© 2017 Avi Dogim, Meredith J. Sprunger, Peter Laurence
© 2017 The Urantia Book Fellowship
As students of The Urantia Book, we have come to recognize the art of working with others has a tremendous effect. Even though this international conference remains the Fellowship’s charge, our help comes from the loving support of many volunteers, donors, and presenters who are members of other Urantia groups, Interfaith groups, and businesses dedicated to actualizing higher values in the workplace. We are supremely grateful to share in simple acts of generosity and kindness.
This is a thank you if you have already helped us fund the IC17 gathering. If not, please consider donating. Your dollars can help bring international and young students of The Urantia Book to the conference, supporting musicians and enhancing activities for this conference in Denver. Here are the links: IC’17 Program Donations and IC’17 Scholarship Donations.
If you have not yet registered for the conference and wish a paper registration form, please contact the Fellowship office, 877-288-3772.
For further information about the conference go to: www.IC17.org.
For information on the DU campus go to: http://www.events.du.edu/
We hope that families are an active part of IC’17, so it is exciting to share that the Family Life committee has been working together happily to create an exhilarating children’s program for the conference. We are planning a safe, fun, and subtly spiritually-infused program based in the Jerusalem Marketplace for children ages three–13.
Teens 13 and older may join the Truthseekers’ adventure, their parents as workshop participants, or the children’s program. If there is a need and parents are interested, we plan to form a cooperative child care experience for babies through two-years-old.
Our team is the backbone of the program, yet to really “spread our wings” and fly, we will need volunteers. Each attending parent will be relied upon to volunteer, as usual, and we welcome all folks who have a love for and care about children to serve—we’ll only be as good as all the minds, hearts, and hands involved. To quote our friend Paula Thompson, “If you want to change the world, love a child”! I pray any and all of us want to change the world enough to come love children for a while during the IC’17 children’s program.
Thank you and eternal love!! Truthseeker registration includes: Large Speaking Events + Rafting, Hiking, and lunch daily.
The cost of the registration as Truthseeker covers exactly the cost IC’17 is paying to the University of Denver. Rafting and other activities are generously covered by the Fellowship. The cost is only $280.00.
Truthseeker scholarships are available with paying parent registration. Please contact the office for more information.
“Children are permanently impressed only by the loyalties of their adult associates…” [UB 100:1.4]
Store We will again have a store at this year’s International Conference.
Our conference store is a wonderful way to sell and show your products or art to the Urantia community. Are you interested in offering a product or artwork in the conference store? If so, you should know the following:
If you have questions please call us at 303-476-5878. We look forward to working with you!
IC17 STORE link: http://www.urantiabook.org/urantia-book-store.
Encompassing the celebration of the birth of Jesus and a spectacular total solar eclipse.
We are hosting the fourth Scientific Symposium. These symposia had their origin in 1988 in Nashville, Tennessee. The second was held in 1991 in Oklahoma City. The third was also in Oklahoma City in 1994. In the tradition of these symposia, we will be celebrating the fourth Scientific Symposium in the same spirit that gave rise to so much wonderful thinking on how the Urantia papers correlate with current scientific understanding. Urantia Foundation recently sponsored a well-received and in-depth Scientific Symposium earlier this year. However, the depth of this small meeting at Urantia Foundation was much more specific to a more limited population of truly impressive thinkers about science and The Urantia Book. Our Scientific Symposium as in the past, will be a larger event and will be geared more toward the generic reader of The Urantia Book. In other words, the science topics will be so well known to the presenters, that they will be able to make their subject matter understandable to nearly anybody.
Presentations will be relatively brief, lasting 20-25 minutes with poetry and artistic creativity woven between scientific presentations. If you would like to present or do a 10-minute artistry segment, please contact Tom Allen at tommykaren1@att.net or (405) 570-6862.
By Nadi
I dedicate this piece to you—Torchbearer of our Beloved Creator. Torchbearers of divine love are spiritedly operating among us, they are in loving, joyous, dedicated service, and ministry near and far, doing phenomenal work on all levels of society—publicly, privately, and many quietly—they are the modern day apostles, disciples, and devotees of the inextinguishable light of heaven, ardently spreading true love throughout the world, braving the islands of lovelessness in our midst with the healing power of love divine; the whole planet is tremendously blessed with these love inspired idealist, and consecrated laborers of the Spirit, practical darers who serve the love fearers with deeds of loving grace; pure love illumines their heart, and radiates from their face.
