Minister

Rev. Laura Shackelford has been a staff minister at the Palm Desert Center since 2003. She feels very blessed to have had the beloved Dr. Tom Costa as her ministerial teacher. Rev. Laura moved to the Coachella Valley in 1976 and opened the desert's first
court reporting agency in 1981. Her career as a court reporter has afforded her the opportunity to work with authors such as Neale Donald Walsch, Marianne Williamson, Barbara Marx Hubbard, and Jerry Jampolsky. She volunteers her court reporting services to the International Centers forSpiritual Living by reporting and transcribing board meetings for ICSL’s Board of Directors.

“There’s an excitement in the air and it’s drawing more and more people to our Center and to our teaching…it’s fantastic!”

Rev. Joe Hooper is the Spiritual Leader of the Center for Spiritual Living - Palm Desert, CA. His mission is to “Create a Center that works for everyone, where no one is overlooked and each person has an opportunity to thrive.”
With a relaxed, entertaining and many times irreverent style, he reaches everyone in the congregation with relevant themes and personal stories, many of them self-effacing, which resonate and demonstrate the commonality we all share. He’s also been known to give a lesson from the top of a ladder, don a costume or two and even throw in some interpretive dance as appropriate to illustrate a point. He demonstrates an incredible level of energy, genuine concern balanced with a wicked sense of humor honed from 20 years in the sky offering chicken or beef - or “feather or leather” as he likes to put it. Now, he says, “just like the airlines, I’m just a little nuts!”

Joe nurtures his diverse congregation and revels in it, and in turn, is adored by his members. He has been guiding the Center since 2003 and was mentored by the former leader Dr. Tom Costa, as well as Dr. Bill Taliaferro and Drs. Frank and Anita Richelieu.
Born, raised and christened in the Unity philosophy, Rev. Joe was first introduced to Dr. Ernest Holmes and the Science of Mind while he resided in Redondo Beach in 1995. This exposure turned out to be a pivotal moment in his life. Interested by what he heard and then personally demonstrated, he sought out more information about the Science of Mind and has spent the years since then concentrating on his spiritual development.

“It’s about creating a spiritual experience and environment for personal growth and development for each member of our congregation. Ultimately, what we do at our Center changes the world, one person at a time. By applying the Principles of our teaching to our Center, I know we will clearly, methodically, and without exception demonstrate positive change in our world.” His personal mission is to convey the message that, “No matter what…you’re okay…I’m okay…We’re all okay. Okay?”
Rev. Joe is married to his partner of 23 years. They have a teenage daughter which they adopted at birth - who he says provides endless opportunities to practice what he teaches - three dogs and a horse! Rev. Joe has never met a Krispy Kreme doughnut he didn’t love.

Rev. Joe’s expertise is also valued by the International Centers for Spiritual Living, where he served on the Board of Directors and four years as chair for the Policy and Bylaws Committee. He was instrumental in drafting the integration agreement between the newly formed Centers for Spiritual Living.

Rev. Joe has served on the International Centers for Spiritual Living Board of Directors, as the chair for the Policy and Bylaw Committee.

For more information please call (760) 346-4649.

Rev. Jerry Styner was born and raised in the Los Angeles area where he lived until his move to the desert in 1998. He holds a Master’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Southern California and worked for several years at major electronics companies, designing and programming computer systems. He has wide experience in the management of technical personnel and owned his own business that developed and marketed computer systems for physicians.

Always involved in music, he made his living for many years as a composer, arranger, record producer, instrumentalist, and recording engineer. He has over 30 feature film scoring credits, about 300 published and recorded songs, and a nomination for a Golden Globe award. Early in his career, Rev. Jerry composed dozens of songs for the “Beach Party” films starring Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello. He has worked with hundreds of singers and bands including The Osmonds, The Supremes, Ricky Nelson and Eddy Arnold, to name a few.

Rev. Jerry has been a practitioner since 2003 and is a graduate of the RSI ministerial course. He served on the Board of Trustees of the RSCD Spiritual Center, and was named a Staff Minister. He has had several prayer treatments published in Creative Thought magazine.

Although he enjoys all aspects of spiritual work, Rev. Jerry says his most satisfying activity is working one-on-one with clients as a professional practitioner. His personal vision statement is “Awakening the Goodness within us all.”

A third-generation native Californian, Rev. Bill grew up in Southern California before heading north to attend college. After graduating from Stanford with a degree in Chemical Engineering, he served five years in the Marine Corps as a fighter pilot.  Returning to civilian life, he spent 33 years with IBM in various marketing and engineering assignments, and got a Masters Degree in Computer Science along the way.

After retirement from IBM in 1994, this agnostic engineer/scientist found Religious Science when a friend took him to the Redondo Beach Center. "What I heard that day just made sense to me," he says of that visit. He became a regular attendee and soon began taking Science of Mind classes with Dr. Frank Richelieu. In 1998, he moved to the desert and continued his studies with Dr. Bill Taliaferro and Dr. Tom Costa, becoming a Minister of Religious Science in 2003.

When he was installed as a Staff Minister, Rev. Bill said, "Reflecting on my professional career, I realize that I have spent my entire adult life teaching in one form or another. It just seems natural that I would choose Education as my Ministry."