2020 ANNUAL REPORT

Vision & Mission

UrantiaUniversity Institute (UUI) offers an online educational experience that enriches our understanding of The Urantia Book and advances everyday spiritual living practices. We create opportunities for personal spiritual growth, interpersonal relationship-building, and teamwork embracing the Jesusonian values of spirit insight, joyful ministry, and loving service.

UUI empowers each one of us to become positive agents of social change and establish a civilization motivated by morality and guided by spirit insight by utilizing the learning model of thinking, feeling, and doing—realizing and actualizing divine truth through loving service to others.

UrantiaUniversity Institute is an independent, yet collaborative educational organization.

Values & Objectives of Education

UUI’s programs are inspired by the cosmic ideals and divine concepts and principles set forth in The Urantia Book and our educational approach is based on the Urantian idea-values that religion is experiential, our relationship with God is personal, evolution is progressive, and revelation is dynamic. Rather than dividing ourselves into discreet camps of “teacher-experts” and “student-novices,” UUI propounds the philosophy that we are all “learners'' engaging in the search and the discovery of God-consciousness together.

We offer classes that introduce newer readers to The Urantia Book as well as thought-provoking courses for experienced students seeking more intensive study. Complementary to intellectual exploration, our programs provide guidance and support in spiritual living practices, those everyday habits and interactions that foster religion of the spirit and its actualization in loving service to the spiritual family of God.

UUI’s programs seek to elevate the knowledge of things and the comprehension of ideas to a practicable and wise framework for living. Among the thrilling revelations of The Urantia Book that our programs translate from concept to reality are:

The nature of God, the structure and organization of the universe, the myriad orders of divine personalities, and your personal relationship with God.
The wondrous future that awaits us after death – the mortal ascension journey of progressive spiritual growth and attainment from the mansion worlds of our local system to the all the way to Paradise at the center of creation.
The dynamic process of evolutionary, experiential life in the Grand Universe: the divinely coordinated material, mindal, and spiritual outworking of the plan of the Paradise Deities whereby the Universal Father engages in the synthesis of power and personality.
The Evolutionary Deity revelation of God the Supreme, the actualizing and evolving God of time and space and our role as parts of the whole in the progressive completion of its destiny.
The meaning and value of the life and teachings of Jesus which perfectly demonstrated the way of living wholly in faith-trust in God and doing the will of the Universal Father.

Financials

UrantiaUniversity Institute (UUI) is a nonprofit educational organization with the mission of disseminating the teachings of The Urantia Book through free online classes and workshops. UUI is not a membership-based organization. Rather it relies solely on public support from the community of Urantia Book readers which it serves.

We greatly appreciate the support of those we serve, particularly during the perilous times of the past year and a half. The far-reaching effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, starting in the first-quarter 2020, swept across the Urantia community and impacted UrantiaUniversity Institute’s programming in creative ways as the nation and the world turned to online video conferencing as a means of communicating, teaching, and conducting business.

Fortunately, UUI had already built a strong educational platform that incorporated live Zoom class meetings starting in 2014. This helped UUI to quickly pivot in response to the disruptions in lifestyles and old ways that people used to gather. Foremost, the UUI Café was initiated as an online meeting place where the Urantia community could gather and talk about the vast societal changes triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic from a personal and spiritual perspective. In addition, UUI released the first set of self-directed study guides of individual Urantia Book papers in the fall 2020.

UrantiaUniversity Institute began 2020 with a cash balance of $34,665 as a result of 2019 year-end fundraising. During 2020 we received an additional $44,824 in revenue from the generous contributions of our public supporters, including UUI students and Trustees as well as many other benefactors in the Urantia community.

Our total operating expenses for 2020 amounted to $43,095, which was $1,729 less than our public contributions in 2020. Taking into account our 2020 expenses and donor contributions plus our favorable cash position at the start of 2020, UUI was able to begin 2021 with a cash balance of $36,394. We greatly appreciate the generous contributions of our UUI supporters garnered in our year-end fundraising campaign.

We extend our deep gratitude to our volunteer instructors, coordinators, and collaborators; our loyal and devoted students; and our many benefactors for helping UrantiaUniversity Institute grow steadily over the years in the scope and in the quality of our free services to the public. Our core mission of spreading the teachings of the Urantia revelation to the world is becoming a reality.

Elisabeth Callahan

UUI Executive Director and Acting Treasurer

Course Highlights

New Reader Course

Designed for new readers of The Urantia Book, this 10-week course introduces the main themes and concepts of the book in a simple way and in a friendly online learning environment. Through live online discussion groups, newcomers to the Urantia tradition have the opportunity to explore its vast treasures and ask questions in an open and supportive community of fellow truth-seekers.

