In Communion

05/23/2024

"Though Orthodox Christians constitute a small portion of the world’s population, they may be key players in determining the future of nuclear norms. The world’s largest nuclear state is waging an imperial war and claims that its nuclear weapons are divine providence. Millions of Orthodox reside in NATO and NATO-aspirant countries. What do Orthodox Christians think about the morality of nuclear weapons? In my research so far (formal peer-reviewed findings forthcoming), it seems that Orthodox Christians are more likely to categorically reject nuclear weapons if they are Oriental Orthodox and non-European. Orthodox Christians who live and have been socialized in the European milieu of Great Power rivalry seem more likely than their non-European religious brethren to hesitate on categorical opposition to nuclear weapons. These preliminary findings appear consistent with the extant literature; political in-group identity and socialization seem to color one’s ethical perspective. Nonetheless, I would like to pull further on this thread. Are nuclear weapons moral, or have some of us invested our hope for ultimate security in a form of cacodoxy?"

If you are Orthodox and would like to express your thoughts on nuclear weapons please consider contributing to our research. You can sign up at the bottom of the article.

By Chris Ferrero for the Orthodox Peace Fellowship

05/09/2024

"People from various walks of life have tried to argue that nuclear deterrence is moral because its purpose is to prevent war; the weapons are not actually supposed to detonate. Therefore, nuclear weapons do no harm if they are used for deterrence. Alas, nuclear deterrent threats must be credible. The unthinkable must be thinkable. This requires serious logistical, psychological, and moral preparation to engage in nuclear war."

See more from In Communion research partner Dr. Ferrero:

Image Credit: iStock.com/vadimrysev I happened to be in Sweden when the country joined NATO two months ago. On March 6, an American nuclear-capable B-52 stra

03/28/2023

https://incommunion.org/2023/03/27/the-vocation-of-a-peacemaker-by-jim-forest/

"Peacemakers are everywhere -- the parent sorting out a dispute within his or her family, the parish council member finding a solution to a conflict that might tear a parish to shreds, the priest hearing confessions who helps a penitent experience God's mercy, the missionary who helps awaken faith in another and points the way to baptism, the volunteer who lives a life of hospitality in a neighborhood others avoid, the driver who responds to dangerous actions on the highway with a prayer rather than a gesture of hatred... We could spend the rest of our lives noting acts of peacemaking."

- Jim Forest on the Vocation of a Peacemaker.

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

03/28/2023

https://incommunion.org/2023/03/27/jim-forest-in-memoriam-by-fr-andrew/

"Here was a man, I thought, with a clear sense of good and evil, and a conviction that this discernment required action: valiant action in opposing evil, but matched by an attraction to people, in whom he discerned goodness."

- Fr Andrew Louth on Jim Forest

In the Fathers of the Church, from the time of Origen, there is a notion of the ‘spiritual senses’: just as we perceive the physical world through our five

03/27/2023

https://incommunion.org/2023/03/24/remembering-jim-forest-by-vincent-van-buuren/

"The poem is about two soldiers who meet each other in a collapsed trench after they died. They look at each other “…with piteous recognition in fixed eyes, lifting distressful hands, as if to bless…” They speak to each other, and one says, “… ‘strange friend, here is no cause to mourn’. ‘None’, said the other, ‘save the undone years, the hopelessness. Whatever hope is yours, was my life also’”… Finally, the one admits to the other, “‘I am the enemy you killed, my friend. … Let us sleep now.” Both Jim and I were in tears."

Remembering Jim Forest By Vincent van Buuren

03/27/2023

https://incommunion.org/2023/03/22/the-tangerine-of-love/

"What inspired me most about Jim was not his peace work or his remarkable charisma, but his marriage with Nancy. When you were at their house, you could just feel the warmth there was between them. One time, our parish went on a pilgrimage to Mount Athos. The men visited the monasteries and the women went to the Ormylia monastery nearby. There is one picture of Jim tenderly embracing Nancy when he came back from the Holy Mountain. “I could never be a monk,” he confided to me. And we both knew his remarkable love for Nancy had something to do with it."

