HAMBURG DEDICATES A NEW IDEAL CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY FOR GERMANY
On January 21, 2012, the Church of Scientology of Hamburg newly opened its doors to the city in a dedication ceremony attended by 1,500 Scientologists, guests and dignitaries. The grand opening marked the culmination of a transformation of the seven-story Church into an Ideal Church of Scientology (Ideal Org) to better meet the needs of Hamburg’s growing Scientology congregation and the community at large.
In her commemorative statement, Ms. Pia Michel, Executive Director of the Church of Scientology of Hamburg, proclaimed: “There are some 300 churches, mosques and temples in the city of Hamburg. For more than forty years, the Church of Scientology has been a strong voice in that religious community. But the opening of this new Church marks a turning point, for the flame of religious freedom burns brightly today on behalf of all, and so it will forever.”In honor of the occasion, Mr. David Miscavige, Chairman of the Board Religious Technology Center and ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion, stated: “This Ideal Org signals a new era for Scientology in Germany for, in a very real sense, this Church is Scientology itself. It was conceived to mirror the Scientology Organizing Board, and so accommodates every function called for in our Founder’s policy. It was meticulously planned to deliver all Scientology services in exact accordance with our Founder’s technology—from every Introductory Service to the top of our Bridge. And it was designed to embody the spirit of Scientology, and so provides an introduction where anyone and everyone can find out for themselves who we are and what we do. So allow me to extend a welcome to all. From this day forward, our doors are open and our help is yours.”
In full representation of that pledge—working together in a cooperative effort to help one and all—among those on hand to inaugurate the new Church were some of Hamburg’s foremost civic and religious leaders. They included a long outspoken human rights advocate, the founder of a leading youth drug addiction and prevention organization, a religious rights leader from the Greek Orthodox community and an advisor to Germany’s forthcoming Memorial and Documentation Center on National Socialism.
________________
A prominent feature of the new Hamburg Ideal Org is a comprehensive Public Information Center, enabling all visitors to answer the pivotal question, “What is Scientology?” Occupying the entirety of the ground floor, it contains a gallery of multimedia displays presenting the beliefs and practices of the Scientology religion, as well as the life and legacy of Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard. The Information Center also provides a complete overview of the many Church-sponsored humanitarian initiatives, including a worldwide human rights initiative; an equally far-ranging drug education, prevention and rehabilitation program; a global network of literacy and learning centers; and the Scientology Volunteer Minister program, now comprising the largest independent relief force on Earth. The displays offer some 500 informational and documentary films at the touch of a button. Open morning to night, the Information Center welcomes visitors to tour at their leisure and return as often as they wish. In combination with its adjoining café, the Information Center is also configured to accommodate hundreds at a time for weekly Open Houses.
The Church was further planned to serve as a gathering hub for the entire community. The Chapel, home to all Scientology congregational services and ceremonies, can also be configured as a venue for events and other assemblies to coordinate humanitarian initiatives for the benefit of Hamburg and all her citizens. The venue is fully equipped with state-of-the-art video and audio for special film presentations and seminars. The Chapel further includes facilities to host receptions and banquets.
The new Hamburg Ideal Org also now includes expansive facilities to provide Introductory Services for those new to the religion, including regularly scheduled Dianetics and Scientology Personal Efficiency Seminars and an array of Life Improvement Courses.
________________
The Church of Scientology of Hamburg is the newest of dozens of Ideal Orgs opened in the past five years.
Ideal Orgs realize the fulfillment of Founder L. Ron Hubbard’s vision for the religion. They not only provide the ideal facilities to service Scientologists on their ascent to greater states of spiritual freedom, but they are also designed to serve as a home for the entire community and a meeting ground of cooperative effort to uplift citizens of all denominations.
The Church of Scientology Hamburg is the first Ideal Org to open in 2012, joining a parade of Ideal Orgs already opened in cultural epicenters across Europe, including: Berlin, Germany; Moscow, Russia; Brussels, Belgium; London, England; Madrid, Spain and Rome, Italy.
Other new Churches opened in recent years include Washington, D.C.; New York, New York; Los Angeles, California; Pasadena, California; Inglewood, California; Seattle, Washington; Tampa, Florida; Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota; as well as Québec City, Canada; Mexico City, Mexico and Melbourne, Australia.
More than 15 new Ideal Orgs are scheduled for grand opening in 2012.
_________________
The Scientology religion was founded by L. Ron Hubbard. The first Church of Scientology was formed in Los Angeles in 1954 and the religion has now expanded to more than 10,000 Churches, Missions and affiliated groups, with millions of members in 167 countries.
HUMAN RIGHTS DAY 2011: CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY SPEARHEADING HUMAN RIGHTS EDUCATION
On the 63rd anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Church of Scientology urges mandatory human rights education as the key to its full implementation of the Declaration.
Human rights are the rights that belong to everyone without exception—to people of any color, creed, age, ethnicity or gender. But as United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon pointed out in his Human Rights Day message this year, “…unless we know them, unless we demand they be respected, and unless we defend our rights — and the right of others — to exercise them, they will be just words in a decades-old document.”
To make the rights enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights known to all, the Church of Scientology has undertaken a massive human rights education initiative, reaching more than 180 million people in 2011 with the information on human rights in 17 languages.
The United Nations estimates that 2.45 million people are trafficked each year, nearly a billion live in hunger, and almost half the world’s population subsists on less than $2.50 a day, making it clear any momentum generated this year must continue and that education and insistence on human rights has never been more vital.
