Report from the Finnish Office

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Seppo Kanerva

Kalevi Eklöf

By Tapio Pulli, branch office manager, Finland

Editor’s Note: The Finnish branch office of Urantia Foundation has been in operation since 1993. Many individuals have volunteered their time and resources ensuring its efficiency. We are grateful for their service.

I am fifty-nine years old, with a wife and three grown daughters. I work as a bookkeeper and have my own accounting firm. I have been reading The Urantia Book for thirty years. The most convincing and beautiful thing in the text is how it combines science, philosophy, and religion. The story of Thought Adjusters is thrilling as well.

I have been an active member of the Urantia Association of Finland since it was founded in 1989, acting as the treasurer for most of that time.

Urantia Foundation’s office in Finland was started in 1993 by Seppo Kanerva and Seppo Niskanen. The Finnish translation of The Urantia Book came out in the same year. In 2002, Kristina Frigren (Siikala) started running the office and did so for the next six years, until 2008. The next person to run the office was Kalevi Eklöf, who ran it until 2016. Kalevi and I worked together during the last year selling books, and I want to thank Kalevi for his cooperation and for helping me to get acquainted with the tasks of running the office. It is an honor to continue the excellent work Kalevi has done during the last nine years. (Marja-Leena, his wife, has been a wonderful support to him!)

In 2014, our Urantia Association of Finland produced and financed a Finnish audiobook available in both USB and CD-ROM formats. For the sales of the audiobook, Tapio Talvitie established an online store that has been working well, and we have plans to launch a similar online store for the Finnish office. We also cooperate with the Urantia Association by participating in book exhibitions and maintaining the Finnish website.

My wish is to help Urantia Foundation by selling Urantia Books in Finland and in adjacent countries, even though sales have been slow of late. In Europe there have been prevailing two opposite trends—secularization and spiritual seeking. These trends make me question if religious leaders are making the same mistake they made two thousand years ago. Recall, if you will, where The Urantia Book recounts what is called the Damascus Episode, where Jesus was offered the leadership of a school of religious philosophy, a school to outrival Alexandria. “He who was rejected by the Jerusalem religious leaders, even after he had demonstrated his leadership, was hailed as a master teacher by the businessmen and bankers of Damascus, and all this when he was an obscure and unknown carpenter of Nazareth.” 128:43 (1412.6)