SHE FOUND A LATER CALLING AT 72, NOW CHURCH'S SPIRITUAL LEADER.

Byline: Mary Vose Special to the Daily News

Every Sunday morning in Westlake Village an attractive, slender, well- dressed woman - who doesn't look her years - offers an uplifting spiritual message designed to infuse her listeners into changing their thinking so they can bring more joy, happiness and fulfillment into their lives. She speaks easily, animatedly, inspirationally and with touches of humor. She is the Rev. Sue Rubin, mother of three, grandmother of five and minister of the Westlake Church of Religious Science. At 72, she is a living testament that age is all in the way one perceives it and that she has no intention of being limited by a number.

Rubin came to the church as interium minister in April, 1996 and was installed as its minister two months later. Before coming to Westlake, she was founding minister of the First Church of Religious Science in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada for ten years. It was her first ministry. She was 57 when she arrived and for all her previous 57 years, her life was very different.

She was born Suzanne Coleman in New York City to a family of cultural Jews who attended temple only on the Jewish High Holy Days. When her older brother and only sibling was killed in World War II, the news was received on Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement) while her parents were in temple. The family's religious experience ended then.

She married in 1949 after a three-year courtship and two months after her mother died. ``I was very close to my mother and grew up very protected. Her death increased my insecurities and I didn't want to be alone.'' At her father's suggestion, the newlyweds moved in with him to save money while her husband established himself.

In 1949 Rubin also graduated from NYU, then worked for two years until she became pregnant. Her son Michael was born in 1952, daughter Sandy in 1956, and in 1958, the family moved to California.

They bought a house in Granada Hills and she socialized, played Pan, mah jon was in a bowling league. Her husband was in sales and traveled a lotand they grew apart. The couple's youngest son Jon was born in 1965. Two years later they went into marriage counseling. In 1968 their 19-year marriage ended.

With teenagers, a three-year-old in nursery school, Rubin worked part- time doing secretarial work for a publisher's representative for 2 1/2 years, followed by working full-time for another two years with an advertising agency, purchasing ad space and selling.

Although she was dating, working and proving that she could manage on her own, she was not emotionally satisfied.

Then she rented a secretarial space in a Beverly Hills office building and set herself up as "Sue Rubin Etc." Again that last about two years. ``That was my two-year cycle. Every two years I got bored.''

Around that time she becane involved in a relationship. He was an advertising sales rep for business publications and he put her to work in his office selling advertising. The relationship lasted seven years with both agreeing they didn't want it to go any further.

A friend, who was also Jewish, eventually talked her into visiting the Religious Science Church in Glendale. When she heard the minister speak with a psychological bent that had an added spiritual dimension, it felt right.

``Relgious Science reinforced my developing sense of self-sufficiency and self-reliance that I was building. It also gave me a spiritual focusin some higher entity that wasn't exclusively outside of myself. There's a GOD and yet the connecting link is to my thought. It was bringing GOD out of the sky and discovering a spiritual power or force that I could pesonally relate to my mind.''

Glendale was too far to travel so she attended the Granada Hills Church of Religious Science Church. Her two older children were living in Hawaii and she sold her house and bought a townhouse in Reseda. Then she attended the West Valley Church of Religious Science and enrolled in accredited Science of Mind classes with the minister, Dr.Tom Johnson. She took classes for five years - two as a ministerial student - and Johnson made her his protege and opened up opportunities for her. At this time her father moved to California after a series of strokes and entered a nursing home nearby.

Every time Johnson ask her if she wanted to do something with her ministerial certificate, she would say: ``No! I've got Jon at home, my father in the nursing home, Jim (her boyfriend) in my life and we're in business, so NO I'm not going anywhere.

In 1985 her father died, Jon was approaching 20 and the relationship was ending. After encouragement from Johnson, she put her name on the list of ministerial candidates. By September, the only church available was in Edmonton, Canada.

``I didn't want to go that far. But the friend who introduced me to Religious Science said `You mean you've come so far and your're not going to explore the possibility, I can't believe it!' I knew she was right, so I went up Labor Day Weekend, spoke to them, turned around and came home. I couldn't explain it, but if they wanted me, I was going to do it. Something purely illogical and intangible was motivating me and it was the first time that my head wasn't ruling. It was something I couldn't get a handle on mentally. Maybe it was the continuous moving to an ever greater challenge or demand upon myself to see if I could pull this off.''

They wanted her! She had a month to get herself up there. A long saga followed with the Canadian Customs at the entry port of Coots on the Canadian side and Shelby, Mont. on the U.S. The hitch: the church in Edmonton had not yet become a chartered official non-profit organization and she was not a licensed minister because she had to have a church before she became one.

Finally after two and one-half weeks, a customs judge allowed her entry and a temporary work permit. It was five years before she received permanent resident status. During her 10 years as minister in Edmonton she increased the church membership from 40 to 200, they purchased their own church facility and she graduated three ministerial candidates. It was now time to return to California. Her children were married and she had three grandchildren.

All her life Rubin was a worrier. ``It was the faith that got rid of the worry. I trusted the whole rational,logical approach to this teaching that didn't insult my intelligence. How it evolved was with the spiritual practices and with the constant exposure to the work, the ideas, the intuitive sense, the deeper heartfelt way it touches people.''

When she came to the Westlake Church four years ago, the membership was around 40 and the expenses exceeded the income. Today the membership is over 200, there's more than $300,000 in bank and it looks as if they will be able to purchase their own facility in the next year or two.

Rubin is determined as long as they want her to introduce newer and better ideas and to continue spiritual growth. This past January she arranged for Dr. Wayne Dyer, psycholgist, spiritual guru and author of "Your Erroneous zones," "Real Magic" and many other books to speak at the Woodland Hills Hilton before an audience of more than 600. She recently arranged for Mary Manin Morrissey, spiritual leader of the Living Enrichment Center in Oregon, with a global ministry reaching thousands, to speak in November.

What is Rubin's secret for a fulfilling life? Her words: ``Give yourself to GOD and give yourself to LOVE!''

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Photo: The Rev. Sue Rubin says the Church of Religious Science gave her "spiritual focus in some higher entity that wasn't exclusively outside of myself."

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News