Hi!

Welcome to this website. I anticipate that you will return frequently to check on our offerings of inspiration and scheduled activities as the Unity presence in Lake Havasu City grows. I am Rev. Margee Grounds, an ordained Unity minister who has moved to the area to “pioneer” a Unity Church in Lake Havasu City.

I’ve come to this area only recently and so you might be interested in learning something about my background. I was ordained in 1992, after completing my seminary education at Unity Village (Missouri – 17 miles southeast of Kansas City). I served Unity Church of Savannah (Georgia) as senior minister for eleven years, beginning in the fall of 1992. Savannah is a wonderful place to begin ministry, and I found there an ideal spiritual community in which to learn and grow.

 Unity ministry is broader than the local church. In the fall of 1994 I hosted the Southeast Region of Unity Ministers’ conference in Savannah and was at that time elected to the Region’s Board of Trustees, serving initially for a period of five years as treasurer and then for the final three years of my second term as president. Along the way and after extensive training and service, I became a certified Peaceworker under the then newly formed International Ministry for Peacemaking of the Association of Churches. I now also serve as the co-chair for our Association’s Field Licensing Team, and a member of the Minister/Ministry Review Team. I sharpened my leadership skills through the Unity Ministers’ Executive Institute, which was funded for Unity by Sir John Templeton. It was my privilege a member of the inaugural class for this program.
 
 I have spent the past year on a personal sabbatical, experiencing an informal time of closure with the many friends I left behind in Savannah when I moved to Arizona. It was also a time of renewal, reflection, and travel. Two journeys to Thailand were the bookends of the sabbatical (November 2003 and October 2004), with travel to North and South Carolina, various points in Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, Maryland, Minnesota, Florida, Indiana, Missouri, Arizona, etc. I visited most of my family, and many friends who once belonged to our congregation before they moved away from Savannah. I continued with my regional and national service to Unity, of course, and one of my final pleasures before permanently departing from Georgia was attending the Regional conference on St. Simon’s Island, for which I had been program chairperson. It was the perfect time to experience a sense of closure with my colleagues in the Southeast, who became a kind of extended family during my tenure there.
 
 I was born and raised in South Bend, Indiana. I never anticipated leaving, and didn’t dream of it until somewhere around the date of the Harmonic Convergence – 1986 perhaps, after I was introduced to Unity. I received my BA in English from Indiana University, and my MA in English from the University of Notre Dame. In fact, I was a doctoral student there, and had begun my dissertation on the novels of Iris Murdoch (who had become a friend during my study of her novels). About a quarter of the way through, I re-examined the prospect: I had loved reading the novels, but the arduous process of academic writing in a book which a relatively few literary critics would ever read seemed hardly worth a degree which might impress a few people I wasn’t really interested in impressing. It wasn’t my bliss and I didn’t pursue it further.
 
 Just prior to entering ministerial school, I was a purchasing agent for a manufacturer of electronics and electrical equipment. I began that work with no experience – it was another in a long series God jobs. (I can only know the early ones in retrospect – I wasn’t aware of them as such early on.) The position wasn’t something I could have foreseen, but I was good at it. Prior to that I had worked for the South Bend Tribune, United Cerebral Palsy of Indiana, taught Freshman English at Notre Dame, and did a variety of part-time and temporary jobs – sometimes two or three at once while I was in high school, college, or university. I managed a Pizza Carry-Out, was a girl Friday in an insurance adjustor’s office, worked for the Gas company, a bank, etc., before college. In high school I was a gofer for my God Father, an MD who taught me how to give shots and do lab tests. I worked my way through college (about 5 years after high school) in a supermarket meat department as meat-wrapper and then a meat-cutter. I have been a member of both the United Mine Workers (Gas Co.) and the Amalgamated Meat Cutters and Butcher Workmen of America.
 
 In high school I was the president of my Methodist Youth Fellowship. As an undergraduate I was the editor of my college newspaper (and, together with friends, founded the newspaper, too). In graduate school I was the president of the Graduate Student Union, which was something like student government is at the college level.
 
 Why Lake Havasu City? It’s another God job rather than something I could have imagined. I have a friend from Unity Church of Peace in South Bend, Indiana, who moved here about nine years. We have kept in touch, and this year while I was not formally employed there was nothing to prevent me from visiting. I came out here that we might celebrate our birthdays together. I was considering becoming an Interim Ministry Specialist for Unity, as my next ministry. I told Connie (my friend here) that the biggest drawback was that when one is in-between ministries (which happen yearly or bi-annually) one needs a home base. I had also considered writing, which doesn’t bring a significant income initially. Ultimately, a series of coincidences converged and she offered me the use of a second home. Then Lake Havasu City turned up on an Association of Unity Churches “target for development” list. One thing after another has fallen into place, and here I am now – right where God put me. Life is so much fun and so little effort when one can get oneself out of the way!
 
 Who am I? (What I am is a unique expression of God – just like you are!) My life mission is to be a catalyst for positive change. My vision is world peace, beginning with myself. Unity is the perfect path for this mission, because it is a positive, practical spirituality. It presents the “how to” of personal transformation which promises what the Master teacher, Jesus, did: that we may have life abundantly. Unity continues to transform Plant Earth, one heart at a time, and this is the process I value most. Transformation brings freedom, connectedness, joy, peace (even amidst the storm), and an abundance of all good things. And I thank God that this is so!
 
 I look forward to meeting you, too. Drop me an e-mail to say “hello” or, better yet, come meet me in person when you can.
 
 Namaste,
 Margee