Bahá 176 BE/March 2019

2019 is an auspicious year for the global Bahá’í community as it cele-brates the bicentenary of the birth of the Báb, the first of the twin founders of the Bahá’í Faith. The Báb declared He was the fulfillment of the promises of previous religions, a Manifestation of God in his own right whose mission was to prepare the way for ‘Him Whom God Shall Make Manifest’. Bahá’u’lláh asserts: “No understanding can grasp the nature of His Revelation, nor can any knowl-edge comprehend the full measure of His Faith.”

The story of the Báb is intimately woven with the astounding response to His message by His followers. In spite of the persecution and trials they faced, not to mention the im-prisonment of the Báb, these early disciples were able to galvanise the Bábí community and their deeds and heroic actions are still inspiring us to great deeds today.

The focus of the School is to inspire all participants to bring the example of these great deeds into their daily lives, with particular focus on the ed-ucational development of the young-est members of the Bahá’í communi-ty and their friends.

The Programme for the Summer School will be headlined by Layli Miller-Muro, who, inspired by Tahirih, has made her daily work an expression of the same ‘all-consum-ing, all-surpassing love that spurred the Báb’s disciples’.

Layli Miller-Muro is the Founder and Executive Director of the Tahirih Justice Center, which was established in 1997 following her involvement in a high-profile case that revolution-ised asylum law in the United States. Fauziya Kassindja, a 17-year-old girl who had fled Togo in fear of a forced polygamous marriage and female genital mutilation, was granted

“Our Bright, Bright Hope” …let the all-consuming, all-surpassing love that spurred the Báb’s disciples

inspire us to great deeds (Universal House of Justice)

Exciting things are afoot for the Northern Ireland Bahá’í Summer School, taking place 14th–18th August 2019 at Campbell College, Belfast – a new venue with ample facilities to accommodate a compre-hensive programme to inspire all. This is sure to be a great school.

18 January 2019 ‘Peace Letter’ from the Universal House of JusticeA personal reflectionThe day the Universal House of Justice signed “The Promise of World Peace” in March 1985, Mikhail Gorbachev was elected to the position of General Secretary in the Soviet Union and launched ‘social democracy’, overturning Communism.

The timing of this latest Peace Letter resonates for me. Interna-tional agencies have warned us of impending environmental crises. New economic models, driven by systems of communication that operate with marvellous swiftness and perfect regularity, are collapsing retail structures and emptying town centres with further threats to modes of employment and social justice that need to be addressed. Masses of children are marching in the streets at the failures of the older generation. This is a crucial time when the whole earth is crying out for global unity and informed leadership. The House of Justice surveys the rise of hope and the development of noble goals in the Twentieth Century, the underly-ing causes of the current malaise and the lack of an appropriate response from world leaders.

“Thus do the forces of disintegration regroup and gain ground. So be it.“…the reality that humanity is one people must be the starting point…“..The realization of such a vision will require, sooner or later, an his-toric feat of statesmanship from the leaders of the world.”

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NI Bahá’í Summer School 14th–18th August 2019 Campbell College, Belfast continued

The story of the Báb will permeate the NI Summer School in several ways and will be reflected in tailor- made, new and creative programmes for our children, junior youth and youth participants as well as being supported by a host of workshops and supplementary sessions. Alongside the plenary sessions by Layli, the

adult programme will feature courses by Dr. Brendan McNamara and Dr. Moojan Momen and an innovative evening programme by Dr. Wendi Momen MBE. Together we can fully explore through study and recreation how our community can be a beacon of bright hope for all mankind.

Service opportunities As we will be in a brand new venue and making some exciting changes to our pro-gramme we have new opportunities for service at this year’s School. Firstly, we are looking for volunteers to assist with the delivery of our spe-cially designed children’s and junior youth programmes and if you have any experience or interest in these ar-eas we would love to hear from you. Secondly, we will be recruiting a team of guides to help welcome our participants and help them orientate the new venue. Please get in touch with the Summer School secretary with your offers of service at judyseto@gmail.com

Registration is now open and we urge you to book early. Please note that due to our new venue we are encouraging our participants to attend for the whole school, however if this is not possible then you must register for the time you intend to be at the school even if this is just for a day or an evening. Please get in touch with the registrar Negin Elloitt at neginrsc@hotmail.co.uk or phone 07855415207 (after 6pm)

Book 10 study group in DundonaldFriends gathered this weekend to study book 10 part 2 on consultation. Laughter, good food and teaching experiences were shared. Heading up this group of scholars were Arjang and Edwina who were brave enough to be our tutors. A result of the Satur-day’s study was the poem below:

