JONAH HOUSE COMMUNITY

Jonah House began as a community in 1973 with a group of people that included Philip Berrigan, a Catholic priest, and Elizabeth McAlister, formerly a Catholic nun. The community later called itself Jonah House. With the name, meanings accrued: “If God could use Jonah for the works of justice, there is hope for each of us.” “Are we not all reluctant prophets?” From its inception, the community included religious and lay people, married and single people, children and adults, younger and older people.

The community lived in a row-house in west Baltimore for 23 years, and moved to St. Peter’s Cemetery in 1996.  The Jonah House community lives in the 22 acre cemetery and cares for the grounds. One third of the cemetery has been cleared; the rest is woods overgrown with vines. The community maintains a vegetable garden and dozens of fruit trees, berry bushes, flowers and ornamentals.

Nonviolence, resistance and community are the values on which Jonah House is based. We have come to understand them as interdependent.

People at Jonah House are committed to making nonviolence a way of life. We agree that “Thou shalt not kill” has no exceptions: we believe that we are commanded by our faith not to kill and, beyond that, to resist killing in our name. More – we know that nonviolence involves the utmost respect for each other, for all people (individually and collectively), and for all creation.

Resistance implies actions in opposition to unjust practices, policies, institutions and systems. As a community, we commit to speaking out about the connection between warmaking and homelessness, hunger, despair and poverty. The particular focus of Jonah House has been to speak out and resist our decision as a nation to use nuclear weapons. Jonah House resistance has often taken the form of plowshares actions.

Living in community is essential for both nonviolence and resistance. We learned this lesson slowly and we are still learning. Community for us means that decisions are made together; in community we have learned that work done together is life-giving. Study, prayer, writing, teaching and manual labor are all important components of our life.  The community shares a common purse; we do all we can not to replicate the hierarchy and exchange of the dominant culture.

Jonah House is a “faith-based community.”  While the majority of people at Jonah House have been Roman Catholic with an emphasis on the anti-war social justice teachings of the church, people of all faiths are welcome. We pray together each weekday at 7 a.m. – reading and reflecting on the Scripture readings for the day. We have Scripture Study and a simple Eucharist on Sundays at 10 am that are open to the wider community. After the service, we share a meal.

People at Jonah House are encouraged to take time each day in personal prayer; some pray while they work; others set aside a specific period of time for prayer.

There are no hard and fast rules.  We submit ourselves to the over-arching standard of nonviolence: love of enemies (Mt. 5:43), love for one another (Jn. 13:34), and living by the truth (Jn. 3:21).

The first plowshares action was September 1980 at the General Electric plant in King of Prussia, PA. Eight people, including Philip Berrigan, hammered and poured their blood on the Mark 12A nuclear missile components. Since then there have been more than 80 plowshares actions. Two people from Jonah House are in federal prison now for Sacred Earth and Space Plowshares II. Sr. Ardeth Platte, O.P., and Sr. Carol Gilbert, O.P. along with Sr. Jackie Hudson, O.P., went to the N-8 missile silo in Colorado where there is a Minuteman III nuclear missile on launch readiness. They entered the silo area and symbolically hammered on the 110 ton concrete silo lid and tracks.

Food Pantry - Each Tuesday, about 100 people come to Jonah House to pick up bags of food. We gather the food from our garden (in season), from the local food bank, and from wherever we can. We give blankets and clothes when we have them. Each person who comes has a story that reveals more of the injustice system. They are people who have been made poor. They remind us of the ways the military budget ($12,000 a second) should be spent – for homes, jobs, education, food and medical care.

Retreats - People come to Jonah House for retreats. Some student groups come for a week, working with us and attending workshops on nonviolence and resistance. Some come for

Sister Communities - Jonah House is part of a network of individuals and communities along the east coast that calls itself “The Atlantic Life Community.” That community has waxed and waned over the years but there is a strong committed core of people who gather for retreat twice a year – over Mothers’ Day Weekend and Labor Day Weekend. People in the Atlantic Life Community also come together for acts of peace witness and personal support. The ties that bind us one to another are those of friendship and the values we have come to share deeply.

Jonah House and the Dorothy Day Catholic Worker House in D.C organize three Faith and Resistance Retreat each year: one during Holy Week, the second on the anniversaries of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during the first week of August, and the third at the Feast of the Holy Innocents in December. These retreats operate on the praxis of reflection/action/reflection. Inspirational and informational presentations lead to public witness, prepared by the community that gathers, at the Pentagon and other sites in D.C.. Then the presentation and the action are evaluated and the community moves to the next stage of retreat.

Jonah House and the Viva House Catholic Worker in Baltimore host a series of Clarification of Thought evenings on the second Friday night of each month. The two communities work closely together on both service and resistance projects. For information about the series, speakers, times, and sites, please phone Jonah House or Viva House (410-233-0488)

Jonah House and The P. Francis Murphy Justice/Peace Initiative convene and conduct days of prayer and reflection on scripture and peacemaking four times a year - during Advent, Lent, Easter and Pentecost.

Visiting Jonah House - Visitors are welcome for retreats, to explore community, or become acquainted with us. People are also welcome to come to the community on an internship basis for three months, six months, or a year.

Gratitude - Members of the community living at Jonah House are thankful for all the people who have built and sustained Jonah House with their work and joys, tears and sufferings. We’re thankful for all the resistance to the empire that Jonah House people have participated in, supported and organized.