In Communion

"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?"

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Nuclear Cacodoxy? – Incommunion By Chris Ferrero for the Orthodox Peace Fellowship

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

Jim Forest in memoriam By Fr Andrew – Incommunion 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

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 – Incommunion Remembering Jim Forest By Vincent van Buuren

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."

The Tangerine of Love – Incommunion 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