UNITY, NOT UNIFORMITY
A Talk Dealing With The Urantia Book,
The Official Organizations of The Urantia Movement,
And Unity, Not Uniformity
Presented by Martin W. Myers at the First Western Regional Urantia Conference
Los Angeles, June 1973

We who are gathered here today are witnesses to and participants in a gigantic effort that will someday culminate in the inauguration of the ages of Light and Life on this very planet. That will be a time when men will be willing to live in peace with one another in a veritable heaven on earth.

In her August, 1963 speech to the Summer Seminar, Christy said:

"In our great mission of promulgating The Urantia Book we have been called Soldiers of the circles. To me that is a delightful designation. We have also been called Mortal Selectmen, torchbearers, the salt of The Urantia Revelation, a pioneer group, and trailblazers. We have been summoned to offer a new light to a frustrated church and a distracted world."

As we look about us we see plainly the need for the spiritual regeneration of men and the material and spiritual redirection of the evolutionary course of the growth and development of our planet.

There can be little doubt that this is a gigantic task, a task of such grand proportions that we can little realize the immensity of its import nor the explosive potential it holds for the promise for a better existence for the future generations of all mankind.

The growth of Urantia Brotherhood is only beginning. The Urantia Book is beginning to find a dependable following of sincere readers and loyal supporters. The first steps are being taken to offer to a world languishing in spiritual darkness a new light of hope and direction, a light illuminating the way to salvation and progress in the place of spiritual stagnation and material confusion.

We have only to refer to the history of our planet - notably the Lucifer rebellion and that innocent but nevertheless undeniable Adamic default and the repercussions of their blighted aftermath - to know that our history has been fraught with difficulty and plagues with the troublesome world mismanagement of men of questionable character and motivation who have gained the ascendancy over their more spiritual brethren and have -- at times -- plunged the world into periods of savagery and barbarism unknown on normal planets.

Those who have even the slightest acquaintance with the bloody, strife torn past of this planet know that the Spirit of Truth, while available to all mankind, unfortunately does not yet rule in the hearts of all men.

Attempts have been made periodically to ameliorate the difficulties of this world, but it is to be shamefully recorded that those who have served as the bearers of new truth have rarely received a cordial welcome.

Dr. Meredith J. Sprunger, a teacher, minister, professional psychologist and a General Councilor of Urantia Brotherhood, has written:

"Every advance in knowledge is a disturbing and painful experience for man. This is true of both quantitative knowledge (science) and qualitative knowledge (religion). Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake for contending that the earth was not in the center of the universe. Louis Pasteur was denounced by the learned men of his day when he contended that diseases were caused by germs. When Will Harvey discovered the circulation of blood, most of the physicians of his day who were over thirty-five, continued the rest of their lives to believe there was no such thing. Shortly before Wilbur and Orville Wright flew their first plane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, a distinguished scientist wrote a convincing article proving that it was scientifically impossible to fly a vehicle heavier than air. The list could go on and on.

"Scientists, however, are not the only people afflicted with this type of myopic vision. Growth in religious insight has been plagued with even greater resistance and suffering. The prophets have been stoned; the saviors are crucified - by religious men and women who believe they are doing the will of God".

For proof of this we need only look to the time of Jesus, John the Baptist, "the greatest of the prophets of the old order." (p. 1509) was arrested, imprisoned, and beheaded.

Jesus of Nazareth, the personal representative of the ever living God, who said, "He who has seen me has seen the Father," (p. 1750), the greatest of all the revelations to all mankind and to the entire local universe of Nebadon, was arrested, ridiculed, vilified, scourged, spat upon, cruelly treated, and then, before the unbelieving eyes of a universe was perfunctorily nailed to a cross and hung between two thieves.

Revolting?? Absolutely!!!

But it was into this world of such hard realities that The Urantia Book appeared.

The Fifth Major Epochal Revelation was different than any of the four that had preceded it, for it was in book form. And, being in book form the Revelation carried with it the danger of textual re-writing and modification. As it would happen, that very danger was all the more emphasized by a certain European nation which approximately simultaneously with the presentation of The Urantia Papers was burning books by the tons and re-writing others to conform to the deranged thinking of a clique of gangsters who had somehow risen to the control of a one-time proud and mighty nation.

