James Forest

Who is James Forest?

Jim Forest is a writer, lay theologian, educator, peace activist. Since 1989, a year after his reception into the Orthodox Church, he has been international secretary of the Orthodox Peace Fellowship as well as editor of its quarterly journal, In Communion. In 1964, while still a Catholic, he was a founder of the Catholic Peace Fellowship. In the late sixties and mid-seventies, he 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.

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