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On a wonderful summer weekend in Paington, Devon, England, where the Urantia Book readers came together from United Kingdom & Ireland.
We had prepared a long time for this event which turned out to be the largest gathering for the traditional summer meeting for Urantia Book readers.
The previous summer meetings had an interesting flavour of brotherhood and socialisation with kindred spirits exalted by various thought provoking topics of discussion, however this year's meeting had a difference to offer to all of us that partook the joys of sharing in the true spirit of the Urantia Book.
The event was organised for the first time under the auspices of the association that came into existence after the previous summer meeting that was held on the Isle of Wight in 2003, that was inaugurated in the October of that year, and in 2004 the meeting was waived in favour of the Chicago conference which was attended by the then small membership party from our association.
The organising members and officers of the Urantia Association proved to be great hosts, excellent organisers and provided together with the rest of the active members a great presentation of topics, whilst the chef of the Redcliffe hotel provided a series of unforgettable dinners, even the great British summer weather conspired to keep us together indoors, away from the temptation of Devon summer beaches, so we could enjoy the high quality, thought provoking and inspiring presentations.
Amongst ourselves this year, we were fortunate to have for the first time new members Eileen Appleyard from Ireland, Martin Pearse and his wife from Cambridge, Hara Davis from Tottnes in Devon, Pato Banton who is a renowned world-wide famous musician from Birmingham in the United Kingdom where both him and his wife's presence made a great contribution to the meeting, and we were also honoured by Max Fairclough who is originally from Kansas City and who is a long time Urantia Book reader, now living in England.
In addition we had as a guest one of the three editing members of the Greek translation team all the way from Thessaloniki.Greece, Sani Kapragkou who enjoyed immensely the companionship of her Urantia brothers and sisters at this event.
The planned topics this year’s meeting were presented in the renowned Dick Francis, (the famous detective author) a beautiful conference room blessed with large windows overlooking the sea that was made available by the Manager of the hotel, Mr. Twigger for the occasion in conjunction with Gary Rawlings who had selected the Redcliffe hotel and who once again has been the inspiring force for this special event.
The presentation started with Roberto Lara who once again showed his in-depth understanding of the book and its teachings that had his audience asking various searching questions on his overview on Religion papers.This led us into the presentation of Costas Diamantopoulos who us gave us a deep insight of Spiritual Receptivity with his excellent power point presentation of Expansion Consciousness and Enhancement inspiring picture show, his approach was based on that Life and Light that starts at grass roots levels from the individual and a symmetry in a Jesus-like personality is achievable based on the 12 spiritual like performances and examples that are given in the Urantia Book.
This was then followed by Chris Moseley who gave a very thoughtful and provoking insight on the Planetary Mortal Epochs from - paper 52, which entailed the reading of the book by various persons and then raising a number of exhilarating questions and debating his concise aspects of the Urantia Book from his audience .
Rowland Store then presented The Bestowal's of Christ Michael from paper 120 and once again from his previous study group meetings held this captive audience with his delivery of various readings from that particular reading with assistance from the participating audience.
Ade Awoyinka concluded the presentations by giving an insight to The Spheres of Light and Life from paper 55, with a number of future alternatives and also receiving from the audience their thoughts on the next phase on this planet of ours Urantia with very interesting speculations of what is next for it, with opinions that were divided from those who advocated that Light and Life can only come to our planet via an external spiritual intervention and others who believe this will happen via a slow and painstaking growth and spiritualisation of each individual.
At the end of the meeting Pato Banton formed a circle holding hands offering individual prayers and thanksgivings to the Father. We all left deeply united in spirit and purpose, invigorated by the Light of newly discovered Truths thanks to our Brothers and Sisters exceptional efforts that also included special prayers for our very much loved Tommy Outerbridge who because he is wheel bound could not make the summer meeting, Tommy has a wonderful story to tell that incorporates excerpts from the Urantia Book and you can contact him direct and he will e-mail his life story to you, in believe that for every person who reads it will then give him strength for him to recover from his disability thomas.outerbridge@btinternet.com he would love to hear from each and every one of you out there.
The final overview was presented by Roberto Lara that was followed by an interesting debate with numerous questions and answers from the audience.
The meeting was then concluded by Gary Rawlings who thanked everyone for them attending the summer meeting and made them aware of the forthcoming events both in 2005 and 2006 and also to remind them for their annual subscriptions for the association, to carry out the teachings of the Urantia Book. before wishing all both bon voyage and a safe journey home .
This was another minor milestone from our small but enthusiastic team in the United Kingdom and Ireland on the Long and Widening Road to Light and Life, an Era for the Brotherhood of Man, achieved by a collective effort on this troubled and backward but yet amazing experimental world, the planet of the Cross. A planet blessed and protected by the Merciful Creator Son Michael of Nebadon, our very own Jesus of Nazareth, that is our door and pathway to our Heavenly Father!! Let us keep advancing one step at a time holding hands with an inner Peace beyond understanding, coupled with unselfish service and devotion secured in the knowledge of our Eternal Destiny.
We hope to see you all next summer, somewhere on the Green Hills of England or the mountains of Wales, the Highlands of Scotland or the Beaches of Ireland.
We will be there slowly but surely in ever growing numbers.
In loyal and loving service – IUA for the United Kingdom & Ireland.
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