It was evident that The Urantia Book, like so many books before it, including the books of the Bible, would be defenseless under the indiscriminate pen of irresponsible and unprincipled people, unless it were properly protected.

Moreover, the Contact Commissioners, who were not only aware of the sad history of the planet, but who had also watched the destruction of literary, philosophical and scientific efforts of great genius in that certain European nation, were specifically warned concerning The Urantia Book.

The early leaders set out to provide and perfect the necessary means of protecting the new Fifth Major Epochal Revelation. Their problem (as if it were not trying enough) was made even more difficult by the fact that The Urantia Book was a religious document of a high caliber, and the Contact Commissioners knew the plight of one of the best religions as it had been traditionalized and over-organized by perhaps sincere but misdirected believers down through the years. They had only to look at how the religion of Jesus had been changed into the religion about Jesus, with all the trappings of ecclesiasticism, to realize that over-organization had to be avoided in the religious movement that was sure to grow up around the teachings of The Urantia Book.

They knew that:

".[A]s religion becomes institutionalized, its power for good is curtailed, while the possibilities for evil are greatly multiplied. The dangers of formalized religion are [among other things]: fixation of beliefs and crystallization of sentiments; . tendency to standardize and fossilize truth; diversion of religion from the service of Good to the service of the Church; inclination of leaders to become administrators instead of ministers; tendency to form sects and competitive divisions; establishment of oppressive ecclesiastical authority; . entanglements with functions of secular institutions; . it becomes an intolerant judge of orthodoxy; it fails to hold the interest of adventurous youth and gradually loses the saving message of the gospel of eternal salvation. "Formal religion restrains men in their personal spiritual activities instead of releasing them for heightened service as Kingdom builders." (p. 1092)

But the early leaders also read in The Urantia Book:

"The Jewish religion persisted also because of its institutions. It is difficult for religion to survive as the private practice of isolated individuals. This has ever been the error of the religious leaders: Seeing the evils of institutionalized religion, they seek to destroy the technique of group functioning." (p.1076)

It was therefore clear that while overly formalized and over-institutionalized organization was undesirable - because it would stifle the progress of the individual believer, nevertheless, without an organization there would be no sure way to assist in the transmittal of moral values and spiritual ideals from generation to generation. A religion no matter how worthy and pure will become submerged in the older evolutionary beliefs, or it will simply disappear for lack of renewal and material support, if it has no formal organization.

The early leaders of The Urantia Movement devised an ingenious plan.

Their strategy was twofold. In order to protect the text from editing, alterations, and distortions, they foresaw the necessity of placing The Urantia Book under the United States and International copyrights, thus guaranteeing future generations the privilege of having the unadulterated Fifth Major Epochal Revelation. To that end the Urantia Foundation was formalized and the Book was lawfully copyrighted in its name.

To avoid over-organization and thus to permit each individual "to enjoy religious liberty in the full expression of his own personal interpretation of the truths of religious belief and the facts of religious experience" (p. 1135), they decided on a simple social organization. Its purpose was to provide a vehicle for the socialization of the Urantia Teachings and to serve as the scaffolding for the development of a real brotherhood, which would act as the living transmitter of The Urantia Message.

Furthermore, until such time as the Spirit of Truth would rule in the hearts of the world's population, the simple social brotherhood would provide the mechanism for dealing with the distracting and disturbing individuals who would inevitably attempt to attach themselves to, and to work havoc with - even perhaps to misrepresent and/or to supersede - The Urantia Movement. The simple social organization would be an effective safeguard.

To date it appears that the leaders have done their job well. The Declaration of Trust, which created the Foundation was well drawn and permits the Trustees the fullest latitude in accomplishing the objects as set out in the Declaration of Trust, including the protection of the text of The Urantia Book.

The Constitution of Urantia Brotherhood is, in my opinion, one of the most consistent, liberal, fair plans that have yet been devised for any movement. I do not necessarily mean to say that it is perfect, but it does provide for its own amending, and in the meantime it is accomplishing the purposes it was designed to accomplish.

