Program Description
Guided by the passionate Ministries and Faith Development Staff Group, the Service of the Living Tradition is a heartfelt tribute to our esteemed fellowshipped and credentialed religious leaders. It’s a time to reflect on those who have left an indelible mark, celebrate the accomplishments of those who have completed their service, and warmly embrace the talented individuals who have recently received fellowship or credentialed status.
As we come together, we’ll also contribute to the Living Tradition Fund, making a real impact. The collection benefitting the Living Tradition Fund provide scholarships, debt reduction grants, and financial assistance in times of need to seminarians, ministers, religious professionals, other congregational staff at the local level, as well as retired ministers and their loved ones. Donate to the Living Tradition Fund.
GA 2026 is structured differently from our in-person General Assemblies. GA 2026 is designed as a primarily virtual experience, with optional ways to gather through community gatherings, satellite sites, and a studio site. This model allows us to focus on shared content that can be experienced together across many locations.
Because of this shift, the Service of the Living Tradition (SoLT) will not be offered as part of GA 2026. This event is deeply rooted in being together in one space, and we want to honor its full spirit and impact rather than adapt it in ways that might diminish the experience.
We look forward to welcoming the Service of the Living Tradition back in 2027, when the GA format can fully support it.
2025 Service of the Living Tradition
The 2025 Service of the Living Tradition Worship Leader was Mx. Katharine Childs, Director of Religious Exploration at the Unitarian Church of Montreal.
Mx. Katharine Childs (they/them) is a storyteller, religious educator, and curriculum writer who has been delighting, inspiring, and making meaning with kids and adults for more than twenty years. Katharine comes from a line of boundary-breaking women leaders within their childhood faith tradition, finding a theological home in Unitarian Universalism in their early twenties; a lifelong call to ministry brought them to UU Religious Education nearly ten years ago. Katharine finds great joy in turning ordinary moments into extraordinary stories, some of which have been retold in dozens of congregations across the continent.
Since 2023, Mx. Katharine has served as the President of the Liberal Religious Educators’ Association (LREDA) where they have centered Disability justice, community care, and combating white supremacy. They steered LREDA through adopting the language of the 8th Principle into the association’s Mission & Vision statement, and their leadership has allowed LREDA to continue to serve as a strong advocating voice within Unitarian Universalism.
Mx. Katharine has a deep love for the institutions of our faith, and in addition to serving LREDA, has worked with the Canadian Unitarian Council, TRUUsT, the Fahs Collaborative at Meadville-Lombard, and Mirth & Dignity. Their passion for collegial fellowship has helped the LREDA Fall Conference become one of Unitarian Universalism’s most important gatherings for religious professionals.
With deep roots in their hometown of Montréal, Quebec, Canada, Mx. Katharine can usually be found with a coffee and a knitting project, poking around a used bookstore or enjoying the city’s bike paths and skating rinks; and on Sundays at the Unitarian Church of Montreal, where they serve as the Director of Religious Explorations. They live a real life fairytale in the middle of the city, in a tiny little home with a library, a spinning wheel, a woodcutter, a baker, and beanstalks in the garden, but tragically, no talking animals.
2025 Music Leaders
The music for the 2025 Service of the Living Tradition at UUA General Assembly was led by the incredible group bēheld.
bēheld – We are fierce and free women creating music, community, and sisterhood. We perform for worship services, events, conferences, public demonstrations, and even at the vigil honoring the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Our repertoire spans social justice songs of the past 75 years, combined with pop and soul songs of today that honor the work of women, the challenges we face in an increasingly demanding and cruel world, and the joy we experience when we find a community that recognizes and celebrates all that we are, all that we hold, and all that we bring. bēheld website
We are Jen Hayman, Julie James, Norah Quinn McCormick, Loyce Pace, Meg Parker Young, Rochelle Rice, Nicole Rumeau, and Melinda St. Louis.