© 1987 William Wentworth
© 1987 ANZURA, Australia & New Zealand Urantia Association
Three Australians attended the Conference, held in Brunswick, Maine, at the beginning of August. These notes derive from my own experience. Neil Francey and Hannah De Vries will have to speak for themselves.
From my point of view, the big difference between this conference, and the one at Snowmass in 1981 which was the last one I attended, is that there is a quite extraordinary interest in Australia throughout the USA — readers of The URANTIA Book included. Paul Hogan seems to have caught their fancy, and it is heady stuff for the naive Oz conference goer to find that his accent is recognised and (if you can believe it ) liked, that people know where his country is and want to visit it, and that such people seem benignly tolerant of his thoughts and habits.
This made socialising with the Americans very easy and agreeable, and also allowed us to participate more directly than was the case at Snowmass. Neil Francey, as a member of the International Fellowship Committee, had a direct voice in some of the policy decisions taken by that Committee.
People from many countries were present, including Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, The Netherlands, South Africa, U.K. and West Germany as well as the U.S. and Australia. There may have been others, but these are the ones I am sure of.
The Canadians continue to be the strongest presence outside of the U.S., and I enjoyed discussions with quite a few of them. We have much in common with the Canadians. The group from Finland is producing its own translation of The URANTIA Book, and an impressively large number of Finns studies the book in English. The French are actively distributing Le Livre d’URANTIA, and some of then already have plans to modify the translation which they think needs improvement in certain ways. It was particularly interesting to talk to the lone South African, a businessman from Durban, and a pleasure to meet my first U.K. reader, from Ayr in Scotland.
Though many of the workshops were interesting and thought provoking, the most important aspect of the conference from my point of view was the opportunity to talk to other readers, meet old friends, and socialise. It heartens me to be able to say that in my opinion the students of The URANTIA Book still seem to be ordinary people trying to elevate themselves and those around them by the sensible, practical and undramatic attempt to apply the teachings of the Fifth Epochal Revelation to their daily lives, Goodwill and good humour seem to keep unavoidable differences within manageable bounds, fanaticism seems rare, and intolerance mild.
The American readership has similar divisions to us over outreach policy. The same factions — the Conservatives and the Progressives — seen to portray the same differences we now all recognise. This may well be a permanent political reality, constituting a healthy difference of opinion within the readership. There is, perhaps, a shade more caution now than before the Vern Grimsley upheaval, but I was struck more by similarities with 1981 than by differences.
A couple of specific events deserve mention. There was a meeting of Newsletter Editors which, in Madeline’s absence, Neil and I attended. Arrangements to exchange newsletters with most of these were made, and this may help Madeline to keep us up to date on matters of interest in other countries. Neil and I also used the conference to buttonhole two of the Trustees to do sone lobbying for Australian book distribution. Lengthy discussions with John Hales also took place on the same subject. No promises were forthcoming, but we are assured that our requests will receive full consideration.
Finally, the Conference made it very clear to me that the U.S. readership is still generally uninformed about readers outside of North America. All of the non-Americans I spoke to share this impression. Some of the French seem quite upset about it. These are notable and important exceptions, of course, but in general the Americans still have only very superficial interest in and knowledge of other countries. Those American readers who know this are very concerned about it, and are doing everything they can to facilitate contact between Americans and others. They need our cooperation in this. It is as much our problem as it is theirs to see that the Fifth Epochal Revelation becomes a planetary phenomenon rather than simply an American one.
We Australians have a small but important part to play.
William Wentworth, Towamba,NSW