Joanne Brummet made a comment yesterday at the social which struck me as particularly powerful and inspirational. She observed that each of the details you see around here from the signs and decorations down to each individual cookie that was homemade for the social, is an expression of love...that it is an expression from a person who wants to serve other people. I was moved deeply by that powerful statement!
This is as John [Hay] said, the largest gathering of Urantia Book readers that we have ever had come together for a conference. Think for just a moment about the number of Adjusters in this room...one thousand! Think of the number of angels and other beings that are here with us just outside the range of our vision. Think about the souls that are developing minute by minute. Think of the Supreme who is coming into existence by virtue of the work each of us is doing internally and externally. Think about what it means in particular to be conscious of these realities, to actually know what is going on, to be a conscious participant in that process. As we sit here we can literally sense these things, we can sense the meaning and value of the other people sitting around us.
This week is not about organization, politics, division. This week is about unity, the unity we share with each other because of our SONship with our common Father. This week is about fellowship and communion, about study, learning, teaching, sharing, being, about relationships. This week is to focus on the "of" experience, not the "about" experience. We each come here as an individual, as a unique son or daughter of our common Spirit Father. In this setting and for this week let us put aside any issues, personal or otherwise, which separate us from one another and come together as a limited but wondrous expression of "Supreme Oneness." For these five days, let us seek to unify the insidedness and the outsidedness of our experience with the God who makes our very existence possible. And, simultaneously, as we enter into this experience of unity, let us celebrate the diversity of expression, the distinctive nuances of creativity, and the uniqueness of personality as it is multiplied a thousand-fold in this time and in this place.
This week was intended to be a balanced blending of truth, beauty, and goodness--matter, mind, and spirit--and of personality relationships, of love between perSONS. At a conference we had in the Northeast a couple of weeks ago, one of the speakers, Leo, made a comment which I wrote down because I thought it was very thought-provoking. He talked about "unity of relationships." That the way in which we unify our existence is by virtue of unifying relationships; that everything else is a tool or step in that process. It sounded to me like an expression of Supremacy. That was what I understood John Hay to have meant when he spoke of the power of love as the way that all reality is pulled together.
We didn't come here to find God, to find our Heavenly Father. Rather, because God lives in each of us, we bring him here with us to share with each other. God is present with us today in a thousand unique expressions. That is an awesome thought! God is present expressing himself through a thousand different perSONalities here today. And as two, three or more of us gather together in Michael's name, he is here with us as well. Although the circuits which link us to the universe around us are still severed and although our senses limit our vision of the beings here present, we can be certain that our Father's personality circuit, the Son's Truth Spirit, and the Mother Spirit's mind circuits are even now broadcasting our fondest spiritual and mindal aspirations upward and inward to our local universe fellows and on even to the shores of Paradise.
It is true that this conference was facilitated by Fifth Epochal Fellowship and I welcome you on the organization's behalf. But, to say that really obscures the fact that the organization's name is simply shorthand for the cooperative effort of men and women determined to serve their fellows in a way which ultimately brings forth good. The name is the identity for the mechanism of group effort. Its being, its soul is the network of living relationships between the perSONS who willingly populate its activities; and its collective personality is one small expression of the Supreme, comprised here today of a thousand unique and sparkling facets. We hope that you enjoy this week with your fellow readers of The Urantia Book. We are certain that you each will bring much to our collective experience and in so doing will take much with you when you leave.
Thank you for being a part of this historic gathering and for bringing with you the God who dwells within.
A Service of
The Urantia Book Fellowship