Jim Forest

On Wednesday 21 October 2009 Jim Forest came to Holy Cross Antiochian Orthodox Church to give a talk entitled Cleanse Us from All Impurity: Finding a Pure Heart. Jim is an author, speaker, and the international Secretary of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship. Jim, who currently lives in Amsterdam, is the author of may books, including The Road to Emmaus: Pilgrimage as a Way of Life, Praying with Icons, The Ladder of the Beatitudes, and Confession: Doorway to Forgiveness, as well as several children's books.

My notes follow and then the photographs:

Fr. Gregory led us in prayer: O Heavenly King.

Alex introduced Jim Forest. The Fellowship Conference is this weekend at Antiochian Village.

Jim Forest:

O Heavenly King. Cleanse us from all impurity. Link this with the Beatitudes, pure of heart. Cleanse us from every impurity is a way to describe pure of heart. This is always a work in process. This is something that interest him and involves him and his wife.

The care of words itself is a peace work.

In Moscow he was working on a talk and sat at a desk in the rector’s office. The rector asked if a couple could work quietly in another corner of the office and he had no problem with that. He watched the couple put down a large black board. They said nothing while they were there. It was a large icon. Little by little they cleared away the varnish with balls of cotton. It was an icon of St. Nicholas. Meanwhile he was to interested in what they were doing that he stopped working on his talk.

The work of a writer is something like that also. It is like icon restoration. The resurrection of used words, damaged words, is a project that concerns all of us.

One of the most difficult words to use is the “g” word, God. In the Orthodox Jewish tradition, they don’t write otu the word.

Often with atheist the god that they do not believe in we also don’t believe in either. The institutional aspect of Christianity is a problem. The Church is trying to be the Church, rather than is the Church. We are trying to become Christians. Katafata is affirming and atafa is the opposite. We have to use both. God is beyond reason. Love is beyond reason. To participate in God’s love is a great adventure. It is the goal of all of our lives.

Another damaged word is peace. It is not as important but related. In Matthew in the fourth and fifth chapters we heard from Jesus’ mouth the Beatitudes. In the Russian tradition it is sung in almost every Liturgy in the year. It is a wonderful tradition because from infancy onward we are used to hearing these words. We climb a short ladder. Next to the last before we get to the suffering we come to “Blessed are the peace makers.” Understanding what peace means is something we have to look at. We have to balls of cotton and work on it. People justify making war and the most innocent are the victims. The people who are most likely to survive are those who are trained to survive, the soldiers. We hear peace being discussed as the purpose of war. To achieve peace we must kill this child.

Pay close attention to the use of the word in the Liturgy. We can’t do much growing when bombs are falling. The peace of th world and the salvation of our souls are very much connected. Attend! We are summoned to attend at the Liturgy. Pay attention to this particular word and listen very close to how the word is used. A life of mercy, self-giving, forgiveness, and healing.

Metropolitan Kallistos is associated with the peace movement. Jim always recommend his book as the starting point to Orthodoxy. He is on the advisory board of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship.

When you hear the word peace, think about healing. It is healing damaged relationship.

Almost two years ago Jim had a kidney transplant. His wife gave him one of her kidneys. When he reads “these shall be one flesh,” he regards tis as an intimate description of their marriage.

The Beatitudes describe what it is like to live in the Kingdom of God, here and now. Attempt to be a peace maker, rather than somebody who is a source of division.

Take a look at Jesus, the way we meet Him in the Gospel. Here we meet the Word that is the Kingdom of God. Whom did He kill? Did he bless anybody one to kill anyone? The answer is no. Christians were notorious in the early Church for refusing to kill. After Constantine nothing changed. If a priest kills somebody by accident, he is no longer belssed to serve at the Altar. The Church takes so seriously taking another life. To take part in a war is a participation in an enormous penance.

St. Marie of Paris founded in 1933 a community of hospitality there. She ministered to a bunch of people, including Jews.

There are ways of witnessing against evil without taking blood. She died on Good Friday 1945 at a concentration camp. Her priest and her son were also martyrs.

When you think of peace, think of it through the lens of the Liturgy and New Testament.

A monk came to a desert father and said, “Father, I keep falling, and falling, and falling.” The father told him, “Stand up. Stand up. Stand up.”

