The approximately monthly newsletter from urantia-book.org
Volume 1 Number 5 May 2006
Spiritual Lessons from Worms and Kids
by Sara Blackstock
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Urantia Book Historical Society Being Formed
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Urantian US Postage
Stamp Issued
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Annual Oregon Urantian Campout Coming Up
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International Activities Update
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The Pipeline of Light Needs your Favorite Recipes
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Are You Ready for
an Interesting, Challenging, Stimulating Service Opportunity?
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Fellowship Summer Conference Update
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| The digital archive project whose goal is to digitize and catalog historic documents of the Urantia Book readership is approaching 3000 on-line documents in the archive with about 900 of them cataloged. The Urantia Book Historical Society is being formed to manage the accumulating collection of historic materials. The University of Colorado, Boulder, has expressed a strong interest in housing these documents as a special collection. This is largely a repercussion of Urantia work which Don Green has done on the campus over the past 25 years. A 501(c)3 non-profit is being set up and a Board of Directors is being developed. Helpers are needed who can read through documents, write short synopses, and help with cataloging. If you are interested in participating in this exciting project, please contact Larry Watkins. |
Yes, a completely legitimate 39 cent first class Urantian postage stamp has been issued! These can be used on letters to friends, bills you might be paying -- anything going through the US mail that you might want to use as a vehicle for spreading awareness of The Urantia Book. OK -- These stamps weren't issued by the US Government -- they were created at a website which lets you create postage stamps from your own artwork. If you are interested in creating your own stamps or ordering some with the picture shown here, go to the Fellowship website postage stamp page and follow the directions. |
Annual Oregon Urantian Campout Coming Up!  Julia Fenderson teaches at the Oregon Urantian Campout circa 1978 Mark your calendar for August 18 - 20, the weekend of the Oregon Urantia Campout! At just $35 per person (and cheaper for those 20 and under), these three days of relaxation and exuberance among UB reading friends is affordable for all. We're planning lots of time for fun and socialization, plus some fascinating excursions into our favorite book as well as time for prayer worship together. Registration deadline: June 30, 2006 ($10 late fee after June 30) Click here for more information or call Joy Brandt at (503) 408-4857 If you'd like to be part of the program, call Esther Wood at (503) 961-2147. If you want to make a vacation out of it, you may also be interested in attending a weekend Urantia retreat the following weekend, August 25 to 27, in Eugene, Oregon (one hour south of the campground) offered by the Retreat Network. For more information about the Urantia Retreat the following weekend call Jeanette Shaefer (541) 754-0385 |
Some sixteen positions on the General Council are up for election. If you have any interest in contributing time and effort to the rapidly growing work of the Fellowship, please fill out and send in a copy of the "Application for Organizational Service". The summer meeting will also include a study conference on the topic of "Celestial Ministry: Seen and Unseen". For more information, visit the conference information page on the website. http://urantia-book.org/conferences/SS2006/ss06_home_page.htm |
 The Pipeline of Light Needs Your RecipesWe have officially opened the call for recipes for the Pipeline of Light Cookbook project. The proceeds from the sales of this unique cookbook will help us fund next year's Pipeline expenses. It is our intention to create a cosmic recipe collection from readers of The Urantia Book; recipes that are special not only because they are favorites from our community of readers (much like a church cookbook that many of us have in our collections), but because the instructions will be sprinkled with bits of universe wisdom or references to Urantia Book stories. Your recipe can be as simple or as elaborate as you wish, as long as it's a real recipe and you can think of some bit of universe wisdom or a Urantia Book story that can be integrated into it. We would like for the final cookbook to be available for purchase early this Fall. Here's how to help us with this fun project: 1. Find a couple of your favorite recipes. 2. Read through the instructions and think of a snippet of advice you could insert that relates your recipe to universe reality or rewrite it so that it becomes an illustration of or commentary on a story or concept from The Urantia Book. Click here to see a sample recipe. 3. Send recipes to me at mklimesh@covad.net 4. Wait for the cookbook to come out so that your fellow readers can start nourishing themselves. Okay, run to your kitchen and find me a recipe! Michelle the Pipeline Coordinator |
Fellowship Summer Conference Update Theme: "Celestial Ministry: Seen and Unseen" Worship, Plenaries and Workshops from July 5 to July 9, 2006 "And so it is: You worship God; pray to, and commune with, the Son; and work out the details of your earthly sojourn in connection with the intelligence's of the Infinite Spirit operating on your world and throughout your universe." (p.66) Please join this summer at We will begin each morning in worship of the Universal Father. There will be plenary presentations on the origin, nature and destiny of celestial ministry. Various workshops will focus on a wide range of divine and spiritual forces, persons, networks and their relationships to us. A tour is planned of The central aim of the conference is to enhance our intellectual and spiritual lives through study, discussion and reflection, to integrate the practical and the sacred. We would like to put more "study" back into the summer study sessions of the Fellowship. People are encouraged to bring their copy of The Urantia Book and use it by reading/referencing it during the workshops they attend. We will have feed back sessions after the day's workshops in which a volunteer from each workshop will report to the entire group the highlights of what was done and learned. |
