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by Patti DiBona
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ld South Church, a National Historic Landmark built in 1875, dominates the corner of Dartmouth and Boylston Streets in Boston’s bustling Copley Square. With its opulent Ruskinian-Italian Gothic architecture set off by a majestic bell tower, copper cupola, multicolored stonework, and red-and-black striped slate roof, Old South is an awe-inspiring building of power and beauty. Ben Franklin was an early congregant, as were Samuel Adams, Samuel Sewall, and Phillis Wheatley. Yet beyond the old mahogany doors of this imposingly magnificent building, the 21st century speeds along.
On a quiet Monday morning, the vast sanctuary is empty of its usual 600-plus worshipers. A homeless woman draped in layers of colorful clothing against the spring chill slumbers in a back pew while rows ahead a college student tosses his backpack aside and kneels in silent prayer. Two organists confer quietly over sheet music at the massive Skinner organ, occasionally breaking the silence with a crescendo of billowing music. History meets reality neatly here, where a young mother wheels her toddler to the church’s preschool past a tourist perusing church marketing materials.
A plaque at Old South bears witness to “Past Ministers of this Church,” starting with Thomas Thatcher in 1670 and followed by 18 men who served the church since its inception. Not yet added to this list of deceased pastors is the very alive, very real Reverend Doctor Nancy Taylor ’74, who in 2005 became the first woman senior minister of Old South Church, which is a member of the United Church of Christ, the largest Protestant denomination in Massachusetts, with 100,000 members in 425 churches statewide.
“Old South has an extraordinary history and legacy,” Taylor said. “Its story is entwined with the story of this nation: in the creation of democracy, in the pursuit of religious liberty and freedom of speech and assembly. The church’s past is proud and secure. But it is the congregation’s commitment to the present and future that inspires me.” Taylor noted the words carved in stone on the church’s Boylston Street porch: “Behold I have set before thee an open door.” At Old South, said Taylor, “the table is spread for all: rich and poor, wise and foolish, lost and found, homeless and housed, gay and straight, member and visitor, saint and sinner.”
More than Meets the Eye
This devotion to diversity goes back to Taylor’s teen years at Emma Willard and was the very reason she strayed from family tradition to enroll there. “My mother and sister attended Miss Porter’s School and expected that I would too,” she said. “But I always had Emma Willard in the back of my mind. It had a reputation for being culturally diverse and more serious academically. My family realized Emma Willard was a good fit for me. They were delighted when I was accepted.” Taylor made an easy transition from home on Long Island, New York, to residential life at Emma Willard as a 15-year-old. “Everyone was new that first year, and we were all so different from one another. For the first time I was meeting girls and teachers from other countries and cultures. It was exciting,” she said. Classmates still wander unexpectedly into her life. “Recently an Emma alum saw my name on the sign outside Old South. She stopped in to see if it was really me, and we had a wonderful time catching up.”
Known for her beautifully crafted and thought-provoking sermons, Taylor believes her communication abilities took wing at Emma Willard, where she developed a love for Russian literature under the tutelage of Jack Easterling. “His classes were revelatory,” said Taylor. “By exploring concepts and relationships in novels and poetry, I became a person of ideas for whom thinking was a delight.” Raised an Episcopalian, Taylor felt a kinship with Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. “Like me, they were spiritual people who understood that the world is not purely black and white. There is more to life than meets the eye.”
With Emma Willard’s chaplain, Robert Hammond, Taylor helped raise funds for prosthetic limbs for U.S. servicemen. She was a founding member of the student/faculty judiciary committee. “I learned about fairness, compassion, and what it is to make a mistake, express remorse, and go on.” Taylor pursued her love of the outdoors at Emma Willard—hiking the Appalachian Trail with instructor Jim Craig and playing lacrosse. In a recent sermon at Old South Church, she recalled the lure of the great outdoors as a child and the sense of freedom it brought. She said the Boston Marathon, with its finish line outside of Old South, reflects the multiplicity the church endeavors to maintain: “an outdoor, open-air event where there are no best seats and the whole world has come together, with all its variety and diversity.”
