By Judy Van Cleave, secretary and Governance Committee chair, Idaho, United States
The mission of Urantia Foundation has always been to seed The Urantia Book and its teaching globally. The board of trustees furthered this mission in April of 2019 by hosting a Global Cultural Symposium. Thanks to the planning team, and our dedicated readers from Brazil, Canada, Indonesia, Israel, Lebanon, Nigeria, Peru, the Philippines, Uganda, and Ukraine, we were treated to a dazzling array of the cultural, philosophical, religious, and even culinary facets of each country.
I was impressed and inspired by the unique aspects of each presentation. It became obvious that, while The Urantia Book has been steadily finding its way across continents and into many countries, vast cultural differences abound. Dissemination efforts in one region may not work in another. This invaluable realization has driven Urantia Foundation to further explore, understand, and appreciate the opportunities—and the challenges—for advancing the teachings of The Urantia Book and making the book itself available around the world.
The expanded board of trustees gathered the following October for an extensive goal-planning session. It was not surprising that globalization emerged as one of the top seven five-year goals.
The next two years were consumed with strategy and planning, and our efforts culminated in a Cultural Advisory Council. This new council will be composed of individuals from various cultures around the world, each of whom is dedicated to the study and dissemination of The Urantia Book and its teachings.
The purpose of the council is to facilitate the mission of Urantia Foundation in seeding The Urantia Book and its teachings globally; enhance the cultural awareness, compassion, and wisdom of our dissemination efforts; provide for council members to acquaint themselves with Urantia Foundation—its mission, vision, and values; foster partnerships between council members and the Foundation to support readership within their respective cultures; and facilitate relationships and mutual understanding among members of the council.
The next challenge was to select the first four members. We looked for individuals who exhibited leadership potential, had the ability and willingness to work with and on a team, and who would speak at least two languages—preferably including English.
The following accepted our invitation to be the first members of this council:
• Ms. Stephy (Yi-Hsuan) Hsu of Taiwan, currently living in New York
• Ms. Krystyna Piasecka of Poland, currently living and working in Norway with her family
• Mr. Marcos Dalmolin of São Paulo, Brazil
• Mr. Jaime Rey Albornoz of Bogotá, Colombia
Stephy made the first presentation at the January quarterly meeting of the expanded board of trustees. She is an award-winning art student who currently lives in New York City, pursuing a master’s degree in art therapy at NYU.
She found The Urantia Book through her mother, who is assisting Vicki Yang on the Chinese translation review team. Her mother is from China, and frequent childhood visits there helped Stephy expand her perspectives.
Her presentation gave us a fascinating and colorful glimpse into Taiwanese culture and history. From the lively conversation that followed, we learned that Taiwan will be key in disseminating The Urantia Book and its teachings.
We appreciated her youthful insights about engaging her age group regarding interests in religion and the pursuit of spiritual truth. It is her point of view that the story of the colored races and the world view as presented in the book will attract younger generations.
Krystyna, Marcos, and Jaime will be introduced during one of the three remaining 2022 quarterly board meetings.