Report on Millennium Initiative Meeting March 12-14, 1999

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The following was received from the Millennium Initiative Committee:

Worldwide growth of interest in The Urantia Book is bringing increasingly diverse viewpoints into the readership. Embracing this diversity without encouraging sectarian division is one of the major challenges to growth of our movement.

Last weekend, ten concerned readers met to explore how deepened friendship, grounded in a shared dedication to the teachings, might help inspire a new vision for the evolution of our community. We came as individuals, apart from organizational affiliation, to begin our quest free from the divisive legacy of social strife.

The participants were Lyn Lear, Travis Binion, Steve Dreier, David Elders, Seppo Kanerva, Carolyn Kendall, Dan Massey, Nancy Shaffer, and Kathleen Swadling, with Marta Elders facilitating. We began with our shared desire to do the Father's will, a willingness to listen, and a desire to better understand issues dividing our community. Through confrontation and laughter, debate and prayer, we all came to appreciate that the obstacles to improved social experience with the revelation go far beyond our current legacy of organizational strife to include differences of culture, language, nationality, temperament, personal experience, attitude, spiritual sensitivity, and psychic maturity.

This weekend we began a dialogue that must continue in further meetings. No small group can fully address current or future issues, so this dialogue must expand to include readers of varied cultures, languages, organizations, and viewpoints.

Only by considering the full spectrum of possibilities will our movement successfully unify for greater planetary service. We hope this and future meetings will foster a genuine experience of mutual appreciation and goodwill among all who believe in the Urantia Revelation, "sonship with God, brotherhood with man, and ever-ascending citizenship in the eternal universe." [The Urantia Book p.l038, par. 7]

We hope you agree we have nothing to lose and everything to gain by continuing and expanding this dialogue. The will to put our differences behind us and to embrace the diversity of new growth must come from all of us. Free and open discussion is the key to resolution of differences. We will establish communication mechanisms to keep you informed about this work and to facilitate your input to the process. Thank you for your expressions of encouragement, your open-mindedness, and your continuing support.

With faith in our ongoing adventure,
The Millennium Initiative