© 1986 Madeline Noordzy
© 1986 ANZURA, Australia & New Zealand Urantia Association
Since involvement with the publishing and mailing of the 6-0-6, I have become very aware of the great isolation of many readers in Australia. They have to cope with what Steve Shanahan named so aptly: “The tyranny of distance”.
So, when our family decided to drive to Cairns for our annual holiday, approx. 3500 ~km from Melbourne, I wanted to see some 6-0-6 readers on the way. Most of them were still only names to me, names I had been writing on envelopes. But I wanted to put personalities to those names.
Because in most places we only stayed one night and we never knew what day or time we were going to arrive, we had to pay most people surprise visits, just preceded by a short phone call.
Sometimes I only had a postbox number as was the case in Parkes, NSW. And with a name like Johnston, you can run into a bit of trouble. I tried all the Johnatons in the phone book, but had no luck.
“Do you receive a Six-0-Six Newsletter?” was my usual ( or was it unusual?) question. “A what?” would be the reply.
But after six days of travelling we were rewarded when an overjoyed Leslie Thackeray threw her arms around me and gave me a big hug. Some readers might recall that Leslie and her husband Jo ( both students from the URANTIA School in Boulder, Colorado) are cycling around Australia. (Yes, that’s right, push-biking!) I was also delighted to meet another student from that school. Leslie’s mother, the lovely Gwen Henzel, who had just arrived from USA. They are all staying on a farm about 10 km from a beautiful little tom in the tropical rainforest area of North Queensland. The aboriginees have named this town ‘Kuranda’ or ‘Meeting place of the spirits’.
“Let’s have a study group while we are here”, I suggested. “Good idea”. was the reply. Jo and Leslie had already done a lot of preparatory work in that direction. So, when one cool wat night we held our study group in the well-known ‘Honeyhouse’ in Kuranda, I was thrilled to see 5 new people who were interested in The URANTIA Book.
And what a study group it was! Although we had made some sort of plan as to what we were going to discuss, we very wisely decided that the best thing to do was to let the Spirit of Truth guide us in our endeavor to answer the many questions that were asked.
After a short introduction from Leslie, we read the first page of the Foreword. Jim, an American, was very interested in the evolution of the different races. Somehow we arrived at the very sensitive topic: “The unwise perpetuation of racially degenerate stocks” (UB 99:3.5) This in turn led to Paper 72: “Government on a Neighbouring Planet” and the subject: “Dealing with Crime” (UB 72:10.1)
Other questions came up: “What about extraterrestrials?” Rodney, a guy from Montana, USA, wanted to know. This was an introduction to the four previous epochal revelations: The Dalamatian teachings, Adam and Eve, Melchizedek and Jesus of Nazareth.
“That about Jesus’ second coming, what does The URANIIA Book say about that?” was the question from Liam, a young chap from England. So we read “The return of Michael” (UB 176:4.1) and “The Yaster’s second coming” (UB 176:2.1) “Why did Jesus call himself the Son of Man?” (UB 126:3.6) “Who are the Midwayers?” (UB 77:0.1 & UB 77:6.1) We touched on Rodan of Alexandria. ( UB 160:1.1 ) I introduced the subject of the Thought Adjuster, we covered the writing of the Gospels (UB 121:8.1)
We had a very interested audience. Three people intended to leave Australia in the near future and wanted to join study groups in the country they were returning to. Tanya wanted to visit the Boulder School. We advised them to get in touch with Chicago. The seeds were planted.
Cairns and Kuranda are meeting places for peoples from all over the world. Young and restless people who are searching for something. They flock to the market places, trying to sell or buy goods: T-shirts, jewellery, fresh bread, pottery, cakes and homemade biscuits, leather goods or fruit and vegetables, woodcraft, face painting, fortune telling, pot plants, paintings and music.
Jo and Leslie are right amongst them planting seeds of the fifth epochal revelation. In the short time that they have been in the area, they already have met quite a few of these young people. They told me they intended to display The URANTIA Book next to the jewellery they planned to sell. (The book is a jewel of a different kind! )
After six days in Kurande we slowly heeded home again. When in Atherton we met Geoff Harper at The Tableland Growth Centre. I was greeted with a firm handshake and a warm smile. “I was just going to write to you people”, Geopl remarked. His work at the Centre keeps him very busy. As co-editor of the Tableland Growth Centre Newsletter he is involved wh organizing courses and workshops aimed at the development of human potential. They are a non-profit group unaffiliated with politics, churches or religious cults, offering wholistic solutions to the demands of the times. They have started to build a library. The URANTIA Book and the Concordex occupied a very prominent position in Geof’s office.
