First Week of Month
Meetings occurring on the first week of the month are dedicated to a sequential reading of the first three sections of The Urantia Book.
Section I |
The Central and Superuniverses |
Section II |
The Local Universe |
Section III |
The History of Urantia |
These three sections occupy pages 1 through 1,319 of the book
containing papers 1 through 119
plus the "Foreward": a reference to terminology used throughout the book.
Upcoming Meetings:
September 4, 2008:
October 2, 2008
November 6, 2008
Prior Meetings:
August 7, 2008 - Paper 2: The Nature of God
Peter, Betty, Pam, Jim, and Joe
A study of this paper necessitate the conteplation of eternity and our place in it and this week was no exception. We shared our personal conceptions of what constitutes enternity as The Urantia Book defines it and tried to imagine some of the things that are "beyond our comprehension".
It was unfortunate that we were somewhat rushed to finish the paper due to time constraints during the study of the last two sections: The Goodness of God and Divne Truth and Beauty. We may cover these during the first part of next week's meeting.
July 3, 2008 - Paper 1: The Universal Father
Russell, Betty and the Facilitators
A new guest showed up this week and we were glad to have her there. Betty is a wonderful, friendly, personality who once participated in the study group facilitated by Jim Weatherly. She added much to the discussion and was a valuable resource when we stumbled over some of the more advanced vocabulary in Paper 1. Two of the words we had trouble with were "anitpodal" and "corporeality". The prose in The Urantia Book is written in a way that makes the most of each word. There is no symbolism, redundancy, or verbosity--these are two examples. Antipodal means "on opposite ends" and corporeality means non-spiritual, physical. Look them up in context and you will quickly see what I mean.
We also had a discussion about the name of the Father (Section 1). Russell intmated that when speaking of God, the word "love" can be substituted for God to give an accurate impression of what God truly is within the confines of our limited comprehension as mortals. Joe agreed with this and added that calling Him "Father" expands that image to one of Fatherly love. A love more unconditional and all encompasing that merely love. Joe gave the example that I love Jim, but I love my son in an entirely greater way. The former is a love of a friend, the latter is a Fatherly love that God also has for us though in an infinitely greater sense.
Pam is going to town with "Operation Reach Back"--a military dissemination effort. Contact her for information on this project or if you would like to help.
June 6, 2008
Private meeting among facilitators.
