About Marlene
1983
Licensed Religious Science Practioner
1986
Graduated from Ministerial College, San Jose (CA)
Called to be Senior Minister of Burbank Church of Religious Science (SpiritWorks)
1989
Ordained
1990s
Ecclesiastical Officer for United Church of Religious Science (United Centers for Spiritual Living)
2000
Awarded Doctor of Divinity by United Church of Religious Science
2008
Founded Center for Spiritual Inspiration, online church-on-demand teaching
Rev. Marlene’s story is filled with the stuff of which many 21st-century lives have been made. Her father died when she was five, she was an only child, raised by a single mother who experienced severe mental challenges. She left college after the first semester when her mother was hospitalized and never had the opportunity to return. Married young, she was the mother of three by the time she was in her late 20s and divorced by the time she was in her early 30s.
Bright, but with no advanced education; capable, but with no formal training; filled with ideas, but with no prospects, a family to care for, but no one to care for her; she did what many have done: she went to church. The church was untraditional and metaphysical and taught that everyone was an expression of the Divine and could change their lives by changing their thinking. When she learned that she was responsible for co-creating all of the good in her life, not just the bad, those ideas changed everything.
Through studying, applying what she learned, and learning to teach and counsel others, her life changed dramatically. In 1983 she realized that she was called to ministry. She was a highly acclaimed dynamic speaker and inspirational leader, and teacher, and for nearly 20 years she served as the glorious senior minister of SpiritWorks Center for Spiritual Living in Burbank, California.
When illness struck in 2003, she moved north and provided inspirational weekly Sunday services for the Unity church In Cambria. She was also a highly regarded guest speaker at Unity of Ventura until her death in March of 2022. Way too soon. She had so much more to give.
