Learning at Meadville Lombard

Gain a theological education rooted in compassionate and justice-oriented values

Meadville Lombard’s low-residency degree programs enable you to pursue an exceptional master's degree from where you live and serve, supported by a learning community of faculty, peers, and mentors and a curriculum that integrates theory with practice.

Social Justice

Our concern with social justice isn’t treated as an add-on—it is integrated into our entire curriculum. At Meadville Lombard, we believe that to be an effective faith leader, one must understand interlocking oppressions and have concrete skills in working for justice in complex ways.

Based on our understanding that justice-making and spiritual growth are bound together, our curriculum emphasizes leadership in communities engaged in social movements and prepares students to be effective and accountable leaders in our multiracial, multicultural, global world.

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. often paraphrased Unitarian theologian Rev. Theodore Parker by saying, “The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” Our philosophy is that liberal faith leaders are called to actively help that arc bend.

Low Residency

Students come to our Chicago campus twice a year for Convocation and a week of intensive coursework, creating opportunities for heart-to-heart, soul-to-soul in-person interactions with faculty and other students. Lessons are enriched through learning with dedicated student cohorts, as well as co-curricular activities that allow students to contribute their diverse experience and wisdom to the worship and governance life of the school.

Advantages of a Unitarian Universalist Identity School

Meadville Lombard is one of only two Unitarian Universalist seminaries and is home to the only UU library and archives in the world. We nurture our students to live out the UU values of justice, equity, and compassion.

Our UU identity creates a welcoming environment for students from all religious and spiritual traditions. We honor and draw on the wisdom of the many philosophical, ethical, scientific, and religious traditions that are also concerned with love, justice, and peace, preparing our students to be uniquely situated as leaders in interfaith work.

In addition, because we are affiliated with the Unitarian Universalist Association, credentialing requirements for UU ordination are knitted into the fabric of our MDiv curriculum.

Taking courses on Hebrew and Christian scriptures, multicultural communication, interfaith religious education, and Buddhist scripture all at once was like boot camp for collaborating and engaging across faith traditions. In short, this is training for the work of hearing the cries of the world, wherever those cries come from.

Molly Brewer, MDiv '19