The American Bahá’í/Volume 16/Issue 12/Text
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December 1985
The American
Bah
S298 a i
Two more Baha’is are executed in Iranian prisons
AFTER FEW MONTHS’ CESSATION OF EXECUTIONS OF BAHA’IS IN IRAN, GRIEVED ANNOUNCE TWO FURTHER EXECUTIONS. VALIANT SOULS ARE MR. ‘ABBAS IDILKHANi AND MR. RAHMATU’LLAH VUJDANI. FORMER WAS EXECUTED ON 1 AUGUST IN PRISON WITHOUT ANY NOTIFICATION HIS FAMILY. HIS GRAVE WAS ACCIDENTALLY DISCOVERED NEAR TIHRAN. HE HAD BEEN IMPRISONED ON 26 APRIL 1982 IN ZANJAN WHERE HE REMAINED UNTIL APRIL 1985 WHEN HE WAS TAKEN TO TIHRAN. HE WAS 45 YEARS OLD AND WAS AN AIR-CONDITIONING TECH NICIAN.
MANNER HIS EXECUTION STILL UNKNOWN. HIS WIFE IS ALSO IN PRISON IN ZANJAN. MR. RAHMATU’LLAH VUJDANi WAS ARRESTED IN JULY 1984 IN BANDAR-‘ABBAS, WHERE HE WAS EXECUTED BY FIRING SQUAD ON 28 AUGUST 1985. HE WAS 57 YEARS OLD. HIS BODY WAS DELIVERED, AND HIS FUNERAL TOOK PLACE IN PRESENCE HIS FAMILY AND FRIENDS. TEACHER BY PROFESSION.
FROM THE END JANUARY TO SEPTEMBER 1985, 63 BAHA’iS WERE ARRESTED AND 39 RELEASED. TOTAL NUMBER PRISONERS NOW 741. THIS FIG HE WAS A
URE INCLUDES 39 PRISONERS RELEASED DURING PERIOD. BAHA’i STUDENTS OF ALL LEVELS HAVE TO COMPLETE ADMISSION FORMS WHICH INCLUDE SPACE FOR ONLY FOUR OFFICIALLY RECOGNIZED RELIGIONS. BAHA’i STUDENTS WHO STATE THEY ARE BAHA’IS ARE DENIED SCHOOLING OR IF ADMITTED FACE TREMENDOUS PRESSURE AND HARASSMENT. OTHER FORMS PER SECUTION INNOCENT BAHA’iS PERSIST.
ADVISE INFORM GOVERNMENT AND MEDIA. UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE
SEPTEMBER 19, 1985
é
Y Hugh Chance, a member of the Universal House of Justice, is presented a corsage before speak
3
ing September 29 at a peace conference in his hometown, Winfield, Kansas.
Winfield, Kansas, welcomes home ‘native son,’ Hugh Chance
A seven-year-long effort to proclaim the Cause in Winfield, Kansas, was rewarded in August with the formation of its first local Spiritual Assembly and a month later by a visit from Hugh Chance, a member of the Universal House of Justice who was born in Winfield.
MR. CHANCE and Dr. Alberta Deas, a member of the National Spiritual Assembly, were among those taking part in a
Index
Letters .. The Funds. IGC; Pioneerin;
Youth News
Education. . 9 Teaching.
Distribution Service. 14
Publishing Trus'
Classifieds ..... . 16-17 Persian/ American 19-21 The Media... % Native Americans.
In Memoriam. .
“World Peace Through Education’”’ conference at Southwestern College in Winfield.
The conference, sponsored by the Spiritual Assembly of Winfield in observance of the upcoming UN International Year of Peace, brought together Baha’i and non-Baha’i participants in a day-long dialogue on ways to achieve a lasting peace.
Earlier, the mayor of Winfield proclaimed September 29 ‘Hugh Chance Day” in the town of. 10,000.
The conference generated substantial local interest with the newspaper giving it four days of front-page coverage and one of the local radio stations carrying a three-day series of taped interviews with Mr. Chance.
Such media coverage, unprecedented in Winfield, was especially heartening since Winfield relies on those two sources for most of its local news, as do more than 20 other small towns in the area.
An additional aspect of the suc See WINFIELD Page 4
House of Justice mandates electoral procedure changes
A major change in the District electoral system is expected this next year as a result of a recent letter from the Universal House of Justice to all National Spiritual Assemblies.
IN SOME national communities, delegates have been elected only by areas with local Assemblies, rather than on the basis of electoral units in which all adult believers vote.
The letter says that ‘‘in view of the growth of the Faith and the developing life of the Baha’i communities, the Universal House of Justice has decided that ... the time has come for delegates to National Conventions everywhere to be elected on the basis of electoral units, but with the option of introducing certain differences from the procedures followed to date ... designed to make the system adaptable ...’”
While the U.S. has elected its delegates on the basis of electoral units since 1944, the letter instructs that electoral units based on the number of adult Baha’is in an area be established differently,
“in such a way that each unit will be responsible for electing preferably one delegate only.””
The letter further states that if this is not practicable in certain instances, such as in a unit that contains one or more relatively large communities, it may be necessary to make the unit large enough to be the electoral base for two or possibly even three delegates.
These guidelines thus suggest a system considerably different from the present one in which electoral units in the U.S. are allocated as many as eight delegates.
CITING the problem of low attendance at Conventions, resulting in delegates being elected by a relatively small proportion of the believers, the letter from the House of Justice gives National Assemblies the option of di ing each electoral unit into sub-units to promote the participation of a larger number of believers.
Each sub-unit, it says, could have its own meeting where votes could be cast for anyone in the electoral unit as a whole. Votes from all the sub-units in each elec
South Carolina’s WLGI Radio marks end
of year of steady progress, development
On July 2, WLGI Radio in Hemingway, South Carolina, marked the successful completion of its first year of operation.
ON THE occasion of the station’s first anniversary, Cap Cornwell, secretary of the National Teaching Committee, which oversees the work of the station, said, ““We’re extremely pleased with the progress WLGI has made. The station is clearly becoming an important presence in the region.
“For example,” he said, ‘‘we have received many reports telling us about the pivotal role WLGI has played in supporting Project Tabarsi’s successful teaching work this past summer.
“Everywhere the teachers went, they found faithful and enthusiastic listeners to Radio Baha’i. As a result, the people were ready and
eager to learn more about the Baha’i Faith.”’
The bulk of WLGI’s programming to date has been music. The kind of music played is called ‘“urban contemporary”’ and includes songs by artists such as Whitney Houston, Billy Ocean, George Benson and Aretha Franklin.
WLGI also plays jazz by performers such as Miles Davis, Earl Klugh and Baha’i trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie.
Special programs of gospel and inspirational music, which are very popular in the area, are played each morning.
EVERY record considered for broadcast is subjected to close scrutiny by the staff to ensure that it conforms to Baha’i standards of
See WLGI Page 10
toral unit would then be totaled to determine the delegate from: that unit.
A new system designed to reflect these guidelines from the House of Justice is now being developed. Once the new procedure has been decided upon, the friends will be fully informed.
U.S. surpasses goal of 1,750 Assemblies
The National Teaching Committee announced November 6 that the Seven Year Plan goal of establishing 1,750 local Spiritual Assemblies in the U.S. has been surpassed.
“We now have 1,756 Assemblies,’”’ said Charles C. (Cap) Cornwell, secretary of the National Teaching Committee, “but we need to go as far beyond that number as we can to assure that we have 1,750 to offset any losses we might incur at Ridvan.
‘Assemblies,’’ he said, “should continue to form immediately when the community has nine adult believers, whether it is forming for the first time or re-forming a lost Assembly.
“Also, we must make efforts to identify and strengthen jeopardized Assemblies to cut our losses at Ridvan.””
Of the present 1,756 Assemblies, he said, there are. still some 70 formed last Riḍván who have not yet sent their completed election forms to the National Center. These communities are urged to do so right away.
“Beyond these efforts to continue forming Assemblies and strengthening weaker ones,” said Mr. Cornwell, “the major remaining goal of the Plan on which we must focus is achieving an unprecedented increase in the number of avowed adherents to the Cause from all levels of society.””
VIEWPOINT
The American Baha'i
2
House of Justice increases number of Counsellors, names new members
To the Baha’ is of the World Dear Bahá’í Friends,
It gives us great happiness to announce the membership of the Continental Boards of Counsellors as from the Day of the Covenant, 26 November 1985. The number of Counsellors has been increased from 63
. to 72 and adjustments have been made in their geographical distribution in consonance with the development of the Faith around the world.
The membership of the Continental Boards of Counsellors as now appointed is:
AFRICA (18 Counsellors): Mr. Hushang Ahdieh (Trustee of the Continental Fund), Mr. Husayn Ardekani, Mrs. Beatrice O. Asare, Mr. Gila Michael Bahta, Mr. Friday Ekpe, Mr. Oloro Epyeru, Mr. Shidan Fat’he-Aazam, Mr. Kassimi Fofana, Mr. Zekrollah Kazemi, Mr. Muhammad Kebdani, Mrs. Thelma Khelghati, Mr. Roddy Dharma Lutchmaya, Mr. Wingi Mabuku, Mr. Daniel Ramoroesi, Dr. Mihdi Samandari, Dr. Edith Senoga, Mr. Peter Vuyiya, Mrs. Lucretia Mancho Warren.
THE AMERICAS (17 Counsellors): Dr. Hidayatu’lláh Ahmadiyyih, Mr. Eloy Anello, Dr. Farzam Arbab (Trustee of the Continental Fund), Dr. Wilma Brady, Mrs. Isabel P. de Calderén, Mr. Rolf von Czekus, Mr. Robert Harris, Mrs. Lauretta King, Dr. Peter McLaren, Mr. Shapoor Monadjem, Mrs. Ruth Pringle, Dr. Donald O. Rogers, Mr. Fred Schechter, Mr. Arturo Serrano, Mr. Alan Smith, Dr. David R. Smith, Mr. Rodrigo Tomas.
ASIA (19 Counsellors): Dr. Sabir Afaqi, Mr. Burhdni’d-Din Afshin, Dr. Iraj Ayman, Mr. Bijan Fareed, Dr. John Fozdar, Mr. Zabihu’ll4h Gulmuhammadi, Mr. Bharat Koirala, Mr. Rihu’ll4h Mumtází, Mr. S. Nagaratnam, Dr. Perin Olyai, Mrs. Rose Ong, Mr. Khudarahm Payman (Trustee of the Continental Fund), Mr. Masih Rawhani, Mr. Vicente Samaniego, U Saw Tin, Mr. Ilhan Sezgin, Mrs. Zena Sorabjee, Dr. Chellie J. Sundram, Mr. Michitoshi Zenimoto.
AUSTRALASIA (9 Counsellors): Mr. Suhayl ‘Ala’i, Mr. Ben Ayala, Justice Richard Benson, Dr. Kamran Eshraghian, Mrs. Tinai Hancock, Mr. Lisiate Maka, Mrs. Gayle Morrison, Dr. Siras Nardqi, Mrs. Joy Stevenson (Trustee of the Continental Fund).
EUROPE (9 Counsellors): Dr. Agnes Ghaznavi, Mr. Hartmut Grossman, Mr. Louis Hénuzet (Trustee of the Continental Fund), Mrs. Ursula Mühlschlegel, Dr. Leo Niederreiter, Mrs. Polin Rafat, Mr. Adib Taherzadeh, Mr. Adam Thorne, Mr. Sohrab Youssefian.
The following 19 devoted believers who are now being relieved of the onerous duties of membership on the Boards of Counsellors will, as distinguished servants of the Cause, continue through their outstanding capacities and experience to be sources of stimulation and encouragement to the friends:
Mr., A. Owen Battrick, Mr. Erik Blumenthal, Mrs. Shirin Boman, Mrs. Carmen de Burafato, Mr. Athos Costas, Mr. Angus Cowan, Mrs. Dorothy Ferraby, Mr. Aydin Giiney, Dr. Dipchand Khianra, Mr. Artemus Lamb, Mr. Kolonario Oule, Dr. Sarah Pereira, Mrs. Betty R. Reed, Dr. Maniichihr Salmanpir, Mrs. Velma Sherrill, Mr. Hideya Suzuki, Mrs. Bahiyyih Winckler, Mr. Donald Witzel, Mr. Yan Kee Leong.
We express to each and every one of these dear friends our heartfelt gratitude and assure them of our prayers in the Holy Shrines for the confirmation of their highly meritorious and self-sacrificing services to the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh.
At this time when the Baha’i world is facing the challenge of the International Year of Peace, on the point of completing the Seven Year Plan and standing on the threshold of a new Six Year Plan, we have felt it important to call upon the Counsellors from all the continents to gather at the World Centre for a conference to deliberate on the tasks and opportunities of the years immediately ahead. This conference will take place from 27 December 1985 through 2 January 1986 and is yet one more sign of the rapid advance and consolidation of the institutions of the Cause of God.
We are profoundly grateful to the Blessed Perfection for His bountiful confirmations which are enabling His strenuously laboring servants in every part of the world to witness the growing influence of his glorious Cause, and to take part in the vitalizing unfoldment of His Administrative Order.
It is our fervent prayer at the Sacred Threshold that the followers of Bahá’u’lláh in every land will arise with increased determination and self-abnegation to mirror forth the standards upheld by His potent Faith.
With loving Baha’i greetings,
The Universal House of Justice October 24, 1985
Wapato Baha’is help judge Harvest Parade
This year, for the first time, the Wapato, Washington, Harvest Festival parade used Baha’ is (nine of them) to help set up and judge
the parade.
The Harvest Festival is the major parade on the Yakima Indian Reservation.
Dr. Pereira, Mrs. Sherrill leave Board after dozen years of devoted service
The Universal House of Justice, in announcing in a letter to the Baha’is of the world dated October 24 the appointment of the Continental Boards of Counsellors for the five-year period starting on the Day of the Covenant, November 26, 1985, added that 19 devoted believers who ‘‘are being relieved of the onerous duties of membership on the Boards of Counsellors, will, as distinguished servants of the Cause, continue through their outstanding capacities and experience to be sources of stimulation and encouragement to the riends.””
TWO of those “distinguished servants of the Cause”’ referred to by the House of Justice are Dr. Sarah Martin Pereira of Charlotte, North Carolina, and Velma L. Sherrill of St. Louis, Missouri, each of whom has served for more than a dozen years on the Board of Counsellors for the Americas.
Dr. Pereira was appointed an Auxiliary Board member in 1954, Mrs. Sherrill in 1957. Since Auxiliary Board members were at that time permitted to hold administrative posts while serving on the Board, both women also served as members of the National Spiritual Assembly.
In 1964, when the Universal House of Justice decided that Auxiliary Board members couid not hold administrative posts concurrently, Dr. Pereira resigned as a Board member to remain on the National Spiritual Assembly, while Mrs. Sherrill resigned from the National Assembly to continue as an Auxiliary Board member.
They remained at their respective posts until 1973 when both were appointed by the Universal House of Justice to the Continental Board of Counsellors.
Dr. Pereira remembers the excitement of becoming a Counsellor.
“‘There was an intimate friendship binding the members,’’ she says. ‘‘There were only a few of us, and we met often. We were able to become well acquainted with the countries under our jurisdiction.
“LATER, as the number of Counsellors increased, more travel was required, and there were more countries to get to know, but I was able to put to use all my language skills. 1 was so happy to find a career in which I was able to serve Bahá’u’lláh to my fullest capacity.”
Those early years as a Counsellor, says Mrs. Sherrill, were “punctuated by the need for the Counsellors to be firmly established throughout the world. They needed to learn to collaborate together and with the National Assemblies.
“The health of the community and the future of the Faith de
DR. SARAH M. PEREIRA
pended largely on the successful collaboration of the institutions. It was their foremost goal because of the emphasis placed on it by the Universal House of Justice.’”
When the Board for America was formed five years ago, she says, ‘‘it seemed that the primary need was that those of us serving North America catch a vision of the needs in South America as revealed by the Master .. a meshing of the two—North America, always concerned with the administrative point of view, and South America, less concerned with administration as with spirit.””
That period, from 1980-85, was for Dr. Pereira a time for learning more about the oneness of mankind.
“WHEN you take a wider step in going beyond the boundaries of home,” she says, “you grow. There are difficult stretches as you adjust to widen your grasp of the oneness of mankind and truly be
as Counsellors until November 26,
at which time Mrs, Sherrill closed
the office in St. Louis which she
set up 12 years ago and continued
to direct since then as the central
office for the Counsellors in
North America.
Mrs. Sherrill says she has no specific plans ‘‘except to continue to serve the Faith in any and all ways open to me and in any capacity I can fill.””
Dr. Pereira says she’ll continue to teach foreign languages at Johnson C. Smith University in Charlotte.
“I was pleased to be able to use my skills for the Faith,”’ she says. “Now I’ll be able to accept some invitations (from Baha’i communities) that I had been forced to decline in the past due to my heavy commitments as a Counsellor.”
Both women look forward to a time of tremendous excitement, rapid acceleration and great
VELMA L. SHERRILL
change for the Baha’i community in the near future.
“I WOULD urge the believers to arise to assist the Universal House of Justice,” says Mrs. Sherrill. ‘Everything they call upon us to do is important. They are carrying out Baha’u’llah’s plan to create the Kingdom of God on earth.””
Referring to the House of Justice’s peace statement, she says, ‘‘None of us knows what the result will be; all we know is that they (the House of Justice) were inspired to release Bahá’u’lláh’s Plan, and we must follow their instructions with the assurance that the Will of Baha’u’llah will be done.””
Dr. Pereira says the Baha’is are moving into an ‘‘era of outreach.
“The sacrifice of the martyrs,’” she says, “has given us an opportunity to become more visible; we must assume our responsibility to the people of the world.
“The moment of our dramatic entry into world affairs has arrived. (This is but) a glimpse of how the Faith will develop in the world.
“We should count our blessings,” says Dr. Pereira, “that Bahá’u’lláh has allowed us the
See COUNSELLORS Page 24 CTT TS TT
The American Baha’
(USPS 042-430) Published monthly by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, $36 Sheridan Road, Wilmette, IL. 60091
Postmaster: Send address changes (0 Office of
Editor: Jack Bowers Editorial Assistant: Laura E. Hildreth ‘The American Bahá’í welcomes news, letters and
other items of interest from individuals and the various institutions of the Faith. Articles should be written in a clear and concise manner; color or black and white glossy photographs should be included whenever possible. Please address all materials to The Editor, The American Baha’, Wil‘mette, IL. 60091.
Copyright » 1985 by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States. World rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.
[Page 3]
LETTERS
December 1985
3
“The shining spark of truth cometh forth only after the clash of differing opinions.””—‘Abdu’l-Bahá
The American Bahá’í welcomes letters to the editor on any topic of general interest. The purpose of the “‘letters’’ column is to allow a free and open exchange of ideas and opinions, never to derogate another’s opinion or attack anyone on a personal level.
Letters should be as brief as possible (a maximum of 250 words is suggested). Letters are subject to editing for length and style. Please address all letters to the Editor, The American Bahá’í, Baha’i National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091.
To the Editor:
In response to Kern Kuipers’ letter (August) regarding the need to teach by example at an organizationa: level by establishing a humanitarian office, I believe that the emphasis placed by the Universal House of Justice on social and economic development and the establishment of peace, with its underlying ramifications for the whole of humanity, is doing exactly that.
The institutions of Bahd’u’ll4h are those “‘humanitarian organizations”’ the stirrings of which we are only beginning to glimmer as we develop to fulfill the potential latent within them.
T’ve been eager for such steps and am encouraged by the Universal House of Justice’s initiatives in this regard.
We need only support those steps to bring to fruition the prime objective of our Faith—to serve humanity.
" Cherlynn A. Rush Colton, California
To the Editor:
We are a just Cause of high standards, living in an age of fanaticism, legalism and extreme conservatism.
BAHA’IS are not unaffected by the age in which we live. In trying to cling to our high standards we are often legalistic, conservative and even fanatical. This results in a ‘‘new martyr’’ for our time.
The new martyr is not a part of any physical holocaust as we see in Iran—he is the spiritually wounded and dying Baha’i among us.
These new martyrs number in the thousands, spiritually maimed by well-meaning, duty-minded but sometimes blundering Baha’is.
We are all given a heavy responsibility to live up to the Bahd’{ laws and principles, and to apply them with love and justice in our dealings one to another, or as members of Baha’i institutions.
A single lapse in the application of justice with love can be a cutting blade on the heart of a fellow Baha'i.
Among my ever-widening circle of dear Baha’i friends, I am amazed to find how each, in some way, has felt that cutting blade.
THE EFFECTS of such wounds vary. Some are able to set
aside the pain and continue their work for Bahd’u’ll4h in full stride; others are not that strong.
The pain that many carry limits their involvement with the Baha’ is or stops their involvement altogether. How many more martyrs like these are there in every Baha’i community?
Some failure to communicate, some-quick and unjust action by an institution, some harsh application of law and procedure, some slight disregard for a plea from the heart is causing the unwanted and unnecessary growth of apathy and hurt among Baha’is.
This is the new ‘‘cry from the heart.” Will we as individual Bahá’ís or as members of our great institutions continue, in response to this decaying age, to apply the law, without love or forgiveness, as justice?
The spirit of the law is to unite mankind. If laws are applied by individuals and institutions without love or mercy, justice becomes a sham and the unity of mankind becomes impossible.
Carol Walborn Pigeon Forge, Tennessee
To the Editor:
Kern Kuipers’ letter (August), urging that Bahá’í organizations teach not only by doctrine but by humanitarian action, reminds me of noticing in Baha’i publications a steady drum-beat of publicity of the persecutions in Iran, but no mention of the more widespread legal persecution of Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Our appeal for support from non-Baha’is to help end the persecution of Baha’is anywhere will obviously earn more sympathy and be more effective in reducing suffering when we actively defend victims of religious persecution of all faiths.
For the rights of non-Baha’i religious minorities to be rigorously protected by the Baha’i majority in a future Baha’i world, our defense of persons of other faiths plainly must begin long before.
It may be due time for the Baha’i administration to publicize the experiences of victims of religious persecution anywhere, of any faith, and to develop methods for legal advocacy of the rights of other religions everywhere.
Carl Harrison Inglewood, California
To the Editor:
By writing this letter we hope to enlighten and unify a divided community, that of persons who are Baha’is while serving at the same time in the U.S. armed forces.
BEING a Baha’i is a greater distinction than any title, civilian or military. We have seen too many instances in which Bahá’ís in the military have been all but forgotten.
Those Baha’is who have never been in the service have a difficult time understanding the system. We hope that our suggestions will be taken seriously and that those who are in the military or friends
who know Baha’is in the military will extend Baha’i fellowship and love to one another.
If you are in the armed services, try to contact the nearest local Assembly or contact the National Center and find one. Even if you are only on temporary duty, why not visit your “‘spiritual family.”
