© 1990 John Hay, David Elders, Robert J. Schuer, David Glass, Francyl Streano Gawryn, Beth Bartley, Meredith Sprunger, Carolyn Kendall, Lynne Kulieke, Eileen Laurence, Patrick Yesh, James G. Johnston, Marilynn Kulieke, Brent St. Denis, William Wentworth, Arlene & Buck Weimer, Larry Mullins
© 1990 The Urantia Book Fellowship (formerly Urantia Brotherhood)
FIFTH EPOCHAL FELLOWSHIP for readers of _The Urantia Book_
SPECIAL CONFERENCE ISSUE II
1990 GENERAL CONFERENCE
WALKING WITH GOD
SNOWMASS/ASPEN, COLORADO U.S.A.
JUNE 30-JULY 5, 1990
The JOURNAL
Published Quarterly by
FIFTH EPOCHAL FELLOWSHIP
529 Wrightwood Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60614Special Issue Price; $5.00 per copy (includes postage)
* All quotations within this Journal, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Urantia Book, © 1955 by URANTIIA Foundation, all rights reserved.
Inasmuch as there is no official interpretation of the teachings of The Urantia Book, the views expressed herein are based wholly upon each author’s understanding and personal religious experience.
Copyright © 1990 by Fifth Epochal Fellowship Corporation. All rights reserved. Printed in U.S.A.
¶ About This Issue…
This is the second of two planned special conference editions of The Journal to include some of the talks presented in the second half of the 1990 International Conference held at Snowmass/Aspen, Colorado from June 30 -July 5, 1990.
The opinions, views, and/or conclusions presented in these talks are based wholly upon each author’s understanding and personal religious experience. Therefore, the Fellowship is unable to respond to questions or comments received from readers on any of the talks presented. However, upon written request, the Fellowship will forward invitations for exchange of information or further dialogue on any of the topics contained in this issue of The Journal directly to the author(s) concerned.
¶ 1990 International Conference “Walking With God” — Table Of Contents
SUNDAY
- Plenary Session
- Opening Address, John Hay
TUESDAY
- Theme: “Reflective Meditation on Cosmic Meanings”
- “Experiencing the God in Ourselves and in Others”, David Elders
- “An Eye to the Keyhole of Eternity”, Robert J. Schuer
- “Reflective Meditation on Cosmic Meanings”, David Glass
- “Discovering Cosmic Meanings through Personal Story and Song”, Francyl Streano Gawryn
- Theme: “Worshipful Problem Solving”
- “An Offer TOO Good to Refuse”, Beth Bartley
- “Prayerful Problem Solving”, Meredith Sprunger
- “Worshipful Problem Solving”, Carolyn Kendall
- “Worshipful Problem Solving”, Lynne Kulieke
- “Everyday Ethics", Eileen Laurence
WEDNESDAY
- Plenary Session
- “The Avoidance of Selfishness: Living as if in the Presence of God”, Patrick Yesh
- Theme: “Avoidance of Selfishness”
- “Avoidance of Selfishness”, James G. Johnston
- "Working to Resolve the Dynamic Tension between Selfishness and Selflessness, Marilynn Kulieke
- Theme: “Living as if in the Presence of God”
- “C.H.A.N.G.E.S.-Practice Makes Perfect”, Brent St. Denis
- “Living as in the Presence of God: Making the Effort”, William Wentworth
- “Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Family Peace (Ha, Ha)”, Arlene & Buck Weimer
THURSDAY
- Plenary Session
- “Walking with Humankind”, Larry Mullins
¶ Opening Address
by John Hay
What I am about to say, I believe, for I speak not from text books nor theological courses, but from the heart, and from my own experiences and those of others. I believe the word of God, and love him, and my faith in Jesus Christ is irrevocable. I have no doubts, no reservations, no hesitations in my belief in him, the living Christ. Jesus is first in my life, and without his hand on me, I am absolutely nothing, and I thank him for giving me life.
All that I do is for God, with the accolades going one way, to him. In whatever I do, my goal is simply to be his servant in conveying the message of Christ, which is rooted in love. I accept Christ as the way, the truth, and the life. However, I support, acknowledge, and encourage the spiritual truths found among all people, because we all share a common destiny, unity in God.
