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Urantia Book
Teacher Education Program
The TEP is an innovative one-year online program to begin preparing teachers, ambassadors, and servant-leaders of the Urantia revelation
Following four years of developing and testing by a team of curriculum developers and experienced students from the major Urantia organizations, UUI will open The Urantia Book School of Teacher Education in 2024. This new school is envisioned as a training hub for the Urantia revelation for generations to come.
The hybrid one-year training program features a five-day, in-person Orientation and training session at Urantia Foundation, followed by three trimesters of online study and weekly training and discussion sessions on Zoom. It is designed for people who are serious students of the Urantia revelation with a track record of participation in study groups and Urantia Book education programs.
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Offers a comprehensive review of the major themes and concepts of The Urantia Book
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Provides a useful blend of content knowledge and skill-building practices
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Prepares motivated students from around the world to effectively present the ideas and ideals of the Urantia revelation to their native cultures.
How to Apply
Send us an email to receive the application.
Am I Qualified to Apply?
This program is intended for intermediate to advanced students of The Urantia Book who have completed at least one full reading of the book.
Conversational English is required.
Calendar for the 2024 - 2025 Academic Year
Application deadline has been extended. Now accepting through April 25 (class size is limited, so apply now)
August 5 - 9, 2024
In-Person Orientation
September 14, 2024 - June 13, 2025
Trimesters 1, 2, and 3 (with breaks in between)
July 18, 2025
Capstone Project Due
Tuition and Tuition Waivers
Cost of Tuition:
$400
Food and Lodging at Orientation:
Free
Misc. Expenses:
Travel expenses to the Orientation (Zoom option is available)
Tuition Waivers:
We do not want cost to be a barrier to anyone. Contact us for information about tuition waivers.
Workload:
10 hours per week (estimated)
Every epochal revelation had a school to promote its mission and train teachers
Every revelation of epochal significance incorporated training schools as part of its mission to educate individuals and uplift religious cultures, from the schools of the Planetary Prince and Adam and Eve to the Salem School of Machiventa Melchizedek and the school of evangelists and apostolic corps of Jesus.
The Urantia revelation once had such a training program that was established in 1956 under the auspices of the Urantia Brotherhood School. Its mission was to prepare teachers and leaders whose responsibility it would be to carry the message of The Urantia Book to all interested people and to further the program of the Urantia Brotherhood. However, the Brotherhood School became inactive after the death of its Dean, Alvin Kulieke, in 1973.
The New School of Urantia Book Teacher Education
The Urantia Book Teacher Education Program is the outgrowth of an original concept by Gard Jameson and Marilynn and David Kulieke, who gathered a small group of individuals from various Urantia organizations for the purpose of creating an educational center for the Urantia community (UEC). Its primary purpose is to create a repository of educational materials about The Urantia Book and to develop an enduring school to support the dissemination of the Urantia revelation.
They envisioned an educational program that would prepare motivated students from around the world to effectively present the ideas and ideals of the Urantia revelation to people of all cultures. The founders invited representatives from Urantia Foundation, Urantia Book Fellowship, Urantia Association International, and Urantia University Institute (UUI) to collaborate in developing the curriculum.
Program Goals
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Provide people who have an inner prompting to share the advanced teachings of the Urantia revelation regarding God, the cosmos, and our planetary history and eternal destiny, with a coherent body of knowledge and skill set they can use to communicate more skillfully with spiritually hungry people looking for answers to life's big questions.
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Prepare people who feel called to teach or minister to the spiritual family of God in the light of the Urantia revelation and to spread the expanded gospel of Jesus presented in The Urantia Book to their faith communities and the broader culture.
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Provide a program of study leading to a comprehensive and integrative understanding of the major themes and concepts of The Urantia Book that enables participants to better articulate the revelation to their native cultures and to a wide swath of individuals and groups.
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Nurture the development of the participant’s inner spiritual life towards the goal of authentically embodying an awareness of the Presence of God in one’s life through faith and spiritual practices.
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Provide training for effective ministry based on Jesus’s model of loving service with an emphasis on personal spiritual transformation and mastering techniques of meeting individuals where they are at in a dialogue of souls.
