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CHURCHES, MISSIONS AND GROUPS
FLAG SERVICE ORGANIZATION
The Flag Service Organization (FSO) is a religious retreat which serves as the spiritual headquarters for Scientologists from all over the world. It is the hub of the Scientology worldwide community, a dynamic, multilingual organization and is the largest single church of Scientology in the world. The FSO not only ministers the most advanced levels of training available anywhere, but all of the OT levels up to New OT VII, Solo New Era Dianetics for OTs (Solo NOTs).
From the late 1960s through the mid-1970s, the highest ecclesiastical organizations were located at sea aboard a flotilla of ships. The 350-foot vessel Apollo served as Mr. Hubbard’s home. Because of this, it was then the most senior Scientology church, known as the “flagship” of the flotilla and called “Flag” for short. (See Chapter 33.)
At that time, special advanced auditing and training services were ministered only aboard Flag. However, as more and more Scientologists wanted to participate in these services, the lack of sufficient space required a move to land. And, in 1975, the Flag Service Organization established itself in Clearwater, Florida, where it occupied the eleven-story Fort Harrison Hotel. Since then, Flag has continued to expand. Today it also occupies the Sandcastle Hotel which ministers advanced auditing, the Coachman Building which at any given time serves as a training center for thousands of Scientologists and several other supporting facilities. Due to Flag’s growing international congregation, new construction is always ongoing to provide still more facilities for its parishioners.
 
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