© 1993 Betty Glasziou
© 1993 ANZURA, Australia & New Zealand Urantia Association
Betty Glasziou, Maleny, Qld
The Conference, held at St. Hyacinthe, Montreal, Canada from Saturday 31st July to Thursday 5th August, 1993 , was an unqualified success. In fact, the almost 800 URANTIA Book readers who gathered together from all over the world were so friendly, and generated so much goodwill, it was almost a foretaste of the Mansion Worlds. The Conference itself was spiritually illuminating and was without a hint of discord or politics.
For me, the most wonderful experiences were the Plenary Praise and Worship sessions for 1.5 hours every morning following breakfast. The psalmist once wrote that “God inhabits the praises of his people”. The spiritual channels were certainly open when our emotions and minds were stimulated by the beauty, harmony, and transcendence of musical expression. Instead of just listening to others praising God, we all joined in with our hearts, souls and voices. We all experienced feelings of unity and joy with this type of singing and worship. During all of this incredible music, the most beautiful scenes of natural beauty from all over Canada and the United States were being projected onto a huge screen, orchestrated by Larry Geiss. Joshua Wilson, a church minister from Arizona who works mainly with orphanages, co-ordinated the wonderful singers on stage whilst playing the keyboard and narrating with a most beautiful voice. This and many other parts of the Conference were videotaped so that, when we get the video, we will be able to share the experiences with our fellow readers in New Zealand and Australia.
After the musical worship sessions, we had a speaker each morning, beginning with an excellent address by Steve Dreier, President of the F.E.F. It was a very spiritual address. This huge theatre could seat at least 1000 people in comfort.
After lunch, there were many talks and workshops by many talented people. There was one whole tower of this beautiful hotel, the ‘Auberge des Seigneurs’, devoted solely to rooms especially designed for this type of conference. Workshop rooms had a huge table in each, with four separate sides around which one could sit, listen, take notes and engage in discussion. Each table seated 20 people. The lecture theatres were much larger with 50 very comfortable chairs in a semi-circle and a podium for the speaker. There were so many workshops and talks going on, it just wasn’t possible to attend all of them. One outstanding talk that I attended was by Dr. Meredith Sprunger who spoke on the future of the Fifth Epochal Revelation. It was really wonderful and we will have it on video. He did start by saying that he had been moved to tears by the praise and worship sessions every morning and wanted to know why it had taken us 35 or more years to do this — and we all agreed. If this was a foretaste of worship sessions on the Isle of Paradise, no wonder it is so overwhelming (UB 27:7.2).
The hotel was excellent, the rooms luxurious, and the food superlative. The different towers of the hotel rise up around a beautiful rainforest with birds and a lagoon. Bobby Dreier said this was the first time that the conference had been held in such surroundings — usually it is much more spread out. She thought it was such an unqualified success because we were all able to meet together so much more easily. There were many coffee bars and lounges in the hotel apart from the huge dining room and the smaller restaurants.
In fact, the … readers who gathered together from all over the world were so friendly, and generated so much goodwill, it was almost a foretaste of the Mansion Worlds.
There was a free day on the Tuesday with many options available to choose from. Some of us chose the day in Quebec and it certainly is a fascinating and historical city. The day culminated in an inspirational musical laser show in the magnificent cathedral, the ‘Notre Dame de Quebec’.
I had better not start on all the wonderful people who attended the Conference from all over the world or I would never finish. The Texas, Oklahoma, and Colorado folk were there in force with great musical talent. Apart from the music, the Boulder folk put on a wonderful Larry Mullins’ play with each character presenting their impression of Jesus, the man (e.g. Mary, his mother, Joseph, Martha, Mary, Lazarus, Andrew, and Caiaphas). It was so very well done.
We were all sorry when the six-day Conference ended, but it was a wonderful experience to meet people we had previously only known by name, making new friends and catching up with many old friends from different parts of the world. At the close, Janet Harrington gave the final address on the theme of the Conference, ‘Touch the World’, emphasizing the need for URANTIA Book readers to fulfil the role of peacemakers in their respective communities. It starts with each single one of us — a smile, a kindness, a comforting word and a helping hand to our fellow travellers on Urantia. There was such a happy atmosphere of goodwill! Hopefully, we can all go on out into the world in our daily lives doing as our beloved Master did, spreading love and good cheer as we pass by. We really can touch the world.