I am a conference fanatic. One of my first experiences with the Urantia community was piling into a car with four other young Urantia Book students and driving from Chicago to Vancouver, Canada for a conference. Over the years, these UBYouth Tours took us from Colorado to New York to Silver Springs to Kansas City to Philadelphia and Seattle and back again to Chicago over and over. We pleaded with the social organizations to schedule more conferences closer together so we could string them together for a summer. Along the way I met great friends, my future wife, hundreds of Urantia Book students, saw nearly every corner of North America.
When I was elected President of Urantia Association International I had few concrete goals, but one of them was simply, “More conferences.” This year the Urantia Community will be trying something we have never tried before: four conferences on four continents sharing the same theme. And although Urantia Association is leading this effort, this is truly a conference season for uniting the entire Urantia Community for these events.
North America will begin the conference season over the four day weekend of June 9-12 in San Antonio, Texas, USA, where Urantia Association of the United States (UAUS) and The Urantia Book Fellowship are co-hosting a joint event uniting an Association National Conference with a Fellowship Study Summer Session. This will be an exciting event as these two groups unite for the first time! Registration is now open and currently around 140 people have already signed up!
In September, two conferences on opposite sides of the world will share a theme and a weekend and, technology willing, some program highlights. In Blackmans Bay, Tasmania, Australia the Australia and New Zealand Urantia Association (ANZURA) will host their annual conference September 16-19. Concurrently, September 15-18 in Budapest, the Hungary Urantia Association will work with the Blue Club of Europe to host a continental conference uniting the many Urantia communities spread throughout Europe. Registration is open soon for both events, so join us in one hemisphere or the other, your choice!
Finally, October 14-17 in Bogota Colombia will be the Latin American Conference bringing together representatives from National and Local Associations throughout South and Central America as well as the many pockets of readers who have been studying the book independently. This is the region of the world where the Urantia Teachings have spread the most rapidly over the last decade and this conference will bring together those who are dedicated to the growth of the revelation throughout the vast region of Latin America.
I highly encourage everyone to attend one or more of these conferences in person. For more information on these conferences visit our Events page on the website.
One more quick note: attending a conference is often the first interaction a person has with the Urantia community. Many of our current active leaders, including myself, started this way. A donation to the conference scholarship fund is more than a charitable gift – it is an investment in the future leaders of our community. Click here to donate online.
In service,
Chris Wood
President, Urantia Association International