The wisdom of the early architects of Urantia Foundation and Urantia Brotherhood has already been shown. I am very sorry to say that indefensible assaults have indeed been made on the control and integrity of The Urantia Book, and some - much to the disbelief and consternation of their family and close friends - have already sought to disrupt and confuse Urantia Brotherhood. While it is not the most pleasant of tasks, I can report that these problems have either been dealt with or they are presently being attended to.

The message of The Urantia Book is for all religions and all mankind. But please remember: The Urantia Book was not placed on the planet so that it could be summarily butchered at the hands of shortsighted and selfish individuals who would wish to control The Urantia Book to make a name for themselves, or worst of all, who would wish permanently to distort the Urantia Teachings for commercial gain or to conform to their own prejudiced and humanly limited point of view.

Yes, The Urantia Book is here to be used by all mankind, but used with sane and proper safeguards to guarantee its continued existence and the purity of its text.

One great advantage of having a revelation in book form and protecting its integrity is that few factual compromises need be made with evolutionary cultural beliefs and with the creeds, doctrines and beliefs of evolutionary religions. The chances are minimal that the true and clear teachings will be mixed indistinguishably with the garbled thought of mere humans whose viewpoint is necessarily subject to distortion, prejudice, unclear thinking, emotionalism and even psychic illusion.

The Urantia Book is the most balanced, consistent and fair presentation of spiritual truth and universe fact ever available to the human race in book form.

Mark you well: Any human commentary on the Urantia Teachings runs the very real risk of distorting and diluting the purity - if not of the text, then of the meaning of the text. No one wishes to prohibit or discourage responsible comment on The Urantia Message so long as it is kept clear from what is from The Urantia Book, and what is the product of human thought. That is the reason for the copyright.

The teachings of The Urantia Book distorted through indiscriminate plagiarism, must not be permitted to be foisted upon sincere truth seekers in the name of Truth.

In diluting The Urantia Book with all manner of editing and misquoting, one can only revert to former error: truth is compromised to fit in with the preconceived - and perhaps ill-conceived - ideas of one individual or a group of individuals. Let us not slip from the sublime to the ridiculous.

The Urantia Book is designed to be read, studied and considered as a whole, not to be seen in limited, fragmented pieces. Fragmentation has been the great problem of the past where individuals have one seen glimpses of truth and spirit realities, and have failed to see the balanced, consistent, fair and unified presentation as is given by The Urantia Book.

Can anyone rationally deny that for thousands of years the world has cried out in anguish for an authentic standard of spiritual understanding and planetary development?

Finally, we have such a standard, but there are those who threaten to modify it to suit their own whimsical tastes, if only by the subtle twisting of a phrase here and there, or by quoting out of context.

Think with me for a moment.

In the United States, the common standard of lineal measurement is the yard, or very precisely defined subdivisions thereof. The yard itself is carefully defined in terms of the meter. Now, custom has it that originally the yard was defined as the distance from one's nose to the tip on one's outstretched arm and index finger.

Imagine today what it would be like if everyone defined a yard - the basic unit of measurement - and the distance from his nose to the tip of his outstretched arm and index finger. No one could agree on anything. You could not buy parts to fit your car; you would not be able to buy drapes to fit into your home - if your home itself fit together. In our sophisticated society we would have a complete economic breakdown.

In The Urantia Book we have a clear and concise standard which not only gives us a starting point to judge our individual spiritual progress, but it also tells, among so many other things, what is best for our individual souls, and in what direction we should go, where we are going, and how we ought to get there. The Urantia Book also gives us a wonderful intellectual understanding of the Father, the cosmos, and our planet.

We finally have a standard on which we can build our lives and after which we can order the world.

How presumptuous, how unfair for an individual or a group by willfully distorting and diluting The Urantia Message to sully and besmirch the Fifth Epochal Revelation.

The Urantia Book says:

"The shadow of a hair's turning, premeditated for an untrue purpose, the slightest twisting or perversion of that which is principle - these constitute falseness." (p.555)

That is why a dependable standard whose authenticity is guaranteed is necessary. That is why The Urantia Book was copyrighted, and that is why the copyright shall be enforced.

