Doing the Will of God

From , By Bob Ghen Sr., USA on

The Urantia Book unequivocally declares:

The doing of the will of God is nothing more or less than an exhibition of creature willingness to share the inner life with God . . . [Paper 111:5.1, page 1221.2]

What? Seriously? That’s it?

When I began The Urantia Book journey so many years ago, that was my initial reaction. At that time, my search for spiritual meaning among various groups of well-intentioned seekers often presented a particular “spiritual path” through a more or less convoluted series of spiritual hoops and progressive “states of consciousness.” Each with an inviting promise of future mystical rewards, yet each a necessary prerequisite before one could experience God directly. Doing God’s will for me personally would require a level of divinity recognition only available to those who had at last arrived at the very pinnacle, the greatly coveted, “Enlightenment.” And from which vantage one finally became faultless, pure, holy, and perfected, a literal saint. Not to mention of course, becoming so much more “highly evolved” than mere un-enlightened mortals. Yes, if I could somehow get to that ultimate state, my search would be fulfilled. For the moment, alas, such enlightenment remained an elusive, spiritual carrot.

Ah yes, those early years . . . (sigh)

As a Urantia Book novice I believed in God (in his existence), yet I was still seeking to intellectually discern his will for me in terms of each individual decision, but without actually knowing him. What did he want me to do about this, or about that? What should I do next? Should I take this job? Should I rent this house? Should I end my troubled marriage? Should I . . . should I . . . the list never ended. However absurdly impossible, my fanciful spiritual wish was to wake each morning with an explicit to-do list directly from God at my bedside. How else would I ever know for certain what his will was on every occasion? Truth be told, it was frustrating and stressful. Yet for a time, I continued to falsely believe that doing the will of God was somehow about figuring it out at each and every turn, every fork in the road. After all, aren’t we also taught that we advance spiritually, decision by decision? But uh-oh, what if I make the wrong one? Sheesh!

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Inspiration & Healing From The Urantia Book

From , , By Susan Lyon, USA on

Susan GrzeskowiakRecently I went online to purchase some sports items for my son-in-law Tim’s birthday. A few years ago I set up an Amazon-Smile account. Every time I need to shop for birthdays, holidays or any special event for my family, I can do something that has been very difficult financially for me to do in the past; I can support a cause. Raising my four children as a single parent made it nearly impossible for me to give to worthy charities and causes such as Urantia Foundation and all of their translation projects. Now Amazon helps me to accomplish this by taking 0.5% out of their profits for my total purchase amount, and then they send it to Urantia Foundation. When I need to shop for someone, first I check Amazon-Smile to see if they have something that would be an appropriate gift, and generally they don’t disappoint me. I appreciate the great variety available and reasonable prices.

I know some of my friends have set up similar accounts with Amazon-Smile to support Urantia Association International. I would encourage everyone to take advantage of this great opportunity. Many people acting as a large network collectively giving their resources and time can be much more effective than a few wealthy donors carrying the heavy load of expense and doing all of the work of planting the seeds for the fifth epochal revelation.

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The Urantia Book and Us

From , By Gaétan G. Charland, Quebec on

When people find The Urantia Book, they experience new enthusiasm upon discovering something bigger and truer than anything they had ever known. Very often, a first reaction is to share this same enthusiasm with all those surrounding us. To our dismay, we readers quickly find people are not interested in our discovery or our experience.

Towards one o’clock in the afternoon, while the one hundred and twenty believers were in prayer, they all realized a strange presence in the room. At the same time, all these disciples became aware of a new and profound sense of spiritual joy, confidence, and security. This new consciousness of spiritual strength was immediately followed by a powerful impulse to publicly proclaim the gospel of the kingdom and the good news that Jesus had risen from the dead. [Paper 194: 0.1, page 2059.1]

It seems that this passage from The Urantia Book illustrates well a typical mental condition when first discovering the book. So, why did it not produce for most of us the same effect as it did for the apostles and disciples? These early believers convinced hundreds and thousands of others to accept the good news. I believe part or many of the answers are found in the narrative of the life and teachings of Jesus. More answers may be in ‘The Publication Mandate.’ *

If we review Jesus’ strategy, we can easily see he prepared a solid foundation well in advance of his public life. He perfected his methods and teaching style for sharing truth. He improved his ways and gained more knowledge of humankind throughout his pre-baptismal life as he journeyed around the Mediterranean Sea. He knew how to avail himself of every possible opportunity, sowing seeds of truth, preparing for his later disciples and apostles’ ministry after his departure from this world.

