Editor’s note: The following was written by Rick Lyon, Vice President of the Urantia Association of the United States (UAUS) to the Representative Council (RC) after the recent elections were held for the members of the International Service Board (ISB)
Greetings to the RC team!
UAUS wishes to acknowledge the many years of service by Gaetan Charland, former President of Urantia Association International and more recently the former Study Groups Chair, Susan Owen as the Association’s Secretary, and David Linthicum as Dissemination Chair.
Gaetan’s leadership served to put the Association onto a solid foundation and into a service-oriented direction when he served as President, and he continued to serve this revelation and all the people involved by his position as Study Groups Chair. I once introduced Gaetan as my teacher, mentor, friend, and brother. He is all that as well as a great leader of this revelation and this organization.
Susan brought knowledge, wisdom, experience, loyalty, and passion to this position as Urantia Association’s Secretary and the entire Association benefited from her service. Saying “Thank You!” for such service cannot begin to express our gratitude and appreciation for her leadership. As the former Executive Director Urantia Association, I worked very closely with Susan for many years and I can tell you from first-hand experience that she did a wonderful job and gave all she had to this organization and the people we serve—many times doing important things that nobody even knew about.
David has served UAUS as a past President and he is a loyal, dedicated, and willing friend and servant to all members of Urantia Association and the Urantia community. David’s leadership provided the Association’s main program ingredient for the hugely successful 2011 Leadership Symposium.
We have no doubt that their efforts have been noted and recorded by our unseen friends and their efforts will be rewarded by even greater service opportunities and spiritual satisfaction for a job well done.
We also wish to thank Andres Ramirez for his service as the Association’s Vice President and congratulate him for his new opportunity to serve replace Gaetan as the new Study Groups Chair.
We are grateful to Kathleen Swadling and very appreciative of her willingness to continue to serve as Communications Chair for the extremely important Association website, Journal, Tidings and other communications. Image is everything and ours starts here. Kathleen actively served this revelation long before many of us even found the book!
With sincerity and on behalf of all UAUS,
Rick Lyon
UAUS Vice President