TEP Structure
Program begins with an in-person orientation and training session
The Orientation for the 2024-2025 year will take place at Urantia Foundation in Chicago. This personal experience allows participants to meet their instructors and fellow students to form a cohesive cohort. Further, participants are oriented to the program’s structure, goals, and curriculum, along with some basic skill-building sessions.
Trimesters feature an overview of The Urantia Book
Each 10-week trimester consists of independent classwork and a weekly 3-hour live class on Zoom.
Trimester One
Trimester Two
Trimester Three
Some elements span the whole year
Capstone Project
Students work on a project of their choosing that relates to teaching Urantia Book concepts, meanings, or values. They complete their project under the guidance of an advisor. The Capstone Project is the students' opportunity to apply what they have been learning in the program.
Specialized Learning Modules
Skill-building learning modules are interwoven into the trimester material. Students take part in exercises that enhance their ability to communicate Urantia Book concepts, meanings, and values. These exercises prepare them for serving in a 1:1 ministerial setting, or in an academic classroom setting.
Circles of Trust
Underpinning the cohort experience is the formation of small Circles of Trust. Groups of four students meet throughout the year to share their experiences in an atmosphere of deep listening and encouragement with people who are also on a path toward greater God-consciousness.
Becoming More Effective Teachers,
Messengers, Ministers, and Leaders
(339.6) 30:3.9 The entire ascendant plan of mortal progression is characterized by the practice of giving out to other beings new truth and experience just as soon as acquired. You work your way through the long school of Paradise attainment by serving as teachers to those pupils just behind you in the scale of progression.
In keeping with this universe pattern of progressive growth, it is incumbent upon advancing students of the Urantia revelation to serve in some fashion as teachers, spiritual companions, trainers, ambassadors, and ministers in order to share what they have learned with others and to offer encouraging support to people who are beginners on the path of spiritual understanding, practice, and growth.
We believe the Urantia Book Teacher Education Program is poised to achieve the long-sought goal of establishing a high-quality school for teachers and servant-leaders of the Urantia revelation.
Content Knowledge and Practical Skills
Through a comprehensive one-year program, the Urantia Book School of Teacher Education provides participants with the knowledge and skills to become more effective teachers of the Urantia revelation and spiritual educators in a variety of arenas.
Aware of the importance of cultivating symmetry in the practices of study, worship, and service, the program is designed to offer participants a balanced approach to intellectual development + practical teaching skills and spiritual growth + loving service skills.
Graduates may go on to serve study groups, spiritual communities, and churches, or teach in schools and centers of spiritual education and philosophy. Or they may create new ways of using the internet and multi-media to spread the Urantia revelation – the possibilities are boundless.
Program Fundamentals
Knowledge Base
The Urantia Book Teacher Education Program curriculum builds on the student’s well-developed knowledge of The Urantia Book gained from years of prior study. It offers eager students the opportunity to develop a more comprehensive understanding and integrated perspective of the Urantia revelation through intensive study of the major concepts and themes of the text.
Spiritual Practices - Worship and Service to Others
At the heart of this education program is the formation and cultivation of spiritual habits that enhance our ability to practice the presence of God – to love and know God – and reinforce the practice of doing good for others – love in action. Students cultivate the strong, Jesusonian spiritual habits of contemplative prayer, worship, practicing the presence of God, embodying Supreme values, and the practice of discerning and doing the will of God.
Skill-Building
We hone what we learn through doing, by engaging in activities that help to integrate and actualize the ideas we acquire through receiving information. During this first course, we will engage in thinking, writing, speaking, and creative activities that help us grow in insight, God-consciousness, and the ability to effectively communicate with others about the ideas and ideals of the Urantia revelation. The program acquaints students with modern teaching methods as well as educational principles and models from the past that are described in The Urantia Book, particularly the teaching techniques used by Jesus the Master Teacher.
Bring the Training Home to Your Own Culture
The study of prior epochal revelations informs us that each had an educational and outreach program, from the schools of the Planetary Prince and Adam and Eve to the Salem missionary school of Machiventa Melchizedek, and the apostolic and women’s corps of Jesus. In every case, interested people and prospective teachers and missionaries studied for a period of time at some kind of teaching hub and then returned to their own lands to present what they had learned in a language and form that was comprehensible to their particular culture. The Urantia Book Teacher Education Program undertakes to follow this model.