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About the Journal

From ,

The Journal is produced twice yearly and contains articles and study aids by readers and for readers of The Urantia Book.  To read current and past issues click here or click on the above image.

Subscriptions

The Journal is available electronically free of charge for anyone with an email address. Join our mailing list to receive free electronic copies.

To receive hard copies, you may subscribe to the Journal at the annual rate of $10.00 USD via any of the following methods. 

  • To subscribe on line click here
  • To subscribe by telephone call:  +1-773-572-1180
  • To subscribe by check or money order, please send in $U.S. dollars only and make payable to “Urantia Association International”. Mail to: 

Urantia Association International
4850 N. Broadway St., #409174
Chicago, IL  60640-0025

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Update 2018 UYAI Post-Conference

By UYAI Members & Friends on

Dear Urantia Book Reader Friends,

As you may know, for those of you staying longer in The Netherlands after the International Conference there will be a post-conference organized by Urantia Young Adults International (UYAI) members and friends. There are only a few days left before the 10th Urantia Association International Conference starts and everyone on the conference planning committee is working hard to make it a great conference; they are looking forward to welcoming you very soon to The Netherlands.

To make the total experience more complete after the International Conference we (UYAI) are organizing a post-conference for additional socializing and sightseeing among Urantia Book students. If you are interested in staying longer after the event, then check this out!

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Lessons From A Revelation

By Education Committee on

Lessons From A Revelation is a series of educational brochures published by Urantia Association International. Each brochure is a brief topical study inspired by The Urantia Book, drawn from the creative writing of students who have agreed to remain anonymous.

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President’s Message – March 2018

From , By Chris Wood, President on

In January representatives of Urantia Association International and Urantia Foundation met to update each other on our current projects, discuss issues of mutual interest and to plan for the future. Many issues were discussed but two themes stand out as highlights.

First is the need for succession of leadership within both organizations. A successful community such as ours depends upon a rotation of leadership. One sign of a healthy and vibrant social organization is to have volunteer leaders rotate into decision making positions and then rotating into other capacities for a period of time. As a decentralized international group, the Association has a large pool of active leaders. This leads to a problem of perceived overabundance: some potential leaders may think to themselves, “Surely there is someone better qualified than I am, so I will not step forward to take on International responsibility.” But the number of positions needed under the Association’s umbrella is enormous. We need active and willing volunteers at the local, national, continental, and international levels. We cannot afford to deprive Local and National Associations of good leadership in order to fill International positions. The need for new and excited volunteers is large and ever-growing as we expand across the globe.

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Lifting Together: The Future of Urantia Association

From ,

The Association’s Education Committee organized a live Webinar titled “Lifting Together: The Future of Urantia Association” presented by President, Chris Wood. This presentation was developed to share with the growing Global Urantia Community the goals, plans and vision for the Urantia Association International for the next three years and beyond. The Webinar was held on February 17th, at 11:00 a.m. EST USA.

You can view this presentation on the Association’s YouTube channel at: https://youtu.be/1EU_ed53IUI

Service—more service, increased service, difficult service, adventurous service, and at last divine and perfect service—is the goal of time and the destination of space. [The Urantia Book, Paper 28:6.17, page 316.4]

European Urantia Leadership Meeting

From ,

(Adapted from the Meeting Minutes and reports submitted by Chris Moseley, UK and Sebastian Nozzi, Germany)

Members of National and Local Urantia Associations in Europe met at the Ibersol Hotel in Sitges, Catalonia 27—29 October 2017 for three days of fellowship and discussion about the present and future of the Urantia movement in Europe. Participants came from Spain, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy, Finland, Estonia, and the UK. This was no ordinary pan-European Urantia meeting; the main thing everyone had in common was their affiliation with Urantia Association International. Thank you to the Association’s Conference Chair, Antonio Schefer from the Netherlands for organizing this historic event.

The main purpose of this meeting was to gather together the leaders of the various European Urantia Associations so they may get to know one another and begin creating a European focus. The aim was to discuss common goals for the revelation and decide on how European readers could work together to achieve these goals in their respective regions. Some of the main topics discussed were:

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Subsites for Regional Urantia Associations

From , By Kathleen Swadling, Communications Committee on

The website for Urantia Association International at https://urantia-association.org has a new feature allowing for multiple “subsites.” A subsite is a website that is joined to a main website, but has the appearance of a stand-alone website with its own unique domain name.

