friends_friend (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} friends_friend) wrote,@ 2006-05-23 11:06:00 |
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Scientology Expansion in Tampa Bay Area
There are thousands of Scientologists who have made Tampa and the surrounding towns their home, because the spiritual headquarters of the Scientology religion is in Clearwater.
The Scientology Religion blog has an interesting quote from a recent Florida paper on the expansion of the Church of Scientology of Tampa.
There are thousands of Scientologists who have made Tampa and the surrounding towns their home, because the spiritual headquarters of the Scientology religion is in Clearwater.
The Scientology Religion blog has an interesting quote from a recent Florida paper on the expansion of the Church of Scientology of Tampa.
The Orlando Sentinal has a piece today on the Church of Scientology of Tampa and the expansion it plans for its service to the entire Tampa Bay community.
In the article it refers to a new life improvement center that it is setting up in St. Petersburg.
The church has a contract to buy a historic 7,000-square-foot building downtown. The sale is not final, but church officials hope it will be by June.
By the end of the summer, the church plans to open a life-improvement center, offering introductory Scientology courses, books by Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard and audio-visual displays.
Clearwater is home to the church's worldwide spiritual headquarters, where people come for the highest levels of training. But Scientologists generally don't recruit members there.
That is one of the aims of the Church of Scientology in Tampa, where members across the Tampa Bay area perform church services. The St. Petersburg life-improvement center will be an outreach of the Tampa church.
The move into St. Petersburg is part of a major expansion plan by the Church of Scientology of Tampa, which two months ago was recognized at an international church event as the fastest-growing Scientology church in the world.
After buying a property in Plant City last month, the church announced plans to open life-improvement centers in Cocoa Beach, St. Petersburg, Lakeland, Gainesville, Tallahassee, Jacksonville and Sarasota this year.
St. Petersburg, one of the largest cities in Florida with an active urban core, was a natural next step, said Ben Shaw, a spokesman for the Church of Scientology in Clearwater.
"St. Petersburg is one of the most vibrant and growing cities in Florida, and we enjoy contributing to that," Shaw said.
I attended the International event where Mr. David Miscavige first announced that the Tampa church had accomplished the goal of expanding to the size of the church L. Ron Hubbard personally directed in the 1960's. This was a terrific accomplishment a few years ago, and the Church has continued to expand since them.
