In a time when trans lives are under direct attack, LGBTQ leaders are pushing back and inviting more allies to speak up about our religious identity. Join other people of faith at United—on May 30, 2025, starting at 9:00 AM—to learn how to lift your voice effectively in large and small ways that are authentic to your beliefs and tradition. We are delighted to share that we will be hearing ...
Artist and activist Ricardo Pérez Gonzalez is United’s inaugural artist-organizer-in-residence, and has served both our Leadership Center for Social Justice and the Theology and Arts program since last fall. He has also been facilitating our monthly arts and social transformation lunches. Now we want to celebrate Ricardo with an exhibit of and talk about his work. Born and raised in Mexico, Ricardo is a self-taught mixed media artist with more ...
Clergy, faith formation ministers, other congregational leaders, and the whole United community, are invited to a panel discussion including anti-racism and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion leaders from the ELCA, PC(USA), and UCC of Minnesota. Explore approaches to anti-racism work appropriate for diverse settings and leave inspired, with applicable resources for your congregation—no matter where you are in your anti-racism work. This is offered as a collaboration between United’s Anti-Racist Initiatives ...
In this lecture and workshop, Dr. Ry Siggelkow, Director of the Leadership Center for Social Justice, and Ricardo Pérez, the Leadership Center's artist-organizer in residence, explore what contemporary lessons we can learn from Ella Baker, the work of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and the Zapatistas for organizing today. After introducing these figures and movements, we will lift up and explore together some of their common principles and practices that might inform efforts of “organizing in the spirit of accompaniment” today.
As part of Symposium Week (October 23–25), United is hosting a public-facing event on Monday, October 23. This panel, titled “Reorienting Ourselves to the Reality of Not Yet,” will be facilitated by Rev. Dr. Gary F. Green II, United’s director of anti-racist initiatives and assistant professor of pastoral theology and social transformation. “Reorienting Ourselves to the Reality of Not Yet” is a public event that officially launches the second wave ...
A graduate of United’s Master of Divinity degree program will be able to: interpret a selected passage from a selected religious text from multiple historical and contemporary perspectives and using one or more critical methods, demonstrating understanding of the influence of their own situatedness on that interpretation; critically interpret, analyze and reflect on a selected theological text or perspective in its historical context as well as through the lens of ...
The MDiv in Church Leadership program will prepare you for pastoral ministry. It is designed for students who are pursuing ordination by a denomination with rigorous church leadership curricular expectations but which does not fall under any of the designated denominational concentrations (e.g., MDiv in Presbyterian Studies). If you are seeking a ministerial position in a non-denominational congregation or ordination with flexible curricular requirements, the MDiv General Studies may be ...
The MDiv in Social Transformation program will prepare you to combine the classic functions of ministerial leadership, such as leading worship, preaching, providing pastoral care, forming people of faith, and leading a congregation, with the skills you need to lead and sustain social transformation work within your organization. You’ll be equipped to think critically about socio-political dynamics and reflect constructively on the role of spiritual and theological traditions in movements ...
A graduate of United’s Master of Arts degree program will be able to: interpret a selected passage from a selected religious text from multiple historical and contemporary perspectives and using one or more critical methods, demonstrating understanding of the influence of their own situatedness on that interpretation; critically interpret, analyze and reflect on a selected theological text or perspective in its historical context as well as through the lens of ...
The DMin in Social Transformation program provides pastors and other vocational ministers who have already attained the MDiv (or equivalent) a guided, educational, and flexible cohort experience in justice and community transformation. Grounded in liberation theology and social analysis, the program focuses on the development and application of practical tools for lasting, effective social transformation. You will craft your own project (dissertation) that addresses an area of needed social change, ...