In January we were pleased to announce to the Representative Council (RC), consisting of the Presidents and Vice Presidents of all the National and Local Urantia Associations, that we can now offer them a valuable opportunity to create their own subsite at no cost! The main website has been upgraded to support this new option for our leaders throughout the world. There are several benefits for those associations who decide to take advantage of this service:

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Continental Conference in Brazil

From , By Enrique Traver, Brazil on

The next Continental Conference for Latin America will be held in Guarulhos, São Paulo, Brazil.

With the theme of Living the Teachings, this event will bring together students of The Urantia Book from all Latin American countries. We also invite readers from all over the world to join us in this unique opportunity to share three days of exploring together the many practical ways for living the teachings of The Urantia Book.

The conference is being organized by the Urantia Association of Brazil, with the support of the Latin American Committee, and will be conducted in three languages: Portuguese, Spanish and English. It will be possible to follow the presentations in one of these languages through a Zoom Internet meeting room.

Stay tuned for more information or email: [email protected]

Enrique Traver
Urantia Associação do Brasil
President

Jean Royer Graduation

From , By Marlène and Georges Michelson-Dupont on

Jean Royer, one of the Association’s most long-standing and dedicated French translation volunteers graduated from Urantia on the 5th of February, 2018 at the age of 78 years. He passed away in the evening in the hospital of Avignon (South of France.)

Jean had been exposed to the teachings of The Urantia Book (Le Livre d’Urantia) in the early 1960’s and became a strong supporter of the revelation. He contacted J. Weiss and started corresponding with him about the French translation. At the end of the sixties, Jean contacted my father, Jacques Dupont, and they became very close friends, visiting one another, sharing the teachings, writing articles and organizing study groups in their respective areas.

In the seventies, the relationship between a small group of French readers and Urantia Foundation/Urantia Brotherhood grew more and more; Jean attended several meetings and retreats in Recloses during the times of the revelation’s pioneers such as the Kendals, the Hales’, Martin Myers, Berkeley Elliot, the Begemans and many other Americans when visiting the Weiss and/or the Duponts. It was during these meetings that Marlène and I met Jean and developed a strong life-long friendship.

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Online Workshop Series Report

From , By Jeannie Vaszquez, Education Committee on

A series of weekly online workshops on the subject, Leadership and Teaching According to The Urantia Book was organized by the Education Committee of Urantia Association International late last year. I would like to thank those who helped to make this an instructive and satisfying experience.

Thank you to Gaétan Charland, who presented three beautiful and instructive sessions about how to be a true spiritual leader and servant of the Urantia Revelation, living the teachings and serving others as a fruit of the spirit;

to Rick Lyon, who gave us a useful and instructive lesson about the value of social organizations of service to the spiritual fraternity;

to Guy Perron, who gave us a comprehensive instruction over four sessions about the importance of developing our inner life—going inward, upward, onward and outward in our search for God;

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Canada Prison Program

From , By Chris Gravel, Canada on

I would like to let you know what has been happening with the Prisoner Inquiry Response Team (PIRT) in Canada over the last couple of years. Thanks to the support of Urantia Association International I have been placing books into penitentiaries throughout Canada. In January of this year I sent French Urantia Books (Le Livre d’Urantia) to the thirteen Federal Institutions in Quebec. They were sent as book donations with Don de Livre de Bibliotheque (Donation of Book to Library) marked on four sides.

The winter of 2016 marked the initial effort of sending a copy of The Urantia Book to every federal prison in Canada. Thank you, Gaetan Charland for providing the initial support to “get the ball rolling.” The initial books sent from the Urantia Association of Quebec were sent to Ontario and other provinces in the west as well to the Atlantic provinces in the east. I was sure to send both English and French copies to New Brunswick as they are unique in that they have both English and French as official languages in Canada.

When all of the federal prisons have been covered, I plan to start sending books to the Provincial branches.

Ministry in Belgium Prisons

From , By Agnès Lazare, Belgium on

It all started just a year ago. The school in which I teach English and stress management was approached by a prison in the region with the aim of expanding their training offer to male prisoners, who want to expand their knowledge and practices in the diversified fields and thus increase their chances of social and professional reintegration as soon as they get out.

