Sarah Nahar neé Thompson (she/her) is a nonviolent action trainer and interspiritual theologian. Now as a PhD candidate in Syracuse, New York (Haudenosaunee Confederacy traditional land) she focuses on ecological regeneration, community cultivation, and spiritual activism. Previously, Sarah was a 2019 Rotary Peace Fellow and worked at the Martin Luther King, Jr. Center in Atlanta, Georgia. She was a founding member of the Carnival de Resistance, a theological circus focused on environmental justice, intentional community life, and and the arts. She has been the Executive Director of Christian Peacemaker Teams, an organization doing third-party nonviolent intervention in areas of lethal conflict worldwide, going where they are invited by local peace and anti-oppression activists. She attended Spelman College, majoring in Comparative Women’s Studies and International Studies, minoring in Spanish. At Spelman she was the Student Government President, and founder of the AUC Peace Coalition, a group that built on the work of Atlantan Civil Rights leaders to resist US militarism. She has an MDiv from Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary in her hometown of Elkhart, Indiana (traditional Potawatomi land). She is currently on the board of Buddhist Peace Fellowship and part of the Black-led and Indigenous-led coalition to return the metals captured in the form of a Columbus statue in downtown Syracuse to the earth, in order for the Earth to have the chance to regenerate anew the ancient story in its/this place.
Why I am called to facilitate the Work
The spiral modality allows us to engage our emotions and spirits as we activate in the world. By connecting the outer and inner worlds, we will be able to act and be with greater integrity and power. Continually learning to facilitate this work has allowed me to meet and deepen with many people who wish to find a way to sustainably continue to show up for peace, justice, and regenerative politics over the long haul.
My best answer is contained within the article I wrote for this website in 2017. https://journal.workthatreconnects.org/2017/08/29/intersectionalization-of-the-work-that-reconnects/
How I see the Work serving the Great Turning
WTR is one method that assists people in recognizing the interconnection of Blocking harm, Building alternatives, and Being in alignment with our deepest values. It is credit to Katie Loncke of Buddhist Peace Fellowship that rendered the aspects of the Great Turning into this accessible alliteration (BBB for Block, Build, Be). Finding a way to categorize the chaos of attendees experiences into stories, and then creating multiple choice points for people how they want to interact with these ongoing stories has been meaningful. The workshops I’ve been involved in have generally helped me and others more connected with one another, ourselves, the Earth, and that which is Beyond. Any process that can help do that is one I want to promote. The tools we use to facilitate and what we cultivate in through the WTR are useful in everyday life as well!
Audiences I work with
Social and environmental justice activists, religious communities, people of color/global majority, and now, academics.
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