© 1999 Michael MacIsaac
© 1999 Urantia Association International (IUA)
Michael MacIsaac, Stockholm, Sweden
This is a report on the recent progress of the work I’ve been doing to assist the younger generation of readers around the globe. I hope to not be focusing too much attention on myself, but rather the work.
You can do important work if you do not become selfimportant; you can do several things as easily as one if you leave yourself out. UB 48:6.37
I am a 24 -year old reader of The Urantia Book. My parents were readers, and I started reading the book when I was 16. At that time I could find almost no other people under the age of 40 interested in the revelation. Four years later, when I began attending medium-sized conferences (150-200 attendees), I found that there were often only one or two other readers in their 20 s. Actually, there were just as few in their 30s! I still had a great time and made conference going high on my list of priorities, but I felt that others in my generation were missing out on such wonderful conferences.
Speaking of his children’s generation who are now in their 30 s, an older reader recently told me that “we lost a whole generation” through not doing much to make programs at conferences for the children in the movement. I’m glad to see that this trend is reversing and that good children’s programs are becoming priorities at conferences.
After my first conference I began to seek other young readers and to collect addresses. Among other things, I wanted to get some momentum going in our generation, to find them so we could inspire each other to exemplify the teachings, and to encourage other youths to come and enjoy conferences. The address list of young readers grew slowly but steadily for the first few years. Then, in 1998 my brother helped me to start a web site for young readers. Since then it has been growing faster and more internationally.
This database needs a lot of updating work, and I wish I had more time to assist young readers around the world as a group and as individuals. The address list of young readers has grown to over 300 youths from 23 different countries.
As time permits, I am still seeking readers of my generation, so if any of you know of young readers (early 30 s or younger) please tell them about the web site, or tell me about them. I just found more young readers through the UBRON (Urantia Book Readers On Line Network) web site (http://origin.org/ub.cfm). I went through the member listings and read about readers all around the world. While spending hours sorting through all 500 or so member pages where some people revealed their birth dates, it was a total rush as I found more and more young readers who had joined the site. In the end I had collected information on 30 newly found young readers. I only wished I had found them earlier since I even found one who lives in a city in England that I just visited six weeks before! Now I am excited to begin writing to those 30 or so.
Conferences seem often to be turning points for young readers—high points in the lives of all who attend, for that matter. I’ll continue to assist and encourage young people to come to conferences as one of my focuses, because conferences are one of the biggest motivators for readers. At all the conferences I’ve been to, it has been amazing to see how young people become inspired and motivated to study the book after a few days in that environment.
Nashville 1999 Conference: A scholarship program was set up for the conference in Nashville this year, which helped youths who could afford to make the trip to Nashville but who could not afford all of the registration, food, and lodging fees. Carpools were planned, and 14 of us attended. Together at a conference, it felt like suddenly there were the beginnings of a community, a solid network of young readers, who will enthusiastically continue to join the rest of the active readership. Since that conference other young readers have been starting projects. April Helen is starting a newsletter to go out to young readers, and Merindi Swadling just did a presentation at a conference in Australia about being a young reader and her recent experiences.
I’m constantly impressed as I get to know more and more readers of my generation that most of them have their priorities straight. At one point the young readers who were in Nashville, most of us having been raised by reader parents, were interviewed and videotaped. Several long-time older readers observed the interview and expressed how glad and surprised they were that we all seemed to “get it” They said that we “got” the overall picture and could see what is important—something which had taken them 20 years of study to “get”! One of them jokingly said she felt as if she could die, and the revelation would be left in good hands
Chicago Youth Weekend: At the conference in Nashville we were invited to gather at 533 in Chicago (upstairs from the Urantia Foundation office), if we needed a place to meet. A few of us then planned a meeting to take place the weekend before the conference in Vancouver, so that some of us could carpool there together. When the time came, youths converged in Chicago traveling from France, Australia, Sweden, Hawaii, Kansas, Texas, and other parts of Illinois. Not having to worry about registration or lodging fees helped us to make it possible for 14 youths to attend.
It was a small, relaxed, intimate, joyful weekend of study and building friendships. We also got to see some sights in Chicago, to attend the weekly study group that takes place at 533, and to socialize with some of the readers in the area. The gathering couldn’t have turned out better, and those who had never been to a meeting of readers before vowed to do it more often. Merindi Swadling wrote a more detailed memoir about the meeting; a link to it can be found on the conferences page of the UByouth web site. www.x-hi.com/ ubyouth After this weekend, five of us, with our favorite reading and discussion materials, had a great trip making our way in a carpool from Chicago to Vancouver.
