Looking Back at the UAI 2015 Québec Conference

Gatherings

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Date:

Fri, 09/25/2015

Author:

Gilles Brien

By Gilles Brien, Montréal, Canada

Encounters in life are said to be like winds. Some are able to just caress you, while others can bowl you over. The conference was hosted by Urantia Association International (UAI) this last summer in Lennoxville, a small university town near the US border, and was marked by a storm of unforgettable encounters and a whirlwind of discoveries that shook the hearts and souls of many. More than 225 people from twenty-one countries attended the conference. Unfortunately, dozens more readers were refused visa applications by the Canadian authorities.

For me, the conference was an amazing experience. It was my first UAI gathering. It was also the first time in my almost forty years of reading The Urantia Book that I could see so many readers from all over the world on the same day and in the same place. I could not believe it! In the 1970s, there were so few readers of The Urantia Book in Québec that you could not fill a room with them. And now this! As a member of the organization committee and as a French Canadian, I was proud to have been part of the team that helped to bring this wonderful event to life, thanks to Gaétan Charland’s vision! Months of preparation, countless meetings, phone calls, and e-mails were abundantly rewarded. We played music. We laughed. We talked. We shared prayers and insights. We learned to be closer to God and to our brothers and sisters.

It was very moving when, during the first evening of the conference, at the opening plenary, the master of ceremonies, Guy Perron, joined the audience and invited participants to say their name and country into the microphone. Hearing so many languages and accents filled my heart with joy. Seeing and meeting so many “strangers,” Urantia Book lovers soon to become my new best friends, from four continents (Africa, Europe, North and South America), was a great thrill for me. There were people of all ages. And there were a dozen children, some less than two years old. Attendees hailed from Belgium, Canada, China, Colombia, Congo, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Haiti, Holland, Israel, Korea, Mexico, Peru, Senegal, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

This international Urantia gathering was a huge success. We had doubts at the beginning. We had financing fears. We had many problems that looked impossible to solve, but we did it. We were not alone behind this enterprise. If my material vision could have been expanded to see our unseen friends, I am sure that I would have seen many other guests at the conference. They were behind all the speakers when they were giving their speeches of light to the audience. They were backing the musicians and singers. And they helped stop the rain on our UAI parade. Thank you to all who lent your presence, your efforts, and your spirit to the UAI Conference in La Belle Province. And for those, like me, who could not get enough, see you in Amsterdam in 2018!