Emily Scott, ‘06 M.Div.

At the heart of YDS is the commitment to train women and men for the lay and ordained ministries of the Christian church. The award for Distinction in Congregational Ministry is awarded to a lay or ordained individual who has shown exceptional pastoral competence in the work of developing the ministry and mission of local congregations.

Emily Scott is the founding pastor of St. Lydia’s, a dinner church in Brooklyn where her congregation worships around a sacred meal that they cook and eat together. She describes her ministry as “creating space for moments of transcendence through ritual.” Her worship has been described as innovative and an example of ways to engage the millennial generation. Trained as a liturgist and musician at YDS and the Institute of Sacred Music, Rev. Scott founded St. Lydia’s in collaboration with colleague Rachel Pollak and congregants in 2009, and was ordained as a pastor in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America in 2012.