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IN THIS ISSUE: The Rewards of Isolation: Small Teams in Deep Waters Letter from a Visitor to the era of Light and Life Personality: Identity, Self and Selfhood To Become What I Am Birth and Infancy of the UAI in the United Kingdom 2005 UAUS National Conference at Sea United Kingdom and Ireland Summer 2005 Meeting
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The Rewards of Isolation: 14 to 18 July 2006 The Women’s College, Sydney University On behalf of the International Urantia Association (UAI), it is with great pleasure that ANZURA (The Australian and New Zealand Urantia Association) announces the next international Urantia Book study conference for the UAI that will be held in Sydney Australia in 2006. Mark your calendars and start making plans for this once in a lifetime opportunity. Fraternize with Urantia Book readers from all over the world to study and ponder “The Rewards of Isolation” and to contemplate the notion of what “Small Teams in Deep Waters” can accomplish for the fifth epochal revelation. This is an early announcement to give everyone a chance to start making plans for an exciting and unique trip to the great land “down under.” Further details will be forthcoming as they unfold. Visit our website below for regular updates and information. You may also register your interest in attending the conference or to volunteer your time and skills. www.urantia.org.au/anzura/UAIconference2006 Warm regards, ANZURA 2006 Conference Planning Committee Costas Diamántopoulos, Greece (Currently residing in the U.K.) 1st of September 2004 Dear Brothers and Sisters, I feel compelled to write to you to share with you my recent experience which left a deep impression within my whole being! For seventeen days I was blessed to have been transported into another planetary epoch where the brotherhood of man was in full manifestation, where altruistic service was the rule and not the exception, where the Flame of Peace was kept sacred in a high altar, where the joy of multiple relationships with different types of human beings from all five continents of the planet Urantia was transcending barriers of language, cultures and geopolitical diversities. Yes my friends, I was not dreaming, although the experience had a dreamlike quality. I was physically there! I feel I was truly blessed to have been among the thousands of others who received and shared the bestowal of the Ministry of The Olympic Spirit. The microcosm of this highly advanced era was bestowed in my very own backyard, in Athens, Greece, and the Ministry of the Olympic Spirit encircuited everyone in the vicinity thanks to the Mercy of the Son. The prelude of this temporal event started on the 13 th of August and climaxed on the 29 th of August 2004. How can I start to impart to you the benefit of my experience? How can I even try to describe to you my impressions from such an event from the point of view of a reader of The Urantia Book? Let’s start from the focal point of the Olympic Games, the Olympic Stadium. What my eyes perceived was a futuristic but extremely harmonious and pleasing to the eye, architectural marvel inspired by the glorified mortal Kalatrava under the auspices of Celestial Artisans. No doubt you saw the images on your TV screens, but unfortunately you could not have perceived the living energy and the height of emotions such a place generates when being surrounded by 70,000 other dedicated and inspired volunteers. Most of them were young men and women who had left their jobs and their families and had forsaken their traditional summer holidays just to offer their loving and unselfish service to their fellows without any expectation of reward. It was this very presence, and these acts of devotion to serve that were responsible for instilling in me a feeling of unconditional love that permeated through so many different personalities gathered together. Their smiling and happy faces coupled with patience and politeness proved to me that their choices to serve the Ancient Immortal Spirit had led to a major transformative experience within their minds and souls. And then it was the opening and closing ceremony and the Lighting and Transference of the Flame that sent shivers down my spine. Those of you who chose to witness those events on your TV screens, namely the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games, must have formed some kind of an idea of the amount of work that went into the staging of such a complex event, and the impact it must have had on everyone involved. Did you notice on your TV screens during the various sporting events the three concentric circles of the orange and the green variety? Well, those symbols placed on banners were to be found everywhere in the city of Athens and in the arenas. Obviously they were selected years ago as one of the banner insignia for the 2004 Games but I only noticed their abundance and presence when I became conscious of their use during my heightened awareness in one of the events. I have no way of knowing which member of the Reserved Corps of Destiny under the auspices of the Angels of Progress succeeded in placing it there. However, I know now of another member of the Reserved Corps of Destiny! His name is Dimitris Papaioannou. He