Owning Our Ancestral Past

Verdis Robinson and Erin Scott

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Born out of a desire to unify the country after the Civil War, the Day of Thanksgiving is surrounded by a tangled web of stories about race, spirituality, and American identity. As this national holiday draws near, how are we making sense of the conflicting myths and facts that surround us? On Sunday Nov. 22, Erin V. Scott and Verdis L. Robinson will bring us their own ancestral stories, and share how owning both the gifts and the wrongs of our ancestors can inform our present and inspire our future.

 

Verdis L. Robinson (He/Him) is the Lenora Montgomery Scholar of Excellence at Meadville Lombard Theological School in Chicago, where he is an Aspirant for the Unitarian Universalist ministry and a candidate for a Master of Divinity. Verdis holds a BM in voice performance from Boston University, a BS cum laude and an MA in history from SUNY College at Brockport, and an MA in African American studies from SUNY University at Buffalo.

 

Erin V. Scott (she/her) is a seventh-generation Unitarian Universalist (on the Universalist side) and an Aspirant for the UU ministry. She was born and raised in Rochester, NY and has traveled extensively within the United States and beyond. Erin holds a Bachelors of Arts degree in Environmental Studies from Mount Holyoke College. She currently receives the Jenkin Lloyd Jones Scholarship at Meadville Lombard Theological School where she is earning her Masters of Divinity. She will be joining us virtually from her home in Western Massachusetts.