CommuNIqué - Newsletter of the Bahá'í Community in Northern Ireland
Issue 115 - 12 Bahá 163 BE - 1 April 2006 CE

 

FROM THE BAHÁ'Í COUNCIL

 

Dear Friends,

THE FOURTH CORE ACTIVITY - JUNIOR YOUTH GROUPS GUIDED BY TRAINED AnimatorS

Dear Friends,

The fate of millions of children who become junior youth and then youth hangs in the balance. In its Ridvan letter of 2000 the Universal House of Justice reminded us of the horrific fate of our children if unchecked.

Our children need to be nurtured spiritually and to be integrated into the life of the Cause. They should not be left to drift in a world so laden with moral dangers. In the current state of society, children face a cruel fate. Millions and millions in country after country are dislocated socially. Children find themselves alienated by parents and other adults whether they live in conditions of wealth or poverty. This alienation has its roots in a selfishness that is born of materialism that is at the core of the godlessness seizing the hearts of people everywhere.”

The strengthening of the spiritual education of the junior youth of the world by adding a Book in the main series for the teaching of animation skills and the encouragement for those moving into the child education field, to study the current Ruhi Book 5 as a branch course, will save untold numbers from the fate described above. Study of the new Book on animation training will raise up teams of Animators for the spiritual education of junior youth. So vital is this that the Universal House of Justice was moved to “…consider junior youth groups formed through programmes implemented by their training institutes a fourth core activity in its own right and to promote its wide-scale implementation.” (Letter of the 27 December 2005 to the Counsellors’ Conference)

These trained Animators young, or not so young, will thus be trained to deliver the three courses developed for 12 - year old junior youth. The Universal House of Justice describes the result of this process:

What has become especially apparent during the current Five Year Plan is the efficacy of educational programmes aimed at the spiritual empowerment of junior youth. When accompanied for three years through a programme that enhances their spiritual perception, and encouragement to enter the main sequence of institute courses at the age of fifteen, they represent a vast reservoir of energy and talent that can be devoted to the advancement of spiritual and material civilization.” (ibid)

Any of us who have any doubts that this is the path to go can look at the alternative for the children of the world:

The social dislocation of children in our time is a sure mark of a society in decline; this condition is not, however, confined to any race, class, nation, or economic condition—it cuts across them all. It grieves our hearts to realize that in so many parts of the world children are employed as soldiers, exploited as labourers, sold into virtual slavery, forced into prostitution, made the objects of pornography, abandoned by parents centred on their own desires, and subjected to other forms of victimization too numerous to mention. Many such horrors are inflicted by the parents themselves on their own children. The spiritual and psychological damage defies estimation. Our worldwide community cannot escape the consequences of these conditions. his realization should spur us all to urgent and sustained effort in the interests of children and the future.” (The Universal House of Justice, Ridvan 2000)

With loving greetings,
Bahá'í Council for Northern Ireland.

 

WE WELCOME these new Believers who have declared their faith in Bahá'u'lláh: Ms Carmen Zambrana Candel, Cullybackey, Ms Beatrice Gomez-Zambrana, Belfast, Ms Nuala O'Toole, Enniskillen.

 

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