Academic Catalog

The Leadership Institute for Growth, Healing, and Transformation (LIGHT) at Meadville Lombard Theological School equips values-driven individuals as well as ordained and lay progressive religious leaders with the skills for personal and social transformation.

Rooted in our heritage as Unitarian Universalists, the Institute:

• Centers personal and communal growth and healing, supports the dismantling of oppressive systems, and the transformation of society, and enriches theological imagination through non-degree bearing lifelong learning, including certificates, short courses, trainings, and workshops on a broad range of topics.
• Equips lay and ordained religious leaders with the practical know-how and know-what for life-giving ministry.
• Designs transformative educational experiences for vocational and spiritual growth using a lens of justice, inclusion, and belonging.
• Builds a strong community of lifelong learners who share the same commitments

LIGHT continuing education programming is available to Meadville Lombard current students and alums, and will be listed on a separate LIGHT transcript. LIGHT programming is not credit-bearing coursework.

Founded as part of the curricular revolution at Meadville Lombard in 2011, the Fahs Collaborative picks up the historical mandate of 20th-century Unitarian religious educator Sophia Lyon Fahs, whose approach to religious education marked a radical departure from traditional content and methods. Today, the Collaborative supports religious workers who want to infuse religious and ethical qualities into every aspect of their social and justice-making lives.

As an experiential laboratory for educational practice, the Fahs Collaborative brings unlikely actors and new ideas together, developing resources and practices that shake off outmoded ideas and practices, honor all forms of diversity, and strengthen communities with the resiliency necessary to meet the needs of today’s world. We accomplish this by:

• Creating educational strategies that weave the aims of faith formation into everyday life
• Promoting research, scholarship, professional development, and community-building practices that reimagine obstacles into possibilities and subvert business-as-usual outcomes
• Developing new ways to negotiate culturally and theologically diverse relationships
• Creating intentional and evocative learning spaces that promote the highest ideals of collaboration, cultural inclusion, theological inclusiveness, and emotional literacy

The Fahs Collaborative both holds the Unitarian Universalist tradition of liberal religious education and pioneers faith-based practices that empower and sustain the human spirit.