Stephanie Perdew Concludes Tenure as President of The Liturgical Conference

President of The Liturgical Conference (TLC), Rev. Stephanie Perdew, PhD, concluded her second term as president in February 2023.

Elected to the office in 2016, Perdew has served as president for six years. During this time, she has worked to stabilize TLC and guided the board through a period of increased readership of Liturgy as well as overseeing changes to the format of the journal.

Editor-in-chief for Liturgy, Melinda Quivik, reflected on working with Perdew over the past six years: “Stephanie is both a boss and a colleague––the best of those put together in one person. I would work with her again any day, any time. She listens with attention and invests the goal of The Liturgical Conference with the commitment that is due the work of liturgical excellence.” Andrew Wymer, vice president of TLC, noted, “Stephanie is a steady, gracious, and humble leader, and her consistent leadership will continue to be deeply appreciated.” Board member, Ed Phillips said, “Stephanie Perdew is a model for the pastor-scholar of our times … while many will miss her work as the president of The Liturgical Conference as she takes up her next important work for her denomination, I do not see this as leaving so much as fulfilling her calling—to be a servant-leader in the church and in the world.”

At their February 2022 meeting, the Board of Directors honored Perdew’s service with a donation to the Illinois Conference of the United Church of Christ with a scholarship for a seminary student pursuing theological education at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, IL.

Perdew is Associate Conference Minister for the Illinois Conference of the United Church of Christ, and she is an affiliate professor of history at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. An educator in Native American history and a tribal citizen of the Cherokee Nation, Perdew was recently appointed to the board of the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian. Previously she served as Senior Pastor of First Congregational Church of Wilmette in Wilmette, Illinois.

The Liturgical Conference advocates for the renewal of liturgy, supports the formation of liturgical people, and seeks the unity of the Body of Christ for the life of the world. TLC is an ongoing movement within the ecumenical church, founded in 1940. We seek to provide an ecumenical forum for articulating the standards of liturgical excellence and for supporting persons who have a common interest and concern for the liturgical life and the liturgical arts of the church.