A Call to Love

When the Sun of Reality encompasses you Then will you become one single united force Illuminated, confirmed and assured As one drop in the mighty ocean of reality

A solid wall in the battle of His Cause Each one locked to the other Armed with weapons of purity and sacrifice Arise rank upon rank to be battalions of this Concourse

Friends travel to Haifa

asylum in 1996 by the U.S. Board of Immigration Appeals. Using her por-tion of the proceeds from a book she and Ms. Kassindja co-authored about the case, “Do They Hear You When You Cry?,” Layli established Tahirih. Since 2001, Layli has led Tahirih in its service to more than 22,000 women and children, and has been described by Newsweek as one of the most fear-less women in the world.

Layli Miller-Muro

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Five friends travelled to Haifa from the north and three from the south of Ireland for the Twin Holy day cele-brations. It was a wonderful five days, and being part of the Celebrations with many others from around the world was a real bounty. Following the celebration on the Saturday after-noon we were able to visit the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh and also the Mansion at Bahjí in the evening.

In this epic letter, we are lovingly reminded,

“The unification of humanity is unstoppable by any human force; the promises made by the prophets of old and by the Author of the Cause of God Himself testify to this truth.

“… in the years since, [The Prom-ise of World Peace] the followers of Bahá’u’lláh have been patiently refining that model and working with others around them…

“Wherefore, O ye Bahá’ís, strive ye with all your might to create, through the power of the Word of God, genuine love, spiritual communion and durable bonds among individuals. This is your task.”

The letter is a powerful, lyrical and prophetic call to action, defining our role in the traumatic birthing of the civilisation that is emerging around us.

~ Les Gornall

Peace Letter continued

Friends gather in Magherafelt

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We had a meeting of friends on Sunday the 27th of January, with Keith Munro, Patricia Jamshidi, Garry Hunter, Les and Mahin Gornall, Alison Norgate, Bruce and Flora Luck. Mahin and Les hosted the meeting in Solar House Magherafelt. Where Les told us of his adventure in his non emission electric car, to the Outer Hebrides. The trip revolved around climate change, and how climate change especially effects those folks in the Islands and coastal areas. Les will be writing about his trip, and we look forward to hearing about it in detail in the available journals.

We had the pleasure of Keith Munro reading a letter entitled “A Life Lived in Service” – it is a description by a Russian pilgrim, Irina Musuc of the passing of Mr Furutan in November 2003. We discussed the meaning of service and what we can do in the community. We considered our com-mitments and plans for the future as a nucleus of friends.

We also discussed in detail the letter from the Universal House of Justice 18th January 2019, about world peace. The mood of the day was love and kindness. Mahin and Les provided refreshments and we had healing prayers for loved ones. The next meet-ing of the friends will be held in April.

~ Alison Norgate

Through the eyes of Margaret Cousins Irish & Indian Suffragette by Keith Munro Book Review

The Universal House of Justice in its letter on 18th January 2019 de-scribes how global peace can best be achieved by community building. Keith Munro’s book documenting key events in the life of his great aunt 100 years ago demonstrates that point. The book is the story of Gretta and her husband Jim. They, with others, founded the Irish Women’s Franchise League in 1908. Gretta was impris-oned in Holloway and in Tullamore for breaking windows. They left Ire-land in 1915 to serve at the headquar-

ters of the International Theosophical Society in India.

Gretta was the first non-Indian wom-an magistrate in India. She founded both the All India Women’s Con-ference and the All Asian Women’s Conference. In 1932 Gretta spoke pub-licly against the emergency powers in India that prevented freedom of speech. For this she was imprisoned for 10 months in India.

The book demonstrates how social change is more successfully achieved though community building activ-ities. Women in India received the franchise must faster than those in the UK. In India Gretta focused her energies on community-building activities – establishing the All India Women’s Conference. Through that Indian women articulated their prior-ities for change. In a very short space of time all the states in India gave women the vote, as well as addressing other priorities such as education for girls, health issues etc.

The book will be of great value to those with an interest in Irish and In-dian history. For Bahá’ís it has particu-lar additional value for two reasons:

It describes in detail the social milieu at the beginning of the twentieth century covering the period when `Abdu’l-Bahá twice visited Britain, ref-erencing many of the same person-ages who visited the Master and there

are explicit references to the Bahá’í Faith that describe Shirin Fozdar as an Iranian representative at the first All Asian Women’s Conference and an account of a meeting between Gretta and Shoghi Effendi in 1932.

