What sort of religious institution honors a “run-like-hell Catholic” and the first Asian-American woman rabbi, among others?

Abigail Disney claimed to be shocked that Auburn Theological Seminary would choose to honor her at its Lives of Commitment Breakfast. “There are lapsed Catholics and then there are run-like-hell Catholics,” she quipped, putting herself in the latter category. Nonetheless, Disney, philanthropist and producer of Pray the Devil Back to Hell, an award-winning documentary about Liberian Muslim and Christian women who unite to oust a dictator and end a civil war, admitted that her work is “powered by faith.”

Auburn Theological Seminary, a multi-faith educational and research center, proclaims that its “faculty and graduates participated in the great social movements of the times, including the abolition of slavery, women's suffrage, and the struggle against fundamentalism.” At its thirteenth annual Lives of Commitment Breakfast, held May 28 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in midtown Manhattan, about 650 people celebrated the central role that women of faith play in healing and repairing the world. Disney and the three other honorees—16-year-old Fatima Haidara, who received the 2009 Young Healer Award presented in partnership with The Sister Fund, Rabbi and Cantor Angela Buchdahl and environmentalist Wendy Paulson—represent not only diverse backgrounds, but also the diverse ways in which the call to service can be heard and acted upon. Previous honorees have included Faye Wattleton, Dr. Jane Goodall and Sister Helen Prejean. Although not always overtly religious, these women’s work is informed by spiritual values just the same.

Fatima Haidara arrived in New York City from Mauritania in 2001, three days before the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center. In the tense atmosphere after the attacks, she confronted prejudice and hostility targeted at her and other Muslims. This strengthened her resolve to combat widespread misconceptions about her religion, and to promote the forgiveness and peace that she sees at her faith’s center. As a member of the Lower East Side Girls’ Club and the Power of Peace Coalition, she has been instrumental in organizing young people of all backgrounds to work together for peace, bringing them to City Hall to bear witness to gang violence and violence against women in their communities.

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