It is appropriate to speak about Christians in an Antiochian parish. It is not an easy word for any of us to dare call ourselves Christians. It is ridiculous to love one’s enemy and to forgive. It is embarrassing. The foolishness of the Cross.

Some of the most beautiful churches in the world are in Rome. They are the oldest churches that are not damaged. The doors in one church are from the fourth century, the first century that Christians could display in public images that were important to them. One of the images of one of the doors is one of the first relief images of the crucifixion of Christ. It was embarrassing to be crucified. You are naked and die in public, being tortured to death.

It took a while for the Church to put an image of the crucifixion in public. We Orthodox don’t see the tortured Christ but the life giving Christ. In 1 Corinthians St. Paul talks about the foolishness of the Cross, a scandal to the Jews and absurdity to the Greeks. The word Christian is a very abused word. Not many people who call themselves Christians remind him of Christ.

Metropolitan Anthony was in Russia during World War II as a physician. He became a monk, priest, and then a bishop. He often spoke of how embarrassment stands in the way of following Christ. We must live our lives in such a way that people would wear the Gospel if they have not read it. Metropolitan Anthony always wears second hand clothes and garments that needed mending.

St. Isaac the Syrian said about the pure of heart, what then is a pure heart? A heart free of passioness, capable of mercy, trusts for that which is right, a merciful heart, a loving heart, a heart that is not ruled by passion, an undivided heart, a heart that is aware of God in others, a heart aware of God’s presence in creation.

A person is truly pure of heart when he considers all human beings as good and no created thing is undefiled.

Questions and Answers:

What is the Church’s view of soldiers going into war. We pray for them over time. We honor them for their readiness to serve the community and protect the nation and up their lives in risk for the sake of others.

We don’t have a just war theory. We don’t attach the word just to war. It is the least of two evils, evil, not just. There is no such thing as good killing, even we kill somebody to save his unspeakable evil. He had dinner with a prison chaplain who has a serial killer as her client. The killer now has great devotion to the Mother of God and living a life of real penance. He realized that he has committed many great sins.

The Church is always looking at healing people and forgiving people, no matter what they do.

Kh. Frederica and Fr. Gregory disagree on killing. Fr. Gregory said if only somebody had killed Hitler. She said that we would had killed an innocent man. As time goes on, she becomes more willing to kill for defense. Prevenge instead of revenge. Jesus did not try to defend Himself and the early martyrs also did not defend themselves and their families. Our kingdom is not here. She is another member of their advisory board.

The Yankees did not take Castro when he tried out. Too bad Hitler was not admitted to art school and Stalin was kicked out of the seminary.

An African priest said that the most important role was in the story teller. A true story is of the upmost value because one can save the life of the people. If you do the math, you have 2,000 years. Unfortunately for America its main story is the Gospel according to John Wayne. It is a noble story and has a lot of truth in it, but it is not the Gospel. If we live by that Gospel, we are not aware of the other Gospels. We admire John Wayne for his courage, but we are looking for a way to convert our enemies and not kill them. You can’t convert dead people.

Rome is full of icons. The Popes collected the icons during the iconoclast period. They are all in places where people died as martyrs. Christians converted Rome because they did not respond the way people normally responded. They suffered and wept, but did not kill.

Alex said that the world is not mostly made up of extremes. Most of us don’t have the situation when a close one is threatened by an intruder. Can you think of any war that begin with killing? What if you have a choice of cutting somebody off or letting them in line ahead of you? Most of us have choices.

The most important thing in the house is the front door. It is how we meet people. We get to meet people who we have not met before. How we respond to that person is how we would respond to Christ Himself. If we can’t practice hospitality of the face, forget about becoming a peace maker.

Mitchell Glassman said that a monk once said that if somebody was going to take your life by running you through with a spear, you should throw yourself on the speak to save him from killing you. A big piece of this is the us to them mentality. Our society is so filled with this us-them way of looking at the world.

Metropolitan Anthony of London was an advisor to the Orthodox Peace movement and a part of the resistance in France. He told the story of a young Quaker who had attended a retreat. The metropolitan asked the young man what would he do if his girlfriend was attacked by a rapist. The Quaker said that he would pray for him. The metropolitan said “I would advise your girl friend to get a new boy friend.”

