From The President

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From The President

by K. Richard Keeler

Along with three other Trustees, I recently attended the Fellowship's International Conference (IC99) in Vancouver, Canada. I experienced there, on the part of the attendees, what I would call a general feeling of support for unity and healing within our young movement. Many members of the International URANTIA Association (IUA), as well as the Fellowship, attended the conference; local members of both organizations worked cooperatively to support the conference. Such local expressions of cooperation appear to be growing. This is very gratifying.

The Trustees were invited to talk about the work of URANTIA Foundation. Mo Siegel spoke about the distribution of the book and suggested that we should "fish where the most fish are," that is, translate the book first into languages spoken by the most people. Kwan Choi spoke of the injunction to spread the teachings of Jesus throughout the world and referred to the experience of the early Christian community. He also spoke of the Foundation's translation work and the great importance of teamwork. Gard Jameson spoke of the Foundation's commitment to the publication of an inviolate text and of the need for cooperation in our efforts to disseminate the book and its teachings. I shared the Foundation's ongoing commitment to healing and unity within the movement. I emphasized the need to communicate, to support and love each other, and to pray for one another. We must learn to love and to forgive.

Like other readers, the Trustees have experienced the power of the book's teachings to move us to reach higher and deeper. We know that the whole revelation is far greater than the sum of its parts, that in some mysterious way, the true power of the revelation exists as a pattern or fabric that holds the words, concepts, and teachings together in a unity of truth, allowing the revelation to live and breathe in our hearts, minds, and souls.

For this and other reasons, we dedicate ourselves to the preservation of the whole text in its inviolate form, so that future generations will have the same opportunity that we have had to be touched so deeply in mind and soul with new truth. As Trustees, our particular path of service may be through URANTIA Foundation, but all faith sons and daughters of God drink from the same well—the well of revealed truth, given in trust to all willing recipients, who in turn bestow this truth, along with goodness and love, upon their fellows.

We pray that every reader touched by this revelation will join with us in the work of preserving the original text for those who follow us, while at the same time expressing its truths in uniquely creative and personal ways to help others experience its transformative power.

We are well aware that some readers do not agree with the Foundation's means to preserve the text. Though we would not presume to ask any person to give up his or her sincere expression of dissent, we would ask, in the spirit of this revelation and in the spirit of the Master, that all of us, as members of the reader community, raise the quality of our dialogue and interpersonal relationships to a level inspired by our unity of purpose and restrained by mutual respect and love for one another. There is a great task ahead for those willing to live these teachings. With a unity of purpose, supported by a spirit of teamwork, and with God as our partner, great things will happen. Where there is love, there are always miracles.

We know that we shall be supported in our efforts of dissemination by the angels of our supervision to the extent we fulfill Jesus' heartfelt desire that we all be one, even as he and his Father in heaven are one.

May we forever remember the words of the Master:

". . . I would have you ierform still greater acts of love in the kingdom of the believing brotherhood. And so I give you this new commandment: That you love one another even as I have loved you. And by this will all men know that you are my disciiles if you thus love one another." (The URANTIA Book, p. 1944, par. 4)

"And when the world sees these fruit—bearing branches—my friends who love one another, even as I have loved them—all men will know that you are truly my disciiles." (p. 1945, par. 4)