Times of London on the Church of Scientology of London
New Scientology church signals UK expansionist thrust
Actress Anne Archer is among the celebrities due to attend the opening of London’s new Church of Scientology headquarters on Sunday. The Church of England has welcomed the new church, which is opening its doors to the public in a building that was once the headquarters of the Bible Society.
The five-storey Italian palazzo building in Queen Victorian Street was originally designed and built in 1866 by architect Edward l’Anson after he won a competition to design the new headquarters for the British and Foreign Bible Society. On completion the building was called Bible House. In 1985 the building was taken over by BP and named D’Arcy House, after William Knox D‘Arcy, the founder of BP. The Scientologists bought it in 2004.
Canon Peter Delaney, Archdeacon of London and a Canon of St Paul’s, hosted a welcome "tea party" for the Scientologists at his home close by the cathedral. Senior clergy from churches in the City of London were also invited to get to know their new neighbours.
Canon Delaney told me: "The aim was to show them that we are not hostile to visitors to the City, to show that while we may not agree with them in detail, we were certainly not going to cold shoulder them and were going to say, ‘Welcome to the City.’ I do not consider them a threat. Why would we consider them a threat? There are two things about them that are important. They do not call themselves a church in the sense that we understand it. And they do not call themselves Christians, but are another faith. Their faith community cannot be a threat to people of faith. One of the things that is impressive about them is their drug treatment programme for young people. I think people have been hostile to them. My concern is that we cannot talk about following Jesus Christ if we are not welcoming to people."
But what cannot be denied or ignored today is Scientology’s massive expansion. The average Scientologist spends about two thousand pounds a year on courses, not much when compared with what the average non-Scientologist spends in the pub, as was pointed out to me. That’s an awful lot of cash pouring into the coffers of the Church, reported to have spent ten million pounds on Queen Victoria Street alone. There are up to 12 million Scientologists worldwide, with nearly 140,000 in the UK. If the present rate of expansion continues, they could easily be giving the Anglicans a run for their money within a generation, never mind the rest. And don’t forget, these are committed people. If you take the usual figure for worldwide Anglicanism of 70 million, it is important to remember that 25 million of those are the baptised Anglicans in England, of which about one in 25 go to church. Also for comparison, there are about 300,000 Jewish people and 600,000 Hindus.
Besides the UK, a further nine Scientology churches have opened recently in the US, South Africa and Spain. In the past year alone, the numbers of people showing up for their first Scientology service has increased four-fold. More than 1,300 other new centres and missions have opened in the last 12 months. In terms of accelerating expansion, the Church has grown more in the last 5 years than in the preceding 50 years.Canon Delaney made the point that Scientology is not Christian, it is another faith. That is true, but much seems borrowed from Christianity. The cross, for example, resembles a Celtic cross, although it has a completely different significane to the Christian symbol of resurrection and suffering. The eight points represent the eight drives or thrusts of an individual’s spirit, the eight elements of survival.
To survive is the primary axium of Dianetics, the "science" of mind and spirit that makes up Scientology. From the evidence of what is taking place in London, Scientology is doing more than merely surviving. It is thriving.I am not making a judgement on this either way in positing that. But one thing is "clear" to me. Even if the Church is never granted the financal benefits that come with being a registered charity, I’m not sure that will matter to its leaders. Unlike most other churches in these Isles, a tour of the beautifully-refurbished new headquarters on the eve of the opening celebrations made it abundantly clear that money at least is not a problem for the Church of Scientology.
