Introducing Your YA@GA Staff!

By Annie Gonzalez Milliken

Your Young Adults at General Assembly (YA@GA) co-facilitators and your Youth and Young Adult Ministries Office staff are pleased to introduce our volunteer staff for YA@GA 2014! These folks are already working hard to plan workshops, events and worship services that minister to young adults at General Assembly and inspire everyone attending.

Without further ado I give you: Our Community Engagement Coordinator, Abigail Clauhs

Abigail Clauhs is a senior finishing up her undergraduate degree in Religion (with a minor in English) at Boston University and is in the process of applying to seminary. Originally from South Carolina, she has a dedication to diversity and interfaith cooperation and is involved with Arlington Street Unitarian Universalist Church in Boston. Having only discovered Unitarian Universalism in college, she is excited to attend her first GA and meet all you UUs from around the country!

As Community Engagement Coordinator Abigail is working to facilitate connections among young adults at General Assembly, from the brand new bridgers to the professionals s in their early 30s. She’s creating programming to facilitate the sharing of skills and information among young adults and with the wider UU community.

Our Worship Coordinator, Christopher Watkins

Christopher Watkins is a native of Knoxville, TN who currently attends Iliff School of Theology in Denver, CO. Christopher is passionate about Unitarian Universalism and has taught religious education classes, contributed music and sermons to worship, and is active in the Young Adult movement on local, national, and international levels. Christopher has been a staff member for many years at MountainCamp, a UU summer camp in North Carolina, and regularly collaborates to create alternative worship for UU communities. When not busy with seminary and church, Christopher loves to write and perform folk songs, dance, and spend as much time as possible in the great outdoors.

As Worship Coordinator Christopher is helping to plan the Synergy service as well as creating smaller worship services designed for the young adult community. His musical talents and spiritual leadership will be an asset throughout our YA@GA events.

Our Program Coordinator, Jonathan Rodgers

Jonathan Rogers is currently serving as the Youth Programs Coordinator at Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Atlanta. He has previously been on the staff of the First Religious Society of Carlisle, MA as a ministerial intern and worked closely with the First Unitarian Church of Providence as a facilitator for the Brown Undergraduate UU Group (BUUUG) in college. In working to unite the liberal and left communities in Unitarian Universalism, he takes early 20th century Community Church of New York minister John Haynes Holmes as his primary role model. A devotee of the barefoot running movement, Jonathan currently lives in Decatur, GA with his fiancee Annie and their rabbits, Rockit and Mrs. Hughes.

As Program Coordinator Jonathan is focusing on a new series of events called “GA Talks” which will highlight innovation across our UU landscape and hopefully inspire further conversation about the future of our faith. He also provides leadership and vision for our YA@GA programming as a whole.

We are all so excited about this year’s young adult programming and we hope you’ll join us in Providence this summer!
Abigail Clauhs

Abigail Clauhs
Christopher Watkins

Christopher Watkins