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Michelle Favreault, Director, Office of Professional Development Department of Religious Education, UUA Greetings All, As I write, the moon is rising over the skies of Boston. A beautiful sunset came tonight after a week of rain and snow. I will soon be returning to my home in San Francisco where I expect there will be no snow, and where, three hours from now, the same moon will be rising to watch over the earth. The Office of Professional Development, like the weather, like the phases of the moon, has changed some in the recent past. This is my chance to update you on some of what has come and some of what will be. In July 2000 I was hired to take on a part-time role serving you from a home base in the Pacific Central District. I travel to Boston regularly to meet with the Religious Education Department staff as well as other officers of the UUA and LREDA committees. My portfolio includes administering the grants (listed on page 9) that support religious educators continuing their education. I am also serving as the UUA staff liaison to the LREDA Board and the LREDA Grant Committee. In addition, I am supporting the rest of the RE staff with the myriad inquiries we receive about job postings and the process of recruiting religious education leadership for congregations. A major goal for me in the year ahead is performing an assessment of the Religious Education Leadership Options Landscape and working with the LREDA Professional Standards Task Force to explore the current strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for positive lasting change in the area of profession, vocation, and leadership for congregational education programs. The Landscape includes a basic option to register in our expanded (and improved!) database, the Renaissance Program Certificate (for completing five modules), a continuing education option, the credentialed religious educator status (for those individuals who have significant experience and a master's level education), and the minster of religious education designation assumed through the UUA's Ministerial Fellowship Committee. If you have been credentialed as a religious educator in the past few years, I would be delighted to talk with you about how you navigated the landscape. If you have considered a trek on the Landscape and decided against it, I would like to speak with you as well so that we can learn. I am easy to contact by way of email at mfavreault@uua.org or by telephone at my San Francisco office at 415-285-1075. I bring to this work a passion for religious education in the liberal tradition. In May of 2000 I graduated from Starr King School for the Ministry and I am in preliminary fellowship as a UU minister. During my earlier careers I earned an M.A. that focused on leadership in value-oriented organizations and have worked in a variety of educational and community settings. I am currently allied with the Starr King Unitarian Church in Hayward, and I have previously served First Parish in Lexington, MA, The First Unitarian Church of Oakland, CA, and the Unitarian Universalist Society of San Francisco. I believe deeply in what Rev. Theodore Parker (also of Lexington, MA) once wrote: "All life is educational." As I glimpse the moon above and join you in the adventures of exploring the questions of vocation that you ask, I am certain we will continue to learn together. February 2001 |
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