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

01/24/2023

https://incommunion.org/2023/01/24/holy-consistency-jim-forest-life-of-protest-and-proclamation/

"One of the most challenging of his books for me, personally, was Loving Our Enemies: Reflections on the Hardest Commandment. Here one can find his holy consistency at its most powerful. The “new commandment” of Christ, to love one another, enacted in the Lord’s washing his disciples’ feet made peacemaking and reconciliation and forgiveness essential to living the Christian life, to putting the Gospel into practice. It is the greatest commandment but, as he observes, the most difficult for the human heart, which seeks its own justification and protection. If Dorothy Day, one of his beloved mentors, taught anything, it was precisely this, to love the neighbor as God loves us. And in so doing, we love God in the neighbor. The other great mentor who echoed this was St. Mother Maria Skobtsova."

By Michael Plekon

01/13/2023

Memory Eternal! One year ago today, the founder of In Communion, Jim Forest, fell asleep in the Lord. Read more about Jim's life and witness here:

On April 5, 1977, peace activist and author Jim Forest received a phone call that his friend and collaborator Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, an Argentinian peace

12/26/2022

1000 Faith Leaders Call for a Christmas Truce in UkraineA diverse and quickly growing coalition of nearly 1000 faith leaders in the United States–representin...

12/12/2022

Unless you reach the point where you feel that you and the other are ONE – any other: the black man from Africa, the Indian, the Chinese, the Muslim, the Jew, the Christian – unless you become conscious that we are all children of God, unless you feel that, Truly – with a capital T – then… you are still a slave!

- Mother Gavrilia

For the full article, see:

The Remarkable Life of Mother Gavrilia

10/14/2022

Extract from 'Meditations at a Graveyard'

"I find myself walking through the graveyard near my house, thinking about all the people who lie under the ground. Most graves are gray or black. Some have an angel standing on top of them. There are very few crosses. Every once in a while you see a grave covered with flowers. I imagine the wife or husband going to the grave every week, or perhaps every day, to be close to their beloved. Water the flowers.

Looking at all those graves, I can’t help but think of all those men and women dying on the battlefields in Ukraine and Syria. I think about their mothers wailing over their children. I think about the daughters wondering if their fathers will ever come back. I think about those who didn’t get a funeral and those who did. (...)

May Christ, who rose from the dead, granting life to all those in the tombs, give rest to those who died on the battlefield and those who died in the world."

For the full essay, see: https://incommunion.org/2022/10/14/meditations-at-a-graveyard/

10/14/2022

Today is the feast of the Protection of the Mother of God, according to the old calendar. As you may know, the OPF is dedicated to this feast and Jim Forest's parish in Amsterdam has the tradition of raising money for the OPF on this feast day. That is why we would like to invite you to donate to the OPF today.

Supporting OPF financially, you help us to:

- Spread In Communion.
We want to print extra copies of In Communion to spread our mission (especially among young people). We also want to move toward a quarterly journal (four times a year), but we need extra funds to do so.
- Help evacuate peace activists from Russia
Since the outbreak of the war, we've been evacuating peace activists from Russia who are in life-threatening situations for speaking out against the war. We've also actively been supporting peaceful dialogue between Russia and Ukraine.
- Support Ukrainian voices for peace
Inside Ukraine, we have partnered with "God against war," an initiative run by Ukrainian Orthodox clergy. This organization promotes and produces educational material and other media on peace and Orthodox Christianity in Ukrainian, Russian, and English.
- Promote the translation of OPF material into different languages (Russian, Serbian etc.)
Several translators have offered to us to translate In Communion articles into Russian and other languages. We’ve also partnered with two Serbian OPF ambassadors who have volunteered to translate Jim's book 'Loving our Enemies' into Serbian.

You can donate by transferring money directly or by following one of the following links:
- General donation: https://incommunion.org/donations/opf-donation-form/
- Peace efforts between Russia and Ukraine: https://incommunion.org/russian-dissident-support-to-fight-war-propaganda/
- Ukrainian voices for peace:https://incommunion.org/support-ukrainian-voices-for-peace/

For donors in Europe, donations may be sent directly to the Orthodox Peace Fellowship's bank account. Netherlands IBAN: NL66ABNA0563521260.

Blessed feast!

Troparion of the Protection of the Mother of God
Today the faithful celebrate the feast with joy
illumined by your coming, O Mother of God.
Beholding your pure image we fervently cry to you:
"Encompass us beneath the precious veil of your protection;
deliver us from every form of evil by entreating Christ,
your Son and our God that He may save our souls."

Follow this link here. A new window will open with a secure form.