BRUSSELS, BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, January 12, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ — “While naturally and human-created catastrophes continue to occur, be it in so-called ‘developed’ countries and those on their path to ‘development’, it has never been more true that religions have to help each other to first cope with the situations and then inspire and execute resilient solutions, to put an end to those catastrophes created by humans, and better predict those to arise from mother nature,” said Ivan Arjona, President of the European Office of the Church of Scientology for Public Affairs.
Asked about this much-needed cooperation, Arjona informed of a series of videos that document how Scientology Volunteer Ministers are helping organizations from different faiths and where religious leaders from Christianity, Islam and others are thanking for the cooperation.
A video on the Scientology website highlights the importance Scientologists place on interfaith activities and community service. For example, it features the work of the Scientology Volunteer Ministers (VMs) of Mexico at the height of the COVID pandemic, where the pastor of Horeb Presbyterian National Church thanks the Scientologists for making his church safe for his congregation.
COVID made it extremely difficult for Mexican churches of a broad range of denominations to cope and in response, Scientologists organized a corps of Volunteer Ministers to see to the safe operation of houses of worship of all denominations. “We know how important it is at all times, but especially at moments of crisis and confusion, to have a stable datum that helps you focus and find calmness and solutions for challenging situations. This what places of worship provide so, during COVID especially, we could not afford to have all these people without a place where to find spiritual help and inspiration, and our church members everywhere rolled up their slips” stated Arjona. Launching from the National Church of Scientology of Mexico in Mexico City, the volunteers brought succour, stability and safety to the religious community in the nation’s capital, shows the official Scientology website.
The pastor of Horeb Presbyterian National Church describes in the video the Scientology volunteers who cleaned and sanitized his church as coming “like a gift from God to us.” He states that “because of their work”, he was able to assure his parishioners that “it was safe for them to come back to church”.
While each of the volunteers could tell his or her personal reasons for stepping up when everything seemed to be closing down, they all share the purpose instilled by humanitarian and Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard when he created the Volunteer Ministers initiative in the mid-1970s. He described the Volunteer Minister as “a person who helps his fellow man on a volunteer basis by restoring purpose, truth and spiritual values to the lives of others.” And they took this to heart.
The pastor of the Nazaret Evangelical Church recalls the “action, service and kindness,” of the volunteers and their “spirit of service, always with joy, with a smile, and willingness to do it.”
“You do it for the good of the people,” said a representative of the Mexican Catholic diocese, “so they can gravitate to a place where they can pray.” And the work of the Volunteer Ministers reminded him of “how much we can accomplish when we all work together for the good of the community” it is stated on the official site.
Going now from America to Europe, a Scientology spokesperson shows us another example in Madrid, Spain, o last December 2022. Volunteers received a request for help from an elderly residence managed by catholic nuns who take care of the elderly who have nobody else. The nuns requested help with food and hygiene supplies, and the VMs gathered enough of that for a while, earning the prayers of these catholic nuns.
Further to the east, in Rome, Italy, More than 50 volunteers from the Islamic Cultural Centre of Italy and the Church of Scientology worked together to safeguard and improve the environment of the Great Mosque of Rome (Moschea di Roma) which is the largest mosque in the Western World, and which can accommodate more than 12,000 faithful at a time. The volunteers collected and disposed of brambles and shrubs, weeds, brushwood and trash, making access to the mosque by pedestrians easier and restoring the beauty of the area.
“It is a collaboration that carries forward a common project, both of fraternity and friendship and with a common goal, that of caring for the environment,” said Dr Nader Akkad, imam of the Grand Mosque of Rome. “Religions have a very important task, to create fraternity, to create a common space of friendship. Nowadays, it is very important for religious faiths to cooperate for the collective good, and certainly one of the best ways to do this is to take care of the environment, the people and the relationships of those people who live in this environment.”
Mr David Miscavige, ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion, is putting into practice a major project that “ensures the embodiment of Mr Hubbard’s teachings in creating ideal Scientology churches around the world, that can provide the needed help that people need serving as a home for the entire community—a meeting ground of cooperative effort to uplift people of all cultures and denominations”.
“While from Mr Hubbard’s teachings we learn the beauty and the how of being compassionate enough to do something for the better of humanity, I see in Mr David Miscavige the ‘theory put in practice’, and in the correct orders of magnitude, because help is not something you just ‘give’, it is something you do to empower the other person or group to become more able to overcome the obstacle of which the game of life is made of. With him, Mr Hubbard could have not made a better choice to ensure the help Scientology can bring gets fully enacted” concluded Arjona.