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Progress and increasing international unity sum up this past year's development in the world-wide dissemination of The Urantia Teachings,

With Books sent to 14 new countries for the first time in 1977, books have now reached approximately one-half of the world's countries, also more than 140 libraries in various countries now have Urantia Books. Too, the headquarters staff can attest to the ever-augmenting international correspondence. Independent study groups seriously interested in the study of the teachings of The Urantia Book are known to be functioning regularly in Canada, France, Belgium, Finland, Australia, New Zealand--all of this solid testimony to the effectiveness of the quiet person-to-person spread of The Urantia Book.

Of special interest is the formation of a committee in France working under the auspices of and in co-operation with Urantia Brotherhood which will begin to undertake the publishing of a French language Urantia Brotherhood Journal in the near future.

The International Fellowship Committee in its last meeting reaffirmed the desirability of the Brotherhood's proceeding wisely and slowly with involvement in the international field, being quick, however, to cultivate that soil which will support genuine interest in the Urantia teachings and friendly and ennobling mutual association and cooperation. We continue to wish to be leaveners. (Rather than develop a grandiose plan for international involvement, our committee believes we should react to the immediate needs of international readers consistent with the best ways of developing the co-ordinative mechanism of Urantia Brotherhood the world over.)

Insofar as translations of The Urantia Book are concerned, the committee observed that translations should be done carefully and deliberately and since English is becoming more and more the world's international evolutionary language, the need for translation, while highly desirable, should nevertheless be lessened at least during these early stages of the spread of The Urantia Book. In making this observation, the committee does not wish to appear chauvinistic, but merely wishes to recognize what it believes is the practical reality.

The committee has given careful consideration to and fully supports Dr, Meredith J. Sprunger's and the Domestic Extension Committee's separate proposals for leadership development within Urantia Brotherhood. We wish to co-operate in implementing these proposals within the immediate future.

The IFC has discussed the desirability of encouraging face-to-face contacts among international students of The Urantia Book and has suggested that the International Fellowship Committee serve as co-ordinator of those families and/or people who wish to participate in some sort of an Exchange Program by their making known to the committee their desire to participate in such a program--but with all participants making their own arrangements once they have been put in contact with one another.

Since the last annual report, international contacts have included visits of various Executive Committee Members to Canada, France and The Netherlands. In addition, our European Field Representative, Mr. Henry Begemann, and his able wife, Bauk, visited headquarters in late November and early December, 1977, and met with the Executive Committee giving a first-hand report on international developments in Europe, Mr. Begemann has exhibited a real talent for bringing readers with various viewpoints together for unified functioning consistent with the goals and purposes of Urantia Brotherhood.

In closing, one can observe that during these formative years while The Urantia Book is largely unknown to the general public, much valuable experience is being earned which should render able assistance in meeting the challenge of growth with stability once the Book's existence -- if not its purpose and true contents -- becomes known throughout the world. Ideally the Book will quietly spread to all peoples of our planet without raising antagonisms or creating resistance to its message by undue publicity or notoriety, and at some day in the future people will come to the realization that it is already in their midst (as if it had been there all the time) with a loyal and supportive readership that can courageously and selflessly champion its message of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man throughout the world. All this will take time for The Urantia Book itself points out:

" No great social or economic change should be attempted suddenly. Time is essential to all types of human adjustment-physical, social, or economic. Only moral and spiritual adjustments can be made on the spur of the moment, and even these require the passing of time for the full outworking of their material and social repercussions..." (p. 911)

Time is on our side so long as we use it effectively by responding to events to the extent their evolutionary development will reasonably support our involvement. But we must be careful to do no more. We, like Jesus, must not over-feed our associates.

Our committee believes quiet and substantial progress has been made to date (in what our planetary supervisors must view as merely the twinkling of an eye) and we look forward to working with our unseen friends towards the safe world-wide dissemination of The Urantia Book and the development of the Brotherhood scaffolding which it is hoped will give way to a genuine living organismal spiritual Brotherhood in the distant years ahead.

International Fellowship Committee of Urantia Brotherhood by Martin W. Myers, as its Chairman