© 1992 The Fellowship for readers of The Urantia Book
Belconnen, Australia
November 4, 1991
Dear Chilufya,
Thanks for making contact with Australia! We recently held a conference for readers of The Urantia Book. 35 people from Australia, New Zealand, U.S.A. attended.
I have enclosed a copy of a paper I presented to the group. Feel free to make any use of it you can.
Best regards to you and Zambia!
Your partner in all this,
Nigel B. Nunn
ED. NOTE: Copies of Nigel’s illustrated trelve page booklet “Evolving A Next Model of the Mind” will be mailed to interested parties who send $5.00 (U.S.) for postage, envelope, and photocopier costs to Chilufya M.K. Thompson, International Editor, The STUDY GROUP HERALD, P.O. Box 22620, Kitwe, Zambia.
Aukland, New Zealand
November 24, 1991
Dear Chilufya,
I hope you don’t mind my also responding to your letter. My name is Sharen, Dennis’ wife. I am an American and have been in New Zealand only four months. Dennis and I are both longtime readers of the book. I, since 1976, Dennis, since 1978.
I am always very excited to hear about anything that will bring the international readers together. This is very important work. While living in the U.S.A. I initiated a project to match up other readers as pen pals to share ideas, projects, etc. This is, by the way, how Dennis and I became acquainted. I most wanted to reach those in other countries but, many of the responses I received were from U.S. readers wishing overseas correspondents. I found it very difficult to locate these readers. Addresses were very hard to come by. I did send a letter to a couple in South Africa but did not receive a reply.
Additionally, I’ve had this idea in relation to study groups. A lot of them write their own study aids that I know would be really welcomed by other study groups. I collected a lot of this material myself which I shared with the group here in Aukland. There is an organization in Iowa, U.S.A. that has a lot of such information available through computer link up. But this service is not available all over the world yet and many people don’t even have a computer. It would be really good to find a way to make such materials available to those who want it. As of now I don’t have a clear idea of how to bring this about. It’s only an idea. Perhaps this is something you see as part of your page in The STUDY GROUP HERALD . . . Perhaps there are some who would like to take part in my pen pal project. .
…If I can be of help to you in this regard (or with anything else), please let me know and I will share what I have. .
With best wishes.
Sharen Clampitt
Unit 1
81 Seabrook Avenue
New Lynn, Aukland 7
New Zealand
Aukland, New Zealand
November 11, 1991
Dear Chilufya,
I welcome your interest in contacting New Zealand study groups and readers here. Up till three or four months ago I was an active reader in the Aukland Study Group which had its inception in 1986. I have recently withidrawn but still am active in placing Urantia Books in New Zealand libraries and have been doirg so for ten years. . .
I should mention that our Aukland Urantia Study Group of approximately seven is ably led by Neville and Patricia Twist … They, I am sure, will be interested in giving you more precise reports of the Urantia happenings in New Zealand.
Regards, best wishes
Dennis Clampitt
Jabalpur, India
November 6, 1991
Dear Chilufya,
Greetings and good wishes. Thanks for your letter dated October 2, 1991 . . . I am glad you are studying The Urantia Book since a long time. May Father-God bless you, your family, and your study group more and more. .
A few stamps from your letter were removed in the postal, midway. I have not received The STUDY GROUP HERALD magazine till now. Some things and cassettes are generally lost in the postal midway so it is better to send (indicating the contents on the cover) by registered post.
After some time I will send you some meaningful - useful aids to create interest in studying The Urantia Book…
Please send details of the study group (as we read daily in the newspaper about Zambia), your family, and personal life.
Do pray for me, for my son, Ajny who is unemployed, and for my daughter Amita (M.A. final student in sociology) so that she will get a good life partner. . .
In His love,
Dr. Rajan S. Chauhan
February 29, 1992
To The STUDY GROUP HERALD,
Thank you so much for having sent me again the STUDY GROUP HERALD. This is a marvellous and most skillful publication - very inspiring and stimulating. I do especially appreciate it since I am now still isolated from any other readers here.
Thank you so much for all the tremendous work you are putting into this valuable and versatile publication. All of God’s blessing to each one of you.
Olga A. Unverzagt
Bremen, Germany
Braine-l’Alleud, France
December 14, 1991
Dear Chilufya,
At our last meeting we came to the conclusion that perhaps it would be worthwhile, for the use of young or aging study groups to pinpoint a few reasons why we have experienced 14 years of happy and growing interest. (We meet once a month).
Here are a few points that may have helped our meetings:
- There is no preset procedure but only a selection of the paper to be studied and everyone prepares for the meeting.
- Only parts of the book are read to illuminate a particular topic. There is no systematic reading.
