© 2006 Avi Dogim, Meredith J. Sprunger, Peter Laurence
© 2006 The Urantia Book Fellowship
¶ Robert Burns Elected Fellowship President
Southern Californian Robert Burns has been elected President of the Fellowship by the General Council. Robert is a long-time reader, study group host, and very active member of the Los Angeles Urantia Society, having served the society and the Fellowship various positions over many years. He has been a General Councilor since 1994. For the past years, he has acted as Finance Chair of the Fellowship, and before that served a term as Membership Chair.
In addition to his activities on behalf of the Urantia revelation, Robert has been involved in various service organization. He is a past Chairman of the Board and President of the American Heart Association of Orange County, where he was also Logistic Chair of the Heart Walk from 1998 to 2004. He is currently the Development Chair of the Susan Samuelli Center of Integrative Medicine ac UCI.
Robert’s enthusiasm for the future of the Fellowship is infectious. He has stated: "The Fellowship is about the business of disseminating the teachings of the revelation, integrating and socializing the readers and groups that develop, continuing to advance the education of those sincerely interested, and successfully addressing the myriad challenges of a growing administration. And that is but half what is going on!
With absolute certainty, I can sav that the Fellowship’s future is full of uncertainty, change, hope, and vision. With so much exciting work being done now and organtzed for the future, we need all the support and help that can be mustered from the readership."
Robert is the owner of Share-Up Fitness Center in Irvine. He and his wife, Cindy, have been married for 32 vears, and have two children, Steve, 31, and Amber, 28.
¶ Marvin Gawryn to Chair New Liaison Committee
The Executive Committee has approved the creation of the Liaison committee, to be chaired by Marvin Gawryn, in response to a resolution submitted by the TDA and approved by the General Council that: “Be it Resolved—The Fellowship continue to take active steps to explore common interests and the feasibiltty of merging (the efforts) of The Fellowship and the Urantia Association Intemational.”
Marvin is looking forward to his work in maintaining communication between the leaders in the UAI, the Foundation, and The Fellowsllip and to continue to explore avenues for united effort.
¶ President’s Report
The following is a summary of the report given to the General Council by out-going President, Avi Dogim on July 9, 2006.
The Urangia Book Fellowship continued its outreach and dissemination activities over the past year through the media of print and the Internet, through social garherings, interfaith activities, expos, book donations, and marketing. The enthusiasm and energy among the pcople who coordinate and participate in these various activities is high and can be matched only by their dedication to the mission of making the fifth epochal revelation available to all our fellow residents on this planet.
The Fellowship recognizes the impottant work done for the advancement of the revelation by individuals and groups who are not formally affiliated with it. It stands ready to collaborate with any group on any project that is consistent with the stated purpose of the Fellowship to disseminate The Urantia Book and its teachings to the peoples of the world. Efforts have been made over the past few years to identify specific areas of common interest between The Fellowship and Urantia Foundation and to explore possible joint projects between the two organizations. As part of these efforts, I met privately with Seppo Kanerva, the Foundation President, on the campus of Villanova University during IC '05. We drew up a list of possible areas of cooperation, but haven’t as yet begun a joint operation. Members of both the Fellowship and the UAI as well as many individuals unaffiliated with either organization were involved in the planning and execution of IC '05. An invitation by the Fellowship to the UAI to plan a joint IC '05 was rebuffed by the UAI. However, the Fellowsltip will continue to keep its door open to such in the future.
With impetus given by Joe Liska, a long time reader, several members of the Fellowship and the UAI helped organize a “non-organization” 50th Anniversary celebration of the publication of The Urantia in Chicago in October of 2005. In attendance were Foundation Trustees, most of the Fellowship’s Executive Comrnittee, and other Fellowship and UAI members as well as a number of Chicago readers, some of whom remembered well the day the books first rolled off the press. The good will of all who were there was palpable and ought to savored.
Over the past three years, the Fellowshtp has continued the process of virtualizing its admtnistrative operation, i.e., increasing the utilization of intemet based communications and data transfer operations and reducing our dependency on brick and mortar. To deal with the myriad issues involved, we formed an administrative team, and also an ad hoc information technology (IT) committee.
Less than a year ago, we formed a website content group largely in responee to recommendations made by the General Council that the The Fellowship’s website should overseen a group rather than by any single indiviual. Initial recommendations from this group have already been made.
This council holds the intellectual, moral, and indeed, spiritual potential to move us forward.
