Graduate Profile: Emma Jacquelin Thomas, MDiv '24

How I've Changed  

This has been such a rich three years! I am so grateful to have found a crew of people who are living the same questions as I have been. It’s been an experience of finding kindred spirits with kindred work to do in the world. 

Memorable Moment 

There are so many, it’s too hard to choose! A few that come to mind: traveling to Mashpee Wampanoag sacred territory with students in Morgan Curtis's MTS ‘23 and my "Ancestors and Money" class to join with them on a prayer walk to face the history of colonization in these lands. Singing “to the edge of our dignity” with faculty, staff, and students at various Common Read events and celebrations. Sitting in a circle each week in Dean Melissa Bartholomew’s Harriet Jacobs class, and the power and vulnerability of that space we wove together. Most recently, meeting Great Salt Lake over spring break in the company of my classmates and our intrepid guides Terry Tempest Williams and Stephanie Paulsel—I will be forever changed by Great Salt Lake’s presence and the collective of people we met and joined who are working to save her life.  

Favorite Class or Professor 

I am so thankful to all the incredible teachers I had while at HDS. There’s no way to make an exhaustive list, because I’ve learned from so many conversations with friends and classmates, from so many trees on long walks, from the wild turkeys and the river. Nevertheles: deep gratitude to professors Cheryl Giles and Chris Berlin for "Compassionate Care for the Dying;" to Matt Potts for "Forgiveness" and for our directed reading on carcerality and Christianity; to Dan Smith for our preaching class, which quite literally changed my life course; to Terry Tempest Williams for inviting me into my full power, for helping me see what I was hiding from, and for being such an example of fierce and loving witness; to Stephanie Paulsell for her love, depth of presence, vocational accompaniment and fresh berries; to my co-facilitator, Morgan, and all of the students who took part in our "Ancestors and Money at Harvard" experiment; to the DIB Lab dream team for being home base for me these three years; to Nicole and Rebecca for the portal of play and depth that is ecstatic dance each week; and to Dean Melissa Wood Bartholomew, whom I have been so blessed to be apprenticed to these last three years, for her vision, deep love, clarity, and example of heart-centered leadership that is in partnership with the divine.  

Message of Thanks  

Thank you to my village—my family, my beloved, my pup, my housemates, my dear friends near and far, my mentors, the trees, my benevolent ancestors and guides, and the Holy Spirit. Nothing, ever, on our own strength alone, and I am because you are. 

What I Hope to Be Remembered By 

I hope we can stay in a relationship so that there are new memories as well as old ones in the making! That said, I’d love to be remembered by full-hearted singing, for my work of full-spectrum reproductive chaplaincy that took root here at HDS, for theologies of transformative justice, and for always having chocolate to share. 

Future Plans 

I grew up here on Massachusetts and Wampanoag territory, and I’ll be staying close next year, working at First Church in Cambridge and doing CPE at Hebrew Senior Life as I prepare for ordination in the United Church of Christ. I’ll also be deepening offerings around full-spectrum reproductive chaplaincy—from birth to abortion to miscarriage to infertility—in partnership with local organizations. And I’m getting married in August!