Boston Scientologists Transforming South End Urban Landscape into a Work of Art

The Church of Scientology of Boston purchased two buildings in January—once restored and renovated they will be the new headquarters for Scientologists in New England. But before the Church acquired them, the buildings stood vacant for years, and local Scientologists did not want to wait till the planning for these buildings was completed to begin upgrading the neighborhood. So, on a sunny day in May, 2008, they teamed up with the New England chapter ofArtists for a Better World to transform the wall of one of their new properties into a work of urban art.

Adams man back from relief trip to Haiti

_{Scientology Volunteer Ministers Richard Girard (center) in the ruins of Haiti, featured in an article in the North Adams Transcript.}

By Ryan Hutton
Tuesday April 20, 2010

ADAMS—After spending six weeks in Haiti, Adams resident Richard Girard is back in the Berkshires with tales of his trip.

The 63-year old building contractor departed for Haiti on Feb. 22 and returned April 5 after helping with a Church of Scientology relief mission in the earthquake-ravaged nation. Girard departed from the church’s Boston headquarters and first went to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic.

From there, he took a bus into Haiti with a Hatian-American woman whose family was still in Haiti and whom she had not seen in 25 years. Girard said they arrived in the middle of the night and met with the woman’s sisters and brother.

“They were incredibly hospitable,” he said. “They made sure I had food and water until I got to the mission. They were very friendly. Her sister was actually taking care of a 12-year-old girl who had to be given up by her family because of the earthquake.”

Girard eventually arrived at the church’s camp in Santos, a suburb of Haiti’s capital, Port au Prince. The church had set up an orphanage in Santos that had 60 children in it when he arrived and over 110 when he left. Girard left for Haiti with several soccer balls as a goodwill gift, and when he arrived at the orphanage, found the perfect use for them.

“I gave the soccer balls to them and they were really pleased to have them,” he said. “I’d go down there a bunch of times to practice with the kids. We also had about 25 Russians in our camp and about 20 Mexicans—and those guys had some really good soccer players. We wound up playing a couple really good games with the kids.”

Girard said the church had set up seven camps around the capital, and he and his fellow volunteers would visit each them providing whatever aid they could. He said they also visited two of the hospitals in the area, including one run by American doctors from Miami.

Girard said the volunteers would accompany medical staff and disaster relief specialists into the camps and hospitals and perform a Scientology-based physical therapy called touch assist—which is used to relieve pain—on the people of the camps.

He said they would also teach civil response training to the locals so they knew how to better cope with disasters in the future.

“Pretty much everyone is living in tents,” he said. “What we would do is go into the camps and give assists or help the people that were giving medical attention—really anything we could do.”

Not long after he arrived, Girard got to see the first school reopening in the entire country. The school, near the capital, had 3,000 children ready to attend on the first day alone.

While the school was rebuilt to better specifications than before, Girard said a lot of the locals still had lingering doubts left over from the quake about entering a building.

“At first, people were afraid to go into the buildings,” he said. “But after all the work they saw us doing with the assists and relief work, they had the confidence to enter the school buildings.”

Even though he is back in the States, Girard said he is still looking for ways to help the people of Haiti by working with some people he met on the trip to open a lumber yard in the country. He said that would provide much needed jobs and building material.

While he went there to help, Girard admitted he also went seeking adventure but, he added, he found a lot more.

“I’m really happy I went. I wanted to go there and do something to help, but I guess at the same time I was looking for a little adventure,” he said. “From time to time, your life can get stale, and I definitely had an adventure. The main thing I was impressed with was that down there, I feel like I found the bottom level of survival.

“Survival doesn’t get any tougher than it is in Haiti right now. There are people living under tarps and using sheets for walls. There were holes in the ground for toilets and you took a shower out of buckets. But I found that the people, as poor as they were, were always well groomed, they go to church every Sunday, and they were cheerful. It was amazing.”

VOLUNTEER MINISTERS Around the World

There are over 200,000 Scientology Volunteer Ministers, making it one of the largest relief organizations in the world. And in the last ten years alone they have helped over ten million people.

They are trained to respond in times of major disaster and personal crisis. They are proficient in LRH Tech and have solutions for 19 areas, from marriage counseling and conflict resolution to alleviating emotional trauma. Whether providing immediate and effective assistance to the victims and the emergency workers in the aftermath of an earthquake or helping a failing student learn to read, the Volunteer Ministers’ only reward is knowing that they helped.

