© 2024 Enrique Traver, Michael Zehr, James Woodward, Alice Wood
© 2024 International Urantia Association (IUA)
¶ In This Issue
- President’s Message – March 2024 – Enrique Traver, Brazil
- The 2024 Urantia Association International Conference Approaches – Michael Zehr, USA
- New Unity Initiative – Governance Committee
- Focus on the Father – Faith – James Woodward, USA
- Slow and Steady – PIRT Volunteers
- Urantia Book Teacher Education Program – Alice Wood, USA
- About Tidings Newsletter
¶ President’s Message – March 2024
Enrique Traver, Brazil
Following Jesus
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This world is only a bridge; you may pass over it, but you should not think to build a dwelling place upon it. UB 156:2.1
He told them they could not stand still; they must go forward in righteousness or retrogress into evil and sin. He admonished them to “forget those things which are in the past while you push forward to embrace the greater realities of the kingdom.” UB 156:2.6
This world is an arena where we develop and conquer the first steps to reach the morontia worlds, followed later by the steps to the spirit level. As Jesus said: just a bridge to cross. Reaching the end of that worldly bridge allows us to reach another shore, to reach a new reality of eternity, of the birth of the spirit, of drawing closer to the presence of our Father. Passing across this bridge implies a continuous straightforward movement with no stops for whatever reason. We must move ahead. When we keep moving forward, we free up the flow and attract other people to the journey. We produce the fruits of the spirit.
¶ The 2024 Urantia Association International Conference Approaches
Michael Zehr, USA
Nature and Nurture of the Soul
Baltimore, USA. March 28 - 31, 2024
Urantia Association International and Urantia Association of the United States are hosting the 12th International Conference in Baltimore, USA. Sponsored by Urantia Foundation and Truthbook, the conference has been organized and coordinated by a host of worldwide volunteers to provide a spiritual learning experience for the global Urantia Book reader community.
The theme of the conference is The Nature and Nurture of the Soul.
To establish a framework for the study, all references to the soul from The Urantia Book were gathered and sorted into eight subtopics – four on the Nature of the Soul, and four on Nurture of the Soul.
¶ New Unity Initiative
Governance Committee
Last year, Sue Seccombe, president of Urantia Book Fellowship, created a petition and sent if far and wide across our Urantia community. The petition was focused on unity and it garnered over 600 responses, almost all in the affirmative for setting our sights on true spiritual unity, and even organizational unity.
Due to that positive response, the General Council of the Fellowship passed a resolution creating a small team to engage with Urantia Association to discuss unity. Their resolution included terminology about the possibility of seeking unity between the two fraternal organizations. The resolution tasked their Unity Committee with: "Exploring the details and options of organizational cooperation and steps toward unity between the two social organizations that will best benefit the growth, understanding, and credibility of the Urantia revelation and presenting these recommendations to the General Council.” Such an executive action passed by the Fellowship’s General Council, signals an openness to resolve the historic schism.
¶ Focus on the Father – Faith
James Woodward, USA
Going out on a limb of faith requires faith.
Faith is a holy paradox: It’s a grab-hold thing on spirit levels and a let-go thing on material levels. With the affirmation of faith, we acknowledge a spirit reality and the divine beings who inhabit that reality—without seeing it, or them. With living faith, we invest implicit trust that those realities and beings are friendly to us, even love us. With the exercise of faith, we snuggle up to those realities and beings like we do our beloved family and our nurturing natural environment. With the perfection of faith, we fully share the will of God, living the Perfect Plan. For mortals that’s a plan in progress.
“Perfecting is of God. To wish for perfection is of man.”
¶ Slow and Steady
PIRT Volunteers
The Prison Inmate Response Team (PIRT) for Canada was formed in 2016 by Chris Gravel, who was inspired by a PIRT Tidings article. Chris started by seeding 46 prison libraries. Then the wait for a first inmate letter began… and two years later, in November 2018, the first request for a book arrived. Another arrived the following year. And then, in 2021, a woman requested a book and began to spread the word, resulting in three more referrals. And later, two more book requests arrived, one from a prison chaplain.
¶ Urantia Book Teacher Education Program
Alice Wood, USA
Urantia University Institute – Now Accepting Applications
Following several years of development and testing by a team of curriculum developers and experienced students from the major Urantia organizations, The Urantia Book Teacher Education Program (TEP) is now accepting applications for the 2024 - 2025 academic year.
The hybrid one-year training program features a five-day, in-person orientation and training session at Urantia Foundation, followed by three trimesters of online study and weekly training and discussion sessions on Zoom. It is designed for people who are serious students of the Urantia revelation with a track record of participation in study groups and Urantia Book education programs.
¶ About Tidings Newsletter
The Tidings newsletter is a quarterly on-line publication that serves as Urantia Association International’s primary communication tool for reaching out to the Association’s membership, supporters, donors, volunteers, and general readership friends. It provides news and information on the many activities and events of the National or Affiliate Urantia Associations around the globe as well as information and announcements from Central Office, the International Service Board (ISB), and the International Representative Council (IRC). It serves to keep members in touch with one another and gives readers a sense of belonging—of being an integral part of a truly international movement that is designed to promote the Urantia revelation to all corners of the world.
Note: Tidings also occasionally provides news of other Urantia-related activities and events that may be of interest to our supporters and friends. Please note that any interpretations, opinions, conclusions, or artistic representations, whether stated or implied, are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of Urantia Association International, the National or Affiliate Urantia Associations, or the editorial team of the Association’s Tidings.