¶ Experiencing the God in Ourselves and in Others
by David Elders
What follows is a summary of a participatory meditation and experiential talk presented at the Fifth Epochal Fellowship’s International Conference on July 3, 1990, in Snowmass/Aspen, Colorado.
You are each responsible for whatever you learn here today. Listen to the words spoken inwardly as well as outwardly. Open the words as windows to higher meaning and value. Penetrate the mystery of your very existence via this process of self-awareness and Godawareness.
Try to experience, not just understand, the meaning and value behind the words. Use each as a window, a means, to truth — truth which is both u_ and experienced. Allow the Thought Adjuster to adjust your thinking ABOUT the words into the direct experience OF the reality symbolized by the words.
What is the meaning of “reflective” thinking or meditation? Is it that it is “reflective” of higher truth, rather than just expressing the time spent thinking? If we looked at words in a different way, would we allow their reflective power to be released? Example: “Why does it matter? Because God cares!” If, in responding to the question, we only understood “matter” to signify material reality, we might have responded with intellectual reasons for the existence of matter. But, in looking at the word in a slightly different light, our answer is “reflective” of new meaning and value.
¶ An Eye to the Keyhole of Eternity
by Robert J. Schuer
It is with great pleasure that I stand here on Urantia and speak to a special group of Andon and Fonta’s descendants. Your “Walk with God” has brought you here from many states and even distant countries. You are interested in ways in which spiritual life is promoted and in particular the habits which cause your spiritual life to progress. The habit of meditating on cosmic meanings is the one with which we are concerned right now.
To meditate means to perceive truth and how you fit into it — how your being, your person, your spirit, your life, your family, your country, your world fit into it. Meanings have to do with the identification which you make with true values and purposes so that they become a structure and guide for your life now and for eternity. We all seek to find “meaning” for life and existence. Those who have found no “meaning” for their lives are in danger of wasting them.
When the word “cosmic” is applied to meanings it is to denote that they are far reaching and include the whole cosmos. This has to be because all truth is one and is centered in the one true God. Since you are interested in God, you find that you are interested in the entire cosmos, your place in it, and your function in it.
¶ Reflective Meditation on Cosmic Meanings
by David Glass
I want this to be a meditation of the meanings of the cosmos. And this survey will begin with the question: “What is the first single word that comes to mind when we consider the cosmos?” I believe that word is “BIG”!
It takes eight minutes for sunlight to reach our eyes. The sun is 93 million miles away. The light from the nearest star left that sun in 1986. Orvonton is 500,000 light years in diameter. The first outer space zone is 25,000,000 light years wide. Light from stars in that first outer space zone left those stars when Urantia was in the age of elephants and horses. At the time that the westward continental drift of North America came to a halt causing the rugged upsurge of the bedrock beneath the then western plains into the towering Rocky Mountains, light from stars in the second outer space zone reached Urantia.
William Sadler, Jr., described the size of the master universe in this way: If the size of the grand universe were that of a tennis ball, the first outer space zone would be the size of a living room. The second would be the size of a cubic city block. The third outer space zone would be the size of a large cubic city. And the fourth zone would be the size of the moon.
¶ Discovering Cosmic Meanings through Personal Story and Song
by Francyl Streano Gawryn
Talk begins with this reading from “Mary Magdalen”:
It was in the month of June when I saw Him for the first time. He was walking in the wheatfield when I passed by with my handmaidens, and He was alone.
The rhythm of His step was different from other men’s, and the movement of His body was like naught I had seen before.
Men do not pace the earth in that manner. And even now I do not know whether He walked fast or slow.
