Australian Scientologists in Melbourne, available today as the Melbourne Congress, a lecture series where he detailed to Australian Scientologists a responsibility they hold to this day as a last safe harbor, and on the subject of Responsibility itself.

No surprise then, that Melbourne Scientologists take that message of community responsibility to heart in the construction of their new centre, so as to carry forth that responsibility in the areas of anti-drug and human rights education, morals, and help for the spirit.