© 2009 Christine Baussain
© 2009 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
On November 8-9, 2008, in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, the second meeting of German readers of The Urantia Book took place.
A good twenty participants, including Werner Sutter and Irmeli Ivalo-Sjölie, founding pillars of the Urantia movement in Germany, Christian Ruch, from Switzerland, enthusiast from the very beginning and organizer of the meeting, and of course Urs Ruchti, the translator, without whom none of this would have happened, happily met at the Monopol Hotel, just opposite the central station. The meeting took place from Saturday morning to Sunday after lunch, but the first arrivals took advantage of an informal first dinner on Friday evening to start some lively conversations that foreshadowed the two days to come.
The subject to be prepared was Personality, as described in particular in booklet 112. A somewhat disproportionate program for 24 hours of actual work and relatively beginner readers. Indeed, it quickly became apparent that we were going to talk about everything except this famous Personality! In reality, the burning curiosity to deepen the teaching of the L U on all the subjects that presented themselves, as well as the enthusiasm to finally be able to express oneself without restraint on unconventional subjects, led the discussions in all directions; but precisely this fervor, this burning thirst to know as much as possible as quickly as possible, the relevance and depth of the questioning and reflection, bear witness without doubt to the high potential of this new readership. The famous German Gründlichkeit (a mixture of depth, accuracy and meticulousness) was at its best: while the first German edition only dates from 2005, so many books are already out of print, annotated, underlined, highlighted, pages dog-eared and warped - we’re working! we’re working!
The achievements of this very young and informal group of readers are already numerous:
The Urantia Book is selling well in Germany. After the first edition of 2000 copies was sold out in two years, sales have so far stabilized at around forty volumes per month. A second edition of 3000 copies, half paperback and half hardback, has just been put on the market. Like the first, it will be marketed by Silberschnur, an excellent, very gründlich publisher-distributor who has been able to obtain a good set-up and keeps impeccable accounts.
This second generation Urantia Buch deserves a little attention: although it appears “normal”, it is in fact quite special. To make it easier to read, the format has been slightly enlarged; the text is less constrained, less tight, and “flows” more naturally. The result is indeed very pleasant, but in the process some paragraphs have slipped haphazardly from one page to the next. To help you find your way around, the number of the issue and chapter has been inserted at the bottom of the page.
The total number of pages has therefore remained the same, but between the first and the last, those in the know will be able to discover a certain number of new modifications. Perhaps a mutant, therefore, halfway between the traditional version and a possible complete transformation, with an unfixed number of pages and a text that unfolds freely, and referenced according to the principle “booklet-chapter-paragraph” instead of the very practical “page-paragraph”. The future will tell us…
For Germanists interested in participating in the next meeting, it will take place on November 7 and 8, 2009, still at the Monopol Hotel in Frankfurt. You can register on urantiabuch.org. Click on Kontakt.
Wow!
Christine Baussain