¶ An Offer Too Good to Refuse
by Beth Bartley
Starting with the spiritual retreat, I have continuously heard things in different talks that have built up to what I have to say about problem solving. For instance, at the Adventures in Spiritual Living retreat we were talking about Prayer in the Moment, the immediate and sometimes emergency need for help from God. In his keynote speech Steve Dreier talked about the inner and the outer walk and how they relate. Carol Hay referred to a need of skills to promote our interest to act; you get skills through repetitive action, the formation of habits. Bobbie Dreier talked about her search to find God, the problems she encountered and her need to rely on God for guidance. Phil Geiger’s songs this morning were about worship and the effect it has on your attitude; attitude affects your perspective of the problem. Finally, there was Allison Gardner’s talk this morning and the third slip of paper; the one we were to keep. Mine said: “Love with all your heart, ask me for help, and feel peace.” All of these thoughts relate in some way to my perspective of problem solving. My message: When you have problems, ask God for help.
Several months ago in prayer, I was evaluating the change in direction of my career, and my interest in business ethics. Since there are no established credentials for this line of work, it created a challenge in how to proceed. In this particular conversation with God I mentioned that I could stand to update my experience speaking to large groups of people. I ended the conversation with the question, “How do you get on the Urantian speaking circuit?” Obviously God heard my question, for a short while later Marta Elders called and offered me this opportunity. The other day Monica Kemp commented that “God called my bluff.”
¶ Prayerful Problem Solving
by Meredith J. Sprunger
Human beings are, by nature, problem-solving creatures. Our basic needs and urges interact with environmental stimuli in search of organismic satisfaction and fulfillment. All problem solving from birth to death is set in the context of our nature, experience, and learning. How we solve our problems is most fundamentally determined by our nature and resources. We are material beings integrated and controlled by a neural system directed by mind and ind welt by spirit. Human beings, therefore, have physical, mental, and spiritual resources to aid in problem solving. All of these capacities and capabilities interact and function holistically.
Centuries of experience — verified by scientific discovery, rational insight, and spiritual revelation — has taught us that these triune human resources exist in a hierarchical relationship. Our material nature is directed by the meanings and quality of mind, and mind is eventually influenced and determined by the values of spiritual reality. The more immature and underdeveloped the individual is psychologically and spiritually, the greater the domination of the physical laws and conditions will be. Conversely, the more mature and developed we are mentally and spiritually, the less we are influenced and controlled by our physical condition and the material world.
¶ Worshipful Problem Solving
by Carolyn Kendall
The subject of this presentation is “worshipful problem solving,” It is included on page 1095 among the habits which promote religious growth. Before we get into a discussion of solving problems through prayer and worship, let’s first establish whether we actually do have problems in this life. Are problems real? Do we exaggerate situations, magnifying them all out of proportion to their importance? What is the human condition on our world? Is it possible to deny suffering and attain a level of blissful oblivion?
In Buddhism, the Second Noble Truth involves the idea of one’s attachment to things or to other persons that influences how one reacts; i.e., the death of another doesn’t grieve if we’re not attached to him; loss of possessions doesn’t matter if we’re not attached to them; our own death is not important if we’re not attached to life, and so on. The Third Noble. Truth teaches that if we overcome desire and attachment by rising above illusions, we will cease to suffer. Buddhism does not deny the existence of suffering, or “dukka”; it teaches an attitude toward suffering where one can become immune to suffering.
In the Old Testament, the author of the book of Job never presumes that suffering is just, or that we should harden our heart to the misery of others. His question: Why, who or what causes it? Is one himself responsible? To atheists, suffering is proof that there is no God of love, no controlling spirit. We live, we suffer, we die, all to no purpose.
¶ Worshipful Problem Solving
by Lynne Kulieke
The subject is worshipful problem solving, which we are enjoined to cultivate as one of the many desirable spiritual habits. A number of questions arise merely from this peculiarly beautiful and intriguing combination of words. What is worshipful problem solving? It appears to be a somewhat contradictory term, for we know that worship is not self-serving, but for its own sake, while problem solving definitely implies self-interest. Another question that occurs is how is this religious predisposition to be developed? And finally why should mortal men and women strive to acquire such a habit? What purposes of God and humanity are achieved?
I choose to begin today’s examination of the topic with some selected passages from The Urantia Book which may help to serve as an illuminating text for further consideration, if not now and in this company, perhaps at another time and place. I will conclude with some personal reflections.
