© 2020 David Kulieke
© 2020 The Urantia Book Fellowship
| Checkmate: The Progress Angels and the Religious Guardians in Play | Fall 2020 Issue — Index | On the Subject of Love |
Celebrate the 4000th Anniversary Year of Machiventa Melchizedek’s Bestowal on Urantia
by David Kulieke
Summer Study Session 2021 will celebrate 4000 years since Machiventa Melchchizedek entered a tent and proclaimed, “I am Melchizedek, priest of El Elyon, the Most High, the one and only God.” UB 93:2.1 The Session will meet at its frequent location of Techny Towers, Northbrook, IL, near several Chicago museums noted for research into the ancient Middle East.
One committee member said, “Machiventa’s bestowal inaugurated the Third Epochal Revelation on Urantia and signaled just the ninth such occurrence in Nebadon. The theme also provides an opportunity to address what Machiventa taught, how he taught, his relevance to Michael’s bestowal, and worship opportunities. Studying the Melchizedek Revelation also furthers our current and future efforts to serve the Fifth Epochal Revelation: The Urantia Book. We must take the lessons of origins and history and anticipation of destiny to solve current problems” (p. 215).
The Education Committee of the Urantia Book Fellowship seeks to couple future objectives with wisdom of the past. The book frequently instructs us of the importance of the synergy between evolution and revelation.
Revelation is evolutionary but always progressive… But if revelation is to exalt and upstep the religions of evolution, then must such divine visitations portray teachings which are not too far removed from the thought and reactions of the age in which they are presented. Thus must and does revelation always keep in touch with evolution. Always must the religion of revelation be limited by man’s capacity of receptivity. UB 92:4.1
This dynamic is illustrated in the relationship between the “Angels of the Churches” and the “Angels of Progress.” It is said that the Angels of the Churches will soon pass a form of planetary supervision onto the Angels of Progress, “seraphim are entrusted with the task of initiating the evolutionary progress of the successive social ages. They labor incessantly to make things what they ought to be.” The Angels of the Churches are seraphim who are “the earnest contenders for that which is and has been. They endeavor to maintain the ideals of that which has survived for the sake of the safe transit of moral values from one epoch to another. They are the checkmates of the angels of progress.” (UB 114:6.7).
It might seem that this would be a contentious relationship. Instead one can see it as the handin-glove complement of learning from the past to apply to the present and prepare for the future or or as the necessary progressive relationship between evolution and revelation.
As perhaps the most inspirational motivator on the planet to seek a liberal education, The Urantia Book encourages its readers not only to learn what they can on a myriad of topics from the book but also to supplement its teachings with information from secular sources. Such subjects include religion, the arts, history, evolution, cosmology, and sociology, to name just a few.
The Education Committee seeks to apply this principle of expanding Urantia Book teachings with evolutionary wisdom by supplementing the many, many references gathered on topics of learning, teaching, and education (see “Prime Education References” https://urantiabook.org/prime-educationreferences) with the wisdom of educators throughout millenia. One application will be this November’s virtual seminar to review such Urantia Book and secular educational strategies to help improve attendees’ presentation skills. An ongoing mission of the committee is contributing to the upstepping of the quality of study of The Urantia Book teachings.
After the seminar, on Sunday, November 8, the committee will give an online workshop as part of the Fellowship Education Online Forums. In looking to the future, the committee recently joined the world of virtual education.
However, in keeping with the theme of not losing what is essential and good from the past, the committee will also attempt to expand its “Fellowship in the Field” initiative. Based on the belief that online education is good while in-person communities are a necessary foundation for the revelation, committee members have visited several study groups, seminars, or conferences in recent years, hoping to provide strong workshops and help to stimulate an area. The November workshop is also part of this initiative, as it prepares more presenters for visiting local groups.
There is a real purpose in the socialization of religion. It is the purpose of group religious activities to dramatize the loyalties of religion; to magnify the lures of truth, beauty, and goodness; to foster the attractions of supreme values; to enhance the service of unselfish fellowship; to glorify the potentials of family life; to promote religious education; to provide wise counsel and spiritual guidance; and to encourage group worship. And all live religions encourage human friendship, conserve morality, promote neighborhood welfare, and facilitate the spread of the essential gospel of their respective messages of eternal salvation. UB 99:6.2
Some of these ideals can be achieved online; it is a blessing to live in a time when relationships can be maintained virtually. But we have seen the need for face-to-face company as well during the recent pandemic quarantining. The Urantia movement needs healthy local communities as well as a global perspective. We must seek to “maintain the ideals of that which has survived for the sake of the safe transit of moral values” even as we seek to “to make things what they ought to be.”
In addition to the regular summer study sessions, efforts to visit and support local groups (let the committee know if you would like a visiting presenter), and the online workshop forums, the committee seeks through its resources to combine “what should be” with progress. The committee’s webpage is soon to exist on the new Fellowship website much as it used to be. Meanwhile, many of our downloadable resources are available at https://urantiabook.org/EducationCommittee-Resources.
The committee looks forward to seeing you online and at SSS21, all issues of isolation willing!
¶ External Links
| Checkmate: The Progress Angels and the Religious Guardians in Play | Fall 2020 Issue — Index | On the Subject of Love |