is a 38 year-old choreographer, virtually unknown before these games. He is the man responsible for selecting the concepts and for materializing the ideas in such aesthetic perfection. He is the mortal responsible for transmitting art and symbolism of Truth, Beauty, and Goodness to four billion viewers of this planet through the TV broadcasting planetary circuits. Here is what he said in an interview with Le Monde: “The opening ceremony is inspired from the Apollo (Light) ancient Greek traditions. The Closing Ceremony is inspired from the Dionysian Festivities (Life). The First Ceremony is "The Light, The Spirit, The Ideas." The last one is the miracle and the intoxication of life. The primal ceremony is a hymn to the Human Entity. In the Final Ceremony is the Human Being who celebrates Life. The opening ceremony is like blowing the Kiss of Life to a statue. The closing one is like embracing this very Human Being who came alive. The general idea of the Opening Ceremony is the history of the Consciousness of Humanity, the Adventure of Discovery of what it means to be human, which is the Socratic dictum ‘Man know thyself’.” Do you also have a visualization of those two ceremonies still imprinted in your memory banks as I do? Do you remember how Love or Eros was depicted as the unifying Force? Do you remember how the clepsydra concept paraded expressing the time dependence of our existence? Do you remember how the aquamarine origin of the Human Entity was staged? And finally how our Cosmic Consciousness was also expanded instantaneously by the image of our whole galaxy simulated by 70,000 points of Light held by each one of the spectators within the elliptical boundaries of the “Out–Worldly” Olympic Stadium? And to complete the transfixing experience, the almost celestial female voice singing a haunting version of Manos Hajidaki’s song, “The Dove”, while the Dove of Peace was encircling the stadium high above. I do not know if you have had similar emotions like myself, if you were lucky enough to watch this, but I was ecstatic, with worshipful tears of gratitude in my eyes for a long period of time, for being human. Even if this work of art was not the creation of a Celestial Artisan, I was privileged to have, through this event, a foretaste of what glorious soul nourishing and mind-challenging spectacles await us in our long ascent to Paradise. Let us indulge our imagination for a moment and project ourselves into our sojourn on Jerusem where selected Urantians are competing with 618 different planetary origin ascending mortals with the same spirit of brotherhood, possibly during the period of rest and diversion in the Mansonian equivalent of the Olympic Games of spiritual attainment and personality perfection. In our physical realm of the here and now, I received a preview of the feeling such a spectacle can generate within the deeper recesses of the soul, when I saw fellow Urantian mortals from 207 different countries and the five continents of our experimental planet assembled together in perfect harmonious coexistence. Their identifying symbols and insignia were diverse but by competing in the spirit of the Olympic Glory side-by-side in the arena and in the spectator seats, they were showing to a divided world that yes, all earthly animosity and racial, cultural and religious differences can be set aside. Further, in all athletic endeavours the same spirit indwells us compelling us to try to touch the heights of almost superhuman attainments after hard and sacrificial devotion to reach the pinnacle of golden glory. Is it not our ascendant training in the evolutionary arenas that teaches us to surpass our imperfect selves, and to be judged worthy at the end to receive the Golden Medal of an Intergalactic Marathon Finaliter? Or learning further to excel in team work and to become coaches ourselves to younger intergalactic ascending athletes of the personality perfection race overcoming the obstacles inherent in our animal origin earthly careers? What a spectacle! What an experience to live even for a short period of time within the boundaries of a mini Light and Life planetary epoch! Having said that, the return from such reverie to the divided, hate-filled and relatively primitive current timeframe, was not without physical pain and sorrow. My consolation is though, after my brief visitation to such an era, that now I know beyond a doubt, that each one of us brothers and sisters who makes every effort possible to bring to our fellow Urantians a foretaste of the promised Golden Era of Light and Life, also deserves a medal. No doubt this will be bestowed after our graduation from this Mortal Arena of Choices upon our resurrection to the Morontian Shores. This Opening Ceremony medal has the word SURVIVOR written all over it! Let’s prepare for the Olympiad of the Spirit! Brotherly Love from Your Greek Brother from the Summer of 2004 and from a totally transformed Athens. Jean Royer, France The second of three parts of this reference guide Destiny
6th Conclusion: The origin of personality being the Father and the action of personality being unification, it seems reasonable that it would lead us back to the source. However, this destiny is for the present age and does not preclude a possible superpersonality in future ages.
