Bring the UUHS to your congregation!
Every year, the UUHS Team hits the road and visits UU congregations and communities across North America.
This year, Executive Director Mx. Katharine Childs is headlining the preaching tour and is excited to meet our UUHS group members (the Mirthies? hmm… maybe. we’re still working on it)
With more than a decade of experience sharing the message of Unitarian Universalism with people of all ages as a congregational religious educator, in 2025 Mx. Katharine was the first non-ordained religious professional to lead the Service of the Living Tradition, UUism’s annual celebration of ministry since 1961.
They love to share stories, make people laugh, and help kids and adults find the magical and the spiritual in the everyday world.
Storytelling & Multigenerational Worship
Mx. Katharine is first and foremost a storyteller and story writer, and they would love to bring their worship magic to you. Whether it’s building a worship service around one of their original social justice fairytales, a storytelling versions of one of your favourite picture books, an all-ages biography, or an engaging spiritual and moral lesson for kids AND adults, Mx. Katharine loves worship for all ages that is story-centred and allows kids, youth, grown ups, and elders to imagine, sing, dance, and play together.
Mx. Katharine was a congregational religious educator for a decade and LOVES multigenerational worship. They are available to pinch hit your big rituals with skill and verve, or to create something new to celebrate special moments in congregational life.
Enjoy a taste of Mx. Katharine’s storytelling with their original story: Cinderette and the Not At All Wicked, Actually Quite Helpful Stepmother
Worship Services with Sermons
Inherently Mirthy
Values and Principles and Aspirations, oh my! Since the Unitarians and the Universalists came together in 1961, we’ve been trying to work out exactly how to describe who the heck we are and what it is we’re doing as a faith tradition. You know, besides serving fairtrade coffee (and tea!) at coffee hour.
Whether you describe your UUism with Values, Principles, or some other way entirely, we’re exploring UU Identity with Madlibs, a hat-wearing octopus, and an inherently mirthy take on the things that make Unitarian Universalists who we are.
Also available (but slightly less funny)
The Gospel According to Women’s Hockey
(a stewardship sermon)
My (Mx. Katharine’s) hometown, Montréal Québec, is the birthplace of competitive ice hockey, and we say with zero irony that for us, hockey is religion. Like any faith, it has its passionate devotees and committed detractors, and its casual fans who only show up for the high holy days of the World Cup and the Olympics.
Its principal pantheon is the Montréal Canadiens, but in 2023 the city welcomed the Montréal Victoire, one of the original six teams of the Professional Women’s Hockey League. Since then, the Victoire have joined the religious canon of the city, and they turned me from a casual fan to someone who’s passionate about women’s hockey.
But it’s also made me think about what our UU congregations can learn from the PWHL; this worship shares some of the lessons women’s hockey can teach us about creating communities worth investing in.
Wibbly-Wobbly Timey-Wimey
(a time-change Sunday service)
This worship service is available twice a year for the beginning and end of Daylight Savings Time.
Time travel took its place in the new genre of science fiction at the end of the 1800s, and we haven’t been able to give up on it since. Blending together stories about the captain of a space station, a historical Canadian railroad engineer, and a time traveling Dutch man, this worship service is a romp through our Western world’s ideas about time and time travel. But time travel is more than science fiction: it’s an exploration of what it means to be human, to live with the consequences of our actions, and what it takes to change the future.
Nearly everyone complains about time change Sunday, but maybe it says something much deeper about us.
UUHS Founder Liz James
UUHS founder Liz James is crisscrossing North America on her own preaching tour again this year, with new speaking and writing projects and ventures. You can get in touch with Liz to book her for your worship and workshops through her website.
Liz remains a superfan of the UUHS and Mirth & Dignity, and we’re excited to do some collaborative work with her this year, but Liz will not be headlining the UUHS tour. If you have filled out the interest form (below, also linked in our newsletter), we’ll be in touch about who from the team might be able to make it to your congregation, but if you’re certain you’d like to bring Liz to your congregation, please be in touch with her directly!!
“Liz James is seriously funny. Her humour has a deeper purpose. She helps us to find joy in the midst of sorrow, laugher in the midst of pain, and the lighter side of those congregational dynamics that make us want to pull out hair out. She is a heavyweight and a light touch.”
— Rev Chris Buice
Please complete the form below to begin a conversation…
Note from the UUHS Team: unfortunately, we cannot make it everywhere that we are invited! We try to vary the places that we visit across the continent, but the choices of where the tour takes us are determined by route, resources, and availability - it’s never personal! Even if we can’t make it to you this year, we’re excited to hear about your interest and we’d love to keep you in mind for future tours, shorter preaching jaunts, and other opportunities.