Dear Friends,
Councils and Training Institutes, together with the National Spiritual Assembly, Auxiliary Board Members and representatives from priority clusters met over the weekend of 31 January. This first national Institutional meeting was called for by the National Spiritual Assembly who led the discussions. The more than ninety-five guests stayed together in a hotel adjacent to the famous Coventry Cathedral. So vitally important and historic was this meeting that two members of the International Teaching Centre were sent to attend, Penny Walker and Shariar Razavi, while European Counsellors also attended including Shirin Fozdar-Foroudi and Sohrab Youssefian.
In one sense there was nothing new revealed during discussions but the focus and understanding of what the House of Justice has already exhorted us to do generated a spirit the like of which has rarely been felt at such a prestigious meeting. We read the Writings many times, or study vital documents from the House of Justice and the International Teaching Centre again and again. (e.g. the 9 January 2001 letter or ‘Building Momentum’) Some insight and understanding comes but then, suddenly, at the right time and in the right place, a new grasp of meaning appears. For all at Coventry that moment came.
With both plenary sessions and individual council consultations, plans, priorities and focus were generated with insightful guidance from National Assembly members or Counsellors who sat in. In summary we understood that:
The Bahá’í world community could never have gone on the way it was, with only a few having the vision of the Faith and many having less of an understanding. We would never have been ready for the entry of large numbers into the Faith.
With their infallible guidance the House created ‘a powerful instrument for developing the human resources needed to sustain large-scale expansion and consolidation’ (9 Jan letter 2001– the Universal House of Justice) That was the more than three hundred Training Institutes now functioning powerfully throughout the globe.
Experience within priority clusters around the world has shown, that if we encourage a minimum of thirty believers to go through the sequence of Courses available from the Training Board, and they activate their service projects, we will see a growth change in our own priority cluster, Charles Dunning, which has not been seen in more than 50 years since the formation of the Spiritual Assembly of Belfast itself.
On returning from Coventry, the Bahá’í Council swiftly brought together the friends and institutions of the Charles Dunning Cluster in order to convey the spirit experienced by all. This meeting was held at Belfast Castle on Sunday 8 February. There was a high level of excitement and commitment evinced by the friends and it is confidently hoped that the 30 souls required will arise for this priority project.
“Vast numbers among the peoples of the world are ready, indeed yearn, for the bounties that Bahá’u’lláh alone can bestow upon them once they have committed themselves to building the new society He has envisioned” (9 Jan 2001 – the Universal House of Justice). The people of Northern Ireland are now ready to come into the Faith. Let us welcome them!
With warmest Bahá'í greetings, Bahá'í Council for Northern Ireland.
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