21: Wendy Craig-Purcell: Transforming the World With Love

In this episode, Rev. Wendy Craig-Purcell discusses everyday spiritual wisdom, conscious living and her life as a Unity Minister.
 “Many times the challenges we face are designed to wake us up to the essence of God.”– Wendy Craig-Purcell
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About Wendy Craig-Purcell

Reverend Wendy Craig-Purcell has been a force in the effort toward global change for nearly 30 years.  A graduate of the Unity School of Christianity, Wendy was ordained as a Unity minister in 1980. Just a few years later, she created The Unity Center, a 1500-member spiritual community located in San Diego, California where she currently serves as CEO and Senior Minister.
Among the first members of the Association for Global New Thought (AGNT), Wendy now holds the office of Vice President. She participated in all three AGNT-sponsored “Synthesis Dialogues,” which brought together some of the world’s leading thinkers to dialogue with His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Dharmsala, India in 1999.
Her travels have taken her to Istanbul, Turkey in 2006 as part of the planning for the Abraham Path Initiative; Peru, Greece and Italy.
With a strong interest in spiritually motivated social action, Wendy and The Unity Center community were instrumental in the formation of the San Diego Department of Peace. It has since become Americans for the Department of Peace (AFDOP) and now encompasses all of Southern California. The Unity Center continues to provide ongoing support.
She has been awarded the Gandhi Non-Violence Award from the Tariq Khamisa Foundation and has been inducted into the Martin Luther King Jr. Board of Preachers Hall of Fame.
[spp-tweet “Coincidence is the name that God or Spirit uses when it chooses to remain anonymous. @SDUnityCenter”]
….In this show….

Wendy Craig-Purcell’s Life Purpose

• To assist in the personal and global transformation by teaching every day spiritual wisdom and modeling conscious living.

Life Purpose Ah-Ha Moments

• At the age of 17, while sitting in a Unity church absorbing the daily messages, Wendy had a vision that she would be doing the same thing the minister before her was doing.  She saw herself in the pulpit speaking and couldn’t relate to the vision.  The idea was so foreign to her that she suppressed it and, as a result, began waking up with nightmares that she was going to become a Unity minister.  These night mares were very disturbing to Wendy.  She went to discuss this with her grandmother who presented Wendy with an envelope containing a note she had written to herself earlier documenting a premonition that she had had that Wendy would become a Unity minister.  Wendy expected her grandmother to talk her out of it but received just the opposite, confirmation.

Major Life Events that Hinted at Your Life Purpose

• As a child, Wendy was described as “Too Bossy”.  Although she didn’t understand it at the time, they were the first signs of true leadership skills.
• Devoting years to becoming a skilled ice-skater taught her things like focus, discipline, and practice that she uses every day today.

Spiritual Belief

• A Presence, a Power, an Energy that sustains us.  This presence and power in the universe is benevolent.  It is sometimes called GOD.
• We are a part of that and it is a part of us.  We are inherently good.  The spark of the divine exists within every one of use.  It is what we are in our essential nature.  Whether we are aware of it or not, it’s there.  We are more than this physical being and more than the things we’ve done.
• Many times the challenges we face are designed to wake us up to this essence.
• Devoted spiritual practice reveals more of this to us.
• When you look across cultures, you see a commonality in belief systems.

Recommended Personal Growth Resource or Practice

• Time for Reflection:  If a person is beginning to feel a divine discontent, the feeling that something is missing, paying attention to and honoring it by spending time every day in a meditative or reflective practice where the mind becomes more quiet and we can ask questions from a deep place (our heart versus our head).
• Begin to experiment:  Read books and go on the web to experiment.  You can start with the New Thought Movement which is very inclusive in many beliefs.
• Mindfulness Meditation
• Exercise
• Yoga
• Unity.org is the Unity Worldwide Headquarters where you can find a church in your area.  Religious Science is another alternative.
• iPhone Apps:
  • Inspire.  Inspire allows you to create a virtual vision board developing your goals.
  • Insight Timer:  Beautiful Tibetan Bowls for Meditation
  • Journaling
  • Prayer
  • TrackNShare

Wendy Craig-Purcell’s Wisdom on Igniting Life Purpose and Personal Growth

Be willing to trust yourself and what comes into your consciousness that may at first seem to be something you can’t relate to.  Be willing to look at that, push past the resistance and probe deeper to see what gift it’s trying to bring you.  It may really be the vehicle through which you find your true life purpose.

Interview Links and Special Offers from this Episode

• Wendy Craig-Purcell’s Website
• The Unity Center’s Website
• The Unity Center on Facebook
• Services every Sunday at 9am and 11am.
• Book:  Ask Yourself This by Wendy Craig-Purcell
• Free Gift:  Wendy’s Lesson:  Favorite Bible Stories: For Good (Joseph)- January 25, 2015 (Free discount code:  LPAWCP).
• Free Daily Spiritual Message from Wendy:  Just for Today.  Call the center at 858.689.6500 to be added to the list to receive a daily message via email.

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