¶ Paula Thompson — New Executive Director
I joined the Rocky Mountain Urantia Society in 1982. At that time I had been reading The Urantia Book for 6 years. I joined at the behest of my good friends Jo Ann Wiedman and Linda McNelly. They both impressed on me the need to pool individual together to achieve a modicum of efficacy in disseminating the revelation. They aptly pointed out that with the internacional Urantia community being so small and so spread out, it was of vital importance that dedicated believers join together to serve. Back then, we all felt blessed to have and belong to our local Urantia socicty. We had a deep sense of purpose and mission. For many, that feeling was lost in the subsequent ideological troubles our movement experienced, but not for me. Perhaps it’s because since 1989 I have had the unique oprortunity to travel around the country serving shoulder to shoulder with various Urantia groups on Outreach Committee projects. In View of the dedication I witnessed coming from the various reader communities visited, my sense of mission not only did not diminish, it became even more vital.
Those who know me know how much I love our Fellowship. I feel blessed to be associated with the splendid human beings I have come to know and love in this organization. I willingly serve The Urantia Book Fellowship because of my association with the amazing reople I have met who also serve it. These dedicated people, people like John Hales, have made an indelible impression on me. This little organization has persevered through some serious challenges, and yet, after fifty years it’s still here serving with stalwart dedication. It not only devotedly serves God and Man, but it also sacredly serves the Brotherhcod of Believers.
Our Fellowship of revelacion believers is on the move. With fifty continuous years of service to our credit, and hearts courageous, we are poised and ready to meet the challenges of the next fifty years and beyond. The world cries out in desperation for the profound truths we enjoy every day in The Urantia Book. I know of a certainty that our Fellowship is not only willing to answer this call but capable of answering it in ways heretofore unimagined. With some of the huge challenges of the past behind us we are moving forward with a renewed sense of purpose and mission. I’m profoundly honored to have been asked to act as the Fellowship’s Director in this new era, I promise to do my utmost to serve not only Fellowship members, but each and every person who loves and serves the revelation.
Saying goodbye to someone like John Hales, who has served as our Director for the last 32 years, could never be easy. It would be impossible for me to fill his shoes, but I promise to all those who love the Fellowship as I do, that I will give this post my utmost effort and will mobilize every personal attribute I possess to live up to the trust you have placed in my hands.
When man consecrates his will to the doing of the Father’s will, when man gives God all that he has, then does God make that man more than he is. [UB 117:4.14]
¶ Meet Your New General Councilors
Nine Year Term
Cece Forrester has been a reader since 1969 and a member of Fitst Society (Chicago) since 1976 Where she serves as Secretary. She regularly attends various study groups including the Forum Study Group, the direct descendant of the original Forum. Cece was a co-editor of the Pervaded Space newsletter from 1978 to 1994 and helped compile the first directory of study groups in the 1980s while a member of the Domestic Extension Committee. She has helped to plan and has presented talks and workshops at various conferences. She has many years of experience in the advertising media and communications field.
Peter Laurence began studying The Urantia in the late 1960s, and has been president of the Connecticut Society and chair of the former Fraternal Relations Committee. He is currently chair of an ad hoc group set up by the Executive Committed to review the Fellowship’s website and a member of the Interfaith Committee. In the interfaith field he has served as chair of the board of the North American Interfaith Network (NAIN) and as a member of the Assembly of Religious and Spiritual Leaders for the Parliament of the World’s Religions (Chicago, 1993, Cape Town, 1999.) He is currently executive director of the Education as Transformation project at Wellesley College.
Phil Taylor is a carpenter/builder living in southern Vermont with his wife Lisa and children, Allyson and Zachary. He has been reading The Urantia Book for fifteen years and hosts two study groups in his local area. Phil serves as the Vice President for the Urantia Association of New England and has written several articles for the UAI Journal. He is also training to be a teacher at The Urantia Book Internet School. Currently, he is working with Susan Cook to organize the 2008 International Conference in San Diego and to involve younger readers in the conference planning and presentations of workshops.
Buck Weimer and his wife Arlene were living in Florida where they were given The Urantia Book by a non-reader. Eventually they served in Colorado whete they raised three sons and started careers. Buck worked as a clinical therapist for initiated several study groups, and was a founding member of The Rocky Mountain Urantia Book Society. He also has a home-based internet business selling medical underwear for which he has a patent. He states: “Using the life and teaching of Jesus—God and serving humanity—I am willing to go anywhere and o anything to advance The Urantia Book revelation.”
