In times of adversity or danger, people often turn to their houses of worship for the succor and support they need. But with the pandemic, many who felt the need for this connection stayed away. And rightly so.
Staff and Volunteer Ministers of the Church of Scientology of Birmingham were in a unique and fortunate position. When the pandemic began, Church management researched the most effective methods of sanitization and exported this along with all supplies, equipment and training materials to every Scientology Church.
A new video on the Scientology website describes how, with this knowledge and skill, Volunteer Ministers from the Church of Scientology Birmingham reached out to local mosques, Gurdwaras and churches with the offer to sanitize their premises and train them so they could continue to ensure the safety of their congregations.
When the pandemic struck, said a member of the Ramgarhia Sikh Temple, “the Gurdwara virtually came to a standstill…The only glimmer of hope we saw coming was when the Scientology sanitization team came. They said ‘we can come and help,’ and that was music to our ears.”
At Zia Ul Ummah, the imam appreciated that not only did the team fully sanitize the mosque, they also trained mosque volunteers. “We mentioned this to our congregation,” he said. “They feel very safe coming to the mosque, knowing that it’s being done on a regular basis.”
A priest at Birmingham’s Our Lady of the Rosary & St. Therese of Lisieux Catholic Church was particularly concerned because most members of his congregation work in the health sector, so there is a far greater chance of someone contracting the virus and spreading it to other members of the church than at other parishes. Because of the work of the Scientology team, he said, “people come here knowing they are in a secure place.”
An administrator of the Jamia Masjid Qadria Trust Mosque recognized the essence of the initiative. “Forget about backgrounds, forget about colors, forget about ethnicity,” he said. ”It’s just for love, for peace, bringing people together. It is humanity serving humanity.”
The video on this program is part of a new section of the Scientology website that launched February 7 in tandem with the release of the new Scientology Super Bowl ad, “We Can Be More.”
The Volunteer Ministers who carried out this initiative are headquartered at the Church of Scientology of Birmingham which was dedicated in 2017 by Scientology ecclesiastical leader Mr. David Miscavige.
