© 2023 Gaétan G. Charland
© 2023 Urantia Association of Quebec
Gaetan G. Charland
Sainte-Sophie
A bit of history and context in retrospect. It was in the year 2000 that Line, my wife, Guy Perron and I went to New York to participate in a conference of the Urantia Association International. For me, it was a most important opportunity to meet an educator who had, according to an article published in the UAI Journal, taught over eight hundred people the teachings of the Urantia Book with only one book. At that time, I had just started my first term as president of the AUQ and I was looking for someone with experience in education to teach others how to share the teachings of the Urantia Book.
As president of the AUQ, my mandate required me to pursue the spiritual mission of the association which is to disseminate the teachings of the Urantia Book, to create study groups and to train leaders and teachers. This is the reason that pushed me to meet this teacher, Moussa Ndiaye from Senegal. It was a most inspiring meeting which contributed to creating a deep fraternal and spiritual relationship with readers from Senegal. Upon returning from this congress, we rushed to organize the “Living Your Faith” congress and we took advantage of this opportunity to invite Moussa Ndiaye.
The conference took place in the summer of 2001 on the campus of Bishop’s University in Lennoxville. This conference offered an opportunity for several readers from Quebec to meet this experienced spiritual educator and ask questions about his teaching method. To follow up on this second meeting, Guy Perron and I decided to go to Dakar to learn more about this teaching method. We had the privilege of studying for several days the first seminar, in a series of several, entitled “The Study of Creation”. Line had initially joined us as a tourist, but on the second day of teaching she had a spiritual awakening that transformed her life.
Our stay in Dakar lasted twenty-one days and allowed us to fully appreciate the value of this teaching method for introducing people to the teachings of The Urantia Book, regardless of whether they practiced their religion or not. That was all it took to convince me of the value of such a method. Line and I decided to invite this teacher to Quebec the following year and to offer French-speaking readers in Canada the opportunity to follow at least the first seminar in a series of thirteen.
At that time, my goal was to train better study group hosts and teachers while providing an effective method for raising spiritual awareness. Over one hundred people attended several seminars. This training period spanned over ten years, from the first to the thirteenth seminar. There were also English-speaking groups who attended over eleven seminars with the assistance of translators. Many people were transformed by this teaching, but very few became teachers. The spiritual soil had been plowed, the seeds had been planted, and now time had to do its work; the actions are ours, the consequences God’s.
Today is harvest time. Since Moussa’s arrival in Quebec and his passage to the other world in 2019, many things have been put in place to continue the work of this exceptional educator.
A group of five Senegalese, whom Moussa trained in Dakar for more than thirty years, created the Progressive School of Divine Wisdom. This school has its own website and currently offers online courses via Zoom. Today the five educators of this school give courses to more than fifty students from all over the world, including several people in Quebec.
I invite all those who have already attended seminars with Moussa to join us, the group of former students, and to continue our training together in order to become better sowers of truth. Each of you can register to receive one or more seminars again. These seminars are offered free of charge and are held at the rate of two one-hour meetings each week via Zoom. If you have never taken a seminar and would like to know more about this method, its philosophy, its educators and its school, visit their website at the following address https://sagessedivine.com/fr/
The Urantia Association of Quebec actively supports the mission and purpose of this school which offers readers in our region the opportunity to learn a different way of sharing the teachings of the Urantia Book in a format of growth experiences adapted to our intellectual and spiritual needs.