© 1996 The Fellowship for readers of The Urantia Book
¶ Domestic Extension Hard At Work
The Domestic Extension Committee has attended 17 Whole Life Expos this year in Seattle, San Francisco, New York, Spokane, Pasadena, Denver, Boulder, Santa Fe, Sacramento, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Fort Lauderdale, Atlanta, Chicago and Boston. In addition, the outreach booth has appeared for the first time in Pittsburgh and Asheville this year.
Prior to each Expo, new volunteers are trained on how to answer difficult questions, creative listening, booth etiquette, and Jesus’ outreach techniques. In 18 months, approximately 80 new booth volunteers have been trained.
“We continue to encourage Expo follow-up workshops in certain cities,” says Mo Siegel, chairman of Domestic Extension. “These workshops are the next step in bringing new readers into existing study groups or initiating new study groups.”
The committee has also published the 1995-1996 Study Group Directory, listing 306 domestic groups and 67 international groups. “This is an increase of 26 groups over last year’s total,” Siegel says.
¶ Summer Seminar Explores Spirituality
Approximately 75 students of The Urantia Book met at the Fairleigh Dickinson University campus in Teaneck, New Jersey in late July to explore the theme, “Spiritual Communion — Theory and Practice.” The relatively small number of attendees allowed for a more intimate setting, which helped to foster a growing sense of communion in the participants as the program progressed.
Twenty-one workshops were offered in the course of the seminar, each featuring a unique viewpoint which, taken together, reflected the multiplicity of ways in which this theme is presented in The Urantia Book. Topics offered included “Habits Conducive to Spiritual Growth,” “Seeing with the Heart: A New Spiritual Vision,” “External Avenues for Internal Growth,” “Toward a Common Fellowship,” and “Communion and Creativity.”
A free day was scheduled in the seminar to permit attendees to explore the cultural riches of New York City, across the Hudson River from Teaneck. Evening entertainment was also provided, including a traditional Korean dance performance.
The program ended on an uplifting note with a plenary talk by Eileen Laurence on “Shared Communion” and a worship service conducted by Avi and Lila Dogim.
¶ Golden Gate Circle
Readers from counties circling San Francisco met in early May on the campus of the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, California to exchange views, as members and friends of the Golden Gate Circle Society, about the directions to be taken by our movement. Rebecca Kantor envisioned a time when we, as readers of The Urantia Book, might find ourselves on “odd sides of certain fences.” For instance, we could discover that we are standing together with the more conservative Christian sects vouching for the divine nature of Jesus, in opposition to the so-called cutting edge of theologians who somętimes present the thesis that Christ was not divine. Kantor is enrolled as a student at the religious school in Berkeley.
Drawing upon several trips to Israel, as well as intensive study of the land of Jesus’ birth, David Kantor presented a discussion and slides detailing the newest archeological discoveries in the Holy Land. He talked about a Galilean fishing boat, recently unearthed, that dates from Jesus’ era. An excavation at Sepphoris arrested his attention. Kantor pointed out that Nazareth, where Jesus grew to manhood, was more of a suburb. Sepphoris, with the latter having a population of close to 30,000 people, while Nazareth had about 700 . Of particular interest were the circles of El-Hiri in the Golan area. This ancient construction, consisting of five concentric circles one third of a mile in circumference, has been dated (by astronomical means) to about 3,000 B.C. An impressive burial cairn is situated in the center and is a more recent addition, circa 2000 B.C.
Kantor’s overview of the active archeological sites of Israel and their relevance to The Urantia Book will be published in a book, Pilgrimage 2000, by Good Cheer Press.
¶ Proposed New Wisconsin Society
Robert Arkens of Clintonville and Mark Kulieke, Green Bay, are spearheading efforts to form a new Fellowship society in Wisconsin. Prospective founders and charter members hail from all parts of the state, although clusters of readers meet regularly in study groups in their respective areas. Many in the group have been reading The Urantia Book for over 10 years, a few more than 20 years, and one or two are second-generation students.
The society-in-waiting has organized several conferences in recent years, including one near Iola in May and one at Sheboygan Falls in June. At the Sheboygan meeting, Martin Eigenberger spoke on “Evolution and the Neurological Foundations of Spiritual Experience.”
¶ Midwest Conference
The Midwest Conference has been a tradition since 1978. Planning and organization of the event has alternated among societies and study groups in a six-state area of the north central United States. This fall the First Society welcomed over 60 attendees at the spacious Inn at Eagle Creek State Park near Mattoon, Illinois. The theme was “Toward a Perfect World.” Students shared their views of how our planet, beset by rebellion and present-day chaos, will sometime attain levels of light and life.
Keynote speaker David Kulieke of Lincolnshire, Illinois, warned about the “pervasive problem in America,” the principle that all men are created equal, and what this has come to mean: “that all humans should end up at the same level of achievement.” This implies that we must be accepting of all points of view as being equally valid. “But, the universe does have a center; there is a God,” says Kulieke. “And in the plan of that God, we are to achieve perfection through growth. We are to seek higher values. In the growth and evolution of the universe, this means that some ideas are closer to the truth than others and that some levels of achievement are higher … Moving toward a perfect world can only happen if the citizens desire improvement, for the world, but especially for themselves.”
