[Dialogue] "Our only job is to teach RS1"

[Adam Thomson]

 From Adam Thomson, Dover UK.

This is my personal response to Bud Tillinghurst's query concerning RS1.

My own background: I joined the Order in 1972, 
having arrived from Caracas Venezuela. I joined 
the eight-week Academy Programme in Chicago on 1st April that year.

I have placed my responses below in relation to the questions that Bud asked:

1. So at least in 1970 was teaching RS1 seen to 
be the only job (main job?) of the Order?

It’s all a question of the poetry you use. You 
could say that the Order – if you will – did not 
ever do anything else other than “teach RS1”, in 
whatever activities they were corporately and 
consensually engaged in. The essence of being the 
Order was, to my mind, corporate and consensual 
engagement in tasks that changed community 
thinking, organisation and action as articulated 
through the Word: teaching RS1.

2. Was a decision made at some point to no longer 
see RS1 as the only job (main job) of the Order? 
When would this have been and for what reason?

What I’ve said above means that my response to 
this question is, I don't see there having been a 
decision at some point no longer to see RS1 as 
the only job of the Order. But again this is a 
question of the poetry we are using. These days 
we are not using common corporate poetry as we 
used to. The job of the Order is still to teach RS1.

3. When was the last RS1 taught? What replaced it and why was that?

I don't know when the RS1 as a course was last 
taught - in the terms that Bud is asking the 
question. I don't think it is particularly 
important – especially since my story has it that 
the Order is still “teaching RS1”. Again, it’s 
the poetry each of us cares to use to take a 
relationship to what for me was the most important event in my life, bar none.

4. Are there some of you on this list or the 
other one that have never taken RS1?

I would guess that there are many people on the 
list who have not experienced the original RS1 
course, which was couched in Christian terms. The 
point is – and has been for some time - how do we 
adequately articulate and act out the RS1 
transformative process in other than exclusively 
Christian terms, in terms that can be assimilated 
by a wider spectrum of human communities.

5. Do others feel that "What the world needs now is more RS1?"

This phrase is a perfectly sound phrase  - but 
again it has to be demythologised. If we are 
saying is there a job still for the Order – or 
more appropriately the Movement - to do, then the answer is obvious.

It all depends on what we mean by the terms we are using.

Love to all,

Adam Thomson

END OF MESSAGE

At 16:39 05/03/2012, you wrote:
>On 16 Feb 2012, at 10:28, David Walters wrote:
>
>>When I walked into Room A for the first time in 
>>the summer of '70 somebody was up front talking 
>>about the summer progam on the Local Church, 
>>which was to start the next week, saying "Our 
>>only job is to teach RS1 and teach the hell out of it."
>>
>>We also sang Bonhoffer's  words to the Yellow Submarine.
>>
>>What the world needs now is more RS1.
>>
>>-David Walters
>
>A couple questions from one who has been out of the loop for decades:
>
>1. So at least in 1970 was teaching RS1 seen to 
>be the only job (main job?) of the Order?
>
>2. Was a decision made at some point to no 
>longer see RS1 as the only job (main job) of the 
>Order? When would this have been and for what reason?
>
>3. When was the last RS1 taught? What replaced it and why was that?
>
>4. Are there some of you on this list or the 
>other one that have never taken RS1?
>
>5. Do others feel that "What the world needs now is more RS1?"
>
>Thanks for any reflections,
>
>Bud
>
>Bud Tillinghast
><mailto:rev.bud at mac.com>rev.bud at mac.com
>Google phone: 707-702-1643
>Skype name: budtill
>
>_______________________________________________
>Dialogue mailing list
>Dialogue at wedgeblade.net
>http://wedgeblade.net/mailman/listinfo/dialogue_wedgeblade.net

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