There are eighteen continental Volunteer Ministers traveling centers, (marquee yellow tents), that have toured through over 100 countries cover hundreds of thousands of miles, including a Volunteer Minister's barge traveling up the Amazon River, to centers traveling throughout West and Central Africa, and a traveling center in the outback of Australia.

Our 135 regional Volunteer Ministers traveling centers, (yellow tents), managed by every central Church of Scientology in the world, have toured throughout their city or town helping hundreds of thousands yearly.

SCIENTOLOGY VOLUNTEER MINISTERS: Bringing Help Whenever and Wherever the Need

While no one could have predicted the violence with which the events of 9/11 would tear away society's social veneer, Mr. Miscavige saw clearly that it was time Scientologists redoubled their efforts to aid their fellow man. The now-legendary internationally issued directive was entitled The Wake-Up Call. It inspired astonishing growth of the Volunteer Minister program. As of September 11, 2001, there were 6,000 Volunteer Ministers worldwide. Today, they are among the world’s most recognized independent relief organizations with over 200,000 Volunteer Ministers on call internationally.

A Scientology Volunteer Ministers do not shut his eyes to the pain, evil and injustice of existence. A Scientology Volunteer Minister is a person who helps his fellow man on a volunteer basis by helping restore purpose, truth and spiritual values to the lives of others. Volunteer Ministers live by the motto “Something can be done about it.”

In response to escalating crime and violence through the latter 1960s and early 1970s, L. Ron Hubbard founded the Volunteer Minister Program. It was designed to provide practical tools for engendering understanding and compassion. Moreover, those tools were expressly conceived for use by Scientologists and non-Scientologists alike. Thus was born a broad-based movement of individuals from all walks of life dedicated to providing on-site assistance to communities around the world. Through the last 30 years, Scientology Volunteer Ministers have provided emergency service at 128 worst-case disaster sites.

Haiti: First Port-au-Prince School Re-Opens and Back in Service Thanks to the Work of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers

For the last several weeks a team of Scientology Volunteer Ministers from Mexico have been helping the FMA school (Filles de Marie-Auxiliatrice) reestablish order and get back into action. The earthquake affected nearly every person in Port-au-Prince. So many died, and most of those who survived were injured or left homeless. Many schools collapsed killing the children and teachers who were there. Those like the FMA school that were not destroyed by the quake have been closed since January 12, with the teachers and administrators taking care of the immediate needs of their families.

The school is run by a Catholic order, the Silesian Sisters. Over the past several weeks the Volunteer Ministers have been training the sisters on basic Volunteer Ministers assist technology, which includes seminars and courses on communication, how to improve relationships, how to establish order and organize an area and Scientology assist technology.

Scientology assists are techniques developed by L. Ron Hubbard that address the spiritual and emotional factors in illness and injuries, and thus speed healing.
Once trained, the sisters started to train others. Within several days they trained some 600 volunteers from a nearby refugee camp.

They have reassembled the faculty, cleaned up the school and readied the school to reopen.

A local radio station announced the school was about to open again and on March 4, 2010, more than 3,000 kids of all ages gathered at the school campus to resume their studies.

But when the school doors opened that morning, the kids were too afraid to go inside the building. For many of them, the last time they had been inside a structure it collapsed. And everyone knows someone who died because they were inside a house, school, hospital or shopping center when the earthquake struck.

To help these children overcome their fears so they could get on with their education, the newly trained volunteers gave them Locational assists, which enable the person to put past memories of fear or loss behind them by orienting the individual to his or her current environment. By the time they were done, everyone on the campus was relaxed and extroverted and ready to go back inside to their classrooms.

That is why the FMA School has reopened—the first to do so in Port-au-Prince. The nun who runs the school was interviewed on a local radio show. She emphasized that the school, the first and only school in the city that has reopened since the earthquake on January 12, was only able to resume classes because of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers.

The schoolyard of the FMA (Filles de Marie-Auxiliatrice - Les Sœurs Salésiennes de Don Bosco) School in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

A member of the Mexican Scientology Volunteer Minister team overseeing the training.

Contact Assist: There is a basic principle in Scientology, that by putting an injured body part exactly in contact with the place it was injured it has a therapeutic effect and speeds healing.

One of the easiest assists to render is Locational Processing. A Locational is done by directing a person’s attention off the painful area of his body or his difficulties and out onto the environment.

