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Unity Gets A New Spiritual Leader

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By DEREK MAUL Tribune correspondent

The Tampa Tribune

Published: October 22, 2008

In March 2008, Unity in Brandon invited Deri Joy Ronis to be the congregation's new spiritual leader.

Ronis, 57, brings complex diversity to the position, plus a wealth of experience. She lives in Sarasota but has made a commitment to Brandon she intends to keep.

"Unity is a wonderful interfaith, nondenominational place of worship," she said. "It's a part of the global New Thought consciousness. We joyfully celebrate God's presence within all religions and spiritual traditions. It's for people of all faiths."

Raised in New York practicing traditional Judaism, Ronis said she was drawn to Buddhism when she was 17, then Hinduism when she was 18.

"Then, at 18, I left New York to live on a kibbutz in Israel," she said. "It really changed my life. I met people from all over the world and was challenged to understand man's inhumanity to man."

Thus began an odyssey of travel and learning that found her at colleges on both American coasts, back-packing across Europe, teaching bilingual education in San Francisco, working for a newspaper in New York, and teaching yoga and Spanish at a humanistic education center in Philadelphia.

"After my divorce in 1979, I moved to the Bahamas to teach French and home economics," she said. "I was there until 1984. During that time, I started a full-fledged Unity ministry and completed my degree through the State University of New York."

In 1984, Ronis was hired as youth education director at Unity of the Palm Beaches in West Palm Beach.

"That set my life on another journey," she said. "While I was there, I went back and forth to Unity Village, Missouri, to take classes. People come from all over the world."

She was licensed as a Unity teacher in 1985 and immediately enrolled in a nontraditional PhD program through Union Institute & University in Cincinnati.

"I was one of the first with a doctorate in international peace studies," she said. "I was especially interested in the transformation that occurs in dialogue."

Her first book, "Bridging the Gap to Peace: From a New Way of Thinking into Action," emerged from her dissertation.

"My research took me all over the world," she said.

She studied in California, Colorado, Israel and Mexico and participated in the United Religions Initiative, a global, multidenominational community that supports peace through mutual understanding.

"It changed my life," she said. "In 1987, I moved back to Palm Beaches. I worked with Unity of Delray Beach and then Unity of Jupiter."

Moving into private practice allowed Ronis to redirect once again. "I came to counseling through Unity," she said. "Psycho-spiritual counseling, mind body and spirit. I'm also a state-certified mediator. That's my passion."

While based at Delray Beach, she ran a LEAVE program, Learning Effective Alternatives to Violent Emotions, for offenders ordered to address violence issues. She also taught peace studies at Lynn University in Boca Raton, commuted to the Bahamas to conduct training for the islands' ministry of education and worked with the United Way to bring "Healing Racism" discussions to Palm Beach County schools.

She also helped launch the Toussaint L'Ouverture High School for Arts & Social Justice in Delray Beach.In 2007, Ronis spent six months teaching in Belize, Central America, with her partner, David Marshall, before moving to Sarasota and eventually connecting with Unity in Brandon.

"Unity in Brandon was looking for a spiritual leader," she said. "I do the Sunday talk. We have a Sunday school and a Wednesday night healing service."

She enjoys the 35 to 40 regular members and is optimistic about future growth.

"We have a beautiful peaceful feeling - good energy. Unity offers people a way to direct thinking and use our minds," she said. "New Thought teachings are about creating a better world. We're trying to create more outreach, and I'd like to see an interfaith lunch to learn from each other and accept unity in diversity."

She is still committed to peace.

"Unity is all about spiritual harmony and inner peace and helping other people," she said. "Unity in Brandon helps create peace around the world by what we do there every Sunday.

"I look at Christ and the Trinity as the mind the idea and the expression - anyone can relate to that and it doesn't separate people. It's for people of all faiths."

MEET DERI JOY RONIS

Spiritual leader, Unity in Brandon

BORN: Brooklyn, New York, 1951

EDUCATION: Associate of arts, City College of San Francisco; bachelor of arts, State University of New York; PhD, Union Institute & University, Cincinnati

AFFILIATIONS: Licensed instructor, Unity Village, Mo.; licensed pastoral counselor; Florida state certified mediator

SERVICES: 10:30 a.m. Sundays, 115 Margaret Street, Suite D., Brandon

CONTACT: (813) 263-6155 or www.unityinbrandon.org

FAVORITE QUOTE: "Be the change you wish to see in the world." - Gandhi

Derek Maul can be reached at derekmaul@gmail.com.

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