Emily Scott (she/her/hers) is a church planter, and author of For All Who Hunger: Searching for Communion in a Shattered World, released in Spring, 2020, receiving starred reviews from Kirkus Reviews, Booklist, and Publishers Weekly. Her writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Baltimore Banner, and 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 as pastor of two congregations in unique partnership: St. Mark’s Evangelical Lutheran Church and Dreams and Visions, in Baltimore. These two congregations, one historic, one just a few years old, are partnering together, sharing a building, pastoral staff, and a commitment to their neighborhood and the LGBTQ+ community. St. Mark’s has a tradition of formal worship and beautiful music, and became officially LGBTQ+ affirming in 1985. Dreams and Visions features soulful, creative, worship, and recently opened Baltimore’s first gender-affirming, pay-what-you-can thrift store, the Skylight Boutique, which focuses 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. She serves on the Music That Makes Community board and the Yale Divinity School Alumni board. Her work at St. Lydia's has been covered by The Atlantic and the Wall Street Journal. 

Contact Emily: emily@emilymdscott.com