These courageous love-bearers are compassionate carers, champions of living truth, promoters, and co-creators of divine beauty, wholehearted exponents of spiritual goodness; empathy heeders, altruistic feelers, soul feeders, and dynamic leaders committed to making the Spirit of Love the relational atmosphere of all humanity, pioneers of the ethics of brotherly love, teaching the far-reaching gospel of the Father-Motherhood of God, and the resultant sister-brotherhood of all people, while making it known that the Universal-Eternal-Infinite Creator’s love is the greatest actuality in all the world.
Agape love is calling for more creative torchbearers, enlightened emissaries, wise advocates, inspired messengers, proactive ministers, intelligent crusaders, and progressive evangelist, encouraging all souls to simply go about learning to truly love other people, deliberately, and on purpose, to uphold the spirit flame of eternal love before the hearts of all beings unconditionally, that all may abide, and share, ultimately, in the affectionate warmth of the Creator’s love. May we, with fullness of heart, passionately strive to replicate God’s will-of-love, each person in their own distinctive way becoming torchbearers of divine love—bound to eventually pervade the emotional heart stream of humankind, even now, and forevermore.
By John Hay
After 30 years of watchful waiting, the Boulder School is again opening its doors this fall to students of The Urantia Book. If you feel called to a deeper study of the book and its teachings, or are merely curious about what’s next for committed readers, click here to learn more: www.TheBoulderSchool.com
We are looking for a few good souls who will finish what they begin, who will dedicate their religious and philosophical lives to grinding up the Grains of Truth and feeding Jesus’ sheep.
www.TheBoulderSchool.com – Please pass it on !!
We are asking for your help! If you had a relative, friend, or loved one who “graduated” sometime between our last International Conference (June 2014) and the present, please submit the 5 bits of information about them. This info to be shown in a “Remembrance” slide show sometime during IC’17 in Denver this July.
Please submit to: weimer1@hotmail.com
Thanks for your help, Buck Weimer
Pueblo, CO
Susan Rowland has been an ICU RN for 30 years, specializing in guiding patients and families through the turbulent processes of bone marrow transplants and death and dying. While active on the hospital’s ethics committee and finishing her doctorate in clinical psychology with a major area of study in cognitive behavior therapy, psycho-oncology, and thanatology, she was also a guest lecturer and facilitator at the University of Cincinnati Medical School in their courses on Death, Dying, Loss and Grieving and Medical Ethics.
Through her work, she has found many of the concepts in The Urantia Book regarding the nature of God and his relationship to man/woman along with our ascension career, cosmology and the teachings of Christ Michael to be readily accepted by patients and their families seeking reassurance of their connection to the First Source and Center, Christ Michael, and each other.
As a student of text and study group host since 1990, she has been blessed with the opportunity to now serve on the General Council at a time when our beloved Fellowship is in the process of adjusting to the challenges of unity and moving forward in a new generation. She looks forward to serving her faith and new friends to the best of her ability.
Diane Labrecque has been a reader of The Urantia Book since 1991 and an active member of the Urantia Community ever since. Diane founded The United Urantia Family in 2010 offering triennial gatherings for UB readers meeting together from different countries, coupled with the Easter Renewal Retreats aimed at renewing our spirit with Jesus Christ Michael during the yearly time of His Resurrection. In 2013, she started to organize trips or pilgrimages to the Holy Land of Jesus for UB readers which was met with great success. Diane was a frequent guest on the Blogtalk Radio Show Cosmic Citizen hosted by Paula Thompson along with her co-hosts. Diane has a Urantia Book study group at her house in Montreal every Wednesday evening.
Derek Samaras is a second generation UB reader from Chicago, IL. Derek was introduced to fellowship outreach during his 2x2 outreach trip in Croatia with the Alaska northern lights society. He is a film maker and regularly creates video content for the revelation He has also been doing interesting research in the field of history and giving provocative presentations about the Sumerian depictions of ancient epochal revelation. Derek will be leading a workshop at the international conference this summer in Denver entitled: “Historical evidence of celestial activity on our planet”. You can catch Derek hosting the Cosmic Citizen radio show Saturday mornings on blogtalkradio/ cosmiccitizen.