If you are in a community near a military base and you have an idea that there may be Baha’is on that base, don’t let them hide out! Unless you have a name to work with and the unit the person is in, you'll have to depend on the chaplain of the base or on your own advertising.
Is the Faith listed in your telephone directory? You can have your Assembly listed with the base chaplain’s office. This will help any Baha’is who are there and those who will move there in the future to find you.
OTHER good ideas would be to contact the local USO, if you have one, or the American Red Cross to leave a phone number and time and meeting place for the Faith, This will greatly improve the ability of Baha’i military personnel and seekers to find you and to become involved in the Faith.
Regardless of a person’s motives for being in the service, each of us has an obligation to the Faith. If you’re a civilian Baha’i wondering if there are any others behind those chain-link fences, please follow up by checking with some of the channels that are available to you.
If you are a Baha’ who is in the military, find out about the local community and get involved.
With all we believe about world peace and the elimination of prejudice, we feel that the American Baha’i community should address this situation, strive for unity and forget our fears.
We are here to serve God and country; we have no problem with the sequence in which those two potent words are listed. Let us not waste the potential that exists and that is waiting for the other.
Allen Plymale and David King
Fort Bragg, North Carolina
To the Editor:
After reading a letter to The American Baha’i by Steve Sullins concerning health and healing, and reading some responses from other Baha’is, I am surprised and somewhat shocked by the apparent criticism among fellow Baha’is.
As Baha'is, we should not take at face value anything a man says, but seek out the truth for ourselves.
What Mr. Sullins has written is at the very least fascinating. He has shown references that provide solid, stable evidence to support his findings.
If we as Baha’is simply shrug this information off without a thorough, open-minded investigation of its validity, we'll be no better than those who mock the Baha’i Faith as some Eastern Indian nonsense.
To shove aside what could well be a truth because it doesn’t agree with what we presently understand as truth contradicts what the Baha’i teachings are all about.
How absurd ‘‘Baha’i’’ seemed to most of us when first introduced. Not until we dared investigate it did it come clear in our minds. Not until we let go of our old traditions and beliefs did the Baha’i teachings begin to make sense to us.
We are the representatives of this new and wonderful era of knowledge and understanding. It is our duty to investigate any and all new knowledge.
Even if it’s only theory or speculation, we must seek the truth, for we are Bahá’ís. We have chosen our route, and are being looked upon by a world full of ignorance, thirsty for knowledge. We are the key.
Mr. Sullins, I welcome your new knowledge. I’m grateful you have done your duty in sharing it with me. May we grow strong together in this new dawning world.
Will Tucker Gainesville, Florida
To the Editor:
The response to our letter (June) was gratifying. Sixteen Baha’is wrote for information about Esperanto! This shows that the “‘letters’’ column is an interesting part of our periodical.
The 70th Universal Esperanto Congress was held in August in Augsburg, West Germany. There were more than 2,300 delegates from 57 nations, 500 more than was expected.
The booth of the Baha’i Esperanto League (BEL), manned by 14 Baha’is from six countries, was a busy place. We think that all of the 150 delegates from Poland
went home with Baha’i literature.
The Polish reaction to the Baha’i booth was encouraging to the members of the BEL, especially because we’re now working on our Baha’i activities for Warsaw in 1987, the 100th anniversary observance of Esperanto in the city of its birth.
It is significant that at this time the book Lidia by Wendy Heller (published by George Ronald) has appeared. It is a warm, fascinatingly readable biography of the younger daughter of the founder of Esperanto who raised her voice for the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh, unhesitatingly calling all mankind to His fold.
We believe that the increased activity at our BEL booth, and the large attendance at our Baha’i public meeting, was due in large part to the appearance of Lidia. An Esperanto translation of the book is now in progress and will be ready for the Jubilee Esperanto Congress in 1987.
Requests for information about BEL or Esperanto may be sent to the secretary of BEL, Mrs. Roan Orloff Stone,
Gallup, NM 87301.
Roan Orloff Stone
Gallup, New Mexico
To the Editor:
Although I applaud your just publication of differing opinions, I felt personally affronted by the letter on the Race Unity page (June) suggesting that I or any significant number of American Baha’is would become “‘inactive’’ in the face of swelling numbers of Persian believers.
I also applaud Harold G. South’s rebuttal and wish I had said it myself.
See LETTERS Page 27
New from George Ronald, Publisher
The final major work by the distinguished historian and Hand of the Cause Hasan Balyuzi. The story of Baha’u’llah’s followers in Tran — apostles, martyrs, poets and others.
Hardcover $28.50 Softcover $15.95
408 pages, 100 illustrations
EMINENT | BAHA'IS
In the time of Baha'u'llah
- . . a delightful read . . . this very important
work. . . a wonderful source for the early history of our Faith.’ Members of the Bahai Reviewing Panel of the United Kingdom Onder through your local librarian, or send check or money order
‘including 10%» for postage and handling, miniwn $1.50) to: Baha'i Distribution Service, 415 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, IL 60091
roars scone cinat ta coer wie aaa cn inner erte oETe aat neeerceeeerne
[Page 4]
The American Baha'i
Crhe 5 builders
SIEGFRIED SCHOPFLOCHER
Siegfried Schopflocher, born in Germany in 1877, was raised in an orthodox Jewish family, but after leaving school he ceased to follow the customs of his faith and began to search for a more universal expression of religion.
YEARS later Mr. Schopflocher, by now permanently settled in business in Canada, learned of the Baha’i Faith and shortly afterward became a Baha’i.
His first visit to Haifa was in 1922, at which time he met the Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, to whom his devotion was instantaneous and everlasting.
Since Mr. Schopflocher’s business took him all over the world, he was able to carry out many assignments for the Guardian such as visiting Baha’i communities in many parts of the world.
In so doing, he learned to appreciate the extraordinary bond linking the believers throughout the world in their love for a common Cause, destroying all barriers between race and culture.
One of Fred Schopflocher’s earliest interests in the Faith was the Green Acre Baha’i Sehool, to which he donated several important properties.
From 1924-26, 1929-34, and 1938-43, he served as a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the U.S. and Canada. When the two countries formed separate National Assemblies in 1948, he was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of Canada,
IT WAS chiefly through Mr. Schopflocher’s efforts, with the help of Horace Holley, that that National Assembly secured a unique form of incorporation by an Act of the Parliament of Canada.
In 1953, the Guardian appointed Fred Schopflocher a Hand of the Cause of God and instructed him to help the National Assembly of Canada establish its national Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds.
See SCHOPFLOCHER Page 28
Winfield
Continued From Page 1
cessful use of media was a halfhour television interview arranged for Mr. Chance on the ABC-TV affiliate in Wichita.
THE PEACE conference combined addresses by Mr. Chance and Dr. Deas with two panel discussions involving non-Baha’i faculty members from Southwestern College.
Mr. Chance presented a comprehensive overview of the Baha’i perspective on peace with particular emphasis on the importance of education in attaining conditions for peace, while Dr. Deas, who recently returned from the UN International Women’s Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, spoke about the need to achieve the equality of men and women as a prerequisite to world peace.
The conference was opened and closed with prayers in various languages including English, Persian, Spanish, Russian and Vietnamese.
Music was provided by Steve and Jean Smith of Tulsa, Oklahoma, both of whom are widely known for their skill on the hammered and mountain dulcimers.
In the evening, the conference ended with a ‘‘unity celebration’ co-sponsored by the Spiritual Assembly of Winfield and the Southwestern College Council on Ministry.
After a brief message of welcome from Mr. Chance, there were musical selections by the Winfield Baha’i children’s class, the Winfield Second Baptist Church (an all-black church), local Laotian musicians and dancers, Steve and Jean Smith on the dulcimers, a Christian guitarist-vocalist, and the Southwestern College Brass Ensemble.
THIS was followed by a cookies-and-punch reception hosted by the Baha’is.
The conference and unity celebration had a special impact in Winfield because the college plays such a visible role in the community and because Winfield has a well-developed peace movement.
The new set of peace pamphlets and ‘‘Wage Peace’’ buttons were available at the conference, and each of the resource persons (panelists, musicians) was given a copy of the book Waging Peace.
Meanwhile, Mr. Chance presented a copy of A Crown of Beauty to the college library (his mother attended Southwestern some 80 years ago).
The Spiritual Assembly of Winfield is discussing with the college the possibility of creating a “peace garden’ at the college which the Baha’is would maintain.
While in Winfield, Mr. Chance also delivered the “‘sermon’’ at the Sunday morning worship service at two churches, a large Methodist church and the smaller all-black Second Baptist Church, which
hosted a reception for Mr. Chance
~ after the service.
Sunday afternoon, Mr. Chance conducted a delightful fireside for five seekers and the local Baha’is.
THAT evening, Mr. and Mrs. Chance were guests at a dinner in their honor given by the Winfield Oratorio Society, whose 150 members had met with Mr. Chance at the Baha’i World Centre during, the group’s 50th anniversary tour of Israel last summer.
The dinner was held in a church that Mr. Chance’s parents had attended 60 years ago, and among the guests was his childhood piano teacher who remembered the Chance family before they moved from Winfield in 1922.
Mr. Chance was presented a framed copy of the mayor’s proclamation, and Mayor Lucien Barbour read the proclamation to the audience of more than 100, citing Mr. Chance’s work for the Faith as evidence of his life-long desire to eliminate prejudice of all sorts and calling him ‘‘an emissary of peace from Winfield to the world.”’
The overwhelmingly non-Baha’i audience then gave Mr. Chance a standing ovation.
Monday morning, the Baha’is said their goodbyes at a breakfast for Mr. and Mrs. Chance, his brother and sister-in-law, who had traveled to Winfield with them, and Dr. Deas.
The spiritually charged weekend had its beginnings seven years ago when two Baha’is, Ron and Jean Gould, moved to Winfield.
Soon afterward, another couple moved to town and a Bahda’i Group was formed.
THE teaching work was constant, and gradually doors began to open, seekers came in increasing numbers, and firesides and proclamations became more numerous and more successful.
Finally, two declarations and three homefront pioneers brought the Group to Assembly status.
The Baha’is of Winfield have been privileged to enjoy a warm correspondence with Mr. Chance dating back to the time when it was first learned that he was a Winfield native.
The friends had long dreamed of a visit by Mr. Chance, but there was no appropriate opportunity before the visit to Haifa last year by the Oratorio Society.
Mr. Chance’s offer to meet with the group, and the Society’s warm response to him, encouraged the Winfield Baha’is to suggest a return visit.
At the 1984 Kansas District Convention, the Winfield Baha’is had offered to host a conference on the arts and scholarship, and thought such a conference would afford a perfect occasion for a visit by Mr. Chance.
He accepted the invitation, and in light of the request from the Universal House of Justice that observances of the International Year of Peace be arranged, the theme of ‘‘World Peace Through
Education’’ was chosen for the conference, which providentially was scheduled just before the release of the House of Justice’s statement on world peace.
The conference itself served not only to improve relations with the college and its faculty, it also generated at least three tangible interfaith projects that will be pursued by Baha’is and non-Baha’is: (1) the possible establishment of. an interfaith council, (2) a campus peace/future studies discussion group, and (3) a summer language/intercultural program for children.
The Spiritual Assembly of Winfield would like to thank all the Baha’is in Kansas for their prayers and support, the Kansas District Teaching Committee for its service on its behalf, and the entire Baha’i world community for providing the example of what can be * done in service to Bahá’u’lláh.
Above: Hugh Chance speaks in Winfield, Kansas. Below: A panel discussion during the Peace Conference.
‘Waging Peace’ forum marks UN’s Peace Day in Durango
More than 40 people, about half of whom were not Baha’is, attended a Baha’i-sponsored “‘Waging Peace’’ forum September 21 in Durango, Colorado, which commemorated the United Nations International Day of Peace.
ALTHOUGH the Baha’is of Durango planned the event, they chose to downplay their involvement; thus all the speakers were non-Baha’i, and the Baha’i peace plan was presented as a separate event at a fireside later that day conducted by Prof. Neil McHugh.
At the peace forum, Karen Young, a professor of education, presented a moving video tape titled ‘The Global Brain,’’ about the development of a planetary consciousness; Leonard Attencio, a professor of economics, spoke on “The Redistribution of Economic Power to Meet Human Needs’’; Kymberly Hurst, a teacher at a private alternative school, spoke on ‘‘Peace Through’ Education,” and Charles Archibald, a Unitarian chaplain, spoke on ‘‘The Power of the People for Peace.’’
During the lunch break, Mitchell Silas, a Navajo Baha’i from
Aneth, Utah, presented a sandpainting demonstration.
Baha’i peace literature, made available at a display table, was taken by many people.
Among the many benefits of the peace forum, say the Baha’is, was the opportunity to become closely involved with a number of non-Baha’i groups whose aim also is world peace.
In August, the Bahá’ís were the only religious body to march in a parade in Durango sponsored by the Women’s International League for Peace to observe the 40th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima.
THE green-and-yellow Baha’i banner said ‘‘Wage Peace’’ on the front and ‘‘Baha’j Faith’’ on the back.
The peace forum in September was supported by Baha’is from Aneth, Utah; Farmington, New Mexico; and Cortez, Mancos and Ignacio, Colorado.
The Baha’i community received high praise for the service it performed in sponsoring the forum, which brought together people of diverse backgrounds and points of
view.
THE FUNDS
December 1985
5
Assemblies
Responding to a request by the National Spiritual Assembly, more than 200 local Spiritual Assemblies have recommended ways in which to produce an immediate and long-term increase in contributions and contributors to the National Baha’i Fund.
THE OFFICE of the Treasurer has analyzed the contents of the first 92 of these letters.
Many Assemblies look forward to an increasingly active role in supporting the National Fund. This is apparent by the most often given response (28 per cent) which asks the National Assembly to continue encouraging local fundraising for the National Fund.
“Special fund-raising events,”” said the Spiritual Assembly of Redlands, California, ‘‘(have) served to unite the community and allow those who may not be able to contribute as much as they would like to aid the Fund in another way.’”
“Specific projects to raise money for the National Baha’i Fund’’ (22 per cent) and ‘‘explaining where the money goes’’ (24 per cent) were among other frequent recommendations to the National Spiritual Assembly.
A few of the letters asked specifically for financial reports. An annual financial report is produced each year for the National Convention and is available from the Office of the Treasurer while the supply lasts.
Most of the Assemblies, however, expressed a need to see what is accomplished with the monies contributed to the National Fund.
“ONE way to do this,”’ wrote the Spiritual Assembly of Decatur, Illinois, “‘might be to have a special issue or insert in The American Baha’i.”” The Office of the Treasurer is exploring ways to fulfill this request.
The Spiritual Assembly of Carlsbad, California, asked the National Assembly to ‘‘proclaim a specific day as Peace Fund Day.’’
This idea has been taken to heart. Although not confined to a single day, the National Spiritual
recommend ways to increase contributions
Assembly is appealing to the American believers to set their sights toward the speedy fulfillment of our $1.5 million pledge to the World Centre.
This pledge represents the largest single contribution to the In ternational Fund, and is our most direct means of supporting the worldwide peace proclamation. Local Fund deepenings were often cited (23 per cent) as one way to meet our Fund goal. The Spiritual Assembly of Davie, Flo rida, is taking positive action: “The Treasurer will hold a regular deepening on the Fund with the goal being to increase participation and to consult on the meaning of sacrifice.”’ Many Assemblies (19 per cent)
The promise of peace The Challenge of ACTION
took immediate action by increasing their pledges to the National Fund. The positive response of the local institutions, both in ideas and action, has bolstered the spirits of the National Spiritual
Assembly.
The Great Peace
promised throughout
all ages is “at long last within the reach of
the nations.”
A REMINDER TO BAHA’i COLLEGE CLUBS: Monies raised by college clubs can only be used for college club activities. They cannot be donated to Local Spiritual Assemblies, the National Fund, or any other institution or committee associated with the Faith.
If there are any questions about this policy, please contact the National Youth Committee office, 305-584-1844.
“The National Fund must be firmly
progress and achievement.”
established, generously supported and universally and continually upheld, for it is the prerequisite of future
SHOGHI EFFENDI
TheNational Bahai
Fund
National Assembly asks for help to meet $1.5 million pledge
The importance of the worldwide peace initiative has prompted an appeal from the National Spiritual Assembly for help from the American believers to quickly fulfill its pledge of $1.5 million to the Universal House of Justice.
The House of Justice explained in a recent telex to the National Assembly that its funds had reached a critically low level. This shortage comes in the wake of the release of “‘The Promise of World Peace,”’ a document that has unleashed tremendous opportunities for the Baha’i world.
The quick fulfillment of our pledge would help
the Universal House of Justice to pursue without hesitation these new-found opportunities.
Contributions for the month of ‘Ilm reached $283,258. Although this is four per cent above contributions for the same month last year, we continue to lag behind our annual goal by some $1.4 million.
Meeting our annual goal to date would allow the immediate completion of our obligation to the World Centre. Contributions from our National Fund constitute at present the single largest gift to the International Fund.
District Name Membership
(12/9/84)
Alabama N
Alabama S/Florida NW Arizona N
Arizona S
Arkansas
California C No. 1 California C No. 2 California N No. 1 California N No. 2 California S No. 1 4 California S No. 2 California S No, 3 California S No. 4
Maine is leader again; Eastern Oregon most improved
“Starting Block’ Info
Number giving
Percentage of participation
Winners’ Circle
Membership (10/08/85)
Contributions to the National Baha’i Fund by District
Current Month Info (Mashiyyat)
Number Percentage of giving _ participation
See VIE CHART Page 26}
Highest percentage participation 1. Maine 2. Kansas 3. Louisiana Northern 4. Iowa 5. Georgia Northeast 6. Utah 7. Nevada Southern 8. Tennessee Eastern 9. Minnesota Northern 10. Wisconsin N/Upper Michigan 11. Ohio Southern 12. Pennsylvania Eastern 13. Pennsylvania Western 14. Idaho Southern 15. Colorado Northeast 16. (tie) Rhode Island Minnesota Southern 18. Nebraska 19. North Dakota
Most improved participation 1, Oregon Eastern 2. Texas Central No. 2 3. Kansas 4. (tie) South Carolina East No. 1 South Carolina Northern South Carolina Central 7. Maine 8. South Carolina Western 9. Florida Northern 10. Texas Eastern No. 2 11. New Mexico S/Texas W 12. Mississippi 13. Florida Southeast 14. Louisiana Northern 15. Nevada Southern 16. Utah 17. California Southern No. 4 18. Louisiana Southern 19. Texas Central No. 1
ee
[Page 6]
——IGC: PIONEERI
The American Baha’i
6
Sound advice from a pioneer on finding employment
Have you ever wondered how to go about finding a job in another country to pioneer? First, there are job leads shared by the International Goals Committee which it gathers from many sources. Second, there are various organizations and agencies which are described aptly in the following letter from Nancy Songer, a pioneer to Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta) in Africa. The Goals Committee heartily agrees with Mrs. Songer’s advice, and urges you to take advantage of it. It would be wise first to contact the International Goals Committee, though, in order to receive the most personalized, up-to-date information.
. Dear Friends,
While serving in a foreign pioneer post in a Third World country, I have formulated some
OPEN GOALS
AFRICA
(F) Mauritania (E) Nigeria (E) Tanzania
eye
AMERICAS
- (S) Argentina
(E) Dominica
(S) Ecuador, Galapagos Is.
- (F) French Guiana
AUSTRALASIA. (BE) Truk 1 (E) Tuvalu 2
Nene
Total Goals to be Filled 17
- Replacement goals
Language key: E—English F—French S—Spanish
‘Our great privilege
National Baha'i Fund Wilmette, IL 60091
Forty-three Baha’ is from 15 states including three youth and eight children attended a Pioneer Training Institute held October 10-13 at the Baha’i National Center in Wilmette, Iinois. Guest speakers included the Hand of the Cause of God Zikru’lláh Khadem, Auxiliary Board members Thelma Jackson and Javidukht Khadem, and visit thoughts which I would like to offer to prospective pioneers.
THOUGH pioneering is a goal cherished by many believers, a great obstacle is lack of familiarity with potential employment possibilities.
Also, present conditions in many countries make employment and business possibilities almost negligible.
It seems to me that one of the greatest reservoirs of international employment remains largely untapped by American Baha’is: that of work with international organizations and agencies of the U.S. government that function abroad.
Baha’ is can be ideal candidates for such employment with their enthusiasm for living internationally and, one hopes, a lifetime acquiring of skills of genuine use to humanity.
In Burkina Faso we have seen expatriates including weavers, heavy equipment operators, construction workers, accountants, physical education instructors, cooperative organizers, secretaries, history teachers and professors of English literature who are employed and rendering useful services.
Not all, perhaps not even most, international employment re quires advanced academic credentials.
AGE IS no deterrent. One marvelous example here is a middleaged Jewish woman trained as a psychologist who left a job directing an art and museum association to join the Peace Corps and teach English at a university in Rwanda, then worked with refugees in Malaysia as a UN volunteer, then joined the U.S. foreign service in time to serve one tour in Burkina Faso as a budget and fiscal officer and another as a consul officer in Bombay before retiring.
This kind of international mobility is possible by connecting
ith the organizations that have
ing pioneers from Ecuador Charles and Helen Hornby. The prospective pioneers are making plans to go to Argentina, Cyprus, Dominica, French Guiana, Gu: deloupe, Ireland, the Marshall Islands, Montserrat, Southern Africa, St. Lucia, the Turks and Caicos, Truk, Uruguay and Venezuela.
need of one’s abilities, some of which prefer hands-on experience over academic credentials.
Potential employers range from the Peace Corps to Save the Children to UN programs to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Some offer opportunities to live and work at a grassroots level, others provide contact more with the educated and influential circles.
Some, notably the Peace Corps, will offer very basic living arrangements, others access to the most comfortable lifestyle available in a country. Among the advantages of working with these organizations are:
(1) they offer employment in many countries where private means of employment are tenuous to non-existent;
(2) language training is often included;
(3) income is dependable and often quite generous;
(4) transportation and shipping of one’s possessions are paid for as are frequently housing and educational costs for children, plus vehicles may be shipped or provided (no small matter in many posts);
(5) THE visa process is facilitated;
_, (6) medical care or provision for it in emergencies exists;
(7) the pioneer has legitimacy and an automatic niche upon arrival;
(8) he often associates with people of influence whose acquaintance with the Faith is not easily attained;
(9) he can actively serve the Baha’i community in his town;
(10) even if living in the capital city, he can make teaching trips to outlying areas where one would likely not be able to settle as a pioneer; and
(11) a certain amount of protection is afforded in case of civil disorder or disaster.
Certain disadvantages are real:
(1) one is inevitably a member of the expatriate community and cannot plan to remain forever as part of the country, which is the ideal and most effective means of pioneering;
(2) one often has little say over the country to which he or she may be posted;
3) virtually all organizations are tainted with misdeeds, imperfections, and genuine misinterpretations, and the employees contend with that stigma; and
(4) there can be limitations imposed by prudence on the intensity and nature of one’s Baha’i activities.
