Our souls adrift
Like clouds in the sky
Shall carry us inwards
To our Gods on high
With each one we linger
Our bodies glow bright
Lasting much longer
Becoming more light
Till the shores we wander
Of Paradise found
To live there together
On that Holy Ground
Dear Friends and Students of The Urantia Book,
Another big year is rapidly drawing to a close. I sincerely hope that this has been a good year for you all. If not, I hope that you have been able to derive comfort and direction from the pages of this incomparable modern revelation.
Once again, ANZURA’s big event of the year, the National Conference, was a most successful and enjoyable occasion. Our brothers and sisters in Canberra did an amazing job hosting the conference, with the fascinating theme: “Mind Over Matter, Spirit Over Mind”. I would like to extend a big thank you to the whole crew! If you were unable to attend, this edition of Arena contains samples from the conference program. Next year, we are crossing the Tasman again to gather with our New Zealand friends at our National Conference in Auckland in October. More details should be available in our next edition of Arena.
This year for the first time, we endeavoured to provide a live coverage of the conference via a Zoom session. Being our first attempt, we not surprisingly encountered a few technical problems which affected the quality of the feed. We have hopefully learned a lot from this experience and will aim to do the same again in Auckland but with a much better quality visual and audio experience.
Old Promo:
2020 Vision Through a Cosmic Lens—Hindsight, Insight & ForesightNext year’s ANZURA conference returns to Vaughan Park, Long Bay 2—5 October, 2020 where we held the last New Zealand conference in 2014. Again, it will be hosted by our very capable and dynamic team in New Zealand.
About the theme: 2020 is the year of clear sight, so it seems timely to examine what we have learned through the cosmic lens of The Urantia Book. The information we have been so lucky to receive in the pages of our beloved book has shed new light on the past, not only of our planet but of the whole universe, on the present, in terms of the celestial presence on Urantia and the oversight and guidance of planetary affairs, and on the future, the amazing universe career that is open to us.
Mind Over Matter – Spirit Over MindThis year’s ANZURA conference was held 27th to 30th September at the Green Hills Conference Centre, Stromlo in a gorgeous bush setting just outside of Canberra. The members of the Canberra Study Group hosted the conference and readers travelled from the various cities, towns and environs in New Zealand, ACT, NSW, QLD, VIC, TAS and SA.
The conference was a great success, and thanks to the delightful and capable Canberra crew and the team of presenters and workshop leaders, there was never a dull moment and we were treated with inspiring sessions and much food for thought.
Here is a list of the plenary session titles and their presenters:
2020 ANZURA ConferenceI am happy to relate that things are going well in New Zealand and preparations/organisation is well underway for the ANZURA conference in Auckland next year (2020). We are using the same venue as our last New Zealand ANZURA conference, Vaughan Park, which is in the northern beach suburbs of Auckland. (https://vaughanpark.nz/venue)
Each year NZ readers try to get together somewhere in the country to connect with old and new readers for study and socialisation. This year from Friday 25th to Monday 28th October, we gathered in Taupo at a lovely Airbnb.
Attendees were: (see photo) Neville Twist, Frances Potter, Susan Hemmingsen, Matt Hall, Norman Weiss, Diana Whakapapa, Ian Campbell and sitting in the front, Marion Steward. Missing from this photo, Doug Cook, who joined us on Saturday. It was so good to meet the two new members of our online study group, Diana and Norman, in person and to find they are long-time readers and valuable members of our NZ group.
(Editor’s Note: Mining the Archives is a collection of articles that have been published in various newsletters over the years and have been lying buried in the archives. A team of volunteers have been “mining the archives” for the gems, so now we can bring them into the light of day to share using modern-day technology. This one is from the Arena Newsletter, Volume 6 No 4, Summer 1999)
The Inner World of Mankind: Seeking a Description for the Fifth EpochThe advances of true civilization are all born in this inner world of mankind. [Paper 111:4.3, page 1220.2]
Mankind has not yet shared an inner world. So far, the inner worlds of our tribes and nations have been fragmented and local. Instead of a rich tapestry of truth and fact, the backdrops to these partial inner worlds have been more or less crude collages, woven from dreams, fears and ambitions, sometimes sprinkled through with dislocated gems of revelation.
In the past, the heritage our tribes and nations passed to their children was a complex reflection of shared delusions, augmented with whatever skills and techniques each generation had acquired.
As we enter this fifth epoch, we have an opportunity to change this unimpressive cycle: together with Michael, his Most Highs, and the United Midwayers of Urantia, and armed with the truths offered via the Urantia Papers, there is at last a real hope that we can lay out a valid frame for this intended and inevitable planet-wide “inner world”. With such a frame in place, the fabric of truth will weave itself through the minds of sincere mortals, anchoring to and filling this frame with splendour, forming an “inner world of mankind” with centre stage reserved for the truths of Michael and the facts of Nebadon.
So how do we proceed? How on earth do we contribute to this noble construction?
See the young man gird himself
For the mountains he must climb
Yes and see the young ones prepare themselves
For their winding roads of time
The river of life it is wide
Oh the river is long and deep
Flowing never stopping
Or slowing for anyone
Like the cycles of nature
Returning from whence it come
At the 2019 Canberra Urantia Conference, I facilitated a workshop titled Spirit in Society – Overcoming Resistance, where the intention was to look at some common atheistic objections (in the form of questions), and see what we could come up with in terms of what The Urantia Book teaches on these problems and what we could potentially say when facing such objections.
The attendees were divided into three groups, and each group attempted to answer one of the common objections, given 30 minutes to do so. Afterwards, the group leaders were given an opportunity to report back to everybody. I’ll now attempt to summarize the group answers produced during the workshop:
Faith most willingly carries reason along as far as reason can go and then goes on with wisdom to the full philosophic limit; and then it dares to launch out upon the limitless and never-ending universe journey in the sole company of TRUTH. [Paper 103:9.7, page 1141.5]
“Reason” has helped scientists to write some compelling tales about the history of the universe: inflationary Big Bangs, colliding branes, a multiverse. Problem is, each of these histories involve assumptions that lie beyond our capacity to disprove. These stories do however all share one feature: an attempt to replace faith with facts in their assumptions.
Our supreme Mandate is to “be perfect, even as the Father in Heaven is perfect” and even if our objective towards this goal is to
-Understand and love our fellow man
-Do unto other’s as Jesus would do to them
-Know The Father and follow His Will and eventually
-Progress through the Morontia career
Is it that simple? We could think of perfection as the ‘Acme of religious living’
“The unique feature of the Master’s personality was not so much its perfection as its symmetry, its exquisite and balanced unification.” [ Paper 100:7.1, page 1101.5]
Andrew’s presentation tackled this topic with well balanced sincerity and humour and the power-point presentation was a great way to lead us through it along with his novel and witty commentary.