In a global demonstration of support for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its 30 rights, Scientology Churches and Missions marked Human Rights Day with seminars, rallies, concerts, round tables, forums and festivals, and helped organize more than 80 human rights walks in 26 countries to raise awareness of the Declaration and the need for its full implementation.
In 1969, L. Ron Hubbard wrote, “The United Nations came up with the answer. An absence of human rights stained the hands of governments and threatened their rules. Very few governments have implemented any part of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. These governments have not grasped that their very survival depends utterly upon adopting such reforms and thus giving their peoples a cause, a civilization worth supporting, worth their patriotism.”
For more than four decades, the Church has worked to make the Universal Declaration of Human Rights broadly known. The Declaration appeared in the first edition of Freedom Magazine, the Church’s human rights journal, in 1968. In 1998, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Declaration, the Church carried out the first of five annual cross-European marathons, reaching an estimated 33 million with its message in support of human rights.
Ten years ago, the Church began publishing materials that present the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in terms anyone can understand. These booklets, award-winning public service announcements and human rights documentary videos are available free of charge to any individual or group.
“There are many examples in history of what individuals can accomplish by demanding their rights and insisting on the rights of others,” says Rev. Robert Adams, Vice President of the Church of Scientology International. “But a knowledge of these rights comes first. The United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, yet in many ways, despite advances, the violations of its articles are as abhorrent today as they were six decades ago. We work with many dedicated groups, organizations, agencies and government bodies to make human rights a reality. To achieve this goal, education in human rights must be mandatory, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights must be given the force of law.”
Since Human Rights Day 2010, through direct action and sponsorship of activities and materials, the Church of Scientology has reached hundreds of millions of people with humans rights information, distributing more than 2 million publications and providing educational materials to more than 45,000 human rights organizations and 4,500 educators and educational institutions.
________
The Scientology religion was founded by author and philosopher L. Ron Hubbard. The first Church of Scientology was formed in the United States in 1954 and has grown to more than 9,000 Churches, Missions and affiliated groups and millions of members in 165 countries.
The Scientology Volunteer Ministers Movement—10 Years of Indiscriminate Help
Over the past 10 years the Scientology Volunteer Ministers movement has become the world’s largest independent relief force.
The 800 Scientology Volunteer Ministers who served at Ground Zero in helping New York recover from the terrorist attacks of 9/11 have inspired the growth of a movement that now spans the globe. In September 2001 there were 6,000 Volunteer Ministers—with more than 200,000 today, it is the largest independent relief force in the world.
In creating the Volunteer Minister movement in 1976, Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard wrote: “A Volunteer Minister is a person who helps his fellow man on a volunteer basis by restoring purpose, truth and spiritual values to the lives of others…. He uses the technology of Scientology to change conditions for the better—for himself, his family, his groups, friends, associates and for Mankind.”
In carrying out that mandate, Volunteer Ministers have stacked sandbags along the Danube and rescued flood victims in Mozambique, Thailand and Pakistan. They provided relief to firefighters battling blazes in Australia, California, Greece, Israel and South Africa. They cleaned up after mudslides in Uganda, hurricanes and tornados in America, typhoons in Indonesia, and cyclones in Australia and Africa. And they brought relief and calm in the wake of terrorist attacks not only in New York, but also in London, Mumbai, Moscow and Madrid.
Volunteer Ministers from 26 nations flew to India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia to help survivors of the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Upward of 900 Volunteer Ministers responded to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. They flew into Pisco, Peru, after the 2007 earthquake, and delivered supplies and medical relief in Bihar, India, by boat when floods submerged entire villages, in 2008. And they were the backbone of the reconstruction effort after the 2009 6.3 earthquake in L’Aquila, Italy.
The Volunteer Ministers have been acknowledged for the thousands of lives they saved after the Haiti earthquake of January 2010. A permanent Volunteer Minister base trains and coordinates the work of hundreds of Volunteer Minister teams that continue to help in displaced persons camps.
In 2011, Volunteer Ministers responded to fires near Haifa, Israel; floods in Australia, Thailand and Pakistan; the earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand; and tornadoes in Alabama and Missouri. But it was Japan where the VM activities took on epic proportions this year.
Despite media predicting imminent nuclear cataclysm, Volunteer Ministers began arriving in Northeastern Japan within hours of the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and 40-meter tsunami. Volunteer Ministers helped with search and rescue and providing succor to the survivors and continue providing relief throughout the region today.
Since September 11, 2001, the work of the Volunteer Ministers has truly embodied the vision of L. Ron Hubbard for the program: “A Volunteer Minister does not shut his eyes to the pain, evil and injustice of existence. Rather, he is trained to handle these things and help others achieve relief from them and new personal strength as well.”
_______________________________
Through the last 10 years, Scientology Volunteer Ministers have trained and partnered with more than 1,100 organizations, including the Red Cross, FEMA, National Guard, Salvation Army, Mexico’s International Rescue Brigade, Boy Scouts, and hundreds of local, regional and national groups and organizations, giving freely of their skills, their care and compassion. They have provided physical and spiritual relief at more than 200 disaster sites.
Today hundreds of thousands of individuals are trained in the skills of a Volunteer Minister across 185 nations. For more information on Scientology Volunteer Ministers, visit www.volunteerministers.org.
