Jenna Elfman will emcee Scientology concert in England that sees David Miscavige’s return

[Jenna Elfman will introduce the Jive Aces before they perform Sunday at Scientology’s concert]

Our friend Alexander “Apostate Alex” Barnes-Ross has come through again as he prepares for a major protest at the IAS gala this weekend, including a march on Friday.

Not only did he announce that the town council and local police have agreed to a road closure for the march at a time when Scientologists will be arriving for the weekend festivities, but he also sent us over two more fliers about the event, one of which contained something of a surprise.

We had wondered whether any of Scientology’s big celebrities would be making the scene, since this return of church leader David Miscavige to hosting the annual IAS gala in East Grinstead, England — after the pandemic forced it to be held in Florida the last three years — is a pretty big deal.

And now we know that at least one of the church’s celebs will be on hand: According to a flier Alex obtained, Jenna Elfman will emcee the charity concert that is held on Sunday night, and she’ll be introducing the first act, the Scientologist-manned music group Jive Aces.

That’s confirmed by the Jive Aces themselves, who listed Jenna Elfman as the concert emcee at their Facebook page.

We can’t remember the last time Elfman attended an IAS gala in England, if ever. (If you remember seeing her there, please let us know.) But we’ve long considered the Dharma and Greg actress to be one of the most hardcore and militant of Scientology’s celebrities.

The International Association of Scientologists (IAS) is Scientology’s membership organization and its legal defense fund. It was created in the 1980s when Scientology had suffered major setbacks in two lawsuits at the time. Today, church members are under huge pressure to donate $50,000 to become “patrons” of the IAS, and then to donate far, far more in order to achieve special status levels. You’re declared “Gold Meritorious,” for example, if you give the IAS more than $1 million in cumulative donations.

Each year, usually in October, the IAS traditionally holds its annual gala under a giant tent on the grounds of Saint Hill Manor, Scientology’s UK headquarters in East Grinstead. During the three-day festivities, Miscavige hands out “Freedom Medals” to two or three Scientologists for exemplary performance of some kind, he gives new trophies to the biggest donors, and on Sunday a charity concert is held.

Because of the pandemic, however, no events were held in England in 2020 through 2022, and the only reported sightings of Miscavige during that time were in the pages of church publications that said he had been attending Friday night graduations at the Fort Harrison Hotel in Clearwater, Florida. Otherwise, Miscavige was making himself scarce, and in February a federal court ruled that he was purposely evading process servers in a human trafficking lawsuit. The court declared him a defendant in that case, but then the lawsuit was forced into Scientology’s “religious arbitration” (that ruling is on appeal).

Miscavige has been named a defendant in even more lawsuits, and process servers have been sent out to find him, to no avail. So he’s taking a bit of a risk to fly to England so he can get on stage and deliver his usual hours-long address about how Scientology is growing by leaps and bounds. (It actually isn’t, but that’s never stopped him before.)

Barnes-Ross is doing his best to make sure Scientologists arriving for the event have to go past a protest, and perhaps at a very slow speed.

From 2 pm to 8 pm, about a kilometer of Saint Hill Road will be shut down by police in order to protect the protesters, slowing down arriving coaches and cars for the event to a crawl. (Here’s a map Alex provided at his website for the protest.)

We assume that Scientology is scrambling today to come up with an alternate way to get attendees to the manor.

We'll be continuing to communicate with Alex as the event nears, and planning for how the Underground Bunker can check in on the participants on Friday afternoon. We'll have more details on that later.

In the meantime, here's the flier that Alex sent over, showing that Jenna Elfman will be the master of ceremonies at the concert…

And he also sent over this fun flier about what attendees can expect at the three-day shindig.

Hot drinks! Pizza, Burgers & Churros!

Hey, if you’re going, we’d love to hear all about your experience. Drop us a line!

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