For years, The Urantia Book sat on my bookshelf, whispering: "read me, read me." My response was: "I don't understand you." UUI provided the map I needed. My experience in the New Reader Course has transformed me by helping me to open to a new design of living--one in which it is possible to grow in relationship to God as my Father, Jesus as brother, and everyone as brothers and sisters--a true guide to spiritual formation.

-Adina-

Grief and Transition Ministry Workshop

The Grief and Transitions Ministry Workshop was developed to help each one of us deal with the anxiety, grief, and uncertainty caused by the profound social upheavals of the Covid-19 era. This practical, two-part workshop is designed to provide lay instruction with a psychological and spiritual perspective on grieving and facing the challenges of major life transitions.

The five-hour workshop was developed by a team of mental health professionals from the Urantia community who perceived the need and value of offering an educational online program to help people deal with the anxiety, grief, and uncertainty caused by the profound social upheavals of the Covid-19 era and related social and political crises.

There is a feeling of kinship, a realization that I am not alone. Feelings of grief and loss are universal and I am never beyond help. Therefore I am never separated from the love of God. The supreme experience of living is " to become acquainted with one's brothers and sisters, to know their problems and to learn to love them, is the supreme experience of living.

-Anonymous participant-

The Progress Project

Helps students develop a personal, everyday practice of communion with God and establish deep relationships with others through the sharing of inner lives and spiritual goal setting. Students form triads, groups of three that meet outside of class to support and accompany each other on the journey of spiritual progress.

This is a course in deepening one's relationship with our Paradise Father and it delivers in spades...I have used some of their techniques to inwardly and upwardly reach, daily...so soul-satisfying!!

-Monica-

Self-Mastery and Circle Attainment

Designed to refresh and renew the spiritual aspirations of Urantia Book readers who have by faith, entered the kingdom of God and therein set for themselves the achievement of the fullness of mortal life. It is through the conquest of one's psychic circles and the enhancement of Adjuster attunement, that we become of better and more joyful service to our fellows in this world and the next.

I feel like I really learned more about myself, the ways I can improve, grow spiritually, trust my spiritual leading, pray and worship, and be of service to others.

-Anonymous participant-

The Way of Life in the Family of God: A Course in Spiritual Formation

Offered five times in 2020, including a special session in Korean, this experiential 10-week “Course in Spiritual Formation” introduces participants to a new and higher way of living. The purpose of this online course is to help us mobilize our faith — allowing the Spirit to more fully transform us — so that we can truly begin to live in spiritual family relationship, with God as our heavenly parent and all human beings as our spiritual sisters and brothers.

Having been a reader since 1976 it is just an amazing gift to interact with folks around the world over Zoom in the UUI classes and Cafes. It is surprisingly up close and personal.

For me most of those years were spent without benefit of a study group and now to be a part of UUI is, in the words of Black Elk - an Ogalala Lakota medicine man - “Makes my heart soar like the hawk.”

-Dave-

Self-Directed Study of The Urantia Book

In 2020, UUI released 20 Self-Directed Study of the individual papers of The Urantia Book, providing an opportunity for new and advanced students of The Urantia Book to begin to master the content of individual papers, explore resources, apply knowledge, and actively engage with the meanings and values of the revelation. These free and interactive online courses can be taken anytime, anywhere, on your desktop or smartphone.

The program serves those who are searching for a way to study The Urantia Book in greater depth and with the guidance and support of experienced instructors, but at their own pace and according to their own schedule.

In addition to representative papers from Parts I, II, III, and IV, UUI also released A Tour of The Urantia Book, which identifies the major themes of the revelation and explains the Book’s structure in relation to the whole revelation as the design best suited to cultivate spiritual wisdom, progressing from the complex and infinite to the simple and finite.

UUI will release self-directed studies for each of The Urantia Book’s 196 papers over the next few years. Meanwhile useful resources and insightful “thought gems” shared by fellow learners are added to existing courses each month.

UUI’s Self-Directed Study is amazing, methodical, user-friendly... a smart, clever “game” designed to help the student learn and progress in this life and the next.

The program is suitable for both the beginner and the very advanced student...I feel like I have the whole team by my side, helping me learn.

