The first in a planned series of External Affairs discussion and training sessions was held on 14 October at the Harris home in Tandragee. It was held under the auspices on the Bahá'í Council and brought together a group of Friends who had some experience in this area or else had connections which would enable them to network more for the Faith.
A PowerPoint on presentation on Bahá'í External Affairs (prepared by the National Spiritual Assembly’s Office of External Affairs) was shown and the Council representatives Edwin Graham and Iain Palin gave short presentations and led discussions.
It was made clear that External Affairs are an essential pert of our Bahá'í community’s work, running in parallel with the Core Activities and other things and not in competition with them. External Affairs is not teaching, it deals with building the influence of the Bahá'í community so that it can in its turn influence the processes towards world peace, and with defending the Faith against outside attacks. It is not necessarily for everyone, and is an area where institutional guidance is very important: the Bahá'í Council operates a remit given by the NSA and within specific guidelines, and those engaged in External Affairs in NI are similarly to be guided by the Bahá'í Council. This is particularly true where the defence of the Faith is concerned.
It was also explained that Public Information (newspaper publicity etc.) is a sub-set of External Affairs and that the two should complement each other without confusion between them.
ISP
On Thursday 13 September the North West Regional College in Derry played host to members of over a dozen minority religions and cultures. This was the first of what is hoped will be many more such “multi-cultural days” at the college. Mrs Anna Lo, MLA was in attendance alongside hundreds of young students interested in learning more about the 'unusual' groups of the city, And of course the Bahá'í community was there. The event was simple but no less useful as student after student asked questions about the faith, its position on world events and even our political attitudes. Mrs Lo also highlighted her awareness of the Bahá'í community and our plight in Iran and that she was pleased to see the Faith represented at public events such as this. The Faith was on display to the wider community and many people learned something new that day.
CTP
The latest “Deepening in Derry” took place on Friday 21 September when Michael Barr gave a presentation on “Conflict Resolution – A Tool to Build Unity”. Michael, who is a professional mediator, explained how people have to proceed form a basis of trust and understanding if they are to resolve their differences, and how it is possible to go wrong by assuming you know what the other person means. Establishing a basis of communication and of understanding of the facts as people see them is a vital first step. Honesty is essential if trust is to be built and the issues addressed and resolved. A number of scenarios were discussed, as well as how we can apply this understanding to teaching the Faith and meeting people’s spiritual needs.
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