CommuNIqué - Newsletter of the Bahá'í Community in Northern Ireland
Issue 143 - 4 Jamál 166 BE - 1 May 2009 CE

 

BAHÁ’í COUNCIL FOR NORTHERN IRELAND

 

ANSWERING A BASIC QUESTION:
WHAT IS A REGIONAL BAHÁ’Í COUNCIL AND WHAT DOES IT DO?

The Bahá'í Council works very closely with the Counsellors and Training Institute in a region to:

  • Ensure that the clusters set to become ‘A’ within this Plan are moving steadily from one stage of growth to the next and are on target
  • Oversee the processes of expansion and consolidation in the region
  • Appoint and oversee the work of Area Teaching Committees in clusters where these have been appointed
  • Appoint and oversee the work of the Cluster Growth Facilitators in clusters where these have been appointed
  • Ensure flows of resources are moving well – pioneers, travel-teachers, money, guidance, literature, information (statistics)
  • Collect the statistics for the region and pass to higher institutions (Counsellors and National Spiritual Assembly)
  • Nurture Local Spiritual Assemblies in their teaching and other work
  • Work shoulder to shoulder with the Friends in the clusters to both learn from them and to provide encouragement.
  • And carry out a range of other tasks on behalf of the National Spiritual Assembly.

And with the news that “Seven Valleys” has now become a “B” cluster with its own Area Teaching Committee appointed, another question can be answered:

WHAT IS AN AREA TEACHING COMMITTEE AND WHAT DOES IT DO?

Every ‘A’ cluster and some other designated clusters has an ATC, usually consisting of 3-5 members. The ATC works very closely with the Auxiliary Board Members and Training Institute Co-ordinators in the cluster. The duties of the ATC are:

  • To promote the spread of short-term teaching projects
  • To promote the gradual increase in devotional meetings
  • To arrange for systematic visits for consolidation to the homes of newly enrolled believers
  • To arrange for systematic visits to the homes of those less active in the community
  • To hold periodic reflection meetings
  • To collect necessary statistics
  • To encourage the development of the Nineteen Day Feast (with a focus on the teaching work)
  • To strengthen Local Assemblies in the locality in their teaching work.

EFFECTIVE TEACHING

On 3 December 2008 CE the Universal House of Justice shared with the Bahá'ís a letter it had sent to a National Spiritual Assembly who had asked about effective direct teaching methods. As it says “ … the practice of discussing the principles and precepts of the Faith in a general way, which resulted in a great many admirers of the Cause but few enrolments, is being complemented by an increasingly direct approach to sharing Bahá’u’lláh’s message.”

This letter was made available to the UK Bahá'ís in hard copy and no doubt many of you have read it, and found it helpful in its practical advice and its clarification of issues that may have come up in relation to your teaching. The Bahá'í Council for Northern Ireland recently studied this letter in session with Counsellor Shirin Fozdar-Foroudi and Auxiliary Board Member Ann O’Sullivan, and was once again struck by the way it sets out in a practical manner what methods have been shown by experience to work and how individuals pursue these or support them. For that reason it has requested Assemblies and groups to study this letter together but it also commends it to you for individual study. If you no longer have your copy to hand, or simply would like an electronic copy, please contact the Council for one.


FORMATION OF LOCAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLIES

The following local Spiritual Assemblies were formed in Northern Ireland at Ridván 2009: Belfast, Castlereagh, Coleraine, Londonderry, Newtownabbey, Newtownards and North Down


UK NEWS SITE

The National Spiritual Assembly has launched a new newsblog “providing an authoritative and up-to-date source of news and articles about theBahá'í community in the UK and across the world. The 'blog' is designed to appeal to all readers who are interested in knowing more about the Bahá'í community and what it is doing in the world.” It can be accessed at http://bahainews-uk.info and has a lot of interesting news about what is going on. This is one to keep an eye on, and you can let your friends, contacts, interested journalists, anyone who wants to see what the Bahá'ís are doing, know about it.


RESOURCE BOOKLETS AVAILABLE

The Bahá'í Council would like to remind all the Friends in Northern Irelandthat the small ‘activities booklet’ is still available on request (in small or larger quantities). Giving an overview of the core activities for the non-Bahá'í reader, it is professionally-designed, colourful, ideal for handing to friends and enquirers: if you want some copies to give away please get in touch with the Secretary of the Bahá'í Council.

These booklets are resources to be out there working for the Faith, telling people about our various activities and inviting them to join. Why not get some and use them?


AND TALKING OF RESOURCES...

The Bahá'í Council has access to templates that you can use to produce your own leaflets to invite people to your various activities. These are in MS Word which means they can be opened and edited in most word processors, letting you amend them as you like and put in your own contact details and local information. They are A4 sheets that trifold.

Items available are:
CA-1 and CA-2—about the various core activities
SC-2—about study circles
CC-2—about children’s classes
DM-2—about devotional meetings
TZ-1—about Tranquillity Zones. (The National Spiritual Assembly has indicated that these are a specialised form of devotional meetings with a lot to offer in certain circumstances.)

To obtain electronic copies please e-mail the Bahá'í Council specifying which items you want.

If you are wondering, SC-1, DM-1, and CC-1 are also available, they require Microsoft Publisher to open and edit them. If you have Publisher and want them, please say.

For more about Tranquillity Zones go to www.tranquillity-zone.org.uk

And while thinking about leaflets and how we can produce our own literature, how often have we asked “Where can I get a good picture of the Shrine of the Báb, or a temple, or a Bahá'í youth project, or just a nice photo of Bahá'ís doing things?”. The answer is the Bahá'í Media website at http://media.bahai.org which is a large archive of pictures related to the Bahá'í Faith. (Hint: If you download the picture on your screen you will get a small to medium size file, suitable for electronic media or printing as a smaller picture. If you want a large file so that you have a high-resolution picture for a large or professional print you will have to Subscribe then use the Download File option to get the zipped file of the large version).


PHOTOGRAPHS OF CHILDREN AND YOUNG PEOPLE

CommuNIqueand other Bahá’í publications welcomes photographs of your activities. However where children and young people (up to age 18) are featured the Child Protection Procedure of the National Spiritual Assembly requires that (unless it is a group picture—five or more) permission of the parent or guardian be given. If this doesn’t come with the photo then it cannot be used. Please bear this in mind when sending pictures. Of course if the sender is the parent or guardian of the young person featured, permission is assumed.


GOING TO THE HOLY LAND?

Are you due to go on Pilgrimage, or making a three-day visit to the World Centre? Not only will this bring you great bounties, it can be an opportunity to share more about the Faith with the people of your area. Such a visit is newsworthy and your local paper will probably print a report about your experience, especially if it is seen as a “pilgrimage with a difference”.

A special press lead is available to help you with this. You can obtain it from the Bahá'í Council’s Press and Public Information Officer.

 

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