President’s Reports – Arena 2010

By William Wentworth and Kathleen Swadling on

From the President – Autumn 10

 

William Wentworth

With 2010 now well underway, I reflect how 2009 was dominated by ANZURA’s effort at The Parliament of World Religions. The Sydney conference in September offered time and space for some rehearsing and positive criticism of our proposed presentations, and helped lay the groundwork for the organisational effort required.

As usual, Trevor and Kathleen Swadling played a major role, with Kathleen standing in for her daughter, Merindi, who had her first baby just as the parliament was finishing. Vern Verass put his design skills to work on the book booth and brochures made available during the parliament.

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Report on Conference

By Julian McGarry, Hobart on

25 readers of the Urantia Book from around Australia gathered together in peace and goodwill on the island state of Tasmania for a weekend of spiritual refreshment: fellowshipping, teaching, listening, laughing, singing, praying, and worshiping. We gave enthusiastic considera-tion to our theme: “Worshiping and Serving our Father —Attaining the highest levels of self-realization.” We marvelled at the superb example of our Master, Christ Michael, who lived a consecrated life of whole-hearted worship and service to his Father.

We discovered why the Urantia Papers so often link worship and service—they are inextricably tied together in the same way that breath-ing in and breathing out are essential and complementary elements of the breathing cycle. We looked at worship as a spontaneous moment by moment expression of divine adoration or as a more formal act of setting aside time and space to communicate with our Father. In addition, we ex-plored the possibility and place of group worship as a key component of our spiritual gatherings. In this regard, we read with awe and amazement the description given to us in Paper 27 of group worship on the Isle of Paradise.

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The Meaning of Worship and Service

By William Wentworth, Anzura Conference, Hobart 2010 on

The urge to worship appears naturally with the activation of the sixth Adjutant Mind Spirit.

In humans the urge to worship and the capacity for it are innate. Although we all experience this urge as individuals, in our own way, in its most basic form, worship is the recognition and honoring of the mysterious and incomprehensible cause and motivator of everything.

This has graduated through many phases—animal worship,  nature worship, polytheism, pantheism and so on—until in monotheism we now recognize God, as revealed to us most recently by Jesus, as both the cause and source of everything, and as a benevolent personality who loves us and has a place for each of us.

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Attaining the Highest Level of Self-Realization

By Julian McGarry, ANZURA Conference, Hobart on

The highest levels of self-realization are attained by worship and service. [Paper 140:4.6, page 1572.6]

The more closely man approaches God through love, the greater the reality—actuality—of that man. [Paper 117:4.14, page 1285.3]

KEY QUESTIONS FOR THE CONFERENCE:

  • Why are worship and service linked together so often in the UB?
  • What is ‘self-realization’? – The realization or fulfillment of one’s own potential or abilities.
  • What is Self-actualization ? (Abraham Maslow – humanistic psychologist): the need to develop sne’s potential fully, to lead a rich and meaningful life, and to become the best person one can become.
  • Albert Schweitzer once wrote: “I don’t know what your destiny will be; but one thing I know, the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who will have sought and found how to serve.”

That’s what this weekend is all about!

  • What are the highest levels of self-realization? As a mortal….in our future ascending career?

God-knowing creatures have only one supreme ambition, just one consuming desire, and that is to become, as they are in their spheres, like him as he is in his Paradise perfection of personality and in his universal sphere of righteous supremacy. From the Universal Father who inhabits eternity there has gone forth the supreme mandate, “Be you perfect, even as I am perfect.” [Paper 1:0.3, page 21.3]

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Worship and Service, the Cosmic Breath

By Julian McGarry, Hobart, Tasmania on

How is this world to be transformed? Through the transformation in our lives due to our sincere worship and service!