By Michael Painter
The Interfaith Committee is asking for your help. We would like to build a resource library of world religions and belief systems and strategies to reach out to them. If you have knowledge of a particular religion, a New Age group, or any other group of believers (for example the UFO group), we would like you to write an essay in which you compare and contrast the groups’ key beliefs to the teachings of The Urantia Book. We will review it and possibly add it to the study and resource materials on the Fellowship website. If a reader has an interest in approaching a group, this material could serve as a valuable resource for them. In addition, we are looking for successful strategies to approach these groups. If you have a method or approach that you have found successful, please share it with us. Thank you for your help in this project. We look forward to hearing from you. We will provide a follow up report to let you know how the project is progressing. Michael Painter, Chairman, on behalf of the Interfaith Committee. Send to mpainter913@gmail.com.
I am currently teaching Philosophy part time at a junior college in Indiana. My professional background has been in education having an Masters in Education, government service, and non-profit administration. I’ve been reading The Urantia Book since 1972. I worked for the Foundation for 10 years and the Fellowship for two from 1979 to 1991. As a member of Orvonton UB Society, and have served in all officer positions. I’ve served on several Fellowship committees, am now serving a second term on the General Council, have been involved in many conferences both as a planner and presenter, and have been a participant and starter of study groups since 1973. I have two sons and three grandchildren. I am a veteran of Viet Nam and have a Purple Heart from that experience.
A seat has become vacant on the General Council (GC) for a term ending in July, 2018.
To be eligible to serve on the General Council, one must be a member of the Fellowship, either a Member at Large or a Society Member. In addition, the Fellowship’s constitution requires that you must have read The Urantia Book in its entirety, at least one time, as the only other prerequisite for service.
General Councilors are typically elected by the Triennial Delegate Assembly (TDA). Every three years representatives from regional Urantia societies come together with the task of electing or reelecting 12 full term Councilors.
The General Council is a deliberative body which guides the overall direction of The Urantia Book Fellowship. It elects the Fellowship’s 5 officers as well as the chairmen/women who head up our 9 standing committees. These 14 people are called the Executive Committee. The GC also has the power to create by-laws and change the Fellowship’s constitution. You can read more about the General Council from our constitution here: http://www.urantia-book.org/Constitution/Constitution2013-02-09.pdf
Membership on the GC involves attending just two meetings per year. Meetings are held over a weekend and in a variety of locations across North America and typically occur in February (in a warm climate) and again at the close of, and in conjunction with, the Fellowship’s summer conference. It’s important to note that Councilors must be able to cover their own costs to attend meetings. This includes travel to the meeting, hotel room, and meals. Occasional financial assistance may be available to Councilors if circumstances leave them unable to meet these expenses.
Being on the Fellowship’s General Council is an amazing experience. Some General Councilors have served for 2, 3 and 4 9-year terms. Lifelong friendships are established and the beauty of deliberation, group wisdom and teamwork is illuminated in remarkable and inspiring ways. If you would like to apply for service please contact the office at 303-467-7858 for the necessary application.
Michelle Klimesh, Pipeline Reporter
On Saturday April 1st, readers had their first meeting of the study group of The Urantia Book in Caracas.
Niurka Jose reports: “For us it has been a wonderful experience to start a new study group, since in Caracas there was not a group where we could meet and talk about the 5th revelation. ”
The particularity of this meeting was that we attended several young people, long readers of The Urantia Book who want to know more about universal truths despite their young age.
Thanks to the Urantia Sharing Project and to the valuable collaboration of The Urantia Book Fellowship we were able to donate two books to two young girls, assiduous readers of The Urantia Book.
Each time we have more and more people interested in participating with us, we find people who had been searching for The Urantia Book and who had not been able to acquire it, and who can now access it for free.
We ask the Father to continue leading us in this beautiful work of being his tools so that the revelation reaches all who seek God.” To make a donation, click here: http://www.urantiabook.org/urantia-book-store/contributions/pipeline-oflight-one-time-contribution
In the first quarter of 2017, our Pipeline of Light volunteers placed two hundred, sixty-seven copies of The Urantia Book into nine countries. Your donations to the Pipeline helped us deliver books to readers and study groups in Chile, Malawi, Venezuela, Canada, Indonesia, the United States, Cuba, Great Britain, and Columbia. We also sent books to Easter Island, which technically isn’t a new country because it belongs to Chile, but its still fun to report.