Is there any book that rises to the dignity of The Urantia Book?

Is there any work of the magnitude of The Urantia Book that can approach its symmetry, balance and consistency?

Honorable and loyal members who are sincerely interested in the welfare of The Urantia Book will do everything possible to protect the integrity of its superlative message. If we do not, we can only watch in this life or look back from The Mansion Worlds - and look on with shame - as The Urantia Book is dismembered and cannibalized by clever and corrupt individuals and groups, all of who will, of course, insist that they are working for peace and progress while they tear and rip away at the dead flesh of the once living and vibrant Urantia Book.

Beware of wolves in sheep's clothing. Did not Lucifer insist that he was working for progress and liberty while at the same time he denied the very existence of the Universal Father and rebelled against the divine plan?

Let us use The Urantia Teachings continually to fertilize our spiritual and moral thinking as we cultivate the inner garden of truth. But, let us preserve the purity and integrity of The Urantia Book lest we suddenly find we are sowing our garden with the compromise-weeds of former evolutionary thought and human prejudice.

So far I have talked mainly about The Urantia Book and early organization, emphasizing the importance of protecting the integrity and purity of the text of The Urantia Book. Now let us take a closer look at organization and the role of Urantia Brotherhood.

When you think of Urantia Foundation, think of copyright and legal ownership of the text of The Urantia Book. When you think of Urantia Brotherhood, think of a social and fraternal organization.

The Urantia Foundation is composed of five Trustees who are elected for life. In addition, there are at present, two Trustees Emeritus. These people deal with protecting the name Urantia, publishing The Urantia Book, and watching over the technical and legal requirements of protecting the text of The Urantia Book. The Trustees have been given an important job. They have been entrusted with a sacred responsibility.

The Urantia Brotherhood is composed of individual Urantia Societies to which you or I or another interested person may belong. Briefly, the following is a description of the governmental mechanics of organization.

The Urantia Societies, which constitute the basic constitutional building blocks of Urantia Brotherhood, are largely autonomous. Every three years each Society elects a delegate and an alternate to represent that Society at the Triennial Delegate Assembly. It is at this Assembly that twelve General Councilors are elected to the General Council, the deliberative body of Urantia Brotherhood. The General Council is composed of thirty-six members with staggered terms of nine years for each Councilor. The Executive Committee of Urantia Brotherhood is elected from the General Council and through its monthly meetings, carriers on the business of Urantia Brotherhood.

There is a third group, which I should mention, and that is Urantia Brotherhood Corporation. This corporation serves as the fiscal agent of Urantia Brotherhood, handling various monetary matters at the direction of the Executive Committee.

These groups are thoroughly cooperative and noncompetitive. Their mutual objective is the protection and wise dissemination of The Fifth Major Epochal Revelation, and they have always worked harmoniously to that end.

While copyright matters are important, and while the brotherhood emphasizes this through the education of its members, Urantia Brotherhood, being a social and fraternal organization has additional purposes.

Our wonderful Urantia Book states:

"The future of Urantia will doubtless be characterized by the appearance of teachers of religious truth - the Fatherhood of God and the fraternity of all creatures. But it is to be hoped that the ardent and sincere efforts of these future prophets will be directed less toward the strengthening of antireligious barriers and more toward the augmentation of the religious brotherhood of spiritual worship among the many followers of the differing intellectual theologies which so characterize Urantia of Satania." (p. 1010)

A chief purpose of Urantia Brotherhood is to augment the growth of a religious brotherhood among the many followers of the differing religions of the world. Urantia Brotherhood claims no specific religiosity. It does not wish to stifle or hinder the efforts of other sincere religionists who may or may not have heard of The Urantia Book but who honestly and unselfishly labor for the spiritual uplift of their fellows by bringing God to man and man to God. URantia Brotherhood and its individual Urantians wish to work in confraternity with these sincere religionists.

