© 2005 The Christian Fellowship of Students of The Urantia Book
Volume 15, Number 1, Fall-Winter, 2005
- A Careful Examination of the “Not Inspired” Disclaimers of The Urantia Book (part 2), Philip Calabrese
- Living the Teachings, Larry and Joan Mullins
- Pioneers in the New Age, Meredith Sprunger
- Fusion Power, Stan Hartman
- The Search for Alternative Communities
- Global Preparation
- Religious Pluralism
- Sermon: Ye Shall Know the Truth
- Book Review: Joy at Work
¶ The Spiritual Fellowship
The Spiritual Fellowship is a Religious Organization Whose Mission is to Bring the Spiritual Teachings of the Urantia Papers to All People.
We believe that the Fifth Epochal Revelation will enculturate the grass roots of society through new religious organizations and help lay the foundation for an interfaith movement that will eventually involve all of the religions of the world. The history of religion shows that spiritual value systems are always established and promoted by some kind of religious organization. We invite you to join us in this pioneering effort to establish new religious organizations that have the potential to bring a spiritual transformation to our world.
¶ Guiding Principles
An Appropriate Symbolism and Socioreligious Expression of the Fifth Epochal Revelation Should: [1]
- Be based on the Fatherhood of God and the brother-sisterhood of humankind.
- Be the outgrowth of love.
- Foster sentiment, satisfy emotions, and promote loyalty.
- Facilitate spiritual progress through cosmic meanings, moral values, social development, and personal living.
- Provide supreme goals of living that are both temporal and eternal.
- Be based on the biologic, social, and religious significance of the family.
- Symbolize the permanent in the midst of unceasing change.
- Glorify that which respects and unifies the diversities of society.
- Promote higher meanings, beautiful relationships, and the highest values.
- Embody some masterful mystery and connote some worthful unattainable.
- Be meaningful and serviceable to both the individual and the group.
- Serve as the skeletal structure for dynamic personal experience.
¶ The Purpose of Religious Institutions is to:
- Dramatize the loyalties of spiritual experience.
- Magnify the lures of truth, beauty, and goodness — supreme values.
- Enhance the service of unselfish fellowship.
- Glorify the potentials of family life.
- Promote religious education.
- Provide wise counsel and spiritual guidance.
- Furnish and promote group worship.
- Encourage friendship, neighborhood welfare, and moral values.
- Spread the gospel of eternal salvation.
¶ Religious Institutions Should Avoid Dangers, Such As:
- Fixation of ritual and theology.
- Developing vested interests and secular involvement.
- Serving the institution instead of serving God and ministering to people.
- Forming competitive sects and developing a “chosen people” attitude.
- Developing authoritarianism, dogmatism, and false ideas of sacredness.
- Venerating the past while ignoring present needs and timely spiritual interpretations.
- Failing to hold the interest of youth and grow with the times.
- Losing sight of spiritual ministry and the saving message of salvation.
¶ Central Objective
The central objective of those interested in initiating a new religious organization based on the teachings of the Urantia Papers should be to create a polity with maximum flexibility, function with both small groups or larger congregations, utilize lay leadership and/or ordained clergy, exhibit cross-cultural adaptability, and express broad theological inclusiveness.
Such a religious organization would be “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.”[2]
¶ The Spiritual Fellowship Journal
Editor
Merlyn Cox
Associate Editor
Meredith J. Sprunger
Editorial Consultants
>Richard Bain
Larry & Joan Mullins
Nancy Long
The Spiritual Fellowship Journal is an ecumenical publication published twice yearly by The Spiritual Fellowship. Its purpose is to support the larger Urantia Community, especially as it seeks to interface with the cultures and religious institutions of our world. It also seeks to address issues of special concern in the establishment of new religious institutions with roots in the Fifth Epochal Revelation.
Subscription donations, changes of address, articles and editorial correspondence should be sent to:
The Spiritual Fellowship Journal
P. O. Box 9118
Fort Wayne, IN 46809
merlyncox@earthlink.net
MJSprunger@aol.com
Suggested annual donation — $10.
¶ Content
Editorials and Commentary
- The Search for Alternative Communities
Reflections on the search to transform old communities and create new ones to nourish our spiritual needs. - Religious Pluralism
A look at how pluralism is transforming the religious culture in America and laying a foundation for the Fifth Epochal Revelation. - Global Preparation
How the changing landscape of religion, and in particularglobal Christianity, is also preparing the world for the Fifth Epochal Revelation.
Articles
- “Not Inspired” Disclaimers of The Urantia Book: Part 2
In the second of a two part series, Philip Calabrese concludes his comprehensive survey of statements in The Urantia Book regarding science and cosmology, and challenges a skeptical view of its validity. - Living the Teachings
Larry and Joan Mullins’ presentation given to a local society on the Living the Teachings program they have developed and used for many years. - Pioneers in the New Age.
Meredith Sprunger explores what it means to be pioneers in the new age we are entering. - Fusion Power
Stan Hartman challenges us to rekindle our enthusiam and our vision in order to deal with conflicts and differences within our the community.
Features
- Book Review: Joy at Work by Dennis Bakke
- Sermon: The Truth Shall Make Your Free -Dan McCauley.
¶ Notes
See UB 87:7.6-10 ↩︎
Robert K. Greenleaf, Servant Leadership, Paulist Press, New York, 1977, p. 237. ↩︎