Our Ministers
Rev. Bonnie Rose
Photo by Gerard Burkhart
Dear Friends,
Thank you for visiting the Ventura Center for Spiritual Living’s website.
I am the Senior Minister of this wonderful Spiritual Center, and I’ll start by giving you some information about who I am.
First the facts: I was raised in the suburbs of New York. I went to College in North Carolina where I received 2 degrees – one in nursing and another in music. I worked as a nurse, opera singer, actress, and corporate trainer before deciding to become a minister. I attended Holmes Institute and got a Master of Divinity degree. I was ordained in 2004 shortly after I started serving at our Spiritual Center. I live in Ventura County with my husband and a large menagerie.
Those are the surface details of my life. What’s more important to me though, is to convey my spiritual journey and how it has led to my love for our Spiritual Center and the people in it.
My spiritual influences are many. I was raised in an open-minded Christian home. As a professional singer, I performed in places of worship of many faiths. I found our denomination in my twenties and was captivated by the positive inclusive message.
More recent influences have been Nipun Mehta, Richard Rohr, Rumi, my human and animal family, our congregants – really life is my teacher. I seek to convey the wisdom and love available for all. I do this through writing, teaching classes and Sunday messages.
My “Sunday Messages” tend to be deeply loving, strangely quirky, and slightly irreverent….
Photo by Gerard Burkhart.
For those of you who are familiar with mainstream Religious Science, my approach is somewhat non-traditional. Many people in our denomination focus on teachings like The Secret, which are largely about manifesting what we want. While manifestation can be a beautiful thing, I have found that Love is the divine force driving all our desires.
So we focus more on love for self and others. We surrender to love, grace, and the divine mystery.
We don’t “affirm life’s imperfections away.”
We love even the darkest parts of ourselves. We aspire to love everything.
And if we can’t love something, we love the part of us that can’t love it.
For the action of love is more important than the object of love.
Photo by Gerard Burkhart
Love has the capacity to transform anything when we apply it with kindness and authenticity.
The vision of a world filled with love fuels my passion and my work at our Center. I get to work with the nicest congregation in the world. Together we become individualized Centers of Love while we co-create our Spiritual Center of Love that blesses the world in seen and unseen ways.
If you would like to join us on this mystical journey, please feel free to contact me at office@venturacsl.org. I look forward to serving you, helping you find the love that you are, and lifting the world through our shared journey.
With Love, Rev. Bonnie Rose
Rev. Judy Pando
Staff Minister Rev. Judy Pando is an ordained CSL minister and hospice Chaplain. Her primary ministry has been in pastoral care. She serves others in spiritual and emotional need. She is co-leader of the Circle of Blessings and a grief recovery group. The members of the Circle of Blessing are devoted to seeing the divine in everyone and in all circumstances. Knowing that life is perfect, but not always easy, it is Judy’s great honor and privilege to offer spiritual and practical support to those members of our community in need and those who care for them. Chaplains are those who journey with individuals in crisis or who are experiencing loss. A Chaplain is not a fixer nor an answer giver, but one who provides a unique presence to those who are deeply vulnerable.
Judy’s ministry is about spiritual maturity. It is about transformation, awakening and allowing. It is about seeing as God sees, loving as God loves. It’s about connecting, heart to heart, mind to mind, and soul to soul; holding one hand at a time. She is a teacher, speaker and spiritual seeker.
Judy is a native of California, and enjoys nature and spending time with friends and her very large family.
Contact Rev. Judy at RevJPPando@gmail.com or call (805) 647-4511.
Rev. Karen Mondragon
Rev. Karen Mondragon earned her minister’s license from the Centers for Spiritual Living in January 2020 and her Emeritus practitioner status with VCSL with over 20 years of practitioner service. She has taught many classes thru VCSL. Karen the mother of two children, a grandmother to seven and a great grandmother to two. Karen loves animals, she volunteered for the County Animal Shelter in Camarillo for many months until she wasn’t able to do that but she loves animals and has had five dogs over the years and now a cat named Bella. She has three published books with her fourth ready to be published. Karen considers her ministry as her life’s work and her writing as one of the avenues through which she brings the word of Spirit to a wide audience. Karen also leads meditations online through Facebook for a group known as the Larissa Stow Shakti Tribe Love Warriors. Rev. Karen is the lead person for the VCSL’s Ministry of Prayer, she was a member of the Centers for Spiritual Living ‘s World Ministry of Prayer. Karen migrated to California in the ’80s from New York and has never looked back. Karen loves walking and currently participates in the City of Ventura’s Boogie Nights series of 5Ks. She says her goal is to just cross the finish line, which so far she has. There are a total of ten races every Wednesday evening, Karen has finished the first three. Rev. Karen learned to fly a single engine Cessna 150 at the Santa Paula airport in the ’70s but no longer participates in that sport. She loves to travel and is ready to go at any time. Rev. Karen’s biggest goal in life is to live every moment honoring her noble purpose. Karen was certified to teach the Noble Purpose by Judy Neal, with permission from Barry Heerman, now deceased.
Rev. Jennifer Gadberry-Hadrys
Ventura’s newest licensed minister is a recent graduate from the Holmes Institute. Rev. Jennifer has thrived after finding and adopting the principles of the Science of Mind and can’t wait to help others find their own paths. Love, kindness, and connection are what Rev. Jennifer strives for in all aspects of her life. This specifically out pictures in her occasional talks and in the classes she is fortunate enough to teach as well as her everyday work as the VCSL operations manager.
Contact Rev. Jennifer at jennifergh@venturacsl.org or 805-643-1933.