Scientology: A Religion in South Africa David Chidester University of Cape Town South Africa I. INTRODUCTION        Among other things, religions are distinctive human experiments in the production of sacred time and sacred space. Religions mark out the holy days of a sacred calendar for special observance, celebration, or commemoration. Religions also mark out sacred places--places of worship, places of gathering, places of pilgrimage--for a special kind of ritual attention. By participating in sacred time and space, human beings ground their religious commitments in the world.      All religions, even "new religious movements," find ways to make time and space sacred. In the international sacred calendar of the Church of Scientology, for example, the 11th of November is designated as "National Founding Day, South Africa," celebrating the establishment of the first Scientology church in South Africa, the church that was founded in Johannesburg in 1957. Although lectures on Scientology had been presented in Johannesburg as early as 1955, the founding of the first church there marked the beginning of Scientology's organised religious life in South Africa.      After more than a decade of growth, the church encountered opposition from the South African government. Under the auspices of the Department of Health, a formal government Commission of Inquiry was convened between April 1969 and December 1970 to investigate the Church of Scientology. Submitting its report in 1972, the commission issued the insupportable recommendation that Scientology should not be legally recognized as a church or a religion in South Africa.      However, in spite of this commission's recommendation, the Church of Scientology was allowed to register as a non-profit organisation. In the international sacred calendar of Scientology, the 16th of January marks the holiday--"Recognition Day Africa"--in commemoration of the day in 1975 on which the Church of Scientology was recognised as a non-profit organisation in South Africa. The church awaits, however, full legal recognition, in keeping with the recognition that Scientology has received elsewhere in the world, as a bona fide religion in South Africa. When that occurs, a new holiday might be added to the international sacred calendar of the Church of Scientology.

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