“A couple of times I have tried to form a study group, but at the moment I am back on my own”, he told me. He has been in contact with many different streams of philosophy and finds that he is getting more and more into The URANTIA Book. Those different philosophies very often serve as the necessary framework of concepts to graft this new revelation on to. Keep up the good work Geoff!
He also told me about the ‘Million Minutes of Peace’ and handed me a couple of cassettes to pass on to the study group in Melbourne.
One of them is a speech by Barbara Marx Hubbard called: ‘The Quantum Leap’.
I would like to give you a quote from an article in the Tableland Growth Centre Newsletter, by Bob Martin: “Her message is that we have reached a stage in time where an evolutionary leap in consciousness is possible, desirable, and necessary. Increasing numbers of people have, over the last 40 years or so, been attending educational institutions, both official and unofficial, both exoteric and esoteric, in an attempt to raise their personal levels of consciousness. We have, as a mass, succeeded. She feels, and I along with a great many other people, agree most enthusiastically with her, that now is the time for the ‘Hundredth Monkey’ effect to take place. The time for workshops is over. A ‘critical mass’ of humanity strong enough to swing the planet through its next evolutionary leap is now assembled and ready. All we need is a common point of focus and this she has given us with her tape.”
“The time period 12 noon to 12 midnight (GMT), 31st December, 1986, has been selected for a mass planetary meditation of all caring people on earth to commence the shift.”
As we drove into the Gladstone business centre, my husband noticed a bookshop with the intriguing name: ‘Awakening Mind’. “That could be Kevin Meyrick’s bookshop”, he said. Kevin attended the 1986 National Conference in Melbourne. That’s where wad met. I quickly went to investigate while my husband tried to find a parking spot, which is not easy when you are towing a camping trailer.
“You’ve come to the right place, replied a smiling lady. “I’m Kevin’s wife Beryl. But Kevin is in Rockhampton today”. “That’s just where we came from this morning”, I remarked, a bit disappointed.
We managed to catch up with Kevin at 7.30 the next morning. “We had a very small group in the past, but now I have to study The URANTIA Book by myself again”, he told me regretfully. “I admit that I am not very good at introducing new people to the book”.
However I did notice that the book is displayed in his bookshop in such a way that people who like to browse, can easily find it. And that is very important!
We met Jo Hausler from Eumundi at 8 clock in the morning in the Nambour Caravan Park. I had rang Jo the night before and he had expressed that he would like to meet us. He found The URANTIA Book about four years ago and is very enthusiastic about it. “I attended a workshop on ‘The Inner Voice’, given by an American lady who called herself ‘Crystal’,” Jo told me. “I wasn’t very impressed with ‘Crystal’, but at that same workshop I met another lady from America, who owed The URANTIA Book”. Jo recognized what a treasure this book was and asked the lady if she would sell her copy, since he didn’t know how to otherwise obtain one. Jo likes to share the teachings with other people. “This is what I give to people”, he said, as he handed me yellow sheet with some quotations from the book, which he had typed himself.
“This is great, but you can also write to Chicago for free pamphlets”. However I felt that the Master would be very pleased with Jo’s own effort to spread this new revelation. “I would like to join a study group, but there is none in this area as far as I know”.
I could go on, but the story about isolation remains the same. There are quite a few readers in Brisbane, but still no study group. In my humble opinion what Queensland needs is a conference to bring people together and a pew able and wise leaders to form new study groups. Conferences can give one a sense of direction and there is a tremendous exchange of new ideas. Study groups can create wonderful friendships and definitely aids in the study of the book.
Since our return to Melbourne I received a survey from Robyn Hromek, 3 Blackall Ave, Blackall Pk, Newcastle. Robyn writes: “I feel very isolated here in Newcastle. I would love to have contact with URANTIA Book readers. Maybe those travelling Americans would like a holiday up here. I could give them food and lodgings for a visit!” Robyn, I hope someone will answer your call. Helen and Glen Stickley, M.S.142, Byfield, c/- P.0. Yeppoon, 4703, write: “Any travelling readers are welcome our way”.
But I advise people to rite first to make sure it is convenient.
Next time you’re touring around Australia, why not say
Hello To A Fellow Urantian!
Madeline Noordzy