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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
The Teacher Education Program is a place where Urantia Book students from across the Urantia organizations can deepen their understanding of the revelation, practice articulating its concepts, and—alongside their fellow students—grow in their relationships with God. It 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 Book 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.
Join the Waitlist
We will begin accepting applications for the 2025-2026 academic year in late February. You can join the waitlist by sending us an email.
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 2025 - 2026 Academic Year
February 25 - April 20, 2025
Accepting Applications
May 5, 2025
Final Admissions Decisions
We will make early decisions for international students who plan on attending the orientation in person and have a long wait period for acquiring a visa.
August 25 - 29, 2025
In-Person Orientation
September 13, 2025 - June 19, 2026
Trimesters 1, 2, and 3 (with breaks in between)
Live Zoom classes will take place on Fridays at 11:00am Central (Chicago) time.
Suggested Donation
Suggested Donation:
$400
Food and Lodging at Orientation:
Free
Misc. Expenses:
Travel expenses to the Orientation (Zoom option is available)
Waivers:
We do not want the suggested donation to be a barrier to anyone. Contact us for information about the donation.
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 then 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. 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.
A Preview of the Vision for the TEP
The TEP is currently a one-year program, but it is envisioned to become a two-year program. Those students who complete this upcoming year of study will be among the first students who are eligible to enroll in the forthcoming Year Two of the Teacher Education Program, which has an estimated launch date of September 2026.
The Year One program consists of an overview of The Urantia Book, lessons on formal teaching, ministering to others, and conversing about the teaching and values of The Urantia Book in a way that uplifts the spirits of those around us.
This year of study has taken place in 2023, 2024, and will soon be run again in 2025.
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’ 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 2025-2026 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
Some elements span the whole year
Trimester Three
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 and in an academic classroom setting.
Circles of Trust
Underpinning the cohort experience is the formation of small Circles of Trust. Small groups of 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.