Do you shop at Amazon.com? If so, you can make a contribution to The Fellowship every time you purchase something -- Amazon.com will pay The Fellowship a sales commission. If you reach Amazon.com by going through the Fellowship, the Fellowship gets a commission on everything you subsequently purchase. Go to http://urantia-book.org/amazon.htm and click on the Amazon.com logo to get to the Amazon site and make your purchase. The Fellowship will earn a sales commission. |
 Spiritual Lessons from Worms and Kids (continued from above)As we began this process it looked as if we may have lost our whole worm population, for we began to pull comatose bodies out one by one. But we said to each other, "If the dirt was stirred and wetted, maybe the little critters might come alive. Maybe we can save the lives of our worms." There was a great stir of energy as these kids saw what to them was a critical situation in which they could make a difference. They got some squirt bottles and we got into a rythm as the energy intensified in the effort to save our worms. I would reach down to the bottom of the bin, bringing up the drier dirt and along with it a few listless worms in my hands. I would hold them in my hands while the kids aimed their squirt bottles at the unmoving worm bodies, trying to revive them with the water. The joy that was present in that small space when a comatose worm would stir after being squirted was indescribable. I doubt that this had much of the attention of the supreme personalities of the universe, but for these few minutes, these kids were giving it everything they had to revive these worms.They were actually fighting over who got to save the worms! Such joy -- and to top it all off, one rather serious kindergarten boy said, with a perfectly straight face, "That smells like champagne!" And of course the fermenting fruit did have a hint of such an aroma. So what do worms have to do with service? After some stirring of the ground of my own being, I came up with no less than 16 principles of service from this experience. I doubt that this falls into the category mentioned on page 1452, "All good works of true service come from the Supreme", but I also think that our celestial friends have a wonderful, playful sense of humor and have keen "joy sensors". On page 555 I found an invigorating phrase talking about what the ministering reserves can do for ascending mortals: They can kindle ". . . a divine fire of the will-to-service." This phrase really caught my soul's eye because the energy to save the worms became a metaphor for this "divine fire of the will-to-service." We can feel this "divine fire of the will-to-service" in our very souls. The Adjusters are dispatched for mortal service from Divinigton carrying the embers of this "divine fire of the will-to-service". So here is a list of sixteen principles of service which I dug up from the worm bin experience, and I think that all of them apply to us as individuals, and most are applicable to us as a group of religionists dedicated to the work of the fifth epochal revelation. 1. Stay grounded. 2. Do what is right in front of you to do -- serve where you are first. Then look off to the more exciting heights. It is enticing to look for service in more glorious places than your own back yard. 3. Don't be afraid to roll up your sleeves and get dirty. Too many of us are becoming armchair servers -- from our high philosophical places, thinking that we can serve with just our thoughts, our revelation, while the Mother Teresas of the world are doing the work with their hands and their sweat. Our families and the world need our hands as well as our revelation. Plus, getting dirty is humbling, and it keeps us grounded in the reality of this planet. There is a lot of dirt on our world. 4. Every little thing couints. Look how many times Jesus went about doing good -- little things -- he smiled at people as he passed by. 5. Involve those around you in participation with you in serving. You don't have to do it alone. Give others a chance to experience the joy and exhilaration of service. 6. Water the dry ground with the true water of life and love -- wherever you go. 7. Know and understand why you are serving -- to meet your own needs? To look good? For others to see? Because we are supposed to? Is our purpose simply to tell the whole world about the Urantia Book without making an effort to live its truths day by day? 8. Be diligent and check conditions around you often to see if there is something needing to be done. 9. Do not take yourselfe too seriously as you serve. 10. Know when to stop serving. Some kids got so caught up in the process of squirting the worms that they nearly drowned the ones they had revived. 11. Keep the priority of relationship always in mind. Was the really important thing in the worm bin the worms? No, it wsa the relationship between teh kids and between the kids and me that was the essential thing happening there. This is where perhaps the suprmem was interfacing. Is the important thing to bang people over the head with a book to the detriment of your personal relationship with them? 12. Do things joyfully -- with a sense of humor. t one point I and the kids were almost rolling on the floor with laughter. And the ones who were standing on the sidelines watching had unplugged their noses and moved closer when they saw how much fun we were having. 13. Respect diversity in service. Some of the kids did not want to come within eight feet of the worm bin, but they watched and were caught up in the enthusiasm. Fifteen kids could not have been doing the same thing anyway. 14. Keep perspective. We could stay at the worm bin stirring and squirting just so long, and then the rest of life called us on to school. On page 526 we are admonished to engage in live in a variety of modes -- work, progress, play, service, study, relaxation. 15. Acknowledge that it is personally good for us to engage in service. Page 1530 admonishes us to "Seek perfection through service." We get closer to God through worship and service. Service stimulates the growth of our souls. 16. Be spontaneous, allowing the "divine fire of the will-to-service" to burn brightly, without fear and without concern for what others might think. |