This is amply demonstrated by the fact that individuals of diverse religious backgrounds may at one and the same time belong to their own formal religious organization and Urantia Brotherhood. Urantia Brotherhood is not exclusive. Many have enriched their own lives and have more thoroughly understood and appreciated the truths in their own evolutionary religion because of contact with The Urantia Message.

But how is Urantia Brotherhood to achieve this purpose of augmenting the growth of a free spiritual brotherhood? Is it to be another church with all the risks of stifling and oppressive over-organization? Or is it to be just another narrow, provincial religious sect? To put answers to these questions and to place matters in perspective, I would like to draw upon the very first President's Triennial Report to the General Council of Urantia Brotherhood, by William S. Sadler, Jr.

"'What is Urantia Brotherhood? Another sect?' This question has been put to the writer of this report more than once. To this question, a negative answer has always been given, 'No, the Urantia Brotherhood is neither a church nor a sect. It is simply a social group which has a religious objective.'"

"There is a real place in modern civilization for a group of religious people who are '.willing to completely divest themselves of all ecclesiastical authority and fully surrender all concept of spiritual sovereignty. God alone is spirit sovereign.' (sp.1487) The modern world hardly needs another church, another sect. At the present time, we suffer from a plethora of churches and a multiplication of sects.

"But, if we are not a church, how then do we differ from a church? If we can clearly see how we differ, then perchance we can maintain such differences. And, if we can maintain these differences, then we may be able to preserve our organization as a distinctive Brotherhood; we may be able to avoid a possible evolution in the direction of a church.

"Well, right on the face of it, there are three differences between the Brotherhood and a typical church; we claim no spiritual sovereignty; we claim no exclusive path to salvation; we claim no ecclesiastical authority. So as long as we do not claim these things we can hardly become a church.

"But, even if we are not a church, even if we never become a church, is it also true that we are not a sect? A Urantian could be a sectarian religionist; he could be a religionist who is primarily dedicated to the propagation of The Urantia Book. Would such a dedication, however, be a valid dedication - in the light of what we all know? The writer submits that such a dedication is not valid as a primary dedication. Such an exaltation of a most worthy secondary dedication to primary status could well transform a religious Urantian into a sectarian Urantian - a Urantian who has allowed the importance of The Urantia Book to take precedence over the importance of God.

"How then can we, as Urantians, avoid not only churchification but also sectarianization? The writer believes that both of these unfortunate developments can be avoided if we are careful in distinguishing between Means and Ends. This is another way of saying that we should be careful not to confuse our Secondary loyalties and our Primary loyalties. The writer would accordingly submit for the careful consideration of the Brotherhood the following philosophy of action:

1. God is the only true End. Our primary spiritual loyalty and dedication 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 spiritual Father. This we may attempt with, or without, the Book. All other things are secondary and subordinate to the acquisition of this one 'pearl of great price' - the realization of sonship with God.

2. The Urantia Book as a Means to the End. 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 we have 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.

3. The Urantia brotherhood as Means to and End. Neither is the Urantia Brotherhood, nor membership in it, a true End. The real function of the Brotherhood is also the function of a Means to accomplish a desired End. The structure of the Brotherhood is to the spiritual experiences of its members as the river banks are to a river; it is true that no river can be had without its banks - but neither should the banks be confused with the flowing river. The Brotherhood is designed to promote the Book and the Book is designed to bring God and man closer to each other.

"If we can clearly separate Means and Ends, if we can always subordinate Means to the true End, then we shall continue for a very long time as a real brotherhood. And we shall avoid becoming merely another church or another sect in the world of the twentieth century - a world which needs neither a new church nor a new sect."

In speaking about the world's major religions, The Urantia Book says:

"All these religions have arisen as a result of man's variable intellectual response to his identical spiritual leading. They can never hope to attain a uniformity of creeds, dogmas, and rituals - these are intellectual; but they can, and some day will, realize a unity in true worship of the Father of all, for this is spiritual, and it is forever true, in the spirit all men are equal." (p. 1012)

It is the sincere hope of the leaders - both past and present - of Urantia Brotherhood that the Brotherhood will function as a simple social and fraternal organization effectively functioning as a unifying force of and among the many peoples of the planet, and not slip into being a mere sect, or evolve into another church. And in doing this, as it is with government, so it is with the Urantia Brotherhood organization:

That organization is best which organizes least and coordinates most.