IT IS useful to realize that there is not a single correct way to serve the Faith domestically or overseas, and that having Baha’is in many occupations and social strata is by far to the advantage of. the Faith. s
A Baha’i with an international organization gives the Faith a conspicuous presence in a circle of
world-minded, influential, often sincere and selflessly dedicated people where it should be very prominent.
No informed Baha’i believes that those organizations are going to solve the world’s problems, but work with them, besides providing the means to pioneer, demonstrates our commitment to humanity and offers believers opportunities to tangibly serve, however imperfectly, people who are in great need.
A few notes: the Peace Corps can be one of the best means of pioneering, and its alumni seem to provide the greatest pool of professional development workers for other organizations.
Language training is provided by the Corps, volunteers are situated in areas where it is often hard to locate pioneers, and they become intimately acquainted with the country and the facts of life in development.
Though a volunteer would perhaps not do mass-teaching in his area, he could legitimately host Feasts, have deepenings and children’s classes, and consolidate Assemblies (some of the most needed pioneering functions) as a part of the private practice of his religion, like attending church or having Bible studies.
PEACE Corps service gives personally and professionally valuable experiences. And it accepts volunteers with a wide range of expertise and/or interests.
The U.S. Foreign Service, while not a humanitarian organization, offers a wide array of employment possibilities internationally, particularly to mid-career professionals.
The positions are ‘‘administrative,” not ‘‘political’’ (touchy areas can be determined by Baha’i institutions), and association with a diplomatic mission gives one access to leaders in the country and prestige that often can offer sorely-needed credibility to the Faith.
Although not every Baha’i would feel comfortable being closely identified with U.S. policy implementation, most jobs are support work such as personnel, physical plant maintenance, secretarial, financial administration, general administration services regarding housing and shipping, motor pool management, procurement, security, electronic communications, word processing, computers, and medical services for embassy staffs in remote locations.
Female secretaries and nurses, for example, find the well-paying jobs a way for unaccompanied women to securely and respectably go to certain countries. New rules make it possible for women with dependent children and even accompanying unemployed spouses to be employed in this manner.
For a single working parent, the availability of household help and
live-in child care overseas can make the prospect of foreign service a welcome relief.
OTHER jobs with the foreign service range from economic analysts to cultural attaches. For employment information, contact: Recruitment Division, Department of State,
. Arlington, VA 22209.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Department of Commerce, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (which presently has a hiring freeze except for contractors) all post staff abroad.
Please note: Identifying oneself as a Baha’i on a job application or during an interview is rarely appropriate or helpful, and letting it be known that you desire the job as a vehicle to pioneer would be very poor form.
A valuable source of information about international employment: :
The Overseas List: Opportunities for Living and Working in Developing Countries. (Beckman and Donnelly, Augsburg Publishing House, 1979) An extremely comprehensive guide to international employment, study and business opportunities (written for Christians seeking to live overseas). Indexed separately by organization, location and occupation. Available from Bread for the World Educational Fund,
New York, NY 10003 (phone 212-260-7000). Cost is about $6. Check the library first.
Two practical steps to take in anticipation of overseas employment:
1, Study a language (French or Spanish alone would open much of the world to you).
2. Acquire any type of international experience from summer study programs abroad to Baha’i teaching or service projects.
3. Start contacting the organizations for information to get a feel for exactly what your possibilities are.
Perhaps these thoughts will help some earnest pioneer hopefuls to realize their hearts’ desire. —Nancy Branham Songer
Seminar at Louhelen to set Baha’i-Marxist dialogue, discussion
To help Bahá’ís understand Marxist principles and practices, the Association for Baha’i Studies has arranged a seminar, ‘‘Restructuring Society—A Baha’i-Marxist Dialogue,”’ to be held January 24-26 at the Louhelen Baha’i School in Davison, Michigan.
Included will be keynote presentations by a Baha’i and a Marxist. Among the speakers will be Counsellor Farzam Arbab.
For more information, contact the Association for Baha’i Studies, ;
Ontario KIN 7K4, Canada (phone 613-233-1903).
[Page 7]
ee
YOUTH NEWS
December 1985
7
Diane Margaret Young, a Baha’i youth from Downey, California, was recently graduated with honors from the University of California-Irvine. Now attending UCLA on a graduate fellowship, she earned cum laude degrees in French and Spanish, was elected to Phi Beta Kappa (the national scholastic honor society) and Sigma Delta Pi (the national Spanish honor society). Miss Young, who is fluent in six languages, has traveled extensively, studying for a year in France, working as a volunteer teacher in Mexico and in a department store in a German-speaking area of Switzerland. Her career goal is to teach Romance language linguistics at the university lev:
During junior high school graduation ceremonies this year, Kathy Brown, a 15-year-old Baha’i from Cleveland, Ohio, placed second in her class in scholastic achievement, won the Presidential Academic Fitness Award, was presented a certificate from the Ohio state House of Representatives for academic achievement, won the Young Authors Award for writing achievement, and awards for excellence in math, business education, English and social studies. The National Junior Honor Society member also received service awards for working in the library and department of public relations at Alexander Hamilton Junior High.
Peace statement challenge to College Clubs
The National Youth Committee would like Baha’i College Clubs to present the peace statement to the campus population on three fronts.
FIRST, as an individual, each club member can mention appropriate passages from the statement to his friends and acquaintances in classes or elsewhere.
Baha’i college students are encouraged to take classes on world problems and to undertake personal research of Baha’i solutions so that each may become skilled in the presentation of the Baha’i views.
We ask each club to encourage individual presentations, discussions among club members about the problems and successes in individual delivery, and to consider making one of the club’s goals the doubling of its membership through recruitment of non-Bahá’í_ members who are sympathetic to our beliefs.
Next, clubs are asked to approach other clubs and organizations on campus with the statement. Organizations that have mandates that are religious, civic, activist, etc....in short, any group that is not dedicated to parties, athletics and beer might be approached.
The Baha’i Club can foster friendships among the groups and even serve as a unifying force for all the campus groups. The club should also consider participating in the activities of other clubs, as well as joint sponsorships of peace projects.
LAST, but not least, each club will want to present the statement to the leaders of thought and intellect on campus: the president, deans, department heads of history, religion, philosophy, economics, sociology, political science, journalism and communi tions, professors of classes on peace, black studies, and peacerelated issues are important, as
Hutchinson youth host ‘Unity Dance’
On August 16, the Baha’i youth of Hutchinson, Kansas, hosted a “Unity Dance’ for their friends. Baha’i youth from a four-state area were invited.
The next day, after prayers and a deepening conducted by Brad Rishel, the youth held a free car wash until 3 p.m., giving out ha’i literature and wearing Bah T-shirts.
Fifty-two youth from age 11 to 22, about half of whom were not Baha'is, attended the dance where they also played volleyball, ‘‘Tyivial Pursuit,’’ and other games. Five adult sponsors were present with the parents of two non-Baha’i youth from Topeka.
Several non-Baha’i youth also took part in the car wash which, like the dance, was planned by the Baha’i youth in Hutchinson,
well as campus newspapers and other media.
The Office of External Affairs and the National Youth Committee have prepared guidelines for a dignified and appropriate delivery
of the Universal House of Justice’s peace statement. These were mailed in November to all local Spiritual Assemblies, College Clubs, Regional Youth Committees, and District Youth Commit tees. Those who would like additional copies should contact the Baha’i National Youth Committee, 1371 Sunset Strip, Sunrise, FL 33313. Phone 305-584-1844.
‘Mona and Me’ workshops see success stories
By now every Baha’i in this country should have had one or more chances to take part in a “Mona and Me’? workshop session in their district.
These sessions, dealing with how to teach by using ‘‘Mona’s Story,’’ have been co-sponsored in every district by the District Teaching Committee and District Youth Committee.
If you missed the workshop in your area and would like to help set one up, please contact your DTC or DYC.
There have been quite a few success stories already, with several high school students invited to show the video and give talks on human rights and several
Redlands follow-up service project has its accent on youth
As a follow-up to 1984’s “Launch the Eagle’’ youth service project, the Spiritual Assembly of Redlands, California, decided this summer to sponsor a second project after the Baha’i Youth Conference in Columbus, Ohio,
City officials were contacted and their support enlisted for a tree-planting project at Prospect Park in Redlands. +
In all, about 65 Baha’i youth from a number of communities took part in the week-long project which also included the removal of sod from another city park and its replacement for a playground at the local YMCA.
When word got around that the Baha’ youth were returning to Redlands, several phone calls were received from other organizations, as a result of which the youngsters were able also to help the Senior Citizens Center with some gardening work, the Redlands-Yucaipa Guidance Center with some painting, and the Redlands Theatre with restoration work,
On one weekend, the young Bahá’ís planted 65 trees in the park, and an article about the effort appeared in the local newspaper, the Redlands Daily Facts.
About 15 youth stayed for the entire week.
The service project ended August 17 with a well-attended dinner and public meeting at the Redlands Community Center with entertainment by the Los Angeles Baha’i Youth Workshop.
The Assembly reports that it feels that ‘‘a lasting friendship
between the Baha’is and the city ©
of Redlands is firmly established.””
colleges having continuous showings in their student unions. Some
youth clubs are sponsoring weekly
firesides featuring the video and a
guest speaker.
When Mona Mahmudnizhad was executed in 1983, it was reported that she was recognized as having the potential to become a great teacher, and that only her execution would stop her.
Little did her executioners realize that in putting her to death, they were actually launching this young soul on a mission as a worldwide teacher of the Faith.
We’d love to hear your stories describing how Mona has helped you in your teaching efforts. Please write to the Mona Task Force, Baha’ National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091.
me. sl Eighteen youth and pre-youth including some non-Baha’is took part June 14-17 in a Virg) Eastern Shore youth retreat at Vaucluse Shores in Machipongo.
Classes were geared to the institute’s theme, ‘Youth and the Most Challenging Issue.’ Recrea n included swimming and
music.
Young Baha’is encouraged to apply as Youth Year of Service volunteers
The National Youth Committee continues to receive applications for Youth Year of Service posts from interested youth across the country.
MORE and more opportunities are being developed, both in this country and overseas.
Mary Stevens from Washington state is presently serving at the Amoz Gibson Project in Wanblee, South Dakota. Living at the project headquarters in St. Francis, Mary puts in a full day teaching and deepening new believers as well as helping with the administrative aspects of the project.
Mary, who traveled with a youth caravan from the Northwest to the International Youth Conference at Ohio State University last July, stopped at the Gibson Project with the group as it returned to Washington.
She was moved to stay at the Reservation at that time and has remained there ever since.
She writes, ‘‘The people here are really wonderful and have such big hearts! I hope to gain a lot of experience in teaching and dealing with people.”’
More young volunteers are
dsr RSENS A SA AR A RNR REESE RRR A A ETT
needed at the Gibson Project and at the Navajo-Hopi Reservation in the Southwest.
IN ADDITION, there is an immediate opening at the National Teaching Committee office at the National Center.
The Baha’i Properties Office at the National Center is looking for YYS volunteers with a variety of skills from architecture, landscaping and carpentry to hotel management and typing.
Overseas, youth with a fluent knowledge of Spanish or French are needed in Mexico, Guyana, Belize, Africa, Haiti, and other places.
Youth with an interest in the media, especially radio and audiovisual educational materials, can apply to receive training at the
Amoz Gib: aining Center in Arecibo, Puerto Rico. Youth with any of these skills or
with an interest’ in developing them to take up 2 YYS post in the near future should contact the Baha’i National Youth Committee office for more details. The address is 1371 Sunset Strip, Sunrise, FL 33313. Phone 30° *%4-1844,
- Assembly Development Program
+ Baha'i Schools
- Brilliant Star (Child's Way) Magazine
- Local Education Adviser Program
- Personal Transformation Program
EDUCATION
The American Baha’i
Family Unity Night (Fun)
FIRST WEEK OF JANUARY: SUBMISSION/OBEDIENCE (Muhammad’s Birth, January 8). Thought for the Week: ‘Say: True liberty consisteth in man’s submission unto My commandments ...”’ (Bahá’u’lláh) Prayer: Bahá’í Prayers, p. 29, No. 1. Lesson: Read and discuss one or more of the suggested lesson materials: 1. Baha’i World Faith, pp. 136-37, pp. 17-18. 2. The Hidden Words, p. 5, No. 7; p. 8, No. 18. 3. The Reality of Man, pp. 51-52 (fourth significance). Activity: Refer to the last sentence On p. 137 of Baha'i World Faith (above), ‘*... Whoso hath tasted of its sweetness will refuse to barter it for all the dominion of earth and heaven.”” There are four qualities to the sense of taste: sweet (honey), bitter (vanilla), salty (salt) and sour (lemon). Give each child a spoon and let him taste the honey. It is sweet, and it represents the sweetness of servitude to God. Have the other tastes represent evil and darkness, animalism, self-worship (choose words your child can understand). Let the child taste and compare; would he trade the honey for the other tastes? Likewise, trading servitude to God for liberty is unthinkable. Older children can help the younger ones learn this activity, or they might make a list of examples of sacrifice, such as a seed sacrifices itself to the tree, a house to its inhabitants, etc. See who can make the longest list. Refreshments: Fruit and cheese kabobs: on toothpicks, alternate red and green grapes with cheese cubes. Arrange on a plate—fan-style—with nu‘s in the center. Chilled apricot juice.
SECOND WEEK OF JANUARY: SULTAN (Sovereignty). Feast, January 19. Thought for the Week: ‘Thine is sovereignty; in Thy hand are the Kingdoms of Creation and Revelation.”” (The Bab) Prayer: Bahá’í Prayers, pp. 79-80. Lesson: Read and discuss one or more of the suggested lesson materials: 1. The Hidden Words, p. 7, No. 15; p. 3, No. 1. 2. Baha'i World Faith, pp. 70-71, 97-98. 3. The Secret of Divine Civilization, pp. 20-23. Activity: Look up the word “sovereign” in the di
ary. Make a crown together to represent sovereignty. Use crayons, poster board, and/or construction paper. Then play “Simon Says” and have Simon wear the crown. Refreshments: Fill glasses half-full with shredded carrot. Fill with orange Jell-o and chill till set. Top with carrot curls. Serve with pineapple juice.
THIRD WEEK OF JANUARY: UNITY OF RELIGIONS (World Religion Day, January 18). Thought for the Week: ‘The soul of every Prophet of God, of every Divine Messenger, hath thirsted for this wondrous Day.” (Bahd’u'llih) Prayer: Bahá’í Prayers, pp. 102-103. Lesson: Read and discuss one or more of the suggested lesson materials: 1. The Hidden Words, pp. 11-12, No. 34, 2. Baha’s World Faith, pp. 9-11. 3. Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, pp. 1-3. 4. The Divine Art of Living, p. 13, No. 21. Activity: Refer to Baha’i World Faith, p. 10, and to the word “glimmer.” Make snowflakes out of construction paper. Try a variety of shapes, folds, and scissor cuts. Then, using a flashlight or bright light bulb, put the snowflakes in front of the light. The total light cannot be seen, but glimmers of light can be seen. Notice the patterns made by the light and snowflakes on the wall/ceiling. This i
- u'llah’s Revelation; it cannot be totally comprehended, but glimmers can
be discerned. Refreshments: Popcorn and apple cider.
FOURTH WEEK OF JANUARY: THE HOLY LAND. Thought for the Week: “Ere long will God sail His Ark upon thee ...”” (Bahá’u’lláh) Prayer: Bahd’{ Prayers, pp. 174-75. Lesson: Read and discuss one or more of the suggested lesson materials: 1. Gleanings, pp. 12-14, 14-17. 2. Baha'i World Faith, pp. 271-73. 3. Bahd’u’llh and the New Era, pp. 252-53. 4. Anthology for Bahá’í Children, pp. 23-24. Activity: Gather (purchase) different colors of tissue wrapping paper. Lay several sheets on top of one another and cut into two-inch squares. These squares will be used to make a garden or a flower for one of the Holy Places. Put a small amount of glue in a cup or lid. Crush or roll the squares, dip them in the glue, and place it on the paper. For a garden, draw a design on sturdy paper and decorate it with the crushed tissue paper. For a flower (hyacinth), roll a piece of paper into a cylinder or use a paper towel roll. Cover the top half with the tissue-paper squares. Then put the bottom half into a styrofoam cup or stuff paper around it so it will stand up. Refreshments: Fruit salad with milk.
FIFTH WEEK OF JANUARY: THE HANDS OF THE CAUSE. Thought for the Week: “It behooveth them not to rest for a moment, neither to seek repose.” (‘Abdu’l-Bahá) Prayer: Baha’i World Faith, p. 172 (prayer for the Hands of the Cause). Lesson: Read and discuss one or more of the suggested lesson materials: 1. Baha’i World Faith, pp. 439, 441, 443. 2. Cassette tape, ‘In His Presence,” by the Hand of the Cause of God T. Samandari. 3. The Baha’ Revelation, p. 162. 4. The Covenant and Administration, p. 90. 5. Bahd’u'lláh and the New Era (1970 edition), p. 263, “The Hands of the Cause of God.’? Activity: Do something on behalf of the Hands of the Cause. Hold a fireside, pray, or write one of them a letter. Refreshments: Peanut butter/honey finger sandwiches and fruit juice.
a
David Smith new executive director rehabilitation services
of Michigan
David L. Smith, who served as secretary of the National Education Committee from 1978-85, was recently named executive director of the Michigan Association of Rehabilitation Facilities, whose offices are in Lansing.
THE POSITION will involve representing the Association’s 70 facilities throughout the state, securing the support of the state legislature and executive agencies for its programs, training personnel at member facilities, and upholding standards set by the Board of Directors.
During Mr. Smith’s tenure as secretary of the National Education Committee, the committee expanded the number of Baha’i schools from 21 to 50, established the Local Education Adviser Program (LEAP) and spread it to the 48 contiguous states, and took the Personal Transformation Program from three to 46 states.
It also reissued the Assembly Development Program in a revised format and guided the evolution of Child’s Way magazine into Brilliant Star.
Among the most significant
Task Force to meet
The Louhelen Task Force on Baha’is and the Legal Profession, which is holding a conference January 10-12 at the Louhelen School in Davison, Michigan, reports that it has received wide response to the conference from Baha'is in the U.S., Canada, Central America, and from places as far away as the Philippines.
Because interest has been so widespread, the Task Force is sending notices of the conference to National Spiritual Assemblies in North America, Central America and Europe.
Also, the Task Force is expanding its agenda to include a discussion of the importance of the Universal House of Justice’s peace statement to legal professionals. A workshop on ‘‘International Law and the Peace Statement”’ has been added.
Judge James F. Nelson, chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly, and Judge Dorothy W. Nelson, treasurer of the National Assembly, both plan to attend the conference.
The Task Force may be contacted by writing or telephoning either of two members: Steven Gonzales, _
East Lansing, MI 48823 (office, 517-373-3476; home, 517-3511415), or Ted Amsden,
Mount Clemens, MI 48043 (office, 313-568-6554; home, 313-468-2423).
To register, send a $10 (nonrefundable) deposit to the Louhelen Baha’i School, 3208 S. State Road, Davison, MI 48423, or phone 313-653-5033. VISA and MasterCard are accepted.
achievements during this period was the reconstruction and inauguration of the Louhelen Baha’i School, a development in which Mr. Smith was intimately involved from its inception.
Mr. Smith, who was secretary of the Louhelen Council before going to the National Center, says he looks forward to continuing his involvement with the school now that he, his wife, Melanie, and their three children are only 60 miles away.
Mr. Smith left the National Center in April to resume his career in human services when the National Spiritual Assembly decided to discontinue the National Education Committee in favor of a new Education Task Force.
Before going to work in Wilmette, Mr. Smith was director of the “Big Brothers” program in Midland, Michigan.
DAVID L. SMITH
Brilliant Star plans full year of issues devoted to many aspects of world peace
In conjunction with the International Year of Peace 1986 and the release by the Universal House of Justice of its statement, “‘The Promise of World Peace,”’ Brilliant Star magazine has planned a full year’s worth of exciting issues to complement the theme of peace and bring it into focus for both children and adults.
Beginning with the January February issue, six themes inspired by the Universal House of Justice will be addressed, one by one, in each of the six issues of the
- The first of these will deal with
“Peace Through Religious Unity’” and this big blue marble we live ‘on.
Succeeding issues’ themes will be ‘‘Peace Through Universal Language/books and words,’’ “Peace Through Education/special people,” ‘Peace Through Sexual Equality/life cycles,’’ “Peace Through Law/justice and mercy,’”” and ‘‘Peace Through Race Unity” focusing on Australia and the Pacific.
The editor, Deborah Bley, and managing editor, Mary K. Radpour, in close collaboration with art director Rita Leydon, are busy preparing these special issues, the first of which is almost ready for the printer.
The most recent issue that dealt solely with peace with November 1983. That issue contained “Peacemakers in Our Time’’ which covered the contributions of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi and Dag Hammerskjold.
To ensure your not missing one of these excellent issues, now is the time to subscribe. They can be used for Bahd’{ schools, classes, adult deepening, as ideas for parades and displays. Or be auda cious and subscribe for a friend.
We on the editorial board of Brilliant Star realize that not every child who would benefit from receiving Brilliant Star is able to afford it. Thus we invite individuals, Groups and Assemblies to present gift subscriptions.
If you would like to do that but don’t know who to send a subscription to, we’ll be more than happy to arrange for a family who is not presently receiving it to begin doing so. Some of our pioneer families who eagerly await Brilliant Star find that their resources necessitate not renewing their subscriptions, and we also welcome gift subscriptions for pioneers.
The Brilliant Star Subscriber Service is at Suburban Office Park, 5010 Austin Road, Hixson, TN 37343. A one-year subscription (domestic) is $12, two years $23. One year foreign subscription (surface mail) is $15, two years $28.
What an exciting, vibrant way to let your friends and relatives know about the International Year of Peace and the Baha’f Faith—a gift of Brilliant Star.
Archives has guide to open collections
The National Bahá’í Archives has available a guide to those collections open for research.
The 19-page guide covers 149 collections of institutional reccords, personal papers, community histories and personal recollections, giving the collection title, quantity, and some information about contents and significance.
The guide can be ordered for $2 from the National Baha’i Archives, Baha’i National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091.
[Page 9]
EDUCATION
December 1985
9
Dr. William Diehl, the Louhelen class on ‘Power Learning’ during sion September 29-October 4.
Baha’i School’s director of administrative affairs, conducts a
Louhelen’s first Elderhostel ses
(Photo by Michael O’Shea)
14 seniors present as Louhelen hosts first Elderhostel session
A group of 14 senior citizens from Michigan, Illinois and Ohio attended the Louhelen Baha’i School’s first Elderhostel session September 29-October 4.
Courses were held on “Islam, a Force in History and World Events’? (taught by Linda Walbridge of Escanaba, Michigan); “Power Learning” (by Dr. William Diehl, Louhelen’s director of administrative affairs); and ‘‘The Contemporary American Family’” (by Ms. March Walker, a therapist from Flint, Michigan).
