J. Edward Guinan

J. Edward Guinan (6 March 1936 – 26 December 2014) was a former stock trader who became a Paulist priest and was the founder of Washington, D.C.'s Community for Creative Non-Violence in 1970.

Guinan was the first to put the initiative for DC Statehood on the ballot, and it won all wards of the district to kickstart the statehood movement.

Guinan was born in 1936 in Denver, Colorado, the son of Edward Thomas Guinan and Gabrielle Huot Guinan (Irish and French origins).

He attended Loyola Grade School in Denver from 1942 to 1950 and Saint Joseph High School from 1950 to 1954.

He served in the navy before going to college.

Guinan served in the U.S. Naval Air Force from 1954 to 1957, at the U.S. Naval Air Station Barbers Point, Oahu, Hawaii.

After college, where he majored in finance, he became a stock trader in San Francisco, and was a member of the New York, American, and Pacific Coast stock exchanges.

He was also a member of the National and San Francisco Traders Associations.

He worked for Schwabacher & J. W. Strauss & Co. Investment Bankers, a third-market firm.

Upon discerning the call to join the Paulist Fathers, however, he left the financial world, and gave his wealth away.

His knowledge of international finance informed his future work as a community founder and DC statehood initiator.

After the navy, he went to University of Colorado Boulder from 1957 to 1960.

Guinan wished to counter Just war theory, using Pope John XXIII's Pacem in terris encyclical of 1963 to, in his words, "permeate the Roman Catholic consciousness and structure with its rich tradition of Catholic pacifism and gospel nonviolence which has always been with us, but which has for many centuries been overlaid with layers of argumentation and rhetoric and is very difficult to uncover."

Dorothy Day spoke at that first meeting, saying the group was needed to counter U.S. involvement in Indochina.

He attended St. Paul's College, Washington, D.C., the Paulist Major Seminary, from 1966 to 1971, completing studies in Philosophy and Theology.

He was ordained a deacon in 1970 at the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen, Baltimore.

His ordination as a priest was on January 16, 1971, at St. Paul the Apostle Church (Manhattan).

From 1971 to 1974 he was active in the priesthood, and became the Chaplain of George Washington University in Washington, D.C.

As a priest at George Washington University, he was involved in the antiwar movement.

His passionate sermons on peace drew large crowds.

He believed that there was a necessity to have a place of dialogue and input where people could think through and have significant input on city issues, the military industrial complex, and the Vietnam War.

To answer this need, he and a group of graduate student peace activists founded the Community for Creative Non-Violence in two houses, one directly on Washington Circle ("23rd Street House" at 936 23rd Street NW), and a second one known as the "Peace Study House" at 2127 N Street NW (21st and N) that offered nightly meetings and courses led by psychologist, conscientious objectors, and fellow Paulists delving into the mindset of violence and how it can transform to peace.

This all grew out of the worship community of George Washington University.

The community became known for both direct action and creative protest, for example the "eat-ins" at grocery stores, and long public fasts, both of which Guinan initiated that had a profound effect on others.

In the spring of 1972, Guinan persuaded his religious congregation to allow him to host peace activists at the Paulist Fathers Minor Seminary in Oak Ridge, New Jersey.

The two-month "Summer of Contemplation and Resistance" drew over 1,500 people who organized and coalesced themselves into a movement.

During this summer he met his future wife, Kathleen Thorsby, and invited her to work with the other activists in Washington, DC.

Beyond the antiwar movement, he envisioned working on system issues affecting poverty and racism.

The group wanted to feed hungry people, and opened a new house at 1008 K Street Northwest.

At 905 New York Avenue NW, the group established Zacchaeus Community Kitchen in 1972.

They placed it just six blocks from the White House to highlight the need.

Over 500 people a day came from the beginning.

Mother Teresa, whom they barely knew because this was seven years before the Nobel Prize, came with her friend Eileen Egan, the latter of whom was also friendly with Fr. Guinan.

They served the first bowls of soup, eating with the first guests.

Dorothy Day also visited from time to time, and was closely involved with the growth of the communities.

Hélder Câmara the self-identified socialist Bishop and advocate of Liberation Theology visited as well.

The Guinans also founded the Zacchaeus Free Clinic and recruited Jack Bresette, MD. The Zacchaeus organizations later merged to become Bread for the City.

Guinan was the founding Director of Pax Christi USA, and became its first General Secretary.

The founding assembly was held at George Washington University in October 1973.

Many of the 350 participants had also joined pray-ins outside the nearby Nixon White House that summer.