An interview with the Religious Education Credentialing Committee (RECC) is required for the Advanced Level. The RECC meets annually in the spring.

For the Advanced Level, at your interview, you are assumed to be experienced and competent in the required competency areas, as well as in the area you choose for your elective competency. You will be asked questions about anything presented in your portfolio or from the resource list that you indicate you have read/watched/etc. You are assumed to be competent with children and youth, ages preschool-18.

Requesting an Interview with the RECC

You will choose a target completion date when you apply to the Religious Education Credentialing Program (RECP). Stay in touch with the Professional Development Programs Manager (PDPM) regarding your target date. Once you are confident of your timeframe for completion, you should apply as early as feasible for an interview slot through the online RECC Interview request form. Available interview slots may fill many months in advance. At this time, all interviews are taking place virtually through an electronic means.

Agenda for Evaluative Interview - Advanced

Although target time allotments are provided below, they might be changed by the RECC in the future. To learn the current target times, please contact the PDPM.

You will initially spend an hour with the committee, during which you will provide a brief period of worship, a brief presentation, and answers to questions asked. Then there is a time away from the committee, after which you will rejoin the committee for feedback and to learn your credentialing status.

Brief Period of Worship: 8-10 min.

You will plan and conduct a brief worship service involving the RECC. At the beginning of the worship, indicate whether the worship is intended for children, youth, or a multi-generational setting. Your worship should have an arc such that it has a beginning, middle, and end. The worship should be 8 to 10 minutes. Please bring with you all items you will need for worship.

Brief Presentation: 8-10 min.

You will prepare and present a talk to the RECC. You may use audiovisual materials as part of your presentation if you wish, but this is not required. If you do use audiovisual materials, please make arrangements ahead of time with Religious Education Credentialing Assistant. The presentation should last 8 to 10 minutes and must have the following characteristics:

• The topic should be on some aspect of your portfolio.
• Have a target audience of adult UUs. The presentation could be created as if it were being addressed to another group of adult UUs (for instance, your Liberal Religious Educators Association chapter or church board), or could have the RECC as the target audience.
• Consist substantially of your own original work. If you quote the work of others, clearly provide attribution for your sources.

Questions and Answers: ~40 Min.

The RECC will ask you a number of questions. These questions may relate to your chosen competencies, your submitted materials, your worship and presentation, and/or your general professional life. You will want to provide some depth and specificity in your responses while also staying succinct. You are required to submit your own first question. Core questions (asked of all candidates that year) will be provided several weeks before the interview.

The question and answer session will take approximately 40 minutes.

Committee Deliberation: ~30 min.

For a period of approximately thirty minutes, you will leave the presence of the committee while the committee discusses your candidacy.

Feedback: 5-10 min.

You will meet with the committee again and the committee will provide you with feedback and inform you of any credential granted. This can take 5 to 10 minutes.

Sample Interview Questions

In order to help candidates (and mentors) prepare for the interview, the RECC provides three sample questions in each competency area on the Forms and Resources page.

RECC Meetings – Dates

All interviews are held online, using Zoom. The RE Credentialing Assistant will send your interview link to you before your interview. Meeting dates are available on the Meetings and Interviews of the RE Credentialing Committee page. You can also access a list of committee members.