For those new to the AWAC, I’ll do a bit of review before I dive into my topic. After serving 20 years in the Air Force, I became a lay minister at a small Unitarian Universalist Church here in my hometown of Tullahoma, TN. I have just finished up my second year of seminary/divinity school. My first year was spent at Vanderbilt Divinity School, commuting 80-90 minutes each way three times a week. While Vanderbilt is certainly a great place academically, it was not a Unitarian Universalist school, and I usually felt out of place (though I was always made to feel welcome). I decided to switch schools and attend Meadville Lombard Theological School, one of only two UU seminaries in the world. Located in Chicago, Meadville has programs which allow the students to attend concentrated courses for a week at a time, while doing most of the work at home before and after the course. So while I drive up to Chicago a few times a year, I actually do far less driving than I did going to Vanderbilt.
Meadville has a new educational model in which students do 8 hours of community work a week during the first year, and twenty hours a week the next two years as an intern at a church. This work is part of school, not separate, and weekly phone calls and projects incorporate both our experience at our sites and our theological studies. Seminary is not merely classroom learning, it is lived in the community each week.
The Meadville Lombard Educational Model (or MLEM) has only been in existence for two years. In one more year the first class through will be sending graduates to the Ministerial Fellowship Committee, and we shall see how people going through this program fare compared to people going through a more traditional model of seminary first, followed by a year of internship. “Fellowship” in the UU world is what we call accreditation for ministers.
I’ll be sharing my thoughts on my first year going through the program. Hopefully prospective students will find this useful. The first year of MLEM requires students to take the Community Studies Seminar, described on the Meadville website as follows:
“In their first year in the Master of Divinity degree program and with the guidance of our Director of Contextual Ministry, students find placements in community service organizations. They are required to provide up to 8 hours of weekly service to that organization and sites are selected with the purpose of enhancing the student’s multicultural competencies.”
Picking a site is largely up to the students. It is their responsibility to find several possibilities before they attend the Community Studies Orientation in late August. Those that don’t will be behind the power curve heading in to the semester. I wanted to do my service at an animal shelter. I thought I might find resistance from the faculty, since I’d be working with animals instead of people, but I was delighted to find everyone fully supportive of my efforts. The director at the shelter (Animal Harbor in Belvedere, TN) was a bit baffled by a seminarian wanting to work at an animal shelter, but she agreed to be my supervisor.
We were supposed to begin our community service the first week of October. Some students encountered problems getting into a site, and did not make that deadline, but most did. In addition to working eight hours a week (on average, we are allowed flexibility in structuring our hours), students were placed into “Triads.” These groups of three students would make a conference phone call each week and discuss a topic provided by the faculty, then turn in a short paper summarizing the discussion. Although rare, it is possible to get a failing grade on these papers if the faculty thinks you have missed the point.
The triad groups last for a semester, and new ones are formed in the spring. Most students loved these discussions. It allowed them to get to know others better, vent, share blessings, and discuss issues of school and ministerial formation. Numerous close friendships formed within the triads.
I believe I am the first student to work with animals in a community site, so there were times that the lesson for the week opened up new ways of thinking both for me and I suspect for the faculty and other students. For example, one week we were to discuss various forms of oppression, after doing a reading on the topic. I asked a professor if it was acceptable to discuss the oppression of animals too, even though the reading focused on human oppression. He immediately agreed and acknowledged that we needed to avoid thinking only in an anthropocentric manner. Both the environment and animals could certainly be oppressed too. So the faculty is very willing to think outside the box, and the lessons and discussions are designed to stretch everyone’s ideas of ministry. I’m not sure how many seminaries would consider working with animals good ministerial development, but Meadville Lombard does. In-coming students should know that new and innovative ideas will be carefully considered by the staff. New ways of serving will be met with excitement, not with a disapproving frown.
Something that should be understood by any prospective student is the roll of Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) in this process. Students may not move from Community Studies into the second year Congregational Studies program (your internship) unless they complete CPE first. This is usually done the summer following Community Studies. If for any reason a student can’t take CPE, they may take classes, but may not begin their internship at a church.
Internship under the MLEM is a two year process, in which a student works for 20 hours a week for two school years in an internship capacity. This meets the UU requirement of a year’s internship at a UU congregation. This has good and bad points, and it will really depend on an individual’s circumstances as to whether the MLEM program is easier or harder than a more traditional route. If a student doesn’t live near a UU congregation (other than their home congregation), they will need to commute or move to a new location to intern. Under the MLEM model, this relocation will need to be done for two years, rather than one under the traditional model. And unless a student is from Massachusetts or a large city, UU churches will probably be widely scattered. Where I live in Tennessee, there are three UU churches, each an 80-90 minute drive away. Assuming they would be willing to take on an intern, that is a significant amount of driving. It gets worse for students living out west, where churches can be even further apart.
In my case, I decided to intern at a Disciples of Christ church in my town. This is a very progressive Christian denomination, and the ministers were willing to take me on. This allows me to work within my community, and continue my work as a lay minister at my church. But if I ever want to seek full fellowship, I will need to intern again at a UU congregation. Meadville Lombard is willing to grant a degree to me under these circumstances, but any student seeking this option must understand that the UU Ministerial Fellowship Committee will probably not consider this sufficient to grant fellowship status. They will want you to intern at a UU congregation.
So what do I think overall? I spent a year at a very traditional school, and found it did not meet my needs. My year at Meadville was EXACTLY what I needed for what I am doing as a lay minister. The Community Studies program was very interesting, and my work with animals has led me to further studies on my own in the area of animal ethics, human-canine relations, and even animal spirituality. I have always maintained that my spiritual practice is to read a spiritually focused book each morning with my dogs on my lap or next to me. Now I can articulate WHY this is so. It’s all very fascinating.
I am hoping that a prospective student to two might stumble on this blog, and that my thoughts might be of use as they decide what to do next. Meadville Lombard’s program will not be a good fit for everyone, but it was a great fit for me. If you seek to do ministry in your life, this is a wonderful place to study and learn.
And of course, some dog photos. The pups are six weeks old now, Sasha (the black poodle) is about to have her pups, and Karma, Ping, and Lily were just spayed and are available for adoption.
Link to my Petfinder site: Tullahoma Small Breed Rescue
