© 1998 Meredith J. Sprunger
© 1998 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
In October of 1955, The Urantia Book was published with great enthusiasm. The newly organized Urantia Brotherhood visualized organizing thousands of study groups and gradually chartering well grounded societies. The specific nature of these societies was ambiguous. Most of the founding members regarded the Urantia Brotherhood as a religious or quasi-religious organization. Dr. Sadler clearly saw societies developing as bona fide religious groups.
Most of the founding members regarded the Urantia Brotherhood as a religious or quasi-religious organization. Dr. Sadler clearly saw societies developing as bona fide religious groups.
The leaders of the Forum who developed the Brotherhood Constitution did not take the time to structure it directly from the teachings of The Urantia Book, but used and adapted the ready-made constitution of the Presbyterian Church for this purpose. Under Sadler’s leadership, the Brotherhood Constitution provided a key place for ordained teachers. Following the publication of the book, Dr. Sadler started a school to train and ordain teachers. On numerous occasions Dr. Sadler and I discussed the nature of this new religious organization and its future development.
As the Brotherhood grew, a quite different view soon surfaced. The majority of the early members of the Urantia Brotherhood had a pronounced anti-church and anti-institutional bias. There was a marked uneasiness regarding the use of prayer and group singing at Brotherhood meetings. To guard against moving in the direction of a religious institution, we removed the term “ordained teacher” from the constitution. It was made clear that we were not interested in starting a new religion. If anyone identified us as a cult, we were irritated and defensive. We defined ourselves as “an educational-social organization with a religious purpose.”
We were enthusiastic about introducing religious, educational, and political leaders to The Urantia Book. Illusions of grandeur about initiating a spiritual renaissance on our planet invigorated Urantia Conferences. Gradually, evolutionary reality began to change the picture. Religious and political leaders were not impressed. The book was succinctly dismissed as a contemporary gnostic document or politely ignored.
Internal disillusionments have compounded the evolutionary picture. The licensing agreement controversy, the Clayton incident, the Foundation-Brotherhood schism, the proliferation of lawsuits, and the wide-spread interest in channeling have sobered our naive idealism. Most of us now realize that the Fifth Epochal Revelation has been launched on the troubled and turbulent seas of evolutionary struggle.
In recent years, spiritual seeking has emerged on an unprecedented scale, accompanied by a disenchantment with contemporary religious institutions. The Most Highs, no doubt, are nurturing conditions for the acceptance of the Fifth Epochal Revelation. There has also been an increasing longing in the Urantia movement for a “religious community” which goes beyond the usual study group, one that furnishes a sense of “spiritual family” and communion, along with worship and a community identity. There is a growing sense of need for spiritual nourishment from birth to death. Study groups and societies, which are primarily intellectual-social groups, do not furnish all of the functions of traditional religious institutions, although they may serve as preliminary steps toward such religious organizations. I believe the single most important activity in the Urantia movement at this time is to focus on the development of resources which may help actualize new religious institutions. Hopefully, such institutions will serve as vehicles through which the Fifth Epochal Revelation can be carried out into the world.
I believe the single most important activity in the Urantia movement at this time is to focus on the development of resources which may help actualize new religious institutions.
I’m confident that sooner or later such new religious institutions will evolve in the Urantia movement. There have been several aborted attempts to do this already. When this does happen, there is a danger that these religious institutions may be extemporized, without adequate time and consideration to formulate organizations that best reflect the insights of the Fifth Epochal Revelation. A wiser approach is for competent teams of interested people to evolve a body of resources associated with theology, polity, and liturgy before the pressure of necessity fashions religious organizations without such help.
There is a great need for institutions to serve on the growing edge of spiritual development in our worldreligious institutions which will appeal to the highest spiritual aspirations of humankind. This was a concern of Rabbi Abraham Heschel, who, in a conversation with Robert Greenleaf shortly before his death, asked, “Why do so many of the great religions which have their origins in the mystery [of spiritual power] come ultimately to be social service agencies, or in their religious life to be preoccupied with form and concerned more with the container than the content?“ To which Greenlief replied, ”In the face of these conditions, one simply builds anew (emphasis added). We are called to listen to the prophetic voices who have the rebuilding message for these times so that we can support and encourage them.” (Servant Leadership, p. 255)
We must evolve religious institutions which will bring spiritual nourishment to hungry souls, within which we can achieve personal-spiritual identity and a level of service and worship heretofore not possible by individuals working singly, in study groups, or in outmoded religious institutions. With the Father’s guidance, they will become social-religious vehicles carrying the Fifth Epochal Revelation throughout the world. This, I believe, is the most important challenge of our times!
We must evolve religious institutions which will bring spiritual nourishment to hungry souls, within which we can achieve personal-spiritual identity and a level of service and worship heretofore not possible by individuals working singly, in study groups, or in outmoded religious institutions. With the Father’s guidance, they will become social-religious vehicles carrying the Fifth Epochal Revelation throughout the world. This, I believe, is the most important challenge of our times!
There are a number of principles inherent in the development of new religious institutions which we should keep in mind, such as:
I, personally, do not think the Fellowship should be organically or officially connected to this research or any religious institutions stemming from it. Many students of The Urantia Book are still uncomfortable with institutional religious activities. The Fellowship has a place in coordinating all types and levels of activity associated with The Urantia Book.
More than forty years of experience in interfacing with the most progressive segment of mainline Christianity has taught me that anything purporting to be a new revelation is not within the boundaries of current theological-institutional respectability. In the main, Christian clergy will require a longer time frame to discover the supernal teachings of The Urantia Book. I have always assumed that the most important channel for carrying the Fifth Epochal Revelation to our world would be new religious institutions. It is now time to promote research in discovering an “Appropriate Symbolism and Socioreligious Expression of the Fifth Epochal Revelation.” The mission of The Spiritual Fellowship Journal is to serve as one of the platforms for this discussion.
The central objective of people interested in initiating such a new religious organization should be to create a polity with maximum flexibility, one that would function with small groups or large congregations, utilize lay leadership and/or ordained ministry, have cross cultural adaptability, and broad theological inclusiveness. Robert Greenleaf, in his book Servant Leadership, has a vision of such an institution “as a gathering of persons who have accepted a common purpose, and a common discipline to guide the pursuit of that purpose, to the end that each involved person reaches higher fulfillment as a person, through serving and being served by the common venture, than would be achieved alone or in a less committed relationship.” (p.237)
There are many appropriate areas of research for those interested in building resources to use in initiating new religious organizations. These materials should not be seen as definitive, but should serve as stimuli for creative thinking, whereby these groups may be helped to make their own carefully considered decisions.
Our intent is to prepare the soil for the advent of grass roots religious institutions which will become the channels of spiritual power, bringing the Fifth Epochal Revelation to our troubled and spiritually hungry world — Christ Michael’s gift and saving guidance to our confused planet. The future of the Fifth Epochal Revelation rests upon the spiritual and evangelical dynamics of new religious institutions which will carry it to the four corners of our world.
Meredith Sprunger is a college teacher and minister of the United Church of Christ, now retired, and editor of The Spiritual Fellowship Journal.