Master of Divinity Degree

A Master of Divinity (MDiv) Program With a Personalized Course of Study

The M.Div. degree meets the graduate-level educational requirements for fellowship as a Unitarian Universalist minister, certification as a Chaplain (see the Association of Professional Chaplains at www.professionalchaplains.org), as a Pastoral Counselor (see the American Association of Pastoral Counselors at www.aapc.org) and ordination in a variety of other religious traditions and interfaith contexts (as determined by the relevant bodies in any given religious tradition or context). Starr King’s M.Div. program welcomes Unitarian Universalists, Muslims, Buddhists, Wiccans, Jews, Christians, Hindus, Religious Humanists, practitioners of Indigenous Spiritual traditions, Quakers, spiritual seekers, and people with multiple religious belongings and hybrid religious identities. Each M.Div. candidate meets the learning outcomes and degree requirements through a personalized educational plan, designed in consultation with your faculty advisor in response to your gifts, challenges, life experiences, religious tradition(s), communities of accountability, and vocational calling. You can complete the M.Div. degree in three to four years of full-time study, or up to six or seven years of part-time study. 

Starr King’s M.Div. degree prepares people for vocations in:

  • Congregational ministry
  • Community ministry
  • Religious education ministry
  • Chaplaincy
  • Related forms of religious leadership in diverse religious traditions

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Starr King’s M.Div. degree program aims to prepare spiritual leaders with the knowledge, professional skill, and personal capacities to: 

  • Counter oppressions 
  • Create just and sustainable communities 
  • Call forth compassion, wholeness, and liberation
  • Cultivate multi-religious life and learning 

A Master of Divinity (MDiv) Program Where Your Course of Study Designed for You

The M.Div. degree meets the graduate-level educational requirements for fellowship as a Unitarian Universalist minister, certification as a Chaplain (see the Association of Professional Chaplains at www.professionalchaplains.org), as a Pastoral Counselor (see the American Association of Pastoral Counselors at www.aapc.org) and ordination in a variety of other religious traditions and interfaith contexts (as determined by the relevant bodies in any given religious tradition or context). Starr King’s M.Div. program welcomes Unitarian Universalists, Muslims, Buddhists, Wiccans, Jews, Christians, Hindus, Religious Humanists, practitioners of Indigenous Spiritual traditions, Quakers, spiritual seekers, and people with multiple religious belongings and hybrid religious identities. Each M.Div. candidate meets the learning outcomes and degree requirements through a personalized educational plan, designed in consultation with your faculty advisor in response to your gifts, challenges, life experiences, religious tradition(s), communities of accountability, and vocational calling. You can complete the M.Div. degree in three to four years of full-time study, or up to six or seven years of part-time study. 

Starr King’s M.Div. degree prepares people for vocations in:

  • Congregational ministry
  • Community ministry
  • Religious education ministry
  • Chaplaincy
  • Related forms of religious leadership in diverse religious traditions

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Starr King’s M.Div. degree program aims to prepare spiritual leaders with the knowledge, professional skill, and personal capacities to: 

  • Counter oppressions 
  • Create just and sustainable communities 
  • Call forth compassion, wholeness, and liberation
  • Cultivate multi-religious life and learning 

DEGREE REQUIREMENTS

  • A minimum of 90 units of credit (no residency requirements) 
  • Three required core intensives: 
    • The Educating to Counter Oppressions (ECO) Intensive (this course needs to be taken within the first six months of the student’s program).
    • The Multi-Religious Intensive
    • An Intensive in Unitarian Universalist Ministry for candidates to UU ministry; or one of the following three courses for students with different vocational goals and/or from different spiritual traditions: Spiritual Leadership, Leadership Along the Way or Organizational Management.
  • Participation in two January Symposia (including remote participation)
  • A Threshold Assessment after matriculating
  • A mid-term portfolio conference
  • A petition to graduate
  • A combination of coursework, fieldwork, independent study, experiential learning and special projects to achieve competency in Eight Threshold areas:
    • Life in Religious Community and Interfaith Engagement
    • Prophetic Witness and Work
    • Sacred Text and Interpretation
    • History of Dissenting Traditions and the Thea/ological Quest
    • Spiritual Practice and the Care of the Soul
    • Thea/ology in Culture and Context
    • Educating for Wholeness and Liberation
    • Embodied Wisdom and Beauty

THE PERSONALIZED EDUCATIONAL PLAN

Active and sustained consultation between advisor and candidate is necessary for the depth and breadth of a Starr King M.Div. degree to be achieved.  With the guidance and approval your advisor, as a Starr King degree candidate you develop and complete a personalized educational plan that engages you in relational/constructive learning, drawing on multiple modes of teaching and learning. The plan achieves structure through the flow of the academic year, with its rhythm of in-person intensive periods in Berkeley in January and August, and flexible options during the fall, spring, and June-July summer periods during which time you may be studying in or beyond Berkeley—in your  home community or in a site around the globe. The plan achieves educational coherence through the framework of three required Core Intensives, the annual January Symposia, and the Eight Thresholds in which you must acquire competency. The plan adapts to your specific gifts, challenges, culture, context, religious tradition(s), communities of accountability, and vocational calling as you chart a personalized course of study, making use of diverse modes of teaching and learning, including learning from life experience integrated with theological studies.

REQUIRED CORE INTENSIVES

M.Div. candidates are required to complete three core intensives.  The required core intensives provide a foundational engagement with the degree program’s learning goals, introduce approaches to relational/constructive learning, offer ways to integrate spiritual practice and professional development with the scholarly study of religion and build a community of learning. The core intensives are offered as week-long intensives in August and January, with advance and follow-up work: 

  • The ECO Intensive introduces students to “educating to create just and sustainable communities that counter oppressions” 
  • The Multi-Religious Intensive introduces students to “multi-religious life and learning.”
  • The Ministry/Spiritual Leadership requirement can be taken in one of two modes:  the UU Ministry Intensive is specifically for candidates for UU ministry; the Spiritual Leadership Intensive, Ministry Along the Way, and Organizational Management are oriented to diverse forms of religious leadership in a variety of religious and spiritual traditions.   M.Div. students may take both modes if desired. 

ONLINE AND HYBRID COURSES

M.Div. candidates currently can complete the entire degree online (at a distance) via asynchronous and synchronous courses, enabling you to pursue an SKSM M.Div. while remaining in your home community. Students living in the greater San Francisco Bay Area also can integrate online and hybrid courses into their personal educational plan (when available), maximizing flexibility to combine graduate study with work schedules and family needs.

FIELD WORK, INTERNSHIPS, AND OTHER MODES OF LEARNING

In addition to course work (in diverse modes—online, hybrid, intensive, and semester-long residential options), your M.Div. educational plan may include study through fieldwork, internships, Clinical Pastoral Education, practice teaching, independent projects, and experiential learning. Fieldwork becomes field education through participation in group reflection on experience in the field. Fieldwork reflection groups convene each semester in hybrid modes (Z participation allowed). Full and part-time parish internships are arranged with congregations across the continent and are augmented by a Parish Intern Reflection Group and a January Parish Internship Conference in Oakland which brings interns, teaching ministers, and Starr King faculty together for two days of conversation and learning. Formal Clinical Pastoral Education opportunities are an option for M.Div. candidates and a requirement of preparation for Unitarian Universalist ministry.