The first North-South Persian Bahá'í Conference successfully took place in Lurgan, County Armagh, over the weekend 26-27 March. Twenty two participants from both sides of the border gathered to study the Messages of the beloved Guardian and of the Universal House of Justice; 26 November 2003, and 12 January 2004, to the Persian believers, together with The Secret of Divine Civilisation.
Dr. Sepideh Taheri masterfully gave us a taste of the vast subject, and made us eager to study this literature carefully.
The next Conference will be during the weekend of 27 - 28 August 2005 in Dublin on the subject of Huqúqu'lláh. People are encouraged to submit papers on 'Detachment and Sacrifice' or on related subjects. On behalf of the conference, we were pleased to donate almost 600 Euros to the International Fund. More information will be available on the next conference in the near future.
MG
The Spires Integrated School in Magherafelt has been studying the Baha’i Naw-Rúz Holy Day celebrations as part of the school curriculum. It was appropriate then that on the morning of Naw-Rúz, the Baha’i Community was invited to deliver the School Morning Assembly. Declan and Dana Divine and their family from Letterkenny kindly offered to lead the prayers and singing and Declan was invited by the Vice Principal Mrs. Joan Bell to say something about the Baha’i Faith. After singing a couple of songs, one appropriately about the first day of spring, Declan introduced his family and their two sons Arragh who said a Bahá'í prayer in Irish and Ashin who said the same prayer in English. The full school assembly hall then joined in with ‘We are Drops’ and ‘God is One, Man is One’. Feargal Devlin (one of the two Baha’i children at the school) sang a prayer at the end. The school staff was very complementary and the Vice Principal requested that we provide more Baha’i books suitable for children for their new library.
LG
Mahin Gornall (left) presents a book to Mrs. Joan Bell the Vice-Principal of Spires Integrated School in Magherafelt
On 14 March at the integrated secondary school North Coast College in Coleraine a presentation on the Bahá'í Faith was made to the entire school assembly. The school has just one Bahá'í pupil but the advantage of also having a Bahá'í member of the staff. The pupils listened attentively during the presentation and several members of staff spoke later of their appreciation of it. This is not the first time a Bahá'í Assembly has been requested and it is to be hoped that this can become a more regular event. It would appear with the approach of Naw-Rúz many schools are anxious to include the community in events. As others have also participated in such events it would be good to know what really works well in such situations.
CM
Castlereagh community has responded to the ‘Unlocking the Hearts’ campaign by unleashing an unprecedented number of coffee mornings in its area. Dorothy Wilson won hands down by having seven friends of the Faith at her coffee morning, this was followed by two more with three and five contacts respectively. Yet another such gathering is planned in the near future. The purpose of these social events is to widen the number of events we can bring potential contacts to, with the aim of getting to the stage where we can invite some to take part in a Book One study circle. However we also have followed this up by a fireside with two contacts attending and devotionals on a regular basis. The campaign has energised and focused our activities and apart to the threat to everyone’s waist line and cholesterol levels seems to have developed a line of action that requires little or no encouragement for it to continue.
MK
One evening was just not enough to share with us the life and work for the Faith done by Hand of the Cause Ugo Giachery, so Jim Holmlund was very happy to return in March to give the Londonderry friends the second part of his talk as part of our deepening programme. On this occasion he shared with us the continuing development and progress of the Faith through the work of the Hands and growth of the Faith under the caring guidance of the International Bahá'í Council. It was very obvious that this remarkable man had made a lasting impression on Jim; giving him inspiration since the very early days, and clearly continuing to do so.
AM
This is part of an item on Faith websites that appeared in the Sunday Times on Easter Sunday, 27 March.
BAHA'I www.us.bahai.org
There is no mood of proselytising at the slick home page of the American Baha’i branch. A clearly presented question-and-answer section informs us that this monotheistic faith, with 5m adherents, sees the world as one country and mankind as its citizens. More than any of the other websites reviewed here, it appears designed for interested outsiders, with well-written material on wide-ranging topics such as family, marriage and social involvement. An interactive section contains several good-looking videos introducing the faith. My only gripe is that, other than the link to the reference library, this American site fails to celebrate being part of an inter-national network of Baha’i online resources. For Britain, visit www.bahai.org.uk to access one of the excellent sites posted by the Baha’i group in your neighbourhood.
“I'm working on a chronology of all old and new UK/Overseas pioneers over the years. I have fairly accurate information about who has gone where from 1988 onwards, which was when I began editing the newsletter ‘Pioneer Post U.K.’ However, it would be good to have more information about which Friends pioneered or went to live overseas and have been actively serving the Faith in the years before 1988.
Any assistance anyone can give me with this project would be much appreciated. “
Thelma Batchelor E-mail: thelma.batchelor@ntlworld.com
Thelma is a member of the Continental PioneerCommittee for Europe. (Editor)
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