© 2012 Mariano Pérez
© 2012 Urantia Association of Spain
OPPORTUNITY TO VERIFY THE BROTHERHOOD AT THE WORLD LEVEL OF THE MOVEMENT ABOUT THE URANTIA BOOK.
“. . .The sincere religionist is conscious of universe citizenship and is aware of making contact with sources of superhuman power. He is thrilled and energized with the assurance of belonging to a superior and ennobled fellowship of the sons of God. . . .” (UB 100:6.3)
BEHAVIOR, ATTITUDE, COMMITMENT OF THE PARTICIPANTS BEFORE THE 5TH REVELATION. ALMOST ALL THE PARTICIPANTS DID SOME WORK TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE BOOK AND ITS TEACHINGS.
“The self has surrendered to the intriguing drive of an all-encompassing motivation which imposes heightened self-discipline, lessens emotional conflict, and makes mortal life truly worth living. . . .” (UB 100:6.4)
“Religion is not a technique for attaining a static and blissful peace of mind; it is an impulse for organizing the soul for dynamic service. It is the enlistment of the totality of selfhood in the loyal service of loving God and serving man. . . .” (UB 100:3.1)
For me, the Chicago Leadership Symposium was the largest gathering of souls loyal to the goals and principles of the revelators. They were surely watching us with satisfaction, convinced that the seed they sowed in the first decades of the last century in the city of Chicago was bearing fruit. But it would be unfair to exalt this meeting worldwide and belittle any other type of event related to the 5th revelation.
I am not only talking about the national meetings that are important, I am even talking about the study groups. I would like to send you some reflections regarding the importance of the study groups of The Urantia Book.
I heard someone at this symposium say that study groups are to the Urantia movement as the family is to society. The study group is the first and most basic association of human beings who feel impelled to share an ideal, it is the cell that grows and multiplies.
But those who do not belong to any study group may wonder: And what are the advantages of belonging to a study group in my area? If I, with my book, with its reading, already have enough, why do I need anyone else?
In the first place, to answer this, one would have to ask the one who thinks like this: Do you want to do the will of the Father? Do you want to become like Him? Then you will have to develop one of his loving qualities: SHARE.
“Divine personality is not self-centered; self-distribution and sharing of personality characterize divine freewill selfhood. Creatures crave association with other personal creatures; Creators are moved to share divinity with their universe children; the personality of the Infinite is disclosed as the Universal Father, who shares reality of being and equality of self with two co-ordinate personalities, the Eternal Son and the Conjoint Actor.” (UB 10:1.3)
“The ascending morontians learn to socialize their former purely selfish longings and egoistic ambitions.” (UB 44:8.4)
Sharing is a divine virtue or quality, without a doubt, and when it comes to sharing knowledge of the revelation of Truth, even if it is a partial Truth, they make that act supreme. But not only for the fact of simply sharing, which is already positive in itself, but because in the study groups, in their meetings, we all learn from each other. The book is studied in truth, it is analyzed, opinions are exchanged, different points of view, which make us enrich ourselves with others. In my journey through the study group to which I belong, I have verified on many occasions what I have just said. For example: I had my own idea about any concept or phrase in the book, and after hearing the different interventions I have changed my way of seeing the idea that I had preconceived, or I have even understood it because I did not understand it well, or in other cases the I have expanded.
So much for the intellectual benefits of understanding the book, but they are not the only ones, of course not. As one participates in the group sessions, a beautiful friendship is formed. A friendship of people who share the same Faith, the same desires, the same ideals. They stop being readers to be friends; even further, they become Brothers in spirit. And with whom can you better share the teachings of living Truth than with your own brothers?
But maintaining a study group and having other readers join when they feel the call within requires, in my opinion, some important patterns to keep in mind. For a group to be prosperous and grow, it must have a good foundation. The principles by which a study group should be governed, in my opinion and in my experience, are: seriousness, order, minimum organization and a person in charge (coordinator).
Let’s look at these four principles:
Seriousness: The members of the study group must be aware that they are carrying out an important activity, almost sacred, I would say. For this, it is advisable to take a minute or more after the usual greetings, to start the activity. In other words, there has to be a moment from which it is said: From now on we are going to start with the objective of the meeting. It is somehow giving it a certain “transcendent” meaning. That minute of silence, each one takes it as it best understands. For me personally, it is asking the divine to give me inspiration and focus on what is to come next, so that we all get the most out of it. If you start in any way, if you interrupt the subject being discussed with inconsequential conversations that have nothing to do with it, you will be losing seriousness and ceasing to give importance to the meeting itself.
Order: The above links to the order. It is highly recommended that each meeting establish the topic or topics to be discussed at the next meeting. In other words, we should not get together and say: “We are going to talk about The Urantia Book”, without further ado, thinking “since there are so many teachings it has, we will come up with something.” This does not work. It may go well during a meeting, but it is bound to fail. Order is essential in our lives and in study groups as well.
Organization: On the other hand, it is important that, in addition to the above on the topics to be discussed, someone is the one responsible for presenting it. I will try to explain why. If there is nobody presenting or presenting the corresponding document, prepared in advance, and we just say: in the next meeting we will talk about document X, it can work well for quite some time, if everyone reads the document first, but the advantage The fact that someone prepares the document beforehand and exposes it, as best they know how, with reading it being the last resort, encourages participation and increasingly growing involvement. This must be done by whoever wants and feels like it, on a rotating basis, but always voluntarily, (not as an obligation). By preparing the topics, the reader not only listens or reads, studies, researches beforehand, prepares, designs. In short: give free rein to your creativity. This makes it more attractive, even if sometimes you don’t have much time, but more importance is always given to what costs us the most. As a Colombian saying goes: What costs us nothing, let’s turn it into a party.
Any act or activity is important and even sublime, because of our thoughts and our behavior. We are the ones who make them important.
At the end of each meeting, the next meeting date must be agreed, the one that suits the majority, and the most suitable day of the week and time for all. Normally this is done at the beginning of the group creation. That is, a day is searched (Friday, Saturday, Sunday), the best time and the frequency. Regarding the latter, I advise that it is better to meet once a month and take it with enthusiasm, than not to meet every week and end up “burned out”, since you leave other commitments, meetings, social life, etc., and also there would not be time to prepare the documents.
Coordinator: It is not a position, it is not a title, it is not a position, much less a job: it is only a degree of commitment. But this figure is vital; if not, there is no one in charge of organizing the group at the beginning, of sending emails to people to remind them of the next meeting, of moderating the meetings if necessary, of agreeing at the end of each meeting the next date, the documents what to deal with and who is going to present them, as well as welcome information to anyone interested in joining the group; in short, to keep the group alive. If not, the group will not prosper.
In this sense, the Leadership Symposium, (this word is sometimes misinterpreted), came to encourage those who, without complexes, without false modesty, committed because they are fearless, and who in some way want to contribute to the beautiful work that has the Brotherhood of men and women who have read The Urantia Book and who feel in the depths of their souls that this is the Truth, that this is the Way. Many of the participants, in one way or another, were already contributing to this Great Work, and they too felt called to give yet another impetus to the 5th Revelation movement. That was my case, when after the Symposium I asked Olga for information from readers by geographical area in Spain, who at some point had contacted the Association, to try to encourage the formation of study groups, and her response was to offer me, not a position, not a title, but a greater degree of commitment, as responsible for the country’s study groups. And here I am to help all those who want to start this fascinating adventure of belonging to a study group.
¶ References
- Light and Life Magazine (all old issues): https://aue.urantia-association.org/numeros-antiguos-del-lyv/