Metropolitan John Ziozous has no pastoral responsibilities. His title is honorary. He said that the essence of sin is the fear of the other. Reconciliation with God is necessary for reconciliation with others. God is always involved with the other. When we reject the other, we reject God as well.

Fr. Gregory was on the highway the other day and cutting people off right and left just because he has athe ability to do this. What will I do today to help me be better tomorrow? Jim Forest recommends the Jesus Prayer which we almost never use at the right time. A good time to pray is when you are in heavy traffic. There is no techniques involved. All you have to do is to remember a few words. All you have to do is to say “Jesus.” There are so many ways in which you can say “Jesus.”

There is a big difference between an individual and a person. A person is aware that he lives in community because without it he would die. He depends on all the people who are alive today and who were before him. Every word I use today was given to me. I didn’t coin any of them. If I chose to live as a person, I’m better off for it and so are you.

When I get into my car, I’m an individual.

In Holland they all ride bicycles and public transportation. In this country you have to have a car and it is a tremendous spiritual challenge to be a Christian behind the wheel.

The young man in DSC_4165 is from India. Most Indians think that Islam is a war survival. HE was raised as a Protestant and his grand parents were Indian Orthodox. Not only letter yourself be martyrs, but standing by and allowing other people to be martyrs is very hard for him.

Jim Forest said that ignorance is not love. You need to know your enemy. Choose ignorance is not wise and choosing not to relate to your enemy is not wise. You can’t love those whom you don’t know. The word enemy is from the Latin meaning not a friend. This includes the people whom we do not know and don’t want to know. Choosing not to know is the wrong material. We Orthodox Christians are in a tremendous need to talk with Islamic people. There are movements there more threatened by Islam terrorists. Most of the people of Islam are threatened by them.

We need to be able to ask questions of one another, Muslims, Jews, and Christians.

Ultimately a Muslim has to go back to the Koran and the words of Mohamed. This is very troubling. C. S. Lewis said that the ultimate result between a pacifist and a totalitarian state is that there will be no pacifists. Jim Forest does not know of any Muslim who remains a Muslim and condemned what Mohamed did, the armies he led and forced conversion, etc.

Jim Forest has not used the word pacifist to describe himself because it sounds passive. War has nothing to do with peace. We are obliged to combat evil but how we combat evil is the question. How do we combat evil? To be a Christian is to give an example of Christ. How He converted the Roman Empire was amazing. If we are going to engage in a healthy war with Islam by denying our faith, we lost already. What would be the effect if they met Christians who acted as Christians instead of Muslims?

In Turkey today a whole new understanding of Islam is becoming normal. In Islam schools in Turkey there is an opposition of oppression of women.

The person in DSC_4166 said that there is a very good series in the New York Times about a Reporter who was taken captive by the Talliban. He started to pray more. Prayer is the action that we can take in the first place, especially to give those in the area what is hopefully needed. Most Muslims see Christians as an adulteration of what the faith is about, materialism. We need to send missionary near by just to live the faith so that they can see it.

During the second Crusade there was an incident in the life of St. Francis of Assisi. He went to the encampment of the sultan and walked across the no-man land. He was trying to meet with the sultan and he succeeded. Brother Innocenti was with him. He engaged in days of discussion with the sultan. The sultan said that if other Christians were like him, maybe things would be different. The sultan gave him a passport. He lived in the Islam world. The Angelus and the rosary entered western Christianity because of this. He was also given a beautifully carved ivory horn. He kept it for the rest of his life. He brought the Gospel of Christ to other people by the way he lived.

Fr. Gregory said that we have an opportunity that is more appropriate to us. We are a part of the resistance to the world wide explosion of consumerism.

Garth studied another philosophy in which you use the enemy’s weapon against him. This is the supreme strategy.

There is a question whether Christians should be a soldier, but it is absolutely necessary that a Christian be a warrior. You seek the conversion of your enemy.

There is no such thing as somebody who is evil in their DNA.

Alexander Isayevich Solzhenitsyn said that the line separating good and evil is in our heart.

Jim Forest became a Christian when he was in the Navy. The military is good for creating a space to look at what your life is all about. There seems to be very little interest in many Christians in the Gospel.

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