Let’s commence with a study of the nature of worship. We are informed:
¶ Everyday Ethics
by Eileen Laurence
Like most of us here in this room, I lead a varied and busy professional life. I interact with a lot of people, most of whom are not Urantia Book readers, but many of whom are actively participating in a religious life both professionally and privately. As I go about my daily chores trying to live the concepts of the book, I have begun to ask myself some basic questions:
- Is there a difference between morality and ethics? They are often used in the same sentence such as “the mores (religious, moral, and ethical) together with property, pride, and chivalry, stabilize the institution of marriage and family.” (UB 84:7.3)
- If there is a difference between moral and ethical, what is it?
- How has our conception of morality and ethics changed since the appearance of this fifth epochal revelation, The Urantia Book?
- What is being done in our present American society to address moral and ethical questions about our evolving business organizations, the connection between government and the media, ethics and chronic illness, ethics and neonatal care? Is anyone taking the time to share thoughts on ethics in the global community?
¶ The Avoidance Of Selfishness: Living As If In The Presence Of God
by Patrick Yesh
Introduction
As an educator, the main focus behind anything I teach be it art, school curriculum, or Urantia teachings must reflect the supreme purpose of education as stated in The Urantia Book:
“…[T]o foster and further the supreme purpose of life, the development of a majestic and well-balanced personality.” (2086)
A key word is “majestic.” One doesn’t normally think of oneself as majestic, but you can if you visualize yourself as a child of God, an important, evolving morontia being, a unique part of an organic living organism, the brotherhood of man. This concept of self, as majestic, is central to my talk about the avoidance of selfishness and walking with God. We cannot avoid being selfish in this life unless we have a positive and secure self-image, fulfilled in the conviction that we have everything we need in life, surrounded with God’s love, and peaceful inside. We know by living faith that we are truly God’s children traveling on our way home to Paradise.
Jesus taught in a special way by study, research, and by arranging known facts so they formed new ideas and meanings that would illuminate his spiritual teachings. This presentation is an attempt to coordinate information from contemporary research in education, psychological therapeutic practices, and behavioral change with the Urantia teachings on creativity, problem solving, and personality integration. This combination I hope will contribute to illuminating some ways that show us how to avoid selfishness.
¶ Avoidance of Selfishness
by James G. Johnston
The following essay wans given in the form of a workshop at the 1990 conference. It is a summary of the subject matter discussed in the workshop.
“Forewarn all believers regarding the fringe of conflict which must be traversed by all who pass from the life as it is lived in the flesh to the higher life as it is lived in the spirit. To those who live quite wholly within either realm, there is little conflict or confusion, but all are doomed to experience more or less uncertainty during the times of transition between the two levels of living.”
There is life in the flesh and there is life in the spirit. The first represents thoroughgoing selfishness, the second thoroughgoing unselfishness. Most people live somewhere between the two in the contentious arena of intellectual conflict, confusion, and moral quandary. There is complete intellectual stability in either of the two, but not both together. Purely selfish people have no difficulty making moral choices — they always choose what appears to be in their best interest. Thoroughly unselfish people have no conflict. They always choose what appears to be in the best interest of the people they love, and they love most people love, and they love most people.
¶ Working to Resolve the Dynamic Tension between Selfishness and Selflessness
by Marilynn Kulieke
Author’s note: This presentation was an exploration of the conflict between egoism and altruism. What follows is a series of quotations from The Urantia Book which provided the basis for the discussion that took place within the workshop. In the first appendix (A), there is a copy of the worksheet that wans passed out as the organizer for the workshop. Appendix B contains two visual represertations which attempted to integrate the content presentul in the workshop.
