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During these past three years, I have had the pleasure of visiting all of our societies and a great many of our study groups in company with other members of our Brotherhood, sometimes to help install new societies and sometimes just for a pleasant visit.

This past month a good many Chicago members and officers of both the Brotherhood and Foundation attended and took part in the First Western Regional Conference in Los Angeles. It was an inspiring occasion for us all. report will be carried in the next Brotherhood Bulletin.

Our Brotherhood has been through some traumatic experiences. The loss of our President, Alvin Kulieke, was a bad blow. He has left a vacuum which is hard to fill. His calm, kindly, dedicated manner filled us all with assurance and a sense of security as we worked along with him. He was one of God's great and good Soldiers.

We have had to expel from our midst a long-time associate, whom we trusted, but who decided he could no longer walk with us.

Many serious problems have arisen, crying for solutions. These problems are indicative, if nothing else, of the growth of Urantia Brotherhood and the changing nature of its being. We are no longer a small, fledgling organization. True, our Brotherhood is not a nation-wide -- no not a worldwide replete organization, but it is destined to be the greatest on this planet:.

One of our major problems is the changing nature of the functioning of Urantia Brotherhood. We can no longer expect to meet the challenges of the future, and those which presently face us, without a reassessment of the operation of our organization.

To date, the Brotherhood has depended on volunteer help and one part-time secretary, at a very low wage, to carry on its day-to-day business. I believe we must face the fact that the Brotherhood, if it is to have competent, capable people to carry on its business in the future, must be able to offer salaries which will draw and hold young and capable people. We have been lucky to have had the loyal and dependable help we have had for all these years. But now we must give attention to the proper organization of our office, so that as the old guard passes on we will be able to provide for the continuity of administration.

The time is past when we can effectively function without regular visits among the Societies by our officers. A travel fund should be established to permit our officers to have regular personal contact with societies and study groups. This will promote unity and will help to prevent misunderstanding. This will further the aims of the Brotherhood in wisely promoting the dissemination of the Urantia Revelation. There is a real lack of communication with our membership.

We should begin to plan some mechanism that will permit, in the near future, the employment of a full-time president who can wisely labor for the stable and orderly growth and coordination of Urantia Brotherhood and its societies.

Our organization was designed to anticipate the needs of the future and as a result, some of the structure has been somewhat superfluous. But now with the steady spread of the Urantia Brotherhood, these committees may begin to function. The Fraternal Relations Committee and the Foreign Extension Committee have not been very active, but may be increasingly so in the near future. The Brotherhood must be alert to the challenges which it will surely face from dissident individuals and groups and the impatience of well-meaning -- and some not so well-meaning -- individuals. The Brotherhood should realize that other organized religions may attempt to discredit and disrupt our movement. We all, if we are to be effective Kingdom builders, must learn the helpful technique of wisely and unselfishly subordinating our own short-range temporary desires to the long-term and permanent success of the Urantia movement and the ultimate realization of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man on this planet.

Just as the Life Carriers in nurturing biologic evolution must wait for the physical evolution of the geologic stage on which they carry out their drama of biologic development, so must the custodians of The Fifth major Epochal Revelation await the natural unfolding of the cultural and religious development of the planet, as well as the organizational growth of the supportive and protective mechanism of Urantia Brotherhood.

The world does need spiritual regeneration. The forward progress of our planet has been slowed almost to a halt. The mortal establishment stagnates in a morass of ideological confusion, philosophic chaos, racial strife, political disorientation, economic derangement and unbelievable spiritual and material poverty.

"Now comes The Urantia Revelation to shed light upon the path of national life as well as upon religious experience and personal conduct. The Angels of the Churches and the Angels of Nation Life are standing, as it were, at attention, while the Seraphim of Progress marshal their reserves for the impending attack upon the world's stalemate of international confusion and Spiritual lethargy."

We now have The fifth major Epochal Revelation, a solid standard, a solid rock upon which we can build a better world, and through which we can enjoy a fuller individual existence. We must ''stand firm and resolute behind the battlements of our organization. We must ever protect the purity and integrity of The Urantia Book, and we must ever be vigilant--like Van and Amadon--over the defense of our simple but very necessary Urantia Brotherhood.

The growth of Urantia Brotherhood is only beginning. The Urantia Book is beginning to find a dependable following of sincere readers and loyal supporters. The first steps are being taken to offer to a world languishing in spiritual darkness a new light of hope and direction, a light illuminating the way to salvation and progress in the place of spiritual stagnation and material confusion.

Let us stand together in grand and united protective array, and as Soldiers of the Circles may we wholeheartedly enlist in the solid ranks of those mortals who shall go forth in this battle for truth against error under the unfaltering leadership of the mighty seraphim of Progress.