How to pledge to serve
There are five ways to spiritually serve with The Order based upon the level of training received towards capable religious service in a professional or public setting. All receive spiritual "Canonical Stature" for pledging themselves to The Order. The Order is does not have "members" since the primary purpose is to hold all who are joined to a set of spiritual vows. Everyone in the Order pledges to serve according to the interfaith-interspiritual vow of "sacred service" and is called a "pledger."
The senior category of service is based on training and education as an “Interfaith or Interspiritual Cleric and Minister” given to pledgers with a bachelor’s degree or higher from a US Department of Education approved undergraduate program and graduation from an Interfaith Seminary or school as approved by the Board of Directors of The Order. (This is based on the goal of creating M.Div. equivalency in the future. We recognize that many interfaith seminaries don't have this requirement for entry and graduation. While we honor that ordination *, all need to be aware that not having a college degree will be limiting. It is critical that every person who enters "seminary" training understand that there is no recognizable accrediting body that exists for interfaith training.) In some cases pledgers who are able to demonstrate equivalent education from non traditional religious schools or sustained leadership of a community congregation are given this stature. Graduation from a single-path seminary along with other life experiences and training is also considered an equivalent education. All leadership positions of The Order are filled by pledgers with religious (co)ordination as an “Interfaith-Interspiritual Cleric and Minister.”
The second category of service is “Interfaith or Interspiritual Celebrant.” This ordination is given to pledgers who do not have all the credentials for “Interfaith Cleric,” but who are in training towards that class of service as long as they have graduated from an approved interfaith seminary. If in seminary student status or seeking student status, the pledger is recognized as an "Interfaith or Interspiritual Aspirant."
The fourth category of service is the lay pledger who receives religious stature as an Interspiritual Wayfarer. This pledger has no desire to attain another class but who wish to be part of The Order and its work.
The Order also wishes to recognize the "Wisdom Keepers" who are senior and well-respected leaders and clergy of specific religions, or (co)ordained Interfaith-Interspiritual Ministers and Clerics with very special education and training who are considered the guardians of the beliefs and rituals and knowledge that are important to each of the world's religions and faith paths.
Finally, the Board of Directors of The Order has the right to award an "Interspiritual Sage" title to individuals it deems worthy of recognition for very special contributions to The Order and to the principles of Universal Interfaith, interfaith values and interspiritual leadership.
All (co)ordinations are granted by the authority of the Board of Directors and its officers without regard to personal religious beliefs so long as they are not in conflict with the “Statement of Faith” of The Order. Stature in any form of service is never denied for race, age, physical limitation, gender, or sexual preferences so long as the pledge to service is freely given after adulthood (age of 18 years) and all training requirements for service are fulfilled and there is no conduct within the past five years that would reflect negatively upon The Order and its spiritual Statement of Faith.
* Why does OUnI Co-ordain graduates from the seminary programs? OUnI respectfully acknowledges the ordination given by individual seminaries to serve the divine as they see it but believes that there must be a public declaration of intent to serve a particular ministry. To those who pledge to OUnI, its CO-ordination expands the scope of an interfaith minister's ministry to include the whole "interfaith-multifaith-interspiritual" movement. OUnI's co- ordination is an acknowledgment to the world and to the Interfaith-Interspiritual Minister that their canonical stature as clergy is recognized by not only their own school, but by other peers from all the schools and those deemed worthy of "equivalency education" for ordination. It represents a "universal ordination" from the whole movement, something no individual school can provide.