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The M.Div. degree meets the basic educational requirements for fellowship as a Unitarian Universalist minister and ordination in a variety of other denominations. It is individually designed to respond to your gifts, challenges, life experiences and calling. In three to four years, our academic environment will prepare you for:
- parish ministry
- community ministry
- religious education ministry
- chaplaincy
- related forms of congregational and community religious leadership
Distance Learning
We are the only GTU member school offering a distance learning M.Div. Up to 2/3 of your degree credits may be completed in low-residence: online, immersions and through field work.
DEGREE REQUIREMENTS: 8 THRESHOLDS AND 1 REQUIRED COURSE
You are required to participate, live, in orientation before starting classes. Orientation introduces you to our 8 thresholds and our 1 required course providing a foundation for our student-centered, multi-religious counter-oppressive approach to theology school.
1) Life in Religious Community and Interfaith Engagement
2) Prophetic Witness and Work
3) Sacred Text and Interpretation
4) History of Dissenting Traditions and the Thea/ological
Quest
5) Spiritual Practice and the Care of the Soul
6) Thea/ology in Culture and Context
7) Educating for Wholeness and Liberation
8) Embodied Wisdom and Beauty
These thresholds integrate the arts of ministry (preaching, teaching, counseling, leading worship and ritual, administering) with the disciplines of theological and religious studies (theology, ethics, Biblical, world religions, church history, religious education, culture, psychology, sociology of religion, congregations).
Your personal qualities and habits for a successful ministry, such as mature judgment, self-awareness, spiritual practice, integrity, responsibility, sensitivity and ethical discernment will be developed.
1 REQUIRED COURSE
Educating to Counter Oppressions (ECO) Course
Educating to counter oppressions and to create just and sustainable communities is a priority. There are four guiding principles: 1) To be what we want to see in the world; 2) To shelter prophetic witness in the world; 3) To counter white supremacy; and 4) to work for the common good. You meet the ECO requirement by taking the residential ECO course or a high or low residency ECO-designated course.
Over the course of study, you will assemble a portfolio of your work. Midway through your degree program, two faculty members (one of whom is your advisor), a peer and a community representative review the portfolio, then meet with you to reflect on your work.
Because of a long-established, free cross-registration system, as an M.Div student, you will be able to draw on Starr King and Graduate Theological Union resources, GTU-affiliated advanced centers for research and study, as well as course offerings, libraries, research institutes and faculty of the University of California, Berkeley.
Entrance to the M.Div. program normally requires a bachelor's degree from an accredited college or university, or an equivalent degree from a non-U.S. school.
- a minimum of 90 units of credit
- at least 30 units of credit must be completed in residency (up to 2/3 of credits for the M.Div. degree may be completed in low-residency mode: online and immersion courses, and through field work)
- a portfolio conference
- completion of orientation introducing the 8 thresholds and a required course Educating to Counter Oppressions to Create Just and Sustainable Communities course (ECO)
- a combination of coursework, fieldwork, independent study, experiential learning and special projects to achieve competency in the 8 threshold areas
- a representative work embodying your contribution to the creative advance of theological knowledge and religious practice.
Readiness is assessed through conversation with your primary advisor, who will help determine if your degree requirements have been met and review your written self-assessment of readiness. Next, your advisor makes a recommendation to the core faculty that votes on the recommendation and presents a list of approved students to the Board of Trustees. The Board votes to confer degrees.
There are parallel tracks to becoming a fellowshipped or ordained minister. The M.Div. degree is one track. For information on the fellowship and ordination process of becoming a Unitarian Universalist minister, contact:
- Rev. David Pettee
dpettee@uua.org
Ministerial Credentialing Director
Unitarian Universalist Association
25 Beacon St.
Boston, MA 02108-2800
617/948-6402
Visit the UUA credentialing page for more information.
Click to view the Starr King catalog in PDF format. (Note: Seminary for the Laity certificate program is no longer offered.)
M.A. | MASC | M.Div.
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