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The Program

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The next Urantia Book Fellowship International Conference is slated to be held at Villanova University near Philadelphia from July 30 through August 4, 2005. The year 2005 is the 50^th anniversary of the publication of The Urantia Book, and so the title of the conference is "MAKING SPIRIT MATTER: The Next 50 Years". The conference is intended to celebrate this significant anniversary as we look forward to the next fifty years of growth.

Villanova University near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,
site of the Fellowship's 2005 International Conference.

Villanova has a rather remarkable student center which will serve us well as a social and networking center while also accomodating workshop presentations, plenary presentations, and group worship opportunities. This facility is perhaps the finest of its kind any international conference has seen. The residential suites are all air conditioned and the classrooms are a short walk from the student center. There will a continuous shuttle revolving between the dorms, the student center, and the classroom buildings. All areas on campus are handicap accessible.

The Program

As regards the program, there will be workshops in the areas of experiential spirituality, philosophy and theology, history, outreach, as well as various other topics. There will be a pre-conference retreat about art and creativity led by Gary Deinstadt and one in experiential spirituality led by Gard Jameson and Dolores Nice. The coordinating committee has made a special effort to limit the number of daytime workshops and to make sure that they focus on the teachings contained in The Urantia Book. Presentations that deal with material not directly included in The Urantia Book will be offered during the evening. There will be a prominent bulletin board in the student center where the time and location of the evening presentations can be found.

The experiential spirituality track will include presentations in areas such as:

1) Jesus as Pattern:  Forgiveness, Parables & Analogies, Service, Religious Practices;
2) Outreach:  Living the Revelation, Study Groups, Book Booths/Expos, Websites;
3) Relationships:  Parenting, Spouses & Mates, Workplace, Singles, Teamwork;
4) Personal Development:  Self Mastery, Cosmic Citizenship, Developing Spiritual Habits;
5) Prayer and Worship:  Retreat activities, small group Worship, Prayer Sanctuary, and;
6) Spiritual Expression:  Music, Dance, Song, Artshop. (Please contact Bill & Share Beasley at bbeasley@tampabay.rr.com or call (813) 684-1540 for more information about this track.)

Some of the workshops in the philosophy/theology track will include, among many others:

1)  Pattern in The Urantia Book;
2) The UB Reader and Institutionalized Religion (panel);
3) Source Authors for the UB's Biblical Material;
4) The Interfaith Movement and Beyond;
5) Studying the Foreword to the UB;
6) Introduction to the UB for new readers and spouses/teens;
7) Building a Bridge Between the Bible and The Urantia Book;
8) God the Supreme;
9) History of Epochal Revelation;
10) Spiritual Unity and Community. For further information regarding this track please contact Steven Hecht at: shecht@newview.org.

The science track will include the following presentations, among others:

1) Dr. Phil Calabrese will do a talk on the scientific credibility of The Urantia Book;
2) Dr. Patricia Rife will speak on the Universal Mother Spirit and the circuits -- energies which have parallels in modern phraseology in physics;
3) Gard Jameson's talk will be about The Urantia Book's presentation of, and its relation to, contemporary thought on evolution;
4) Suzanne Kelly-Ward will present on the correlation of mind and spirit in the brain and how it has developed through history;
5) John Causland will have several presentations on astronomy. He will also use his large telescope to allow others to view the stars in the evening and possibly lead a tour of a planetarium.

 As in the past there will be daily opportunities for group worship, social reversion at Club UB, and various programs to keep kids and teens happy and cared for. There will also be an extensive bookshop with all sorts of UB-related materials and gifts as well as an art gallery with many kinds of UB-related artwork.

There will be a free day available where attendees can visit Philadelphia and surrounding areas either informally or by signing up for pre-arranged tours (included in the registration form).

We anticipate that this conference will be an enjoyable and educationally-rich social experience with fellow UB readers. This only happens once every three years, so please take advantage of this opportunity to grow in mind and spirit.

This is your conference. Help to make it more so by planning to attend and possibly contribute to the educational programs that are the heart of the conference. Please communicate with the organizing team by sending your ideas to The Urantia Book Fellowship, PO Box 4583, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10163 or email us.

See you there!

Steven Hecht,
on behalf of the IC'05 Coordinating Committee