UUA Ministerial Credentialing Process

In June 2024, the MFC revised the 2016 Competencies and Reading List to a new format. This includes the addition of Theology as an Eighth Competency.  The 2016 Reading List has been updated to Educational Resources.

Any person who became an aspirant prior to June 1, 2024 has the option of preparing for fellowship using the 2016 Competencies and Reading List, or they may prepare for fellowship using the 2024 Competencies and Educational Resources.

Any person who enters into aspirant status on and after June 1, 2024, will be held accountable to the 2024 Competencies/Educational Resources included in the Requirements Appendix.

The MFC expects that each candidate will have achieved a satisfactory level of basic competence in the 8 areas outlined. Students are encouraged to work closely with their seminary in planning their courses of study so that the following areas can be covered through coursework, independent study, reading, seminars, workshops or other experiences. How these areas are covered is left to the candidate and to the seminary. The Committee requires that each candidate prepare a written statement of competency.

Competency One: Worship and Rites of Passage 

• Knows how to prepare holistic, inclusive worship and rituals for life passages.
• Demonstrates awareness of multicultural and multigenerational approaches to worship.
• Prepares and delivers engaging sermons, homilies, and reflections.
• Works collaboratively with professional colleagues and lay worship leaders.
• Uses arts to create multisensory worship.
• Integrates theological theory and practice.

Competency Two: Pastoral Care and Presence

• Can provide pastoral care, recognizing differences between pastoral and therapeutic counseling.
• Demonstrates healthy personal boundaries and knowledge of professional ethics.
• Has awareness and skills to respond appropriately to sexuality, mental health, end of life, and relationship concerns.
• Understands cultural and generational needs in pastoral care.

Competency Three: Spiritual Development For Self and Others

• Models spiritual depth in personal practice.
• Articulates philosophies and theories of teaching and learning.
• Models accountable engagement with diverse spiritual traditions and communities.
• Demonstrates understanding of multi-religious knowledge and practices. 

Competency Four: Social Justice in the Public Square

• Is engaged with critical justice issues in the local community and in the larger world.
• Can apply the lens of power and privilege in the areas of antiracism, anti-oppression, and multiculturalism.
• Understands basics of community organizing and value of broad-based coalitions.
• Connects the history of UU justice engagement to the present.

Competency Five: Administration

• Is prepared to manage staff and volunteers.
• Has a basic understanding of budgets, stewardship, and fundraising (and the theology thereof).
• Understands role as a minister within a mission-based institution.
• Articulates understanding of conflict management and obstacles to healthy organizational functioning.

Competency Six: Serves the Larger Unitarian Universalist Faith

• Collaborates with Unitarian Universalist and interfaith colleagues, including other religious professionals.
• Articulates historical influence of Christianity on North American culture, including Unitarian Universalism.
• Engages with Unitarian Universalism at the local, regional, national, and global levels.
• Articulates knowledge of current initiatives and issues within the faith movement.
• Demonstrates knowledge of UU history and polity.
• Contributes to on-going scholarship and support of professional ministry.

Competency Seven: Leads the Faith Into the Future

• Experiments with emerging media technology.
• Articulates a vision for the future, assessing opportunities and challenges for Unitarian Universalism in a changing society.
• Explores new generational and multicultural expressions of Unitarian Universalism. 

Competency Eight: Theology

• Articulates a personal religious worldview in dialogue with multiple faith traditions.
• Engages in ongoing theological reflection about the practice of ministry.
• Understands, and is able to introduce others to, multiple forms of constructive systematic theology, including liberatory theologies.
• Holds basic literacy in at least two scriptural traditions.
• Can articulate the theological foundations of counter-oppressive work.
• Understands the ways each of the other competencies shapes and is shaped by theological reflection.

The MFC provides two sample lists that offer examples of educational resources (books, articles, websites, videos, podcasts, and more) that correlate to each of the 8 competencies. These lists are examples and guides. Resources are not maintained by the UUA or MFC, and URLs and content may change. If you choose to use one of these lists in its entirety and a resource is no longer available, the MFC recommends selecting another resource with a similar theme.

The resource lists in this document are broken down by competency, with two lists per competency:

MFC Sample Resources List - June 2024

The Wiggin Library at Meadville Lombard Theological School holds a print copy of most published books on both sample resource lists:

MFC Educational Resources at Wiggin Library*

*Wiggin Library is in the process of updating language and available resources to reflect the new MFC paradigm of educational resources, including the addition of Comptency 8: Theology.