In an address entitled “The Challenge of the 21st Century,” Meredith J. Sprunger of Fort Wayne, Indiana identified the “basic dilemma of our times,” which he described as having no unifying conception of reality. “The singular ingredient which will bring meaning and unity into planetary existence,” says Sprunger, “is an inspiring paradigm of reality which will harmonize science, philosophy, and religion and inspire humankind to strive for common goals and objectives … The Urantia Book is the only source of reality that is large enough and spiritually empowering to unify and energize the entire planet.”
¶ Society Conclave Held
Twelve representatives of the societies of the Fellowship attended the Society Conclave, held July 27, 1995 at Fairleigh Dickinson University in Teaneck, New Jersey, in conjunction with the 1995 Summer Seminar and General Council meeting. Issues discussed at the conclave included the Fellowship’s decision to publish The Urantia Book and methods of distribution of this edition, society representation on the General Council, organizational communications with Urantia Foundation, scheduling regional conferences to avoid conflicts, and encouraging society members to become more active. The representatives were also given an update on the status of IC 96, scheduled August 3 8, 1996 at Flagstaff, Arizona, and how societies can participate in this event.
“I hope that society representatives share this information with their members,” says Avi Dogim, chairman of the Charter Committee. “If anyone has questions concerning the matters discussed at the conclave, and didn’tre have a society representative present, do not hesitate to contact me. Society participation is most important, especially as major decisions have to be made regarding our organization’s activities in the near future.”
Dogim may be contacted through the Fellowship headquarters at (312) 327-0424 or (312) 327-6159 fax.
¶ New York Society Sponsors Russian Translation
The Society of Greater New York has made progress with a Korean translation of The Urantia Book. Now the society has undertaken a Russian translation as well. Professional translators are working on the project, under the supervision of an editor with feedback and corrections by long-time reader Lila Dogim, who is fluent in Russian.
“We need hardly tell you the importance of the availability of the fifth epochal revelation to the well over 200-million people on Urantia who can read Russian,” says Dale Sztejnberg in New York. “And we need hardly tell you about the spiritual hunger that exists among our brothers and sisters who happened to be born in what is now the former Soviet Union.”
¶ UB’s 40th Birthday Celebrated in Arizona
Just 40 years ago, on October 12 , 1955 , the long-awaited publication of The Urantia Book occurred. And one of the newest members of Arizona’s Grand Canyon Society, Nola Smith, was an eyewitness to what happened on that historic day.
At its October statewide meeting, the Arizona society met at the home of Michael and Ada Knoll in Phoenix, where Smith described how, 40 years ago in Chicago, Dr. William Sadler pulled open the sliding doors on the second-floor meeting room at 533 Diversey to reveal dozens of stacked boxes. He opened the boxes and handed Urantia Books to members of the Forum. These orders had been placed and prepaid many years previously, some for as little as $5.
At this meeting Larry Bowman also presented a review of the first 40 years of Christianity. He spoke of the often tenuous relationships that existed between the apostles in the early years dedicated to the spread of the Master’s gospel. He cited the fact that, unlike Christianity, the Urantia readership has not had to suffer persecutions, neither have any students been thrown to the lions.
¶ Family Life Survey Results
The ad hoc Family Life Committee of the Fellowship published a survey in the Fall 1994 issue of The Study Group Herald in order to find out how best to serve the readership. The survey was developed to read the pulse of needs and interests of the many families that comprise the Fellowship. Here are results from respondents to the survey.
The top 10 priority needs for resources for family life are:
- Parenting materials based on principles of The Urantia Book
- Study guides for children
- Stories for children from The Urantia Book
- Premarital training materials
- Study guides for teens
- Death and dying within family
- Chosen family groups
- Family meetings
- Intergenerational care (elder care)
- Supportive partnerships
The four priority activities respondents would like to see the Family Life Committee sponsor are:
- Secondary works to introduce The Urantia Book to children and teens Family camps
- Marriage training seminars
- Supporting the dying and the grieving process
- Emphasis on family at conferences (with workshops for parents and experiential activities for children at all levels)
The Family Life Committee encourages your participation in any of these initiatives that will be developed. Here is how to reach the members of that committee:
- Sara Blackstock, 120 Inverness Ct., Benicia, CA 94510 (707) 747-1854
- Patrick Yesh, Box 693, Porthill, ID 83853 Fax (604) 428-2882
- Cecelia Lampley, Reno, NV (702) 747-3546
- Claudia Ayers & Larry Watkins, Sacramento, CA (916) 482-2082
- Lee & Chrissy Smith, Soquel, CA (408) 462-4823
¶ General Council Elections
At the July 27, 1995 meeting of the General Council in Teaneck, New Jersey, Alison Gardner, Sherborn, Massachusetts, was elected to fill a vacancy on the council. Ms. Gardner’s term will run until the next Triennial Delegate Assembly in 1997. In addition, eight persons were elected to Fellowship committees and two others were appointed at the October 27 Executive Committee meeting in Chicago to fill vacancies until the next General Council meeting.
Judicial
David Owen, Chicago, 6 years
Charter
Francyl Gawryn, Mercer Island, WA, 6 years
Fraternal Relations
Eef Hoedemaker, Aldergrove, BC, 6 years
Domestic Extension
Ann Garner, Arlington, TX, 6 years
Mary Ebben, 5 years
International Fellowship
Douglas Fraser, Kingwood, TX, 6 years
Education
Stephen Zendt, San Francisco, 6 years
Publications
John Thiele, Fort Smith, AR, 6 years
Finance
Brian Smith, Leucadia, CA, 6 years
Special Projects
Larry Watkins, Sacramento, CA, 6 years