Arena – Winter 2021
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In This Issue
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Phillip Marriott, Adelaide, SA  It is extremely easy to see the darkness. There is a lot going on in the world right now that is not great right from an individual level, through our relationships, to our families, communities, cities, countries, races, and our planet. It is all very de-powering and can make one quite despondent.
Most people have an opinion, whether it’s well informed or not, and tend to think that their view is right. Better to have an opinion than not (that’s my opinion). Who is responsible? – not me, it must be someone else; the government, big business, the Illuminati, The Rockefellers, the evil scientists, the minion’s, the church, Elvis, the aliens, the virus?
What to do? Well, that depends on how comfortable you are with your current position. Do nothing, keep plodding on, hope for the best, it’ll be alright, don’t see the point anyway. Concerned but don’t know what you can do.
Or perhaps you can see the light, you have the answer and you’re not going to be beaten. You know that anything good requires effort, work, intention, and deliberate action. You have made a choice, a decision to acknowledge and see the good.
In my opinion it’s all about perspective. With which lens do I choose to view the world? For me I believe I can take responsibility for the things that I can control. It takes work and effort because I often slip and lose control, but I believe I can choose how I respond, how I view the world and my surroundings. That’s not to say I’m a space cadet, I still need to eat, sleep, pay bills, and do all the practical things while I live my life and honour my relationships.
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For those planning on coming to this year’s Sydney conference being held 1 – 4 October at the Peter Canisius House in Pymble, this is a reminder to send us your registration.
Although we’ve all no doubt been affected by the July Covid-19 lockdowns, we’re still anticipating that the conference will go ahead as an in-person event in October. As it’s still a couple of months away and the vaccines continue to roll out, it’s still possible that things will be under control by then. And if we do go ahead, we’ve been assured by the staff at the venue (who continued to operate last year during the initial outbreak) that they will take all the necessary precautions to minimise the chances of spreading the virus. Of course, if we do need to cancel, we will fully reimburse those who have already paid their registrations.
About the Program: The Goodness of Love – The Keystone to Reality
The universe we live in is a wonderful and mysterious place and our minds are innately equipped to embark on an alluring adventure of discovery. This mind can be likened to a living instrument. Each of us are the creative personal players and composers of it. We each have the potential and responsibility within us to contribute to the creation of finite reality as we are all incredibly unique and can be of tremendous value to one another. Collectively we can—over time—make a truly good and beautiful finite world for our children and our children’s children.
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 When ANZURA arranges a Study Day, the hope is to provide an opportunity for students of The Urantia Book to participate in a specially formed study group in their regional areas so that reads are meeting on the same day studying the same paper. The value of meeting with other readers is not to be underestimated—after all, our personal growth and religious experiences are best fostered while we are relating – inter-acting – with other personalities!
Groups met over the weekend of 19th June to study Paper 2: The Nature of God. The following articles contain some reflections from some who met.
Hunter Region Meeting Reflections
Reflections by Marianne Cameron, Jim Neal, Andrew Swadling and Rita Schaad, Newcastle
The Revelators (in this case the Divine Counselors, the third in the group of Coordinate Trinity-Origin Beings) and a small group amongst 21 billion stationary Divine Counselors, assigned to function within the Universe of Nebadon, start by apologizing. Well, maybe not apologizing, but rather attempting to explain their inability to fully disclose to us the Nature of God.
They call the material at hand ‘poorly’, although they agree that the olden prophets did understand somewhat the eternal, never-beginning, never ending, circular nature of the Universal Father. Much that has been used in this paper from the old scriptures to describe God’s infinity, perfection, righteousness and love sounds awfully good to us.
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(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 Innerface Newsletter, September 2002. Additional note: The next two articles in this issue of Arena-Winter 2021 by William Wentworth and Nigel Nunn are thoughts inspired by this 2002 article of Gen Glasziou’s.)
Mathematics and Science Catch up with The Urantia Book
The Late Ken Glasziou, Qld
In the mortal state, nothing can be absolutely proved; both science and religion are predicated on assumptions. [Paper 103:7.10, page 1139.2]
In 1935 that statement could only have been made with confidence by a handful of our most learned men.