- Generally speaking we move regularly through the paper but flexibility is the master rule. Discussion can move to any part of the paper, the book (or out of the book).
- Before coming, members have made a note of what struck them and they give comment, and when possible, personal experience on this point; a very difficult but most essential challenge. We try to transfer intellectual understanding to real life experience.
- There is never more than one person speaking at a time.
- Although the meetings are fun (what a privilege it must have been to witness the humor of Jesus!), they are not social gatherings. Actually we know very little of one another’s private life.
- Meetings of four hours are divided by a break; the first part for discussing the paper of the day and, until lately, the second period for a Jesus paper.
- Having been twice through the Jesus papers and in order to avoid routine, we now choose for each meeting any question of major and practical importance. For instance: freedom, evil, forgiveness, faith and beliefs, the golden rule, etc. Each member searches what the book has to say about it (from any paper) and shares their personal understanding of the matter. This helps each participant to broaden, on their own initiative, their own awareness of essential life problems.
Our best Urantia Greetings,
Feruand and Marie-Therese de Vinck
Hoole, Chester
England
March 12, 1992
Dear Friends,
A few lines from across the sea to say, ‘Hello’ and to let you know my new address… My new home is in a beautiful town, formerly a Roman fortress (within 50 feet of where I am writing are great walls built just a few years after Jesus’ departure from Urantia!). A popular place for U.S. visitors. If anyone is headed this way, I would be pleased to assist them.
Since leaving London, I have little contact with other readers. I formerly attended the Study Group at Gez Lamb’s house. Looking at the pictures of huge gatherings of readers around the U.S. is, for me, rather awesome! One day, when money allows, I’ll come over and see everyone!
A year or so ago I started the Black and White picture place which is a photographic gallery and picture library specializing in landscape and life in N.W. England and Wales. We get a lot of interest from American visitors, often coming to see where their ancestors came from, and in the case of Liverpool, the point from which they departed for the new world.
Anything we can do to assist readers in this direction, we will be very happy to help.
I think The STUDY GROUP HERALD is a marvelous publication, full of life and interest. Please continue to send it to me, as well as anything else connected to our wonderful book - I am hungry for more!
In God,
Steve Howe
1 Rufus Court Row
Abbey Green off Northgate
Chester. England
Tel. (0244) 322282
Grand-Mere, Quebec, Canada
February 26, 1992
Dear Chilufya,
When I saw your picture in The STUDY GROUP HERALD I didn’t recognize you
When I read your name, my memory began to work . . . But, in your letter I suddenly realized that you were the same person I once asked the meaning of the knots in her hair in the Lake Forest summer seminars of 1984 .
Now I know the meaning of the knots in the hair of beautiful African women because I went to Africa last year and was asked to “buy” a wife
Urantia is very little. I was in Ruhengeri (Rwanda) near the Kivu lake for a cooperative program, but a civil war took me back home after only three months and all my goods (including my first copy of The Urantia Book) remain on the side of the volcano where Diane Fossey was killed because of her love for gorillas.
I will never ask again to my Seraphim to put some action in my life. Like you, I really love to see their work in society but, in my personal life I would prefer a quieter path.
When I walked along the streets of the villages of Rwanda or Zaire I understood the shock that Adam and Eve got some 35,000 years ago. As a northamerican, these experiences gave me the biggest teachings of reality in all my life. I won’t be in a rush for anything anymore and I really feel what you mean by “Yours in Kingdom building”.
Next year in the first week of August, We are going to hold The International Conference for Urantia Book readers in St. Hyacinthe (Quebec) Canada on the Theme of “Touch the World”. As a special project for or within this international conference I would like to do something for your part of the world. It could be something like sending you copies of The Urantia Book to start the group that you mentioned in The STUDY GROUP HERALD, or anything else that you could imagine that would help Kingdom building in your part of Urantia. It could be a special workshop on how the revelation could touch Africa.
As your idea for an international column resulted in something actual I wish we could build something. Now that I better know the way the angels like to work with me, I will let them play with this spiritual offer and the results will be for Him although the action could be ours.
Yours in Kingdom building,
M. Jacques Vallee
Bogota, Columbia
December 3, 1991
Dear Chilufya,
Our group is small, about six or seven and a maximum of eight depending on the circumstances.
Basically, we are translating the book into the Spanish language. Quite a few years ago we began on page one and are now in part IV, near page 1500. We meet every Wednesday evening at 7:00 and read till about 10 P.M. It is hoped that when the book is available in Spanish, (1993-1994), we will see an increase in the number of persons studying it. I understand that there are several study groups meeting in Chile. . .
Best wishes.