Social directors for the week were Richard Marks and Mrs. Janet Marks of Wilmette, Illinois.
Elderhostel is an educational program for people 60 years of age and older which takes place throughout the year in more than
Children raise $180 for Brilliant Star endowment
A standing ovation for the children! Not only did they raise $180 for the Brilliant Star Endowment Fund, but their radiant faces and joyful enthusiasm buoyed everyone’s hearts.
Two ‘Fun Fund Workshops’’ for children were presented in July: one by Patty Kubala at the
Milwaukee (Wisconsin) Baha’i Center, and the other by Jan Finley at a weekend Baha’i summer camp in Augusta, Wisconsin. Each was followed by a presentation about the Brilliant Star Endowment Fund and how that Fund is used to pay for the production of the magazine. As a re
Children at the Georgia Baha’i
Summer School try out their new
4-by-10 foot ‘Baha’i Center’ de
signed by Larry Parham of Alto,
Georgia, and built by the children
themselves in about three hours.
Children at Georgia Summer School build own miniature ‘Baha’i Center’
Children ages 6-14 were treated to a special project on the last day of the Georgia Baha’i Summer School at West Georgia College in Carrollton.
Larry Parham, a designer and builder of arch beam buildings, brought the raw materials for a 10-by-14 foot model of a Baha’i Center.
Helped by Dr. LaVont Steele of Augusta, Mr. Parham supervised construction which was completed entirely by the children in three hours.
Mr. Parham, who has worked for the past several years on the design and production of inexpensive housing, has been asked to
submit his designs for use by Baha’i_ communities who are considering constructing Baha’i Centers.
With the expansion of the Faith, he says, we can expect to see more Centers with a variety of designs. He feels we are rapidly approaching the time when the “physical reality’’ of a structure which signals our presence to the at-large community will be realized.
Mr. Parham welcomes correspondence with other Baha’is who are interested in the design and construction of Baha’i facilities. His address is Alto, GA 30510.
sult, the children decided to have a special booth at the Green Lake (Wisconsin) Conference in September.
Participants made bookmarks, place mats, greeting cards, ninepointed star candle holders, and zucchini bread. The booth was quite exciting with wares displayed, copies of Brilliant Star, a display about the Endowment Fund, and a world map with stars representing subscribers from around the world.
There was also a contribution box, and for each contribution to the Endowment, the contributor received a piece of candy with a sticker on it. Stickers matched the gift items.
The editorial board of Brilliant
Tribune readers rank House of Worship high
The Bahá’í House of Worship in Wilmette was among the top eight nominees when the Chicago Tribune recently asked its readers to choose their favorite ‘‘buildings, places, spaces and things”’ in the Chicago area.
The House of Worship, Tribune architecture critic Paul Gapp wrote in the Sunday arts section, is ‘tan amazingly delicate exercise in reinforced concrete located near the lake shore in Wilmette.
“The temple has no connection with any significant Chicago advances in design, although its beauty attracts steady crowds of visitors.””
Star would love to hear about ways in which your children (and adults!) have supported the magazine and/or its Endowment Fund. Please send your news to Brilliant Star, Suburban Office Park, 500 Austin Road, Hixson, TN 37343.
BOSCH BAHA’i SCHOOL WINTER SESSION
Theme: ‘‘Universal Peace, More Than an End to War.””
WINTER I: (December 21-25)
Classes available for all age groups.
Adult sessions: ‘‘World Peace Through Economic Justice,’’ ‘Moving Toward World Order: A Developing System of World Law.”
Teachers: James Turpin and William Davis. Also, Wendy Heller will present a class on her book, ‘Lidia, a Life Lived for Peace.””
WINTER II (December 28-January 1)
Adult sessions only: ‘‘World Peace: Not Only Possible, But Inevitable.”’
Teachers: Eileen Norman, Nat Rutstein. Also, ‘‘A Life Lived for Peace,” presented by Wendy Heller.
The text used for all Winter Sessions will be the Peace Statement by the Universal House of Justice. For further information please contact the Bosch Baha’i School, 500 Comstock Lane, Santa Cruz, CA 95060 (phone 408-423-3093).
Directory of children’s programs planned
A national directory of Baha'i children’s class programs in the U.S. Baha’i community is being compiled by the National Teaching Committee. Children’s class programs in this network will rens from the National Center regarding educational and curricular information.
If your local class program is not included in this network, you are encouraged to contact the LEAP coordinator in your district or the National Teaching Committee office. Please give the name, address, phone number and Bahá’{ I.D. number of one contact person and one alternate contact person for your class program.
ceive periodic communic:
800 colleges, universities and other educational institutions in the U.S., Canada and about a dozen European countries.
Students take up to three noncredit courses on a variety of topics that are challenging and thought-provoking yet require no prior knowledge or formal training. It’s also a marvelous opportunity for students to meet new people and get to know new areas of the country.
Louhelen hopes to offer Elderhostel sessions each year; the next session will be held in the fall of 1986.
The Bosch Baha’i School in California has been hosting Elderhostel sessions for several years with considerable success. It is part of both schools’ effort to extend their educational services to the public. 4
The Louhelen School received wide praise from the Hostelers, many of whom were non-Baha’is. One of them commented that this was the best session she had attended out of seven.
Louhelen School has busy agenda for winter, spring
Among the upcoming programs at the Louhelen Baha’i School:
December 27-January 1: Winter Session, devoted to achieving a fuller understanding of the statement on world peace to the peoples of the world from the Universal House of Justice. Special guests: Dr. Victor de Araujo, Mrs. Betty de Araujo, Dr. Richard Thomas, Dr. June Thomas, Bill Sims, Dale Sims, Jeanne Gazel, Rama Ayman.
December 27-January 1: Youth Week: The Promise of World Peace. Special guests: Dr. Changiz Geula, Mrs. Marianne Geula.
January 10-12: Baha’is and the Legal Profession. Special guests: Judge James Nelson, Judge Dorothy Nelson.
February 14-16: Marriage Enrichment Institute. Special guests: Dr. Dan Popov, Mrs. Linda Kav elin Popov. February 14-16: Preparation for Marriage. Special guests:
Hank Wich, Mrs. Ginger Wich.
February 14-23: Spiritual Enrichment Institute. Special guest: Mrs. Joyce Harmsen.
March 22-23: Naw-Rúz Gala.
March 28-30: Victory Celebration for the Seven Year Plan. Special guests: Auxiliary Board members Dorothy Borhani, Javidukht Khadem.
April 11-13: Junior Youth and Senior Youth Conference.
For more information and/or rates on any of these programs, write to the registrar, Louhelen Baha’i School, 3208 S.. State Road, Davison, MI 48423, or phone 313-653-5033.
[Page 10]
TEACHING
The American Baha'i
10
Spiritual qualities especially necessary for Baha’i teacher
In a letter of Ridvaén 1982 the Universal House of Justice called for a ‘‘mighty upsurge of effective teaching’’ to meet the challenge of the growing hunger of peoples of the world for the “love of God and reunion with Him.” This is the fifth in a nine-part series that explores the principles of teaching the Faith. Every believer can, through the simple and direct guidance found in the Writings, become an all-confident, effective Bahd’{ teacher, capable of uniting hearts with Baha’u’llah.
.
As Baha’is, we know that part of the purpose of life in this world is to acquire spiritual attributes. Such qualities are especially necessary for Baha’i teachers.
MANY specific qualities are identified by Bahd’u’ll4h, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi as elements of effective teaching. Some of the most important that are mentioned are:
Enkindled with the love of God
Frogmore Project beckons U.S. Baha’is
to South Carolina
The spirit and heart of Fort Tabarsi, originating from the Louis Gregory Baha’i Institute last summer, are moving on, fulfilling the goals of the Seven Year Plan.
We need youth, we need traveling teachers, we need you!
“‘Whosoever quickens one soul in this Cause is like unto one quickening all the servants.””
Please travel to the Louis Gregory Institute from December 20-25 to help us teach and expand, visit the newly declared believers, and quicken the hearts.
If you need hospitality or have questions, write to Heather Lally,
Kingstree, SC 29556, or phone her at 803-3825618. We will leave the Gregory Institute from December 26-30 to continue the siege of Fort Tabarsi in Frogmore, South Carolina, where mass teaching began in 1969.
For information on the Frogmore project, please write to Amber Spahn, P.O. Box 236, Frogmore, SC 29920, or phone her at 803-838-5453.
“If he be kindled with the fire of His love ... the words he uttereth shall set on fire them that hear him.’’ (Gleanings, p. 335) Humility
“The teacher should not see in himself any superiority; he should speak with the utmost kindliness, lowliness and humility, for such speech exerts influence and educates the souls.”’ (Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 30)
Detachment
© From the world:
“‘Whoso ariseth to teach Our Cause must needs detach himself from all earthly things. ...”” (Gleanings, p. 334)
© From the response received:
“Wholly for the sake of God should he proclaim His Message, and with the same spirit accept whatever response his words may evoke in his hearer. ...’’ (Gleanings, p. 339)
© From success in teaching:
“Should a man ever succeed in influencing any one, this success should be attributed not to him, but rather to the influence of the words of God. ...’’ (Gleanings, p. 277)
Love and Kindliness
“If a believer showeth kindness to one of the neglectful, and, with great love, gradually lead him such a one will certainly be transformed. ...’’ (Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 265)
Many other qualities are described in the compilation ‘‘The Individual and Teaching.”” These include persistence, a rejoicing spirit, patience, eloquence, enthusiasm, hospitality, truthfulness, audacity, confidence, dedication, tolerance and understanding.
While so many qualities to acquire may seem somewhat overwhelming, all we are really required to do is make the effort. This is true for every element of effective teaching.
If we rely on Him, God will work through us despite our weaknesses. And the assistance we receive will in turn help us to acquire the characteristics we need.
A letter written on behalf of
Local Assemblies formed.
Mount Prospect, IL Tasco County West, FL
NEW BAHA’is
Since Ridvan.
SEVEN YEAR PLAN TEACHING PROGRESS
Assembly goal (Seven Year Plan).
Assemblies on Indian Reservations (g Welcome to these new Assemblies:
Stone Mountain, GA Hinds County, MS_ Soldier Creek, SD St. Charles, SC
Number of youth (included in total).
1,750 56 60
New Braunfels, TX
. ‘unprecedented increase’’ 3,431 (as of October 23) 941 (27%)
Shoghi Effendi states: ‘‘Perhaps the reason why you have not accomplished so much in the field of teaching, is the extent you looked
The Baha’is of Hempstead, New York, recently helped the town of Cedarhurst celebrate its 75th anniversary with a booth at the Cedarhurst Town Fair. Besides
WLGI
Continued From Page 1 dignity and propriety.
The Bahd’{ programming has consisted primarily of spots on the basic principles of the Faith including the oneness of mankind, the oneness of religion, the elimination of prejudice (especially racism), the equality of men and women, and the establishment of universal peace.
Special Baha’i programs are broadcast for Feasts and Holy Days, and the station also carries announcements.inviting people to firesides and other Baha’i-sponsored public events in the region.
WLGI has begun to fulfill its role as a public service entity by airing spots and short programs on community events and on topics such as health and nutrition.
“People in the area are very positive about the station,”” said Mr. Cornwell. ‘‘Of course, they are attracted by the music and by the fact that we don’t play commercials, but what they really seem to like is WLGI’s positive spirit and its efforts to promote unity.””
Much of the credit for the early development and success of the station, said Dr. Robert Henderson, secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly, must go to Dell Campbell and Mark St. Clair, who served as the management team during the station’s first year.
“WE'RE very grateful for the professional quality of the work carried out by the management
upon your own weaknesses and inability to spread the Message. Bahá’u’lláh and the Master have both urged us repeatedly to dis
distributing pamphlets, posters
and ‘Wage Peace’ balloons, the
Bahá’ís showed the ‘Mona’ video
and ‘The Making of Mona’ tape
throughout the three-day event.
team,”’ he said. ‘There are always challenges to face when establishing a new business. It’s even more difficult to be responsible for developing a Baha’i radio station because it’s something this community has never tried before.
“In spite of these constraints,” said Dr. Henderson, ‘‘the team has done an excellent job of keeping WLGI on track and, even more than that, of helping it to grow and develop.’’
The goal of establishing WLGI’s identity as both a Baha’i radio station and a public service institution ‘‘is a formidable one,” Dr. Henderson added. ‘‘We’re pleased to see that WLGI has been able to move steadily toward this goal through the dedicated efforts of the station staff.”
At the end of its first year, he said, “‘WLGI is right on target—it is rapidly evolving into its role as a popular and trusted public servant.’”?
As is true of any new Baha’ stitution, said Mr. Campbell, “we've experienced birth pangs, but that’s a normal part of the growth process.
“We're fortunate and grateful to have had the loving guidance and support of the National Assembly during this most critical period of the station’s development.
“EQUALLY important,’’ he added, ‘“‘have been the prayers and encouragement for WLGI offered by Bahá’ís around the world.””
Ever since the station’s inception, Mr. St. Clair noted, ‘‘it has been gaining steadily in popu
regard our own handicaps and lay’
our whole reliance upon God. ...””
(‘The Individual and Teaching, '
No. 41)
se ee
Considerable interest was shown,
especially by the town’s teenagers, some of whom returned
several times and brought friends
to see the video tapes.
larity. Just about every day we encounter people from the community, and we’ve been surprised and delighted at how many of them offer their unsolicited support for WLGI.
“After working here for a while,’’ he said, ‘‘it becomes quite obvious that this is Bahd’u’ll4h’s radio station. He makes it work.””
‘Operation Daybreak’ teaching project held in Harwich, Mass.
Twenty youth from Massachusetts and Connecticut took part October 19-20 in the first ‘‘Operation Daybreak” teaching weekend in Harwich, Massachusetts.
Harold and Verlyna Furbler of Harwich and Baha’is from surrounding towns met for nine days of prayer prior to the teaching weekend.
On Saturday, the friends shared the message in gift shops, taught door-to-door, handed out flyers for a peace meeting that evening and a picnic the following day, and visited the Christian Science reading room where they were invited to attend a Sunday worship service,
After dawn prayers on Sunday, the friends attended the Christian Science service and were warmly welcomed. One woman whom they met there attended the Baha’i picnic that afternoon.
‘The Bedrock of All Other Institutions National Baha’i Fund Wilmette, IL 60091
Jenene i RN RESEARCHES a WR ATEN
[Page 11]
TEACHING
December 1985
11
‘Victory Harvest’ carries Faith to all areas of Kansas
The Kansas “‘Victory Harvest”’ project was planned to encompass and encourage all kinds of teaching and consolidation in the state including direct teaching, firesides, social events, conferences, deepenings and proclamations.
BEGINNING with minimal resources, the project has now attracted support from all areas of the state with events being planned by individuals, Groups and Assemblies in cooperation with the District Teaching Committee and the Au:
Direct teaching campaigns have had the most dramatic results, with Baha’is traveling from all over the state to projects in the northeastern corner and southcentral area to reach more than 20 waiting souls in Kansas City, Wichita, Wellington, Newton and Sedgwick County this summer.
A goal was set to have a direct teaching project every weekend, and this has been done although sometimes only one team has been
Teaching effort brings Georgetown Assembly
On September 7, 19 Bahá’ís took part in a day-long teaching effort in Georgetown, Texas, which led to two declarations.
The formation of the city’s Assembly is assured, with the possibility of homefront pioneers soon to move in to help strengthen it.
sent out.
In September, the District Teaching Committee responded to an ad in The American Baha’i from the Bahd’js of Florence, South Carolina, who offered to teach in exchange for a fundraiser to help build their Baha’i Center.
The Bahá’ís from Florence came to Kansas from October 26 November 7 and helped in the declaration of eight adults and 18 children in Kansas City, Kansasall of them from minority backgrounds.
Consolidation projects are now being planned in that area, while new direct teaching projects are being planned for Wichita, South Hutchinson, and Newton through the end of the year. ‘2
IN AN effort to foster fireside teaching and to remind the friends of the need for social interaction, the District Teaching Committee has offered to prepare international dinners with firesides to follow—or just cook, or just speak at a fireside.
The early results of this offer have been exciting, with an international potluck in Winfield that was attended by more than 30 people, of whom only 13 were Baha’is, and a Mexican dinner in Olathe attended by 20, half of whom were not Baha’is.
At each, people were reached and touched by the Faith who had
Energies released by peace statement provide many new teaching opportunities
In its letter of January 3, 1985, calling on National Spiritual Assemblies to begin planning for the International Year of Peace, the Universal House of Justice wrote:
“Your planning efforts for 1986 must not, of course, interrupt the work of the Seven Year Plan. Indeed, the activities associated with the economic and social development of the Baha’i community, the observance during 1985 of International Youth Year, and the anticipated activities for the peace campaign to begin a year hence are mutually reinforcing and go far to enhance the teaching opportunities necessary to the successful completion of the Plan.”
The energies released in the community as a result of the House of Justice’s statement on peace provide new opportunities for teaching—especially for firesides.
Consider some of the following ideas:
- Hold firesides on various
topics related to the Baha’i perspective on peace, This can range from the nature of man to the role of religion in peace to the barriers that must be overcome to establish world peace.
- Tie a fireside series in with a
media effort to proclaim the Faith’s view of peace. Proclama tion materials including ads, billboards, leaflets, posters and other items will soon be available from the National Center. A number of materials already are available from Kalimat Press.
© Use the existing pamphlets on peace as an outline for a month of weekly firesides.
© Consult about a community or area-wide fireside plan. One nice home can be chosen for monthly informal talks with preselected topics: all believers would support the effort by taking interested individuals to meet other Baha’is.
A few other homes could hold more informal, bi-weekly firesides that are directed toward topics of interest to those seekers who attend. Finally, the majority of believers could invite people into their homes for Baha’i hospitality, raising peace issues in informal discussions. If these individuals show any interest, they can be invited to the other regular fireside settings.
To be successful in spreading the Baha’i view of peace, we must do more than simply hand out copies of the statement from the House of Justice. We have to create a receptive environment by talking with others, building in them a desire to read and understand the statement.
previously shied away from contact. The fact that these events were non-threatening and that the Baha’ friends of the local Baha’is had traveled great distances to cook dinner seemed to create an atmosphere of openness that resulted in many opportunities to discuss various facets of the Faith.
In general, fireside teaching remains a priority in Kansas, and enrollments resulting from firesides total more than 25 since the fireside contest in November 1984.
Consolidation activities are taking many different forms. To prevent duplication of effort and identify resources and needs within the state, the District Teaching Committee planned a conference to discuss the implications of the peace statement.
At that conference, hosted by the Spiritual Assembly of Olathe, representatives from 12 Assemblies, the Baha’i Schools Committee, the District Youth Committee, the Auxiliary Board, Groups and isolated believers met to consult on what they wished to do as individuals, Groups and Assemblies and as a District.
THE RESULTS of that meeting are very exciting and bode well for the coming months of preparing for and disseminating the peace statement.
On November 10, women from across the state met in Winfield to discuss the role of women and children in peace at a conference sponsored by the District Teaching Committee and hosted by the Spiritual Assembly of Winfield.
Other consolidation activities include a circuit deepening program in which teams are sent to Groups or jeopardized Assemblies with assigned deepening topics. This year, those topics revolve around the peace statement and the role Baha’is must play in bringing about international peace.
The District Teaching Committee also sponsors a mail order deepening course on The Advent of Divine Justice that is mailed to all isolated believers and small Groups by Area Representatives who also are responsible for conveying news and prayer requests to those Baha’is who aren’t visited often.
The unprecedented release of individual initiative that began with the fireside contest in November 1984 and has carried through the Victory Month, with the visit from the beloved Hand of the Cause of God William Sears
20 people enrolled in Enid campaign
On Saturday, August 3, five Baha’i teaching teams began a nineday teaching campaign in Enid, Oklahoma, which resulted in 20 declarations, thus assuring the formation of the Spiritual Assembly of Enid.
and Mrs. Sears, and the ‘‘Victory Harvest” campaign has resulted in an outpouring of strength, unity, dedication, love and energy
that has never before been seen in this district and that continues to grow stronger with each passing day.
Pictured are Baha’is who attended a Peace Conference held September 14-15 in Salt Rock, West Virginia. A discussion of the peace statement from the Universal
House of Justice was led by Auxiliary Board members Sam McClellan (standing in rear at far left) and Albert James (seated at left in front row).
Four-phase materials approach outlined for UN Year of Peace proclamations
Proclamation materials for the International Year of Peace include four separate approaches as follows:
Phase I: Production of five fold-over leaflets around the topics ‘‘Equality of Men and Women,” ‘‘Spiritual Renewal,’’ “Elimination of the Extremes of Poverty and Wealth,”’ ‘‘Elimination of Prejudice,’ and ‘Universal Education.””
A total of 250,000 two-color leaflets, designed to attract people to the statement on peace, will be produced at a low cost of $5 per 100 (no assortments). These attractive leaflets are tied into and coordinated with the following three phases:
Phase Il: This is our global campaign centering around photos of the earth incorporating a peace logo and subtitled “The earth is but one-country’’ and the statement, ‘‘This is a message of the Baha’i Faith.” y
We are producing billboards, space ads, various sized posters, presentation folders, buttons, bumper stickers, window stickers, and balloons, to be ready by December 1.
Phase III: This is a child theme appeal incorporating a ‘‘World Peace Please’’ billboard, space ads, posters, etc. This particular phase will be completed immediately following Phase II.
Phase IV: The approach for this phase will consist of presenting various lifestyle issues to the general public.
The theme will be ‘World Peace Works’ and will demonstrate to people actual alternatives to current lifestyles. It will show the common man exactly the kinds of things he can do to bring about world peace.
We'll have a community and
social development thrust supported by billboards, posters, space ads, balloons, buttons, bumper stickers and window stickers.
All these items will be available through the Baha’i Distribution Service.
Pawtucket launches winter teaching with ‘OctoberTeach ’85’
On October 27, the Baha’i community of Pawtucket, Rhode Island, held ‘‘OctoberTeach ’85,”” an event designed to end the summer teaching campaign and begin the winter campaign.
Summer teaching, which began with a concert for peace (see The American Baha’i, October) and was followed by 37 days of street teaching, resulted in 10 declarations including seven youth.
“‘OctoberTeach’’ opened a winter campaign that will. include street teaching every third Sunday of each month until Naw-Rúz.
Auxiliary Board member William Roberts was present at the event and also conducted a fireside that evening.
Also, Laurie Matthews gave a brief talk about ‘‘Project Lowell,”’ the teaching campaign in nearby Massachusetts whose focus is on the Asian-American population.
The friends visited the grave of Mary E. Bliss, the first Baha’i in Pawtucket (she declared her belief in 1899), and said prayers for her and for the teaching campaign.