Six Year Term
Charlene Morrow was a charter member of The Urantia Book Society of Oklahoma (First Society of Oklahoma) founded in 1957, and has served as President, Vice President, Secretary, and Treasurer of this society. She has also served previously on the General Council for nine years. Her interests are book fairs and placing Urantia Books in libraries. She is involved in interfaith work as a member of Interfaith Alliance and NAIN and is currently on the Interfaith Committee of the Fellowship. She feels especially blessed to be the mother of and the grandmother of five.
Al Lockett is a devoted religionist and a 34-year reader and student of The Urantia Book. He was one of the first teachers for The Urantia Book Internet School (UBIS) and a past of the Board of Directors. He is a musician, composer, and has extensive experience as a public speaker on topics that include: Disguised Blessings, Walking the Talk, When Belief Becomes Faith, The Supreme Experience of Living, and The Mind of Jesus. Al has a B.A. in Psychology, M.Ed. in Instruction Technology and is currently completing a PhD in Educacional Technology and Cognitive Developtnent.
Three Year Term
Christina Seaborn, child of a Catholic mother and agnostic father, experienced a Colombian and American upbringing in a family of seven. She found The Urantia Book in 1983 when she was in her early 20s. Her life has been musical, playing the violin and fiddle, composing, directing orchestras, and being a national string clinician. Christina has lived in Puerto Rico, New York, California, Alaska, Massachusetts, Texas, South Dakota, and now resides in Saint Cloud, Minnesota with her husband Rick Walter, his great berry garden, their dog Rocky, and cat Kristoff.
¶ Preparing for IC '08
All over this planet, people are working to make our Father’s love a reality by partnering with others to do good works and make positive and lasting changes in loving, spirit led service. We would like to hear of your service adventures ot those of others you know.
Many of our Urantia family members are also out in the trenches doing the work of our Paradise Father and Spirit Mother. Some of this work is a large effort, some on a smaller scale. Examples are:
- Our Personal Ministry to Fellows - living a life of spirit led service in our daily lives.
- The Pipeline of Light - distributes Urantia Books all over the world
- Free Schools - Providcs a free education to impoverished young girls in India
- Interfaith - Working with many other religions to foster understanding
- The Sewing Project - Raised funds to buy sewing machines for poor women in Kenya.
- Study Groups - Supportinq the individuals in their study of The Urantia Book and supporting those who go out into the community in the service of these ideals.
- Cosmic Café - Local community based discusion groups focused on spiritual growth.
- InnerLife International - A service organization dedicated to training leaders through service.
- Youth Camps - Where our young learn about spitituality and themselves.
- Expos - Book booths at public events to share The Urantia Book and interact with other seekers.
- Churches - Many readers attend churches and other religious services and find this a valuahle service outreach opportunity.
- Conferences Providing a place and time for people to socialize and learn.
- Any service where we are spirit led to serve.
As you can see, the theme of the 2008 conferences is “The Thrill Of Loving Service.” Our goal is to expand our understanding of what it means to be of service and how we are spirit led to find these opportunities. We need your help. Would you consider sharing with us the service work you are doing? Sharing your work will help us organtze the conference workshops and speakers and give us greater insight into the path of spiritual service.
We have a definite vision for this conference and sharing your work will help us incorporate yout experience and wisdom into the conference. We appreciate it so much. Please respond as soon as you can, letting us know what you are doing or what you desire to do. Planning is currently under way.
If have any questions about this please contact us at IC08@urantiabook.org
If you need to reach us via regular mail, please send to:
Susan Cook
415 Shannon Avenue
Smithville, MO 64089
816-866-4107
¶ Pipeline of Light by the Numbers
Pipeline of Light Report
By Michelle Klimesh
The Pipeline of Light kicked into high gear during the first Six months of 2006. Between January and June, we placed 352 copies of The Urantia Book (including translations, the audio version, and English) into twenty-two countries: Colombia, Costa Rica, South Africa, Lithuania, Pakistan, Republic of Guinea, Zambia, Croacia, Argentina, Chile, Myanmar, Greece, Panama, Nicaragua, India, Brazil, Egypt, France, Bulgaria, Ecuador, Algeria and the Philippines. We have since placed books readers in Iceland, Germany, Chechnya, and Peru for a total of twenty-six countries so far this year.
