model. Even with the offer of fair compensation and benefits, religious educators are
increasingly wary of maintaining declining religious education programs.
It bears noting that there is no prescribed pathway to a career as a Unitarian Universalist
religious educator. Our religious educators are hired from a wide and varied spectrum of
experiences, education, and backgrounds. Some have previously served as volunteers
in religious education, while others come with backgrounds in education, art, music,
social work, and many other fields. Unlike ordained clergy who have attended seminary,
there is no single training, experience, or course that our religious educators can be
expected to have completed before coming to this work. Their professional development
often happens while they are serving, not during their preparation for the work, and the
education they receive varies greatly depending on the needs, interests, and financial
commitment of the congregation. Religious educators wishing to be credentialed through
the Unitarian Universalist Association are only able to begin the process after they have
been in the work for some time.
In New England, the majority of religious educator positions are half-time or less, with
many congregations increasingly reducing the hours of these positions. Quarter-time
positions maintain the disconnection between children and the rest of the congregation
because there is simply no staff time to align the religious education program with the
rest of the church. In effect, the congregation is paying a person to keep young people
busy and separate from the rest of the congregation.
In actuality, Generation X is the most highly educated generation, graduated from school
with the highest rate of student debt, and is the first generation in modern US history that
will earn less than their parents. Part-time, low-paying or stipend positions without
benefits that require no educational background are not attractive, sustainable, or
realistic for this generation. Unitarian Universalism is stuck between a model that worked
successfully two generations ago and a model that we have yet to fully imagine or
articulate. We have inherited a Sunday school model that depends on unpaid or
underpaid leadership, despite decades of tremendous dedication and sacrifice. We are
in a time when that is simply not an option for our current workforce.
An interfaith poll of US congregations found that only 16 percent of all Sunday school
programs are run by religious educators. Over 70 percent of these programs are
managed by clergy or volunteers.
9
With the majority of Sunday school programs being
9
Overall, by a 2:1 ratio (51 percent), clergy, rabbis, imams, and priests outnumber all other categories of the
“organizers” of congregational teaching and learning ministries. The next largest group is lay volunteers (22
percent). Together, more than 70 percent of congregational educational leaders either have multiple
congregational responsibilities or, as lay volunteers, may not have had professional training in religious
education. Crockett, Teaching and Learning in American Congregations.