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Family Week
The Family Week concept is simple.
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Families get together in a child-friendly location — a place with a beach, a woods, hiking or biking trails, and hopefully an ice cream shop — and they enjoy a vacation together.
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But Family Week also adds in some Urantia-flair. A children's program takes place in the morning, giving kids a chance to learn about Urantia values. Parents can use this time to either help with the children's program, or take a well-deserved break from parenting duties.
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After the morning children's program, do whatever you would do on vacation. Go swimming. Go biking. Do it just with your family or invite the other families to join you.
Serving Mixed Families
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Family Week is for all families, but it is specifically intended to serve mixed families: where one parent is a dedicated Urantia Book student, and the other parent is not.
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In these families, it is especially difficult for the Urantia Book reader to dedicate vacation time and money to attend a Urantia conference. That parent may find it difficult to justify leaving their family to attend something that the other parent is not interested in.
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At Family Week, we hope to create a space where Urantia Book readers can hang out with each other, and where non-reader spouses can enjoy a vacation as well.
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Teaching Kids Values
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The Children's Program will adopt a curriculum that is used for Vacation Bible School, but which has been adapted by Urantia Book readers for Urantia kids. This was done with great success at Urantia Association's conference in Baltimore. The curriculum will emphasize values like:
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God loves you
Love and respect your family
Serve others
Turn to God and to good people when you are feeling low
Images from a past Children's Program
Alice Wood was the director of Urantia Association's Children and Teen Program in Baltimore. She is also the visionary and director of Family Week.
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Where is this going to be held?
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We're looking at places around the US that have easy access to the great outdoors and swimming. Ideally, families would have the option to either camp or stay in a cabin. We would like to know where interested families are located so that we can aim the location (and future locations) for where there are clusters of families.
Are people of all ages welcome at Family Week?
This gathering is for families in which there are kids ages 18 and under. Parents and grandparents who bring children are welcome to join us. Adults who are not bringing kids should only come if they are signed up as volunteers.
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What ages is the morning Children's Program for?
The Children's Program is geared toward kids ages 5-10. We will also arrange activities for middle schoolers and high schoolers. Field trips or adventure activities would be ideal. Kids under 5 should stay with their parents, but if their parents are volunteering then the toddlers can tag along.
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Will there be any Urantia-themed activities for adults?
Yes, but we're not sure what that will look like yet. We want to respect the fact that this is a vacation for mixed families, but some people may want to sing worship songs around a campfire, or go for a hike and read the Sermon on the Mount from the top of a hill. We can be creative in our planning, and spontaneous in our doing when it comes to folding The Urantia Book into this vacation.
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When is this going to take place?
We're hoping for the summer of 2025.