© 2015 Avi Dogim, Meredith J. Sprunger, Peter Laurence
© 2015 The Urantia Book Fellowship
¶ Summer Study Session 2015
Our Relationship with God the Father
The tradition of gathering for study, fellowship and prayer continues this summer at SSS’15. This 60th anniversary year of the publication of The Urantia Book promises to be a summer to remember! Plenary speakers Gard Jameson, Linda Buselli and Steve Dreier will share their insights into “Our Relationship with God the Father.” Many of you have heard Gard, Linda and Steve speak at conferences. Their many years of combined wisdom and study have brought creative and inspired talks to countless audiences.
¶ Workshops
Attendees can expect a variety of high quality workshops for advanced and new readers. A sampling includes a workshop by David Glass, “Communion with God, Our Father,” in which participants will research and discuss how intelligent prayer and sincere worship can improve and augment the ability to remain ever-conscious of the love, guidance, and eternal perfection of God, and can assist us in so living our lives to approach the attainment of divine perfection in response to God’s supreme mandate. David Kulieke and Paula Thompson’s workshop, “Knowing Him as Our Universe Father and Knowing the Supreme as Our Universe Mother,” will create a comparison of the attributes and characteristics of both God the Father and other descriptions of fatherhood, such as of the Creator Son and of human fathers, and God the Mother Supreme, as well as other descriptions of motherhood, including the Creative Mother Spirit and human motherhood. Sioux Oliva’s workshop, “Be you perfect, even as I am perfect,” will explore our understanding of the Father’s personality as a model for our own, and assist us in building spiritual practices which foster our connection to the Father’s love in an effort to bring us more intimacy with God through meditation, loving intention, and daily readings in The Urantia Book.
¶ New In-depth Study Track
In addition, a new In-Depth Study track has been planned for this summer. The opportunity to participate requires pre-registration and some preparation prior to the conference. Participants will be asked to study Papers 1- 5, choose or create a theme, prepare questions, and commit to attendance at the preconference retreat and extended sessions together. Participants will share each other’s individual themes, consider how their study is manifested in their lives and how they might share the fruits of their labor. Participation is limited, so please contact Paula Thompson at fellowship@urantiabook.org if you are interested in attending this track. Registration will be closed after July 1.
¶ An Atmosphere Of Communion
The Worship Committee has planned several events in order to create an occasion “pervaded by an atmosphere of communion.” You may attend quiet contemplative meditation in the Africa Chapel before breakfast and dinner each day; gather to contemplate our heavenly Father together prior to the plenary sessions; and on Sunday we will share a remembrance breakfast based on Jesus’ thirteenth morontia appearance. [UB 192]
¶ Youth
Attendees at SSS’12, SSS’13 and IC’14 enjoyed and appreciated the contributions of the Youth and Young Adults. We are anticipating the infusion of their ideals and enthusiasm again this summer. Liz Craig has proposed an exciting integrated program for teens including creative activities in the morning and participation in conference workshops in the afternoon. For more information please contact Liz at mcflizzle90@gmail.com.
¶ Preconference Retreat
A preconference retreat,” Creating Circles of Trust,” will precede the conference from July 7th to 9th. The retreat incorporates listening deeply to each other, trusting the silence and practicing learning to love by listening. The process draws on the work of Parker Palmer’s A Hidden Wholeness, and participants are encouraged to read the book prior to the retreat. Contact Bobbie Dreier at bdreier@earthlink.net for additional information.
¶ General Council
The meeting of the General Council which is open to visitors will follow the conference on Sunday afternoon, July 12th and Monday and Tuesday, July 13th and 14th.
¶ Call For Volunteers
On-site volunteers will be needed to help with registration, in the book store, and with technical tasks – AV and IT. It’s an opportunity for service! Please consider how you might help, and contact David Kulieke at david.kulieke@gmail.com. Thank you.
