© 2008 Claire Mylanus
© 2008 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
This time, it was the turn of our beautiful region, Brittany!
It was on the Breton coast, on the banks of the Rance, in Dinard that the meeting took place. In a Breton manor, splendidly renovated. All the rooms have exposed beams and some have stone fireplaces; the manor itself is built in granite stone as is fitting in Brittany, surrounded by a flowery and green garden, all this in an idyllic setting exuding tranquility and beauty.
Dinard is a seaside resort, which like everywhere in Brittany, has kept the wild character of its coasts while being very friendly for tourism. It is the strength of Celtic culture that has been able to keep its history and heritage while living in its time. The manor is located on a point in the sea, opposite St Malo, a privateer city and birthplace of Jacques Cartier who discovered Quebec in 1534.
There were 35 of us in total, coming from all over France including 7 readers from Brittany, two from Quebec: Gaétan Charland, President of the UAI with his wife Line St Pierre, and, coming from the Netherlands, Samantha Nior, one of the leaders of the Dutch Urantia Association.
On Thursday 22, everyone arrived at their own pace, most often by car, since at the last moment, there was an SNCF strike that day. Our Quebec friends finally arrived only at the end of the afternoon at the St Malo station, on the land of their ancestors, directly from Quebec and therefore very tired, but that did not prevent them from spending the whole evening with us.
There were about twenty of us for dinner in this beautiful room of the manor and everyone was happy to see each other again and make new acquaintances.
On Friday morning, the meeting was led by Dominique Ronfet, in the absence of the President due to the strike; the meeting began with three presentations on the last subject of the study cycle on the theme “Origins of the individual”, namely Personality: a difficult, complex, and very vast subject in the UB.
The first presentation was given by Anne Marie Ronfet, a beautiful presentation on The Feeling of Existence (personality and reality), the feeling of non-existence (excess of solitude - loss of bearings), the organism and the environment, deepening one’s experiences (giving them values), sharing to grow, and acting in concert with the Supreme. The second presentation was given by myself and dealt with certain aspects of the Personality in the UB, such as its definitions, its characteristics, its attributes, its action on the mind, its creativity, its cosmic quality and its survival with the surviving soul.
The third presentation was given by Chris Ragetly, it was a very complete work on this subject: its generalities, certain realities, its origin, its qualities and its characteristics, Repersonalization, fusion with the Adjuster, the seven dimensions of expression of the self, the Love of the Father, the relationship between the mind and the spirit, morality.
After lunch, Chris continued, at the request of many, the study of his presentation and some formed another study group. At the end of the afternoon and at dinner time several readers arrived, such as President Michel Rouanet. The meeting of the Regional Intermediaries took place in the evening and allowed us to compare our experiences in our regions with the readership and to thank Michel Rouanet for his constructive work within the AFLUB for two years.
On Saturday morning, it was the General Assembly and the election of the new President: Dominique Ronfet. The afternoon took place with two speeches, one by the President of the UAI, Gaétan Charland and that of Georges Michelson-Dupont, Trustee of the Urantia Foundation. Gaétan Charland spoke to us about the role of the UAI and the importance of study groups for the dissemination of the UB, promoting the emergence of spiritual fraternity and the training of leaders. Georges Dupont spoke to us about the nomination of two women Trustees at the Urantia Foundation of Chicago: Marilynn Kulieke and Judy van Cleave, as well as the creation of a European Foundation whose work will be to take care of translations and improve the distribution of the book in Europe. In the evening, the AFLUB Board of Directors met to elect their members to the vacant positions. Sunday was spent summarizing the presentations and continuing to study Chris’ presentation.
In summary, these were three very busy days, with well-detailed subjects, good discussions, with the joy of meeting new readers, and with the feeling of a great spiritual brotherhood which united all these personalities in the service of Revelation.
The meals were of good quality, the staff very friendly and helpful and couples with children were given larger rooms so they could feel more comfortable; it was a joy to have all these little children with their parents.
See you soon in Paris!
Claire Mylanus