Rev. Laura Hunter MacLachlan

I was born in Chicago, where my family lived for eight years. A business transfer to New York City for my father found us living in Fairfield County in Connecticut. This began an early love of jumping horses in shows in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.

After High School graduation I attended Morven Park International Equestrian Institute at the former United States Equestrian Team Combined Training facility on the grounds of the Governor’s Mansion in Leesburg, VA.

Graduating with an “A” rating, I became a professional horseman and trained horses and riders for Combined Training, Hunters, Jumpers and Hunter Seat Equitation events around the tri-state area and later in Michigan, where I moved in 1977. Metaphysics was always an unrecognized undercurrent in my life, having first heard Spirit as a young child after a close encounter with a car getting off a school bus. In 1986 I began attending the First Spiritual Church of Bay City to begin formal study of my metaphysical experiences. Soon after joining, I was asked to be the church Board Secretary. I was certified by the United Metaphysical Churches as a Medium and Spiritual Healer in 1991. I moved up to Board President in 1998 and also the Pastor in 2002, after my UMC ordination in 2001.

Two years after being elected the local Board Secretary, I was appointed to a Trustee position on the United Metaphysical Churches Executive Board to fill a vacancy left by Rev. Joyce Dix. I served in that capacity from 1989 until 2008 when I was elevated to the position of Vice President. In addition, I was appointed as co-chair person of the UMC Education Department as well as teach in the UMC Seminary. My areas of expertise include Metaphysical Ethics, Modern Metaphysical Literature, Introductory Metaphysics and Viking Runes as a Divinational Tool.

In 1991 I married Roger W. Schlack, a Commercial Mechanical Contractor and reside with him at our horse farm in Dryden, MI. We raised and trained Percheron draft horses for showing in hitch classes and in hand until we retired from the show ring in 2007. We keep one mare, a home-bred from our “six-up” registered mare hitch, as a retiree.

When not at work for the Bay City congregation or UMC, I enjoy antiques, reading and container gardening. I still do the occasional riding clinic for some of my former students who now are themselves trainers.