RE Credentialing Good for Educators, Congregations

Kathy Walker helped start the religious education program at Quimper UU Fellowship, Port Townsend, Wash. (218 members), in 1987. She was its unpaid RE coordinator for 10 years. She has gone from quarter-time to three-quarter-time, is now paid, and is responsible for a program with 100 children and youth.

When the UUA began its new RE-credentialing program, she was one of the first to apply. Credentialing benefited both her and her congregation. “It changed how I view myself,” said Walker. “It required me to document all of the work that I’d done over the years and to do some extended reading. Doing all that made the years of work concrete and validated.”
Walker’s congregation was already pleased with the job she was doing. Being credentialed simply added a level of assurance, said Quimper’s minister, the Rev. Bruce Bode. “The benefit for the congregation in credentialing is that it gets an even greater sense of Kathy’s competence and an increased level of trust and confidence in her work.”

Credentialing has a big payoff for congregations, says the Rev. Beth Williams, director of the UUA’s RE Credentialing Office, “When a credentialed religious educator presents her- or himself to a congregation, that congregation can be assured that the educator has already demonstrated the knowledge and skill in religious education leadership appropriate to the level of credentialing, and has done so to the satisfaction of a panel of experts in religious education, pastoral ministry, and congregational lay leadership.”

The goals of credentialing are to strengthen UU religious education through the professional development and accountability of religious educators and to show that religious education is a profession. A third reason is to support educators by giving them a path for continuing professional development and one that is more easily recognized by lay people.

The new RE-credentialing program replaces the RE Leadership Landscape Options Plan. In the new program there are three levels: Credentialed Religious Educator (Associate Level), Credentialed Religious Educator, and Credentialed Religious Educator (Masters Level). The program is voluntary, but all educators are encouraged to participate.
Ministers of religious education continue to be credentialed by the Ministerial Fellowship Committee.

Credentialing requires completion of a reading program and an understanding of topics including RE program administration, volunteer management, multi-age worship, UU history and polity, stewardship, and conflict management.

Most educators will likely be credentialed at the middle level, said the Rev. Betty Jo Middleton, a member of the UUA’s RE Credentialing Committee. “We hope congregations will support their educators in this process,” she said. LREDA (Liberal Religious Educators Association) provides mentors to educators seeking credentialing.

Layne Richard-Hammock has been DRE at the Heritage UU Church (208) in Cincinnati, Ohio, since 1994. She chose to become credentialed in part to demonstrate to her congregation the professionalism of being a religious educator and to honor previous educators. It also resulted in an increase in her compensation. “That is a wonderful affirmation from the congregation,” she said.

Beth Casebolt, for eight years the quarter-time educator at the UU Congregation of the Ohio Valley (47) in Bellaire, Ohio, says credentialing especially helps in small congregations where the educator is likely to have been a member of the congregation first. “It shows the congregation how serious you are and that you truly consider yourself a religious professional.”

RESOURCES

Find out more at www.uua.org/programs/ministry/reco.