Creature Personality
Creature Personality and Self-consciousness
Self-consciousness consists in intellectual awareness of personality actuality; it includes the ability to recognise the reality of other personalities. It indicates capacity for individualized experience in and with cosmic realities, equivalating to the attainment of identity status in the personality relationships of the universe. Self-consciousness connotes recognition of the actuality of mind ministration and the realisation of relative independence of creative and determinative free will [194:6].
7th Conclusion : Most of what we can actually know of personality in the Urantian sense can be found in Chapter 1 (The Universal Father) which would require a much more profound elaboration than we can offer here. Personality Experience
The Holy Spirit—this is the initial supermind bestowal, and it unfailingly appears in all bona fide human personalities. This ministry to a worship-craving and wisdom-desiring mind creates the capacity to self-realize the postulate of human survival, both in theologic concept and as an actual and factual personality experience [ 1003:4].
8th Conclusion: There is a paradox in the fact that something changeless can be associated with the word ‘experience’, but this is the whole story of the subabsolutes such as the Supreme and the Ultimate. We should know that a paradox is simply due to a lack of scope or scale or dimension. In our case, we finite beings have difficulties in seeing pre-experiential and post-experiential realities. Attributes of Personality
9th Conclusion: The study of personality dimensions will be an important part of our education on the mansion worlds, but luckily we shall then benefit from morontia mota. Factors Included in Personality
10th Conclusion : We would expect that knowing the ingredients of personality we can now understand it. But we should remember that a sum of anything is rarely equivalent to a totality. Even knowing the taste of flour and water and yeast will not tell you what your bread or cake will taste like. ――――――――― The third part of this essay on Personality covers the topics of: The Prerequisites of Personality, Personality versus Identity, Personality Identity, Self and Selfhood, and Self-consciousness. In addition, it poses questions on these aspects of Personality.Georges Michelson-Dupont, France Last March 2004, the organizers of the UAI International conference held in Chicago asked me to host a workshop on July 29 and I chose “To become what I AM” as a subject. On my arrival I found out that the subject was changed and had become “Worship as a technique of Communion”. Quite surprised I looked for an organizer when the following idea came to my mind: communion means “to come-into-union” which was in direct relationship with my subject “to become what I AM”, to come into union with my Thought Adjuster. With very little changes in my introduction I found that my presentation was very consistent with the expected subject. English is not my native language therefore I had to articulate differently the workshop which I did without any written notes and through a dialogue with the attendees. Following are the main ideas presented. From a human perspectiveWhen I look at myself I observe that I am a human being in perpetual changes. Yesterday I was a different person from what I am today, and tomorrow I will be different from what I am today. My being is continually changing, consciously or unconsciously. This state of unending changing, fuelled with the essential needs of my being, creates in me a tension between an unsatisfied now and a better future, which must be imperatively resolved. Those manifested needs are of three different types; physical needs of my body like feeding, mating, homing; intellectual needs of my mind like knowledge, education, know-how; and other needs which are in relationship with my personality and the values of my life such as truth, beauty, goodness, love, justice, security. I understand that the foundation of my being is sitting on three very different realities which are expressing needs - my body, my mind, and my personality, and those three function in unity as a whole, as my I AM. The first one, material in nature, is energetic and entirely controlled by mathematics and physicochemical laws. One says that it is subordinated. The second one, mental in nature, is reflective and teachable. One says that it is coordinated because mind has the capacity to coordinate ideas in order to organize actions and reach goals. The third one belongs to the domain of values and meanings. Personality is endowed with an exceptional power: the free will (71:3). My personality sets the goals of my life, chooses between values and utilizes the two others, my mind and my body, to accomplish my destiny. One says that Personality is superordinate [1227:13]. These three realities function harmoniously thanks to my personality (1480:2). When I decide to go to Chicago, my mind prepares the trip and my body goes there. There is no disagreement between them. As stated before, my body changes day after day from the time I was a fetus until when I die. As my being is living new experiences my mind is becoming more educated and the scope (field) of my consciousness is being enlarged. As my free will is exercising and discriminating between values my personality is mastering more and more my behaviour. My personality doesn’t change but its field of action is growing in direction, more efficient in reaction, and enlarged in capacity of coordination (1458:2). Energies and forces are at work and actualise the needs of my whole being. They constantly pull out from potentials to satisfy the needs of my body, my mind and my personality. For instance in the ovule-spermatozoid association that took place 58 years ago I was in potential what I am today but also what I will become tomorrow. Simply, at the time of the fecundation the potential of my being was maximum and the actualisation null. Still like yesterday, like today and tomorrow, my being exists. I AM what I was yesterday, I AM what I am today, and I AM what I will be tomorrow. My being, my I AM is the origin of this constant manifestation. Therefore these concepts of original, potential and actual are not simple theories but realities that my being is experiencing each second of my life (1153:1). To the three unified realities of my being i.e. my body, my consciousness and my personality correspond three potentials or “reservoirs of possibilities”, one physical in nature, from which physical energies are pulled out to satisfy (actualise) the physical needs of my body, one mind in nature, from which mind energies are pulled out to permanently satisfy (actualise) the needs of my mind (consciousness) and one spiritual in nature from which spiritual energies are pulled out to satisfy (actualise) the spiritual needs of values and meanings that my personality is trying to actualise in my life. These potentials of different nature that are working together “hand in hand” I will call them my “triodity of potential” (1151:7). At the opposite, what I will be when all my potential will be actualised, I will call them my “triodity of actualisation” (1151:2). What I am today is somewhere in between those two triodities and an intermediary state between the fetus and the completed being. This growing trend, which my being is the actor, from the fetus stage to the completed stage, I shall call it “Supremacy” (1264:4). It synthesizes in my original I AM, the two energies of my potential I AM and my manifested I AM (1263:3). While looking around me I watch the same process in function with my wife. Supremacy actualises also her three potentials which are different from mine, also my children who I saw growing from babies to adults, my friends, and all human beings in my neighbourhood. While watching my cats, my dog, I see also their potentials being constantly actualised. Looking outside the window I see the trees I seeded years ago becoming giants. Watching the sky at dark night I observe the entire universe indefinitely moving and rolling. From this I draw the conclusion that these two triodities must be universal. They function everywhere in the entire universe, since the beginning of time and they will continue to function. This characteristic of infinity is what I call Absoluteness because I cannot give them a limit in time. Therefore I conclude that this process of progression that I call Supremacy is sitting on foundations that are absolute in nature (1261:1). Man is of animal nature but because of his personality free will power he is no more slavishly bounded to the fetters of antecedent causes and can influence his future; he can choose what will be pulled out from his triodity of potential. Indeed personality possesses the capacity to turn his animal nature into a more human and possibly divine nature if desired (1479:6). Thus we can observe that the three potentials are of reactive nature while the three actuals are of active nature. Without the motion of mathematics, laws, and energies, nothing from the material potential can come out. For instance, my body, which is my material I AM manifested (actualised) for the time being has needs and in order to be satisfied they are pulled out from the material potential (1263:3). Without mind activity nothing from the mind potential can be manifested. For instance the scientific discoveries would have never been made actual and usable if scientists had not used their mind (2080:7). Without the exercise of the personality free will nothing from the potential of spirit can be manifested. If my free will decides that I will seek for God’s will, and unselfish service to my fellows become my way of living, then I will manifest the fruits of the spirit which were before that potential (1917:1). From our human logic or perspective