¶ Socials
Summer Study Sessions are always an opportunity to renew old friendships and make new ones. Evening socials are planned each night culminating in a 60th anniversary celebration. Bring your memories and plan to make new ones this summer as we reflect on the past and look forward to the future!
¶ Registration
You may print out a paper registration form or register online now at www.urantiabook.org , or call the Fellowship Office at 303-467-7858 and request a paper registration form to be sent to you.
¶ President’s Report to the General Council
March 1st, 2015
There is only a small number of people on Urantia who have been privileged to come in contact with the fifth epochal revelation. Even a smaller number have been entrusted by other readers to direct the affairs of the Fellowship.
All revelations endeavor to introduce and expand the true concept of The First Source and Center, but each epochal revelation also has had its own specific mission.
The way I understand it, the mission of the first epochal revelation was the organization and administration of an inhabited sphere by the Planetary Prince. We know how this revelation went astray except for Van and Amadon who exhibited amazing faith and patience.
The primary mission of the second epochal revelation was to provide biologic uplift to the planet. That also did not work out so well, primarily because of impatience.
The third was an emergency revelation. And that was successful in reintroducing the concept of one true God and establishing monotheism.
Of course we know the fourth. Michael had to go through his seven bestowals to attain the status of supreme Universe Sovereign of Nebadon. He chose Urantia for his seventh bestowal shortly after the default of Adam and Eve, over 37 thousand years ago. Apparently, we were the most wretched of the planets in Nebadon. He demonstrated for us the perfect human life dedicated to the doing of the Father’s will. He introduced the concept of God as the loving Father of each individual. He showed that there is no need for intermediaries between The Father and the child, no need for ecclesiastical authority, fetishes, rituals, etc. Of course, we messed up his message a bit. But thanks to him we have the Spirit of Truth, which reveals to us the true Michael/Jesus.
Now we come to the fifth. This one is unusual, since it is in book form and authored by a number of celestial personalities. We have been studying this revelation for many years. What are the new concepts that the revelators are trying to introduce? Each one of us will have his or her own answer. To me they are the concepts of personality and the Supreme, evolutionary Deity. We have our being in and we participate in actualizing The Supreme and therefore in advancing the whole Superuniverse toward Light and Life. So what is our mission? As individuals, we relate to the Father. Each one of us attempts to do His will and actualize his or her individual mission. But here, as the Felllowship’s General Council, we are a group, potentially a team. There are at least two other major organizations. Does the Fellowship have a different vision and mission than the other organizations—and if it is different, in what way?
Each epochal revelation adjusted itself to the planetary conditions and the developmental level of the population of its time. What is the mission of the Fellowship, taking into account the planetary conditions of our time? How do we contribute to bringing Urantia even a minute closer to light and life and actualizing The Supreme? Do we as an organization have the wisdom and patience to do what the planetary seraphic government wants us to do?
These are some of my questions. I have my own opinions about what some of the answers might be.But the answers for this General Council have to come not from any one individual but rather bubble up as a group consensus – this as we fully know that the answers are temporary and are destined to evolve as we grow in spirit and wisdom.
Thank you and may we have a thoughtful and productive meeting
Lila Dogim,
President of the Fellowship
¶ Istanbul 2014 International Book Fair
Participating in the Istanbul 33rd International Book Fair from November 7th to the 11th proved to be an experience that was best described by the IFC Team as “expansive and educationally enriching”. To my knowledge, it was the first time The Urantia Book Revelation was publically introduced in a country (Turkey) where Islam is the dominate religion and Muslims are the majority population; 72% of which follow the Sunni tradition. But privately, many identified themselves as secularist.
Charlene Morrow and Dolores Nice arrived first; and I followed later. There to greet us was Bill Rocap and his fiancée Aysun Sarkaya. Bill, being from the USA, and Aysun, from Turkey, represented the perfect cultural bridge for us to introduce the Revelation at this Book Fair.
