Katherine is the Interim Associate Minister at Old South Church. Her primary areas of responsibility are Thursday Night Jazz Worship, Christian Formation, small group communities and congregational care. Katherine is passionate about relationships and believes that it is through our interactions with creation, including other people, that we come to understand more about God, ourselves and how we are to live in the world. Taking a walk through the woods, serving at a soup kitchen, singing a spiritual, and participating in an interfaith dialog can each bring us closer to God and to our neighbor in authentic and valuable ways. Katherine seeks to help cultivate those opportunities for connection in the life of Old South Church. 

Before joining the leadership at Old South, Katherine served as Interim Minister in the Memorial Church at Harvard University, and prior to that she served as the Pastor of the First Congregational Church of Wareham for four years. From 2011-2014 Katherine served as the Minister for Campus Engagement at United University Church in Los Angeles, and as a staff member of the Office of Religious Life at the University of Southern California. She was also a contributing author and editorial assistant for the book Interfaith Just Peacemaking: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Perspectives on the New Paradigm of Peace and War (Thistlethwaite et al. 2012). Katherine is a graduate of Hamilton College with a Bachelor of the Arts in Religious Studies, and received her Master of Divinity degree from Chicago Theological Seminary.

Shawn is the Acting Associate Minister at Old South Church. Shawn’s ministry at Old South Church supports the worship life of the congregation, as well as membership and evangelism. Ask Shawn about worship and he will tell you: worship is the single most important act we engage in together as Christians. For Shawn, worship is the lifeblood of Christian community. In the church at worship, we receive, renew and grow in our identity as disciples of Jesus Christ.

Before joining the leadership at Old South, Shawn served as Ministerial Associate for Worship at Fourth Presbyterian Church of Chicago—the second largest Presbyterian (USA) church in the United States. Prior to that he served as Assistant Minister of King’s Chapel in Boston from 2014-2017. In preparation for ordained ministry, Shawn served in the Seattle branch of the Episcopal Service Corp—a year of volunteer local service while living in an intentional community rooted in a household Rule of Life, regular spiritual direction, discernment and community practices.

This is Shawn’s return to Old South Church. From 2011-2013 Shawn served as Ministerial Intern, then Pastoral Fellow, during which he supported a Sunday evening worship service that featured faith sharing and story telling by Old South members. Shawn is a graduate of Bridgewater State College (now University) with a Bachelor of the Arts in Political Science and received his Master of Divinity degree from Boston University School of Theology.  

Shawn appreciates a strong cup of tea, British comedies, and all things New England.

John comes to Old South to fill the newly created Director of Operations role. John previously held the position of Director of Operations for St. Stephen's Youth Programs, where his areas of oversight included human resources, finance, facilities, and IT. Prior to that, John was a brother in the Society of St. John the Evangelist, an Episcopal monastic community in Cambridge MA, where he served in various roles, including Facilities Manager. Originally from Lancaster Pennsylvania, John now lives with his wife, Hannah, in the Forest Hills neighborhood of Boston. In his spare time, John enjoys spending time with friends and family, and traveling with his wife.   

Jamie has a background in social justice and climate change communications. Before coming to Old South, she served as the Communications Manager at Boston-based nonprofits Climate XChange and Climate Action Business Association. Jamie graduated from Tulane University with a degree in Environmental Studies. During her time in New Orleans she co-founded Tulane's fossil fuel divestment campaign, served as Facilitation Team member of the grassroots Gulf South Rising movement and Leadership Team member of 350 Louisiana, and worked at the Tulane Office of Sustainability. In Massachusetts she has worked on campaigns to stop new natural gas infrastructure, organized in solidarity with Native communities fighting fossil fuels, co-founded a bottled water ban campaign, and worked with the leadership development program Climate Summer. In her free time, Jamie likes to see live music, ride her bike, and hang out with her cat, Charlie.

As Associate Organist & Choirmaster, George shares a wide range of duties for Old South’s music ministry. He has lived in the Boston area since he began his graduate studies and has been on the staff of Old South since September 2005.

In addition to his work at Old South, George is also the Assistant Organist of Our Lady of Fatima Roman Catholic Church in Sudbury. Prior to serving at Old South, he was the Interim Director of Music and Organist at Boston's Church of the Covenant, and was also the Director of Music and Organist at Memorial Congregational Church in Sudbury (1999-2003) and the Organist of Fisk Memorial United Methodist Church in Natick (1988-1999).

George is a native of upstate New York and began studying organ while he was in high school. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree from Ashland College (now Ashland University) in Ashland, Ohio, a Master of Sacred Music degree from Boston University School of Theology, and an Artist Diploma in Organ Performance from Longy School of Music in Cambridge. His organ teachers have included Charles Hickman, John Gilbert, John Ferris, and Peter Sykes.

