CommuNIqué

Issue 55 - 14 Sultán 157 BE / 1 February 2001 CE


FROM THE NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY


National Assembly Announces Representatives to Attend Official Opening of the Terraces

7 January 2001

Dearly loved friends,

The official opening of the Terraces on Mount Carmel will take place in May this year. The Universal House of Justice has invited believers from every country to participate and we are pleased to announce that the Baha'is listed below have been invited from the United Kingdom, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man and Gibraltar.

ENGLAND: Margaret Appa, Dion Azordegan, Thelma Batchelor, Darren Howell, Nalina Jiwnani, Shamsi Navidi, Teresa Parsons, Danielle Pee, Arthur Weinberg

NORTHERN IRELAND: George Fleming, Marion Khosravi

SCOTLAND: Hari Docherty, Maggie Manvell, Alan McKay, Moira Shanko, Caroline Varjavandi

WALES: Christine Abbas, Branwen Owen,

CHANNEL ISLANDS: Mary Connell, Marlene Morris, Ingrid Ritchie, Pauline Senior, Adele Stevens-Cox

ISLE OF MAN: Tony Alexander, John Booth, Ruby Booth, John Maher

GIBRALTER: Rozita Khalilian, Suresh Malkani, Trevor Richardson

With loving greetings,
Dr Wendi Momen,
Assistant Secretary
National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the UK


NATIONAL WEBSITE

The National Spiritual Assembly's Website has been completely made over and updated. It provides information about the Faith in general and in the United Kingdom, with links to an extensive network of UK Baha'i Websites. It is open for visitors at the same URL www.bahai.org.uk The Assembly is deeply grateful to its Webmaster, Mr Sina Rezvani, for his work on this project.

The communities and other bodies which appear in the NSA site are those which have joined the Baha'i domain. Other communities which have their own Website, but have not yet done this, are encouraged to do so by contacting the Baha'i Information Office bio@bahai.org.uk


Disability and Discrimination

Dearly loved friends,

In the United Kingdom it is illegal to discriminate against disabled people on grounds of their disability. The legal situation is being strengthened further in that by October 2004 those offering a service (businesses, churches, places of entertainment etc.) will have had to have made physical alterations to their premises for the benefit of disabled people. This has major implications for the Bahá'í community - it will apply to our Bahá'í centres and other properties, whether national or local, and bears upon our activities held in other premises.

The National Spiritual Assembly is studying the whole picture and what processes will have to be undertaken to make sure that the Baha'I community throughout the United Kingdom complies with the law. The changes should not be seen as a burden but rather as an opportunity for the Baha'is to show not just that they obey the law but that they actively want to overcome discrimination and to reach out to all people in our society.

There is a common view that "disabled people" means those who are disability such as blindness. In fact, these are a minority among the disabled population. Disability takes many forms, being, essentially, something which has a substantial and lasting effect on a person's ability to carry out his or her activities of daily living. The Disability Discrimination Act covers all such individuals, who actually make up a significant proportion of the general population. We are sure that no Baha'i Assembly or committee willingly discriminates, but it is not always obvious to the able-bodied what the problems are and how they may be overcome.

To help it in its discussions and planning, and in its formulation of policies and plans for the whole community, the National Spiritual Assembly would like to hear from Baha'is with a disability about how that disability affects their functioning within the Baha'i community and what steps they would like to see taken to overcome its effects. Please send your ideas and views to: nsa@bahai.org.uk or to The Assistant Secretary, 27 Rutland Gate, London SW7 1PD. With loving greetings, Dr Wendi Momen, Assistant Sec. National Spiritual Assembly.


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