Bill and Aysun had already begun the preliminary set-up of the booth when we arrived. We carried 36 Urantia Books in English and 5 in the German translations; Bill had printed 1,000 copies of an introduction to The Urantia Book (he authored) and translated into the Turkish language; and we had our usual plethora of bilingual Spiritual Vitamins. Additionally, we burned 50 CD’s containing the first 104 Papers translated by a young Turkish scholar; and Lila Dogim mailed 36 CD’s containing the Russian and the Korean UB translations (which proved helpful, because there was a Korean book booth very close to ours).
Because we were obviously Westerners, many young people were attracted to our booth wanting to practice their English and check us out-most had some form of i-phone and were hoping to have a picture with us on facebook. A friend of Aysun, Yasemin Vergin, a college student, helped us with some of the booth appearance (a great tablecloth), getting coffee and water, and devoted most of her time at the book fair to the Revelation She helped with the young students attracted to the booth.
As always, there are many personal stories to tell–too numerous for this report. But one young man accosted me and said several times loudly: “MAKE ME A CHRISTIAN…MAKE ME A CRISTIAN!!!” We all assumed he was reacting to the world news stories about the many recent atrocities by the Islam extremists. Fortunately, we had a JANR (Jesus, A New Revelation) Part IV at the booth, gave it to him, and told him it may not make him a Christian, but it would make him a believer in Jesus.
We gave UB’s to two male workers at the hotel. One was our breakfast waiter who remarked: “You Americans are different–you are kind and polite”. The other was a young doorman and lobby greeter. When Dolores shared she was a teacher, she agreed to help him with his English, and every day they would talk for 20 or 30 minutes. He was overjoyed as Dolores handed him a UB as she departed.
We didn’t sell all of the books we carried there, and left the remaining books for Bill and the study group. Of the 1,000 booklets printed 750 were given away, hundreds of Spiritual vitamins were shared, several of the German books were sold, and most of the Turkish translated CD’s and several of the Russian CD’s were handed out.
No words can adequately express the work that Bill Rocap and Aysun Sarkaya are doing to get the Fifth Epochal Revelation embedded in the Turkish culture. Surely the Seraphim have chosen wisely bringing these two great personalities together to carry the torch of truth. They were fearless, righteous, and selfless in all their activities. And when the entire translation is ready for printing, we can rest assured they will complete that task in a gracious and heroic manner.
May The Father’s Will Be Done;
Charlene Morrow, Dolores Nice, Buck Weimer,
The International Fellowship Committee
¶ The Jerusalem Book Fair Experience
The Fellowships International Committee participated in the Jerusalem Book Fair from February 8 - 12, 2015. And, it was our first mission this new year.
We had a very passionate and able team to share the activities and workload. Tim Hobbs and I (the author) represented the IFC; the very able Claire Thurston gave the team the always necessary female perspective; and Avi Dogim, well-known throughout the Urantia community, provided humor and the much-needed Hebrew translation skills.
Gabriel Rymberg was our primary contact person living in Israel who provided information about the Book Fair, translated and facilitated the publishing of an eight-page booklet handout based on The Urantia Book concepts, and secured a guest house (St. Peters at Gallicantu for us). Gabriel could easily speak Spanish, Hebrew, and English–and more. He is also translating The Urantia Book into the Hebrew language for the Foundation and it is about fifty percent completed.
We had much enthusiasm, high hopes, and great expectations. However, we soon came to realize that the Jerusalem Book Fair was a great Hebrew cultural event; but hardly an international book fair. There were 87 booths in the hall. The vast majority of them were of Israel origin, with a few from Germany, London, and the USA. There were also several European cultures represented, and even several embassies (the USA embassy booth was next to ours). It seemed as if all of the workers at the booths were from Israel and spoke Hebrew.
Most of the attendees were of the elderly age group, with many of the younger-set being armed and in military uniform. We didn’t try to hide words or images of Jesus, but we did minimize them. One young lady, when inquiring about the content of Part IV, quickly turned away and said: “You’re in the wrong country.”