Urantia Brotherhood does not need a hierarchy of religious authority nor an overabundance of restrictive creeds, dogmas, and rules and regulations. But it does require a minimal amount of basic organization with enough ground rules to permit its healthy and orderly functioning.

The Urantia Book says:

"There is a real purpose in the socialization of religion. It is the purpose of group religious activities to dramatize the loyalties of religion; to magnify the lures of truth, beauty, and goodness; to foster the attractions of supreme values; to enhance the service of unselfish fellowship; to glorify the potentials of family life; to promote religious education; to provide wise counsel and spiritual guidance; and to encourage group worship. And all live religions encourage human friendship, conserve morality, promote neighborhood welfare, and facilitate the spread of the essential gospel of their respective messages of eternal salvation." (p. 1092)

And furthermore we are told:

"While your religion is a matter of personal experience, it is most important that you should be exposed to the knowledge of a vast number of other religious experiences (the diverse interpretations of other and diverse mortals) to the end that you may prevent your religious life from becoming egocentric - circumscribed, selfish, and unsocial." (p. 1130)

With intelligent guidance Urantia Brotherhood will benignly function to coordinate the results of the interchange of these many individual experiences and will encourage their growth in to the living Brotherhood that will someday in the possibly far distant ages of light and life so rule in the hearts of men that the helpful channelizing mechanism of Urantia Brotherhood will not be necessary.

To accomplish that end, Urantia Brotherhood wishes to foster a diversity of genuine spiritual experience - not certain artificially induced states of the conscious and/or the subconscious - but a genuine spiritual experience on the superconscious level which will bear the fruits of the spirit in abundance in our everyday lives. Through the medium of fraternal fellowship Urantia Brotherhood will then help to coordinate and integrate what will someday be the artful unification of a kaleidoscopic diversity of personal religious experiences.

No one's religious experience is the same as anyone else's; each of us has a unique personality and we each likewise have our own non-duplicable relationship with God. As each one of us grows in the spontaneity and adventure of genuine spiritual discovery, we develop our own special religious experience. And that experience, when combined in willing and unselfish concert with others, will create a living brotherhood.

Out of rich diversity - not stultifying demands for uniformity - this planet will someday be able to achieve a true and living brotherhood through the Unity of the Spirit.

In the words of Jesus:

"You should remember that in body and mind - emotionally - men react individually. The only uniform thing about men is the indwelling spirit. Though divine spirits may vary somewhat in the nature and extent of their experience, they react uniformly to all spiritual appeals. Only through, and by appeal to, this spirit can mankind ever attain unity and brotherhood." (p.1672)

And again the words of Jesus from The Urantia Book:

"One of the most eventful of all the evening conferences at Amathus was the session having to do with the discussion of spiritual unity. James Zebedee had asked, 'Master, how shall we learn to see alike and thereby enjoy more harmony among ourselves?' When Jesus heard this question, he was stirred within his spirit, so much so that he replied: 'James, James, when did I teach you that you should all see alike? I have come into the world to proclaim spiritual liberty to the end that mortals may be empowered to live individual lives of originality and freedom before God. I do not desire that social harmony and fraternal peace shall be purchased by the sacrifice of free personality and spiritual originality. What I require of you, my apostles, is spirit unity - and that you can experience in the joy of your united dedication to the wholehearted doing of the will of my Father in heaven. You do not have to see alike or feel alike or even think alike in order spiritually to be alike. Spiritual unity is derived from the consciousness that each of you is indwelt, and increasingly dominated, by the spirit gift of the heavenly Father. Your apostolic harmony must grow out of the fact that the spirit hope of each of you is identical in origin, nature, and destiny.'"

