The Spring Conference of the Association of Bahá'í Women (Northern Ireland) was held in the NICVA Conference Centre in Belfast on 6 May. Its theme was “The Advancement of Women” and it was attended by more that 50 people.
Dr. Joan Smyth CBE, gave a fantastic keynote speech ‘Reflections on Public Life’. Dr. Smyth was able to draw on a life rich in service being former Chair and Chief executive of the Equal Opportunities Commission, Chairman of the parent company of Translink, Director of Choice Housing Association, Chairman of the Chief Executives’ Forum, and President of the Red Cross. In addition Dr. Smyth is Chairman of the Progressive Building Society with UK assets of over a billion pounds but it was the fund of experience that produced a talk that was inspiring and at times seriously entertaining.
Lesley Taherzadeh-O’Mara gave one of her best ever talks on ‘The Advancement of Women’, and this was followed by Emily McDonald one of the Lights of Unity dance group who gave a personal and heartfelt talk on her “Gap Year: a year of service” - this touched everyone’s heart.
This was a day packed with activity including the Lights of Unity dance group performing with real professionalism and an audio-visual presentation by Colin Palin. Light entertainment was provided by John Twiname and Beatrice Gomez-Zambrana enchanted the audience by her playing Spanish Guitar, between the talks. The day was beautifully chaired by Dr Colette Ma’ani from Coleraine.
This was an inspiring day. Thanks are due to the participants, who came from all backgrounds from and parts of Northern Ireland, the speakers, and presenters, and to the NICVA staff who created an excellent atmosphere with food and refreshments that were a credit to their professionalism.
MG
From the left: Dr Joan Smyth (speaker), Mrs Lesley Taherzadeh-O’Mara (speaker), Mrs Mahin Gornall (ABW), Dr Collette Ma’ani (chair)at the Association of Bahá'í Women (NI) conference
The North-South Persian Conference took place in the Bahá'í Centre in Dublin over the weekend 31March - 2 April 2006. It was attended by twenty Bahá'ís, eight of them from Northern Ireland.
The Conference was opened with a reading of the encouraging letter received from the National Spiritual Assembly of the Republic of Ireland, and the Friends were very grateful for the guidance given in this letter. The themes discussed in the conference were mainly taken from the messages of the Universal House of Justice addressed to the PersianBahá'ís; the message of the Universal House of Justice, 26 November 2006 with connection to "The Secret of Divine Civilisation" and the recentMessage of 22 March 2006. Prayers were chanted for the believers in Iran and for Bahá'ís in Ireland facing severe illness.
Special thanks, here, must be given to Mr and Mrs Reyhani, for all the hard work before, during and after conference for their input for the smooth running of the conference and also to Frances Madden for her help, time, kindness and absolute dedication; without her input the conference wouldn't have been so successful, and also to theenlightening speakers, Dr. Sepideh Taheri, Mr. Reyhani and Mr. Kamal Ma'ani. Mr Eshragi and Mr Mithaghi from England, with their musical instruments and poetry brought music and culture to the conference.
The next conference is planned for Belfast in six months’ time.
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