Gabriel’s parents (Mauricio and Rita), visiting from Argentina, spent several selfless days at the booth. With Avi and Gabriel dividing their time at the booth and Tim, Claire, and I splitting time, we had sufficient Hebrew translators and male/female representation.
We sold a book to a young man the first hour of the first day and thought “This is going to be good!” then discovered he was a Jordanian Christian working in a logistical capacity for the fair. A total of four books were sold during the entire book fair; and one of them, Tim sold for four shekels (equivalent of about one US dollar). Another book was gifted to the owner of a book store in Jerusalem, an American Jew, who was somewhat familiar with The Urantia Book. Probably the most popular handout was Gabriel’s business card, after it was acknowledged he was translating the Book into the Hebrew language.
The Jerusalem Book Fair was probably our least productive exposure of The Urantia Book to the public; making it painfully clear to all of us how far we are from the world-wide acceptance of the Fifth Epochal Revelation.
Again, we would like to thank the Fellowship members, Executive Committee, and General Council for their undying support.
In Love and Service, The IFC: Buck Weimer, past Chair, Tim Hobbs, current
Chair, Gabriel Rymberg, Claire Thurston, Avi Dogim
¶ Report from Body, Soul, and Spirit Expo
April 17 – 19, 2015
When I asked Nathan Janzen if he would help me line up some volunteers, he was quick to take charge. Within two weeks he had an excellent group of volunteers lined up for the three days and places for Aurora and me to stay.
We rolled in late Thursday afternoon and after a brief rest met with a group of local readers for a study/social that turned into a social & remembrance supper. We visited a while about the upcoming weekend and the Pacific Northwest Gathering coming up in September. Looks like several plan to attend the gathering in Hood River, Oregon.
The Expo went well with Saturday being the busiest day. I noticed a variety of ethnic groups, Asians being the largest. There were many First Nations visitors and I had to quickly get refreshed on what in the UB would be of interest to them. We all had memorable interactions. One I enjoyed was seeing an older man standing near our booth whom I asked if he had seen The Urantia Book. He said he was just waiting for his wife who was at a nearby booth. His statement usually interprets to “My wife drug me hear and I’m not interested in anything you weird people have”. Instead of dropping the conversation I persisted by inviting him to take a look and he came closer and let me show it to him. At one point I could sense he was somewhat interested so when he said he had to go find his wife I did not take it as a brush off. Sure enough, he brought his wife over and showed her the book and we talked a bit. She went about the tables picking up one of every piece of literature we had, then they walked away again. An hour or so later as I was talking to another visitor I glanced over to see him pointing to me and telling our volunteer they had spoken with me and wanted to get a book. He looked pretty excited. I was glad I kept up the conversation with him.
There were two deaf persons who stopped by the booth. The first had to use a walker to get around and had other issues than just deafness. I had seen her pass by the booth a couple times and said a prayer that she would come by. When she did we began our communication with her iPad. Then spirit took over. Her message was that she had read some of The Urantia Book online but found it difficult to understand. I gestured to the book and opened it to the history papers and as I would turn to an interesting section I would give her a thumbs up that she would not have any trouble with this section. As this progressed her face lit up in a most genuine and moving way. When I turned to the Jesus papers it was now two thumbs up. Even though she was deaf, my communication with her was far more genuine and deeply felt than any other communication I experienced all weekend. To her delight, I gave her a copy of the book.
The other deaf woman came to the booth with her daughter, who signed with her to communicate. That also was a touching experience to see the daughter signing my words to her mother. I could notice the signing was being positively embellished by the daughter as she herself was getting increasingly interested. I told them I was willing to give mom a book but the mother took out the money and paid me for it. These experiences touched me in many ways, especially when contrasted to the next day (Sunday) when I had a series of visitors who were reluctant to buy a book even after much discussion about it.