The foundation for logical thinking was laid by the Greeks way back in ancient times. Initially they were trying to formulate the guiding principles of discourse—which gradually broadened into Aristotelian logic, the latter work holding sway for almost two thousand years.
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William Wentworth, Canberra …to Cosmology in The Urantia Book
 Ken Glasziou was a scientist who took pains to make his reasoning comprehensible to the general reader. As one of those general readers, I was often interested in what he had to say. Recently my attention was drawn to something he wrote in an article he wrote in 2002 titled “Mathematics and Science Catch up with The Urantia Book” where he was pointing out the significance of mathematics and some of its limitations as well.
Science develops so rapidly that I don’t really know whether his comments are still relevant, but it led me to think about the application of scientific thinking to cosmology as The Urantia Book explains it.
Scientists have been trying to develop a theory which accounts for everything in the cosmos, both large scale and small, from the largest clusters of galaxies to the smallest particles within atoms. Some of the most accomplished physicists and mathematicians have given themselves to this effort, so far without success, since they restrict themselves to consideration of only a part of the whole of which the cosmos consists.
While they have developed some of the most amazing methods to measure both sub-atomic particles on the one hand, and enormous aggregations of matter on the other, they have not been able to blend them into a unified theory which accounts for all the measurements. There always seems to be something which doesn’t fit.
Because science and mathematics are so intertwined, scientists have been attempting to treat cosmology as if it were an aspect of material science. They think that with enough measurement and mathematical ingenuity, a theory of origin, function and evolution of the material cosmos can be derived which accounts for past, present and future—and all the unexpected variations of phenomena—within a self-contained mathematical system which is both self-evident and self-explanatory.
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Nigel Nunn, ACT  Interesting development: for 40 years cosmologists have been arguing about the best way to simulate (1) the clustering of galaxies and (2) the flat rotation curves of spiral galaxies. Invisible (dark) matter works well for explaining the clustering, but modified Newtonian gravity works better for spiral galaxies.
Around 2015, researchers began to take seriously the idea that there might be at least two distinct types of invisible mass: one kind that forms halos around galaxies, and another that forms a superfluid disk of axion-like particles within galaxies. This is very nearly the exact same picture presented in The Urantia Book: halos of segregata, within which whirlpools of ultimata form.
This kind of two-phase model for dark matter has now reached the pop.sci domain: in the links below, Sabine Hossenfelder sketches the idea. See especially from time 9:10 in the video, where she proposes that all we need are (1) a new field and (2) a new particle formed by a phase transition of that field. Her “field” becomes our pool of segregata, and her “particle” becomes our quantized vortex in that field, the ultimaton.
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Marion Steward, Auckland, New Zealand A Never-Ending Adventure
[This article is based on a presentation made as part of Urantia Association’s Urantiathon, held on 30 January, 2021]
 Diversity is one of the dominant aspects of the universe as described in The Urantia Book. It pervades all of the grand universe, including spiritual and ascending beings and the physical environments. Diversity presents challenges to us all as we go about our daily lives, but because of its never-ending and constantly expanding presence, it is very important to learn how to deal with it here on Urantia in preparation for our future universe career.
The article will first outline the scope and range of diversity in the Universe, and portray just how individual and varied almost everything is. It will focus first on what can be called outer diversity – how the appearance and form of almost everything and every living being varies in the universe, and of course on our planet. This will be followed by a brief overview of what I have called inner diversity, which is some of the main ways in which people can vary, including mental, emotional, social, racial, cultural and personality. The next section will discuss how diversity is part of God’s plan for the universe, and is never-ending, followed by a brief outline of how this diversity presents challenges to us in the world today. Finally, there will be a discussion of what Jesus had to say about this aspect of life, and how his advice might be applied, in very broad terms. to the situations we might find ourselves in in our everyday lives.
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Neil Francey, QLD (Editor’s note: This is an introduction to another well-researched study project undertaken by Neil Francey. Click on the links at the end to see the complete work.)
