JIM FOREST: A PILGRIMAGE OF FRIENDSHIP by Robert Ellsberg
In Communion
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11M ago
Jim Forest In one of our last conversations, Jim Forest and I reflected together on the curious signs and synchronicities that had marked our lives. For Jim, many of these were described in his memoir, Writing Straight with Crooked Lines. In certain cases, I was a firsthand witness. There was, for instance, the time when Jim was visiting me in Cambridge and I suggested we go to see a new Russian movie, “Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears,” a recent Academy Award winner. Though Jim had spent decades promoting peace and reconciliation between opposing camps of the Cold War, his knowledge of actual ..read more
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No Borders: Remembering Jim by Nancy Forest
In Communion
by adminincom
1y ago
Jim Forest Shortly after Jim passed away in January 2022, I began the task of designing his gravestone. We had not discussed this beforehand, so it was entirely up to me. The only thing we had decided on was that he and I would both be buried in the Orthodox section of the St. Barbara Cemetery in Amsterdam, a lovely place just a short bus ride from our church. It didn’t take long for me to arrive at a design: a simple Latin cross with the text “Blessed are the peacemakers” beneath it, then the name by which he was best known – Jim Forest – and the dates of his birth and repose in English. Afte ..read more
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No Borders: Remembering Jim by Nancy Forest
In Communion
by adminincom
1y ago
Jim Forest Shortly after Jim passed away in January 2022, I began the task of designing his gravestone. We had not discussed this beforehand, so it was entirely up to me. The only thing we had decided on was that he and I would both be buried in the Orthodox section of the St. Barbara Cemetery in Amsterdam, a lovely place just a short bus ride from our church. It didn’t take long for me to arrive at a design: a simple Latin cross with the text “Blessed are the peacemakers” beneath it, then the name by which he was best known – Jim Forest – and the dates of his birth and repose in English. Afte ..read more
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Holy Consistency: Jim Forest ‘s Life of Protest and Proclamation By Michael Plekon
In Communion
by adminincom
1y ago
I was grateful to have known Jim Forest. Mostly I corresponded with him. I last was with him at a conference of the Thomas Merton International Society on the hundredth anniversary of Merton’s birth in 2015. This was at Bellarmine University in Louisville, where the Thomas Merton Center is located. With so many there, and given Jim’s connections personally to Merton and his tasks, I did not have more than a brief greeting. Years earlier, in the 1990s. when he was in NYC, Jim gave a talk for students at my campus of The City University of New York, Baruch College and we had time to talk over l ..read more
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A memory of Jim Forest by Arno Akkermans
In Communion
by adminincom
1y ago
Jim Forest at Koutloumousiou Monastery, Mount Athos, April 2017The drinking water fountain at Koutloumousiou Monastery, Mount AthosWoman looking at Mount Athos from the sea (photo Nancy Forest-Flier) I was with Jim on Athos. As it would turn out, the only occasion on which we would leisurely spend time together, just the two of us. We were visiting the Holy Mount as part of a larger group of pious parishioners from the somewhat less holy city of Amsterdam, but first had left the women behind, and then were left behind ourselves by the men. This on the basis of the assumption, for me at the tim ..read more
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The Vocation of a Peacemaker By Jim Forest
In Communion
by adminincom
1y ago
This is an extract from a talk given by Jim at St Tikhon’s Monastery in June 2003. The talk was later edited by Jim into the essay  “The History and Mission of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship,” available on our website: https://incommunion.org/the-history-and-mission-of-the-orthodox-peace-fellowship/. This extract presents Jim’s conclusion. “Before closing, let me add a few points that describe my own sense of our vocation as Orthodox peacemakers: Jim Forest We are faithful sons and daughters of the Church, not the Church's rescue committee. Fr. John Meyendorff once remarked about a schisma ..read more
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Remembering Jim Forest By Vincent van Buuren
In Communion
by adminincom
1y ago
Remembering Jim Forest By Vincent van Buuren It is hard to believe that on the 13th of January one year had already passed since Jim died, just before the war in Ukraine started on the 24th of February. So often have I thought about what Jim’s reaction to all this would have been. I am not the only one who has often wished Jim was here to talk to. Fortunately, Jim has left us so many books. In that way he still speaks to us. The best choice for me in this time of war has been “The Root of War is Fear.” Reading it eases my mind because it gives answers to many questions. A number of times in co ..read more
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The Tangerine of Love
In Communion
by adminincom
1y ago
Jim Forest's embrace of Nancy on his return from Mount Athos Ever since I was a child, I always used to hear stories about some “Jim Forest,” whom my mother respected a lot. I didn’t really know who he was or what he did, but by the way my mother referred to him, I knew he was somebody very special.  When I did finally meet him, as a teenager in Amsterdam, I was touched by the loveliness of his ways. He took a picture of me and my Orthodox friends and, somehow, a bond was formed. We spoke about his book on icons, which I had just read, and you could feel the respect he had for others. Tho ..read more
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Holy Consistency: Jim Forest ‘s Life of Protest and Proclamation 
In Communion
by adminincom
1y ago
By Michael Plekon I was grateful to have known Jim Forest. Mostly I corresponded with him. I last was with him at a conference of the Thomas Merton International Society on the hundredth anniversary of Merton’s birth in 2015. This was at Bellarmine University in Louisville, where the Thomas Merton Center is located. With so many there, and given Jim’s connections personally to Merton and his tasks, I did not have more than a brief greeting. Years earlier, in the 1990s. when he was in NYC, Jim gave a talk for students at my campus of The City University of New York, Baruch College and we had t ..read more
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Celebrating the Liturgy as a Way to Promote Peace
In Communion
by adminincom
1y ago
Our parish in Deventer, belonging to the “Archdiocese of Parishes of Russian Tradition in Western Europe”, so the “rue Daru” to keep it simple, is a very international congregation: about half of us are Dutch. Further we have Russians, Rumanians, Greeks, Serbs, Ukrainians, Macedonians, Syrians, Eritreans and Georgians. A few months after the beginning of the war in Ukraine, our region welcomed several hundreds of Ukrainians refugees, mostly women with children. Since that time a few dozen of them started to visit our church regularly. Two women, a mother with her daughter, joined the choir, ha ..read more
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