Afterward, the Baha’is from all over Rhode Island and some parts of Massachusetts, including Cambodians, Native Americans, Chinese and blacks, got the ongoing campaign under way by teaching in specially targeted areas of Pawtucket.
The American Baha'i
12
On June 13, the Baha’i community of Elk Grove-Galt J.D., California, presented a copy of the new book The Bahá’í Faith: The jergi Global Religion to its local library. Making the presentation to librarian Rosemary Gray
are Ramin Manshadi (left), a student at the University of California-Davis and chairman of the community’s public relations committee, and Anthony Jackson, chairman of the Spiritual Assembly of Elk Grove-Galt J.D.
WHAT’S NEW IN THE WORLD? Baha’i Periodicals Will Keep You in the Know!
BAHA’i NEWS
A monthly magazine containing communications from the Universal House of Justice, news of teaching activities around the world, and articles on a variety of topics of interest to all Baha’ is. The November issue includes articles about the ‘Trail of Light’’ teaching team’s recent visit to Colombia and the 10th annual Conference of the Association for Baha’i Studies.
WORLD ORDER
A: quarterly magazine intended to stimulate, inspire and serve thinking people in their search to find relationships between contemporary life and contemporary religious teaching and philosophy. Back issues are available. The current issue features articles about an international auxiliary language, the poetry of Roger White, a book review, photographs and poetry.
U.S. BAHA’i REPORT
Created by the National Spiritual Assembly to help in its diplomatic work with the government as well as with national and local media, U.S. Baha’i Report carries news of individual Baha’is and their contributions to society, meetings between Baha’is and government agencies, and information that non-Baha’is would be interested in. It is published quarterly and is available to individual Baha’is and communities on a subscription basis.
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Appointment of Chinese Teaching Committee brings new life to teaching efforts on campus
The recent appointment of the Chinese Teaching Committee has begun to focus more effort on “reaching people of Chinese background”’ and raising up Chinese-speaking teachers, two goals of the Seven Year Plan.
THE committee has identified college campuses as the most receptive area for teaching at this time. Following are some of the recent teaching highlights:
© Harvard University, as a result of the teaching efforts of Baha’i students, enrolled four new Chinese Baha’is last year including a visiting professor in literature. During the past five years the Harvard students have reached more than 100 Chinese; many of them were taken to Green Acre where they were attracted by the loving kindness and harmony they saw among the Baha’is.
- MIT also has a strong teaching effort among its students. Ten
Baha’fs are studying the Chinese language together.
- At Northwestern University,
Chinese students have been regular guests at a weekly gathering of Baha’is and others for a program and refreshments. Recently, the Chinese friends planned the program for one of the meetings. The friendships made continue to blossom.
- Chinese friendship activity
started at the University of Wisconsin in Madison after a Baha’i student attended one of the Northwestern University gatherings at the home of Jene Bellows and invited some of the Chinese students to visit Madison.
¢ A law student who spent more than a year in China continues to make friends among the Chinese students at UCLA, often inviting them home to cook dinner and meet other Baha’is.
- Columbia University has a
Chinese Baha’i who lives near campus. All of his Chinese friends have learned about the Faith through him, while other Baha’is have come to visit and to build a network of Chinese friends. The
Correction
In the August issue of The American Baha’i, Changiz Geula was identified as coordinator of the children’s conference held as a part of the International Youth Conference last July in Colum> bus, Ohio.
Actually, the children’s conference was planned and implemented by a task force whose members were David Douglas (the over-all coordinator), Marianne Geula (program director), Michael Stump (administrative director), Changiz Geula and Saba Nolley, with William Parker and Bert Harvey as on-site additions to the task force.
In all, more than 60 volunteers were involved in handling the conference of more than 500 children.
Chinese have been taken to the Baha’i Center, to firesides, and to Green Acre.
- At Georgetown University in
Washington, members of the Baha’i Club have begun to focus on their Chinese friends. The friendships started on a one-to-one basis and extended to more Baha’is and Chinese from one meeting to the next.
© Baha’is at the University of Colorado invited Jene Bellows to share her ‘‘China’” slide program with the Chinese friends there, who had been involved in camping and fishing activities with the Baha’is. More activities are planned.
There may be Chinese teaching activities on other campuses too.
If so, the Chinese Teaching Committee would love to hear about them.
For those who would like to begin such activities, we recommend that you get to know individuals by inviting them to social events at first. After they’ve become familiar with other Baha’is, you may wish to invite them to firesides, or you may decide simply to build strong friendships.
We urge Baha'is of Chinese background, and those who know the Chinese language, to get in touch with the Chinese Teaching Committee. You may contact the committee through the National Teaching Committee office at the Baha’ National Center.
The Spiritual Assembly of Manhattan Beach, California, and its extension teaching goal, Hermosa Beach, co-sponsored a booth over the Labor Day weekend at the Fiesta de las Artes, a semi-annual art fair held in the streets of downtown Hermosa Beach. The booth was part of the ‘Food Pavilion’ in
which vendors sold foods from all over the world. During the 90-degree heat, the Bahi’is gave away free glasses of water to about 2,500 people during the three-day fair. About 300 people took information about the Faith
many others stopped to ask questions.
Properties Committee readies guidelines for communities seeking Baha’i Centers
To Local Spiritual Assemblies Dear Baha’ Frien
The National Properties Committee is currently preparing guidelines to assist local communities which are considering the acquisition (by gift or purchase) of a local Baha’ Center. These guidelines will set forth the
bas
criteria to be used for determining whether a community is in a po sition to assume this responsibility and will offer information on the
issues to be considered.
Until these guidelines are available, the National Spiritual Assembly suggests that local Spiritual Assemblies postpone making any decisions about acquiring local Centers, whether through the acceptance of property donations, by purchase or by the execution of a long-term lease.
Should your community desire further information about the acquisition of Baha'i Centers at this time, please feel free to contact the Baha’i National Properties Committee at 112 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, IL
60091. With warm regards,
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States November 5, 1985
The American Baha’i
December 1985
13
Doug Cameron, band take ‘Mona’ story to 17 U.S. cities
Recording artist Doug Cameron toured the U.S. with his band October 18-November 10 promoting his first commercially released record album, ‘‘Mona with the
Children,’’ and taking the story of Mona Mahmudnizhad to 17 cities in less than 30 days.
ie i More than a hundred people including at least a dozen non-Baha’is attended a presentation in September of the video ‘Mona with the Children’ in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The video was preceded by a presentation on the background of the persecution of Bahá’ís in Iran and recent legislation opposing them, and was
If you can identify any of the young people in this picture of the 1957 senior youth homecoming at
Can you identify
MR. CAMERON, accompanied by production and tour manager Jack Lenz; two non-Baha’i musicians, drummer Jorn Anderson and bass guitarist David Pilch; and technical director Shedan Maghzi, traveled from Stanford, California, to Prince aw
followed by a panel discussion. Panel members were Roya Mahmoudi (who portrayed Mona in the video), Artin Mahmoudi, Richard Dodge, Carol Brooks, Kevin Barnes and Dr. Fereshteh Bethel, who recently completed a dissertation on the scientific aspects of martyrdom.
co iste Fase ® the Louhelen Bahá’í School, please write to the National Bahi’i
ton, New Jersey, to perform for thousands of Baha’is and non-Baha’is.
The show, says Mr. Lenz, was a tremendous success.
“Baha'is really knocked themselves out to give us all the help we needed,”’ he says, ‘‘especially Baha’is in smaller towns.””
The turnout among the Baha’i community was especially good. Some Baha’is from Nebraska drove for several hours to attend the concert in Wichita, Kansas.
The show provided many teaching opportunities as Baha’i College Clubs and local Bahá’ís prepared for the concert. At Indiana University, the Baha’i Club initiated important media contacts which members believe will facilitate their presentation of the Universal House of Justice’s peace statement.
The Spiritual Assembly of Phoenix, Arizona, noted that preparation for the event brought the community much closer together.
AT Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, the campus newspaper carried a front-page article about the concert, while at the University of Denver, a local radio station helped publicize it.
Firesides were held after each performance, attracting Baha’is
any of these young Baha’is?
Tulsa Baha’i first to win U.S. mountain, hammer dulcimer titles
Steve Smith, a Baha’i from Tulsa, Oklahoma, has become the second person ever to have won national championships in both the hammer and mountain dulcimer competition.
Unable as 1984 champion to enter this year’s hammer dulcimer contest, Mr. Smith instead entered and won the national mountain dulcimer championship.
The hammer dulcimer is an ancient instrument found in variations around the world. It is an ancestor of the piano and harpsichord and is similar in design to
the Persian santour and Hungarian cymbalon.
The mountain dulcimer, on the other hand, is an American instrument developed around 1800 in the Appalachian Mountains. It is usually hourglass- or tear-drop shaped, with three to six plucked or strummed strings.
Mr. Smith and his wife, Jean, have enjoyed playing at many events over the past year, with the highlight a toss-up between the visit of the Hand of the Cause of God William Sears to Kansas and a teaching trip of musical firesides
in Ireland and Scotland.
They were joined at the recent national championships by their latest dulcimer player, five-weekold Tara Jean Smith.
‘Toward World Peace’
“Toward World Peace II’’ is the theme of a Baha’i-sponsored conference to be held February 15-16 at the University of Florida in Gainesville.
For more information, please phone ‘Debbie Miller (toll free), 1-800-S9BAHAI.
and non-Baha’is alike. Besides attracting seekers, Mona’s story is an inspiration to Baha'is, especially the youth.
Mr. Cameron himself feels that this response to his work is most rewarding. ‘‘People are saying they’re noticing that their own personal contacts are being affected by the song and video,”’ he says. ‘People aren’t descending en masse on firesides, but they are attracted by (the) emotional pull (of the song).
“This is a refreshing way to teach the Faith: by telling a story, not ‘hitting someone over the head’ with intellectual information, but simply opening an emotional door (for them).””
Most important, he adds, ‘‘the youth are becoming inspired. It’s very rewarding to see the Baha’i community supporting this effort and being inspired by it.””
Commercially, says Mr. Lenz, the song has done well on the charts in Canada. It took more than three months for the Canadian public to become aware of it, and the awareness came only after good support from the record company, True North, whose distributor is CBS Records in Canada.
THE SONG hasn’t enjoyed the same level of support in the U.S., he says, and is not getting the press coverage it received in Canada, where the making of the “Mona” music video was news while it was being produced. It doesn’t have that advantage in this country.
One way for Baha’is to increase support for the record and video, says Mr. Lenz, is to ask for the al Doug Cameron plays, ings at
Northwestern University.
bum in record stores who will have to go through the distributor, A&M Records, to obtain it.
Also, says Mr. Cameron, Baha’is can request that it be played on radio stations.
“It’s difficult in larger markets,”’ he says, ‘‘because the stations are often locked into tight programming, but if enough interest is shown, perhaps it will have some effect.’’
While there is as yet no information as to how well the record is doing in the U.S., the National Youth Committee reports that it continues to do well in Canada.
The ‘‘Mona”’ video, according to Billboard magazine, is presently in ‘‘light rotation” on MTV.
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Order through your local.
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(including 10% for postage and handling, minimum $1.50) to
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The American Baha'i
14
Kalimat Press has announced the publication in December of the book The Master in ‘Akká.
The book was written in 1903 by a non-Baha’i, Myron Phelps, from notes taken by Mr. Phelps and Contess de Canavarro during a month spent in ‘Akká at the close of 1902.
Mr. Phelps and the Contess were Buddhists, and some of their beliefs may have colored the ac The top 25 sellers for first half of ’85
Baha’i Challenge
Unrestrained as the Wind
Peace Pamphlets
Mona Music Video (VHS
and Beta)
Unto Him Shall We Return
Baha’i Faith: The Emerg ing Global Religion
The Promise of World
Peace (Study Edition)
8. Baha’i Faith in America
9. We Are One
10. Baha’i DayBook
11. Baha’i Prayers, HC
12. Ark of Destiny (VHS and Beta)
13. Waging Peace
14. Baha’u’llah and the New Era
15. Baha’i Prayers, SC
16. Baha’i Readings, leather
17. Circle of Unity
18. Baha’i Readings, SC
19. Consultation: Lamp of Guidance, SC
20. Education/Trustees (VHS and Beta)
21. Baha’i Wall Calendar
22. Some Answered Questions,
Son re
-PS
23. If You Only Knew
24. Unity in Diversity, CS
25. Baha’i Faith—Unity in Diversity (VHS and Beta)
‘Studies’ notebook centers on health
Health is the topic of the fourth volume of Baha’i Studies notebooks published by the Association for Baha’i Studies and now available through the Baha’i Distribution Service.
This volume, the second on the subject of health, is titled ‘‘Baha’i
curacy of their reporting of Baha’i teachings. However, Marzieh Gail, in a new introduction to The Master in ‘Akká, says, “‘It is that personal life of the Master which Phelps has exceptionally well recorded ... the interviews ... with Khanum, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s sister, are of great interest for Khanum’s memories of the tragic events she had herself lived through.’””
Ms. Gail goes on to say that Mr. Phelps ‘‘has certainly kept for posterity certain aspects of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s daily practice, even certain gestures, which touch the heart. ... The fact that Phelps was not a declared Baha’i, although undoubtedly close and sympathetic to this religion, is probably an advantage to the non-Baha’i reader.””
The Master in ‘Akkáé can be ordered from the Distribution Service for $11.95 in hardcover only.
In early January, George Ronald will make available in this country the final work of the Hand of the Cause of God Hasan Balyuzi, Eminent Baha’is in the Time of Baha’u’llah.
This new book was intended as the second volume in a four-book series on the life and times of Baha'u'llah. The first was Baha*wildh: The King of Glory ($24, HC).
In this new work Mr. Balywzi describes the effect of Baha*u’lláh’s Revelation on the lives of 18 of His early disciples.
Included are the stories of the poet Na’im, Samandar the merchant, Mirza Haydar-‘Ali, the secret allegiance to Bahd’u’ll4h of the leading Shi’i clergyman of the day, and ‘‘the gourmet who was a saint.””
Among the photographs are some never before published in the West. More importantly, Eminent Baha’is contains translations of Tablets by the three Central Figures of the Faith, also never before published in English.
Eminent Baha’is is available from the Baha’; Distribution Service for $28.50 in hardcover and $15.95 in softcover.
In addition, George Ronald will be publishing for early January
release a new children’s book called The Song in the Ground. Written and illustrated by one of the more prolific authors of books for Baha’j children, Jacqueline Mehrabi, The Song in the Ground is the story of the meeting of two
neighbor children.
During their meeting Alan, who is 9 or 10, tells his new friend, Emma, who is about 6, about his religion. According to the publisher, the book gives an outline of the teachings of the Faith and ‘‘some New books focus on ‘Abdu’!-Baha, eminent early Baha’is
thing of the beauty and excitement of Baha’u’llah’s message, which children can so often connect with the beauty and wonder of their natural world.”
The Song in the Ground is $3.95 in softcover only.
‘Mona with Children,’ music video find new audience in U.S. as Doug Cameron, band end whirlwind 17-city concert tour
Doug Cameron’s song ‘‘Mona with the Children’’ and the music video made about it are beginning to find a new audience in the U.S.
MORE than 30 radio stations around the country reportedly were playing the record by early November, while the music video was receiving air time on MTV and several all-music television stations.
In October and November, Mr. Cameron played concerts in 17 cities in a tour coordinated by the National Youth Committee.
The group played to audiences of 300 to 700 despite the fact that the ‘‘Mona”’ record was just being released in the U.S. and had received little exposure on radio or television.
Mr. Cameron’s record reached as high as the mid-teens on popularity charts in Canada, and this has led communities there to take a new interest in the “‘Mona Music Video.’””
Assemblies in Canada have been purchasing large quantities of the video, which includes a 35-minute documentary about the life of Mona and the making of the record and video, to donate to schools and libraries in their cities and towns.
THROUGH public meetings and informal presentations to public officials, individuals and communities are finding the video helpful in making people aware of the persecution of Baha’is in Iran.
“The ‘Mona’ video is going to be a valuable part of our teaching and proclamation activities for a long time to come,”’ says Robert Blum, the Distribution Service’s marketing manager.
“Because there was a record with commercial potential, it was
possible to produce the music video and the accompanying documentary to a very high standard, and frankly, there are few recent video productions—on film or tape—that will play well to those who aren’t Baha’is.
“Even if the record ‘Mona with the Children’ doesn’t become a hit,”’ he says, ‘‘or reach the level of popularity it has in Canada, the music video and documentary will
have years of value to individual Baha'is and local communities.”’
The ‘“‘Mona Music Video’’ is available in both VHS and Beta copies for $45 from the Baha’i Distribution Service. Thosé who are interested in buying Doug Cameron’s single record or the album (record or audio cassette) on the Gold Mountain label can buy them from their local record stores.
| f
late October, workers began a major remodeling project at the Baha’i Publishing Trust and Distribution Service in Wilmette. This is the second phase of the remodeling of the building which began last year when the warehouse and shipping operations were moved into the
construction
Bi) a
building at 415 Linden Avenue. Since that time some staff members have been working in temporary office space. When the remodeling is complete, all staff members will have work areas designed to fit their needs and duties.
Total plus 10 per cent postage —___
Studies Notebook: Health Con- Quan. Amt. — Quan. ABt. 4 ferences,”’ and sells for $6.50 in oO A ie ye HC $20.00 _Eminent Baha'is in Time of Bahd'u'lláh, SC $15.95 SL eee ae Tees 2 softcover. Se aces 10:00: )°* — Bpltle to Son of the Wolf, HC’ BSIO0, Enclose a check for the full amount, or
Included are the proceedings | RR tewtbacl Ass —Thetlidden Words of Bahan SC 3.30 Late from conferences of the Baha’i In- D aaa Crees 1.25 _Mona Music Video—Beta, VT 45.00 VISA/MC (CIRCLE ONE) EXP. DATE D ternational Health Agency held — Baha'i DayBook, 3.75 “Mona Music Video— VHS, VT 45.00 betwen 1982 and 1988 eee i i ET I cy germ E
Among the topics covered are: E —Ban' rae bees, gost “Promo Worl Peace _DeuncEd HC” 30.00 Nera R The Role of Nutrition in Health | JR —Balé'{Studies Notebook: onf.,SC_ 6.80 The Songinthe Ground, SC 3.95 ae
- . —_Bahd’u'llah
- King of Glory, HC 24.00 _Unrestrained as the Wind, :!
and Disease; aie Baba’! Motber —Bminent Bahi'istn Time of BahW'u'léh, HC. 28.80. —Umte Him Shall We Return, SC oraMnness as a Health Professional; Coping with Pain: A Combined Spiritual | F ; F and Medical Approach; Nutrition Civ ee eer) Stabe: Zip and Mental Health; A Baha’i Ap- oO oO proach to International Health; Credit card orders ($10.00 minimum) are accepted are Seeccaaly Healthy Commu- | R Bahá’í Distribution Service by plone, ieee 1 outst Ilinois), or 312- _R ie >, within Illinois).
Authors of the articles offered M 415 LINDEN AVENUE . M in ibe ngkeeeok cots eo a a WILMETTE, IL 60091 « TAB 12/85 Prices good through January 31, 1986 riety of health care backgrounds.
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[Page 15]
BAHA’I PUBLISHING TRUST
December 1985
15s
The Creative Word
EPISTLE TO THE SON OF THE WOLL
Winter a good time
to re-read Epistle 4 to Son of the Wolf,
written in winter of Baha’u’llah’s life
Winter is a good time to curl up with a volume of the Creative Word. One of the important volumes we shouldn’t forget is Bahá’u’lláh’s last major Tablet—Epistle to the Son of the Wolf.
Written in the winter of Bahá’u’lláh’s life, one year before His death in 1892, Epistle to the Son of the Wolf occupies a special place in Baha’i literature. It is, in short, a kind of anthology selected by Bahá’u’lláh Himself, and includes some of the best known and most characteristic of His writings, along with proofs establishing the validity of His Cause.
Addressed to Shaykh Muhammad Taqdi (the son of a man who had brought about the martyrdoms of two Babi brothers known as the “Twin Shining Lights’’ and was stigmatized by Bahá’u’lláh as ‘“‘the Wolf,”’ Epistle to the Son of the Wolf calls upon this Shaykh, who was also a notorious enemy of the Faith, to repent of his acts. At the same time Bahá’u’lláh addresses all of humanity.
“Give ear, O distinguished divine, unto the voice of this Wronged One,”’ Baha’u’llah counsels, and then goes on to point out the purpose and station of the Prophets of God, highlight the significance of His Revelation, and give specific admonitions to the leaders of the world and to the people of Bahá.
In Epistle, Baha’u’llah also comments on the significance of Tihran, His birthplace (pages 127, 148 and 149), and ‘Akká, the place of His final exile and death (pages 177-80). This latter information is particularly useful for prospective pilgrims.
Why not use some of the winter hours reading and reflecting on Baha*u’lláh’s last work—Epistle to the Son of the Wolf?
Divine Art of Living, newly revised, expanded to be available in January
‘The Divine Art of Living, newly revised and expanded to meet contemporary needs, will be available in January.
The new edition of The Divine Art of Living, like the older one, is a collection of gems from the Baha’i writings and is a perfect gift appropriate for persons of any religious persuasion.
The new edition is organized to draw the reader from the acquisition of personal spiritual qualities into the realm of practical action.
‘It contains two new chapters. One is on marriage and family life; the other, on the significance of the day in which we live. The book also contains new passages and translations not available in 1944 when it was first compiled.
The chapter on peace and unity will capture the attention of Baha’is and friends of the Faith interested in the topic of world peace.
As the Baha’i writings make
clear, the goal of achieving world peace depends on individual transformation and spiritual development which leads to a commitment to participate in the renewal of society.
The Divine Art of Living addresses the major aspects of this process, such as knowing and loving God, praying and meditating daily, and serving humanity.
The new cover features an evocative photograph of an open rose. The book’s title is stamped in silver.
The price and other details will be announced in January. The Divine Art of Living will make a perfect gift for Ayyam-i-H4—plan on ordering as soon as possible.
For special AYYAM-I-HA gift ideas,
See list on Page 25
Peace compilation takes new, different shape
The peace compilation being prepared by the Baha’i Publishing Trust is beginning to take shapebut in a different form than had originally been anticipated by its compilers.
“WORK on the compilation was begun well over a year ago by Marie Scheffer in Sioux City, lowa, who provided us with hundreds of pages of relevant material from the writings,’’ says Terrill
Hayes, one of the compilers.
“From that material,’ he says, “we came up with several outlines, but the statement on peace from the Universal House of Justice has given us an entirely new direction for the compilation. It has become quite a challenge to organize.”
“It’s too soon to speculate on the final arrangement at this point,’’ says another of the com Reprinting ‘old favorite’ books can be a tricky and often expensive business
For some time Bahda’is have been asking the Publishing Trust if such favorites as Baha’i World Faith and The Reality of Man will ever be reprinted.