The Harmonious Balance of Our Physical, Mental and Spiritual Energies
 The Papers in The Urantia Book teach personal growth as the proportional expansion of the whole self. This creates the balance necessary to make progress towards self-mastery in all aspects of our living and being. That is, the harmonious balance of our physical, mental, and spiritual energies.
Books and courses which offer self-development are usually limited in their scope, and can often omit the appeal to, and nourishment for, our spiritual natures. True Success is a course that corrects that deficiency as it incorporates the spiritual dimensions as portrayed in the Urantia revelation.
True Success collates text in a study format by topic. This allows readers to gain an appreciation of some of the key concepts in the revelation. Preference is given to quotations that are relative to our everyday activities.
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Marion Steward, Auckland, NZ  As I write this, our government has just announced a pause of the Trans-Tasman travel bubble for at least 8 weeks. This has caused quite some consternation and upheaval for thousands of New Zealanders who had gone to Australia to visit family and friends, reflecting the strong ties between our two countries. There will be some very difficult challenges ahead for those who cannot come back in time, but it is not the first time this has happened and will probably not be the last. We live in very uncertain times, but, according to The Urantia Book, part of our mission in life is to learn to:
…feast upon uncertainty, to fatten upon disappointment, to enthuse over apparent defeat, to invigorate in the presence of difficulties, to exhibit indomitable courage in the face of immensity, and to exercise unconquerable faith when confronted with the challenge of the inexplicable” [Paper 26:5.3, page 291.3].
From any perspective, the current global situation is presenting us with opportunities to do all of these things.
So we carry on. Our online study group meets fortnightly, and is continuing to have meaningful, thought-provoking discussions which expand our awareness and understanding of the truths in The Urantia Book, through sharing our thoughts and perspectives, and asking really good questions. We have been blessed with a new reader in this group, which is very enjoyable. In Auckland, the face-to-face study group meets monthly, and continues this process.
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Anzura Admin 
The Australia and New Zealand Urantia Association (ANZURA) is made up of individuals who desire to assist in fostering the study of The Urantia Book and the dissemination of its teachings throughout Australia and New Zealand. It seeks to do this by providing interactive learning environments in which students may deepen and broaden their knowledge of the book and enjoy the interaction and exchange of ideas with fellow students.
It is our intention not to encumber our work for the spreading of The Urantia Book and its teachings with church, temple, or other spiritual institutions. Our members have come to recognise the significance of the book and the integrated beauty of its supernal teachings which encourage us to develop our own philosophy through study, experience, decisions, and actions. Nevertheless, we hold the view, and recognise that collectively there are many valuable projects and programs we can undertake together to achieve our goals.
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ANZURA Admin  The Arena newsletter keeps students of The Urantia Book throughout Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific in touch with Urantia related news, activities and events from our local region as well as from the global Urantia Book reader community. It also provides interesting articles written by readers on a wide range of subjects from the book which we hope may be helpful in assisting with your studies.
The Arena is published by ANZURA two to three times a year and is dedicated to the promotion of goodwill and understanding among readers of The Urantia Book. Articles and editorial contributions that relate to The Urantia Book and its teachings are welcome from readers all over the world.
If you would like to receive the Arena or submit an article, please send us an email at anzura.urantia @ gmail.com
To view current and past issues of the Arena click here.
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Anzura Admin  ANZURA’s mission is to foster the in-depth study of The Urantia Book and to disseminate its teachings.
The UB Endeavour is a fundraising initiative to raise funds for ANZURA to help us spread The Urantia Book and its teachings throughout the Australia, New Zealand and South Pacific region.
Here are some of our programs designed to achieve these objectives:
Book Distribution – Sowing Seeds
We hold a small inventory of Urantia Books and other associated material such as study aids and secondary works that are available to readers for dissemination projects. We sponsor a gift-book program where books are donated to libraries and relevant learning centres as well as study groups and individuals who wish to assist in the book-seeding program.
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Anzura Admin  ANZURA maintains a contact list for study group hosts.
Not all of these hosts actually run a regular study group but all of them are willing to host one for anyone who would like to meet.
Some study groups include virtual participation via Zoom if you cannot meet face-to-face.
Click here to view the list of contacts on the website.
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