Emily Scott (she/they) is a church planter, pastor, and author. Her book For All Who Hunger: Searching for Communion in a Shattered World, follows the story of starting gathering a new spiritual community of seekers around the table for “Dinner Church.” It received starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, and Publishers Weekly. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Baltimore Banner, the Christian Century, and the Hopkins Review.

A Lutheran pastor (ELCA), Emily believes that Christian practice holds out rich possibilities that call us to reach out across boundaries in love, learn through discomfort, and build relationships that bring God's realm close. Queer and nonbinary, she is committed to building communities of faith that dismantle fear and hate, affirm LGBTQ+ people, and confront racial injustice. 

Emily currently serves of the pastor of First Presbyterian Church in New Haven, Connecticut, a congregation that has a long legacy of progressive theology and bold public witness for justice. Before returning to New Haven, she lived in Baltimore where she served and founded two congregations in unique partnership: St. Mark’s Lutheran Church and Dreams and Visions, in Baltimore. These two congregations, one historic, one just a few years old, are partnered together to share a building, pastoral staff, and a commitment to their neighborhood and the LGBTQ+ community. There, Emily collaboratively founded Baltimore’s first gender-affirming, pay-what-you-can thrift store, the Skylight Boutique, focused on providing needed clothing and gender-affirming accessories for the trans and LGBTQ+ community.

From 2008-2017, Emily served as the founding pastor of St. Lydia's Dinner Church in Brooklyn, where worship is a full meal, shared around a dinner table. Emily and the congregation were involved in combating police brutality and advocating for affordable housing with organizations such as Faith in New York. St. Lydia's sparked a wider Dinner Church movement, and is now a national model for new church starts.

A graduate of Yale Divinity School, Emily received the Alumni Award for Distinction in Congregational Ministry in 2016. She was the Director of Worship at The Riverside Church from 2007-2009, and a co-founder of Music That Makes Community. Her work at St. Lydia's has been covered by The Atlantic and the Wall Street Journal. 

Contact Emily: emily@emilymdscott.com