The Master of Arts in Leadership Studies (MALS) provides advanced work for lay leaders, ministers, and ministerial students in the theory and practice of leadership within congregations and community-based ministries.

The MALS degree is designed to develop liberal religious leadership for congregational and community life, grounded in a clear sense of the current challenges leadership face within our contemporary pluralistic, multi-faith, cross-cultural world.

Successful completion of 18 units of credit (1 full course = 1 unit of credit) are required. Of the 18 units, ten (10) are traditional academic courses. Additionally, the student will receive two units of credit for the thesis preparation and six units of credit for a supervised, full- time internship in a congregational or community-based setting (the internship is a requirement of the degree program).

Required Courses

• The Method is the Message: Religious Education, Human & Faith Development
• Liberal Theology
• History (UU or other denomination)
• Scripture
• Internship

The student must complete five (5) credits in the cultural context of ministry, chosen from:

• Multicultural Congregations as an Act of Faith
• Problems in Public Ethics
• Multifaith Theologies
• Ethical Wisdom
• Strategic Peacebuilding
• Globalization, Religion and Ethics
• African Americans and Unitarians, Universalists, and Unitarian Universalists
• Leadership Studies seminar
• Fundraising and Administration

Transfer Credit
Up to nine (9) units of credit may be transferred from another graduate degree program. All transfer credits must be pre-approved by the student’s academic advisor. Transferred credits will not appear on the Meadville Lombard transcript with a letter grade (only the credit is transferring) and the letter P, for Pass, will accompany all transferred credits.