The 'Equal Wings' Spring Residential Weekend at Dromatine Retreat and Conference centre, Newry on 25th - 27th April, was a great success. Hosted jointly by the two Associations of Bahá'í Women in Ireland [ABW-NI and ABW of Ireland], it was attended by 40 people, Bahá'ís and their friends, men and women from Cork to Belfast. Some travelled the whole day to attend. Friday started low -key with story telling. The accommodation was of the highest standard with large, clean en-suite rooms and simple food well presented.Saturday saw workshop sessions on the difference between 'sex and gender' and 'complementarity not uniformity'.In an excellent session, the attributes of men and women were compared to the attributes of a manifestation of God - which produced some interesting observations. afternoon were dedicated to walks amongst the vast numbers of flowering cherry trees and woodland, and creative projects. The evening held special delights which were as unexpected as profoundly moving .performances - Tahirih's story dramatically presented by Sarah Munro and the Whitesides, Billington aclass lyre player, who enchanted everyone with the music of O'Carolan, and modern lyre pieces and a dramatic monologue written and performed by Jennifer Howlett about a woman journalist [taught the Faith by Martha Root,] coming to understand Tahirih's life. Flora provided a bedtime meditation to end a perfect day.
On Sunday, Ken and Sabina Nagle took two workshops 'Take my Stance' and 'Sweeten other souls' were as entertaining as they were informative. In the final plenary session, we took it in turns to say what had impressed us in the course of the weekend - and impressed we had been. This, it has to be said, was a major success for the ABW and for the communities who had supported it.will be long remembered by those who attended.
Mahin and Les Gornall
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