Thesis For The Presentation
Moral choosing is usually accompanied by more or less moral conflict. And this very first conflict in the child mind is between the urges of egoism and the impulses of altruism. The Thought Adjuster does not disregard the personality values of the egoistic motive but does operate to place a slight preference upon the altruistic impulse as leading to the goal of human happiness and to the joys of the kingdom of heaven. (1131)
What Are the Components of the Self? ber:
¶ C.H.A.N.G.E.S.-Practice Makes Perfect
by Brent St. Denis
One of the miracles of our relationship with the heavenly Father is that in barely one hour of space-time in this room we can together comprehend a little of the potential of our eternal and infinite loving parent-child relationship with the Creator of all things. (I recently read Guy Murchie’s book called The Seven Mysteries of Life and when he describes, in relative terms, some of the fabulously unimaginable numbers which scientists have discovered in their measurements of astronomical and subatomic occurrences, the mind boggles. It can be downright intimidating.) Like the love and nurturing provided us by our earthly parents to help us over the fears of childhood, no less is the love of our Father also with us in an embrace which can render us fearless and powerful in the ascent to him in Paradise.
I want to focus on a few practical attitudes of daily living which can constantly remind us of the miracle of our existence and of the endless possibilities which are consequent upon our individual choosing to do his will. I will begin by listing a few things I have learned in the midst of my own struggles.
¶ Living as in the Presence of God: Making the Effort
by William Wentworth
I’d like to begin by congratulating the Americans on their national day-Independence Day. I think that it illustrates something about the organisers of this conference, who are Americans, that they should schedule me, a foreigner, to address you on America’s national day. In doing this they give clear recognition of the fact that the Fifth Epochal Revelation to mankind is intended for all men, irrespective of national and cultural loyalties, so I think they deserve some congratulation for this gesture towards that fact. The gesture does not surprise me, mind you, but I would like to give it some recognition all the same.
I am to talk to you about “Living as in the presence of God,” and I’d better start by admitting that I don’t know any more about it than any of you. How could I? Everything to do with our relationship with God is in the nature of personal experience. It is simply not possible for one human being to have much direct understanding of another human being’s relationship with God, because relationships between personalities are things in themselves — unique. And if this is true of our relationships with one another, how much more true is it of our relationships with God? If, as the Solitary Messenger tells us, all true relationships have survival potential, that they are never merely part of the transient scaffolding destined to wither away upon a material death, then this must also be true of our relationship with God, upon which the possibility of survival itself hangs. So we can only communicate the quality of our relationship with God to our fellows obliquely, through the osmosis of empathy, and rarely with much precision.
¶ Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Family Peace! (Ha, Ha)
by Arlene & Buck Weimer
The Deities must have a sense of humor! Here we are on a planet with a double default as imperfect beings, living with a species of the opposite sex incapable of understanding each other, allowed to have children that are belligerent by nature, no preparation or rehearsal, then asked to play god-and be a peacemaker.
Tension and conflict are natural within a family unit. It’s how we respond that’s important. As parents, we spend much of our time being referces and umpires. In the end, children do what they see their parents do. Jesus said: “The Son does only those things which he sees the Father do.” (644) If we are physically present and emotionally there, if we strive for attitudes of being positive, authoritative, and consistent, we can be a finite reflection of our Universal Father and Christ Michael.
Our theme is simple: What families-and the world-need most is fatherly love. To illustrate this theme, we’ll call your attention to the four supreme reactions of fatherly love as part of the Sermon on the Mount. The first two we will focus on the relationship between the parents, and the second two will be on the family as a whole.
¶ Walking with Humankind
by Larry Mullins
They aluays forget to mention that I was mustered into the reserve corps at the age of eighteen. (It was the Marine Reserve Corps, but that was the best I could do.) Recently I was working on an evolution project with Jesusonian. I noticed that the Life Carriers had designated various ages with a descriptive term, such as the Age of Fishes or the Age of Ferns or whatever. Surely if the midwayers name this period of the Urantia movement it will be the Age of Missives.
Not Missiles-Missives!
I dearly hope that the celestial observers have a sense of humor. So many people are going to be first in the kingdom. So many reservists blowing their cover. I saw a T shirt today that said “Activated Reservist.” Another said “Approach at Own Risk-1 Am Nearing Fusion.”
The kids are picking up this attitude, too. One little girl was drawing in the nursery and I asked her what her picture was. She said, “I am drawing a picture of God.” I gently told her that no one really knew what God looked like. She replied, “Now they will.”