© 2012 Urantia Association of Spain
¶ Farewell to Rafa and Nana, from the Madrid Study Group
By Mariano Perez
On March 10, in La Casa Grande de Torrejón de Ardoz, a historic and very beautiful place from the 16th century, the oldest readers of the Madrid group met to say goodbye to our dear brothers and friends Rafa and Nana, who are leaving to continue the adventure of living in Colombia, Nana’s country of origin. This evening took place in an atmosphere of harmony and friendship, with which we gave our friends gifts and Demetrio also gave them, commissioned by the group, a beautiful painting of his total creativity in which the Puerta de Alcalá in Madrid appears (looking towards Alcalá de Henares, where Rafa and Nana have lived), and with the concentric circles of Urantia in their garden. A memory full of symbolism that we want to accompany you in your new home. After I said a few words extolling friendship, we lived moments full of emotion due to Rafa’s farewell words.
It goes without saying what these two brothers and friends have meant to the group; We have learned a lot from them over the years. Each one in their own way, they have known how to enrich the afternoons of study of The Urantia Book. Rafa and Nana, who have been with us since the beginning of the group, in 2004, leave us an imprint that is impossible to erase and that will undoubtedly accompany us in all our meetings. I am personally very grateful to them for their sincere friendship.
I hope they return to Spain soon, even if it’s a visit, and if it’s to stay again, much better. In any case, we wish you a life full of Love and an enriching experience. God bless you!
¶ Celebration of "End of Book” of the Barcelona Study Group
Olga Lopóz
After eight years of uninterrupted monthly meetings (since January 2004, to be exact), the Barcelona study group finished the sequential reading of the book. To celebrate, we went to eat together at La Casona, a restaurant in Clariana (Barcelona), near Vilanova i la Geltrú, the town where the group meets.
Later, in the afternoon, we held a group meeting, where we discussed the second half of paper 195 and paper 196, thus ending the joint reading of the book. It seemed that this day would never come, and it has finally arrived!
Now we all have to decide what type of study we are going to carry out from now on. What we do know is that we will continue to hold meetings. Not only because of its great value when it comes to increasing the understanding of the book, but also because of the excellent atmosphere of brotherhood that is breathed in them.
¶ President’s statement
By Carmelo Martínez
Dear friends readers of The Urantia Book in Spain:
As some of you probably already know, at the Association’s annual meeting held in Seville on May 12, a new board of directors was appointed and I was elected president.
This is the current composition of the board, which was approved unanimously in the association’s members’ assembly:
- President: Carmelo Martínez (Bizkaia).
- Vice President: Jaime Marco (Murcia).
- Secretary: Ismael Gracia (Tarragona).
- Treasurer: Eduardo Altuzarra (Burgos).
- Study groups: Mariano Pérez (Madrid).
In this, my first communication, I want to thank the trust that the assembly placed in me and in all the new members of the board, and on my own behalf and on behalf of all of them, I want to make the full board of directors available to all readers from Spain.
I would also like to express my deep gratitude and sincere appreciation to the outgoing members, especially President Olga. During the eight years of their two terms, they have been able to fully develop our association; Today, not only do we have an organization legalized as a non-profit entity that serves as the basis for our activities, but as a national association, we have a voice and vote in the Council of Representatives of the International Association, we have a website that is witness to our existence and activity, as well as a presence on the Internet social networks, we periodically publish the Light and Life newsletter, we regularly organize our annual meetings, we have attended several book fairs and we make presentations on the content of The Urantia Book for make ourselves known among interested people, to highlight only some of the main achievements.
Naturally, we intend to continue the steps of the previous meeting. In addition, we think that there are solitary readers who do not know the advantages of relating to other readers. Our objective is to increase our presence in all readers in Spain as a way to continue spreading the teachings of The Urantia Book, and to get those solitary readers to come to our association and join existing study groups or form new ones.
We would like to at least match the achievements of the outgoing board, and we are counting on your help to do so.
A warm hug.
Carmelo Martínez
President of the Urantia Association of Spain
¶ References
- Light and Life Magazine (all old issues): https://aue.urantia-association.org/numeros-antiguos-del-lyv/