You don’t have to be a Scientologist to care, but I must admit I find that Scientologists will, more often than not, actually give a damn about what is happening around them, even what is happening to people they don’t even know. I’ve just given the Poynton Commodores Drum & Bugle Corps a place to rehearse their musical ensemble for the winter, using new but empty Church of Scientology premises in the Manchester area. Why on Earth would I do that?
If you’ve read my entry “Why I’m not walkin’ on by,” you’ll get the idea that I enjoy helping. If you haven’t, you should have gotten the hint by now… I was in Manchester one night with my brother; we were just having a wander through the shops on a Sunday late afternoon, most places were closed but being as it was a Christmassy time, there were plenty of people around. I heard the sound of a familiar Christmas carol with that hearty brass sound. I wondered if it was perhaps the Salvation Army band, until the last chord piqued my interest. This was no “band,” this was the hornline of a drum & bugle corps.
I never expected to see the Poynton Commodores in Manchester city centre, but then Poynton isn’t that far away, so it makes perfect sense that they would come and set out some buckets to accept donations for the corps, while playing Christmas carols to warm the winter air. Noticing someone I knew, my brother and I stopped and waited for them to finish. I got introduced to the corps director and we got chatting. “It’s a nightmare trying to get somewhere to rehearse in winter,” she said. “We just paid £140 for a four-hour rehearsal last week!” I was astonished. This was clearly a situation that was having an impact on the corps. What about all the other expenses—instrument payments, uniform cleaning, travel fees?
And this is where my Scientology education comes into it. Because there’s a quote from Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, well-known among Scientologists, that sets the tone for the whole religion: “Something can be done about it.” Another one I like, is: “The wrong thing to do is nothing.” Think about it for a second. Here you are in front of a group for whom—and if you didn’t read the About Me page, you should know I was a member of a drum & bugle corps—you have a great deal of affinity, presented with a problem they face.
Did I say “well, sorry love but… credit crunch n’ all that”? Did I agree with how impossible it was, like “yeah, real tough isn’t it—nothing you can do there eh”? No. I thought that if the wrong thing to do is nothing, I should do something. And for sure, something could be done about it, because the Church of Scientology just managed to purchase new premises on the edge of Trafford, and before the final funds are raised to renovate what will become a new centre for that community, a point of emanation for the Church’s community programmes, it is, well… empty.
So what I actually said was “you know, I have a building.” Last weekend a hard-working team of corps members, their family members and staff came to Trafford and cleaned up rubble and carpet tiles, vacuumed the floors and set up the space ready for action. The following day they were in there for sectional rehearsals, making use of the many rooms on the ground floor to separate out the various instrumental sections. It was a tad chilly, what with the British winter and the lack of central heating, but their music soon warmed up the air and I was pleased to hear the sincere thanks of staff and members at the end of the rehearsal.
The Commodores are just one of the many charitable groups within the wider community of the Church of Scientology Manchester, and I look forward to working with more groups from here on out. And while I’m not looking at kicking the Commodores out of the building in Trafford, work is going to need to start soon to get the place ready to serve its local community. So, here’s to the future in this new year of 2009, and here’s a quote from L. Ron Hubbard…
“The first policy of a Scientology org [organisation], laid down on about 8 or 10 march 1950, is:
“MAINTAIN FRIENDLY RELATIONS WITH THE ENVIRONMENT AND THE PUBLIC.”—L. Ron Hubbard