© 2022 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
To commemorate the hundredth issue of Le Lien, we asked French-speaking readers to send us news from study groups demonstrating the liveliness of the French-speaking movement. In the following pages, you will find testimonies from France, Senegal, Quebec and Belgium.
We hope you enjoy reading it. Naturally, your comments are welcome.
¶ Study Group called “From Paris”
The so-called “Paris” study group has experienced multiple episodes over time.
Initially almost confidential, around the personality of Jacques Dupont, this group was maintained with passion, enthusiasm and regularity since the 70s I believe and followed by Georges and Marlène, whom the majority of us know, and who later took up the family torch when Jacques left.
As new readers appeared, affinities emerged which sometimes led to friendships, which led to the creation of study/sharing groups among some or others.
From memory, it was at the beginning of the 2000s, on the initiative of a reader, Robert Gallo, that we were able to centralize a monthly public study group (open to all) in the heart of Paris, located in the lounge of a large hotel near the Opera Garnier, for a more than modest cost we had a welcoming space.
This is how we were able to meet the most diverse personalities, from a former guitarist from the group Magma, to anonymous people, whom we often never saw again, to journalists from Arte Radio Web.
The simple esoteric curiosity of the “Urantia” phenomenon did not necessarily retain the loyalty of the passing reader.
But I have memories of very beautiful personalities. And I like to believe that this simple meeting, these few exchanges around quality subjects have allowed everyone to live. A source of life, or rather, of survival.
And isn’t that the main thing?
This group was able to continue in this form until the Great Lockdown, you know, at the beginning of 2020.
This Great Confinement, a name with medieval overtones of the Great Plague (all things considered, obviously) has turned a page for many in the management of these meetings,
The term face-to-face appeared, it was the counterpart to that of virtual. Face-to-face, meeting in the real world, was synonymous with mortal and forbidden danger.
So no more question of seeing each other in a hotel lounge. Then the gods of virtual communication appeared: Zoom, Teams, and so on.
No teleportation yet, no holographic projection, but already the miracle of being able to communicate visually with people located far from you while you religiously sip a Virgin Mojito in your pajamas in your living room.
So if we lost human warmth and body odors, we gained in comfort and in the geographical expansion of encounters.
This is how the “so-called Paris” study group (the GEDDP) became virtual, and therefore transformed itself, and… continues to transform itself.
This “virtuality” therefore allows us to meet by breaking down geographical barriers, while coming together through complementarities and affinities (Jean from Tours, Olivier, new reader from the center, Patrick from the south, Robert, whom we have already spoken about, from Nice, Élisabeth, Alain and Marie Jo from Paris, Dominique, your servant, and Anne Marie from Chatou…)
Which is a big advantage.
We have lost this “open to all those passing through Paris” aspect that the Parisian show offered. And I doubt that we will be able to resume this type of exchange immediately, at least in this form.
Every era has its history.
But the “magic”, if I can use this term, to speak of everything that appears in an exchange between individuals “in the real world” and cannot be clearly stated, must continue and continues through friendly sharing between readers, as I experienced recently when I was welcomed into their homes for a meal.
The adventure continues.
Dominique Ronfet
¶ Study Group called “From Paris” (Bis)
The Paris study group, while devoting itself to the study itself, has always given importance to fraternity, well-being and the acceptance of readers as they were and as they expressed themselves… or not! We take our time… Companions on the road, that’s how I see us and of course, some have left us. Each departure in this kind of companionship takes away a presence, a smile, even if we know that we will find the person again in the World of Houses. We must accept the distance. Goodbye Elisabeth, Emmanuel and last year Maurice. I would like to pay tribute to them for a moment. There are memories and a few photos left.
Beyond the study of the content of the Urantia Book, study groups seem important to me to “maintain the connection” and this more than ever because we live in a difficult and complex world and also because we are more or less of the same generation and we must help each other to live our last decades as best as possible. It is simply a fact. It seems to me that we must take things as they are. We are lucky to have a common hope. Let us together support this little flame, this light that has guided most of us for a long time. Let us make sure that it accompanies us until the end.
With all my friendship.
Anne-Marie Ronfet
¶ Dakar Study Group (Senegal — Africa)
In 1999, the group from Dakar in Senegal which had been studying the teachings of the Urantia Book since 1973, under the direction of its spiritual Educator Moussa NDIAYE, without knowing anything about the Urantia Movement in the world, or even the Book, met, for the first time, representatives of the Urantia Movement.
