© 2020 Jacob Dix
© 2020 Urantia Foundation
| The Satisfactions of (Reader) Service | Volume 14, Issue 3, Oct. 2020 — Index | What The Urantia Book Means to Me |
By Jacob Dix, President of Urantia Book Historical Society (UBHS), Stockholm, Sweden
Ever since I joined the Board of Directors of the UBHS, I have experienced nothing but an increasing sense of the importance of the history of our movement.
A reader of The Urantia Book since 1998, I have served on the Board of Directors of UBHS since 2008, and as president since 2009. Some of my best moments serving the Society have been working with our amazing team of historians, collectors, archivists, and software experts. Nowhere else in my life have I worked with such a great team, who love the good work they do.
Reading the Jesus Papers and in particular about the early days of Christianity, I am always reminded just how fortunate we are to no longer have such a glaring gap in our knowledge of Jesus’ life and times. In just a short hundred years or so, the same kind of knowledge gap about the early days of this latest revelation could exist, with posterity left to search for an understanding of how they arrived at the place they are in. I want to ensure that they have that clear view of the past, to better steer the ship.
The Urantia Book Historical Society is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to perpetually preserving Urantia Book history, making it readily accessible to readers, scholars, and the public. UBHS is a neutral organization whose purpose is to make available the many voices and perspectives of our Urantia community history and heritage, in perpetuity.
Recently, we launched our new online archive, and are now transitioning records from our old database to the new. The combined repository of records, periodicals, books, photographs, audio/video, and objects has over twelve thousand items, most recently including Urantia-related records from the Clyde Bedell estate, generously donated by Barrie Bedell.
Working with historical records is a very important but time-consuming process. It is both complex and rewarding. We are constantly receiving donations in the form of records and digital files, and so there is always more work than there are workers or resources. At this time, we are reaching out to the Urantia community for your support. If you would like to volunteer time to help us provide our services to the community, while learning about that history yourself as you work with it, please inquire with us about opportunities to serve.
The old and new archives, as well as information about donating and volunteering, may be found online at https://ubhistory.org.
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| The Satisfactions of (Reader) Service | Volume 14, Issue 3, Oct. 2020 — Index | What The Urantia Book Means to Me |