Jim Forest

Jim Forest (born 2 November 1941 in Salt Lake City, Utah) is an American writer, Orthodox Christian lay theologian, educator, and peace activist.

Jim Forest
Born(1941-11-02)2 November 1941
Salt Lake City, Utah
MovementCatholic Worker Movement
Spouse(s)
  • Jean Morton (div. 1967)[1][2]
  • Linda Henry
    (
    m. 1967)
    [1][2]
  • Nancy Flier (m. c. 1982)[3][4]
AwardsPeacemaker, St. Marcellus Award

As a young man, Jim served in the US Navy, working with a meteorology unit at the US Weather Bureau headquarters near Washington, DC. It was during this period that he became a Catholic. His military service ended with an early discharge on grounds of conscientious objection.[5]

After leaving the navy, Jim joined the staff of the Catholic Worker community in Manhattan, working close with the founder, Dorothy Day, and for a time serving as managing editor of the journal she edited, The Catholic Worker.

In 1964, while working as a journalist for the Staten Island Advance, in his spare time he co-founded the Catholic Peace Fellowship, working closely with Tom Cornell. This became a full-time job for both of them in 1965, a time that coincided with deepening US military engagement in Vietnam. The main focus of their work was counseling conscientious objectors.[6]

In 1968, while Jim working as Vietnam Program Coordinator of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Jim and thirteen others, mainly Catholic clergy, broke into nine Milwaukee draft boards, removing and burning some of the files in a nearby park while holding a prayer service. Most members of the "Milwaukee Fourteen" served thirteen months in prison for their action.[7]

In the late sixties and mid-seventies, Jim also worked with the Fellowship of Reconciliation, first as Vietnam Program coordinator and later as editor of Fellowship magazine. From 1977 through 1988, he was Secretary General of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation, work which brought him to the Netherlands. He received the Peacemaker Award from Notre Dame University's Institute for International Peace Studies and the St. Marcellus Award from the Catholic Peace Fellowship.

In 1988, Forest was received into the Orthodox Church. Since 1989, he has been international secretary of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship as well as associate editor of its quarterly journal, In Communion. In 2017, he was ordained as Reader.

Jim had a long-term friendship with Thomas Merton, who dedicated a book to him, Faith and Violence.[8] Jim also accompanied the famed Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh.[9][10]

A journalist and writer, his books include Praying with Icons, Ladder of the Beatitudes, The Road to Emmaus: Pilgrimage as a Way of Life, Loving Our Enemies: Reflections on the Hardest Commandment, biographies of Thomas Merton (Living With Wisdom), Dorothy Day (All Is Grace) and Daniel Berrigan (At Play in the Lions' Den), and several children's books, including Saint Nicholas and the Nine Gold Coins, Saint George and the Dragon and Silent as a Stone: Mother Maria of Paris and the Trash Can Rescue.

He and his wife Nancy, a translator and writer, live in Alkmaar, the Netherlands.

Publications
  • At Play in the Lion’s Den: A Biography and Memoir of Daniel Berrigan. Maryknoll, Orbis, 2017. (ISBN 978-1626982482)
  • Loving Our Enemies: Reflections on the Hardest Commandment. Maryknoll, Orbis, 2014. (ISBN 978-1626980907)
  • All Is Grace: A Biography of Dorothy Day. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2011. (ISBN 978-1570759215)
  • Living with Wisdom: A Life of Thomas Merton. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2008. (ISBN 978-1570757549)
  • Road to Emmaus: Pilgrimage as a Way of Life. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2007. (ISBN 1570757313)
  • Forest, Jim (2004). The Wormwood File: E-Mail from Hell. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. ISBN 1-57075-554-X. OCLC 54929440.
  • Skobtsova, Maria (2003). Mother Maria Skobtsova: Essential Writings. Translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, introduction by Jim Forest. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. ISBN 1-57075-436-5. OCLC 49610914.
  • Confession: Doorway to Forgiveness. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2002. (ISBN 1570753865)
  • The Resurrection of the Church in Albania. World Council of Churches, 2002. (ISBN 2825413593)
  • Forest, Jim (1999). The Ladder of the Beatitudes. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books. ISBN 1-57075-245-1.
  • Praying with Icons. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 1997. (ISBN 1570751129)
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References
  1. Merton, Thomas (2011). Shannon, William H. (ed.). The Hidden Ground of Love: Letters. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. ISBN 978-1-4299-6676-4.
  2. Pauli, Benjamin J. (2017). "The Catholic Worker, Dorothy Day, and Exemplary Anarchism". In Christoyannopoulos, Alexandre; Adams, Matthew S. (eds.). Essays in Anarchism and Religion. Volume 1. Stockholm Studies in Comparative Religion. 38. Stockholm: Stockholm University Press. p. 33. doi:10.16993/bak. ISBN 978-91-7635-040-9. ISSN 2002-4606.
  3. Forest, Jim; Forest, Nancy (2012). "Recollections of Thich Nhat Hanh: Being Peace". Satyagraha Foundation for Nonviolence Studies. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  4. "Forest to Deliver Annual Muste Memorial Lecture". The Anchor. 101 (10). Holland, Michigan: Hope College. 1988. p. 2. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  5. Forest, Jim. "Getting from There to Here". In Communion. Orthodox Peace Fellowship. Archived from the original on 2 September 2009. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  6. Cornell, Tom (2008). "The Chaplain's Dilemma: Can Pastors in the Military Serve God and Government?". America. Vol. 199 no. 16. New York. ISSN 0002-7049. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  7. Forest, Jim (2009) [2006]. "Looking Back on the Milwaukee 14". Under the Forest-Flier Tree. Orthodox Peace Fellowship. Archived from the original on 5 August 2009. Retrieved 10 June 2013.
  8. Brussat, Frederic; Brussat, Mary Ann. "Review of Living with Wisdom: A Life of Thomas Merton by Jim Forest". Spirituality & Practice. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  9. Zuercher, Melanie (2004). "Seeing the Light". PeaceSigns. No. 9. Archived from the original on 2 September 2009. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  10. Brussat, Frederic; Brussat, Mary Ann. "Jim Forest". Living Spiritual Teachers Project. Spirituality & Practice. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
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