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Like other religions?

secretiveoldfag

Silver Meritorious Patron
I was surprised to find this morning that Scientology IS a religion after all.

THE SUNDAY SERVICE

Like other religions, Scientology has a day for congregation. This is what they call the Sunday service.

The Sunday service is generally seen as focal point for uniting all the members of the religion on a single day. This is the day when they participate in their local churches to hear messages of inspiration, teachings and to pray as one.

The Sunday service consists of many different parts. Prime among these are the sermons of the particular church’s leader based on the teachings of Scientology’s late founder – L. Ron Hubbard. An alternative to actual sermons is the playing of recorded lectures which were made by Hubbard years ago. The rest include:

The Recitation Of The Creed Of The Church Of Scientology
Scientology follows a specific creed. The recitation or reading of this creed is what starts every Sunday service. In summary, this creed affirms the aims of Scientology as a religion, outlines the missions of the church, allow members to rededicate themselves to the church, and outlines the expectations from the individual members of the church – be it a supervisor, a manager, an auditor, or a basic member.

The Sermon
As was previously mentioned, the Sermons delivered during the Sunday service are based on the teachings of its founders. There are at least 35 million spoken and written words which L. Ron Hubbard delivered regarding the religion and its principles and beliefs. And Hubbard delivered at least 3,000 lectures all over the world which detail the path he has taken to the founding ofScientology. These earlier teachings are then used as the basis for the sermon of the minister for the Sunday service . These are often made current and relevant to the present conditions of the society and each individual. The goal of the sermon is to send away each member with higher spiritual awareness and increased understanding of how to apply the teachings in everyday life.

Group Auditing
Auditing is one of two major practices within the religion. It is basically a process that is akin to the spiritual counseling practiced by other religions. Although the process is often done on an individual basis, wherein there is an auditor or counselor to one subject, on Sundayservice, this is performed in groups.

In group auditing or group processing as it is often called, the same processes are involved. The auditor gives a series of auditing commands (inScientology jargon, a process) which is aimed at increasing the spiritual awareness of the subjects. These commands are comprised of specific sets of questions that are said to free the subjects up of their troubles.

Announcements
The church of Scientology has different activities outside those of the activities of the religion itself. These often include community outreach activities. It is part of the minister’s duty then to duly announce the schedule of activities during the Sunday service to remind the members of their individual obligations to the church and to their communities.

Prayer
The prayer concludes the Sunday service. The Prayer For Total Freedom is proceeded by the minister [that's what it says.]

Is this DM's latest idea, or have I missed something over the years?

I won't give the link; it seems a particularly nasty site. But it came up on Google Alerts this morning, as a blog.
 

Dulloldfart

Squirrel Extraordinaire
I won't give the link; it seems a particularly nasty site. But it came up on Google Alerts this morning, as a blog.

Gee, thanks for quoting the whole thing. It's a PR puff piece, written by someone in the CofS, and it is even falser than usual. I mean, "The Sunday service is generally seen as focal point for uniting all the members of the religion on a single day. This is the day when they participate in their local churches to hear messages of inspiration, teachings and to pray as one."

Even rabid churchies would say WTF?!! to that.

Paul
 

Nicole

Silver Meritorious Patron
I have read a while ago about the sunday service on a German - Scientology homepage.
I asked me allways what there is done. Maybe anybody can explain it me with easy simple words?
 

Dulloldfart

Squirrel Extraordinaire
Sunday Service is the only service where money is not overtly demanded, it's probably the only Free Service in scientology.

Yes, they schedule long donation meetings that people attend and every now and then they pass a Scientology service around.

Paul
 

GoNuclear

Gold Meritorious Patron
nothing new

In the SF org in the mid 70's where I started, and later in the CT missions, there was indeed a Sunday service. It consisted of exactly that ... reading the creed of the church, a little group processing nonsense, etc. They did the minimum to keep up appearances.

Brown McKee would sometimes show up to do the service, and he sometimes would wear a clerical collar. Old timer F. Brown McKee gave his take on the religious/ministerial aspect of Scientology in the 1982 Clearwater hearings, that is online on Youtube, linked thru via xenutv.com or at least the archived part of the site, it is still available, I saw it a few weeks ago.

Pete
 

SchwimmelPuckel

Genuine Meatball
Hmm.. When I was a student at Copenhagen Org there was a Guardian's Office 'programme' on, with a lot of pressure to do the sunday services.. The regular staff at CopOrg was pissed off about it. The course supervisor swung Hubbard PL's over her head and claimed that students could not be disturbed for any reason.. She got an R-factor.. And so we were all herded into the 'chapel' and a 'minister' read something or other of Hubbards pontifications... Took 10 minutes as I recall..

Later, I studied to become a 'Minister' myself.. A fast 3 day crack course we did in the GO because Hubbard (or someone uplines) thought that the 3rd world war was about to break out.. So the minister course was simply to avoid GO staff to be conscripted to the army.. Mewhaha.. I 'graduated'!

