© 2001 Dr. Meredith Sprunger
© 2001 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
During the past 45 years there has been a difference of opinion regarding the nature of the Urantia movement. Some have regarded it as a religious movement; others have viewed it as an educational movement with a religious purpose. The official organizations-Urantia Foundation, The Urantia Book Fellowship, and the International Urantia Association-have all denied that they are religious organizations. They have lost much of the dynamic of outreach ministry and are instead engaged in political power struggles.
There is no group exclusively dedicated to the dissemination of the Fifth Epochal Revelation as a religious mission. While religion is fundamentally an individual experience of values, this individual experience inevitably results in social expression. This social expression is important if our world society is to evolve in an enlightened, positive direction.
The history of religion shows that spiritual value systems are always established and promoted through some kind of religious organization. When I first discovered the Urantia Papers, I thought they were ideally suited to upstep Christianity and the other religions of the world. I still believe this will eventually happen. For over 40 years I have been interfacing with the leaders of the Christian Church and this experience has made it quite clear that it will take considerable time before they will seriously examine the Urantia Papers. So after much thought and soul searching, I believe it is time, probably past time, to actualize a bona fide religious organization inspired by the Fifth Epochal Revelation.
Early this year Sherilyn Henry and I, along with around 40 other students of the Urantia Papers, started organizing a new religious organization, The Spiritual Fellowship. This organization is based upon the teachings of Jesus in the Fifth Epochal Revelation. The Spiritual Fellowship is being incorporated in the State of California. It will also be incorporated in Canada.
Currently, ten research and consulting committees have been organized to study various aspects of The Spiritual Fellowship over the next few years. The Founding Directors are Sherilyn Henry, Nancy Long, Larry Mullins, Irene Sprunger, Meredith Sprunger, and Sue Tennant. The Theological and Philosophical Principles Committee is chaired by Nancy Long; the Manual On Ministry Committee is chaired by Gregory Young; the Liturgy and Rituals Committee chair is Michael Melody; the Composition of sacred Music and Revision of Hymns Committee is chaired by Bud Bromley; the Education Committee chair is Merlyn Cox; the Evangelism Committee is chaired by Christopher Lepine; our Website Committee is chaired by Robert Hurt; the Finance and Stewardship Committee chair is Sherilyn Henry; and the Administrative and Planning Committee chair is Meredith Sprunger.
Our Mission Statement is: “The worldwide mission of The Spiritual Fellowship is to teach, motivate, empower, and support all people in their growing relationship with God and to encourage their loving service to humankind.”
Our Preamble highlights the seven most important concepts that The Spiritual Fellowship attempts to promote and live:
The Industrial Age was primarily an extension of muscle-power. The Information Age is an extension of mental power. The Chaordic Age[1] promises to be an extension of spiritual influence, insight, and transformation. We hope The Spiritual Fellowship is the beginning of a religious institution that will carry the religion of Jesus and the Fifth Epochal Revelation throughout the world.
“It is difficult for religion to survive as the private practice of isolated individuals. This has ever been the error of the religious leaders: Seeing the evils of institutionalized religion, they seek to destroy the technique of group functioning. In place of destroying all ritual, they would do better to reform it.” [UB 97:10.7]
“While it is true that the institutionalization of religion has usually detracted from its spiritual quality, it is also a fact that no religion has thus far succeeded in surviving without the aid of institutional organization of some degree, greater or lesser.” [UB 98:6.1]
“Regardless of the drawbacks and handicaps, every new revelation of truth has given rise to a new cult, and even the restatement of the religion of Jesus must develop a new and appropriate symbolism.” [UB 87:7.6]
“Notwithstanding that the new cult has always retarded social progress, it is regrettable that so many modern believers in moral standards and spiritual ideals have no adequate symbolismnothing to belong to.” [UB 87:7.3]
“There is a real purpose in the socialization of religion. It is the purpose of group religious activities to dramatize the loyalties of religion; to magnify the lures of truth, beauty, and goodness; to foster the attractiveness of supreme values; to enhance the service of unselfish fellowship; to glorify the potentials of family life; to promote religious education; to provide wise counsel and spiritual guidance; and to encourage group worship.” [UB 99:6.2]
The Spiritual Fellowship is a God-centered spiritual vision striving to develop an appropriate symbolism and socioreligious expression of the Fifth Epochal Revelation. We invite you to participate in this new spiritual adventure in various ways that seem appropriate for you, such as:
We believe The Spiritual Fellowship will carry the religion of Jesus and the Fifth Epochal Revelation throughout the world. We invite you to join this spiritual adventure into the future.
Dr. Meredith Sprunger is Founder and Editor Emeritus of The Spiritual Fellowship Journal. He has been an active and dedicated Urantian for over four decades, serving in numerous capacities. He is author of “Spiritual Psychology” (Jemenon, 1992), coauthor of “A History of the Urantia Papers,” (Penumbra Press, 2000) and countless study aids and papers relating to the Urantia Papers.
The Chaordic Age: When an innovative individual by the name of Dee Hock was CEO of VISA International, he introduced principles which enabled people and institutions of every conceivable language, culture, currency, race, and economic and political persuasion to unite in a commonly owned organization in which members simultaneously engaged in the most intense cooperation and fierce competition. In attempting to explain these creative principles, Hock found no word that adequately portrayed these principles, so he coined a word from chaos and orderchaord. A chaord is any self-organizing, self-governing, adaptive, nonlinear, complex organism, organization, community or system, the behavior of which harmoniously blends characteristics of both chaos and order. It is an entity whose behavior exhibits observable patterns and probabilities not governed or explained by the rules that govern or explain its constituent parts. It is characteristic of the fundamental organizing principles of evolution and nature. Many experts believe we are entering into a Chaordic Age, in which the most successful organizations will be developed according to Chaordic principles. See Dee Hock, “Birth of the Chaordic Age.” ↩︎