Tom Gates (1)

This pamphlet spends three quarters of its space with exegesis/history and one quarter on environmental concerns. Gates is identifying attempts at ecological salvation for the earth with a testimony the 21st century needs to embrace for human survival, but the work is unbalanced.

The section in the middle of the pamphlet subtitled "Testimonies as Stories of Witness," is quite moving. In it, Gates speaks to the notion (I'm sure it is not original with him) that God does not call us to be show more successful, but to be faithful; acting with faith, we become effective. We can be proud of our history, "but what are we doing now?" he asks. We need to be aware that each of us has a personal testimony (Thomas Kelly, _A Testimony of Devotion_) that we need to uncover and pursue--that "we cannot die on every cross, nor our we expected to" (Kelly).

But then the last quarter prescribes our 21st c. testimony to be focused on the sustainability of our biosphere. It seems that Gates has determined that he is to take up the cross that Joanna Macy, Chris Johnstone, and Doug Gwyn have recently lifted up...and that we each of us also need to shoulder.

It is a pamphlet worth reading, but I expected more coherence from Gates. show less

What does it mean to be a witness to Truth? The author draws from the experiences of the captive Hebrews as told in the Book of Isaiah, as well as the discoveries and practices of early Friends, to offer perspective and insights for 21st-century Quakers who are trying to live in faithful witness to the Light. What is our testimony today, and how can we best express it in the context of a modern world filled with "false idols," such as the lure of wealth and comfort, side-by-side with show more overwhelming powers that wreak havoc on peace and environmental sustainability? Poised between the temptation of complacency and despair, how do we live our witness? show less

In this essay Tom Gates examines many of the factors affecting the relationship between the Seeker and the Meeting, before and during membership. While a person may be drawn to Quakerism for a particular reason, over time the individual’s needs, and the way in which the Meeting community is able to meet them, can change. There are stages to be gone through as we grow into the life of the meeting community. Is it peace we are after? Service? Shared values? A deepening of our faith? What, show more exactly, is a leading? Tom Gates examines the many aspects of membership and the obligations it may impose on us, individually and as a faith family. show less

This very wonderful pamphlet is about what belonging to a living spiritual community offers, and is both a vision and a challenge to us. Is our meeting a community that nurtures the spiritual growth and the lifelong process of spiritual maturing and transformation of its members?
Gates explains the Quaker meeting as a place of acceptance and loving welcome, a place of shared values as lived out in our Testimonies, a place of transformation offering both challenge and support, and a place of show more obedience and faithfulness to the leadings of the Spirit. These can be seen as stages of deepening our understanding and developing our practice as we live in the spiritual community that the meeting can and should offer. The challenge to the meeting is to meet each participant where they are, while at the same time lifting up to them a vision of and support for where they might be going.
Note that despite the title, it is not about the formal process or meaning of institutional membership in the RSF. show less