Last week’s graduation ceremony, where the school's teachers and nuns received certificates for the training they completed.

EMT makes good on promise to quake survivor

Ralph-Marie Gedeon, left, and Emergency Medical Technician Ayal Lindeman pose for a photo at General Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, where they met. (Photo courtesy of Randi Sidman Moore)

NEW HAVEN — Ralph-Marie Gedeon could easily have died Jan. 12 in the earthquake in Haiti when the walls of his Port-au-Prince engineering college came tumbling down on top of him.

Gedeon, 22, who on Thursday night was airlifted to Tweed New Haven Regional Airport, could easily have been left for dead had his father, Raphael Gedeon, not gone looking for him, and then spent hours frantically climbing through the rubble, calling his son’s name until he heard him cry out. It took the elder Gedeon a day and a half to dig his son out.

When he and some friends finally reached Gedeon, they found his left leg was crushed.

He might have died soon afterward, too, when he initially refused to have his mangled leg amputated because, in Haiti, those without limbs are shunned.

Instead, he met Ayal Lindeman, a licensed practical nurse, emergency medical technician and Scientology volunteer minister who was in Haiti as a volunteer emergency worker in the critical care unit of General Hospital in Port-au-Prince.

Lindeman, of Spring Valley, N.Y., convinced Gedeon to have the life-saving surgery, promising him a new leg, along with the physical and occupational therapy he would need, if he would agree.

More importantly, Lindeman happens to have a high school friend and former track teammate, Dr. David Gibson, who is an orthopedic surgeon who teaches at the Yale School of Medicine and is affiliated with the Hospital of Saint Raphael in New Haven.

Lindeman told Gedeon about his friend the orthopedic surgeon in the United States, and promised that he would get Gedeon a prosthetic leg.

Then Lindeman called Gibson, who agreed to donate his work and time for the necessary surgeries. Gibson also arranged for St. Raphael’s to cover other medical treatment and physical and occupational therapy. Finally, working through a friend who heads a pediatric health care fund affiliated with the Foundation for Greater New Haven, Gibson got a manufacturer to donate the prosthesis.

Finally, the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading /Airlink, arranged for a private jet to bring Gedeon to the U.S.

Gedeon and Lindeman were due to arrive at Tweed late Thursday night or early today after being delayed in Florida.

“We’re going to work on his leg” in advance of attaching the prosthetic leg, Gibson said earlier Thursday, while Gedeon and Lindeman still were en route to Florida.

Gibson, 53, explained that “in Haiti, having an amputation is a horrible thing because you essentially are put at the side of the road” and ignored.

Lindeman stayed with Gedeon through the amputation surgery and one other operation on his remaining stump, Gibson said. Gideon “is coming up here with some work” that still needs to be done.

Gibson estimated that the artificial leg normally would cost between $10,000 and $15,000, and the surgery Gibson will perform normally costs “several tens of thousands of dollars” in addition.

He called Dr. Peter Lindskog, chairman of the board of a pediatric health care fund that Gibson also sits on, and asked if Gedeon’s case might qualify for assistance. Lindskog called a local vendor, New England Orthotics and Prosthetics of Branford, “and they said, ‘Fine, we’ll give it to you for free,’” Gibson said.

Gedeon will be in New Haven for “as long as it takes,” Gibson said. “I would estimate it would take a couple of months to get him tuned up and ready to rock back. The challenge is going to be to get him to the point where he’s ready to go back” and able to stay healthy even in a place where he won’t be able to get good health care.

“We pretty much need to make him bulletproof” before he returns, he said.

(New Haven Register)

Scientology Volunteer Minister tells of Haiti Disaster Response

Karen Farrell is a midwife and a Scientology Volunteer Minister who lives in New England. When she heard about the Haiti earthquake on January 12, her first thought was that she needed to help. Four days later she was in Port-au-Prince with the medical and disaster relief team of doctors and nurses from the Association of Haitian Physicians Abroad, paramedics and Volunteer Ministers who boarded a flight in New York on January 16, chartered by the Church of Scientology to take medical personnel and supplies to Haiti.

Karen was assigned to General Hospital, where the facilities were woefully inadequate for the doctors and nurses working desperately to do something for the worst of the enormous numbers of earthquake victims. Overwhelmed with casualties, the medical staff could scarcely tend to women having babies.
The Norwegian Red Cross had set up a small makeshift obstetric and surgical unit and welcomed the midwife and doctors newly arrived from America.

