BANGOR – James William Harney died Dec. 26, 2008, surrounded by his beloved community. Jim was born Feb. 26, 1940, to James and Ellen Harney, in Cambridge, Mass. Jim lived his work and vision of peace and justice until his last days. His living and his dying were offered freely as a gift to others, helping us to redefine the meanings of the word “love.” This life of commitment began four months after ordination as a priest in May 1968, when Jim was arrested with several other priests as part of the Milwaukee 14, in protest of the Vietnam War. After a prison term for that action, Jim “fell in love with the whole world, one person at a time” and spent the next 40 years moving thousands of people and audiences through his photographs and stories taken on numerous trips to places of great suffering and hope. These included trips to war zones in El Salvador, accompanying refugees in flight; trips to Guatemala and Chiapas, Mexico; trips to the Afro-Columbian areas of Columbia; trips to Haiti and the Dominican Republic; trips to Iraq; and trips to the Mexican border. A popular educator and a wandering scholar, Jim was inspired by stories from those whose voices are the least heard – the world’s poor. He named his photos the “Faces of Hope,” and aimed through them to honor the dignity of each person he encountered. He held a deep sense of gratitude for the generosity and simple joys of humble people across the globe. Jim channeled the voices of the silenced “majority” world, calling on the comfortable minority to adopt a deeper sense of responsibility. Jim developed a penetrating analysis of the structures of violence and oppression that create such suffering and inequality. When Jim was given the 2008 Sacco and Vanzetti Social Justice Award, one speaker said, “If Jim were here, I am sure he would ask, ‘What does it mean that 500 human beings could fill this room and possess more wealth than three billion human beings on the planet?’” Obsessed with this question, Jim adopted the Financial Times of London as his “Bible,” exploring how the global financial system came down hardest on the lives of the poor. He saw the present financial crisis totally in terms of its impact on the Earth’s most vulnerable people. Jim called these exciting times and his own excitement was directed at the possibility of transformative social change. He often said we need to live “in the tension.” In his final months he expressed the field of fundamental change as the “social imaginary.” Jim’s parting words to all his compa?eros, near and far, were “I want to tell you I love you. I want to tell you goodbye and wish you well in the struggle and challenge ahead. There is no other time but now.” Grateful that Jim Harney lived and loved are his many compa?eros; his life-partner, Nancy Minott of Bangor; her daughters, Kristina Minott and Jennifer Gibney; “Ga’s” granddaughter, Kaitlyn; sister, Mary Happas and her husband, Louis, of Falmouth, Mass., Catherine Ronchetti and her husband, William, of Medford, Mass., and Eileen Monaco and her husband, Frank, of Malden, Mass.; nieces, Jeannette Ben-Shlomo, Mary Monaco and Andrea Fricia; and nephews, James, Christopher and Kenneth Happas and Anthony Ronchetti. Jim was predeceased by his parents; and nephews, Stephen and Louis Happas. A memorial service will be held 2 p.m. Feb. 21 at Hampden Highlands United Methodist Church, Hampden. Gifts in memory of Jim may be made to Posibilidad, the non-profit organization of which Jim was artist in residence.
JAMES WILLIAM HARNEY
