© 2011 Johanna Beukers
© 2011 Association Francophone des Lecteurs du Livre d'Urantia
Arriving early on Thursday at the Abbey of Notre Dame de Lumières in Goult to take full advantage of this beautiful site, we found the same friendly and welcoming owner as before. In the evening, two thirds of the participants arrived from various regions of France and Switzerland. 22 readers met after the meal to get to know each other, as a few new readers joined this meeting.
According to an original idea, Guy De Viron proposed to immediately form the 4 groups for the study workshops the next day.
Dominique Ronfet, who welcomed us as President, after a minute of silence, spoke to us about the working tool provided by Jean Royer, composed of 3 sheets which included numerous questions concerning the subject to be studied. The theme of this meeting being: “Religion in the human experience”. This text offered us immense possibilities for in-depth debates during the 3 days to come.
Friday morning, all the participants were present. After a brief welcome from the President, we headed out and settled into four rooms.
The first day was fruitful, and for some even more so because the heated swimming pool offered a wonderful “snack” for some enthusiasts. In addition, short walks in the surrounding area were favored.
On Friday evening, Georges Donnadieu took us on a stroll through the land of dowsing. As an experienced engineer and polytechnician, he introduced us to the secrets of Easter eggs and Good Friday. A story that remains an enigma for all of us: “These eggs laid on this precise date have the particularity of being sterile, solidifying and being preserved indefinitely.”
With a little music from Eddy Mitchell who sang a song by Gilbert Bécaud with words from the poet Pierre Delanoë: “I belong to you”, the evening ended.
Saturday morning, the Ordinary General Meeting took place at 9:00 a.m. with the election of the secretary on the agenda. This meeting was followed by the meeting of the Board of Directors at 11:00 a.m. where several points were debated. (See report of the meeting on our site).
After lunch and a break, the study workshops resumed around 4:00 p.m. The second evening after the meal was again hosted by Georges Donnadieu and there were a few of us enthusiastic about singing old songs performed by Eddy Mitchell.
Sunday, workshops resume to complete the study of booklet 100.
Then, meeting again in the main room, the rapporteurs of the 4 study groups shared with us the conclusions drawn from the discussions.
After this meeting, Lucas Périer gave us a presentation on the subject of religion as lived within the Church of Jesus Christ. He informed us of many interesting anecdotes punctuated by photos from magazines published in the USA, a country where this religion is very widespread: the Mormons.
We also had the pleasure of receiving a visit from the priest working on site at the Abbaye de Lumières who seemed very interested in our conversations and at the end of the session, he left with a Urantia Book under his arm, offered by Patrick Papini.
After four days of sunshine, a last meal was eaten together. New contacts were established and everyone returned with a feeling of peace, brotherhood and joy thanks to these warm and annual reunions between readers of the Urantia Book.
We thank the organizers who dedicated themselves to making this meeting a success, which was once again a great success.
Johanna Beukers