International Conference in Vancouver 1999: It was very helpful that a scholarship work/trade programwas set up for young readers at this conference because it helped a lot of young readers attend. This was my first time being at such a large conference, and I felt overjoyed to meet so many young people there. There were many young people there; however, as at all conferences I’ve attended, the percentage of conference attendees who were young adults that came on their own initiative and that were reading the book, was small relative to the entire attendance list of over 600 . But I think that trend will begin to change.
Being in a loving conference environment and meeting others their age who were bursting with enthusiasm for the teachings was an inspiration for all the young people there. Although some of those hadn’t been reading The Urantia Book when they arrived at the conference, they planned to have read the whole book by their next conference, and I know of some who have already begun reading earnestly. A young girl, who was not a part of the conference, who served a bunch of us “young readers” beer in the bar one night, said to me, “Who are you people? I’ve never met such a happy group of people! Whatever group you are a part of, I want to join!” I wish I had been able to give her a book that night. A 19-year old friend of mine who lives in Vancouver, whom I had met in Australia and given a book, came to visit me at the conference one night. He came for the night of the Pato Banton concert, and was amazed that “these are all Urantia Book readers?” I don’t think either of us had ever seen such a large group of people bursting with love and positive energy; it’s amazing to see how people open up and show their beauty when they are in such a loving environment.
At the past few conferences, it has really paid off to call a meeting of young readers and attendees. A day before the end of the Vancouver conference I finally overcame my anxiety that if I tried to call a meeting of young attendees no one would show up. That moming I went around telling a few people to pass the word around, and that evening I found that the word really got passed around. About 35 youths showed up for the meeting. A picture from this meeting is on the web site. It was an informal and open meeting with no one leading or directing the group. People expressed how grateful they were to be at the conference, and how they wanted to attend conferences more often. The mother of one of the youths in the room happened to be in the room while our meeting was taking place, and she broke into tears at one point, expressing the joy she was experiencing in observing our meeting. We enjoyed the meeting so much we didn’t want it to end, so we decided, since it was the last night and we wouldn’t have another chance to plan another meeting of that nature, we would meet in the rose gardens at 12 p.m. and enjoy the night together.
Word really got around to meet there. After music and good times together in the rose gardens, we decided to move to a warmer location. We all walked together, a group of 50 or so youths, to continue the party in a dorm room. It felt surreal walking through the university campus at three in the morning, with 50 young readers. Looking at the large group as we walked, I reflected on the fact that we were at a Urantia conference, and that we might be seeing each other at Urantia conferences 30, even 50 , years in the future.
I stayed on the campus until there weren’t any more readers to be found, and then when I went to the airport, I found I would have to wait at least four days to fly east standby. I was exhausted and didn’t know what to do, when I met another young reader from the conference at the airport! She was also in the same predicament, and we ended up having adventures hitching a ride across Canada together!
After the conference, about 60 new young reader addresses were added to the list, and a bunch of pictures of young readers were added to the UBYOUTH web site (www.x-hi.com/ubyouth).
Traveling is a great opportunity to expand our horizons, to visit other readers of all ages, and to connect with other truthseekers along the way. More and more young readers are traveling and visiting each other as the community/family of the newest generation of readers grows. Knowing readers of all ages around the world makes travel much more practical and inspirational. A young American reader who might visit Europe will have peer readers whom they can visit and probably stay with in Paris, Geneva, England, Stockholm (if I’m here), St. Petersburg, Oslo, Croatia, and more cities-not to mention all the older readers we can visit in our international travels. Some young readers after the conference in Vancouver spontaneously decided to travel together. Others have seen through the web site that they happened to be visiting the same city at the same time, and hooked up. Chris Wood enjoyed traveling around Europe last summer, where he visited young readers in Croatia, France, Oslo, and he stayed with me in Stockholm for a few weeks. I’ve also been traveling over the past years and visiting readers all over the world, and I’ve had great joy in having other readers visit me. Earlier this year in Australia while I stayed with a young reader, we were able to plan a gathering in Sydney of young readers.
Right now the UBYOUTH web site includes pages with pictures and introductions to young readers, a guest book, a link to a chat room, pages with pictures from conferences, a page with conference information, and a page with information on how to join an email discussion list for young readers.
There are currently two email discussion lists for young readers, one in English and a new one for French-speaking young readers. The English list has over 40 members right now. This list maintains a very friendly atmosphere. Anyone can read the transcripts from it at the UBYOUTH web site.
It is great that young people are connecting with each other, but we also have a lot to learn from associating with the older readers. I hope when you see young readers at conferences you won’t be afraid to approach them.
I want to send many thanks to all of you who have helped me and all the other young readers with our aims and efforts.