CommuNIqué - Newsletter of the Bahá'í Community in Northern Ireland
Issue 103 - 4 Ayyám-iHá 161 BE - 1 March 2005 CE

 

FROM THE BAHÁ’Í COUNCIL

 

Dear Friends,

JUNIOR YOUTH – AN INCREASINGLY POWERFUL FORCE IN THE WORLD

The period between 12 years of age and the end of 14 years is that wonderfully fast-changing world where a child transforms into a youth and then an adult. As the community is aware, much attention has been focused on children’s classes and that will be on going. The community is also aware of the sterling work and service which our youth are doing. The transitional age of Junior Youth (12-14 inclusive) is, however, a period which has not always had the attention it deserves. Things are about to change.

Our Training Institute has recently begun to implement a Junior Youth Initiative which will come on stream shortly. This will involve three books developed specially for 12, 13 and 14 year olds around the world. These are not part of the Ruhi sequence but will prepare young people to move seamlessly towards the Ruhi sequence when older. They were written and developed with the wider community in mind and are called:

“Breezes of Confirmation” for the 11-12 yr olds,
“Walking the Straight Path” for the 13 yr olds,
“Drawing on the Power of the Word” for 14 yr olds.

The tutors of these books are termed Animators. They are given special training in the delivery of these three books in an interactive and dynamic way. It is hoped that many of our youth may wish to train as Animators so they can work with the younger members of the wider community throughout Northern Ireland. The word animate is defined as: breathe life into, quicken, vivify, enliven. Fill with boldness, courage, or spirit; excite (a person) to action; inspire, actuate.

The whole powerful thrust for this new initiative to be focused within and, even more importantly, outside our community, has come from the International Teaching Centre in a letter released on 23 November 2004:

“We recommend that the initial focus of implementing the current junior youth sequence be with minority populations. This approach will have several advantages.

First, it will endow the efforts from the outset with an outward-looking orientation and ensure that the programme will not become confined to the relatively small number of junior youth in the current Bahá'í community.

Second, by enabling the junior youth from these populations to enhance their moral and language capabilities the programme could make a decisive impact on their spiritual development as well as their academic and material advancement.

Finally, given that the focus of the intensive programmes of growth in the advanced clusters will increasingly be directed towards reaching receptive populations, this implementation strategy for the junior youth would reinforce intensified teaching efforts by attracting to the Cause many of the participants of the junior youth groups as well as their parents and siblings.”

Added to these plans the Council is in the process of re-appointing the Junior Youth Task Force and this will be operative soon. This has proved well supported in the past and is asked to organise activity-based events during the year.

We encourage all parents to positively support these new initiatives which, as we see from the above quotation, will be of great assistance to a special group within our society, a group which, increasingly, has become ‘lost’ to spiritual influences and is rapidly turning to powerfully destructive forces and substances.

Our Bahá'í community is going to develop, through this process, a powerful force that will reverse the trend and assure a positive future for our children, junior youth and youth in Northern Ireland. It is essential we now develop that ‘outward-looking orientation’ called for by the House of Justice.

Our thoughts and prayers are with you all.
Bahá'í Council for Northern Ireland.

 

NEW COUNCIL MEMBER

The Bahá'í Council for Northern Ireland is sad to announce the resignation of Colin Rodgers who chose to resign for personal reasons. A bye-election was held and the Council is happy to welcome its new member Patrick O'Mara.

 

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