Carole O'Connell was a wife, mother, nurse, business owner and entrepreneur in her native New Jersey before a midlife revelation 25 years ago led her to the ministry.
This week begins a new chapter in her life. She's retiring as senior minister at Unity North Atlanta Church in east Cobb. As she put it in one of the final weekly messages on the church Web site: "Remember the story of the trapeze bars, when we let go of one side and can't see the other, and are flying between them, that is when life really happens." As she begins her leap, O'Connell, 66, senior minister since 1990, and before that associate minister of Atlanta Unity, talked about her ministry, the growth in her congregation and the growth and needs of east Cobb.

Q: What led you to the Unity philosophy?
A: I was raised in a traditional Christian church, and rather than get anybody upset I won't name it, but once I was in my teens I realized the theology didn't work for me. So I pretty much left organized religion when I was 16. When I was in my 30s I moved to Florida and someone asked me to go to church. They took me to a Unity church and I realized they were teaching what I already inherently believed. Within about six years I realized I wanted to go into ministry so I did. I became ordained and moved to Atlanta in 1981.

Q: What about Unity resonated with you?
A: Unity philosophy is based on the first-century teachings of Jesus --- that we are part of a universal wisdom and an infinite intelligence out of which everything has come. It's a belief system that is about self-responsibility. We teach how to create the life you want to live. We believe that there is only one God but there is more than one path to God, and we honor all religions and lifestyles.

Q: As the church grew, finally moving to a permanent home on Sandy Plains Road in 2000, how did this play out in east Cobb, known for its conservative religious leanings?
A: Do you mean "How do we handle being in the Bible Belt?" (laughs) In 25 years of ministry I have never run up against a problem. We don't go out and convert people, we don't evangelize. We realize we are going to attract the people who want to hear the message that we have.

Q: How has the congregation grown since 1990?
A: When I came here we had about 75 people coming to church on Sunday, and in the first year we had grown to a couple of hundred. That's why we moved from Roswell to the shopping center with 11,000 square feet (on Johnson Ferry Road). When we moved to our current home in 2000 we had about 450. Today it's about 600, a very steady growth. And I feel it's poised to explode. People are looking, they are hungry for spiritual teaching instead of an organized religion-type teaching. Q: How has the congregation evolved?

A: The majority of our congregation is baby boomers or younger. We have a very young congregation, and in a Unity congregation you will find a smattering of all religions.
Q: How have you seen east Cobb evolve?

A: The economic level has certainly gone up around here. This is very much a bedroom community and most of the people are transplants. Someone did a survey and said in a five-mile radius of our neighborhood 90 percent of the people were unchurched. And these are families with young children. I think there's enough interest in our type of thinking.
Q: So what are your plans from this point forward?
A: I'd like to put what I have learned over the years into a book. I also am going to start a small spiritual coaching practice, one day a week, because I really like teaching and the church has gotten so big I haven't had a chance to do that the last few years. Plus, I will be minister emeritus and will still teach some classes and do an occasional Sunday service. My husband has been music minister here, and we're retiring basically at the same time.

Use this link to the AJC's actual article as it appears on line. Unfortunately, the on line version no longer includes the above photograph.