Karen and a Haitian-American obstetrician from the Association of Haitian Physicians Abroad who arrived on the same flight set up a rudimentary labor and delivery room that Karen described as "archaic" and started moving women in.
After a 12-hour shift, exhausted obstetrics staff started leaving for the night. With no doctor on duty, Karen decided to stay. A fortunate decision. Karen delivered two babies that night.

The first baby was a girl whose mother named her "My Love." The second was born to a 16-year-old first-time mother. Alone, without her family or the father, the young mother was exhausted and terrified. "1 held her in my arms for a long time, rocking her," said Karen. "After eight hours, we were finally able to move her to a room with power (yes, we were in the dark all that time). I had to show her how to push and get her to understand me." With the help of a translator, she told the woman, "Be strong and deliver this baby now!"

On another night, six women were in labor, two of them difficult cases. Karen could only hope their babies would hold off until the obstetrics staff came back on duty. Then, as morning dawned, another earthquake struck. Panic swept through the hospital. Some patients, forgetting their limbs had been amputated, tried to stand up and run out. Others who were far too sick to move struggled to get out of bed and out of the building.

"People were screaming and the whole building was shaking," said Karen. The labor room and all the obstetrics patients were in the basement, and Karen knew that if the building collapsed they would all be trapped.

She scrambled with medical students and military personnel to evacuate the patients from the basement and the wards, carrying them outside and placing them on the ground away from the unstable hospital building.

The move was too much for some. A young man died when his oxygen tank was disconnected so he could be moved. The nurse with him went into shock and was unable to function. Karen quickly applied her Volunteer Minister Disaster Response training that orients a person to their immediate surroundings, and the nurse soon snapped out of her shock and said, "OK, we have a lot of work to do," and got back to work moving patients to safety.

Amid the death and destruction, one of the pregnant women started giving birth. Haitian women near the mother-to-be began to sing. When the baby appeared, a doctor shouted, "A baby has been born! There is hope in the world."

Karen was still hoping the two difficult cases would hold off until an obstetrician came back on duty. Just as one woman was about to give birth, her labor slowed and the obstetrician arrived in time and delivered the baby by Caesarian section.

Karen also helped non-obstetrics patients. Many had no family because they were killed or separated in the earthquake, so Karen comforted them.

"Though I don't speak Creole, I could still sit with them and simply listen to them talk. I couldn't understand their words, but I wanted them to know they were not alone.

"One gentleman had so much fear in his eyes. I put my hand on his shoulder and in French I said 'calm.' I just wanted him to know that someone was there. He talked and talked and I nodded my head. I understood enough to know that he was in a lot of pain and was terrified. He thought he was dying, and he was. I got a cold cloth and wiped his face and the back of his neck.

"Everything was in disarray, including the area where the medicine was kept, and the doctors were spending their precious time picking though the medicine trying to find the one the man needed. I told them I would look for it so they could keep treating patients. I finally found it and they gave it to him and he recovered. He made it."

Karen returned home to Boston after a week, to go back to her job. In one week in Haiti she delivered six babies with her own hands and helped with another. She says the experience changed her, and she will never be the same.

Call to help Haiti

The Scientology Volunteer Ministers Disaster Response Coordinator has put out a call for Volunteer Ministers to travel to Haiti, in response to the January 12, 2010, magnitude 7.0 earthquake. Haitian Prime Minister Jean-Max Bellerive estimates the death toll from the earthquake, which destroyed most of the Capital City of Port-au-Prince, could reach hundreds of thousands. Lack of resources and decimated infrastructure in Haiti, the least-developed country in the Western Hemisphere and one of the poorest in the world according to the US State Department, is severely hampering the search and rescue operation and care for the survivors.

For information on how to join the Volunteer Ministers team in Haiti or to sponsor a volunteer to go contact the Volunteer Ministers Disaster Response Coordinator at vm@volunteerministers.org

DC Scientology Church Opens

What a glorious event! David Miscavige dedicated the new Church of Scientology in Washington DC. This was the Church where L. Ron Hubbard was Executive Director. It was called the Founding Church of Scientology and so much of the policy that Scientology churches operate on was developed during that time.

This is a major step in Mr. Miscavige's strategy to make every Scientology church into an ideal organization that serves its field and community to the fullest possible extent.