DR. BETTY J. Fisher, general editor of the Publishing Trust, says, ‘‘A completely new edition of Baha’i World Faith was originally on the Trust’s 1985-86 publication schedule.
“But with the publication last summer of Unrestrained as the Wind and now the preparation of a comprehensive peace compilation in time to seize opportunities presented by the release of the peace statement, we’ve had to postpone work on the new edition of Baha’i World Faith.
“‘However,”’ she says, ‘‘a great deal of work has been done on an outline and selections for a new edition of Baha’i World Faith. This book will include new translations and material not available in 1943 when Horace Holley compiled the work.
“We're drawing on such as passages from Selections from the Writings of the Bab, Tablets of Baha’u’llah and Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.””
The Reality of Man, says Dr. Fisher, ‘‘presents other problems. To reprint the book we’d have to typeset a completely new edition, for most of the selections in Reality come from The Promulgation of Universal Peace, which was updated in 1982.
“Moreover,”’ she adds, ‘‘Unto Him Shall We Return basically replaces The Reality of Man in that it brings together many writings on the topic of the human soul.
““Unrestrained as the Wind also covers some of the same territory, though this book was specifically designed for Baha’is.’’
The Publishing Trust, says Dr. Fisher, ‘agrees that a compilation for seekers, libraries and so forth on the spiritual nature of the human being is needed. It will only be a matter of time before this is
How to order
To order any titles listed on this page, individuals living anywhere in the world should see the Baha’i Distribution Service coupon in this issue.
Baha’i institutions outside the contiguous 48 states should order directly from the Baha’f Publishing Trust, 415 Linden
leaning, © Kitab-i-Iqan, pocket-sized
joining page.
Avenue, Wilmette, IL 60091.
Reprints Now in Stock
- The Hidden Words of Baha’u’llah (new edition) SC, HC
from the Writings of Baha’u’llah, pocket-sized
¢ Baha’i DayBook: Passages for Deepening and Meditation, SC © Unrestrained as the Wind: A Life Dedicated to Baha’u’llah, SC ¢ Unto Him Shall We Return, SC
For prices and ordering information, please see coupon on the ad
done. But with so many pressing
tasks, it simply isn’t possible to do
everything as quickly as we would
like.””
Other considerations, she says, “affect decisions to reprint or not to reprint old favorites. We live in a time in which new selections from the writings are being made available. And the Universal House of Justice is challenging us to take new directions—in social and economic development, in the proclamation of the peace statement.
“‘Hence we have to look closely at the old favorites to make sure they meet the needs of the ’80s and ’90s.””
Announcements about all forthcoming books from the Baha’i Publishing Trust will appear in The American Baha’i.
Words of praise echo from all sides for Unrestrained as Wind
Praise for Unrestrained as the Wind: A Life Dedicated to Baha’u’llah, the new compilation released by the Baha’i Publishing Trust in July, continues to pour in.
A recent letter from Counsellor Aziz Yazdi at the World Centre had this to say:
“‘My best wishes, my deep appreciation and admiration goes to all those who joined efforts to produce this really valuable book. I pray that every young Baha’; will have the opportunity to own a copy and read it, to become inspired by its contents, to arise to serve and in this way attract abundant blessings and confirmations from on high.’’
A phone call from Minnie Hadley, a member of the Baha’i community of Evanston, Illinois, yielded this comment: ‘‘Old people, young people, and middleaged people should all read this book to be able to know what’s in the writings and to better teach the Faith.
“Its organization and the topics it offers make it a perfect book for now. Even its title is significant because when you're straining you can get little done. With an unrestrained attitude, all things are possible.”
Unrestrained as the Wind has already been reprinted once and is well on its way to a second reprint. Have you ordered your copy?
pilers, Richard Hill, ‘‘because our thinking processes have changed so dramatically as a result of the peace statement. i
“Our goal is to prepare a book that will appeal to Baha’is and non-Baha’is alike. It will include Passages that support the major points in the peace statement as well as those that are representative of important aspects of the Baha’i Revelation reflecting Baha*u’lláh’s vision for the establishment of peace on this planet.’”
The 250-300 page compilation, in both hardcover and softcover, is expected to be available in February. More details will follow.
New O God, Guide Me! ready for Ayyam-i-Ha
O God, Guide Me!, the popular prayer book for young children, will appear in a new edition in time for Ayyém-i-Ha, according to Anne Atkinson, promotions coordinator at the Baha’i Publishing Trust.
O God, Guide Me! features five prayers written specifically for children including one that is newly translated.
It also includes five prayers or parts of prayers, all of which are easily memorized. The translations of the prayers have been corrected as they have been in the adult prayer book.
The prayers are combined with charming interracial illustrations by the late Gordon Laite. The illustrations help capture the child’s attention, reinforce the meaning of the prayers, and facilitate memorization by association with visual images.
The typeface and size of the text in the new edition will help children who are learning to read.
“Children enjoy having their own prayer book as much as adults do,’’ says Ms. Atkinson. “This new edition of O God, Guide Me! with its bright cover and cheerful illustrations will help give them a sense of pride in and identification with Baha’i prayers. Its size makes it easy to put alongside the adult prayer book for family devotions.
“And of course, it makes a lovely Ayyém-i-Ha gift for children. Spiritual Assemblies may want to give a copy to every child enrolled in the community.””
Details about the price and availability of O God, Guide Me! will be given in the January issue of The American Baha’i.
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Classified notices in The American Bahd’fare published free of charge as a service to the Bahá’í community. Notices are limited to items relating to the Faith; no personal or commercial messages can be accepted for publication. The opportunities referred to have not been approved by the National Spiritual Assembly, and the friends should exercise their own judgment in responding to them.
THE LOUHELEN Baha’i School has openings at its Residential College for a head resident and an academic assistant/secretary. The head resident. will serve as an academic and personal counselor to students by overseeing and helping them plan their devotional, educational, work, social and recreational activities. Interested applicants must have experience working with youth. They should also have completed high school and preferably college, be in good physical condition and be in their mid-20s or older. Compensation for this position consists of room, meals and a $75 per week stipend. The academic assistant/secretary will serve as an assistant and secretary to the director of academic affairs. This includes work in the areas of publicity, planning and implementing retreats and conferences, drafting correspondence, compiling reports, and working on special projects. Interested applicants must have good typing skills and should have completed high school and, preferably, college. Compensation consists of room, meals and a $75 per week stipend. These positions would be ideally filled by a married couple who would have the qualifications between them to divide the duties of each job. It would be preferable if both were experienced and interested in working with youth so that they could share in the counseling of students. To apply for either position, or to obtain a more complete job description, send a letter and resumé to the Louhelen Baha’i School, 3208 S. State Road, Davison, MI 48423. The deadline for acceptance of applications is January 1, 1986.
BAHA'IS with an interest in the legal profession are invited to attend what is thought to be the first conference for Bahá’ís in the legal profession, to be held January 10-12, 1986, at the Louhelen Baha’ School. Judges James and Dorothy Nelson will be among the speakers. A major objective of the event is to consult on the formation of an association of Baha’i legal professionals and other interested parties. Recommendations from the conference will be submitted to the U.S. National Spiritual Assembly. Inquiries may be sent to the Louhelen Baha’i School, 3208 S. State Road, Davison, MI 48423 (phone 313-6535033).
UGANDA needs a Child Survival Project manager to manage community-based efforts that will
focus on intervention, training, monitoring and evaluating the project. Work with host governments and local counterparts to promote the establishment of a coordinating committee for nationwide child survival activities. MPH or equivalent, two years Third World experience. Write to the International Goals Committee, Baha’i National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091, or phone 312869-9039.
ARCHITECTS, landscape architects, planners, structural and mechanical engineers, contractors, builders, artists, etc.: August 16 in Vancouver, Canada, marked the first meeting of the Environmental Design section of the Association for Baha’i Studies. Section membership is open to anyone who is concerned with the design of the environment in which humanity lives. For a copy of the initial guidelines and membership information, write to Hussein Amanat, ARC Design International,
West Vancouver, BC V7V-1HB, Canada.
A COURSE on “‘Baha’i Development: The Practical Process of Transforming Mankind,”’ by Holly Vick, a member of the Office of Social and Economic Development at the Baha’i World Centre, is available on audio tape. The course examines the Baha’i concept of development, compares it to other models, places it in the context of the Faith’s emergence from obscurity, and explores its prospects for instigating an organic change in human society and as a means of building the Baha’i world commonwealth. Four tapes, $20. Write to Reflections, Louhelen Baha’i School, 3208 S. State Road, Davison, MI 48423, or phone 313-653-5033. VISA or MasterCard accepted.
LESOTHO is looking for an American teacher for a prep school. Any qualified primary school teacher will be considered, but experience in special English or remedial reading is preferred. Housing and travel expenses provided. For more information, write to the International Goals Committee, Baha’i National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091, or phone 312-869-9039.
GEORGE Ronald, Publisher, in Oxford, England, is looking for extra staff, particularly someone for a managerial job involving most aspects of publishing except direct editorial work. Experience in publishing is not essential, but an interest in Baha’i books is. The job is demanding and varied. For details, write to George Ronald, Publisher, - Oxford 0X5 2DN, England.
DTC is calling for pioneers to come to Rock Hill, South Carolina, and be ‘‘occupied with the greatest undertaking’ in that area. We have a four-year college and a technical college, are 25 minutes from Charlotte, North Carolina. Single Baha’i, couple, or family with children—we need
you to help us. Come, immerse yourself in the spirit of the South! Contact Northern South Carolina DTC, c/o Donna Landau,
SC 29651, or phone 803877-0563.
COME to beautiful Vermont! A lovely place to live, work, study and, above all, become a homefront pioneer in a goal area. Vermont offers job opportunities .in education, high-tech firms, tourism, construction and service industries. There are several good universities and medical centers. For more information, please contact the District Teaching Committee of Vermont, c/o Khodadad Varahramyan, _ Colchester, VT 05446, or phone 802-864-4430.
THE LOUHELEN Baha’i School needs a copy of the compendium for Volumes I-XII of The Baha’i World. If you have a copy and would like to donate it, please contact Mrs. Rebecca Wideman, librarian, 3208 S. State Road, Davison, MI 48423.
IF YOU wish information about homefront pioneering in Oklahoma, please contact the Oklahoma Homefront Pioneering Bureau, c/o the Spiritual Assembly of Yukon, P.O. Box 850824, Yukon, OK 73085, or phone 405354-4447 or 405-354-9424.
“THE BREEZE that stirreth at the break of day...” has been felt! Thanks to many supporters and contributors, the Amoz Gibson Project in South Dakota has been able to accomplish these things from September 15 to November 1, 1985: contacted 396 new believers; enrolled 17 new Baha’is; gave the Message to more than 150 others; helped plan 15 Nineteen Day Feasts; attended 13 Feasts; helped elect two new Spiritual Assemblies; presented 356 gift copies of the short obligatory prayer to new believers; filled out 70 membership data records; hosted two weekend gatherings for new believers, pioneers and projecteers; fed and sheltered 3-7 projecteers; and traveled 6,533 miles in teaching/consolidation work. “It is these very areas (of great poverty) which are the most fruitful in teaching, and a sum of money spent here will produce ten times—even a hundred times—the results obtainable in other parts of the world.”’ (Wellspring of Guidance, p. 20) A special thank-you to Project Lowell in Massachusetts for their generous gift to be used for teaching and consolidation. Amoz Gibson Project,
St. Francis, SD 57555.
AS A RESULT of my participation in several recent Baha’isponsored events (particularly the Green Lake Conference), I have received many requests to travel, teach and perform in the upper Midwest. Most of the teaching projects in which I’ve been involved schedule performances in local schools by day and firesides in the evening. I was recently notified of my acceptance as a tour ing performer in the Arts Midwest Performing Arts Program, which gives matching monies to present touring programs to colleges, civic and service organizations, arts councils and grade schools in Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota and South Dakota. The program would give me the resources to travel throughout the upper Midwest in the dual role of performer and (with the help of local Baha’is) traveling teacher. If there are any Assemblies or District Teaching Committees that are interested in scheduling me, Kevin Locke, for a series of programs, they should contact Arts Midwest, _
Minneapolis, MN 55403, or phone 612-341-0755. Applications must be submitted before February 28, 1986.
THERE IS a small national movement that supports some of ‘the principles of the Baha’i Faith. Its purpose is to educate people about the fact that present-day technology has made any form of warfare obsolete. The movement, “Beyond War,’’ focuses most of its attention on nuclear war. It is in its infancy and is concentrating its attention on the following states: California, Oregon, Washington, Massachusetts, New York, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Wisconsin, Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. A Baha’i involvement in the movement would probably offer many opportunities for indirect teaching and proclamation. For more information, write to Beyond War,
_ _ Palo Alto, CA 94301, or phone 415-328-7756.
PLANS are being made for a Southeastern U.S. Baha’i Youth Conference to be held in June 1986 in Huntsville, Alabama. Talented Baha’is are needed to provide entertainment. If you are interested, please send your name, age, address, and description with or without a tape of your talents to Randy Robinson, .
Huntsville, AL 35805. See you in Huntsville, the ‘Rocket City!”
1985 ‘‘Reflections’’ catalog listing tapes, books, ‘‘Mankind Is One”’ sweatshirts and T-shirts and other Baha’i craft items is available at no charge from the Louhelen Baha’i School, 3208 S. State Road, Davison, MI 48423. Phone 313-653-5033.
A COURSE on “The Forces of Light and Darkness”’ by Counsellor Hooper Dunbar is available on audio tape. The course examines the origin and operation of these forces, the power of the Creative Word, the interaction of spirit and matter, and presents an analysis of the forces of darkness and of the diffusion of the forces of light. The impact of these forces on society and the individual is explored, as are the Major and Minor Plans of God, the twin processes of integration and disintegration, the purging of one’s character, and becoming incarnate light. Six tapes, $30. Write to
Reflections, Louhelen Baha’i School, 3208 S. State Road, Davison, MI 48423, or phone 313653-5033. VISA or MasterCard accepted.
TRAVELING teachers are needed in Florence, South Carolina, to help win the goal of 100 avowed believers by Ridvan 1986. Bring sleeping bag and car, if possible. For information regarding hospitality, phone Dr. or Mrs. Rassekh, 803-667-8140. Join the spirit of Tabarsi!
CROWDED in Orange or Los Angeles counties? Come to serene Colton, California, one hour away, and enjoy low rent while serving the Faith and rebuilding a lost Assembly. Housing available nearby local Baha’fs: 2 bedroom, 1 bath, garage, washer and dryer, children welcome. $350 a month plus $350 security. Contact Cherlynn Rush (days), 714-370-1350, ext. 27, or Trevor Rush (evenings), 714-370-0155. Mail inquiries to the Bahá’ís of Colton, - c/o Rush, Colton, CA 92324.
A NEW clinic in Nepal needs general practitioners, pediatricians and nurses. The clinic sees some 20-40 patients a day and is located in the northeastern section of the country. A room is provided for living accommodations. For more information, contact the International Goals Committee, Baha’i National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091, or phone 312869-9039.
NOTICE to any of you who requested my ‘‘Compilation on Health and Healing.”” Somehow, in the several printings 1 made, page 3 of the original got lost. I’m not sure in which batch this happened, so if yours is missing please call me at 503-772-5502 or write to Marilyn Boesch, 1631 Prune St., Medford, OR 97501, and I’ll gladly send it to you. Thank you for your interest and please accept my apology for the inconvenience. I have also received several additional pieces of material that I did not know existed, so if you have any material to add please send it to me and I’ll make it available as an addition to my original compilation.
NIGERIA has teaching positions open in a medical hospital in obstetrics/gynecology, surgery, pediatrics, and preventive medi cine. Internists are also wanted. Travel, food and housing are provided with the position. For more details, contact the International
Committee, Bahá’í National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091, or phone 312-869-9039.
ATTENTION: Baha’is are needed to move to Socorro, New Mexico, to help form an active Assembly. Socorro (population about 8,000), in central New Mexico near Albuquerque, is the home of the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, which is well-known for its excellence in science and engineering education. Employment opportunities
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include various positions at the college and many businesses in town, while Honeywell and Martin Marietta soon will be establishing offices in the area. This is an excellent opportunity for homefront pioneering. At this time, five adults are needed to form the Assembly. Come and enjoy the New Mexico weather and the intellectually stimulating environment of New Mexico Tech. For more information, write to the Baha’is of Socorro,
Socorro, NM_ 87801, or phone 505-8353235.
SPARTANBURG, a small, charming city in South Carolina’s upstate area, boasts a wonderful climate, is close to mountains, has good employment opportunities in a wide variety of areas, and is the home of Wofford and Converse Colleges as well as USCSpartanburg and the Sherman College of Straight Chiropractic. Come help us teach and consolidate in the Tabarsi Project. The South’s gonna do it again! Contact the District Teaching Committee of Northern South Carolina, c/o Donna Landau,
Greer, SC 29651.
THE GRAND Duchy of Luxembourg is seeking pioneers to help win its remaining goals of the Seven Year Plan. Certain job opportunities exist, and there are many others for private enterprise. School teachers may find full- or part-time work with the American school. Retired persons are readily granted residence permits. Languages are Luxembourgish, French and German, but usually English is helpful. A vast diversity of immigrants offer the change to use such other languages as Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Greek and Slavic. Recent refugees from Iran can always use your encouragement. For more information, write to the Interna: tional Goals Committee, Baha’i National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091, or phone 312-869-9039.
THE LOUHELEN Baha’i School’s fall-winter-spring program guide can be yours for no charge simply by writing to the registrar, Hermione Pickens, Louhelen Baha’i School, 3208 S. State Road, Davison, MI 48423, or by phoning 313-653-5033.
THE LOUHELEN Residential College is accepting applications for September 1986 enrollment. Twenty-six students will- be accepted into the program which will combine formal study of the Faith with degree-earning studies at one of two nearby colleges. Enrollment is limited, so write now for an application and more details: Louhelen Baha’i School, 3208 S. State Road, Davison, MI 48423 (phone 313-653-5033).
A COURSE on ‘‘Becoming an Apostle of Baha’u’llah: Today’s Peace Worker’ by Auxiliary Board member Nat Rutstein is now available on audio tape. The course looks at the factors involved in becoming an apostle,
and the spiritual underpinnings of teaching the Faith. Included is a discussion of how to hold a successful fireside. Stories, many of them amusing, are used to illustrate points. Five tapes, $25. Write to Reflections, Louhelen Baha'i School, 3208 S. State Road, Davison, MI 48423, or phone 313-653-5033. VISA or MasterCard accepted.
ONGOING Baha’ alcohol education research project invites participation from professionals, para-professionals, and interested others. Focus of research is on intervention and education within the Bahaé’i community. Please contact Elizabeth Ritter,
San_ Francisco, CA 94103.
I AM presently working on a prospectus which deals in part with the nature of the ‘‘born again” experience and would greatly appreciate it if some of your readers who believe they have been ‘‘born again’? would answer the following questions and send them to me: (1) in 40 words or less, explain what it means to be “‘born again’’; (2) in 40 words or less, explain how being ‘‘born: again’’ has changed your life. Names will not be used; confidentiality absolute. Send to John Bower, _ Comayagua, HONDURAS.
KIDS can teach too! And do! If you’re a person aged 14 or under (or know of a child who has taught the Faith), write and tell me about the experience. These experiences might include teaching trips, pioneering, Holy Day activities, or teaching experiences around the home. With enough responses, there just may be a book with your story in it! I’m interested in (1) kids teaching adults (ages 15 and up) who then enroll as Bahá’ís; (2) kids teaching kids; (3) kids’ ideas about how to teach. Write to Gail Radley,
Clarksville, VA 23927.
A COOK is needed at the Green Acre Baha’i School: some weekends from now through May, and then full-time during the summer. Please contact the Green Acre Baha’i School, P.O. Box 17, Eliot, ME 03903.
OUR community is considering an activity to honor the educators in. our city and would like to gather information from any person or community who has attempted this. Appreciated would be ideas, pitfalls, things that worked, things that didn’t. Copies of any materials would also be helpful. Write to Mrs. Sue Coates,
Lakewood,
OH 44107.
GEORGE Ronald, Publisher, is preparing to publish a book about Reginald Turvey, the Baha’i artist from South Africa, and is trying to locate a photograph which was taken at the 1963 World Congress in London of Mark Tobey, Bernard Leach and Mr. Turvey. If anyone has a copy of this picture, it would be much appreciated if he or she would contact George Ron ald, Publisher, _ Oxford 0X5 2DN, England.
WANTED for a little theatre ensemble forming in the Cherry Hill, New Jersey, area: anyone interested in acting, singing and/or dancing—experienced or talented amateurs. Also needed: anyone with experience in directing, choreography, stage and design work, and music history. For more details, please contact Karen Williams, 609-786-0813.
URGENTLY needed: Isolated believer in a small rural community in Michigan, working as executive director of a 60-acre ranch for developmentally disadvantaged adults, ‘is looking for mature, stable, deepened Baha’i couples without children to work, live with, and care for five retarded adults. Modern home, all living expenses paid in addition to a good salary. Knowledge of and/or experience with farm work and animal husbandry an asset. This is a chance for the right couple to accomplish several thingshomefront pioneering, teaching by example, working in a human service with a delightful group of “‘pure souls,” bringing a ‘‘community” to an isolated believer while enjoying country living. Please apply to Delores RobinsonSmith, executive director, Meadow Wind Ranch Inc., P.O. Box 36, Walkerville, MI 49459, or phone 616-873-2533.
THE BOSCH Baha’i School has summer staff positions in the following areas: teacher/nurturer of young children; music, song leader; environmental studies (outdoor education); folk dancing; recreation for all ages; lifeguarding; office/computer; food service; building and mechanical maintenance; audio and video recording. Opportunity for service, learning, leadership experience in a unique setting secluded in a redwood forest but near city, community college, UC-Santa Cruz. Interviews in Northern and Southern California by appointment. Please send your resumé and the name and phone number of your Assembly secretary to Jim Kelly, school administrator, Bosch Baha’i School,
Santa Cruz, CA 95060, or phone 408-423-3387.
NEPAL needs an English teacher for the International Language campus of the University of Kathmandu. The position offers a modest salary, sufficient for a single person, A second grade teacher is also needed for a primary school run by a Baha’s. The school is considered to be one of the best in Nepal. For more information, contact the International Goals Committee, Bahda’i National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091, or phone 312-869-9039.
HOMEFRONT pioneers: One of the 16 southern states situated in the temperate zone that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá talks about in the Tablets of the Divine Plan needs a number of blessed souls to live
there who may help guide the people to the kingdom of heaven. A number of communities with members of the black race were mass-taught and have Baha’is who could form strong Assemblies with deepening and consolidation. Among them are Arkadelphia, Sweet Home, England, Cotton Plant and Lonoke. Would you be able to help? Please phone the Arkansas District Teaching Committee, 501-443-1905 or 501442-7064.
