Who hires the DRE?

[Mel_Stones]

I don’t know if this is where this should go but it seemed the most appropriate.

Who is in charge of hiring the Director of Religious Education for a parish?

We are a small parish (350 families) and hiring for DRE. I’m sending in my resume and my dad thinks I should put my priest as a reference. My priest and the parish secretary have said there is a committee in charge of hiring but I figure it is my priest who has the final say (or is at least on the committee) so it seems silly to put him as a reference - and I feel stupid asking (although he hasn’t returned my call yet so I really haven’t had the chance to ask).

Any DRE’s out there able to tell me who hired you?

Thanks.

 

[Joannm]

The pastor is the one who hires. A committee will make recommendations and give their opinion as to who to hire, but the pastor has the final say. I don’t know about putting the person who will hire you as your reference…is he going to write the letter to himself? I would suggest someone who can attest to your educational background, any theology courses, work with children.

In our diocese all DRE’s must have an MA in theology or religious education. Coordinators of Rel Ed or CRE need to be certified catechists but they cannot conduct parent meetings or instruct or train catechists. Some parishes have CREs and bring in people with MAs to run meetings and train teachers. Sometimes the pastor does this himself. Many of our DREs also have experience teaching in schools. So people applying for the position might use their former principals or professors Our programs are quite large, many times over 1,000 kids, so they look with someone with high credentials.

 

[Corki]

Just to show you that every diocese is different…

In our diocese, while I know some DREs that got their MAs along the way, none of the ones in my personal aquaintance had an MA when they started as a DRE. Similarly, there is a cadre of certified catechists who are themselves certified to train catechists. Most of this group are not DRE’s and the role of training is completely separate from the role of DRE.

Parent meetings around here are conducted by whoever is most qualified on the topic. The parent meetings for Baptism, for example, are conducted by someone delegated by our pastor who is neither a certified catechist or the holder of an advanced degree.

Mel,

Are you asking the reference givers to provide a letter of recommendation or just listing names? If the latter, there is no hard in listing the pastor as long as you have other references as well. If the former, it’s up to the pastor and he will let you know if it’s not appropriate.