Earlier this month Scientology representatives admitting during a Mid-Sussex District Council hearing that their biggest annual event was not a religious ceremony. But that begs the question, what type of event is it?
Every October Scientology’s official membership body, the International Association of Scientologists (IAS) gathers for a lavish three-day extravaganza at the church’s UK headquarters in East Grinstead, Sussex. The event takes place in a mammoth marquee erected illegally – without planning permission – on the grounds of Saint Hill Manor, the Grade-II listed country estate founder L. Ron Hubbard once called home. Promoted by the church as “the greatest gathering of Scientologists on the planet”, the event consists of a three-hour speech by current leader David Miscavige, a charity concert and a black-tie ‘Patrons Ball’ where Scientology’s biggest donors are presented trophies and awards recognising the total value of their lifetime donations to the church.
The IAS has a tiered donation system and regularly publishes lists showing how much members have contributed in the pervious year. Donating $50,000 earns you the title ‘Patron’ with titles and trophies becoming more extravagant with each tier. The highest level announced so far belongs to Kennedy Center board member and Trump mega-donor Trish Duggan, who is listed in Scientology’s Impact Magazine as ‘Diamond Patron of Legend with Honours’, understood to represent a lifetime donation of at least $360 million.
Although the IAS promotes itself to Scientologists as the source of funding for the Church’s social betterment initiatives such as drug rehabilitation facility Narconon and anti-psychiatry group CCHR (Citizens Commission on Human Rights), an internal document shared with us last week revealed the primary goal of the IAS – at least for 2026 – was to make money. Of the 8 targets for this year, none related to helping those in need or forwarding legitimate charitable aims – rather, the IAS is aiming to double its number of paying members and encourage those already contributing to move on to making regular, monthly donations.
Now, another document sent to us by an inside source shows how staff members are expected to shift gears into fundraising mode for the annual IAS event – regardless of their job role within the Church. The document relates to the 2024 event and lists staff members at the Church of Scientology London, their normal job functions and assigned fundraising role for the three-day event.
Chris Shelton, who once served in Scientology’s management structure overseeing similar events, told us “Every event has a stated product. Typically we were all focused around whatever that product was, and it was almost always money-motivated because the product would be to sell it. Whether it was a new service, donations or ideal org donations. Very rarely were there recruitment events, but they would happen from time to time. So the bulk of the all-hands activities for Scientology orgs is 95% of the time going to be towards making money.”
“It’s funny how a few years ago they started trying to put out that they were not going to hard sell anymore and were not getting in people’s faces anymore, the sheer number of people they throw at this tells you very clearly what their priorities are.”
In Scientology, sales people are called “registrars” or “regges” and the document shows a range of staff members, including London Org’s Executive Director, taking on this role for the IAS event weekend. Only a handful of the 57 workers were left to keep the Org itself open with everybody else being sent down to Saint Hill for the event. Shelton explains, “It’s up to one or two people to man this org and that’s why it’s falling apart. And I say falling apart strictly from the numbers perspective. 57 staff for an ideal org in the middle of quite literally one of the busiest cities on the entire planet is so pathetic.”
Scientology claims to be the fastest growing religion on the planet, with millions of members worldwide and “hundreds of thousands” in the United Kingdom. When London opened as an ‘Ideal Org’ in 2006, church spokesperson Janet Laveau told the Evening Standard “we have 118,000 members in the UK, almost half of whom live in London”, which suggests either that number was significantly inflated or Scientology has seen rapid decline over the last 20 years.
So, with church representatives confirming the IAS event is not a religious worship ceremony, the IAS goals for 2026 being focused on driving revenue and the majority of London staff members put on money-making duties, the evidence seems to suggest Scientology’s primary goal for the event is to raise funds. But with little evidence the money is being spent on social betterment programs and staff members being paid just $50 per week despite working 100+ hour weeks, it begs the question… where is all the money going?
Scientology were denied charity status in 1999 with the UK Charity Commission ruling it “does not benefit the public.”
You can read the digitised version of the document below. We have removed staff members’ surnames out of respect for their privacy.
