© 2023 Gaétan G. Charland
© 2023 Urantia Association of Quebec
Gaetan G. Charland
president@urantiaqc.org
Hello members and friends of the association,
I would like to discuss with you the concerns of the members of the board of your association regarding the question of the sustainability of the association which has been of concern to us for many years! We, the members of the board, looking at the photos and video recordings of the activities of the association, notice that the majority of its readers are well over sixty.
We do not see young readers emerging from the population of Quebec. In fact, they are disconcertingly rare. The 70s and 80s were certainly marked by a significant interest in The Urantia Book by young adults of those decades; I was one of them. What are the significant differences that could characterize this era from that of today? I am sure that there are several and that you could surely name a few. In fact, this situation is not exclusive to Quebec, and can be observed on several continents with the exception of South America and Africa.
In South America as in Africa, the majority of the countries that constitute them are favored by a living religious culture, somewhat similar to that which prevailed in Quebec in the 50s and 60s. It must be taken into account that for us readers of the Urantia Book in Quebec, we have benefited from a religious cultural scaffolding which has in a certain way contributed to stimulating our curiosity for spiritual research. Young people today do not have this religious/spiritual scaffolding which could serve as a powerful lever to stimulate their curiosity for the search for truth.
I would be tempted to conclude that our generation of readers has failed in its responsibility to carry the torch that would have allowed younger generations to have adequate scaffolding to stimulate their taste and curiosity for spiritual adventure and the search for truth. Because, it appears clearly that by leaving the religious institution that introduced us to the idea of God, we have practically ceased to be a spiritual and religious influence in our living environment. It is not simply by reading The Urantia Book that we will contribute to changing the world or improving the religious culture of Quebec.
At the age that the majority of us are, there is little time left to transfer the spiritual torch to a new generation. The members of the board of the Urantia Association of Quebec have for many years organized multiple activities and initiatives with the aim of motivating your participation in the spiritual emancipation of our society. I would not like to list these numerous activities or projects here, but rather to emphasize the fact that we need help in discovering new solutions to stimulate young people’s interest in the Urantia Book.
What can we do to encourage you to give back what the revelation has so generously given us? What can we do to encourage young people to take an interest in The Urantia Book? We live in a time of uncertainty and material abundance that makes our mission difficult. We must learn new ways to share the teachings of The Urantia Book. We must become sowers of seeds of truth, in our families, in our communities, in our work and in our leisure time.
Several years ago, a reader named Liguori Leclerc, now deceased, had during his life published numerous commentaries, drawn from the teachings of the Urantia Book, in the newspapers of his region. After a certain time, several editors of these same newspapers asked him to write articles and he was even invited once to give his opinion on television on certain current affairs. During the commemoration ceremony in honor of Liguori, my wife and I were present, we heard the testimony of his daughter recounting that one day, the Prime Minister of Quebec at the time, had a private meeting at Liguori’s house to get his point of view on certain sensitive economic subjects. Here is a reader who, in his own way, highlighted the teachings of the Urantia Book without ever naming his source.
Who today does not read the newspapers on their tablet or computer? It is easy at that time to make informed comments on the subjects that concern us. This is a simple method, accessible to almost each of us, to sow seeds of truth; I do it regularly and sometimes my comments are published.
We are all teachers, whether we accept it or not. How do we lead our lives and how do we express ourselves? We can all improve our ways in order to become better sowers. This is what your association has been trying to do for so many years, to give you the means to improve yourselves.
I’ll let you meditate on this quote.
Belief has attained the level of faith when it motivates life and shapes the mode of living. The acceptance of a teaching as true is not faith; that is mere belief. Neither is certainty nor conviction faith. A state of mind attains to faith levels only when it actually dominates the mode of living. Faith is a living attribute of genuine personal religious experience. (UB 101:8.1)
To love is to serve.