Willie Sordillo has been the Music Coordinator for the Thursday evening Jazz Worship service since its inception in the fall of 2005. A professional musician for over 40 years, Willie has been at various and often overlapping points, a solo singer/songwriter, a member of a Latin American nueva canción ensemble, a jazz musician, a member of a band which backs up a James Brown impersonator, a teacher, composer, and workshop leader. He has written theme music for several independent films, and one of his co-arrangements was used on the television show ER. The band Flor de Caña, which he co-led, was a three time Boston Music Award winner and their album, Bailando en la muralla, was a top 10 hit on the Billboard World Music chart. He has toured extensively throughout North and Latin America as well as other parts of the globe. He frequently brings jazz worship to UCC and other churches throughout New England on Sunday mornings and for two years collaborated with four ordained clergy to develop an independent creative worship service in Framingham called OpenSpirit. For 11 years, Willie served as Administrative Assistant to the Minister and President of the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ, and for three he was Administrator of a national clergy development organization funded by the Lilly Endowment called the Pastoral Excellence Network. Currently, Willie works full-time as a musician. In addition to church, jazz and freelance work, his primary performing settings are a duo with vocalist Zoë Krohne and as a member of the eight piece funk/soul/R&B group, The RPS Band.

Willie has a long history as an activist for peace, human rights and justice causes. This passion has often led him to organize fundraising concerts, and he frequently performs at benefits, rallies and demonstrations. His commitment to gender and identity equality led him to found a collective which released a groundbreaking recording in 1979 called Walls to Roses: Songs of Changing Men. This recording was followed up 10 years later with an AIDS benefit CD entitled Feeding the Flame: Songs by Men to End AIDS. He has appeared on numerous other recordings as a leader, sideman and producer. His most recent recording as a leader is a jazz outing called echoing.

Willie is married to Jenny Allen. Jenny's daughter, Isobel Allen-Floyd, lives in Vancouver, BC and Los Angeles, and has worked in the music business, most notably as a personal assistant to Wynton Marsalis. Jenny and Willie's younger daughter, Nina, graduated from UMass Amherst in 2016 and lives in Waltham. The family is rounded out by a cat, Simon, and a dog, Coco.

As Youth and Young Adult Ministries Leader, Martha coordinates, organizes, and teaches middle and high schoolers in Youth Group and 20- and 30-somethings in the Young Adult cohort. She is focused on nurturing fellowship, service, and theology across age groups, and wants to help folks stay connected to their community and the church. She takes joy in the brilliance, hilarity, and weirdness that comes with working with young people.

A member of Old South since 2016, Martha is passionate about empowering young voices, gender and sexuality justice, and diving deeper into her own faith. A former journalist, she believes that words have power, and that everyone should have a chance to tell their story.

Martha graduated from Emerson College with a B.S. in Journalistic Writing for Social Advocacy, a self-designed major. In her free time, she cuddles with her guinea pig (Teddy), enjoys her neighborhood (Union Square), and watches TV (queer-representative, preferably!).

Since 1979, Carolyn has directed our weekday program for young children ages 2-5 years at our Old South Preschool. Many years ago, the church historian identified the founding year of the school as 1947. However, a recent review of historical documents by Senior Minister, Nancy Taylor, noted it originated in 1942, "as a means of providing childcare so that mothers can participate in the Tuesday [Women's] Guild work (part-missionary work, and part-war effort)." Carolyn began as director one year after the school expanded its schedules to 2 - 5 days. Together with a team of seven or eight teachers, interns, volunteers, and parents, she guides the education and care of the children, and provides support and learning opportunities about the social, emotional, physical, and cognitive realms for parents. The particular focus of the school on relationship-building is a key component for continuously extending knowledge and developing camaraderie in the Old South community. The Preschool has been fortunate to work with Lesley University's Threshold Program for young adults with diverse learning differences, making a three-decades-long commitment and becoming the recipient of the inaugural Founder's Award in 2017.

Carolyn is energized as she expands her base with an array of experiences related to families. They include teaching adults in Continuing Education courses, serving on neighborhood elementary schools' Boards of Trustees, collaborating with Heads of a group of downtown elementary schools and preschools, broadening access of early childhood education through service with community organizations, and doing extensive training in Parenting Education. She and the teaching teams joined forces to author a detailed descriptive document (Preschool in Action: Fundamental Nature of the Program) distributed online and in-house. It provides parent and teacher testimonials, a philosophical overview, a selected resource list of books, online links, and videos about children's learning. Carolyn often acknowledges the joy of connecting with young children: "Children are inspiring. I love being a witness as they construct knowledge through challenging engagement, and reveal their diverse ways of thinking." In her work with parents, she is an enthusiastic advocate for them to strengthen their skills and understand theories that increase positive interactions with their children during challenging times.

Passions and interests are wide and varied. Music, theater, museums, road trips, especially those through mountainous areas, book groups, and sports of all kinds give her a terrific boost. As a docent for a walking tour group for several summers, she enhanced her knowledge of local architecture and affirms that she is very intrigued by the process of developing structural designs. Carolyn has lived in the Boston area long enough now that she can finally identify it as home when asked about that, even as the years in Minnesota, Tennessee and the Carolinas have a grip on a distinctive spot in the collective home.