ANZURA’s Strategic Planning Committee met in Sydney in April 2011 to discuss dissemination plans of the 300 Urantia Books purchased from the UAI that were printed in India.
At that meeting it was decided to distribute these books in a couple of different ways, one of which is the creation of a new program called “Operation Contact”. The objective is to target prominent individuals and groups including philosophical/religious type centres that appear to be progressive in their programs or who we think might be open minded enough to take a look at The Urantia Book. I volunteered to lead this project and can now report on our progress to date.
After contacting various individuals and institutions that we felt may be interested in The Urantia Book we have distributed 7 books to the libraries of a group called Progressive Christianity, 6 books to the lending libraries of the Unitarian Church, and 2 books to the library of the Sea of Faith. Individual books were also sent to leading figures in The Centre for Progressive Religious Thought, Australian Lutheran College, The Australian Association for the Study of Religions and the University of Melbourne – The Charles strong Memorial Trust.
As an example as to why we wish to target these kinds of groups, here is an extract from Progressive Christianity:
- What is Progressive Christianity? … a nondenominational approach to faith and spirituality… emphasizes how we live rather than correct beliefs… values inquiry and intellectual integrity… is open to diversity of opinion… rejects biblical literalism and inerrancy… affirms the importance of each person’s search for meaning.
- Who are Progressive Christians? … people who have found an approach to God through the life and teachings of Jesus… who recognise in Jesus a human life in harmony with God… who see the Gospels and other New Testament writings as documents written for diverse Christian communities decades after the death of Jesus to convey messages about him rather than to report historical events.
- What do Progressive Christians Believe? …Jesus’ mission was to demonstrate the power of love to op-pose injustice and oppression and proclaim that the Realm of God is now… that a current world view is radically different from that of the early Church and therefore traditional doctrines and religious practises need to be interpreted in the light of contemporary knowledge… the death of Jesus was a result of his unswerving adherence to love, justice and reconciliation and was not a sacrificial guilt offering preordained by God to remove humanity’s original sin.
We are still seeking out groups and individuals who we feel may be interested in The Urantia Book, so if any readers know of any please let us know. You can email me at anzura.urantia@gmail.com and make it attention to Trevor.
In addition to the above we have distributed 84 books to individual readers for them to share with others. So far, out of the 300 Indian books we have distributed 103 leaving us 197 to go.