The German Translation Brings Readers Together

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Urs Ruchti (the translator) Werner Sutter,
Irmeli Ivalo-Sjölie, Christian Ruch,
Seppo Kanerva (from Finland)

By Irmeli Ivalo-Sjölie, Associate Trustee, Finland

The first meeting of German speaking readers was held in Frankfurt, Germany the second week-end of November. Thirty-six readers got together from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, England and Finland. It was the first time that German readers met and most of them did not know each other. Notwithstanding there was immediately a feeling of warm kinship.

Since the German translation of The Urantia Book only has been available for the past two years, many readers were new ones and therefore the program, for the most part, consisted of questions and answers. On the panel answering questions were: Seppo Kanerva (Helsinki, Findand), Urs Ruchti (Paris, France), Werner Sutter (Freiburg, Germany) and Christian Ruch (Chur, Switzerland). The presence of Seppo, the president of The Urantia Foundation, really meant a lot to the success of the meeting. In his calm and competent way he explained the structure of the Urantia movement, answered questions, and straightened out misunderstandings.

There have been many individuals who have laid the groundwork for this meeting. Urs Ruchti translated The Urantia Book into German. Werner Sutter has promoted the book to German speaking people. Christian Ruch has organized the readers in Germany by maintaining files and sending out newsletters.

After the meeting was over, many new friendships were formed and new study groups were started. The week-end was a great experience! The date for the next meeting was set and we are all looking forward to seeing each other again.

The new German Reader community