© 1995 Chris Moseley
© 1995 International Urantia Association (IUA)
By Chris Moseley
London, England
Any history of the readership of The URANTIA Book in Britain is bound to be concise, as ultimately there is so little to tell. There have been no cataclysmic events or great turning points in its history, just a series of quiet and slow developments. Looked at purely from the point of view of “outreach”, it’s been quite a dispiriting story, but we continue to believe that a slow spread provides a surer foundation for the Book’s reception in future centuries.
It’s difficult to pinpoint the exact moment when readers of the Book began to come together, an event more difficult to know when exactly the first book was sold here, but certainly it would have been in the mid nineteen seventies that readers became aware of each other. Until that time. the few readers who were studying the book in isolation had to refer to Chicago to be put in touch with other readers. But they were also put in touch with a man who came to have a decisive influence on our movement in Britain, Henry Begemann, The old URANTIA Brotherhood’s Field Representative in Europe. Henry came over from the Netherlands whenever a meeting of readers was being arranged in those early days, and it was he who fanned the weak flame of our curiosity and enthusiasm into a greater devotion to, and deeper understanding of, the revelation that had come into our hands. But I know that Henry suffered some disappointment at the slow growth of our readership-many times it appeared that the flame might go out altogether.
Initially the meetings were held in London every three or four weeks, at the home (then in Harrow-on-the-Hill) of Gez and Pamela Lamb, who still play host to half of the meetings today. From 1985 onward, when my wife, Tina and I returned to England after some years abroad, the meetings began to alternate between the Lamb’s home and ours, as they still do today. Henry continued to take an active interest in our meetings, and would come over at least once a year up until his death—an event which brought home to us what a great teacher and guide we had had in our midst.
It would be an exaggeration to say we have gone from strength to strength—at least on the basis of study group attendance alone. We continue to be a very small group, fluctuating at times but with the same basic core. In the north of England, where readers are even sparser. study groups have been in abeyance for some time now.
I wouldn’t dare to speculate as to whether the slowness of the movement’s growth in Britain has anything to do with a supposed English or British “national character”. On the face of it, interest in “alternative religions” is as great here as anywhere else, and we do not operate under any fear of social ostracism or religious persecution that I’m aware of. Personally, I don’t spend overmuch time worrying or despairing about this; the quality of the readership seems more important than the quantity. The spread of the book in this country has been necessarily on the basis of one-to-one contact, and that is as it should be. It means slow growth, but sure.
Two things have been done in the past few years to try and ensure that The URANTIA Book retains a readership in Britain. Firstly, in 1987, we set up a little newsletter. The Ascender, as a forum for contact between those readers who wish to keep in touch with one another’s doings. Experience tells us that those readers are in a minority, but no matter. Secondly, by setting up an office of URANTIA Foundation in this country, we have made sure that books are easily available from bookshops at all times. We have yet to make serious inroads into the British library network-that remains a challenge for the future. Considering that we have a regular turnover of book sales from our office, the readership is indeed growing - but silently, discreetly: it’s growing like a sturdy crop of mushrooms in dark, damp soil.
In other countries The URANTIA Book movement seems to be progressing in leaps and bounds. We can only look on with admiration. We hope that one day in our own lifetimes we too will have a flourishing and active readership. There are advantages in being small, of course; we have not reached the point of any serious schism among our readers. But there are disadvantages too: we have not yet qualified to join the IUA. But that time will surely come.