© 2009 Samantha Nior
© 2009 Association Francophone des Lecteurs du Livre d'Urantia
The Dutch Urantia Association was founded in the Netherlands in February 2007 by Karen Huigsloot, John van den Hout and Samantha Nior. Unlike other associations (we are in the form of a foundation) we have chosen the form of an organization without registered members. In the Netherlands, an organization with members is obliged with their participation to organize many activities. We prefer to use the time that this would take to devote ourselves to our objectives. Consequently, we are dependent on donations and gifts.
The association aims to stimulate and help the study of the Urantia Book in Dutch-speaking territories, including Belgium and Suriname. To do this, we have developed various activities: a website, a newsletter and once a year a national meeting.
On the website, readers can get information about the book, study groups and other activities; they can ask questions and share their experiences. Of course, you can read The Urantia Book online and there are links to other websites related to The Urantia Book. The site is working well and people are becoming more and more interested in what is happening in the Netherlands regarding The Urantia Book. We hope to bring more and more readers into contact with each other so that more study groups will be formed and people will share their experiences.
The newsletter is sent 3 to 4 times a year to 120 people who have registered themselves. Readers are encouraged to write articles about their activities. This possibility is not yet much exploited but we hope that it will develop in the near future.
Once a year, on August 21, we organize a national meeting for all readers to get together, address a particular theme and discuss it. There have been two national meetings so far which were very successful because of their subjects and this has encouraged us to continue.
We see that The Urantia Book is not yet widely disseminated and known. History shows that The Urantia Book became known in the seventies by the Begemann family. They were responsible for the study groups in the Netherlands and Mr. Begemann was the European Representative for all the study groups.
During this period, The Urantia Book was very much alive for a small group of readers in the Netherlands. After Mr. Begemann’s death, his wife continued their work for years until her death in 2004. After her death, the study groups disintegrated and the readers (even regional ones) dispersed.
We are confident that with the website and our newsletter we can re-establish the connection, we already know from the reader feedback we receive that this is indeed happening and that when the time is right, readers can turn to each other for support, and help in studying this beautiful and fascinating book.
February 24, 2009, for the Administrative Committee of the Netherlands Association, Samantha Nior
Kindly translated by Claire Mylanus
Samantha Nior