^25:2.7 2. The Spirit-Advocate. The one appointed by the judge-arbiter to present evidence and to safeguard the rights of all personalities involved in any matter assigned to the adjudication of the conciliating commission.

^25:2.8 3. The Divine Executioner. The conciliator qualified by inherent nature to make contact with the material beings of the realms and to execute the decisions of the commission. Divine executioners, being fourth creatures — quasi-material beings — are almost, but not quite, visible to the short-range vision of the mortal races.

^25:2.9 4. The Recorder. The remaining member of the commission automatically becomes the recorder, the clerk of the tribunal. He makes certain that all records are properly prepared for the archives of the superuniverse and for the records of the local universe. If the commission is serving on an evolutionary world, a third report, with the assistance of the executioner, is prepared for the physical records of the system government of jurisdiction.

^25:2.10 ¶ When in session a commission functions as a group of three since the advocate is detached during adjudication and participates in the formulation of the verdict only at the conclusion of the hearing. Hence these commissions are sometimes called referee trios.

^25:2.11 ¶ The conciliators are of great value in keeping the universe of universes running smoothly. Traversing space at the seraphic rate of triple velocity, they serve as the travelling courts of the worlds, commissions devoted to the quick adjudication of minor difficulties. Were it not for these mobile and eminently fair commissions, the tribunals of the spheres would be hopelessly overspread with the minor misunderstandings of the realms.

^25:2.12 These referee trios do not pass upon matters of eternal import; the soul, the eternal prospects of a creature of time, is never placed in jeopardy by their acts. Conciliators do not deal with questions extending beyond the temporal existence and the cosmic welfare of the creatures of time. But when a commission has once accepted jurisdiction of a problem, its rulings are final and always unanimous; there is no appeal from the decision of the judge-arbiter.

3. THE FAR-REACHING SERVICE OF CONCILIATORS

^25:3.1 Conciliators maintain group headquarters on the capital of their superuniverse, where their primary reserve corps is held. Their secondary reserves are stationed on the capitals of the local universes. The younger and less experienced commissioners begin their service on the lower worlds, worlds like Urantia, and are advanced to the adjudication of greater problems after they have acquired riper experience.

^25:3.2 The order of conciliators is wholly dependable; not one has ever gone astray. Though not infallible in wisdom and judgment, they are of unquestioned reliability and unerring in faithfulness. They take origin on the headquarters of a superuniverse and eventually return thereto, advancing through the following levels of universe service:

^25:3.3 1. Conciliators to the Worlds. Whenever the supervising personalities of the individual worlds become greatly perplexed or actually deadlocked concerning the proper procedure under existing circumstances, and if the matter is not of sufficient importance to be brought before the regularly constituted tribunals of the realm, then, upon the receipt of a petition of two personalities, one from each contention, a conciliating commission will begin to function forthwith.

^25:3.4 When these administrative and jurisdictional difficulties have been placed in the hands of the conciliators for study and adjudication, they are supreme in authority. But they will not formulate a decision until all the evidence has been heard, and there is absolutely no limit to their authority to call witnesses from anywhere and everywhere. And while their decisions may not be appealed, sometimes matters so develop that the commission closes its records at a given point, concludes its opinions, and transfers the whole question to the higher tribunals of the realm.

^25:3.5 The commissioners’ decisions are placed on the planetary records and, if necessary, are put into effect by the divine executioner. His power is very great, and the range of his activities on an inhabited world is very wide. Divine executioners are masterful manipulators of that which is in the interests of that which ought to be. Their work is sometimes carried out for the apparent welfare of the realm, and sometimes their acts on the worlds of time and space are difficult of explanation. Though executing decrees in defiance of neither natural law nor the ordained usages of the realm, they do ofttimes effect their strange doings and enforce the mandates of the conciliators in accordance with the higher laws of the system administration.

^25:3.6 2. Conciliators to the System Headquarters. From service on the evolutionary worlds these commissions of four are advanced to duty on a system headquarters. Here they have much work to do, and they prove to be the understanding friends of men, angels, and other spirit beings. The referee trios are not so much concerned with personal differences as with group contentions and with misunderstandings arising between different orders of creatures; and on a system headquarters there live both spiritual and material beings, as well as the combined types, such as the Material Sons.

^25:3.7 The moment the Creators bring into existence evolving individuals with the power of choice, that moment a departure is made from the smooth working of divine perfection; misunderstandings are certain to arise, and provision for the fair adjustment of these honest differences of viewpoint must be made. We should all remember that the all-wise and all-powerful Creators could have made the local universes just as perfect as Havona. No conciliating commissions need function in the central universe. But the Creators did not choose in their all-wisdom to do this. And while they have produced universes which abound in differences and teem with difficulties, they have likewise provided the mechanisms and the means for composing all these differences and for harmonizing all this seeming confusion.

^25:3.8 3. The Constellation Conciliators. From service in the systems the conciliators are promoted to the adjudication of the problems of a constellation, taking up the minor difficulties arising between its 100 systems of inhabited worlds. Not many problems developing on the constellation headquarters fall under their jurisdiction, but they are kept busy going from system to system gathering evidence and preparing preliminary statements. If the contention is honest, if the difficulties arise out of sincere differences of opinion and honest diversity of viewpoints, no matter how few persons may be involved, no matter how apparently trivial the misunderstanding, a conciliating commission can always be had to pass upon the merits of the controversy.

^25:3.9 4. Conciliators to the Local Universes. In this larger work of a universe the commissioners are of great assistance to both the Melchizedeks and the Magisterial Sons and to the constellation rulers and the hosts of personalities concerned with the co-ordination and administration of the 100 constellations. The different orders of seraphim and other residents of the headquarters spheres of a local universe also avail themselves of the help and decisions of the referee trios.

^25:3.10 It is almost impossible to explain the nature of those differences which may arise in the detailed affairs of a system, a constellation, or a universe. Difficulties do develop, but they are very unlike the petty trials and travails of material existence as it is lived on the evolutionary worlds.