There are currently 5 study circles going on, four of them are book 2 and one of them is book 6. There is also one person doing book 7. This leaves us with 20 people currently involved in doing a Ruhi book. They all share the enjoyment of laughing, learning together and getting to know each other in different ways, or so they say!
We have the George Townsend School (to point out the obvious) and also a children's class in Belfast initiated by its Spiritual Assembly. That's it, yes really that's it. I know what your thinking, "how come we don't have more?"
The main devotionals are community held ones, such as those in Belfast, Lisburn, and Carrickfergus. There are a small number of individual devotionals with room for more. In fact there was quite an interesting one on the subject of healing held in Lisburn by an individual, which was appreciated by those who attended. Just goes to show that devotionals can be subject specific, and cater for a certain group.
There are regular firesides in Belfast organised by individuals, as well as deepenings in Belfast organised by the Spiritual Assembly. An individual along with helpers also has an arts and activities event for the kids in her area once a month, the kids like it so much that they want it every week.
Report by Area Coordinator: Mahan Hashemi-zadeh
This Cluster held its first meeting since being reshuffled in May last on September 4th! It was well attended by a majority of the friends in the cluster, and there was excellent support from those Institutions that strive to support the friends in this area: a member of the Bahá'í Council for Northern Ireland, two assistants to the Auxiliary Board, and the Training Institute's Area Co-ordinator were present. Consultation entirely focussed on how best to foster the three core-activities in the cluster. One of the fruits of the day was the initiation of a Book 7 which is now well under way.
Cluster 3 has had a number of study circles start and finish in the recent months. A Book 1 and a Book 2 were completed and a Book 3 has recently commenced. In addition some of the youth participated in the intensive youth campaign over the summer. Activities and service projects have come from these study circles, including public and private devotional meetings. The friends from Book 1 organised a daily devotional running for 3 days at the Fiddler's Green Festival in Rostrevor. The Cluster meeting held on 8th October reflected the growing excitement of the friends as they felt the spirit released from their dedication to the process. The consultation explored ways to initiate small locally based children's classes and encouraged individuals to host devotional meetings. This Cluster has the potential to vie with Charles Dunning Cluster in terms of the percentage of believers in the Cluster to have completed the full sequence of courses, as there is a significant number of the friends fully engaged in the Institute process.
Report by Area Coordinator: Paddy O'Mara
A very happy and focused reflection meeting was held in this Cluster soon after the new Cluster arrangements came into play. This Cluster has two individuals who have completed the sequence of Ruhi Books. At present there is a Book 2 Study Circle, which is held in Belcoo thus taking the work into the far West of Northern Ireland. In Omagh there are regular Children's Classes and Devotional Meetings.
Hainsworth Cluster has the great bounty of having a Local Spiritual Assembly, which is in fact responsible for all the believers in the Cluster. Two Book 1 Study circles both including non Bahá'ís have been completed recently. A Book 2 Study Circle commenced this Autumn and when this finishes there are plans for a Book 3. A new Book 1 Study Circle will also start soon, once again with non Bahá'í participants.
Londonderry has had a successful Devotional Meeting for some time now, which is held regularly on Sunday mornings in their lovely Centre. This has been attended by quite a few non Bahá'ís. A very successful Children's Class for non Bahá'í children has just finished as the teacher has moved away from the area. A regular Children's Class continues in the Bahá'í Centre. A reflection Meeting is planned for 14 January 2005.
Report by Area Coordinator: Lesley Taherzadeh
We had a focused and productive reflection meeting held in Clotworthy House near Antrim on the 24 September. Twenty-five people attended this and we had the bounty of having two Auxiliary Board Members present. The theme of this gathering was sacrifice, and it began with an Audio-Visual presentation and moving artistic performances from the Spearhead youth campaign about the Seven Martyrs of Tehran. At this meeting, we worked on deciding a new name for our cluster, which was good fun. In the end the gathering decided that "Seven Valleys" was a good name, as the cluster has seven regions in it. Also, at this meeting emphasis was put on not only doing the sequence of books, but also carrying out the practices from them, to put the learning into action.
· There was an Institutional meeting held on 10 October in the Farset Centre. We had the privilege of having Counsellor Shirin Fozdar, from the Continental Board of Counsellors, and two members of the National Spiritual Assembly present. The Counsellorgave an informative, concise and useful talk on mobilisation of human resources within the community. Talks were also given by the Regional coordinator, Arjang Agahi and the Area coordinator of Charles Dunning, Mahan Hashemi-Zadeh on what has been going on in our priority cluster.
Since the start of October two new Book 1s have started, one in the Antrim area and one by some of the friends in Coleraine, both of these bringing several new non-Bahá'ís into the sequence of courses.
Report by Area Coordinator: Navid Agahi
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