Never did any 'ministering' though.. I did a sunday service drill while on course.. I think I read that 'poem' from Hymns of Asia about beings (animals?) eating their young.. (horrible stuff!) Or maybe that was a funeral service.. Or maybe it was one of the other students reading it..

:yes:
 

Nicole

Silver Meritorious Patron
If they use the sunday service in a little Org, the Scientologist hear ca. 10 minutes storys about

that 'poem' from Hymns of Asia about beings (animals?) eating their young
or other things from Hubbard.

They invite for example in Berlin to the sunday services, if they speak about those things, the people run away. I mean it is good that they run away.
 

HelluvaHoax!

Platinum Meritorious Sponsor with bells on
Yes, in scientology it's called "the price of freedom", it's not so much offered as demanded. Sunday Service is the only service where money is not overtly demanded, it's probably the only Free Service in scientology.

Scientology orgs do offer one (1) other free service.

Toilets.

But, HCOPL "Free Toilet Paper Free Fall" is strictly enforced so public don't go criminal out-exchange.
 

GreyWolf

Gold Meritorious Patron
I am sure that if you walk in on any given Sunday morning, you will not find a service happening.
 

The Great Zorg

Gold Meritorious Patron
WTF?

In a Southwestern Ontario Mission back in the seventies, scientology had two ministers: one was a reformed biker and ex-so and the other was this strange guy that never bathed and actually went to a strip club one night in full garb, complete with the scilon cross. He was handled' for that last action ("it's very bad Public Relations, do not ever do that again!: you're in a liability condition, now go mop the floors for 12 hours. Oh, and clean the toilets". :omg:

I have seen the selection process for "fully ordained ministers of the church of scientology": it was a "Oh no!!!! I'm not going to be a minister! Let Joe be a minister. Oh no! Not me! FU! Get Gord to do it! No, Gord is gay, and he's being 'routed out' (was actually physically thrown out by a 'reg' who was a former male prostitute). No no no no, not him, how about No way! Not me! FTS! OK, YOU! (the stinky guy), you're "it"! "FUCK!". :grouch:

Services were held almost twice a year (whenever anyone strolled in on a Sunday, which happened about twice a year). The staff all scrambled to make a room ready and attend to have 'bodies in the shop'. The 'raw meat' was 'regged' afterward. Always. The services were run in the local newspaper, which was expensive but mandated by Saint Hill. We all knew it was hype and bullshit, but being brainwashed, we believed it was necessary because the 'wog' laws, ethics and morals mandated it. Everything immoral, illegal and unethical was always justified by the battle cry of "Save The Planet". Nothing was unholy, everything became justified. :grouch:

This was hubbard's scientology of the 70's. Mankind's only hope of survival. The only way out after 4 trillion years. HF! :grouch:

I doubt much has changed at the core, except for becoming worse. :confused2:
 

The Great Zorg

Gold Meritorious Patron
Always

I am sure that if you walk in on any given Sunday morning, you will not find a service happening.

If you were to stroll in and inquire about the scilon service, you might notice a flurry of activity and right before your eyes have a church setting, complete with a minister in full garb and lots of people attending (every available staff member). Try it sometimes. :lol:
 
During my staff tenure in St. Louis, they released The Background, Ministry, Ceremonies and Sermons of the Scientology Religion a massive tome that compiled Official Sanctioned Sermons, group auditing processes, and all those tacky wedding, christening and funeral services. Before that point we had something of a Sunday Service -- mostly a group of whoever was around got together in qual and one of the auditors (staff or field) would read a passage from something and offer a couple of observations. Very squirrel, of course, which was why it was awesome.

(An aside -- the first one of these I went to, the minister read the LRH quote, "Absolutes are Unobtainable" and then read from the GAT binders, "Absolute Perfection is the Goal ..." How very outré! Gotta love them Show Me State Scientologists.)

After the Ceremonies book dropped, there was a big push to do Sunday Service. Attendance stats were telexed in pronto, perhaps the only authentic part of the service. I'm a preacher's kid -- I've done Sunday morning church ad nauseum. The Scientology version is a charade. Window dressing.

The service, from the memory of one who cares less and less about all this BS: I seem to recall a "Tone 40" start of the service. A sermon is delivered -- an article written by Ron is read or a lecture is played, no original thought or presentation involved. Then group processing, which can be fun in a "Simon Says" sort of way. Some sort of benediction, and ... you now have very little time left for lunch.

There's this policy letter about "The Little Brown Church in the Vale," where Hubbard disses on the sense of community one finds in Protestant churches. I don't think he ever really understood what makes a "church" a "church." It's more than just a tax-exempt status. I think that's why the Scientology Sunday Service is as souless as the Church itself.
 
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