Scientology Volunteer Ministers in Boston: Who we are

From the first permanent Scientology Volunteer Ministry serving the inner-city of Boston to the Boston volunteers who have traveled the world to assist in disaster relief, you will find the help and information you need here regarding Boston's Volunteer Minister program.

The Scientology religion welcomes people of all faiths and traditions. The goal of our program to assist everyone who calls. If you are looking for personal help, a minister can be provided. If you are looking for training on how to assist another, there too the Boston Volunteer Minister program offers everything from free seminars to certified and professional training.

The headquarters for local Volunteer Minister activities is the Church of Scientology of Boston located in the historic and beautiful Back Bay overlooking the Charles River, a five minute walk from the Hynes Convention Center train stop on the green line. The Church has also established another outpost in the inner-city of Boston that provides free community service. Located in Lower Roxbury, the ministry has been active for three years. For news about the work of the ministry read this article by the Boston Globe.

New York: New Church in the Big Apple

The Ideal Church of Scientology in New York City was a gift from the International Association of Scientologists to the people of New York in recognition of their courage and spirit in the face of the 2001 World Trade Center disaster.

Mr. David Miscavige, whose vision and personal dedication had set in motion this new Church, now opened its doors to the 10,000 Scientologists and guests in attendance just off Times Square:

“This is more than just a home for you, the Scientologists of New York. It is also a home for the broader community where all men and women of goodwill are welcome, and who we dedicate ourselves to helping, each and every one. And by demonstrating, in action, the conviction of our beliefs, the future knows no bounds. For this is New York, and to help her is to help the world. We know there is hope. And because we can help, working together we will make a difference.”

Scientology Leader David Miscavige about the Scientology Volunteer Ministers

They have become internationally known and recognized for what has been described as spiritual first aid, and to that end they are ready and organized to respond to any disaster — 'man-made' or by force of nature. - David Miscavige, on the VM Website

Scientology Today: Scientology Volunteers of St. Petersburg Say Something Can Be Done About It

Scientology Today: Scientology Volunteers of St. Petersburg Say Something Can Be Done About It

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The Church of Scientology of St. Petersburg is one of the largest and most active communities of Scientologists in the world. On any given weekend Scientology Volunteer Ministers from this church travel to a different town or city in the St. Petersburg and Leningrad region to help people learn about the effective solutions available to them through this volunteer program. That is how they came to set up their bright yellow tent earlier this month right next to the Culture House of the town of Kirovsk.

Tutoring Program starts new Season

Starting Tuesday September 16th and every Tuesday and Wednesday from 2:00 to 6:00 the Boston Scientology Ministry free tutoring program will be open for the community. If you are interested in receiving assistance call 617.927.2247. Whether needing help to learn how to read or new study skills to make your college education go smoother we are available.

The Ministry is also seeking volunteers and provides free training.

Boston Scientologists volunteer for literacy

Scientologists of the Boston area have been volunteering their time for the past 4 years at the Boston Scientology Ministry. Previously located in Dorchester and now located at the cross-section of Washington and Massachusetts Avenue in the South End/Lower Roxbury neighborhood (1783 Washington Street).

Here are a couple of stories that provide information on the kind of help that the Ministry provides on a personal one-on-one tutoring basis:



Boston Scientology Tutoring
Scientology Volunteer Minister website


Boston Ministry
Freedom Magazine article

Boston Scientology Ministry description
Boston Globe article

For more information or to sign up for our Fall tutoring program call (617) 927-2247. Be sure to leave your number and the kind of assistance that you need.

Boston Scientologists in the News

Good to see Scientology Boston in the news again, this time with a story about the mural we painted on the wall of one of our new buildings. I always try to live with the precept "safeguard and improve your environment," from the book The Way to Happiness L. Ron Hubbard and I love projects like this because they really do make a difference.

I'm very much looking forward to an increased presence for Scientology and Dianetics in Boston. I know this is going to make a big difference in terms of the quality of life for the city, as the whole point in building up our churches, as covered in various speeches by David Miscavige is to help the community more, and create a better world.

Earthquake in China

Scientology Disaster Response

The International Volunteer Ministers Coordinator has put out a call for volunteers and donations to help in the disaster relief effort. The most urgent relief needed at this point is the providing of food and supplies, particularly for those left homeless or in shelters.

Find Out How You Can Help >>

In Boston call Volunteer Minister, Nanette Ciano at 617-266-9500 for more information

The Mural Project

May 10, 2008 - The Scientology Volunteer Ministry, the local chapter of Artists for a Better World, and local South End neighbors all collaborated in creating a mural to beautify and unite the community.

