Jim Forest. Voices for Peace Conference. April 2018. Toronto.
(Photo: Cassidy Hall)

I stood in the middle of St. Nicholas of Myra Russian Orthodox Church in Amsterdam, anxiously looking around. I was late and was desperately trying to lay eyes on Jim Forest. We were to meet there. He had agreed to give me an hour of his time after church.

I knew of Jim from reading his correspondence with Thomas Merton, and I knew that Merton’s prophetic work, Faith and Violence, had been dedicated to Jim when it was published in 1968. I knew that Jim had, along with Protestant and Catholic activists, attended a retreat at the Abbey of Gethsemani in 1964, organized by Thomas Merton. Most of those who attended went on to gain the distinction of being imprisoned for their peace advocacy and civil disobedience. But I had no idea that Jim Forest was still alive until I came across a post he submitted to the International Thomas Merton Society Facebook page.

Here was a direct link to Merton and a living example of Gospel peacemaking! I immediately contacted him. I had no idea what to expect, but knowing my wife Tania and I were headed for Amsterdam in a couple months, I asked if he would be willing to meet me and talk about Merton and peacemaking. He agreed, offering an hour of his time. Read More

Jim Forest. Mount Athos. 2017.
(Photo: Vincent van Buuren)

How to start writing about a friend whose life was so full and rich that he himself could not cover it all in his own autobiography, Writing Straight with Crooked Lines? I will write more about some of my precious memories than about the biographical details which are widely known and available on the internet.

Jim and Nancy were received into the Orthodox Church in 1988. After my own conversion to Orthodoxy in 2004,  they soon became my friends. I visited them many times in their home in Alkmaar in the Netherlands. Frequently they offered me to stay for the night although the train journey home was only 45 minutes. I always gladly accepted their offer, as spending time with them was so precious for me, especially in that period of my life as I was discovering Orthodoxy. Many times I went to see them on a Friday evening. They always watched a movie on DVD on Friday evening and they introduced me to many beautiful movies that meant a lot to them. Watching a movie with them always led to an interesting conversation afterwards. Any  conversation with Jim and Nancy was interesting, as Jim was so often sharing experiences from his rich life. The people he knew—such as Dorothy Day, Thomas Merton, Daniel Berrigan, Thich Nat Hanh, Joan Baez, Metropolitan Anthony (Bloom) of Sourozh and Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware)—enriched his life. He was often sharing about what knowing them meant to him. He did this also in the many books he wrote. I have most of them, some of them with a personal dedication to me by Jim. Read More

Factors beyond my control prevented me from distributing the funds collected for our annual Help Us Feed the Homeless this Christmas campaign until Sunday, January 9. Through the generosity of thirty-five donors, we collected an even $2500, an average of just over $70 each. This enabled us to give twenty-five friends a money envelope containing $100 each.

The dome of the Lord’s cosmic church was grey and dreary that morning, yet the living Pantocrator—not an icon!—looked down invisibly from the heavens in perpetual blessing upon the world that He creates and loves so much. Read More

The present article appeared earlier today at America: The Jesuit Review (more popularly known as America Magazine) with the title “Pope Francis Praises Sister Jeannine Gramick’s 50 years of L.G.B.T. Ministry in Handwritten Letter.” Orthodoxy in Dialogue reprints it with the author’s permission.

The Orthodox Church’s vast numbers of LGBTQ children—preteens, teens, women, men, genderfluid persons—await with heartfelt hope  similar public statements of support, acknowledgment, care, and listening from the Assemblies of Canonical Orthodox Bishops around the globe, from the Holy Synods of our various autocephalous Churches, autonomous Churches, and jurisdictions, and from individual bishops. Metropolitan Kallistos (Ware) of Diokleia’s public support of open-minded dialogue around sexuality and gender, Metropolitan Nathanael of Chicago’s public refutation of a brother hierarch’s homophobic trash talk, and Metropolitan Petros of Accra’s equally public praise for Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s LGBTQ ministry stand as  exemplars of courage for their brother hierarchs and beacons of hope for our Orthodox LGBTQ siblings in Christ.

Pope Francis and Sister Jeannine Gramick

In another sign of support for L.G.B.T. Catholics and those who advocate on their behalf, Pope Francis sent a handwritten letter on Dec. 10 to Jeannine Gramick, S.L., the co-founder of the Catholic apostolate New Ways Ministry.

Sister Gramick is celebrating 50 years of working with and advocating for L.G.B.T. people. Noting her anniversary as the reason for his letter, the pope congratulated her in Spanish on “50 years of closeness, of compassion and of tenderness” in a ministry that he described as being in “‘the style’ of God.”

Pope Francis’ letter to Sister Gramick is the latest in a series of letters from the pope written to gay Catholics and others who are serving and advocating for L.G.B.T. people. Read More