President's Address: First Triennial Delegate
Assembly of
Urantia Brotherhood
August 20th, 1964
E. L. Christensen
GREETINGS TO YOU – the Delegates, Alternates, Councilors, and all Urantians – who are privileged to attend this first meeting of the Triennial Delegate Assembly.
This is an historical occasion. What we do and say here will long be a matter of record in the archives of the Urantia Brotherhood, and I doubt not that future generations will look back with longing to this year, 1964, and wish they could have been with us, just as we sometimes look back to the times of Jesus on earth and wish we could have walked with Him, listening first-hand to his supernal teachings.
Our coming together here today – will be an experience we will long cherish, and hope we will meet the challenges which it presents with courage, devotion, and above all, with unity of purpose. It has been an honor to have had the privilege of serving as President of the Urantia Brotherhood for the past one and one-half years. And I wish to extend my sincere thanks to the other officers and administrators who have served with me during this period. I must here make special mention of the splendid work performed by the Program Committee for this Assembly – Alvin Kulieke, Marian Rowley, and Edith Cook – as well as the services of our fine secretary, Mrs. Anna Rawson. They have given unstintingly of their time in the preparation of the many details incident to this Assembly.
I am thrilled by the opportunity to preside on this auspicious occasion. The Delegates and Alternates present in this room today are also thrilled, I am sure, to have been selected to represent their various Societies at the first meeting of the Assembly. Upon you rests a solemn responsibility. It is our burden to bring life on this planet up to a new level, which we can and will do when we sincerely become imbued with the idea that we are ambassadors of a heavenly kingdom, just as surely as were the twelve apostles who followed Jesus. Those twelve men were so inspired by Jesus’ life and teachings that they went forth and turned the whole world upside down. I pray we will do likewise.
During my short tenure as President of the Urantia Brotherhood, I have expounded on two theses: First, that we become living prophets of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man; and Second, that we remember to subordinate the Urantia Book to the service of God. Perhaps we should take a moment now to listen once again to Jesus’ admonition to his apostles during one of his profound discussions on religion: "I admonish you to give up the practice of quoting the prophets of old, and instead aspire to become living prophets and spiritual heroes of the coming kingdom."
What is a prophet? Webster says a prophet is: The proclaimer of a revelation. One who speaks for another, especially for God. An inspired revealer, interpreter, or spokesman. One whose office it is to deliver a message. What a message we have to deliver! We have in our hands a veritable El Dorado of riches. Only a handful of men and women on Urantia are so fortunate, so privileged, as we are. I am not too much interested in the number of Urantia Books you dispense, but I am tremendously interested in the souls you will lead into the kingdom by your own proclamation of the dynamic truths about God and his universe which Jesus has revealed to you; in how you are feeding the hungry souls that you meet "as you pass by".
To emphasize my point, I want to paraphrase a statement made by our first President in his report to the Brotherhood at the end of his tree-year tenure: We must be careful not to confuse primary and secondary loyalties. Our primary spiritual loyalty is to the Universal Father, and to him alone. When we encounter some spiritually hungry brother our first objective is to bring him closer to his heavenly Father. This we may attempt to do with or without the book. All things are secondary and subordinate to the acquisition of this one prize: the realization of sonship with God. The book itself, is not an end; it is a most important means to an end. If the Urantia Book becomes mandatory objective and purpose, as Urantians, which is: the service of God.
[Editor's note: The previous sentence does not make sense. Here is the probable quote from Bill Sadler's report: "The Book itself is not an End--it is a most important Means to an End. It is designed to bring God closer to man and to bring man closer to God. We may minister to our spiritually hungry brothers with or without the aid of the Urantia Book. But, if the Book ever becomes mandatory in our ministry, then have we truly become sectarian. Our primary objective, as Urantians, is the service of God, and the Book is an important Means to that great End. Here we should make a vital distinction between that which is value and that which has value."]
But you cannot reveal God to those who do not seek for him. Man must become hungry for truth as a result of the experience of living, or he must desire to know God as the result of contact with the lives of those who are acquainted with the divine Father, before another human being can act as the means of leading such a fellow mortal to the Father in heaven. If we know God, our real business on earth is so to live as to permit the Father to reveal himself in our lives and thus will all God-seeking persons see the Father and ask for our help in finding out more about the God who, in this manner, finds expression in our lives.
When someone asks us, as the apostles asked Jesus, what is your religion? What do you believe? We will joyfully respond: I believe that God is my Father. I believe that I am His son. I believe that all men are my brothers and that I am to serve them. I believe that this world is but a vestibule, a shake-down cruise, a testing, for my eternal adventure. I believe in the progressive advancement of my soul within the divine kingdom. I believe that Jesus came to show us the way to the Father, for he said: "I am the way, the truth, and the life." I believe that some day I will attain Paradise and stand face to face with my Father in heaven. I believe that my eternal life will take me into worlds not yet born where I shall have the sublime privilege of teaching about the Father the truths which his beloved Son has revealed to me during his lifetime on this world. I believe that I must so live my life that all men will be attracted to me and be inspired to ask me concerning the Father. Jesus said: "It is not so much by the words you speak as by the lives you live, that men will know that you have been with me." I believe that the Spirit within me will show me the way, for my religion assures me that "at every crossroad in the forward struggle, the Spirit of Truth will always say: ‘This is the way.’"
My dear friends, please bear in mind that good humor and the smile of happiness are among the most powerful and influential of the human assets of religious propagation. Let us, therefore, be happy and valiant soldiers of the circles.
E. L. Christensen President Urantia Brotherhood
A Service of
The Urantia Book Fellowship