We wound up selling 28 books and gifting 6 for a total of 34 book distributed. There was much interest in study groups and the local readers are reaching out to those on our sign up list.
I have said this before, and it bears repeating, that the funds provided to bring the UB to people in all parts of the world is so appreciated by the Outreach workers, the readers we touch when we visit their community, and the recipients of the books we distribute as we pass through these communities. I trust one day there will be adequate funds to reach many more area’s than we can currently reach with our available funding. All who contribute to this work deserve a big THANK YOU!
Thomas Orjala
Outreach Committee
¶ A Virtual Treasure Trove
Did you know that a complete set of recordings of Bill Sadler lectures can be listened to from our site? Bill was the son of Doctor’s Lena and William Sadler. He was a remarkable and beloved teacher of Urantia Book concepts to early students of the book. He may be one of the best Urantia Book teachers ever. He had a way of making the concepts of the book come alive. These treasures were recorded live, in the 1960s, by the late Bud Kagan. If you listen closely, you can even hear Bill clicking his Zippo lighter as he lights up a cigarette. To access our comprehensive archive of Bill Sadler’s lectures, click here: www.urantia-book.org/audio/sadler/index_sadler_1.html
We have several great active bloggers who regularly post inspiring messages here: https://www.urantiabook.org/urantian-blogs
We add new products to our online store regularly. Now available is David Kantor’s excellent video, Re-Imagining Jesus: A visual journey into The Urantia Book story of Jesus.
Did you also know that the Fellowship’s site is a definitive resource on Urantia scholarship? We just added an amazing new study by Urantia scholar Stuart Kerr: God, Man and Supreme: Origin and Destiny. It is available in PDF format and has great diagrams.
Our website, https://www.urantiabook.org is a 20 year labor of love created by dedicated and devoted students of The Urantia Book. The Fellowship was one of the very first organizations to provide web resources for the revelation.
The site features 60 years’ worth of scholarship and study. It’s a virtual treasure trove for seekers and serious students alike. If you can’t find something you want, just type a keyword associated with that resource into the main search bar on the site’s header and see what comes up.
You may have noticed some design changes in certain pages of the site. We are currently making our site responsive so that it can be accessed from every kind of device. Please watch for the official release soon. We pledge to always strive to make our site one that is fresh, interesting, dependable and useful.
Change the last two lines of the article to this: By the way, if you appreciate this effort and find it to be a helpful and useful resource, please help us to keep it going by going to www.urantiabook.org and clicking the DONATE button at the top of the home page. Or, you can send a check to: The Urantia Book Fellowship, PO Box 6631, Broomfield, CO 80021. And thank you!
¶ Publications Online?
If you would prefer to receive our publications, the Mighty Messenger and the Fellowship Herald online rather than by regular mail, please let us know. By receiving these online, you would have them much sooner than the printed copies. To set your online reception in motion, we need your email address. Please send the information to fellowship@urantiabook.org. Even if we have your email address, we would need to know that you wanted us to provide you with this service.
¶ Upcoming Events…
- For a new spiritual adventure, join SymmetryOfSoul.org, Tuesdays at 6:00 PM PT (9:00 PM ET). To review past shows go to the same link and click on “Archive”.
- The Fellowship Summer Study Session 2015, July 9-12, at Techny Towers, Northbrook, IL. A pre-conference retreat, “Creating Circles of Trust”, July 9, will precede the study session.
- For a regular Saturday treat, tune into the “Cosmic Citizen” webcast with call-in. 10:00 AM Mountain. Call-in number for webcast. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/CosmicCitizen. Call-in number: 646-716-8158 (North America) during the time the show is live. Archived shows are available.
¶ The Mighty Messenger Staff
Published by Uversa Press for the Publications Committee of The Urantia Book Fellowship.
Members: Linda Buselli, Chair Cece Forrester, David Glass, Nancy Johnson, Sage Waitts
877.288.3772
fellowship@urantiabook.org
www.urantiabook.org