The Center for Conscious Living (CCL), a non-denominational, spiritual community that provides a safe space for people, is welcoming all to attend its Sunday celebration services at the Community House of Moorestown.
Rev. Dr. Katherine McClelland has been CCL’s senior minister since 2021, and shared her experience of relocating to Moorestown from California, after connecting with a member of CCL.
“I connected with this man who was from this congregation, who six months later reached out to me through my website, asked me if I knew anybody who would want to come be a minister here, and I said no and I was clearly not interested,” she recalled.
“Within 24 hours, something grew within me, and I circled back … And something circled through me back into this community.”
According to CCL’s website, McClelland was ordained as a truth and ageless wisdom minister in 2000. She received an honorary Doctor of Divinity from The Forum Foundation in 2006, and was the lead minister at The Symphony of Life Spiritual Center, a religious science spiritual community in Ojai, California, from 2001 to 2008.
According to McClelland, her affiliation with drawing people into a life that includes kindness, compassion and caring comes from her life experience.
“I grew up in the Middle East, in almost all of the Arab countries of the Middle East, and my father was an American diplomat, so how that shaped me in so many ways was partly being an outsider,” she noted.
“My protection was not assured; it was not an incredibly safe environment to be in, although we lived behind big walls and many times, we had guards around our house.”
According to her website, McClelland believes that her life was designed to highlight the opposing forces of humanity, and to create the desire to bring out the best in everyone. She has used every moment, every good experience, every dashed hope, every moment of grace, every moment of not belonging and every broken heart to learn about life mastery, love and peace in her heart.
McClelland described more of the impact her family life had on growing up.
“All of that feels like it was leading me to get to a point where it was so important for me to know how to live in this world in a way that I was self-protected, self-cared for, and also having a sense that the world was a friendly and beautiful, joyful experience to be alive in,” she explained, “rather than the possible misconception that I could’ve drawn from my childhood, that it was a dangerous and scary place.”
CCL also offers free workshops, spiritual seminars and spiritual practices classes, as well as midday meditation and prayer, led by McClelland, among other programs and volunteer opportunities. It emphasizes lifting and expanding consciousness in ways that lead to a life of full expression, connection, peace and harmony.
“We have so much more expansion in our culture, in our beliefs, in our knowing, in our understanding and in our ability to reach across the world in an instant,” McClelland pointed out.
“ … I was looking at everyone yesterday (Jan. 29) in church and I just looked and had one moment like, ‘I didn’t know any of these people two years ago.’ And that’s kind of my blind reality.”
For more information on CCL, visit https://www.newthoughtccl.org. For more information on McClelland, visit https://katherinemcclelland.com.
“If anyone is in Moorestown or any area, and they’re feeling any sense that they would love to be surrounded by a group of loving individuals, I invite them to come see us,” McClelland said.
“We would like to communicate that we already have our heart full and rooted in this community, and we really are saying please come.”