This meeting was made through Norman Ingram, of the Fellowship. Norman was just supposed to place Urantia Books in English-speaking African countries, starting from Dakar in Senegal, where he was supposed to pick up the books shipped to Marseille. He was then supposed to continue the distribution from Gambia, which borders Senegal, to South Africa. The contact for Moussa and the Dakar Group had been given to him by Georges Michelson Dupont. The latter had just been informed, a few weeks before, of the existence of the Dakar Group. He was planning to come to Dakar, and was prevented from coming just before the scheduled date.
Norman planned to stay two or three days at most in Dakar, the time to collect the Books. He finally stayed a month and established several reports, allowing the Dakar Group to know, and to be known by the Urantia Movement. This is also how the students of Dakar received for the first time, the English version of the Urantia Book, whose teachings had nourished their meetings for twenty-seven years. Moussa had received the volumes of the Cosmogony of Urantia, by Jacques Weiss in the sixties.
(Apart from the Study and teachings of the revelations of the Book of URantia, Moussa organized a series of twelve seminars on the Family from 1981 to 1985, (the conclusions of which were used to contribute to the creation of the Ministry of Women, Home and Children in Senegal). He also subsequently organized four seminars on Islamic-Christian interreligious dialogue in Senegal, including two at his home and two in public spaces)
Subsequently, Georges Michelson Dupond and other friends and readers of The Urantia Book, Belgian and Canadian, allowed Moussa and his group to be known and to participate in the activities of the Urantia Movement, both in Dakar, as well as in Europe and America. This also allowed around forty readers of the UB to come to Dakar between 2000 and 2012 (and even after), before Moussa began training sessions in Progressive Divine Wisdom, inspired by the teachings of The Urantia Book, systematically in Europe (France, Belgium) and Canada.
Moussa’s training sessions organized in Canada at this time are accessible via the link
https://youtu.be/gG7BfuDTWoM?list=PLVAIQHyiMc_Wk2Fto0GdcxZl_daIanh8-
Moussa left us for the world of Houses in 2018. But from 2017, the students trained by Moussa, and who had started since 1983 to provide this teaching in Senegal, to several people, undertook to share this educational approach internationally. They did so for the attention of the French-speaking communities studying the teachings of The Urantia Book, in Africa and around the world, as a Progressive Divine Wisdom Group.
They operate to date, via zoom sessions, with around fifty readers spread between France, Belgium, Canada, but also Haiti, the United States, Africa (Senegal, Cameroon, Chad, Guinea, Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, etc.), the Comoros, Reunion Island, etc.
Recently, the Progressive Divine Wisdom Group created a site whose link is: https://sagessedivine.com/ in order to explain its approach, record its archives and organize training sessions in a more structured manner. It also actively participates in the initiatives of the Urantia Movement through the UAI of which Senegal has been a member since 2000
(In 2017, 2018 and 2019)
¶ “The Bridge” Study Group (Quebec — Canada)
This month, I would like to talk to you about our study group “The Bridge”. This study group originated from the idea that the late Guy Vachon had to bring together readers of the Urantia Book at his home, several years ago, for a study of this fifth revelation. Having learned of this study group on the South Shore of Montreal, I joined them for a few years.
As this group had become quite large in terms of participation, it had smaller ones and two subgroups were then formed, one heading towards Montreal, and the other became the group “Les estudiantins”, the group that I started at that time in Saint-Basile-Grand. This lasted for a few years, then due to a lack of participants, and following the death of my partner, I put the group into dormancy.
It was in the fall of 2019, if my memory serves me right, and after the death of Guy Vachon, that I decided to resurrect my group by calling on the members of Guy’s late group. They joined me with great enthusiasm and renewed energy. The pandemic had not yet appeared, the meetings took place at my home, in Sainte-Julie, every Wednesday from 1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. At that time, there were six of us around the table. Following a unanimous vote and in memory of Guy Vachon, the name of my group changed to perpetuate his memory! It was a moment of great emotion, because we all carried our dear brother in our hearts, and we missed his presence very much!
Our study revolved around different subjects until we decided to study the life of Jesus to find out how he had managed to reach, at about the age of 30, the level of fusion with his Adjuster if that had been possible for him. We knew full well that what he had done could be applied to us in particular to hope, at the very least, to reach a higher point of collaboration with our own Adjusters. Thus we began the in-depth study of the life of Jesus of Nazareth.
With the year 2020, the pandemic put an end to our in-person meetings at my home. However, thanks to the collaboration of the AUQ, we continued our meetings via Zoom. This new way of holding our meetings allowed new people to join the group over time. For more than two years now, we have been continuing this study. One of our members, Guy Breton, graduated in 2020, certainly continuing this study on the worlds of houses.
