TO: GENERAL COUNCIL OF URANTIA BROTHERHOOD
FROM: DAVID N. ELDERS, CHAIRMAN--CHARTER COMMITTEE
SUBJ: COMMITTEE REPORT FOR PERIOD AUGUST, 1980-AUGUST 1981June 6, 1981
"The acid test for any religious philosophy consists in whether or not it distinguishes between the realities of the material and the spiritual worlds while at the same moment recognizing their unification in intellectual striving and in social serving." The Urantia Book, Published by Urantia Foundation, 1955. P. 1114:4
This quotation from The Urantia Book articulately states one of the major areas of concern for the Charter Committee--i.e., that our committee's work facilitate the comprehension by potential (and existing) Society members of the significant differences between the material/evolutionary requirements and responsibilities of Society and Urantia Brotherhood membership, and membership in the wholly spiritually-based brotherhood of all believers. Inasmuch as we believe that our organization is a time/space limited scaffolding to be used to insure--(a) the wide availability of The Urantia Book, (b) the continued study and dissemination of its teachings, and (c) most importantly, the development of personal religious experience with the Father--we have a significant responsibility to prevent our Society structure from becoming just another church or sect. As Bill Sadler stated in his oft-quoted address to the First Triennial "...and if we can maintain these differences between our brotherhood and a church..we may be able to avoid a possible evolution in the direction of a church......We claim no spiritual sovereignty; we claim no exclusive path to salvation; we claim no ecclesiastical authority."
To the Charter Committee, this general context for our work suggests that we:
--See the Society as a temporal organizational tool to aid in the achievement of our objectives; thereby,
--Requiring of Societies stability, maturity, and a minimal comprehension of just what it is they are promulgating (i.e., it would seem obvious that members should have read The Urantia Book at least once); and,
--Underlying this approach that the Societies augment (and not replace) the individual's personal, inward search for an ever deepening relationship with the Father; to the end that,
--Membership in the brotherhood of man--and not membership in Urantia Brotherhood--is clearly understood to be our aim.
During the past year, and into next, our projects are as follows:
1. At our committee meetings this past year, we have processed the initial application for chartering of the Tampa Bay Area Urantia Society. This group is currently functioning informally and upon completion of their year's waiting period, will make final application and be chartered sometime after September, 1981, if all requirements are met as expected.
2. We have begun the task of rewriting our written materials for distribution to interested, prospective Societies. We plan to present our work to the Executive Committee this next year for evaluation and approval.
3. At a gathering of Society representatives this past March, David Renn, on behalf of the Charter Committee, gave a paper on "The Future of Urantia Societies." One of the many fine points David made in this presentation underlines one of the Charter committee's responsibilities in helping to insure mature, stable leadership in our organization:
"We have a responsibility also to assure that each member achieves a thorough reading of the book. It is possible to elect to standing committees, to the Executive Committee, to the General Council, and to positions as officers in Urantia Brotherhood, persons who have not read the book. We must provide some mechanism to insure that each person accepting higher functional responsibility has read the book to the end that we maintain leadership based on the teachings of The Urantia Book."
4. We plan to undertake in the next year a study of Brotherhood membership in general, including: Society versus membership-at-large, a review of requirements, an evaluation of our guiding philosophy, an evaluation of study group importance and vitality versus the Society, etc. Hopefully our committee will elicit the aid of existing Society experience in this process.
We welcome your criticisms, your comments, your questions. Please let us know what you think about our work and these issues.
In closing, I would like to formally thank my committee members for their time and efforts: Mary Lou Hales, Ticky Harries, Lucile Kulieke, David Renn, and Irene Sprunger.
Respectfully submitted, David Elders For the Charter Committee