-Christos-

Community Building

UUI online Cafe

The UUI Cafe is a space for uplifting spiritual conversations 5-6 times a week, where spiritual brothers and sisters can hang out and have soul-growing conversations based on the wisdom of the Urantia teachings and the world's great spiritual traditions. Originally conceived to address the need to ministry and hope during the covid-19 pandemic, the UUI Cafe has fostered a lasting community of honesty, sincerity, and hope dedicated to doing, and not just thinking about, the will of God.

I can unequivocally state that the UUI Cafe has changed my life. My daily connection to God our Father and all His children – both earthly and divine – has truly blossomed and is bearing what I see as real spiritual ‘fruit’. My depth of connection to spiritual levels have deepened far beyond what I can express in mere words!

-Gail-

Looking Ahead

In 2021, UUI will increase the number of classes for new and advanced readers to The Urantia Book, including Be of Good Cheer, The Great Debate on the Scale of Orvonton, and The Urantia Book’s Revelation on the Mind.We will also launch more courses supporting Self-Directed Study of Individual Papers, innovative programming to train teachers according to the principles found in the fifth revelation, and leaders with the cosmic values needed to face the global challenges of the 21st century and beyond.

Integrative Wellbeing Program

Integrative Wellbeing with a spiritual core supports learners as they apply the insights of The Urantia Book to everyday living through spiritual formation, worship practice, and loving service. We envision two tracks for individual practitioners of holistic living and those who seek to serve society as integrative wellbeing transformers. The program expands the definition of self-care and well-being of the body and mind to include a personal relationship with God and a set of practices to support a spiritual way of living in tune with God. Aims include:

Encouraging the employment of faith to withstand life’s challenges and uplift one’s belief systems.
Exposing the Urantia revelation in universal and culturally-accessible ways to a new audience of spiritual truthseekers.

Teacher Training Program

Training teachers and leaders to share the teachings of The Urantia Book with others--thereby expanding cosmic consciousness, enhancing spiritual perception, and contributing to the betterment of the people of the world educationally, socially, and spiritually. UUI is working together with other Urantia organizations to develop a two-year training program to prepare teachers and presenters of the fifth epochal revelation that combines:

A comprehensive thematic study of The Urantia Book that develops a solid intellectual framework of understanding and organizing the basic and advanced concepts and ideals of the revelation for the purpose of effectively communicating about them with other persons;
Practical training in building a set of skills to effectively present the main ideas and ideals of the revelation in a variety of settings to diverse audiences. These settings may include college or high school classrooms, community spiritual centers, conferences, radio and podcasting, videos and film, social media, print, and digital marketing, Internet teaching and ministry, and personal and community ministry.

Establishing an Education Legacy

UUI Legacy Circle

In 2020, UUI began to build a foundation for Urantian education for future generations through the UrantiaUniversity Legacy Circle with the generosity and commitment of its inaugural member, UUI Board Member John Callahan. The UUI Legacy Circle honors and recognizes learners, faculty and friends who make a commitment of any size to the University by including UUI in their estate plans or by naming UrantiaUniversity as a beneficiary of retirement assets or life insurance. Through faith in the reality of universe unity, the UrantiaUniversity Legacy Circle members “live and carry on as if already in the presence of the Eternal” and desire for future generations to experience the same surety of conviction.

By joining together, members of the UrantiaUniversity Legacy Circle contribute “to the continued survival of altruism” and challenge the rest of us to fully realize the Urantian idea-values—that religion is experiential, our relationship with God is personal, evolution is progressive, and revelation is dynamic. Act as if immortality were already within your grasp 102:2.3 (1119.8).

Learn more about our efforts to establish a global family of God and to move step by step Godward.

Board of Trustees

Robert Burns

Elisabeth Callahan, Executive Director and Treasurer

John Callahan, Chair

Marvin Gawryn

Tim Hobbs, President

Ariana Horn, Director of Administration

Merritt Horn

Andre Radatus

Benet Rutenberg, Vice President

Claire Thurston

Arlene Weimer

Bev Boyer, Associate Trustee

Buck Weimer, Associate Trustee

Committee Members

Mark Blackham (Self-Directed Study Review Committee)

Sherry Chathcart-Chavis (Integrative Wellbeing Committee)

Gard Jameson (Teacher Training Program - Special Advisory Group)

Geri Johnson (Teacher Training Program - Special Advisory Group)

David Kulieke (Teacher Training Program - Special Advisory Group)

Marilynn Kulieke (Teacher Training Program - Special Advisory Group)

Janette McCain (Curriculum Committee and Self-Directed Study Review Committee)

Rob Mastroianni (Teacher Training Program - Special Advisory Group)

Chris Wood (Teacher Training Program - Special Advisory Group)

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