and by a careful analysis of the functioning of our human nature we have found a fundamental law called Supremacy governed or operated by Absolutes but at the same time subject to our free will. Indeed, the manifestation or actualisation of my potentials is completely subject to my choices. In any given occasion I have the possibility to choose the will of God and actualise spiritual potentials. But without the Revelation we cannot go further in our analysis (435:7). Let’s see what The Urantia Book has to tell us on this subject. From God’s perspective It was absolutely necessary for God to escape from his tautology of Infinite-Infinity. Here we are using the human time-space reasoning of Infinity fragmentation to make it understandable (15:3). In his undifferentiated Infinite-Infinity God decides to exercise his inherent free will and thus begins the existence of two separate phases of himself: the personal which acts and the non-personal which reacts while still keeping his original phase he had before in which these two new phases now coexists. From monist the I AM transits into a triune I AM then through a two-by-two association of the three finally culminate into seven phases which eternalise into seven Absolutes as follow (1154:3): The Universal Father [1146:8] (the First Source and Center), The Eternal Son [1146:9] (the Second Source and Center), The Infinite Spirit [1146:10] (the Third Source and Center), The Isle of Paradise [1147:1] (the Paradise Source and Center), The Deity Absolute [1147:2] (the possibility for all personalities existence), The Universal Absolute [1147:3] (the possibility for all relationship between personal and non-personal: the mind), and The Unqualified Absolute [1147:4] (the possibility for all what is non-personal to react). Let’s take a break in this description, which is one more time, purely a conceptual attempt to describe and present to our time-space limited human mind the genesis of reality. We should always remember that the I AM and all its phases and absolute manifestations were, are and will be forever. However it is necessary to our time and space understanding that we segment Infinity in order to frame it in our time and space perspective (15:2). This is logical and practical and this is what we constantly do in our daily life. For instance in geometry when we draw a line we frame it in a limited page but in fact it is unlimited. It will be forever impossible to conceptualise the entire Infinity of the I AM but as we are, in time and space, we can experiment one of his phases by entering in partnership with God our Father. To love him, to seek to do his will is the only means that we can rely upon to find the I AM (6:3). Let’s go back to our reasoning. The I AM is indeed a creator. He is the unique source of all creation. From his pedestal of Infinity-Eternity he could but only stay on his own. It was absolutely necessary for him to find a mechanism to escape from his Eternity-Infinity circle. He set the foundation to become a creator. Thus through a mechanism of diversification of himself the I AM created the potentials (all past, present, and future possibilities) and the actuals (all past, present, and future actualities), which are the potential and actual milestones of Infinity-Eternity in between all creations and creatures, can take place and be manifested (11:2). At the same time he separated the energy realities from the spirit realities thus creating a “tension” between those two perfectly coordinated with a new reality: the Mind reality (6:1, 1151:6). Finally, those 7 differentiations were eternalised into the 7 Absolutes known under the names of three Absolutes of Potentiality (the Deity Absolute, the Universal Absolute, the Unconditional Absolute), and the three Absolutes of Actuality (the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, and the Paradise) and the Absolute First Source and Center (55:6). The difference between the Infinite I AM and an Absolute is the fact that an Absolute is “a part” of, a phase of the Infinite I AM, eternalised for a given function. He possesses the same nature of infinity but only in regard to his domain of function. For instance, it was necessary that the non-deified reality would merge from “somewhere” in the I AM and this “somewhere” became eternalised as the Unqualified Absolute from which all possibilities of non-deified realities would be pulled out (6:1). It is in some aspect like a “reservoir” of possibilities, of all past, present and future possibilities (14:3). In the universe for “something” (creations or creatures) to exist (to be actualised) it is necessary that the possibility for existence be present in potential. For instance, before I was conceived, my parents had to meet. Their encounter had my existence in potential, which became a reality when they got married. The three phases of potentiality, which were eternalised as the three Absolutes of Potentiality