Warm greetings to each of you as you read this in your respective homes during these traditional holiday times in so many different places.
This is a significant time in our historical development. and we would like to take a moment to review some important events.
Just next month. URANTIA Brotherhood will celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of its founding in 1955, and URANTIA Foundation will celebrate the thirty-fifth anniversary of its founding in 1950.
For the last thirty-five years or so, these two organizations have been carrying on purposefully and relatively quietly in establishing the material underpinnings for the realization and support of a broader planetary upreach for a better state of world affairs. These two organizations, URANTIA Foundation and URANTIA Brotherhood, early accepted their role of quiet preparation and quickly settled down to their task of proceeding practically and patiently in taking the necessary steps of establishing the material, legal and organizational prerequisites for the success of the Urantia Revelation. Their task was not an easy one, nor was it always pleasant, but notwithstanding that there were sometimes sustained and vocal invitations into less promising byways, both organizations were true to their trust, and because of the quiet and selfless dedication of so many of their members over so many years, the Urantia Revelation has achieved a sure and certain foothold on this planet.
In looking back over the approximate last three decades. one can see the accomplishment of a number of important goals. Let us look at ten of these here, though there are more:
The copyright in and to The URANTIA Book was and is established and confirmed both at home and abroad.
The registered marks which helped give URANTIA Foundation and URANTIA Brotherhood and its constituent Societies their own unique identity which will avoid their confusion with other groups and organizations, and which will help identify them down through the years, have been established and successfully defended at home and abroad.
The URANTIA Brotherhood is well established and is operating more and more effectively with increasingly diverse and capable leadership. its committee system is maturing into a means for more and more effective coordinated group function with an augmenting widespread participation.
A French translation of The URANTIA Book is again available under the auspices of URANTIA Foundation. and with the full cooperation of URANTIA Brotherhood.
A plan for the realization of a Spanish and other translations of The URANTIA Book has been both archltected and implemented with the full cooperation of URANTIA Brotherhood.
A Finnish translation of The URANTIA Book has been and is still actively in progress and is nearing a point where we can with certainty anticipate its finalization and publication.
A special Perpetual Printing Fund for the English edition of The URANTIA Book has been established.
A new book distribution and pricing policy has been carefully considered, structured, adopted and implemented by URANTIA Brotherhood with the approval and support of URANTIA Foundation.
There are now approximately 135,000 of the English edition of The URANTIA Book available in the world. and in addition there are approximately 12,000 copies of the French edition of The URANTIA Book likewise in circulation.
Based on accumulated evolutionary experience, a definitive copyright policy has been developed and promulgated which will help others more freely and properly use, insofar as the legal requirements are concerned. material from The URANTIA Book.
Certainly the job of these two organizations is not finished but these ten accomplishments are in many ways essential and/or exceedingly important to the future stages of the development of the presentation of the Urantia Revelation to this planet, in looking back over the past thirty to thirty-five years, one can perhaps best characterize them as the organizational phase of the efforts to present the Urantia Revelation both wisely and effectively to mankind.
We are now embarked upon a new phase in the dissemination of the teachings of The URANTIA Book.
If the first phase of the URANTIA Movement was largely organizational in nature, then the next and present phase of the presentation of the Fifth Major Epochal Revelation to mankind consists in a studied, coordinated and concerted effort wisely to infuse into every level of modern civilization the directionalizing, promising and hopeful teachings of The URANTIA Book.
In so doing, we most assuredly will not be free from difficulties or misunderstandings, both personal and organizational. But we can take heart for we have benign organizations which, with wise and unselfish guidance and with freedom from compromising entanglements and association, can effectively coordinate the multifaceted efforts of willing readers both nationally and internationally.
More than ever before is the world assured that future generations of mankind will have and will be able to enjoy The URANTIA Book as it was given to us. And, too, more than ever before is the revelation in a position to go on more to generally benefit mankind, even to realize a new age of religion on our planet.