Empowering liberal religious leadership in ordained ministry in Unitarian Universalism and other faith contexts
The Master of Divinity degree program at Meadville Lombard provides the academic and experiential grounding you need to minister effectively in our multicultural, multiracial, and interfaith world.
A liberal religious minister is required to be many things: a public speaker with a strong heart and a sharp mind, a community leader, a compassionate presence, an effective navigator and administrator of institutional system and structures, and a wise teacher. Meadville Lombard’s rigorous academic courses and integrated internships are designed to help you cultivate all of these attributes and fully bring out your gifts in ministry.
Our MDiv degree program prepares students for ordained ministry in a variety of contexts, including fellowship with the Unitarian Universalist Association (UUA), in roles ranging from parish ministry and chaplaincy to nonprofit leadership. Students seeking
My own sense of having a spiritual grounding and a sustaining theology came to be largely because of my experiences at Meadville Lombard.
Rev. Chris Jimmerson, MDiv '14
Degree Requirements
The MDiv degree requires 90 completed credits. The program can be completed in three years by full-time
Below is an outline of the three-year, full-time MDiv pathway. Our Contextual Learning model of theological education allows you to learn and gain experience in your own community and/or congregation, and travel to Chicago only for the Intensive classwork portion of the courses for about one week during each Fall and Spring term.
You’ll complete and discuss coursework every semester with peers and faculty via Meadville Lombard’s low-residency education platform, and you’ll get hands-on experience through a two-year internship at a congregation, which is integrated into the curriculum, as well as a basic unit of Clinical Pastoral Education. Our Senior Director of Contextual Ministry will work with you to find the best internship site and supervisor for your personal formation.
Below is the program summary and timeline for full-time students.
Year 1: Grounding (Fall)
- Focus on theological literacy, intercultural learning, social analysis, and spiritual formation
- Complete seven academic courses
- Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE): Over the summer, complete a basic 10-week unit in a program certified by the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education that focuses on pastoral encounters with persons in need or in crisis
Year 2: Vocational Studies
- Focus on the formation of ministerial identity and on the work of ministry in diverse communal and congregational settings
- Complete six academic courses
- Meet weekly with your internship supervisor
- Internship: Serve part-time in a congregation or organization
Year 3: Leadership Studies
- Focus on public theology, the nature of leadership, and inspiring change
- Complete six academic courses
- Meet weekly with your internship supervisor
- Internship: Serve part-time in a congregation or organization
Signature Courses
Meadville Lombard’s Signature Courses are multi-credit, multidisciplinary, yearlong classes that help students move from discernment to leadership. They are designed to give you an opportunity to integrate your academic learning with the real-world experience of service and leadership in
Signature Courses are taken in the following sequence:
Grounding
This course launches students into the lifelong formational work of integrating intercultural and theological learning. The course will introduce students to basic theological literacy and a program of intercultural learning in order to help them to examine the relationship between their cultural and religious identities.
Vocational Studies
This course is linked with an approved part-time congregational or community internship. The focus of this course is on the formation of ministerial identity in the Fall, and on the work of ministry in diverse communal and congregational settings in the Spring. The internship site serves as a place for structured engagement and reflection on a range of topics and moves students more deeply into praxis. Students explore the roles and responsibilities of ministry including the intersections of personal, cultural, and professional identities, emotional literacy, professional boundaries, the influence of shifting trends and demographics on religious leadership, the impact of context on leadership, and public speaking, among others.
Leadership Studies
This course is linked with the continuing part-time congregational or community internship. The course builds on forms of awareness of congregational/organizational systems gained during the first year of the internship and provides space for making meaning of the skills and dispositions needed for a career of leading people and organizations. Through the use of case studies and engagement with visionary religious leaders, students will explore personal leadership capacities, challenges, and rewards of leadership styles, including exploration of the intersection of the personal and professional acts of leadership. In the tradition of appreciative inquiry, the student will also try on leadership skills and dispositions that serve organizational needs and self-identified areas for growth. Topics covered include, but will not be limited to, the following: leadership in times of crisis, effective communication, team management, financial sustainability, strategic planning for social change, leadership through times of organizational change, and the spirituality of leadership among others.
