Aurora Celestin

Aurora Lynelle Celestin (she/her) has been attending St. Paul and St. Andrew since she was 3 months old. She has served the community in a variety of ways over the years as a musician, Sunday School teacher, Vacation Bible School counselor and assistant director, reader, usher, devotional writer, antiracism discussion facilitator, and annual conference lay member. A member of the church since her confirmation in 2014, she is proud to now be uplifted by the community in pursuit of ordination for deacon’s orders. Aurora has a BA from Columbia University (’20) and an MFA in creative writing from The New School (’22).

She is currently an MDiv candidate at Union Theological Seminary. A womanist theologian, poet, fiction writer, and playwright, she is the writing professor for the Harlem Clemente Course in the Humanities, a program of Bard College that seeks to increase accessibility to higher education by offering free humanities classes to adults from 17-70+ years old. Aurora has been a lifelong Upper Westsider with her Haitian and Barbadian immigrant family. She is an adoptive sister to 3 pandemic cats: Oreo, Marshmallow, and Peanut, affectionately called “The Snacks”!

Lightning Round:

• • Favorite Food: Bacon chopped cheeseburger
  • Little Known Fact: My mother and I share a middle name that combines my grandmothers’ names
  • Unwinding Activity: Binge watching TV
  • Words to Live By: “Raise your words, not voice. It is rain that grows flowers, not thunder.” – Jalaluddin Rumi