Sally N. MacNichol
CONNECT FAITH

Sally N. MacNichol has been an antiviolence activist and educator in New York City for over 20 years. As the director of programs for CONNECT, a New York City nonprofit dedicated to ending family and gender violence and creating safe families and peaceful communities, Sally has been able to focus her efforts on engaging communities of faith to address family and gender violence. She directs CONNECT’s faith project (CONNECT FAITH) which focuses on training religious and lay leaders, seminarians, spiritual activists and all people of faith to address intimate partner violence in their communities. Through this program, Sally facilitates CONNECT’s monthly interfaith theological roundtable where people of faith are invited to discuss the theological, spiritual, pastoral and congregational challenges of domestic violence. She has also published several articles including “We Make The Road By Walking: Reflections on the Legacy of White Antiracist Activism” in Disrupting White Supremacy From Within: White People on What We Need To Do, “Reclaiming, Revisioning, Recreating in Theo-Ecological Discourse" in Theology for Earth Community: A Field Guide and, with MB Walsh, "Feminist Theology and Spirituality: An Annotated Bibliography" in Women's Studies Quarterly.

Do you find that your faith informs or guides your social justice activism? In what ways does or doesn't it?

My faith and my work are inseparable. My faith/work is rooted in the belief that human beings have the capacity to choose peace and loving- kindness, and the resources to live in harmony on this earth. I doubt that I would be able to “keep on keeping on” with the work to transform violence into peace if I didn’t believe that we human beings are birth- givers not just death-dealers. Oh yes! The moral arc of the universe does indeed bend toward justice, as Martin Luther King Jr. said. Even in the face of tremendous evidence to the contrary, I believe that it is possible to live in a world where there is, at least, much less violence, war, injustice and oppression and, at best, a world where everyone can eat, love, pray and dance to the rhythms of our beautiful planet as they please. Peace is possible. This impossible crazy hope sustains my efforts. I am thankful for the mysterious gift of faith that says that love is the most powerful energy on this earth, that compassion is the lifeblood of humanity, and that someday things will be better.

Do you find that your faith either empowers or affirms you as a woman? In what way does or doesn't it?

Yes, my faith definitely affirms and empowers me as a woman, but I had to do quite a bit of spiritual traveling to get there. As a little girl in the Episcopal Church, I loved the prayers. I loved the hymns, and I loved Jesus, but I was always keenly aware that women and girls were excluded from what was most important and holy. In those days the Episcopal Church only ordained men, and only boys could be altar boys, a job I desperately wanted. Everything was about the father and the son. I used to wonder what happened to the mothers and daughters! A deep dissatisfaction with the misogyny of Christianity led me to study and engage other religious traditions and theologies, and I was soon to find out that Christianity wasn’t the only religion in which women suffered from the wounds of patriarchy. My years at seminary gave me the analytical tools to get underneath patriarchy and explore the ways that sexism was intertwined with other kinds of oppression. But I also turned to the stories of women in the different scriptures and traditions of Christianity and Judaism, delved into the theologies of women from North, Central and South America, as well as Africa and Asia, and learned from the Goddess traditions of earth based/indigenous religions. Empowering indeed! While my work to end violence against women never lets me forget the cruelty and injustice of patriarchy/demonarchy ( to use Delores Williams’ term), the tremendous faith, and spiritual courage of the women I have been lucky enough to work with and study have helped me to experience and claim the healing and liberating power of She Who Dwells Within - The Shekinah, who Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb describes as “the voice of women and men who demand an end to violence so that we can love one another.”

Who has been the most influential woman in your life?

This is a difficult question! There are so many “holy-bold” women who have shaped my life ~ from my professors and theological mentors, Dorothee Soelle and Delores Williams, to my many sisters in the struggle ~ too many to list here. However, I would have to say that the person who has had the deepest spiritual impact on me was my great-grandmother, Laura Blaine Ford MacNichol. In my first 14 years of life, she showed me the power of peace through the practice of compassion, non-judgment and loving- kindness. Amazingly enough, I wouldn’t find out that she was a survivor of intimate violence until after I began working in a battered women’s shelter for my seminary field education placement.

Have you ever had a personal "aha" moment? What was it? And what made it so special?

Oh yes. Many and still counting! For me, revelation is ongoing!