are those “reservoirs” of possibilities of all material energies in the Unqualified Absolute, the possibilities of all mind energies in the Universal Absolute, and all possibilities of personalities in the Deity Absolute. At the other end of Infinity (so to speak) we find the three Absolutes of Actuality (the Absolutes being manifested) in the Paradise (material realities), in the Infinite Spirit (the mind realities) and in the Eternal Son (the reality of Personality). In the centre is the First Source Center that links both sides of Infinity (the 6 Absolutes) (1147:5). Having set up the milestones of all potential and actual realities, God the First Source and Center associates himself forming 15 triunities from which only 7 are revealed in The Urantia Book (1170:4). A triunity is a functional association of the First Source and Center with 2 of the 6 other Absolutes. These 2 Absolutes put in a functional association their domain of Absoluteness, which is activated by the presence of the First Source and Center (1147:7). For instance God the Father is Absolute Love, bestower of personality and giver of life. The Eternal Son is Absolute Mercy, Personality Absolute, and giver of spirit realities; The Infinite Spirit is Absolute Mind, Energy Manipulator and Minister. The triunity made of The Universal Father-Eternal Son-Infinite Spirit associate and activate the characteristic of each of them in a functional dynamic. Thus the love of the Father, the mercy of the Son and the minister of the Spirit function in a triunity association and this is how the divine plan for the ascending creatures is put in place (1148:2,3,4,5,6). This triunity provides also for the mechanism of creature existence. The Father endows with personality, the Son bestows spirit realities and the Spirit provides for the mind. Finally through this triunity the vital animation is provided by the Father, the free will function by the Son personality and the control over the necessary energies for life by the Spirit. We already saw that personality possesses a unique prerogative: the free will. This trunity is volition at its maximum, an Absolute free will. This triunity allows the First Source and Center to function creatively (1147:10). Likewise the other triunities function altogether each one adding their specificity to the all thus setting the stage on which, for which and with which the First Source and Center can extend his creative activity on sub-absolute levels (1150:14). Now that the stage is ready for all possibilities to exist on the absolute level, it is possible for the will of the Father to inaugurate time, provide for the gift of life and activate the energies in space (1151:0). Then a second set of functional associate triunities called triodities is set up between these Absolutes except that the First Source and Center having delegated already everything possible is not part of these associations (1151:1). Thus, through the externalisation of the Absolute and their functional associate triunities, as triunities and then as triodities God the First Source and Center escapes from his infinite and absolute tautology and organizes the gift of himself to his creatures and creations. He set up and provides for the functioning of growth and Supremacy, the way for his creatures to finally reach him and become perfect in their spheres like he is perfect in his own (1151:12). Two of these triodities are of interest to us, the triodity of potentiality and the triodity of actuality, triodities that have been already studied in the first part of this presentation (1251:2,7). A tension (a need) for actualisation exists between these potentials and these manifestations (1261:4). These tension created by God are at work also on our level, for instance two reproductive cells in fusion become a fetus and after nine month give birth to a baby. We will give Supremacy as a name to this tension. Although we recognize that man is an actor he is not the creator of these tensions but by exercising his free will Man actualises the needs of his being, the material, intellectual and spiritual potentials become manifested (actualised). Thus we understand that this process of actualisation of potentials which we observed in function in our human nature is but the extension of the same process God originally set up and which function from all eternity, past, present, and future. We function completely under divine laws and organization. Nothing astonishing in fact since we come from him. In him we all live and move and have our being [1155:4]. But there is more for us; God gave a fragment of himself to each of his ascending creatures, a fragment of the original, potential and actual I AM. In us lives the I AM with all its characteristics of infinity and absoluteness. By virtue of fusion He is our possibility to become “divine like him” (639:5). The seven Absolutes inside the I AM are also in us with the Adjuster