The Registrar General has approved the appointment of Eddie Whiteside as a Bahá'í Marriage Officer, with the authority to solemnize marriages in Northern Ireland. His e-mal is ejwhiteside@hotmail.com.
Hazel Holmlund and Pat Irvine continue to serve as Marriage Officers.
Susie Agahi, Soha Graham and Tony Sherwani attended the meeting with the Lord Mayor of Belfast on Tuesday 10 October in City Hall. The Lord Mayor was very friendly and his first comment upon being introduced to us was that he had recently attended thefFuneral service of Dr Beman Khosravi. He made several positive comments and had obviously been very moved by the funeral service and said how uplifting it was compared to other funerals he had attended. This led to him asking several questions regarding, the size of our community, where we meet, if we had a Church, activities we were involved in, which in turn led to various other topics. On leaving the Lord Mayor repeated that if he could assist our community in any way to contact him.
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Janak and Jimmy McGilligan gave a talk and presentation in the Bahá'í Centre in Derry on Thursday 12 October. They spoke about the Barli Development Institute in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India, the Bahá'í-inspired initiative with which they have been involved for many years and which they have seen grow in size and range of services in that time.
The Institute takes young tribal and rural women from the surrounding areas for residential courses in which they learn literacy, health, and other skills, skills that will enhance their lives and those of their families. Serving one of the poorest parts of India, it has been able to transform the lives of thousands, and is still expanding, with new developments both at the Institute itself and at its outreach centres.
Janak and Jimmy McGilligan in the Bahá’í Centre in Londonderry
On 29 September the Londonderry Centre was the setting for an unusual devotional meeting. The Spiritual Assembly had arranged a special gathering for prayers as an act of intercession for the Bahá'ís of Iran in view of the continued difficulties they are facing and recent reports that have caused increased concern. Included in the devotional was the moving audio-visual programme prepared by Coleraine and made available to all communities by the Bahá'í Council, as well as a special reading of the Fire Tablet.
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