The First Urantia Book in Estonia
In the early 1970s, thanks to Finnish readers, the first two copies of The Urantia Book arrived in Estonia. In 1985, the Eduard Nurja spiritual group initiated a translation to Estonian (Eesti). In two years, the draft was ready and 50 to 100 copies were printed for people to peruse.
In 1991, Peep Sõber started a second Estonian translation with a professional translator. He had a strong conviction that our small nation of a million inhabitants needed a new translation. And this was supported by both Finns and Estonians.
After giving a few introductory lectures and writing a few articles for magazines, Peep received a tremendous response. More than 500 people sent him letters expressing interest in reading The Urantia Book. At that time, he had a regular radio program in which he introduced books from his publishing company, and sometimes he talked about the teachings of The Urantia Book.
On August 21, 1994, on his radio program, Peep spoke about Jesus’ birth 2,000 years ago. He arranged a birthday celebration in a high school auditorium with music and speeches. Three hundred people who were curious about the book attended.
But those involved in the book’s dissemination felt that the latest translation was still not good enough and, in 1995, they started a third translation. There were a number of different translators and editors and the work took a long time.
In 1999, the Estonian Urantia Association was founded. And by October 2010, I bought (I think) the first published and printed Urantia Book in Estonia.
On October 31, 2010, we celebrated this extraordinary event with a symposium. Our Finnish brothers and sisters were also invited.
Our Work to Disseminate The Urantia Book
In 2011, our Association placed twenty-six Urantia Books in Estonian libraries. We held weekly study groups and monthly seminars with presentations. We also created a new website.
Another project was to prepare a Urantia Book for children. Since 2015, we have sold a number of copies: in Estonian – 186, in English – 258, and in Tanish – 200. This book is also translated into Ukrainian and Russian.
From 2015 to 2020, we mailed fliers to Estonian homes to introduce The Urantia Book to Estonians. In all, we sent out 82,777 fliers. Our average sales of the book per quarter went from six to twenty-two. As of today, we have sold 938 Estonian books.
Other work includes:
- Participating in several book fairs and Christmas fairs.
- Sending an introduction to the book to all members of the Estonian Parliament and all philosophers in Estonian universities.
- Contacting all Estonian religious movements to form a common forum with them all.
- Creating an Estonian audio book, which took almost four years.
- In 2019, we had the honor of organizing The Second European Urantia Conference in Tallinn, “Sowing Seeds.” There were about 87 participants.
More Recent Activities
Beginning in 2022, we created fifteen video clips about The Urantia Book. You can see them on our webpage and Youtube.
In 2023, Riho Kokk organized an event called “Death Cafe” four times over the course of four months. Each time, a different person talked about their understanding of death. I, too, had an opportunity to introduce the concepts of death presented in The Urantia Book.
Celebrations and Rituals
Every year, we celebrate Jesus`s birthday and Christmas. And from 2022, we started celebrating Brotherhood Day.
In the spring of 2022, we organized a “Ritual of Ascenders” for readers who wanted to say out loud that they have started on their way to Paradise.
TÄNUD KUULAMAST!