How do we do it? Every way we can think of. Sometimes books are sent with travelers who are vacationing in other countries. One Pipeline volunteer travels extensively for business, and he makes excellent use of the Fellowship’s contacts to find readers who need books. The International Committee sent ambassadors this year to a Urantia conference in Ecuador, and also to Africa to follow up on contacts originally made by Norman Ingram years ago.
We’ve experimented in the past several months with new ideas. We send post cards redeemable for one book with Pipeline volunteers as they travel, so they don’t have to pack so many cases of real books. We had one creative reader in the USA who purchased a book himself and sent it directly to a seminary student in Zambia. As time goes on, I’m sure we will find many ways to keep the flow of the revelation moving outward into the world.
Your support of the Pipeline of Light keeps the revelation flowing to these proverbial corners of the earth. Please help us! Donations are accepted online at http://urantiabook.org./support.htm or by mail to: The Urantia Book Fellowship, P.O. Box 4583, Grand Central Station, New York, N Y. 10163.
The social ship has steamed out of the sheltered of estahlished tradition and has begun its cruise upon the high seas of evolutionary destiny … The Urantia Book, UB 99:1.3
Will You Work One Hour Each Month For The Revelation?
Our good ship “Urantia” has steamed from the harbor!
Stoke her engines with your dollars!
Please pledge one hour’s earnings a month to The Urantia Book Fellowship.
Her mission is clear so please click here! https://urantiabook.sitespace.com/support
Our online contributions page is simple, fast and secure. A beautiful special edition leather Urantia Book will be sent to anyone who signs-up for a $20,00 monthly auto-debit contribution. You can also make a one-time donation in the envelope provided.
¶ Memories of SSS '06
A Personal View
By Deb Manske Biechler
For twenty-plus years, I have been reading The Urantia Book, on my own and with a study group. As I anticipated my first conference, the Summer Study Session at the Dominican University outside of Chicago, I was hoping for more of the doubling and tripling of insight that my study group affords me. What happened was even better. Coming to the conference popped things open another dimension, adding the depth of experiential wisdom.
The experiences began with a retreat led Bobbie Dreier and Gard Jameson. Then there were the angel workshops. Jules O’Connor and Charles Olivea’s session inspired stories of personal encounters with these guardians. Tony Finstad’s All About Angels workshop and beautifully organized handout will help me to introduce The Urantia Book to people who have not yet discovered the revelation. Stevie (Stephanie) Shaefer, in her Angels as Messengers workshop challenged her participants to gain deeper knowledge from these beings who serve as bridges of understanding by using a dictionary regularly. Especially helpful are those published circa late 1920s to 1934.
These are just a few of the experiencial tools I’ve taken home with me to use in my reading, my work, and my spiritual journey. They alone are worth attending the conterence.
The experience is priceless when you add to that the friendships created in this spiritual fellowship. These newly formed relationships connect me in a beautiful web of intelligent love that stretches across the country. If you have never attended a conference before, I invite you to experience the stereoscopic effect that only a gatheting like this can afford.
¶ Thank you, John Hales!
A gala party honoring John Hales’ many years of service to Fellowship was held on Saturday evening, July 8, as part of the festivities at the Summer Study Sesion '06. Present were all of the living ex-presidents of The Fellowship as well as John’s family and a large group of friends and well-wishers. John was presented with a beautiful solid crystal book, fashioned after The Urantia Book with the title on top and three concentric circles beneath it with an inscription, as a token of appreciation for his service to the revelacion.
All seven living ex-presidents of the Fellowship gathered to honor John Hales on his retirement as Administrative Director of the Fellowsllip. Left to right are Paul Snider, Meredith Sprunger, John Hales, Dave Elders, Steve Dreier, Janet Farrington-Graham, and Avi Dogim.
¶ Into Africa
By Buck and Arlene Weimer
Africa! The very name dormant emotions, excites adventurousness, and prompts a creative vision. At the behest of the International Committee of the Fellowship, we traveled to Africa from February 23 to March 12, 2006, spending most of our time in Zambia and a few days in South Africa.
Our goals were to foster relationships with as many Urantia Book readers as possible, while delivering books, placing books in libraries, instigating study group activity, identifying leaders, and answering questions. We carried wich us three cases of books, a stack of various brochures, three dozen t-shirts, many copies each of two different posters, a bag of spiritual vitamins, and Fellowship business cards, as well as many personal gifts.