I accepted the challenge because of what it was at first, convinced that God was offering me a special opportunity to serve even more. The news having arrived a few weeks before the beginning of my teaching activities, I prayed a lot: “That the participants to the courses will be thirsty souls for God,” “And that I may be an instrument of his peace and a channel of his love by which God manifests himself and will be manifested.”

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Finnish Winter Meeting 2018

From , By Laura Suominen-Raatikainen, Finland on

Once again enthusiastic Finnish readers of The Urantia Book gathered together for the annual winter meeting of the Urantia Association of Finland. It was held 26-28 January at Lautsia Resort Center in Southern Finland, a beautiful place in the countryside near a lake.

Over 30 readers attended from all over Finland and two from Estonia. The meeting was a huge success. Everything seemed to flow beautifully thanks to efforts of Olli Ylitapio, Tapio Kankkonen and Raimo Kujala who organized the program. The theme of the meeting was “Spiritual Coaching” and this proved to be a very fruitful theme. People were alert and interested.

The meeting started with a short presentation on “Moral Education.” Then Tapio and Raimo presented on the “Coaching of the Apostles.” After this the participants were divided into small groups to discuss what kind of coaching would be needed for a person who is aware of their Thought Adjuster and the Holy Spirit. The discussion afterwards was very lively and brought forth new ideas.

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Miami Book Fair

From , By Ramon Franco, USA on

The Miami Study Group participated in the Miami Book Fair from 17-19 November 2017. Many thanks to a dedicated group of volunteers who worked together so well to create a Urantia Book display booth and to make this such a great experience. Our team consisted of Angela Alvarez, Jeanette Francis, Eva Castell, Luis Betancur, Raul Pujol, and me.  The booth attracted a lot of interest.

We sold 25 books, handed out 1,000 flyers in Spanish and 1,500 in English, and added 60 people to our mailing list. We enjoyed being able to share with new and long-time readers and we heard some incredible testimonies and stories of personal transformation from people who had read the book.

Without a doubt, this has been our best experience so far in our efforts to share the amazing Urantia revelation.  Please enjoy these photos that capture the atmosphere of this incredible event.

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History of Study Groups

From , By Gaetan Charland, Study Groups Committee on

Many new students of The Urantia Book today have not had the experience of being a part of the Urantia movement while in its early years of development—when study groups were the main focus of the former Urantia Brotherhood, the original fraternal organization. Throughout the many years of reorganization while our young movement has undergone many growth problems common to organizations such as ours, the focus has tended to shift from creating study groups to growing the membership and trying to make The Urantia Book more visible to the public in the belief that this would—all by itself—change the world.

In searching the history of our movement to find more about study groups, and while reflecting on why we were told by the revelators to create thousands of them, I came across some very interesting articles and letters that were published by the Brotherhood and Urantia Foundation—articles written by readers who believed that study groups were very important.

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Update 2018 Urantia Association International Conference

Dear Friends,

We would like to give you an update on the latest developments of the 2018 Urantia Association International Conference in The Netherlands, April 12-15, 2018. So far 165 Urantia Book readers from 20 different countries have registered.

As you might know we organize our international conferences every three years; they provide an excellent opportunity to foster friendship and brotherhood with other students of The Urantia Book from all over the world. This conference is particularly significant in that it marks the 10th anniversary of our international conferences.

The theme is: Jesus as a Teacher: Are You Ready to Live His Teachings in the 21st Century?

For more information please check the conference website at www.uai2018.org. Here you will find the latest information about:

If you wish to participate in this amazing event but still haven’t registered, please make your hotel reservations as soon as possible as spaces are limited and they are quickly running out. You can book by clicking here.

In addition the event itself, the NH Conference Centre Leeuwenhorst offers many extra services such as a gymnasium, sauna, spa, swimming pool, squash, bowling, billiards, terraces, and free Wi-Fi throughout the hotel.

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2018 UYAI Post-Conference

Dear UB Friends,

Great news about the 2018 Urantia Association International Conference: there will be a post-conference organized by Urantia Young Adults International members and friends, for those who prefer to stay longer in the Netherlands!

There are only a few months left before the event starts and preparations are progressing rapidly. Everyone is working hard to build a great conference for all of us. So, the thought came to our minds to organize a post-conference for additional connecting and sightseeing among Urantia Book students. If you are interested in staying longer after the event, then check this out!

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