Today, the group has ten people divided into the presence of three women and seven men. We continue our study of the master, his life and his teachings with ever more enthusiasm, depth in the understanding of his gospel, daily application of his message in the service rendered to others, and above all in a contagious good humor. A big thank you to our heavenly Father for his goodness and the gift of the Adjusters, for the Spirit of Truth of
Micaël who shows us the way, and for all other spiritual presences facilitating our study!
Good day!
Claude Flibotte.
¶ The Recloses Study Group
The study group known as “de Recloses” has a long history which began in 1978 and includes 3 distinct periods.
1: THE PARISIAN PERIOD (1978 TO 1999)
The first regular Parisian study group of readers of Livie d’Urantia met at Alain Muraz’s home. Towards the end of the 1970s, it ceased to exist and was replaced by that of Jacques Dupont in 1978. There were Bernard Garnier, Paul Brick, the Dessoubret brothers, Anne Marie and Dominique Ronfet, Yves Chauvin, Emmanuel de Survire, and many others whose names escape me.
We met at 31, rue Jouy Rouve in Paris XX regularly once a month. This study group was open to everyone. The topics covered were diverse but always concerning revelation. Some students presented personal research orally. The number of participants varied from 6 to 7 to 20 people. The atmosphere was studious, marked by friendship with the feeling of participating in something unique.
Row 1 top: starting from the right, Patrice de Soubret’s brother, Jacques Dupont, Paul Brick, Anne Marie Ronfet, a person whose name I no longer remember, and Emmanuel de Survire.
Note 2: Sometimes Henry Begeman came from Wassenaar (Netherlands) to attend the study groups. (In the center in a white shirt.) The other people?
Row 3: from left to right Bernard Garnier (cut in two) Patrice de Soubret, André Hiessse, Michael…, Georges Michelson Dupont and another young man.
Рното 4 (bottom) A group of very attentive young students.
Towards the mid-eighties, the house at 31 rue Jouy Rouve was sold (more precisely by expropriation for the benefit of the city of Paris for a real estate project) and the group moved to 9, rue Jean Moinon in Paris IX in my father’s company.
At the end of the 1980s Jacques Dupont retired, the company was sold and the group moved once again to meet at 8, Passage de la Bonne Graine in Paris XI in the premises of our company then of the newly created Urantia association located in the same building.
2: The Montreuil period (1999 to 2010)
In 1999, the company and the Urantia association moved to larger premises at 48, rue Douy Delcupe in Montreuil (93100) and meetings continued to be held there monthly on Saturdays.
Around the mid-2000s, as Montreuil was quite out of the way for some, the need for a more Parisian location was felt and this is how Robert Gallo took the initiative to create a second group in Paris in a large hotel near the Opera which became “Le Groupe de Paris” (See the two articles by Dominique and Anne Marie Ronfet).
In 2010 Marlène and I exercised our retirement rights and sold the company. For personal reasons due to the length of the round trip Recloses-Paris we decided to discontinue our participation in the Paris group.
3: The Recloses Period (2010 to Now)
We created a small study group in Recloses, bringing together 6 to 8 people. Its particularity was its length. The members arrived in Recloses to spend the entire weekend together, from Friday evening until Sunday after the meal. There were Jean Duvau, Marie-Jo, Alain Coulombe, Claire and Thierry Lepage, Cyril Causette and ourselves. We shared the weekend between the study of the intellectual concepts of the first three parts and the life of Jesus, which was so inspiring and rested our intellect.
Our golden rule was not to interrupt the person who was speaking and never to make a personal judgment. This life together in a spiritual and fraternal atmosphere of sharing allowed us to develop a deep and refreshing friendship. Personal problems were often addressed with the greatest respect and shared meals were a time for hearty laughs.
Then came Covid. We were forced to abandon our face-to-face meetings. We tried to continue them remotely via videoconference but the charm was broken and the group decided to give up.
In the summer of 2020, having practically no more contact with readers and students, I took up the idea of forming a new group by videoconference and for that I used the AFLUB forum to announce its creation and 7 people came forward: Marie-Jo, Patrick Morelli, Robert Gallo, José Winum, Gilles Mauroy, Jean François Drouet, Paul Brillon and myself totaling 8 members. We meet every first and third Sunday of each month for a duration of 1 hour 30 minutes which is, in my opinion, sufficient.
This new experience convinced me that friendship, fraternity, love for one another can be expressed freely beyond material contingencies.
The Spirit of Truth, the Thought Adjusters, and the personality circuit of the Universal Father work in unity, regardless of material circumstances, provided that individuals are willing to come together and partake of the bread of the content of revelation and the wine of the Spirit of Truth.
Georges Michelson Dupont
Marie-Jo, Georges, José Patrick, Jean-François, Gilles, Pierre Joseph, Robert