Hello Friends,

It is late on Monday night here in Melbourne. The last two days here at the Parliament have been extraordinary. Marvin and Francyl played with the Agape International Choir last night at the special Parliament concert. Ricky Byers is the wife of the Rev. Michael Beckwith. She is the musical genius behind their choir. Their performance was superb. The choir looked like a living rainbow on the stage.

The outreach effort here is fantastic. We are placing books with extraordinary people. Marvin was able to place a book with Andrew Cohen. Andrew is a spiritual teacher and founder of EnlightenNext magazine, (formerly What is Enlightenment). He is a visionary thinker who is widely recognized for his original contribution to emerging evolutionary spirituality. He encountered Marvin after his workshop, Exploring the Future of Religion and Spirituality. When Marvin mentioned the Urantia Book to him he was extremely positive about it. He said, “Oh yes, I’m very interested in that book, everyone I know who reads it is of a high caliber.” He mentioned a few readers and asked Marvin if he knew them and of course Marvin did. Marvin offered him the book and he accepted it enthusiastically.

Today two distinguished Iranian men came up to the booth. They engaged Larry in an exchange about the book. At one point someone put a book into their hands. They signed our list and left a note that they were taking the book for a scientific research project in Tehran. They later came back and asked Gard to attend as a guest presenter at a conference on philosophy they are sponsoring in Tehran in 2010.

I placed a book with a high school teacher from Singapore. Her Indian parents migrated there before she was born. She is a Christian who attends a Christian Science church. She was in Sri Lanka in 2004, sitting on the balcony of a tiny hotel when the tsunami hit.
Her survival story is extraordinary.

Tonight the Plenary was created and put on by young people. We were inspired by the work they have undertaken around the world by tackling global issues with true leadership and creativity. This was my favorite plenary so far. It was absolutely engaging. Some of the projects that were covered included the work of Hugh Evans, who, in his teens, created a global movement to end extreme poverty. Brief videos on Hugh’s effort, and the story of his work on the Global Poverty Project, can be found at http://www.globalpovertyproject.com/

A theater troup called the Platform Youth Theater did a scene from their play. It's playing in Melbourne all week. The troop features a duo, one Israeli man and one Palestinian man. They engage in a humorous banter on stage and together with their troop explore the function and dysfunction of religion.

Also highlighted were two young people who went across the country interviewing university students on why it’s so hard to talk about religion. Their efforts culminated in a terrific website, http://www.soulpancake.com/. At Soulpancake.com visitors are asked to pose thought provoking questions and answers about God, philosophy and religion. It left us all thinking, “Gee, why didn’t we think of that?”

These amazingly bright young people gave us a great deal of hope for the future.
The Youth Plenary had a memorable mix of concise and thought provoking presentations, short inspirational videos, great music and theater. This one alone was worth the price of admission.

One more day to go.

Upward and onward....Paula