How Scientology Volunteer Ministers Helped Orlando Get Through the Worst of the Pandemic

When a state of emergency was called and all non-essential services including theme parks were closed, the Church of Scientology reached out to the community, as shown in a video on the Scientology website’s interactive timeline, 20/21: A Look Back & A Look Ahead.

Last year, Orlando, which welcomes 75 million visitors to the city each year, ground to a standstill. Theme parks closed and those who work in the hospitality and leisure industries, some 20 percent of the population, were out of work.

In times of stress, people depend on their churches for guidance and solace, but fear of contagion was keeping people from availing themselves of these services. Orlando Volunteer Ministers took on the sanitization of nearby churches and provided them with copies of educational booklets that make it easy to understand how to keep yourself and your family safe and well.

As the pastor of the Way to Calvary Church of the Nazarene put it in a video on the Scientology website’s interactive timeline, 20/21: A Look Back & A Look Ahead, the Scientologists were on the front lines. “You clean our building so we can be safe,” he said.  He took copies of the booklets so he could share this information with his congregation.

“Not everyone would take time to do what you are doing,” said the pastor of the First Haitian Baptist Church of Central Florida. “This is a great, mighty ministry.”

The pastor of the Apostolic Church of God of Orlando said the booklets were worth a million dollars to him. “The Scientology Ministry is doing this—this benefits everybody,” he said. 

 

With schools about to open last August, Volunteer Ministers partnered with community groups to provide families with food and supplies. The president of the Boricuas de Corazon Foundation described how the Volunteer Ministers began working with her last March and came every single day. “They don’t miss one day,” she says. “They go with us in the warehouse, they do all the sorting, all the packing.” 

One of the projects the Church did with this foundation was a back-to-school drive-thru held at the Church. Families began arriving at 11 in the morning and continued to 5:30 p.m. School supplies, hygiene and sanitation products, and food were placed directly into the trunks of their cars to avoid any violations of social distancing.

“We’re out here making a difference for the people,” said the Sheriff of Osceola County at the drive-thru, “great people who just need that hand up… You guys are tremendous and great in my eyes.”

The Church of Scientology Orlando was dedicated in May 2018 by Mr. David Miscavige, ecclesiastical leader of the Scientology religion. 

For more information, visit the 20/21 interactive timeline at Scientology.org/2021.