Virginia-Carolina Readers mini-conference

I wanted to tell you about our annual VCR mini-conference that we held on Saturday, October 25. The meeting was held in a scenic meeting house on a piece of land that juts out into the water; so that we were surrounded on three sides by a lovely view of a lake.

The business meeting occurred in the morning. Our president Voyette Perkins-Brown convened the members. We admitted 4 new members. Erica Layton who is 15 joins as a "friend" of VCR. So along with my 14-year old daughter, we now have a couple of teenage members, which is great. Carla Dazzio from Frederick, Md., a new member named Glen from Henderson NC and Clayton Clement of Greenville SC were all admitted as new members. Our president Voyette Perkins-Brown was unanimously elected to a second full term as president; and Roselyn Armstrong, a woman I well know and admire, was elected to a second full term as our treasurer. We were very pleased to have as special guests Dick Ziglar of Urantia Association of Florida and his lovely wife Liz.

After the business meeting, we adjourned for hamburgers and hot dogs cooked on a portable grill that our secretary Dennis Kidwell had brought out to the meeting. In addition to being an excellent secretary, Dennis is also quite the chef! Voyette provided quite a varied table of fruit, chips, munchies and drinks to help us through the day.

We had an excellent program designed by Dr. James Perry for our afternoon of study that was divided into five talks, all exploring facets of spiritual experience. I was fortunate to lead off the afternoon with the topic "Defining Spiritual Reality in Human Experience." I began with an excellent paragraph suggested by Dr. Jeff Wattles from page 1174.7, "Sooner or later all universe personalities begin to realize that the final quest of eternity is the endless exploration of infinity, the never-ending voyage of discovery into the absoluteness of the First Source and Center." We then worked as a group to share some of our most memorable spiritual experiences to arrive at our own definition. These sharings seemed to group into those who experienced God through Truth, Beauty, Goodness, a connection with the Universal Father, realizing their faith, and through important personal choices that were made. Becoming more like God our Father was defined as spiritual reality in our experience.

Dennis Kidwell spoke on "The Discovery of Spiritual Reality," relating quotes in the book and personal observations. Dr. Patty Pearce, a guest of VCR, spoke on "The Problem of Isolation and Spiritual Experience." She used personal experiences and quotes in a written text that was an excellent presentation.

At that point, we broke for a presentation by invited guests for instruction in shape-note singing. While I was a bit lost, not able to recognize my Fa-So from my Mi-La; still I greatly appreciated the energy and beautiful sounds generated by my more musical sisters and brothers. We discovered that one of the singers' wife had read The Urantia Book; and put her in contact with the Raleigh study group. Our president presented each of our four guests with their own copy of The Urantia Book. It was quite an amazing experience and an excellent way of using our gathering as a form of outreach.

Voyette then spoke on "Spiritual Loyalty in Human Experience" with great enthusiasm and the gusto only she can provide. As usual, she was magnificent! Dr. Perry concluded the presentations with an excellent text "Spiritual Integration in the Material Life." He used many creative analogies of different types of vehicles we might encounter on the path to spiritual integration. There was also a cast of differing spirit personalities like Ivan Intellect and Sally Spirit. I recall identifying with the ones who fell asleep in the lecture halls of mansonia. :) Both his speech, Voyette's and Dr. Pearce's were excellent and would make great articles for IUA journals.

In addition to the shape-note singers, Dr. Pearce played her flute for us. You may recall she was part of the ensemble who played in the chapel in Nashville at our June UAUS meeting. Also, our new friend Erica Layton sang a solo rendition of a Disney tune. The lyric is something like, "A dream is a wish your heart makes." She is a beautiful young lady with a gorgeous voice. Roselyn Armstrong passed out sheet music as we sang with Rebecca Oswald's recording of "Pray Tell Me How."

This was an excellent day of fellowship and spirit sharing. My thanks to Voyette, Sherry, James, Dennis, Roselyn, Dave, Xandy, Ozanne, Erica, Clay, Glen and all who contributed to such a beautiful experience.

Many blessings,
Lee Armstrong
North Carolina

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