MANAGEMENT position: experience and/or training in business management is required for this position in a Baha’i-owned company in the beautiful northwestern corner of California. We are located in the redwood forests and have Native American and Spanish-speaking populations who are waiting to hear of Baha‘u'll4h. Phone District Teaching Committee member Jim Busher anytime, 707-464-9575, or write to
Dawn Point Enterprises, P.O. _
Box 577, Crescent City, CA 95531.
A NINE-DAY Spiritual Enrichment Institute will be held February 14-23 at the Louhelen Baha’i School. The course lays a foundation for fulfilling one’s purpose in life, transmits a sense of inner peace, draws one closer to the Covenant, instills a greater appreciation for prayer and daily study of the Writings, and helps increase one’s capacity for service to the Faith. The cost is $185 for adults who register two weeks or more in advance for a room with 2-3 others. Add $18 for late registration and $45 for a double room (no extra charge for a double or single room for senior citizens or the handicapped). A program for children ages 0-12 will be held. Children 11-12, $150; 4-10, $110; 1-3, $75; 0-12 months, $18. The course will be conducted by Mrs. Joyce Harmsen, an experienced facilitator. To register, write to the Louhelen Baha’i School, 3208 S. State Road, Davison, MI 48423, or phone 313-653-5033. VISA and MasterCard accepted.
TEACHERS are needed in Tanzania for a Baha’i secondary school presently being built. Teachers in all subjects are needed. Applicants should have a B.A. or M.A. with a teaching diploma or two or more years of teaching experience. The school will open next February. For more information, write to the International Goals Committee, Baha’i National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091, or phone 312-869-9039.
KALIMAT Press is seeking papers for a new book whose working title is Circle of Man: Reflections on World Order in Light of Baha’i Teachings. The proposed volume is intended to explore aspects of the problem of world order including present trends of change. Contributors should have some specialized knowledge and/or experience in their topic areas. Possible topic areas from which authors should choose a more specific theme in clude: (1) theories of world order and international relations; (2) history of and prospects for international organization; (3) nature and limitations of, and prospects for, international law; (4) problems of the world economy and their implications for world order; (5) implications of developments in communications and transportation for the emergence of a single world community; (6) the emergence of a world society. Prospective contributors are asked to forward the titles of their articles (and later an abstract) to Kalimat Press,
Los Angeles, CA 90024.
WANTED: The National Baha’i Archives is seeking original diaries and personal recollections of pilgrimages to Haifa, especially for the period 1898-1957. Anyone having such material which they would be willing to donate to the National Archives should write to the National Baha’i Archives, Baha’i National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091.
HOMEOPATHY student would like to know of a good homeopathic college in India that is in an area that needs pioneers or teachers for consolidation. Please contact Stan Eaton as soon as possible at _
Echo Park, CA 90026, or phone 213-250-1198.
A COURSE on ‘‘The Great Adventure’ by Mrs. Florence Mayberry, a former Counsellor member of the International Teaching Centre, is now available on audio tape. The course examines the responsibilities and obligations of the individual and how one fulfills them, setting goals, and the nature of soul, mind and spirit. Five tapes, $25. Write to Reflections, Louhelen Baha’i School, 3208 S. State Road, Davison, MI 48423, or phone 313-653-5033. VISA or MasterCard accepted.
AN OFFSHORE company in Cyprus needs an electronics technician to install and maintain computer equipment. Applicants must be certified in electronics and have a good knowledge of English. Experience in TV and microprocessor servicing would be an advantage. For more information, write to the International Goals Committee, Baha’i National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091, or phone 312-869-9039.
“I DIDN’T know people really lived in Vermont; I thought it was just a place to go on vacation.’’ An active community of seven in Vermont is looking for two Baha’is to save its jeopardized Assembly. Established cl class program, loving si life, teaching and proclamation campaigns in progress, and lovely country living await those who come to Hartford. All are welcome, but we'd be grateful for minorities to add diversity. Persian family especially welcome to help plan cultural transition for im See ADS Page 28
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Young Baha’is take active part in Oregon’s ‘March for Peace’
About 200 youth from many religious backgrounds gathered August 2-4 in Portland, Oregon, for an Interfaith March for Peace.
THE THEME of the 25-mile event, which drew young people from as far away as Florida, South Carolina and Canada, was “Youth Can Move the World.”
Activities began Friday evening at Waterfront Park in Portland with the Portland Interfaith Youth Rally.
Doug Cameron, a Baha’i musician and songwriter from Canada, was among the entertainers, while the line-up of speakers included Sheila Banani, a Baha’i who is the author of the recently released book Waging Peace.
An International Youth Year proclamation from the mayor of Portland was read along with a letter of encouragement from U.S. Sen. Mark Hatfield of Oregon.
On Saturday, the group marched 17.3 miles under a hot sun with many of them wearing ‘‘Wage Peace’’ T-shirts or carrying colorful ‘One Planet, One People ... Please’’ balloons.
Members of the group were in
From the Baha’i
Publishing Trust
A corrected reprint of Bahá’í Prayers featuring
two new prayers—one for the martyrs and their families and one for the departed
- a new alphabetical index to
first lines (replacing the chronological-by-category index)
© corrections on all prayers containing typographical errors in the previous editions
© a softcover edition in a striking charcoal grey
© a hardcover gift edition in maroon with grey endsheets and a silver ribbon
© an embossed nine-pointed star and ‘‘Baha’i Prayers’’ stamped in silver on both covers
Softcover $3.75* Hardcover $7.50*
Available from
Baha’i Distribution Service 415 Linden Avenue Wilmette, IL 60091 Tel. 1-800-323-1880
‘*Add 10 per cent for postage and handling (minimum $1.50); 15 per cent
terviewed by reporters from three television stations.
AFTER supper and a brief rest, the young people attended the Newberg Interfaith Youth Rally.
The Faith was well represented there as well, with Joy Cross, a member of the Regional Youth Committee from Oregon, among the speakers, and music by the Baha’i group ‘‘New Generation.”
Other speakers at that rally were Oregon state Rep. Lew AuCoin and Richard Schneider, chancellor of the World Peace University.
Sunday’s program began with an interfaith prayer service that included readings from the Buddhist, Christian, Muslim and Baha’i Faiths.
The youth then completed the march at the state capital, Salem, singing, ‘‘All we are saying is give peace a chance.’”
Opening music at the Salem Interfaith Youth Rally that evening was provided by a Baha'i folk singer, Karen St. James of Eugene, Oregon.
AS the ‘‘New Generation’ began playing, many in the crowd started dancing on the steps of the capitol building.
The guest speaker was Sen. Walter Brown of Oregon who spoke on ways of enlarging the vision and further developing the peace movement.
Representing the Faith as speakers were Vicentee (Smokey) Ferguson, a member of the National Youth Committee, and Homa Sabat, a young Baha’i from California.
For the program finale, the youth stood in a circle, holding hands and singing ‘‘We Are the World.””
The weekend’s events were covered by three TV stations, three radio stations, and seven newspapers. /
Harrisburg Assembly sponsors overnight children’s conference
The Spiritual Assembly of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, sponsored “Outasite Overnight,”’ a weekend conference for children 5-10 years old in eastern Pennsylvania, August 2-4 at the farm of Alan and Chris Parker.
Fifteen children enjoyed classes, crafts, films, games, swimming and, of course, good food.
The conference was planned and coordinated by eastern Pennsylvania LEAP advisers Joan Brehman and Carol Zandieh.
One of the field trips the children took was to a local volunteer fire station for a demonstration of fire prevention and what to’do when a fire breaks out.
If you can’t pioneer
Attendance, enthusiasm on rise
at 95 U.S. District Conventions
A high level of enthusiasm characterized the District Conventions held October 6.
AT THE 95 Conventions across the country, which ranged in size from less than 20 to nearly 500 adults, Baha’is gathered to elect delegates to the 1986 National Convention next May and to consult on the peace statement from the Universal House of Justice and other matters.
Convention attendees also had an opportunity to hear reports of district-wide activities and to socialize with others in the district.
Several districts reported record turnouts. Attendance was up from Jast year in more than two-thirds of the districts.
Northern South Carolina, Southeastern Florida, Southern South Carolina, Northern Louisiana, Southern Nevada, and Connecticut led the way with increases of 82%, 73%, 67%, 51% and 46% respectively. Over-all, the total number attending Conventions was up about 7% over last year.
A highlight at many Conventions was the lively consultation on the statement “The Promise of World Peace’’ recently issued by the House of Justice.
Hundreds of recommendations and suggestions regarding the statement and other matters were forwarded by Convention secretaries for consideration by the National Spiritual Assembly, while even more ideas were generated for consideration at the local and regional levels.
ANOTHER highlight at many Conventions was the showing of the ‘‘Mona’”’ video. This was the first opportunity for many people to see the video. Reportedly, many were deeply moved by it.
Some other highlights from around the country include the following:
© Prayers and voting instructions in the Khmer language could be heard at the Massachusetts Convention, which was attended by about 20 of the new Cambodian believers there.
- The friends in Kansas enjoyed
a slide presentation of the ‘‘Victory Month”’ activities.
- Many districts, especially the
geographically larger ones, sponsored successful pre-Convention activities such as a conference or Saturday evening social.
- Youth in several districts
elected a youth representative to attend the National Convention.
© Districts were quite creative in thinking of ways to enjoy a meal together at the event. Specially prepared lunches, post-Convention pizza parties, early-bird buffets, picnics, etc. were hits at several Conventions, and many of them also raised money for
}
Pictured are some of the Bahá’í youth who attended the 1985 Dis fornia No. 2, a pre-Convention dinner hosted by the youth netted $999 for the Fund.
« “Exhilarating, exciting and fast-paced’’ consultation was the result when Iowa’s Baha’is were asked to imagine they were at next year’s District Convention looking back on the best thing that had happened in their district during the past year.
- Youth attending the Southern
California No. 4 Convention sent a beautiful letter to those at the adult session calling on them to join the youth in raising their voices in a call for world peace and unity.
© Children delighted the friends at the New Jersey Convention and elsewhere by joining them to share letters they had written to President Reagan setting forth their desire for peace.
- Children’s activities in other
trict Convention in Utah.
areas included a skate-a-thon, a walk-a-thon, playing in the park, watching movies, and presenting songs and plays for the adult session,
Even with the improvement in attendance this year, Convention participation remains relatively low. About 18% of the U.S. Baha’is with known addresses voted in person, and another 7% voted by mail.
Some difficulties with the mailing of absentee ballots did occur, but this is thought to have affected only slightly the number voting by mail, and this mailing problem will be resolved before next year’s Conventions.
It is hoped, however, that the changes in the electoral system recently suggested by the House of Justice (see article on Page 1) will increase participation dramatically in the future.
Mr. Khadem, Counsellor Yazdi speak at Massanetta Springs Conference
The Hand of the Cause of God Zikru’lláh Khadem was the featured speaker at this year’s Massanetta Springs (Virginia) Baha’i Conference, which was held over the Labor Day weekend.
Other speakers included Aziz Yazdi, a Counsellor member of the International Teaching Centre; Soo Fouts, a member of the National Spiritual Assembly; Auxiliary Board members Javidukht Khadem and Nat Rutstein; Dr. Hussein Ahdieh; Dr. Tahereh Ahdieh; Jack McCants, and Farideh Paymani.
Participants heard reports from Project Tabarsi in South Carolina and reflections on the forthcoming peace statement from the Universal House of Justice.
The youth had panel discussions while the children’s program included ‘‘Challenge Courses” in which children earned pledges to the National Fund in return for such tasks as skipping rope, answering Trivial Pursuit question:
Among the many performers during a Saturday evening talent show were Cathy Cowan, Van Gilmer, and ‘‘The New Generation’ (a rock group led by Roshan Bashir-Elahi).
On Sunday morning, a church in nearby Harrisonburg invited the Baha’is to provide a speaker for its service.
Baha’i cemetery saved
While on a teaching trip to Merida, Mexico, Dinah Afsahi and Lupita Ahangarzadeh of Bedford, Texas, found that the city’s Baha’i cemetery could not be used as it was. The bedrock was impenetrable and would require expensive excavation,
The Spiritual Assembly of Bedford consulted about the problem, after which it organized a fundraising effort among Baha’i communities in the greater Dallas-Fort Worth area.
As a result, $2,000 was raised, which was enough to complete the Merida cemetery and make it the
for shipment overseas. depu z National Fund. In Northern C: ete first Baha’i cemetery in Mexic
PERSIAN/AMERICAN
December 1985
19
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[Page 20]
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PERSIAN/AMERICAN
The American Baha’i
20
FIELD OF SERVICE
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[Page 21]
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PERSIAN/AMERICAN
December 1985
21
It takes work to be ‘melting pot’
The United States is a country peopled largely by immigrants and their descendants. Many of our grandparents or great-grandparents came to this country as refugees, fleeing religious and political persecution or unbearable poverty.
WE CELEBRATE America as the world’s ‘‘melting pot,”’ a crucible that has forged people of diverse ethnic, racial and linguistic heritage into a single, stronger alloy.
The difficulties that present-day refugees face upon arrival in this country are no less than what the immigrants of the 1880s or 1910s faced. Settling into one’s new home, learning and using a new and foreign language, looking for work, figuring out how the new society works from legal matters all the way down to how to ride a bus, these are concerns that 4 refugee must deal with every day.
The refugee must confront all of these problems as well as resolving the trauma of having lost his home and homeland, perhaps of having been tortured, or even having lost loved ones.
Despite all of these hardships, many refugees have made significant contributions to our culture. Albert Einstein is but one of the more famous examples.
As Baha’is we believe that the events which have befallen the Baha’i community in Iran will serve only to spread and strengthen our Faith. One of the effects of those events has been the influx of a large number of Persian believers into the American Baha’i community and many other Baha’i communities around the world.
We believe that the presence of believers from many backgrounds in our communities is a divinely granted opportunity for us to demonstrate to the world the ability of the Baha’i teachings not only to create harmony but to integrate and unify our communities.
THIS MATTER is of even more urgence now that the Universal House of Justice has offered the Baha’i community to the world as a model for the achievement of the unity of the human race, for the outside world will closely scrutinize our communities to see how well they work.
Today we can but formulate a vague, idealistic conception of what the future world culture and society foretold in the Baha’i writings will be like. However, we can help lay its foundations in our daily lives by making extra and extraordinary efforts, both within the Baha’i community and in society as a whole, to increase our awareness of the complex and profound issues involved in true integration and unity.
We must strive, in word and deed, to be sensitive to both the needs and capabilities of the people of various backgrounds represented in our community, such as the Persian Baha’i refugees.
To the extent that we devote ourselves to these issues, we will develop stronger and more unified communities. In this way we can help lay the foundation of a world community of the future, brick by brick. We can then oe the shelter of the Baha’i teachings to a desperate world.
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The American Baha’i
22
Pictured are some of the Baha’is
from southern Minnesota who atSummer
tended the third annu:
Fun(d) Fest held this year on the shores of the Mississippi River.
Third annual Minnesota Fun(d) Fest held on shores of Mississippi River
The third annual Summer Fun(d) Fest of Southern Minnesota was held this year on the shores of the Mississippi River.
“The event was the result of the cooperation of the treasurers of local Spiritual Assemblies and Groups,”’ said National Treasurer’s Representative Soheil Zebarjadi, ‘‘and was sponsored by the Spiritual Assembly of Hopkins.’”
Baha’is enjoyed boat rides, water skiing, games and a variety of ethnic foods. The District Teaching Committee, District Youth Committee and Baha’i
Metro Women’s Committee provided activities and booths, raising money both for their funds and for the National Baha’i Fund.
Many enjoyed neck, hand and foot massage service in exchange for contributions to the Fund. Of special note was the art work and games provided by the children.
“This event,’’ said Mr. Zebarjadi, ‘‘was a clear demonstration that sacrificial contributing to the Fund does not mean that one has to suffer; it can, and has to be done with content, belief, joy and happiness.””
Assembly responsible for maintaining records that are of long-term interest to the community
What records should be kept permanently by local Spiritual Assemblies?
The Spiritual Assembly, as a permanent body, is responsible for maintaining all its records, including minutes, correspondence and financial records, throughout its existence as a Baha’i institution.
Each officer, therefore, on completing his or her term of office, should turn over to the Assembly all records pertaining to the business of the Assembly.
Those Assembly records which should be kept permanently include annual reports; minutes; unique correspondence with the National Assembly, Baha’i National Center, other Baha’ institutions and individuals; birth, marriage and death registers; financial records such as cash journals, annual financial reports and contribution receipts; local committee reports; local bulletins, newsletters or calendars; publicity files or scrapbooks; membership lists or directories; and photographs of the Spiritual Assembly, Baha’ community or community activities.
Records that can be disposed of when no longer needed in the active business of the Assembly include routine mailings from the Baha’i National Center; other
Third issue of U.S. Baha’i Report is published
The third issue of U.S. Baha’i Report was mailed in October to more than 1,893 paid and complimentary subscribers.
In response to a recent mailing asking for support for this new
publication, 210 local Spiritual Assemblies, 97 Baha’i Groups and 190 individuals have purchased subscriptions (as of November 5) so that 1,400 non-Baha’i organizations, groups and individuals
Hooper Dunbar, a Counsellor member of the International Teaching Centre, and Counsellor for the Americas Fred Schechter were the featured speakers August 24-25 at a ‘Prepare for Peace’ Conference sponsored by the Baha’is of Long Beach, Californi More than 500 people attended including members of the Long Beach City Council, the United ions Association, the Interre
ligious Council, and nine other
peace-oriented organizations. Pictured (left to right) are Gretchen
Krutz, Fardad Mogharabi, Mrs.
Marilyn Dunbar, Counsellor Dunbar, Anthony A’ve, Counsellor
Schechter, Rodney Shelley, Dawn
Shelley, Rhea Mealey, Brian
lealey, Touba Soopikian, Aux ry Board member Edward Diliberto, Evelyn Diliberto.
can learn more about the Faith and the activities of the Baha’i community.
The Fall 1985 issue, Volume 1, No. 3, features Judge Dorothy Nelson on the front page as a cowinner of the 1985 Justice Award of the American Judicature Society.
Other articles are about Baha’is attending the Decade for Women Conference in Nairobi, Kenya; the youth conference in Columbus, Ohio; and U.S. Rep. Jim Leach’s newsletter about the persecution of Baha’is in Iran.
The eight-page issue also mentions contributions of individual Bahda’is in their communities and includes photographs and information about recent Baha’i books.
Major media outlets in every state receive U.S. Baha’i Report as do all U.S. senators and. representatives. If your community has developed a friendly relationship with a member of the media or local or state government in the course of its proclamation activities, U.S. Baha’f Report would be an appropriate way of maintaining good relations.
Baha’is may subscribe to it for $10 a year, or two years for $18. To all others we'll happily send it free. For more information, contact Subscriber Service, Baha’i National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091, or phone 3 )-9039.
financial records such as bills or canceled checks; enrollment and change of address forms; duplicate copies of minutes, bulletins, etc.
If storage space is a major problem the Spiritual Assembly could also dispose of its files of printed
matter such as The American Baha’i and Baha’i News.
If local Spiritual Assemblies have further questions about their records, they can write to the Na tional Baha’i Archives, Baha’i National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091.
youth, Haleh Samimi, reads the prayer for America to open a daily session in January of
the Colorado state House of Representatives.
Colorado governor scores persecutions, seeks help from President Reagan, UN
In July, Gov. Richard Lamm of Colorado wrote letters to President Reagan, Secretary of State George Shultz, and United Nations Secretary-General Pérez de Cuellar deploring the persecution of Baha’is in Iran and calling on those offices to do whatever is in their power to alleviate the situation.
The governor’s letters were answered by the State Department and Secretary-General’s office, each of which shared its concern and provided information about resolutions condemning the persecutions that have been passed on national and international levels. .
Gov. Lamm had been contacted through one of his aides in August
1984 about the situation in Iran, and was contacted again following the execution in Tehran of Nosratu’llah Sobhani, the father of a Baha’i who is living in Colorado Springs.
In April 1984, a resolution condemning the persecutions passed both houses of the Colorado legislature.
As a result of the resolution and the media coverage that followed, the Baha’is in Denver were asked in January to deliver the invocation at three consecutive daily sessions of the state House of Representatives.
On the last day, the prayer for America was read by a Persian Baha’ youth.
The Baha’i community of Springfield, Illinois, entered this float August 7 in the Illinois State Fair It was designed by the
local Baha’i Youth Club whose members dressed in ethnic costumes as a part of the float.
[Page 23]
THE MEDIA
December 1985
23
INTERMEDIA
News from the Office of Public Affairs
The Baha’ is of Peoria, Ilinois, recently sponsored a showing of Doug Cameron’s music video, ‘Mona with the Children.”’ Bill Knight’s media review column in the Peoria Journal-Star said, ‘Whether secret police or state terrorists, oppressors operate easier in a world kept ignorant. This video is illuminating as well as inspiring.”” Many non-Baha’ is attended the showing, and received the brochure, ‘‘The Story of Mona Mahmudnizhad.”’*
The Seals and Crofts radio special was broadcast throughout November on KISS-FM in Cortez, Colorado. The two-hour program, an interview with Seals and Crofts, includes their songs and mentions the Faith and its effect on their lives and music. The program was sponsored by the Montezuma County Baha’i Media Committee. KISS-FM broadcasts to the adjoining corners of four states. (NOTE: Only six tapes of this program remain—last chance to order at $25 plus postage from the Office of Public Affairs.)
Bill Britton of Orange County, Florida, is the creator and producer of a radio series called “Destiny of America.” The series features wellknown Americans in upbeat interviews about their roles on the American scene. On July 4, the program included Bahd’{ statements about the equality of men and women and reached an audience of 30,000-40,000. Baha’i perspectives on current issues are included whenever possible. The Labor Day program featured an interracial Baha’i family.
A 60-second radio PSA has been converted to print form by Baha’ is in Indiana. The announcement, which speaks out against racism,* appeared in the Indianapolis Recorder for a month.
Jerome Knudsen of Costa Mesa, California, is still traveling and teaching by bicycle (see The American Baha’i, August 1984) and continues to receive good media coverage as he pedals around the country. For example, The Daily Reflector in Greenville, North Carolina, recently carried a front-page article with a photo of Mr. Knudsen proudly displaying his ‘‘Wage Peace’’ T-shirt and ‘“Baha’i Faith’? knapsack.
Milton Bullock, a Baha’i from Newport News, Virginia, received this year’s Jefferson Award from WTKR-TV in Norfolk for his community services through ‘‘Do It for the Kids Inc.’’ Milton’s brothers, James and August, also were honored. The award was signed by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Samuel Breard, and William Taft Jr.
George Savitt, a member of the Spiritual Assembly of Miami, Florida, was featured recently in ‘The Faith Keepers,’’ a column carried in The Miami Herald, for his work with his local Assembly, his hospital volunteer work, and the writing he has done for many years in a column in the Miami Times on topics relating to the Bible and black history. Mr. Savitt was quoted as saying, “‘A life without faith is like a postage stamp without glue. It cannot fulfill the destiny for which it was created.””