"'In this way you may experience a perfected unity of spirit purpose and spirit understanding growing out of the mutual consciousness of the identity of each of your indwelling Paradise spirits; and you may enjoy all of this profound spiritual unity in the very face of the utmost diversity of your individual attitudes of intellectual thinking, temperamental feeling, and social conduct. Your personalities may be refreshingly diverse and markedly different, while your spiritual natures and spirit fruits of divine worship and brotherly love may be so unified that all who behold your lives will of a surety take cognizance of this spirit identity and soul unity; they will recognize that you have been with me and have thereby learned, and acceptably, how to do the will of the Father in heaven. You can achieve the unity of the service of God even while you render such service in accordance with the technique of your own original endowments of mind, body, and soul.'"

"'Your spirit unity implies two things, which will always be found to harmonize in the lives of individual believers: First, you are possessed with a common motive for life service; you all desire about everything to do the will of the Father in heaven. Second, you all have a common goal of existence; you all purpose to find the Father in heaven, thereby proving to the universe that you have become like him.'" (p.1591-1592)

On page 1732 of The Urantia Book Jesus says:

"'Every race of mankind has its own mental outlook upon human existence; therefore must the religion of the mind ever run true to these various racial viewpoints. Never can the religions of authority come to unification. Human unity and mortal brotherhood can be achieved only by and through the super-endowment of the religion of the spirit. Racial minds may differ, but all mankind is indwelt by the same divine and eternal spirit. The hope of human brotherhood can only be realized when, and as, the divergent mind religions of authority become impregnated with, and overshadowed by, the unifying and ennobling religion of the spirit - the religion of personal spiritual experience.'"

"'The religions of authority can only divide men and set them in conscientious array against each other; the religion of the spirit will progressively draw men together and cause them to become understandingly sympathetic with one another. The religions of authority require of men uniformity in belief, but this is impossible of realization in the present state of the world. The religion of the spirit requires only unity of experience - uniformity of destiny - making full allowance for diversity of belief. The religion of the spirit requires only uniformity of insight, not uniformity of viewpoint and outlook. The religion of the spirit does not demand uniformity of intellectual views, only unity of spirit feeling. The religions of authority crystallize into lifeless creeds; the religion of the spirit grows into the increasing joy and liberty of ennobling deeds of loving service and merciful ministration.'" (p. 1732)

Remember:

That organization is best which organizes least and coordinates most.

Organization is only a tool; it is only a means to an end. Urantia Brotherhood is not an end in itself. For the present it will help to protect the copyright to The Urantia Book, and it will help to prevent confusion by providing for orderly growth. Urantia Brotherhood will further coordinate the integration of willing religionists into a living organism. When the true living Brotherhood of Jesusonians has been achieved, it will be more - much more - than the organizational scaffolding - or river bed if you will - which the Brotherhood organization is largely now.

The Urantia Book comments:

"The true church - the Jesus brotherhood - is invisible, spiritual, and is characterized by unity, not necessarily by uniformity. Uniformity is the earmark of the physical world of mechanistic nature. Spiritual unity is the fruit of faith union with the living Jesus. The visible church should refuse longer to handicap the progress of the invisible and spiritual brotherhood of the kingdom of God. And this brotherhood is destined to become a living organism in contrast to an institutionalized social organization. It may well utilize such social organizations, but it must not be supplanted by them." (p. 2085)

What an adventure! Urantia Brotherhood is now embarked upon a stupendous effort of artistic achievement and creative endeavor. Art may be defined as the unification of contrasts. Under the benign tutelage of Urantia Brotherhood, the experiential personal religious diversity of each individual may be coordinated and interwoven artfully into a fabric of contrastive, yet complementary beauty, a fabric of strength, dependability, and resiliency, that fabric representing the unity of the organismal spiritual brotherhood of Man.

What you do is your own business. If you are sincerely working in the Father's vineyard, then we wish to join hands with you in fellowship. But we bid you, go your way in peace. Do not try to disrupt our simple social brotherhood, and no, do not attempt to ruin our wonderful Urantia Book.

As for the distribution of The Urantia Book, I would like to make the following comments.