The current efforts bring our Pipeline all-time totals to seven thousand, one hundred and ten copies of The Urantia Book placed into eighty-five countries around the world. Many thanks to the wonderful volunteers who keep this flow of books moving into the world for us!
We deeply appreciate the contributions of our volunteers and our donors. If you would like to contribute to this work, donations can be made online at:
http://urantiabook.org/urantia-book-store/contributions
We asked our friend Robert Wilson of Denver why he donates. Here is what he said:
The ancient method of a tithe of 10% of personal increase was made by Abraham to Machiventa Melchizedek. It was instituted to build and support the organization of Third Epochal Revelation. This method, through time, has been continued by countless generations of Christians and Jews.
The Urantia Book as the Fifth Epochal Revelation can be similarly supported in its dissemination mission and in the education of new Disciples of Jesus Christ Michael, because it also must have a stable financial base. Sharing our substance to further the work of God will help to move the revelation of The Urantia Book to ever greater possibilities.
In my own personal experience of giving, the Spirit has led me to give half of my tithe to my church and the other half to a Urantia based organization. I feel strongly inclined to give to The Urantia Book Fellowship in support of its publication of an excellent low cost Urantia Book as well as its outreach and educational programs.
I believe that this is a good way of helping the revelation grow, through personal financial commitment. From the honor of sharing monetarily in this work, my wife and I, by giving, feel a stronger connection and sense of participation.
Thank you Robert!
After 62 years of continuous effort, The Urantia Book Fellowship keeps forging new paths of dissemination, socialization and study with and for The Fifth Epochal Revelation.
The Primary focus of The Urantia Book Fellowship is the dissemination of The Urantia Book, but we also strive to bring together people who read and believe in the book. Through service, study and socialization, we have dedicated our efforts to serving the revelation and all who serve it. We affirm our sincere conviction that The Urantia Book is a genuine revelation of truth to humankind. We serve God and humanity primarily through the dissemination of its teachings but we also serve those who already read and believe in the book by fostering study and socialization. Fellowship members seek understanding among all students of The Urantia Book and among the peoples of the world. We are committed to the ideal of spiritual unity, which embraces individual religious freedom and diversity, as embodied in the teachings of The Urantia Book.
Please consider supporting our efforts. Thank you!
Send a check or money order to The Urantia Book Fellowship, PO Box 6631, Broomfield, CO 80021, or visit www.urantiabook.org and click on word “Donate” on the main menu bar.
When man goes in partnership with God, great things may, and do, Happen. [UB 132:7.9]
Dennis Marshall (call me Marshall) writes from Fort Wayne, IN:
I am currently the president of Meredith Sprunger’s study group. Many of the old timers have since graduated and most of our group (typically 12) have been reading for around a year.
We like to donate to the Pipeline of Light and we have one member who is doing a prison ministry. Myself, I am busy writing. Some examples: Race Superiority and UB (serious questions about when media focuses on UB), Race Improvement and UB (also for time when UB is discovered by the media), Labyrinths as Contemplative Structures (instead of Urantia churches), The Shroud of Turin and the UB (whimsy, not profound).
We also have a little booklet, The Universe is Friendly, which is a presentation of Urantian Christianity without mentioning the UB or Fandors. Since our NE Indiana area is conservative, we think that the booklet (copyright unknown) will encourage traditional Christians to adjust their beliefs in the hope that someday they will be ready for the Big Blue Book.
Levon Eudaley and Charlene Morrow write from Oklahoma:
On Sunday, March 5th, Charlene, who represents our society in the Interfaith Alliance, was asked to give a talk to the Morning Star Center in Norman. It’s titled “What, when, and why Revelation?”
Every year we hold a booth at the Peace Festival and will continue to do so. The last one we were at was November 12th, 2016.
Monthly, we hold five different types of meetings: The group Sunday family class, the Allens’ Sunday topical reading, the Morrows’ Tuesday sequential reading, the Eudaleys’ Wednesday split-sequential reading, and the Saturday “Leadership Through Readership” class.
For our Jesus’ Birthday celebration we had Charles Olivea deliver a great speech, and had a great service all around.