In 1978 Taylor received a bachelor’s degree in religious studies from Macalester College, a Presbyterian college in St. Paul, Minnesota. The city was a field site for students, and she began volunteering in the community. She tutored an American Indian child and helped found MACRO (Macalester Recycling Organization), which is still active today. When she obtained her master of divinity degree at Yale University’s Divinity School in 1981, half of the 300 graduates were women, though only a select few would become ministers. While at Yale, Taylor served as a prison chaplain at the Maine Correctional Facility and the New Haven Jail. She interviewed people who’d been arrested to make sure they’d been justly detained.
“An African American man who’d lost his keys was trying to get into his car and was arrested; his excuses ignored,” she said recalling a memorable incident. “I was able to track down his wife and have her bring his driver’s license to prove ownership and innocence.” Taylor found fulfillment in her ministry particularly with imprisoned women. “My job was to hear stories, listen, and pray. I brought, I think, a piece of compassion into a place of hell.”
Send Us a Minister
Ordained a minister in the United Church of Christ (UCC) in 1983, Taylor noticed that her male colleagues obtained plum pastoral positions while she was an unpopular candidate. “Even the most progressive and liberal congregations wanted young men, preferably married with kids,” she said. She took a page from a book titled Send Us a Minister: Any Minister Will Do, by Walter Cook, a collection of essays about the trials of 1970s seminary students on their first assignments in Maine. Taylor became pastor of Oxford County United Parish in East Stoneham and North Waterford, Maine, a poor region in the foothills of the mountains. “I was asked to commit for two years, and I stayed happily for four,” she said.
Taylor settled into a one-room cabin with no plumbing and traveled (by snowshoe in the winter) to her three “beautiful little New England churches with steeples.” She remembers her sister’s reaction after her first visit: “My God! You’re at the ends of the earth!” Taylor, called a “flatlander” by her congregation, gained the trust of even her most skeptical parishioners. She received extraordinary handmade crafts for her involvement in their lives. “This was a bartering society where people had to get along and pitch in to survive. People hunted and canned their food. I cared for goats in exchange for firewood,” she said.
The role of women in the community struck a chord with Taylor, who noticed that attendance at Sunday services was mostly female. “Men had to work the farms, and as a result were less educated than their wives. They were uncomfortable with such a wordy and cerebral atmosphere. There was a division between the men and the women, who yearned for a better life for their
children.”
In 1987, she transferred to Immanuel Congregational Church in Hartford, Connecticut, as associate minister. This urban, multicultural parish was well staffed and had active music, community outreach, and Christian education programs. Hired to reach out to younger parishioners, Taylor attended community and cultural events, created educational programs, and began interacting with legislators. “We rallied against apartheid, expressed anti-war sentiments, and developed ‘A God’s Eye View of Hartford,’ a tour through the city highlighting different racial, ethnic, and socio-economic cultures.”
Eager to embrace a challenge and armed with a broader, more experienced perspective, Taylor headed for Boise, Idaho, to become senior minister of First Congregational United Church of Christ. Her liberal upbringing clashed with the ultra-conservative landscape in Idaho. Unafraid, Taylor plunged headfirst into a cause dear to her heart—defeating several anti-gay initiatives. She also helped secure a minimum wage for Idaho farm workers. Along with other religious leaders (together they formed Idaho Voices of Faith for Human Rights, the state’s first interfaith organization), Taylor debated the issues, testified at the state house, and wrote newspaper columns. “We argued on the basis of civil rights and won,” she said.
Taylor’s social activism found a burgeoning audience in Idaho as her congregation swelled from 70 to 300. “Good worship and music also drew crowds,” she said. During her nine years in Idaho, the church became a safe haven for gay people and their families. “I realized the silent pain they endured and how fearful they were of sharing their life’s stories,” she said. “Just as Christians in the past safeguarded slaves through the Underground Railroad, our church is charged with protecting and welcoming lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people.”
As a founder of the Idaho Human Rights Education Center, Taylor introduced human rights curricula to Idaho’s schools. She helped conceive, obtain funding for, and oversee the creation of the Idaho Anne Frank Human Rights Memorial. Her words resonate on the organization’s Web site: “May this memorial inspire each of us to contemplate the moral implications of our civic responsibilities.” Hewlett-Packard honored Taylor with an Award for Distinguished Leadership in Human Rights in 1999
A Soulmate and Helpmate
Taylor obtained her doctor of ministry in 1997 at the Chicago Theological Seminary. It was here that she met the Reverend Peter Southwell-Sander, a charismatic Anglican priest in the Church of England. The two began an old-fashioned trans-Atlantic courtship and married in 1996. Southwell-Sander moved to Idaho where he preached part-time and directed Opera Idaho. The couple moved to Massachusetts in 2001 when Taylor became minister and president of the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ (UCC). This honor followed her work as volunteer moderator of the UCC.
