Scientology Volunteer Ministers Living Their Creed: Something Can Be Done About It

 The Church of Scientology Volunteer Minister’s core mission is to help—even in the midst of a pandemic.

Whether help is needed in the form of volunteering at a natural or man-made disaster or a local neighborhood cleanup, Scientology Volunteer Ministers proudly get to work. But a pandemic required a completely different kind of response.

“When COVID-19 hit Colorado, the world seemed paralyzed,” said Patricia, a Volunteer Minister from the Church of Scientology in Denver. “Officials told us we were safer at home. But is ‘safer’ good enough?”

With the message “an ounce of prevention is worth a ton of cure,” the Church of Scientology created a How to Stay Well Prevention Resource Center on the Scientology website and published three booklets containing the basic principles of prevention that can be read online or downloaded: How to Keep Yourself & Others Well, How to Protect Yourself & Others with a Mask & Gloves and How to Prevent the Spread of Illness with Isolation. There are also more than a dozen videos showing the simple actions anyone can take to keep themselves and others well. 

The Church of Scientology in Denver mobilized a corps of Volunteer Ministers to provide this vital information to the community.

Following all state and local protocols for safety, the Volunteer Ministers donned masks and gloves, zipped up protective gear and hit the streets. Their task: to hand out 11,000 copies of Stay Well booklets to businesses and door-to-door to local residents.

Their purpose: to help people with basic principles of prevention through these three educational booklets. 

“Businesses gladly took the booklets and put them in clear view for costumers to pick up when they entered,” said a volunteer named Paul. “This is bringing calm to the environment,” said Diana. “In one shop, the employees decided to put copies in all the ‘to go’ bags of their customers.”

Copies of each booklet come in a custom-designed box that folds into a counter display and invites people to “please take one.” On the back of the booklets, a QR code connects to the How to Stay Well Prevention Resource Center on the Scientology website.

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Distribution of the educational booklets began in May in communities around Scientology Churches and Missions across the globe. The Church of Scientology International Dissemination and Distribution Center made this possible by printing and shipping 5 million copies of Stay Well booklets.

The Church of Scientology Volunteer Ministers program is a religious social service created in the mid-1970s by Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard. It constitutes one of the largest and most visible international independent relief forces. A Volunteer Minister’s mandate is to be “a person who helps his fellow man on a volunteer basis by restoring purpose, truth and spiritual values to the lives of others.” Their creed: “A Volunteer Minister does not shut his eyes to the pain, evil and injustice of existence. Rather, he is trained to handle these things and help others achieve relief from them and new personal strength as well.”