Have you ever paused to remark upon the work of the angels of the races in The Urantia Book? This corps of the master seraphim arrived with the first resident governor general when the Spirit of Truth was bestowed in A.D. 30. Bible readers may have heard of the “angels of the churches,” mentioned in the Book of Revelation, but the eleven other seraphim corps sent to participate in our “rather loosely organized and somewhat personally administered planetary government (The Urantia Book, The UB, 114:5.4)” are previously unrevealed in our history.

   “The direct administrative cabinet of the governor general consists of twelve seraphim, the acting chiefs of the twelve groups of special angels functioning as the immediate superhuman directors of planetary progress and stability.” (114:5.6) The acting chief of the angels of the races is therefore a member of this cabinet.

   With no previous record of these celestial beings, I was naturally surprised to learn of “The angels of the races, those who work for the conservation of the evolutionary races of time, regardless of their political entanglements and religious groupings. On Urantia there are remnants of nine human races which have commingled and combined into the people of modern times. These seraphim are closely associated with the ministry of the race commissioners, and the group now on Urantia is the original corps assigned to the planet soon after the day of Pentecost.” (114:6.9)

   How do we imagine this ministry is continued when a race such as the orange appears to have been eliminated (64:6.13)? Or, in the case of the red race, described as “vanishing” (90:2.9)? If there are no visible cultural remnants of, for example, the green race, what are they able to conserve?

   Jesus confirmed this seraphic group’s work in his talk with Nathaniel even before the planetary government was installed on Urantia after his ascension. “And many of the angels, while functioning in the government of the Father and the universes of the Sons, are assigned to the service of the human races.” (167:7.4; see also John 1:47-51))

   We know that in our time, many scientists perceive race as a social construct rather than having a scientific basis, yet use of the term race persists with ordinary people who continue to manage differences in social relations, explore their ancestry in DNA tests, and express ethnic pride. In this blog however, I will not explore the controversial issues raised by The UB’s concepts of race.

   In my community work with Native American communities, I related to poet Linda Hogan, a Chickasaw descendant of those who walked the Trail of Tears, and her view of the need to articulate our histories. It inspired her early poems, “the need to say what hadn’t been spoken, to tell an untold story of our lives. They are home speaking through me. Home is in blood, and I am still on the journey of calling myself home.” (Linda Hogan, from Red Clay) Her words certainly speak to the meaning of my journey. Perhaps the angels of the races are conserving the history of the red Sangiks through living representatives of the races.

   Then there are the race commissioners who also work on “the worlds of time.” “The High Commissioners begin their service on the planets as race commissioners. In this capacity they interpret the viewpoints and portray the needs of the various human races. They are supremely devoted to the welfare of the mortal races whose spokesmen they are, ever seeking to obtain for them mercy, justice, and fair treatment in all relationships with other peoples;” (37:5.5)

   Difficult work with sometimes heated arguments and legal conflicts occurs when one race seeks justice from another.

   My mom and I had an ongoing dialogue about reconnecting with our Ojibwe heritage that went on for years before she passed away in 2015, and it became part of my poem Identity Disorder. Efforts to reintegrate my mother with her Canadian Indian past achieved little progress at first. Finally, a couple of years ago she told me, “It was just terrible how they tried to take away their heritage by putting them in those ‘boarding’ [residential] schools.” She’d finally understood something about the fate of Indian culture and its suppression. Later she surprised me again and sent a letter describing her heritage and history to my daughter. You could have knocked me over with an Eagle feather. I felt as if I had won a long campaign.

   On the first morontia world, this ministry to the races is taken up by a group of seraphim, called the transition ministers. One part of this seraphic group are the racial interpreters.

    “Racial Interpreters. All races of mortal beings are not alike. True, there is a planetary pattern running through the physical, mental, and spiritual natures and tendencies of the various races of a given world; but there are also distinct racial types, and very definite social tendencies characterize the offspring of these different basic types of human beings. On the worlds of time the seraphic racial interpreters further the efforts of the race commissioners to harmonize the varied viewpoints of the races.” (48:6.22)

“The race commissioners are very active on Urantia.” (114:4.2)

   The desire to experience Native American spirituality motivated me just as it often has for idealistic youth seeking deeper truths about the cosmos. They turn to Native Americans for direction and seek out their spirituality, perhaps because, in the pure form of American Indian “religion,” there is no church and no priest as we knew growing up in Christianity. In places where the original culture is still alive and the traditions still practiced, prayers to the Creator are made to a wide open sky, in the church of Nature, often with the guidance of elders who know the ceremonies.

   Perhaps the angels of the races conserve the spiritual contributions of the races. The American Indian institution of the Vision Quest that guided the people to find their spirit helper, or guardian spirit, is an ideal of what UB readers would call a personal religion vs. an authoritarian, priest-dominated one. “The fire within,” as one Ojibwe elder called it, or sometimes referred to as keeping “your fire lit” was typical of northern tribes’ spirituality.

   My experience of Native culture is indirect and distant and sometimes I am filled with doubts, as I continue to dialogue with myself about motives, my sincerity. It might be said that I am called as a witness. I feel reinforced to continue my ministry by this knowledge of master seraphim who’ve undertaken similar tasks. We are actually even able to work with their guidance, “While unable to inject new and higher conceptions into human minds, they [the master seraphim] often act to intensify some higher ideal which has already appeared within a human intellect.” (114:6.19) I am comfortable in the role of witness to the atrocities of the past. I work to assist the present movements for cultural revival. That is why, like Linda Hogan, I believe it is important to not take the easy path of choosing to remain silent.