International
Fellowship Committee Report
February 2007
Fellowship President Robert Burns has requested a specific format for reports being submitted for the February, 2007 meeting of the General Council. He has requested reports be formatted in three sections--committee accomplishments during 2006, projected plans for 2007, and a vision statement projecting three to five years into the future. I will attempt to follow this format in the brief overview which follows.
Committee Accomplishments During 2006
2006 saw the development of increasing administrative coordination between the Fellowship's International Fellowship Committee and the Pipeline of Light project. In addition, a good working communication mechanism was developed enabling international workers from various Urantian organizations to share information and avoid the duplication of effort.
During 2006 we enjoyed a productive relationship with JJ Johnson, helping him in his placement of Urantia Books in various countries of the world in conjunction with his professional travels.
The nature of the international work requires a long-term plan in order to evolve an administrative network of interpersonal relationships and to leverage investments of time and money from one year to the next. Our approach has also been to start in one part of the world and slowly expand as relatively self-sustaining local and regional infrastructure develops. Over the past six years we have focused almost primarily on Latin America. Strong regional leadership is emerging and in 2006 we continued to support this project.
An extensive mission to Ecuador and Peru was conducted that involved meeting with reader groups, public presentations, and media interviews. An extensive book distribution effort covered Mexico, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, and Costa Rica. From a conference in Mazatlan in May, readers were able to carry more books to Ecuador and Mexico City. For more details see the 2006 International Fellowship Committee Annual Report.
2006 was an important year in that it saw a significant increase in efforts applied outside of Latin America. This involved meeting with readers and groups in Spain, France, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Holland, Lithuania, Zambia, Tanzania, and South Africa.
2006 marked our first major effort in Africa. Early in the year, building on some earlier ground-breaking work done by Norman Ingram, Buck and Arlene Weimer made a trip to Zambia and then on to South Africa. Important relationships were fostered during this trip which have resulted in hundreds of books being shipped to South Africa where strong reader groups with good leadership are evolving. Chita and Namukale of Zambia made an additional trip to Tanzania to visit readers and distribute books; they continue with their important work in Zambia.
With the assistance of Ken Raveill, the Fellowship participated with the Heart of America Society and Urantia Foundation in the publication of an "Urdu Sampler"--five selected papers of The Urantia Book translated into Urdu. These are being shipped to Pakistan in small quantities for distribution by readers in Islamabad. These groups were started and fostered by JJ Johnson during the time he spent in Pakistan several years ago.
Projected Plans for 2007
The first weekend in January of 2007 the Latin American Working Group of the International Fellowship Committee met in Pueblo, Colorado, to plan Latin American work for 2007 and to develop a proposal for the funding of an International Reader Services support person. A schedule is still being developed for 2007 but as of January, the following represents cities and countries in which an effort will be made to visit existing groups, foster new ones, participate in conferences, and engage in public presentations. 2007 will see our first major efforts in Argentina and Venezuela and a return to Cuba by one of Agustin's groups which has been fostering groups in Cuba for a number of years. Much of the following is Agustin's projected schedule.
January
1.- Colorado
2.- Queretaro
3.- Tepic
4.- Culiacn
5.- Zacatecas
February1.- Mazatln
2.- Colima
3.- Guadalajara
4.- Ecuador - Quito,Ibarra,Guayaquil
5.- Per - Lima, Cusco
March
1.-Villahermosa
2.- Durango
3.- Mazatln
4.- Guatemala - El Salvador
5.- Tepic
April
1.- Mrida
2.- Morelia
3.- Quintana Roo
4.- Len
May
1.- Ixtapa
2.- San Cristbal de las Casas
3.- Argentina Mission
4.- Veracruz
June
1.- Quertaro
2.- Mexico City
3.- Venezuela
4.- Puebla
5.- Annual Lithuanian Gathering
July
1.- Spain (tentative)
2.- Holland (tentative)
3.- SS07
August
1.- France (tentative)
September
1.- Cuernavaca
2.- Monterrey Forum (tentative)
3.- Campeche
4.- Oaxaca
October
1.- Monterrey
2.- San Luis Potosi
3.- Coahuila
4.- Chihuahua
November1.- Senguio
2. - Aguascalientes
December
1.- Mexicali
2.- Cuba
3.- Honduras, Costa Rica, Nicaragua
4. - Paraguay (tentative)
The International Fellowship Committee is also developing a proposal which would enable us to take advantage of an offer to create Spanish language Urantia Book programming for a national television station in Ecuador. We have an opportunity to produce up to ten programs of 30 minutes each. We are very concerned about expending resources generating interest in the book when there are none in local bookstores.