We do not know the actual mechanism of space respiration; we merely observe that all space alternately contracts and expands. [Paper 11:6.1, page 123.3]

What has this to do with our worship and service to our Father? Just to illustrate that both materially and spiritually, the universe operates on a breath cycle. Worship and service are the two phases of God’s will – our cosmic breath. When we worship, we breathe in – when we serve, we breathe out; we cannot breath out – serve – unless we first breathe in – worship! This is why worship and service are so often mentioned together….

Worship is the technique of looking to the One for the inspiration of service to the many. Worship is the yardstick which measures the extent of the soul’s detachment from the material universe and its simultaneous and secure attachment to the spiritual realities of all creation. [Paper 143:7.6, page 1616.8]

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Making Worship and Service the Centre of our Lives

By Kathleen Swadling, Sydney, NSW on

The key to serving our fellow man – to being a dynamically useful individual in the world is our personal relationship with the Father. I wonder how many of us, on a consistent basis, actually make a point of devoting regular times slots for going off on our own to a quiet place where we won’t be disturbed, to communicate with the Father – to pray and worship. I’d like to raise my hand and say “I do” but if I’m to be truly honest with you I must say that while I would ideally like to be more regular and consistent, it’s sometimes a bit like trying to allow regular times to exercise –sometimes I get all fired up and establish a regular routine, while other times I let it slip and get out of the habit.

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Worshiping our Father on Four Levels of Cosmic Reality

By Julian McGarry, Hobart, Tasmania on

What is this experience that we call “worship”? What happens to us when we worship? What’s actually going on inside when we worship? At what level of reality do we worship? We are talking here about the ultimate human experience! The Urantia Book constantly emphasizes that our faith is not based on knowing about God, but is to be a personal experience of God – actually knowing God! We are talking about God-consciousness! Touching the Divine! Again and again the UB admonishes us to personally experience God – to have a personal relationship with God. How do we do this?

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New Zealand Corner – 2009

By Neville Twist, Auckland on

 

From 2009 Autumn Arena – New Zealand Corner

 

Neville Twist, Auckland

 

 

Easter in New Zealand

It’s Friday the 10th of April, 2009 – Yes, Good Friday, that most sacred of all the Christian celebrations. From 7:00AM onwards I scan the radio station of the government operated Radio New Zealand – National (equivalent to the ABC in Australia), hoping to tune into some religious program to commemorate this momentous occasion – maybe a hymn program, maybe a broadcast from a church Easter service, maybe a BBC documentary on the subject, anything to reflect upon this day’s events that occurred some 2000 years ago, but no nothing, absolutely nothing about the Easter story. Not one reference to Jesus or the significance of this most important occasion. I check the TV guide. Surely there’ll be at least one program with an Easter message. Maybe an old movie with an Easter theme, maybe a live broadcast from a Christian church, maybe a discussion panel of religious leaders, anything. But no, not a single item listed with anything to do with Easter and the significance of this epochal event. Nothing, absolutely nothing!

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President’s Report – Arena 2009

By William Wentworth on

 

From the President – Autumn 2009

William Wentworth

With Easter just gone it is a good time to reflect on the relationship between Christianity – the religion about Jesus – and the exposition of the religion of Jesus found in The Urantia Book.

For Christians, Easter emphasises the crucifixion of Jesus as a sacrifice to his heavenly father in order to effect the salvation of humanity. This “atonement doctrine” is glorified at Easter, and does seem to be part of the very essence of Christian thought.

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World Parliament of Religions

By Vern Verass, Canberra on

MELBOURNE AUSTRALIA—DEC 3 – 9, 2009

Display at The Urantia Book booth

from Tidings, Nov/Dec 2009

It was very exciting to participate in this international meeting as the religions of the world strove to understand each other, in a step towards world peace.

The Parliament is described as:

 

“… the world’s largest global inter religious event, held once every 5 years in a different city. The Melbourne Parliament will bring together more than 8,000 people from around Australia and across the world including renowned spiritual, religious, civic, academic, and political leaders, along with grassroots participants.”

 

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