The terrorist attacks of September 11 occurred shortly after Taylor assumed her new position. She communicated regularly via email with her 420 Massachusetts UCC churches and met with state religious leaders of all faiths. “Clergy were numb. How do you preach in the face of such tragedy? Where is God? Our correspondence became a supportive springboard for conversation,” she said.
And then the clergy sex abuse scandal broke in Boston newspapers. “Our church had fallout as well,” said Taylor. “Ministers, some dead, others retired, were accused of sexual misconduct with girls and vulnerable older women. Six lawsuits were filed. We decided to address the accusations directly and settle quickly,” she said. Taylor helped create a new Massachusetts state law mandating clergy to report suspected child abuse. “When child abuse happens, claims of religious freedom should not apply,” she said. “Why should an abused child receive less protection than the abuser? The Boston Archdiocese had tried to carve out exceptions. There are none.”
Taylor took a proactive approach to improving the UCC and secured a $1.5 million Lilly endowment grant for pastoral excellence. With the help of her husband, she brought the Freedom Schooner Amistad to Boston Harbor to celebrate the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1841 decision to free 53 kidnapped Africans about to be sold as slaves. Taylor traveled the cities and towns of Massachusetts preaching at different churches each week. She and her husband loved the experience. “We thought I’d retire in this position.” Then, in 2005, Old South Church invited her to apply for its senior minister role.
The couple settled in Boston’s Back Bay, just a 10-minute walk from Old South’s Copley Square location. “Boston is a wonderful, exciting place to live in and we enjoyed it all – the people, restaurants, music, museums, Red Sox.” They found an ideal home for their multicultural interests and progressive ideals, preaching them from the pulpit and practicing them at church events. According to Larry Bowers, chair of the Old South Church search committee that unanimously chose Taylor, “Nancy is a superb preacher, a thoughtful pastor, an accomplished leader, and respected public voice on social justice and religious issues, who affirms every person as a child of God.”
When the Democratic National Convention came to town in 2004, Taylor and her husband organized “Let Justice Roll,” a citywide interfaith worship service. The ancestral home of Old South Church, the Old South Meeting House on Milk Street in downtown Boston, was recently the site of Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s inauguration, an interreligious ceremony that Taylor helped plan. Back in 1773, Samuel Adams gave the signal for the “war whoops”at Old South Meeting House that triggered the Boston Tea Party. “We’ve been getting into hot water ever since!” said Taylor.
Preacher, CEO and Forward Thinker
Taylor is a proponent of stem cell research and is pro-choice but not pro-abortion. “Why are impoverished women having babies while males are walking away? Abortion is a sad but viable option.” She believes that religion and science are complementary. “Evolution is a beautiful thing.” Named one of “The Best New Faces of 2005” by The Boston Globe, Taylor received the Building Bridges Award 2006 from the Religious Coalition for the Freedom to Marry. A supporter of gay marriage, Taylor hosts Gay Pride interfaith services at Old South and participates each year in Boston’s Gay Pride Parade. Old South holds an LGBT fellowship group, as well as many religious education and community outreach programs. It is home to a preschool, the Poor People’s United Fund, Amnesty International, Chorus Pro Musica and many 12-step support groups. Respected for its music, Old South Church has a choir, handbells ensemble, world renowned organists at Sunday services and an evening service with a live jazz group. Taylor is a member of several board of directors including Pax World Funds, Andover Newton Theological School, The Old South Meeting House and Ecclesia Ministries.
Taylor admits that her job at Old South Church is unlike that of most Protestant ministers. “I’m not only a preacher but also the CEO of a historical building open to the public seven days a week. There is a lot of administrative work here, and often I’m writing my Sunday sermon on Saturday. I always begin with a biblical text and then take inspiration from books and current events. Transcripts and podcasts of Taylor’s sermons are now available on the Old South Web site. “I’ve heard from people as far away as Australia who’ve listened to us online,” she said.