Book availability and distribution remain serious problems throughout Latin America. An effort will be made in 2007 to explore alternative shipping methods.
A Vision for the Next Three to Five Years
The next few years should see a continuation and further development of present work. As strong leadership continues to emerge in Latin America we can continue to expand our efforts in Africa. There are opportunities in India that we have yet to develop. There is a strong need to foster good relationships with workers and groups in Western Europe as regional translations begin to spread. All projections point to the developing world--primarily Latin America and Africa--as the hotbeds of religious growth over the course of the present century. The Urantia Book must be present as this develops. Readers in the developed world will need to find ways of subsidizing printing and distribution costs in the developing world. Fostering an integrated approach to spreading the book which includes all Urantian reader organizations will be essential.
Another essential element is improved integration of translation, publishing, distribution, and social infrastructure support projects. As noted above, opportunities to promote the book don't have much chance of bearing fruit if books are not available in bookstores.
Most of the major Western European languages now have translations available. This will change the international situation over the next few decades in unpredictable ways if viable distribution mechanisms can be mobilized. This past autumn saw the first conference in Scotland which attracted readers from a number of Western European countries.
A new Korean edition will be published during this time frame and a Chinese translation will be nearing publication. David Aikman, in his recent book, "Jesus in Beijing: How Christianity is Transforming China and Changing the Global Balance of Power," presents important insights implying that China is on the verge of a signficant religious renaissance. If the IFC can continue to develop its present program--and given a modicum of global political and economic stability--the next few decades should see the emergence of solid social infrastructure in most regions of the planet capable of supporting an increasing expansion of the revelation. We are moving in the direction of having the revelation emerge as a global, trans-cultural, grass-roots phenomena rather than spreading radially from a geographic center as a function of charismatic leadership. I think this is highly desirable. Continued and expanded application of resources will be necessary to sustain this development.
By 2012 we should have had a major regional conference in Eastern Europe (currently projected for 2009) as well as a Pan-African conference.
The biggest challenge ahead of us is the penetration of global Christianity with the expanded life and teachings of Jesus and the supportive theological cosmology contained in the book. This must happen within the Orthodox traditions of the east as well as the Catholic and Protestant divisions in the West and the Far East. This is the real frontier of the fifth epochal revelation--integrating it with the highest developments of the fourth epochal revelation so that it can exert its transforming influence to maximum effectiveness in the lives of the varied peoples of our world. Moving the book from the religious fringes into the mainstream of religious thinking is an essential step in bringing the expanded gospel of the kingdom contained in The Urantia Book to the attention of truth seekers and men and women of faith around the world.
But none of this can happen without resources--financial resources and dedicated revelation workers. Increasing numbers of polylinguists who have some understanding of the teachings of The Urantia Book will be needed if we are to be successful in evolving an integrated global social infrastructure for further missionary work. The spread of the revelation in our world is limited only by the resources we have available to devote to the task. People are interested. People are excited. More opportunities are before us today than we can possibly develop.
I would like to express my gratitude to Buck and Arlene Weimer, Lynn Chapman, Agustin Arellano, Nelida Oliver, Susan Ransbottom, Lenny Cowles, Paula Thompson and Dolores Nice for their unceasing work and personal sacrifices made to spread the revelation in the Spanish-speaking world, and to Seppo Kanerva for his untiring dedication to the task of fostering the proliferation of translations.
Respectfully submitted,
David Kantor
