A History of Encounters
From Nashville to Brazil: A Journey Through the International Meetings of Urantia Book Readers
And, after so many places, the question that remained in the air is simple: when will it be our turn?
There are stories that begin long before they are told
There are stories that can be told by dates. Others need to be told by faces. The trajectory of Urantia Association’s international conferences belongs to the second category. It is made up of people who have traveled thousands of miles to sit in the same room, listen to each other, study, sing, laugh, ask questions, and, above all, meet friends again.
Everything began to take on an international shape in Nashville. In 1993, the then International Urantia Association was inaugurated, bringing together readers from different places and representatives of the Urantia Foundation. The first meetings came in 1994 and 1995, and in 1996, Nashville again received readers for what is now presented by Urantia Association International as the first conference of the international sequence.
At that moment, no one could know how many borders would still be crossed. What existed was something simpler: the realization that studying a revelation could also mean meeting other people who, somewhere on the planet, were asking the same questions.
The story began to travel
In 1998, the meeting crossed the Atlantic and arrived in Helsinki, Finland. It was the first international conference of the IUA outside the United States. English shared space with Finnish, and the language itself was already beginning to tell a story: that of a community that did not need to speak the same language to share the same desire to learn.
Two years later, New York showed the dimension that this story could reach. On Staten Island, 315 people from 23 countries participated in the conference. There were young people, adults, speakers of various nationalities, translation, music, theater and dance. And there was also Brazil. The country already appeared among the nations represented, as if discreetly appearing on the first pages of a story that would still have many chapters.
Then came Dourdan, in France; Chicago, in the United States; and Sydney, in Australia. With each meeting, the scenery changed. The landscapes, accents and customs changed. But one thing remained the same: when the doors opened and people entered, the world seemed to get smaller.
From one continent to another, the same desire to be together
In Malaga in 2009, the conference reached a Spanish-speaking country for the first time. The theme — “Bridging the Gap from Disharmony to Universal Unity” — seemed to describe not only the program of the meeting, but what the conferences themselves had been doing for years: bringing different people together.
In Medellín, in 2012, fifteen presentations in Spanish and English, simultaneous translation, internet transmission, music and traditional dances transformed the meeting into a small image of the planet itself. In Québec, three years later, more than 225 people from 21 countries gathered. One of the moments remembered was precisely the opening, when participants said their names and countries into the microphone. Many languages, many accents, the same room.
In 2018, in the Amsterdam region, 177 participants from 23 countries met to talk about Jesus as a teacher. And in 2021, when the pandemic made face-to-face meetings in Peru impossible, history found another way: Cusco and Urubamba reached the world through a virtual conference. There were 1,967 registrations, about 500 new readers and translation in English, French, Portuguese and Spanish.
In 2024, Baltimore scheduled the face-to-face reunion. After an experience that had put people from different continents in front of the same screens, readers returned to occupy the same physical space. The theme was “The Nature and Nurture of the Soul.” Once again, the conference was study, but it was also conviviality — and conviviality is made of presence.
And Brazil?
Perhaps this is the most beautiful part of looking back. Because, during all these years, Brazil has never been completely out of this story.
Brazilians participated in international meetings. The country appeared among the nations represented. Groups emerged, readers connected, translations advanced, and the Brazilian presence took shape. In 2003, the Urantia Association of Brazil was inaugurated as a local association of the International Urantia Association, bringing together readers from São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. It was another step in a presence that would continue to grow.
Brazil, therefore, is not now reaching history. It has been walking with it for a long time. The difference is that, until now, Brazilians had to pack their bags to join the world. Now, in a first for our international conferences, the world is being invited to pack its bags to find Brazil.
AFTER SO MANY PLACES…
OUR TURN HAS COME.
13th INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
FOZ DO IGUAÇU • BRAZIL • MAY 27 TO 30, 2027
The news that transforms all this retrospective into the future has already been officially announced: Urantia Association International and Urantia Association of Brazil will hold the 13th international conference from May 27 to 30, 2027, at the Interludium Hotel, in Foz do Iguaçu.
The theme will be “The Urantia Book and the Challenges of Today: A Spiritual Response to the Modern World.”
And the place could not be more symbolic. Foz do Iguaçu is a city used to receiving the world. On the border between countries, in front of one of the most impressive natural landscapes on the planet, Brazil will host readers who, for decades, have crossed borders to keep this tradition of encounters alive.
It’s as if, after so many photographs taken far from home, the next photograph is finally being prepared here. After Nashville, Helsinki, New York, Dourdan, Chicago, Sydney, Malaga, Medellín, Québec, Amsterdam, Peru and Baltimore, the story arrives in Brazil.
And perhaps that is precisely what makes this moment special: it will not be just another city in the sequence. It will be Brazil’s turn to open its doors, welcome friends who come from afar and show that history can also be told from here.
THE NEXT FAMILY PHOTO WILL BE IN BRAZIL.
SEE YOU IN FOZ DO IGUAÇU.
Visit the event webpage to learn more and register
Information and sources
This story was built on Urantia Foundation publications and Urantia Association International’s official communication about international conferences. Fellowship conferences were not included.
Official Announcement 2027: Urantia Foundation