We first traveled to Ndola, Zambia to hook up with Chita and Namukale, whom we initially met in Barcelona during the Conference for the Parliament of the Worlds Religions and then again last summer at Villanova during IC '05. Chita and Namukale did much to prepare for the historic “Sunday conference” on February 23 at the Savoy Hotel. Included in the program were: several power-point presentations, reading from The Urantia Book, a luncheon, a Jesus remembrance supper and many—very many— questions and answers. Fourteen of us participated.
The next day, our presentation at the Mindolo Ecumenical Foundation School of Theology was attended by more than thirty-four (standing room only) students, teachers, and ministers from many seminaries and schools of theology in the Central African region. We were totally amazed at the number of students coming up at the end to ask for copies of the book. And, as recently as two weeks before this writing, students continue to contact us for books.
On our flight to Cape Town, South Africa, we stopped for a short layover in Johannesburg where we had prearranged to meet with Simone Cox. What a fireball! She is full of energy and on fire with The Urantia Book, a great pesrson, and an emerging leader in the region.
Once in Cape Town, the Rev John Oliver, an Anglican priest, met us and quickly integrated us into the evening’s Bible study group. He openly reads from The Urantia Book during services and calls himself “a bridge” between the revelation and Christianity. We also attended an evening conference at the rectory.
The Africa we saw is a Utantia Book stronghold “waiting to happen.”" Everywhere we went people talked easily about God as if it were an integral part of their lives, no inhibitions, no political correctness, without reservations. The revelation is alive and thriving in Zambia and South Africa.
¶ On the Road to Ecuador
By Dolores Nice
May I had the privilege of being part of a team of members of the Fellowship on a traveling 10-day conference in Equador. The Team was composed of Buck and Arlene Weimer, Lynn Chapman, Susan Ransbottom, all from Colorado and myself from California. We were joined by Dr. Francisco Arias, Dr. Frannia Arias and Nidia Arias from Costa Rica, Mario Ferreyra from Argentina, Jose Manuel Rodriguez from Colombia and the trip organizer, Nelida Oliver from Ecuador.
We visited four cities, Quito, Ibarra, Ambato and Quayaquil and we gave presentations on The Urantia Book in hotel conference rooms and community centers. Members of our group also participated in newspaper and radio interviews. Highlights of this trip were the wonderful teamwork and high energy of the group and the very and gracious way that we were welcomed.
Some lasting memories were being 15,000 feet up in the mountains near Quito, the wonderful dinner and musical entertainment hosted by the study group in Ambato, and the bus trip down mountain roads back to Quayaquil. I recall Susan trying to hang on to her laptop as she, Jose Manuel, and I translated some materials for our next presentation. We gave away four cases Urantia Books, book marks, posters, t-shirts, and coupons for more books. Meeting so many new readers was a real honor and we could not help but be inspired by their hunger for the Revelation.
¶ This n’ That…
- GC To Meet in Phoenix - The General Council of the Fellowship vill hold their mid-year meeting February 9-11, 2007, at Inn Suites Tempe near the Phoenix airport. The meeting will begin Friday, February 9 at 7:00 PM and will continue through Saturday, ending Sunday, February 11 at noon. The Council meeting is open to observers, and readers in the Phoenix area are invited to attend. Cauncilors are looking forward to the opportuniry to socialize with members of the Grand Canyon Society and many friends in the Phoenix area.
- Urantia News- by Email? Are you receiving the Fellowship Community Update? This e-newsletter is sent out by email approximately monthly and contains up-to-the-minute news about the work of the revelacion. If you would like to subscribe, you can do so at http://urantiabook.org/subscribe.htm. Your email address is all you need to enter because you are already receiving the Mighty Messenger.
- Urantia Artwork Sought - The Publications Committee of the Fellowship is seeking artwork on a Urantia Book theme to use in future issues of The Fellowship Herald. If you have artwork you would like to submit for possible use, please contact The Fellowship at fellowship@urantiabook.org, or send a photo of your work to The Urantia Fellowship, P.O. Box 4583, Grand Central Station, New NY 10163.
Art is mortal morontia, the intervening field between man, the material, and man, the spiritual. UB 195:7.15 Share your morontia vision with us. - New International Study Groups Stockholm, Sweden - Contact Michael MacIsaac, mmacisaac@gmail.com. Birmingham, England - Pato Banton Music Centre, 54-57 Key Hill, Hockley, B’ham, B18 5NX, UK
¶ External Links
- Newsletter in Urantia Book Historical Society: https://ubhs.hosted-by-files.com/http/FrameDocTypesBZ.html