Copies of the book are available from Keith Munro ckmunro@btinternet.com

~ EG

communiqué Bahá 176 BE/March 2019

The community-building efforts in the Windsor Neighbourhood over the last 6 years have always benefited from the close collaboration with the community development team at the Morton Community Centre, located in the neighbourhood itself. As a token of appreciation for the ongo-ing efforts of the Bahá’í community

and their friends, the Centre offered to fund a neighbourhood trip for all families, children’s class teachers, an-imators and class participants to go to Dundonald Ice Bowl. Much fun was had by all and we are truly grateful for the lovely gesture and ongoing collaboration with the centre.

Trip to Dundonald Ice Bowl

Copy dates for CommuNIque

In the coming year CommuNIque will be published quarterly in March,

June, September and December.

The deadline for copy is 15th of the previous month:

15 February 15 May

15 August 15 November

The editor of CommuNIque is currently Edwin Graham.

Please send news and information to Edwin at the following address:

communique.bahai@gmail.com Phone 0777 9600 254

Dates for your diary

Next reflection gatherings in Northern Lights

2nd June 2019 1st September 2019

Feasts Bahá (Splendour) - March 20/21

Jalál (Glory) - April 8/9 Jamál (Beauty) - April 27/28

‘Azamat (Grandeur) - May 16/17 Núr (Light) - June 4/5

Raḥmat (Mercy) - June 23/24

Holy Days

Naw-Rúz (March 20/21)Festival of Ridván: The first (April

20/21), ninth (April 28/29) and twelfth (May 1/2) days are celebrated as holy

days when work is suspended.Declaration of the Báb (May 23/24

Ascension of Bahá’u’lláh (May 28/29Martyrdom of the Báb (July 9/10)

Arrivals and departures in the last three months

Naim Angoyi born in Belfast on 24 December 2018.

Congratulations to Antonella, Stany, Lorenzo and Daisy.

From the Bahá’í Council for Northern IrelandDear Friends, on reviewing our plans for the coming year the Council has decided to delay the Regional Gath-ering until after Christmas, hopefully in February. The reason for this is to give us more time to more thought-fully integrate it into an overall plan for Northern Ireland and also give everybody two spaced out events for Regional gatherings. One in the Winter months and one in the Sum-mer (Summer School).

Trip to George Townsend’s resting placeThe Spiritual Assembly of Belfast ran the George Townsend Campaign in 2018 to increase the number of devotionals in the community.

As a result of the campaign more devotionals were held, deeper con-nections with the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh were nurtured and souls have been able to “inhale the heaven-ly fragrances, experience the sweet-ness of prayer, meditate upon the Creative Word, be transported on the wings of the spirit, and com-mune with the one Beloved.” (The Universal House of Justice, 29 Dec 2015)

To celebrate this achievement, Belfast Spiritual Assembly is organis-ing a trip to the resting place of the Hand of the Cause George Townsend in Enniskerry, Co. Wicklow on Saturday 18 May.

Belfast archivesThe Spiritual Assembly of Belfast is currently in the process of compiling its archives and would appreciate any of the friends who have documents and files or other archival materials belonging to Belfast Assembly to contact the Belfast secretary, Zhenia, secretary@bahai-belfast.org.uk.

Visiting the communityMarion Khosravi and Pat Irvine are continuing their monthly visits around the community and their most recent visit was meeting up the friends in Ballymena, Colette, Hazel

and John and Ruby in their local coffee shop, they also visited Magher-afelt, meeting up with Mahin, Alison and Les in their popular local coffee shop. Apart from the many benefit we all get from these visits we’re discovering some great coffee shops out there!

Tree planting in Tannaghmore Gardens

A group of Bahá’ís and their friends who planted trees in Tannaghmore Gardens, Craigavon.

Youth camp in Derry

The latest in a series of Regional Youth Institute Camps happened at St. Columb’s Park House, Derry between 16th–19th Feb. This is the 4th camp since summer 2018. The Bahá’í Council, in close collabo-ration with our dear ABM, have been using these environments to learn about releasing the potential of youth through the Institute Courses in the NI region, a ‘sacred charge’ of every Training Institute and Bahá’í institution as written by the House of Justice 29th Dec 2015.

Junior Youth do yoga! Two Junior Youth groups recently coming together for some yoga with their animators! One group is going through JY text ‘Power Of the Holy Spirit’ and the other is just beginning ‘Glimmerings of Hope’.

BCNI TreasurerPatricia Jamshidi

12 Ferndene Gardens, Dundonald, BT16 2EP

patriciadeirdre@gmail.com

Account details Account name:

NSA of Bahais – Council for NI Sort code: 60-04-04

Account number: 85123196