We are very much aware that the physical distribution of the actual text - The Urantia Book itself - could be completed world wide, say, within five years. But we know that the results of such a foolhardy effort would be appalling. Like a house built upon unstable foundations, the entire structure of growth, while it might grow quickly, would ultimately collapse. Such an officious spreading of The Urantia Book - not letting it find its own way naturally, among the peoples of the world, some disinterested and some manifestly its deadly enemy, would cause the most terrible flop since the times of Jesus. Such an action would be in direct violation of the natural laws of evolution; it would be an artificial attempt to speed up evolution, and we know the terrible results of Lucifer's and Adam's and Eve's attempts to do just that.

In Paper 65, "The Overcontrol of Evolution", a Life Carrier in speaking of biologic growth writes in The Urantia Book:

"Time and space are indissolubly linked; there is an innate association. The delays of time are inevitable in the presence of certain space conditions. "If spending so much time in effecting the evolutionary changes of life development occasions perplexity, I would say that we cannot time the life processes to unfold any faster than the physical metamorphoses of a planet will permit. We must wait upon the natural, physical development of a planet; we have absolutely no control over geologic evolution. If the physical conditions would allow, we could arrange for the completed evolution of life in considerably less than one million years. But we are all under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Rulers of Paradise, and time is nonexistent on Paradise." (p. 739)

Just as the Life Carriers in nurturing biologic evolution must wait for the physical evolution of the geologic state on which they carry out their drama of biologic development, so must the custodians of The Fifth Major Epochal Revelation await the natural unfolding of the cultural and religious development of planet, as well as the organizational growth of the supportive and protective mechanism of Urantia Brotherhood.

The early members of The Urantia Movement were, and you are now, told:

"The Urantia Book is a feature of the progressive evolution of human society. It is not germane to the spectacular episodes of epochal revolution. The Book belongs to the era immediately to follow the conclusion of the present ideological struggle. That will be the day when men will be willing to seek truth and righteousness. When the chaos of the present confusion has passed, it will be more readily possible to formulate the cosmos of a new and improved era of human relationships. And it is for this better order of affairs on earth that the Book has been made ready."

"We must learn to possess our souls in patience."

"We are in association with a revelation of truth which is a part of the natural evolution of religion on this world. Over-rapid growth would be suicidal. The Book is being given to those who are ready for it long before its world wide mission."

"In the meantime thousands of study groups must be brought into existence. Thus will the Book be in readiness to comfort and enlighten the peoples of the world when the battle for man's liberty is finally won and the world is once more made safe for the religion of Jesus and the freedom of mankind."

Much as did the Life Carriers, we must wait upon the natural development of culture and religion, and the growth of Urantia Brotherhood. We know that the cultural and religious conditions do not yet allow for the immediate world advertising and distribution of The Urantia Book. Those who advocate such a rash act - whether it includes the English edition or translations - are not working in consonance with the laws of natural evolution nor with the explicit instructions governing the introduction and dissemination of The Urantia Book.

As Christy said in her speech of 1963, we indeed are pioneers; we certainly are trailblazers; and there is no doubt that we are truly Soldiers of the Circles.

The world does need spiritual regeneration. The forward progress of our planet has been slowed almost to a halt. The mortal establishment stagnates in a morass of ideological confusion, philosophic chaos, racial strife, political disorientation, economic derangement and unbelievable spiritual and material poverty.

Now comes The Urantia Revelation to shed light upon the path of national life as well as upon religious experience and personal conduct. The Angels of the Churches and the Angels of Nation Life are standing, as it were, at attention, while the Seraphim of Progress marshall their reserves for the impending attack on the world's stalemate of international confusion and spiritual lethargy.

We now have The Fifth Major Epochal Revelation, a solid standard, a solid rock upon which we can build a better world, and through which we can enjoy a fuller individual existence. We must stand firm and resolute behind the battlements of our organization. We must ever protect the purity and integrity of The Urantia Book, and we must ever be vigilant - like Van and Amadon - over the defense of our simple but very necessary Urantia Brotherhood.

Let us stand together in grand and united protective array, and as Soldiers of the Circles may be wholeheartedly enlist in the solid ranks of those mortals who shall go forth in this coming battle for truth against error under the unfaltering leadership of the mighty Seraphim of Progress.