2017-02-05. The Problem of Disunity.
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Location: Asheville, North Carolina, USA – 11CT #422
Date: 5 Feb 2017
Teacher: Teacher Ophelius
Receiver: Chris Maurus
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Chris. Teachers, could you please speak about the dilemma we have with the disunity within the Urantia Book community and perhaps suggest a way forward toward some kind of unified movement that would be more effective in the world?
Teacher Ophelius. Dear one, this is a topic that would fill many pages, but I shall summarize and touch on a few points so that you and others may understand. I will address a more generic group here and not these organizations specifically because these problems are common human problems on your planet that have more to do with “business” than with fundamental differences in ideology. I will use a parable-like format to discourse:
There once was an island with many villages that had several churches serving a small demographic of believers and these churches were all of the same denomination, but had different structures and methods of outreach. One of the churches was substantially larger than the others, but all these churches were dedicated to the fundamental creed of their revelation—to enlighten the whole island with the good news of their message. They believed that in doing so, the entire island would benefit in many ways bringing truth, beauty, and goodness to all the people which would eventually change the fabric of society and bring peace, prosperity, and the eternal assurances of life everlasting to the hearts and minds of the people—a noble vision for sure, but there was one major problem: Some of these churches, the larger more organized congregations, thought that they had the exclusive right to control and represent the revelation and how the revelations were to be marketed and distributed. This dis-unity separated these churches and set them up as competitors against each other which confused the people of the island and stifled the dissemination of the revelation. Church membership remained low and grew little outside the small congregations in the villages.
What we have now is similar to a nation of many city-states all with different laws and commerce structures. Doing business outside the city-state would be difficult because there is no common regulation, laws, or currency to allow for the simple transaction of goods and services across the collective. Without the unity of a federalized system—a board of governance that represented all the city-states and agreed to commerce law and regulation, there could be no growth for the industries within the city-states. This very example is well defined in the Urantia Papers and was meant to not only speak to the benefits of world government, but could be fundamentally applied to estranged organizations as well as a way to make them more effective at bringing their “wares” to the world at large and increase market share.
Unity starts with dialogue and the dialogue to unify under a board of governance would certainly have merit in any case where similar organizations are in competition and wish to ensure their survivability as an industry within the market. The secondary issue is the recognition of established “schisms” that support the revelation and may be viewed relationally as similar to the angelic corps of the “Angels of the Churches” and the “Angels of Progress.” Both have different agendas but both working toward the same goal—Light and Life. They don’t compete; they both work to move things forward in a way that is orderly and in compliance with the Father’s Will.
“As above, so below,”—if the angels can organize this way, can humans do so also? Find a pattern in the lessons of the Urantia Book, my friends, and see how the workings of the universes can be applied to human problems. Is there a lesson in Cymboynton of Urmia?
Peace to you, The Circle of Seven