The group enlisted the talent of childrens' book illustrator Trish Rouelle, who created the basic design and outline for this neighborhood project. She was available to help the neighborhood children and adults contribute to this wonderful mural.

Families enjoyed music by local musician and songwriter, Kelly Riley and learned to create balloon animals. South End Lower Roxbury neighbors toured the Ministry and signed up to help the Boston Scientology Ministry's Literacy program.

New role awaits a historic eyesore

Church of Scientology buys former Alexandra Hotel
Source: By Thomas C. Palmer Jr. Globe Staff Date: 2008/01/30

The Church of Scientology of Boston Inc. has bought the historic Alexandra Hotel building at Washington Street and Massachusetts Avenue in the South End and plans to relocate its local headquarters from the Back Bay, following extensive renovations. The sales price of the Alexandra - ravaged by fire in the 1993, decayed, empty, and recently eluding City Hall's hopes that it would become residences - was not disclosed by the Rev. Gerard Renna, the top Scientology representative in Boston. The church, founded by L. Ron Hubbard and counting among its members actors Tom Cruise and John Travolta, "pledges to transform the hotel to its original grace and elegance," it said in a news release. Advised by Staubach Co. of New England LLC, the church bought the former 50-room hotel, at 1759-1769 Washington St., and an adjacent building on Washington. The church already has a storefront presence a few doors down on Washington. City officials said the seller was Macedonia Realty Trust, which had owned the building for several years and had presented several plans to renovate the building and create condominiums. Built in 1875, the Alexandra was a luxuriously appointed hotel in Ruskinian Gothic style. It faded in prominence when the elevated transit line was built along Washington Street in 1900. It closed in the 1960s and then was gutted by a fire in 1993. The city had worked hard to get the prominent structure redeveloped, especially since the MBTA's Orange Line was relocated in the 1980s. "The city's been tortured with this eyesore for so long," said Renna, who has been with the Church of Scientology in Boston since before it opened its current headquarters on Beacon Street in 1974. Randi Lathrop, the Boston Redevelopment Authority's director of community planning and former head of the Mayor's Washington Street Improvement Task Force, said that as of a few weeks ago the city thought the building's former owners might redevelop it into condominiums, with extensive ground-floor retail space. Because the building is so prominent, situated at a major intersection, City Hall wanted shops opened there to generate street-level business activity for the neighborhood. It is not yet clear what the church will install on the first floor, but after searching for a new home in Boston for three years, church officials clearly liked the visible location. "This is a very prominent building - it's one of the criteria. They've found it with this," said Brian Smallman, vice president of Staubach of New England. Staubach has done other work for the church around the country and will be project manager on the design and redevelopment. "It could be an absolutely gorgeous building by the time they're done with it, and they do everything first rate," Smallman said. The building had been for sale in recent years, at one point with a price tag of $3.5 million, said Lathrop, but the sales have always fallen through. The city at one point went to court to have a receiver appointed for the property, because it had languished and rotted for so long, but later relented. The building is not itself designated as a Boston Landmark by the city Landmarks Commission, but it is part of the South End district, which does have landmark designation. Any changes to the exterior of the building would need advance approval. The project will also need approval under the BRA's small-project development process, which is expected to take months. No architect has been selected, Smallman said; officials at church headquarters in Los Angeles will be involved in the process and have many decisions to make about the final configuration. "The city and the mayor, especially, have focused on this as his pride corner," Lathrop said, referring to Mayor Thomas M. Menino. "It's a very important building to the district. The good news is the church will spend millions of dollars on the building." The Church of Scientology is based on what followers call founder Hubbard's "technology" and its ability to help them understand more about themselves and others. The church acknowledges the controversy it creates on its own extensive website. "As Scientologists have openly and effectively advocated social reform causes, they have become the target of attacks," the site says. The church has battled with the media, the Internal Revenue Service, and supporters of certain psychiatric drugs and treatment. Renna said he answers "ecclesiastically" to the mother church in Los Angeles.
Thomas C. Palmer Jr. can be reached at tpalmer@globe.com. © Copyright 2008 Globe Newspaper Company.

Scientology Video Channel!

Whoa! I just found out about the Scientology video channel!

Not only is it fantastic to have all these videos on line so anyone can learn about Scientology, but it's in so many languages!

This is awesome!