habitation. He is our real nature and thus becoming what I AM means becoming One with my Thought Adjuster (1238:5). In the first page of the first paper of The Urantia Book we are lovingly invited by God through the words of a Divine Counselor to become perfect in our sphere like he is perfect on his sphere (21:3). In all Logic and fairness God gave us the tools and means to fulfill his request. In absolute reality we are perfect since we are endowed with this divine fragment of perfection but in consideration with our spatial-temporal situation we become as we choose to unify our will to the will of our Thought Adjuster and actualise the potentials in him (1271:3). Don’t get me wrong, we are not talking about human potentials, human accomplishment but about revealing love, mercy and unselfish service that are part of our Thought Adjuster divine potentials. This universal law based upon progress and actualisation of absolute potentials is ineluctable because it is God’s will but for each of us we are free to choose and act according to our consciousness of what we are, of what God means to us, and what we want to become in partnership with him (1181:3). The question that God is asking us is the following: I gave you a body, a consciousness (a mind), a personality gifted with free will, I provided you with a frame for your life in order to exercise your free will and I endowed you with a pure fragment of myself to guide you with love, care and wisdom on the way of progress and growth toward me (1176:3): do you want to actively enter into partnership with me and actualise the divine potentials I entrusted you with and of which your Thought Adjuster is the source? Jesus your Creator Son and my son revealed your sonship with me and the fact that I am your Father, a God of love, now and in addition to I offer you to become my full partners in all my projects and to this alliance I will not set up limits if only you accept (1008:1, 1299:2). What a deal! God needs us! When we choose to do his will a potential aspect of his divine nature is revealed in time and actualised in space. This growing aspect of himself in time and space is what The Urantia Book calls “God the Supreme” (4:9). We discover and become conscious of our great responsibility vis-à-vis himself and the cosmos: We, as humble creature as we are, have the incredible power to actualise our God of time and space as we seek and do the will of our Father that is to love our neighbours, our fellow men, to exercise mercy, and to serve them as God the Father does for each of us. We are truly the children of God the Supreme (292:3, 1304:2). When man andGod enter into partnership [1299:2] nothing can limit such association (1299:2). International Urantia Association In The United Kingdom Chris Moseley, United Kingdom
In 1988, we started up a readers' newsletter, The Ascender, a quarterly newssheet just to keep readers scattered across Britain in touch with each other. It continues to this day and is now an International Urantia Association (UAI) publication (from Issue 63 published this northern summer). However the subscribers' mailing list remains smallish. A small breakthrough came in 1994 when the Urantia Foundation office opened in this country, and booksellers no longer had to apply to Chicago to get hold of books. This has made the book more accessible to the book trade, and the office does have its regular customers now. But the only public showplace for the Urantia Foundation has been the annual London International Book Fair. Since 1998, we British readers have been trying to start a branch of the UAI. We realised that unless we formed a social network of dedicated readers, meeting in study groups and social gatherings, the spread of the teachings in this country was likely to be glacially slow. British society of the early twenty-first century doesn't seem inclined toward gathering in like-minded groups to discuss spiritual matters. You could advance all sorts of theories as to why this is so, but there's no easy and convincing answer. Could it be that “spiritualism” and “mediumship”, once in vogue but now held in deep suspicion, gave the idea of the private study group meeting a bad name? Could it be that “alternative” religious movements in Britain, although lively, are too diffuse to take root? Could it be that the organized church has not been a focus of social activity for any but the elderly in this country? I don't know. Personally I don't buy the argument that Britain is full of hidebound, tradition-fettered religious philistines – as if it were crawling with Sanhedrin – but there's no denying that modern Britain is an aggressively secular country. The fact remains that our efforts to get an UAI branch started by simply having a quorate petition of 10 interested readers was doomed to a few false starts. But by 2001, two things had happened to make it possible: first, new readers were coming to the book and