Taylor’s tremendous connection to the people of Old South was particularly comforting when her husband died in June 2006 after living with cancer for many years. His name was etched on a new 220-pound bell wheel crafted by the church moderator to help the original 1895 bell ring more easily and richly. “The bell calls all people to worship. It carries on my husband’s legacy. He was a person of faith, and he loved to welcome people to the church,” said Taylor.
In the Company of Great Women
As Taylor perseveres and learns to live without her partner, she is strengthened by the company surrounding her. She sometimes talks with the ghosts of her predecessors at Old South. “Most were forward-thinking men and I think we’d get along,” she said. She also draws encouragement from the eight great women depicted in portraits on the walls of her Old South office. They are decidedly the only feminine touch in this darkly paneled room. Looking over Taylor as she works at her desk or thumbs through a book in search of inspiration are: Anne Frank, Virginia Woolf, Rosa Parks, Amelia Earhardt, Helen Keller, Pearl Bailey, “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias, and Zora Neale Hurston.
Taylor laughs as she points to an old black-and-white photo taken in the late 1800s. Frances Johnston is seated in a most unladylike manner staring defiantly into the camera, her petticoat showing, a beer bottle in one hand and a cigarette in the other. “She was a very sought after professional photographer, one of the first women in the field. She took pictures of Mark Twain and five presidents, and this is her self-portrait. She is who she is. I like that.”
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he Reverend Nancy Taylor said she was pleasantly surprised when she learned that the historian and archivist at Old South Church was also an Emma Willard graduate—Susan Thurston Campbell ’60. Together the alumnae work together to preserve and promote the church’s heritage.
Campbell and her husband, Ken, retired director of news at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, now live in Jaffrey, New Hampshire, after 36 years in Boston. The parents of Bhaird, 38, and Caroline, 36, the Campbells joined Old South Church as congregants in 1976. Campbell, who has a bachelor’s degree in English from Connecticut College, has been an officer of the church and its historian for 19 years.
“I’ve taught church school, been a deacon, chair of art and religion and publications committees, served on long-range planning committees, orchestrated Old South’s 325th anniversary, and directed Christmas pageants at Old South,” said Campbell, who attended her 45th reunion at Emma Willard in 2005. “During these pageants the kids made the church their home, reminding me of the ‘break loose from routine’ quality of Revels productions at Emma Willard.”
Along with her husband, Campbell has authored numerous marketing materials for Old South. She is a trustee of the American Congregational Association, which runs the Congregational Library. Campbell was responsible for building Old South’s onsite storage facility, which houses historical materials such as furniture, paintings, books, manuscripts and blueprints. A member of the Christian Education committee and chair of the Woman’s Society at First Church in Jaffrey, Campbell recently promoted climate control as part of the Carbon Coalition.
“Our collection of silver at the Museum of Fine Arts includes valuable Paul Revere pieces,” said Taylor. “We have rare books at the Boston Public Library (two of 12 existing Bay Psalm Books); manuscripts of Old South sermons, membership and baptismal ledgers including Ben Franklin’s, at the Congregational Library; and other artifacts at the Massachusetts Historical Society.”
As historian, Campbell ensures these items are well cared for, makes presentations to the congregation about significant items or documents, researches materials for interesting stories, and oversees the compilation and binding of Sunday bulletins and sermons.
A former office manager, Campbell has continued her volunteer work at Old South while enjoying retirement in the Mt. Monadnock region of New Hampshire.
“The classification of retirement is perhaps an oxymoron as we have never been busier,” she said. “One of the best features about New Hampshire is the political process of candidate appearances at diners and house parties. Participating in grass roots democracy brings us full circle to the time when we participated in dialogue about the Vietnam war and racial conflict.”
“The most prominent person connecting me to Emma Willard was Jane Fonda, in whose Sage dorm room I spent my senior year,” Campbell said. “Her initials were carved in the clothes closet! Now I can boast that the Reverend Doctor Nancy Taylor, EW graduate, is the distinguished senior minister at Old South Church in Boston. And yes, I can recognize Emma Willard in Nancy’s style and purpose. What a thrill it is to have this connection.”
—Patti DiBona is a freelance writer from Braintree, Massachusetts.
This Serving & Shaping column appeared in the summer 2007 issue of EMMA.
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