Sincerely yours,
Dale Rives Hal
Mexico
November 11, 1991
Dear Chilufya,
I first learned of The Urantia Book a few years ago through a friend in the United States and since that time I have written and called the Fellowship offices on several occasions requesting information on when the book will be released in Spanish. Living in Mexico has made it necessary for me to acquire the book in Spanish so I can form a small reading group. Unfortunately, I have not heard news of its release.
I hope that you’ll be able to pool all the help necessary to make this international page a true success.
May the Father’s Light guide you and illuminate you in all you do. GOOD LUCK!!
Your friend,
Melanie
Ed. Note: The following letter is translated from Spanish.
Trujillo, Peru
November 5, 1991
Dear Friend, Reader of The Urantia Book,
It was a pleasure to receive your letter of October 2 and to answer it today.
I began translating The Urantia Book early in 1970 and completed a manuscript of the translation (29 notebooks of 100 pages double-spaced) on the 19th of December, 1972. Slowly, over three years, I typed it on legal-size paper, singlespaced, having completed 1600 pages. I am still reading The Urantia Book to this day.
It is easy to understand that my dedication and effort in this work was sustained by the enormous importance that this book has for each human being. This book is stupendous because it is a revelation of the spiritual world to rid us of the ignorance that covers our awareness and gives us a clear and open view which has changed our concepts of life.
In this way we have been enabled to see the supreme power of God (our spiritual Father) in having designed a perfectly organized creation of time-space, in addition to the organization of the eternal Central [Universe]. It is a marvelous book and I think that it is the book that everybody should read.
Sadly, the official version in castillian [Spanish] that is in the hands of the international translation company is taking too long in spite of the time that was given, thereby depriving the Spanish-speaking world of the Spanish translation and the joy of reading this book.
My study group, Chan (Chan) is a little unstable and the meetings are very occasional. My special work is the dissemination from person to person. The most important reason for this instability is the terrible economic and social situation of this country that has been hit by terrorists, narcotraffic, immorality, administrative corruption, etc., difficulties that our government is bravely fighting.
I hope that our correspondence continues.
Sincerely,
Eloy Yepes Gordon
Oslo, Norway
November 22, 1991
Dear Chilufya,
I would like to tell you something interesting but there’s not a lot happening in this country as yet. There are some readers. Maybe about nine or ten but some of them are not really dedicated to the book. There was an attempt to maintain a study group for a couple of years. It disbanded two years ago and I think that it was best that it did.
Recently new contacts have been made and learning the lessons from the first study group that didn’t work out, we are taking things slowly and not rushing; concentrating on building solid relationships and then letting a study group grow rather then “forming” it.
I wish you the best with your project and if things develop here, I will try to let you know.
Yours sincerely,
Nigel Hornby
The Urantia Nazareth Brotherhood
Accra, Ghana
November 21, 1991
Dear Chilufya,
This is to acknowledge receipt of your letter dated 8/10/91 with thanks. We are also grateful for the interest and concern shown in our study group.
Hope to feed you with information, activities and other as requested.
Best wishes for your new assignment.
In Fellowship,
Richard Quaynor
June, 1992
Some members of the Urantia Nazareth Brotherhood Pose for picture after Study Meeting.
Meeting Days: Thursdays and Saturdavs, 5:30-7:30 p.m.
Method of Service - Praises. Group prayers. Meditation. Reading of The Urantia Book. Questions and Answers.
Vigil Prayer: First Friday of every month with the same method of service. Our services are nondenominational.
We welcome any Urantia group around the globe who wants to share ideas with us.
‘The Living Flame Fraternity’
Accra Ghana
27 January, 1991
Dear Mrs. Thompson,
Our study group named, ‘The Living Flame Fraternity’ has a membership of twelve including visitors. The regular members number eight. Meetings are held once a week on Saturdays from 8 A.M. to 11 A.M. Generally the period of the meeting depends on the interest shown by members in the topical subject discussed.
We are presently studying parts III and IV of the book, that is The History of Urantia and The Life And Teachings of Jesus.
Apart from the study of The Urantia Book, we organize prayer meetings on the same day as a supplementary programme. This, in fact, precedes the group discussions of The Urantia Book.
We find time to do some philanthropic activity such as visiting the homes of the sick and the disabled when we make a donation. We organize similar activities on occasions like Easte and Christmas.
We have tried to give you a rough idea as to the general programme followed by the group. No doubt your original idea for an International Readers Page may go beyond this. . .
We enclose herewith a group photograph of the present regular members.
Thank you for your initiative.
In Fellowship,
Oblempon Niko
Ed. Note: As I receive all of these letters from all parts of Urantia, I actually feel the size of the planet shrink. You all seem so intimately near. It’s such a wonderful feeling… let us build the Kingdom together.
Chilufya