Christilyn Biek Larson writes from the Rockies:
At our last society meeting, we at RMSF society have decided to do as in ‘heaven’ and have a quarterly “Conclave,” a social gathering, with a meal, the sole purpose of which will be keeping in touch, catching up on our lives, socializing and where we can, discuss family business (people in our society who may have special needs which might require service projects or fundraising). A remembrance supper will be included at these events. By making this a welcoming social event, without making a big deal about it, we may invite others to participate with our group. If we wish, we may include games or other recreational activities. Families are included as usual and children of all ages are welcomed.
Socializing around a meal is always a great way to catch up on each other’s lives and stay connected. ‘Reversion’ is always a good way to counterbalance the heaviness of UB Intellectual study.
Avi Dogim reports from the greater NYC area: USGNY meets quarterly over a meal, followed by a study program, at various members’ homes. After the completion of the program, there typically ensues a society business meeting during which reports are given by society officers and program chairs; from time to time, issues concerning the Fellowship (e.g. unity, UB printing, etc.) are also discussed. For the first time, this year in the end of April, the society leadership is planning to experiment with a Zoom annual business meeting. Particularly noteworthy is USGNY’s recent completion of its Turkish translation of the UB.
Study groups in the greater NYC area continue to meet in NY City, Northern NJ, Westchester Co. and Connecticut.
By David Kulieke
Anyone seeking cooperation among groups of readers of The Urantia Book need look no further than several joint efforts of various combinations among the education committees of the organizations. The includes a seminar followed by a joint IC workshop in the summer of 2014 and last year’s San Antonio conference/summer study session.
The latest endeavor was a joint seminar presented by the Education Committee of The Urantia Book Fellowship together with that of Urantia Foundation. The topic was “Giving of the Truth of Heaven: Using Our Talents.” The seminar focused on different ways that students of The Urantia Book could share the book’s teachings without necessarily referencing the book itself.
On the long weekend of March 23 through 26, Urantia Foundation hosted this education seminar at 533, with twelve presenters who represented responsibilities from throughout Urantia organizations and activities.
Presenters wrote papers and gave presentations on ideas and experiences each had sharing the teachings in this way. The presenters included Gard Jameson, chair of the Foundation Education Committee, and David Kulieke, chair of the Fellowship Education Committee, who were also the co-organizers of the event. Other presenters included Chris Wood, Elisabeth Callahan, Guy Perron, Marilynn Kulieke, Dave Elders, Barbara Newsom, Daniel Glazer, Andre Radatus, and Bruce Johnson, all of whom presented from within the room, and James Perry, who presented on Zoom. Some observers also attended at 533, and many more watched and contributed questions and comments via Zoom.
These presenters provided a lively forum for talking about a multitude of topics including; the nature of our audience, our philosophy of education, the possibility of developing a more intentional teacher program, and the benefits of institutionalizing our educational efforts. Practical experiences in the classroom, giving guest sermons, consideration of the use of words, and even whiteboard animation were included in looks at various ways to share The Urantia Book. The texts of these essays will shortly be on the Education webpage, which is under “Study” on the Fellowship website.
The gathering closed late Sunday morning with a discussion of essential principles and concepts derived from the discussions. The kinds of settings where one might share the Revelation include both formal situations, such as a classroom or a church class or giving service to a patient, as well as spontaneous moments: “As We Pass By.” Among themes that emerged, some focus on the individuals with whom one is interacting, such as “Listen empathetically: be interested in person you are talking to.” Other observations reflect what the individual sharing the teachings can bring to the moment, including: “Be prepared with a response” and “Use YOUR talents and expertise; Teach what you do.” People also emphasized the importance of taking action. A full report of conclusions drawn from the seminar will be shared on the website along with the individual papers.
This seminar was one of many collaborative educational efforts during the past few years of different combinations of committees from the Fellowship, the Foundation, and the UAI. Another will be this summer in Denver at the Fellowship’s IC17. There will be a a Forum of a number of educational organizations for the study of The Urantia Book, including a report from this seminar. The weekend included superb hosting by Joanne Strobel and delicious meals by Ashley Hayes.
“…those who lead men to God experience the supreme satisfaction of human service.” [UB 132:6.1]
Published by Uversa Press for the Publications Committee of The Urantia Book Fellowship.
Members: Linda Buselli: Chair, Andrea Barnes, Larry Bowman, Avi Dogim, Cece Forrester, Sage Waitts
877.288.3772
fellowship@urantiabook.org
www.urantiabook.org