On April 28, 2018 Jim Forest delivered a 2-part lecture called “Becoming a Peacemaker” at Voices for Peace, an ecumenical conference held in Toronto and sponsored by the Anglican Church of the Redeemer, the Henri Nouwen Society, Citizens for Public Justice, and the Basilian Centre for Peace and Justice. In the promotion for the conference Mr. Forest was described as preparing to “speak on the spirituality of peacemaking and the framework for non-violent resistance to evil.” The present brief reflection is a snippet from his lecture.  

Jim Forest speaking at Voices for Peace

At the absolute core of Christ’s teaching is the commandment to love God and to love our neighbor, not one or the other but both, with the understanding that our neighbor is whoever is standing in front of us. This sometimes turns out to be our enemy—someone we would rather avoid, maybe someone we even wish were dead. 

All the people who have helped me see the way ahead in my own life put great stress on love, with a special emphasis on love of enemies. 

The key word is love. Peacemaking is the work of love, Henri Nouwen put it very simply. 

To understand love of others, including love of irritating neighbors and dangerous adversaries and intellectual opponents and politicians who make our blood boil, you first need to unsentimentalize the word. You have to understand love in its biblical meaning. For Jesus, love is not a feeling. Love is not an inebriating emotional high, or rejoicing in an intense romantic relationship. Love is how you relate to others, no matter how you happen to be feeling at a particular moment. You don’t stop caring for others—that is, doing what you can to help keep them alive—because you’re tired or don’t feel like it or are having a bad day.  Read More

Generous Spaciousness: Responding to Gay Christians in the Church​, Wendy VanderWal-Gritter (Grand Rapids​​ MI​: ​Brazos Press, 2014​)

​When Brothers Dwell in Unity:​ Byzantine Christianity and Homosexuality​, Stephen Morris (​Jefferson NC: McFarland & Company, 2015)

Pavel Florensky: Early Religious Writings 1903-1909​, Boris Jakim, Trans​. (Grand Rapids MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 2017​)​

Considering that the academic year ends early in Canadian universities—in April!—a surprisingly full room of one Orthodox bishop, several Orthodox priests, some Anglican and Protestant clergy, and a few dozen laymen and laywomen gathered at Trinity College late yesterday afternoon for an informal public conversation between Dr. Christopher Brittain, Dean of Divinity at Trinity College, and Father Andrew Louth, Emeritus Professor of Patristic and Byzantine Studies at Durham University in the UK.

During the Q&A, Dr. Brian Butcher of the Sheptytsky Institute—who has written twice for Orthodoxy in Dialogue (here and here)—asked Father Andrew to address how questions of sexuality and gender are causing divisions “right down the middle” within churches, while at the same time generating a kind of “ecumenism of the right” and “ecumenism of the left” which unites individuals from different churches.

Father Andrew’s reply was measured, balanced, nuanced, and—without mentioning Orthodoxy in Dialogue—fully open to the kind of dialogue that we are committed to facilitating on our pages. He concluded by remarking that, if we discuss sexuality and gender from a place of fear, trying to frighten people, we’re probably doing it wrong. Read More

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For Incels, It’s Not about Sex. It’s about Women.

by the Editors of the Southern Poverty Law Center

Most of the victims in Alek Minassian’s van rampage in Toronto were women. There’s reason to believe that was his goal.

Before he killed 10 people and injured 14 more on a crowded sidewalk in April, Minassian posted on Facebook that he was a “private (recruit)” in what he called the “Incel Rebellion.” Read More

SS. Theodore of Tyre and Theodore Stratelates. 14th century. Holy Transfiguration Monastery. Zrze, Macedonia.

A year ago this week, Public Orthodoxy had the courage to publish my “Conjugal Friendship,” for which I remain immeasurably grateful to the editors.

I feel equally grateful to the editors of The Wheel, in whose Spring-Summer 2018 issue (13/14)—entitled Embodiment and guest-edited by Father Andrew Louth—my “Father Pavel Florensky and the Sacrament of Love” will soon appear. This article expands upon “Conjugal Friendship,” and attempts to address some of the questions raised by my supporters and critics at that time. For a tiny preview of my upcoming article you can read my recent review of Pavel Florensky: Early Religious Writings 1903-1909 here. What “Conjugal Friendship” failed to achieve, and I hope to accomplish this time around, is to generate a discussion not on my views on the place of same-sex love in Orthodox Christian life, but on those of Father Florensky. I examine—briefly, because of The Wheel‘s space constraints—not only some elements of Florensky’s text, but also the social, historical, and autobiographical context in which he wrote The Pillar and Ground of the Truth and its culminating chapter, “Friendship.” Orthodoxy in Dialogue will let our readers know when this issue of The Wheel comes out.   

To conclude this post, I would like to share the following brief excerpts from the introduction to my MA thesis, “A Bed Undefiled: Foundations for an Orthodox Theology and Spirituality of Same-Sex Love.” Read More