enquiring hungrily about it through the Urantia Foundation's new web-site, and they continue to do so; and secondly and most importantly, a couple of dedicated individuals made vigorous efforts to get us going. Typically for the Urantia movement in Britain, it's taken outsiders to get it done. Merindi Swadling, who worked in London for four years before going back home to Australia this year, pulled out all the stops to get readers interested in forming a core of the UAI in this country. If it weren't for Merindi, the British UAI branch probably would not have come about, or would have been delayed in forming, but she stayed long enough to see her dream come true. Two other dynamic people have kept the flame burning: Gary Rawlings, our UAI branch president, and Costas Diamántopoulos, our representative in Greece but a part-time resident of Britain. Costas has been instrumental in making sure that The Urantia Book shows its face to the public at events like the Mind, Body and Spirit Fairs in this country, the second of which we're preparing to attend under the UAI banner. And so it was that on Sunday, 12 October 2003, at the Union Jack Club in London, the UK branch of the UAI was founded, with representatives of the Trustees of Urantia Foundation (Seppo Kanerva) and of the UAI itself (Gaétan Charland and Cathy Jones) in attendance. As President, Gary is proving to be an energetic promoter of social fellowship among readers. Our Treasurer is Costas and Merindi was elected Secretary, though now that she's returned home, she's passed on that mantle to yours truly, another Australian in exile as it happens. I shall also continue to edit TheAscender as before, but now for the UAI. The Ascender's appearance has been redesigned by Gavin Dormand, but it retains its modest dimensions until the flood of articles from all our anticipated new readers begins. All of us were delighted and a little humbled by being present in July this year at the magnificent UAI conference at Dominican University at River Forest, Illinois – it was proof of the solidity and enthusiasm of our worldwide fellowship of readers. We dream of one day being big and strong enough to host a comparable event! The Urantia flame in Britain refuses to go out. It will burn brightly. August 4 - 8, 2005 Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the URANTIA Foundation's Hawaii Urantia Local Association (HULA) on behalf of the URANTIA Association of the United States (UAUS) invites you to a conference at sea in August 2005. The beautiful Carnival Sensation will set sail for Cozumel, Mexico, from New Orleans on the afternoon of August 4th, returning to port on August 8th. Cabin capacity is almost unlimited. To reserve your space at the conference, send a $25 conference registration fee to: HULA, PO Box 67 All other fees will be handled directly by the group cruise agent at United Airlines. To book the cruise contact: Sergio Hernandez Tell him that you are with the UAUS 2005 conference and he will take your credit card number or tell you where to send a check. If you have any questions or would like to contribute to our program in any way, please e-mail me at ellanora@kona.net or phone 808-885-7295. For more information or a copy of the brochure please go to the UAI website: http://www.urantia-UAI.org/events.html —Marian Hughes, HULA President The Urantia Book: Fifth Epochal Revelation And What Next for Urantia? 13 to 15 May 2005 The International Urantia Association for the United Kingdom & Ireland will hold their Summer Meeting at the very relaxing Redcliffe Hotel in the wonderful seaside resort of Paignton, Torbay, Devon, which is part of the English Riviera. We have negotiated a room rate of sixty pounds sterling inclusive per person per night that includes dinner bed & full English breakfast and this can be booked by contacting the hotel reception and quote UAIUK&I on +(44) 01-803526397 and the hotel facilities can be viewed on www.redcliffehotel.co.uk The theme for this meeting will be The Urantia Book ― (Fifth Epochal Revelation and what next for Urantia?) ― this coupled with study, informal discussions, a presentation, sales of the books, tapes, thought gems, etc, sight seeing and enjoying excellent food with company that have one thing in common in the reading of The Urantia Book, and this should be a very memorable weekend for all attending this summer meeting. Details of the exact programme will be posted in early 2005, however it is essential that you make your booking at your earliest convenience to avoid any disappointments of not being able to stay at the hotel. You can contact me on Gary81@Aol.com or my mobile telephone number +(44) 07-00667931 should you have any queries or problems with your booking. We look forward to seeing you at the meeting where you will be able to socialise with both old and new readers of The Urantia Book. Urantially yours, |
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