The New York Baha’i Regional Public Affairs Office has placed 140 posters proclaiming the Faith in buses in Suffolk County. The bright blue posters have a full-color photo of the Baha’i House of Worship with the legend, “‘The Baha’i Faith: It’s Time for a Change.’’ In the right-hand corner is printed, ‘‘Our House of Worship Is Open to All Mankind. So Are Our Teachings,’’ and six of the teachings are listed.*
Front-page coverage in the San Jose (California) Mercury included information about the Faith as it told the story of how a Baha’i marriage reunited Gene Wildhirt with his mother after a 40-year separation. Mr. Wildhirt, a non-Baha’i who married a Baha’i, Jacqueline Dalloul, was separated from his mother when his parents were divorced. On deciding to marry a Bahá’í, he began to search for his mother to receive parental consent. He finally reached her by placing a $5 want ad in a newspaper in her home state of Pennsylvania.
- Available from the National Office of Public Affairs
Central Florida Baha’is co-sponsor gala UN Children’s Day celebration
To observe United Nations Uni- peared in the Orlando Sentinel versal Children’s Day, the Bahá’ís and the Planter of Seminole of Central Florida initiated and County.
co-sponsored a celebration at Seminole Community College that included clowns, music, dancers and other entertainment for children as well as various lecture presentations for adults.
The local teaching committee initially expected to collaborate with four other children’s agencies, but then received nearly 100 offers of co-sponsorship from agencies in central Florida.
Articles about the event ap Flyers were. placed in schools and churches and also were sent to the Baha’i communities in the greater Orlando area. Storer cable TV repeated announcements daily at six-minute intervals for two weeks before the event.
About 350 children and 200 adults attended the celebration, which also boasted 35 tables staffed by the sponsors including three that carried Baha’i literature and a replica of the House of Worship.
Sixty-five Baha’is from six states attended a Connecticut Proclamation Conference held November 2 in West Hartford.
The all-day conference featured a wide array of topics designed to help Baha’is:
CONNECT with and use local media resources.
CONNECT with the Campaign of Unified Action.
CONNECT with the coming Six Year Plan.
The conference was clearly modeled after the Universal House of Justice’s advice to American Baha’is that ‘‘a systematic campaign designed to proclaim the Faith to the masses through the press and radio must moreover be launched and maintained with vigilance, persistence and vigor.””
The attendees took part enthusiastically in sessions the topics of which ranged from proclamation and teaching to proclamation and media materials; from how-to sessions about working with print, radio, cable and commercial television media to graphics and poster design.
Also included was a proclamation exercise for the audience.
Special guests at the conference were chairman Robert Stockman, author of The Bahá’í Faith in America; Dr. Juan Caban, formerly of the International AudioVisual Centre in Haifa and the National Public Information Committee; Kit Bigelow from the National Spiritual Assembly’s Office of External Affairs in New Haven; and Marcia Leroy from the National Baha’i Office of Public Affairs in Wilmette.
Participants were given an update on proclamation materials for the International Year of Peace, and Ms. Bigelow responded to questions about making presentations of the peace statement. She also explained present strategies for reaching national leaders and prominent figures.
Paso Robles events receive excellent coverage by media
Excellent newspaper publicity was generated during the past year for several events in Paso Robles, California, the most recent of which was an appearance in August at the Mid-State Fair by Baha’i country singer Dan Seals.
Last April, several articles appeared concerning a talk at the Paso Robles library by Guy Murchie, a Baha’i who is the author of several books, among them Song of the Skies, Music of the Spheres and The Seven Mysteries of Life.
The Paso Robles Daily Press and other newspapers in the area first began to take notice of the Faith when a group of Baha’i youth, a part of California’s “Launch the Eagle’? teaching campaign, visited Paso Robles in the summer of 1984.
The Office of Public Affairs presented awards for proclamation projects. The first went to Barry Schumann of Norwich, Connecticut, for his statewide project to plan 144 firesides that would have 12 speakers give talks in 12 communities every month in rotation for 12 months.
The second went to the Baha’i community of Richfield for submitting the most professional and organized presentation about a proclamation event.
After a full day’s activities, the audience was entertained by Renata DePietro, a three-time win =< CONNECTicur proclamation conference
ner of the prestigious Metropolitan Opera auditions, who was given a standing ovation for her moving performance.
Later, the friends reconvened for an equally full evening program of meetings, and returned to their homes that night thoroughly inspired and motivated.
The conference had clearly achieved its goal of being a
“bridge between those contributors to the growth of the Faith who have carried us from meager beginnings to where we are today, and
those proclaimers yet to
This 10- by 32-foot billboard has been sponsored for the past several months by the Bahá’ís of Southwest Harris County (a suburb of Houston), Texas. Designed by Bonnie Wilder of Houston, the billboard is lettered in black with a yellow-orange sun-shaped area in the center and light turquoise blue
wt background. It is positioned beside a major traffic artery in southwest Houston and lighted free of charge at night by lights from a nearby football stadium. Two telephone numbers are on the billboard, and both have borne fruit with inquirers.
Background on peace statement ready
Anticipating demands for information about the Faith and the Universal House of Justice once the peace statement had been released, a special packet of background information has been prepared to meet the need.
TWO versions are available: one for the media, and one to support other presentation activities.
Enclosed within a specially designed folder are four color-coordinated pamphlets arranged in graduated order.
The largest pamphlet is a “working copy’’ of the peace statement. Its wide-margin layout allows room for handwritten notes, underlining and highlighting—an encouragement to indepth study by the recipients (educators, reporters, religious leaders, peace workers, etc.).
Pamphlets two, three and four are: ‘Facts About the Baha’i Faith’’ (the world community, the U.S. community, and related statistics); “‘The Peace StatementQuestions and Answers’’ (answers to most-asked questions); and a reprint of the article about the Faith which appeared in the Encyclopedia Britannica.
The same materials are included in the packet prepared for the media. In addition, it contains two 5-by-7 inch black and white glossy photographs: one, the Seat of the Universal House of Justice; the other, the Baha’i House of. Worship in Wilmette, Illinois.
A sample press release, to be used when formal presentations are made, is inserted for use by the
community p.r. representative.
Both packets are available from the Baha’i Distribution Service. Presentation Background Packet, $2; Media Background Packet, $3.50.
If you need them before January 1986 you may order from the Office of Public Affairs. Make checks payable to Baha’i Services Fund (include 10 per cent of cost to cover postage; minimum 75 cents).
Media course planned
The Amoz Gibson Training Centre in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, will present a two-week course, “Introduction to Baha’i Media,”’ next June 23-July 6.
The course is designed to train Baha’is who will take part in the Youth Year of Service projects, whether on the homefront or abroad.
A general overview of media use will be provided as well as hands-on instruction in the basics of graphic arts, music, photography, audio-visual presentations, radio, television, the press, and more.
The Amoz Gibson Training Centre is operated by CIRBAL, a field agency of the Universal House of Justice charged with the development of Baha’i media in Latin America and the Caribbean.
For more information about this and other courses, write to the Amoz Gibson Training Centre for Baha’i Media, Barrio Rio Arriba,
Arecibo, Puerto Rico 00612, or phone 809-878-4189.
[Page 24]
NATIVE AMERICANS
The American Baha’i
24
An open letter to Native American believers in S. Dakota
In October an excerpt from this letter was submitted to The American Bahdé’{ through the Treasurer’s Office. We thought it would be good if everyone had an Opportunity to read the entire letter, as it speaks to so many points essential to consolidation.
° A letter to the Native American believers in South Dakota Dear Friends, It is with great joy that I greet you today. It is a privilege to be in an area that has so many Indian believers in Baha’u’ lh.
I WOULD like to share with you some of what is written about Indian believers in the U.S.
After ‘Abdu’l-Bahá4 came to this country in 1912, he wrote, in the Tablets of the Divine Plan, “‘You must attach great importance to the Indians, the original inhabitants of America. ...Should these Indians be educated and properly guided, there can be no doubt that through the divine teachings they will become so enlightened that they will illumine the whole earth.’?
You, then, and I, have a special
place in this Faith. It asks us to remain Indian while joining, as Indian people, a world-wide administrative order.
The administrative order is simple. When there are nine adult Baha’is in an area, they form the LSA (local Spiritual Assembly). All the Bahá’ís attend, once a year, the District Convention to elect a delegate to send to the National Convention.
All the delegates at that Convention elect nine people who form the National Spiritual Assembly. Then, all the National Spiritual Assemblies around the world send delegates to Israel every five years to eiect the nine members of the Universal House of Justice.
Our part, yours and mine, in this is as important as that of every other Baha’i in the world. Since we don’t have priests, we all have to do our part.
WE WILL have leaders, but that doesn’t mean they are better or more important than we. We are all important because it takes all of us to make this Faith work.
What can we do at the com
be
4 c Pictured are some of the participants in a Unity Feast held last July in Copper Center, Alaska,
enous Council in Fairbanks.
About 3,000 attend Fairbanks pow-wow as part of Continental Indigenous Council
A high point of the Continental Indigenous Council held last July in Fairbanks, Alaska, was a powwow attended by an estimated 3,000 people, many of whom came from Canada and the U.S.
One of the reasons the Council was held in Fairbanks was to serve as an opportunity to teach the Faith to Native Americans in that area. The majority of people at the pow-wow were Athabascan and not Baha’i.
The Spiritual Assembly of Nenana provided the guests with moose meat soup, fried bread, pilot bread, coffee and fruit as well as a generous outpouring of love and welcome.
Other highlights of the Council were a loving greeting by Coun sellor Lauretta King; a presentation by Lee Brown on Native American prophecies; and a talk by Dr. Khalil Khavari, an Auxiliary Board member from the U.S., during a spontaneous powwow held Sunday afternoon.
Workshop sessions were held on child education, Indian art, and business.
Prior to the Council, one of the Indian believers from South Dakota’s Amoz Gibson Project spent nearly three weeks in Alaska, teaching the Faith and encouraging Native Americans in the area to attend the Council.
After the event, several people spent some time traveling and teaching in the area before returning to Canada or the U.S.
munity level? Baha’u’llah says to pray every day—there is at least one prayer to say each day—and Baha’is all over the world are doing the same thing.
We can try to live the life of a Baha’i. If we slip, we need to not let that drag us down by feeling guilty—every day we try again, and pray to serve Bahá’u’lláh in a good way.
We can help each other in a kind and loving way. If we show love, it will come back to us some way. Be polite, and try not to talk against someone else. (Remember our parents saying if you couldn’t say something good about someone, don’t say anything?)
There are two other responsibilities we need to think about. One is becoming active in the administrative process. That means going to the Nineteen Day Feasts and taking part in consultation.
For years we were used to people talking to us—now we have to talk together. Each of us sees things in his own unique way, and we are asked to share this in a kind and loving way.
THERE IS a tape with Dan Jordan talking about consultation. He says, “Say there are nine people in a room, and they are consulting on the meaning of something. After each one of the nine talked about what he thought the meaning was, only then would the group be closer to the meaning of its?
So each of us is importantwhat we think, what we say.
The other thing is giving to the Fund. The Baha’i Faith is unique in that only Bahá’ís are allowed to give to the Fund. We are given the job of bringing the new World Order into being, and since this is the Baha’i gift to the world only we can fund it.
The principle to remember is universal participation in the Fund. So, it’s better for everyone to give a little than for a few to give a lot.
Sometimes people think it’s embarrassing to have only a penny to give, so I should wait until I have a dollar—but if we wait, then we’re not following the principle of universal participation.
The power comes from all of us
Counsellors Continued From Page 2
guidance and protection and love we receive from the Universal House of Justice and the privilege we have to work under its aegis.””
In paying tribute to their service and that of the other members of the Boards of Counsellors, the Universal House of Justice wrote, “We express to each and every one of these dear friends our heartfelt gratitude and assure them of our prayers in the Holy Shrines for the confirmation of their highly meritorious and self-sacrificing services to the Cause of Baha’u’llah.””
giving something every monththe amount isn’t important; the fact that we give is important.
And the amount you give is between you and God. Only the treasurer who gives you a receipt knows what you give—it is your business only.
So, we need to say our prayers every day, to help each other in a kind and loving way, to become active in our community life and consultation, and to give something to the Fund each month so
there is universal participation.
The Bahá’í Writings say that we, as Indian people, will illumine the world, so we need to learn all we can about the Baha’i Faith so we can do a good job for Baha’u’llah. We are part of those who can give this gift to our people and to the people of the world.
Thank you for taking the time to read this. I send love to you, your family, and your community.
Sandi LeBeau
On September 29, the Baha’i community of Gainesville, Florida, celebrated Universal Children’s Day at the city’s Westside Park. The event was publicized on posters and in the Gainesville Sun as a children’s information and amusement fair. Twenty-seven organizations set up booths or dis s plays including clowns (pictured) from the local 4-H Club who painted children’s faces, a storyteller from the public library, the Gainesville Suzuki Players, and many others. The event was put together in ut three weeks by the Gainesville teaching committee.
UN Forum participants pay visit to Baha’i development project
Among the highlights of Baha’i participation in the NGO Forum ’85, a part of the World Conference for Women held last July in Nairobi, Kenya, were visits to rural development projects organized by the NGO Committee in Nairobi, which requested the Bahaé’{ community of Nairobi to host one site visit.
Baha’is and their guests visited the Gingalili Nursery School, about two hours from Nairobi near Nakuru. Shiva Tavana, the U.S. National Spiritual Assembly’s recently appointed representative to the United Nations in New York, had these impressions of the visit:
“‘When we reached the nursery school, which also serves as the Baha’j Center, we were greeted by the Baha'i teacher, Leonida Nafula, who told us that the school serves 50 children (25 boys, 25 girls) ranging in age from three to five years old from the surrounding village area. In the first week
of the school year the parents teach their children how to get to and from school; after that they come on their own. The curriculum consists of both material and spiritual education; they learn reading, writing, arithmetic, discipline, good conduct and to know and love God through prayers and songs. After questions and answers, we gathered outside to listen to the children sing, dance and say prayers.””
The significance of the school, she says, lies in the important foundation and training the village children receive there. They will subsequently be able to enter public school on a more equal footing with the city children, will have less disciplinary problems, and will not be left behind because of inadequate learning in pre-school. The Baha’is are providing a valuable service to the local community by supporting financially the school and its dedicated teachers.
hacer csere 8g CREE EES SE RR RR RE CR EE SRE EF SRE ESSERE
The American Baha'i
25
December 1985
Pictured (left to right) at a Baha'i sponsored conference on ‘Waging Peace’ held October 3 in St. Louis, Missouri, are non-Bahá’í
er guest speaker Dr. Harry Cargas, oderator Joyce Owen, and Auxry Board member Ronna Santoscoy.
Baha’i ‘Waging Peace’ conference draws
80 to University of M
About 80 Baha’is and their guests attended a conference October 3 at the University of Missouri-St. Louis whose theme was “Waging Peace.””
They heard Dr. Harry Cargas, professor of literature at Webster University and member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, track through antiquity the requirement for hospitality among nations.
Distribution Service Top 25 accounts First half of 1985
1..Green Acre Baha’i School (Eliot, Maine) 2. Louhelen Baha’i School (Davison, Michigan) 3. Los Angeles Baha’i Library4, Clackamas County Northwest (Milwaukie, Oregon) 5. New York, N.Y. 6. San Francisco Baha’i Center 7. Texas Eastern No. 2 District Teaching Committee (LaPorte) 8. Washington, D.C. 9. Riverside, California 10. Seattle, Washington 11. Bosch Baha’i School (Santa Cruz, California) 12. Austin, Texas 13. Connecticut District Teaching Committee (Niantic) 14. Wilhelm Baha’i School (Dover, New Jersey) 15. San Jose, California 16. Washington East (Spokane) 17. Kansas City, Missouri 18. Dallas, Texas 19. Cleveland Heights, Ohio 20. Florida Baha’i Winter School (Windermere) 21. Rochester, New York 22. Massanetta Springs Conference (Rhoadesville, Virginia) 23. Topeka, Kansas 24. Albuquerque, New Mexico 25. Minneapolis, Minnesota
issouri-St. Louis
Dr. Cargas is an unusual non-Baha’i speaker in that his talks are liberally sprinkled with quotations from Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
Also speaking was Ronna Santoscoy, an Auxiliary Board member from Wichita, who outlined the steps that are necessary to build a peaceful world society.
There was entertainment by students from the Pelagie Green Wren Academy of Dance and singers Lindsay La Marche and Tim Bush, while Don Croft, a local Bahá’í artist, decorated the auditorium with a huge banner that proclaimed ‘‘The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens.””
The moderator was Joyce Owen, a Baha’i who is hostess for “*Great American Success Stories’? on local cable TV stations.
She read proclamations from Mayor Vincent Schoemehl of St. Louis and County Executive Gene McNary, each of which designated the first week in October as “Peace Initiative Week.””
To prepare for the event, the mayor and county executive were contacted by letter and telephone, as were the governor and lieutenant governor of Missouri, thus plowing the ground in preparation for the imminent release of the peace statement from the Universal House of Justice.
About 120 Baha’is, friends take part in San Marcos river float
About 120 Baha’is and their friends took part July 20 in the annual San Marcos (Texas) river float.
This marked the 12th year in which Baha’is were involved in the event. Balloons with the legend “One Planet, One People ... Please’ were given out along with
Oak Park Bahda’is guests at Unitarian service
On November 3, members of the Bahá’í community of Oak Park, Illinois, conducted the Sunday morning worship service at the Unitarian Universalist Church in Oak Park.
The topic was ‘‘Peace and the Peace Statement.’’ Claude Caswell, a Bahá’í from Oak Park, spoke on ‘‘Peace and Reality,”
“discussing the causes of war and
the building blocks of peace as outlined in the peace statement from the Universal House of Justice.
Mr. Caswell also mentioned ‘Abdu’ l-Baha’s visit to America in 1912 and the fact that He spoke at several Unitarian churches.
Music included The Hidden Words, sung by Baha'i Yael Wurmfeld; piano selections by Baha’i Camilla Krueger; and music on the Spanish guitar by Baha’i Carlos Mendoza.
Two of the hymns sung were “‘Awake Ye Nations All’’ and “Anthem of All Nations,’”’ both written in the early years of this century by a Bahá’í, Louise Waite.
In addition, three members of the Unitarian church played and
Officials at Beloit UN Day observance
State and local government officials and representatives of many races, cultures and religions from around the world were among those attending a United Nations Day observance October 20 sponsored by the Bahá’ís of Beloit, Wisconsin, and surrounding communities.
An informal survey of those who took part indicated that this year’s 11th annual observance was a tremendous success.
Faith, they wished to support our peace efforts and expressed a desire to contribute to the humanitarian fund.
The Baha’is were invited to the church as a result of a human rights panel discussion held there last spring. That event, whose speakers included Dr. Robert Henderson, secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly, was sponsored by the Baha’is of Oak Park.
sang ‘‘Year of Sundays’’ by Seals & Crofts.
The Baha’is discreetly made available 50 copies of the peace statement which were taken within minutes after the service, and more have been requested.
Three days later, a representative of the church phoned the Baha’i National Center to say how impressed they were by the service, adding that while they knew they could not contribute to the
Ideas for Ayyam-i-Ha and Naw-Rúz
¢ The Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh (new gift edition)
- Baha’i DayBook: Passages for Deepening and Meditation
© The Divine Art of Living (revised, expanded edition)
© O God, Guide Me! (prayers for children, new edition)
© Unrestrained as the Wind: A Life Dedicated to Baha’u’llah © Unto Him Shall We Return
For prices and ordering information, please see the coupon on Page 14. Order soon for the quickest possible delivery.
Baha’is in Connecticut provide service
for mothers at annual Ledyard town fair
The Baha’i community of Led- some visibility. yard, Connecticut, entered a Many parents used the service, unique and highly successful always responding quite favorbooth in the annual town fair in ably. Periodic announcements by September. the fair’s information service told
In consultation, the community _fair-goers about the location of decided to proclaim the Faith by the booth, which was manned by providing a much-needed service one Bahd’{ at a time during the at the fair. A booth was erected in three days of the fair. which two private areas were pro- The Ledyard town fair commitvided for mothers to nurse their tee has asked the Bah’fs to probabies. vide the service again next year.
Also included were a changing table with spare diapers, a trash can, a table with crayons and coloring books, and a C.B. radio for reporting lost children to the fair’s central information office.
The booth’s theme was ‘‘Love That Child.’’ Pamphlets and signs on that subject gave the Faith
Who was the first American Baha’i woman? Find out in
The Baha’i Faith in America: Origins, 1892-1900
If You Loved “Laughter” . . THEN YOU'LL LOVE
Much has happened to the Sears family since the writing Please send me the following copies of ll Flags Flying!
of God Loves Laughter, and here are more hilarious stories Hardeover 120.0050) Softcover sla)
of their travels, with an interweaving of the baste 5 e ar
teachings of the Baha'i Faith and tributes to pioneers and Pléase add shipping charges OP 10's Minimum St,5¢
collaborators with Mr. Sears Kant eS
Delightfully illustrated by Robert Reedy
360 pp.. 21.3 x 13,7 em (883.x 334 in: A illustrations. Address ae eet City ee (eat Pinata Set
Baha'i Distribution Service 415 LINDEN AVENUE, WILMETTE, IL 0009 Thi eos e4psensd bs the: Disibatins Serle
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Baha’i pamphlets.
[Page 26]
The American Baha’i
VIE Chart
Continued From Page 5 ‘Starting Block’ Into
District Name Membership
as of 12/9/84
Number giving
Percentage of participation
Current Month Info (Mashiyyat)
Membership (10/08/85)
Number giving
Percentage of participation
Colorado NE Colorado SE
Colorado W Connecticut
DelMarVa
Florida C
Florida N
Florida SE
Florida SW
Georgia NE
Georgia NW
Georgia S
Idaho N/Washington E Idaho S
| Indiana
lowa
Kansas
Kentucky Louisiana N Louisiana S
Maine
Maryland. W/D.C. Massachusetts Michigan Mainland
Montana Navajo/Hopi
Nebraska
Nevada N
Nevada S
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico N
New Mexico S/Texas W New York E
New York W
North Carolina C
North Carolina E
North Carolina W
North Dakowa
Ohio N
Ohio S
Oklahoma E
Oklahoma W
Oregon E
Oregon W
Pennsylvania E Pennsylvania W
Rhode Island
South Carolina C
South Carolina E No.1 + South Carolina E No. 2 South Carolina N South Carolina S No. South Carolina S No. South Carolina W South Dakota Tennessee E Tennessee W
Texas C No. |
Texas C No. 2 Texas E No. | ] Texas E No. 2
a,
Texas N Texas S Utah
(New districts; established after 12/9/84)
Virginia SW Washington NW Washington SW West Virgini Wis. N/Peninsular Mich.
Wisconsin S
Wyoming Le ~ 2
Pictured are the deluxe hardcover edition (left) and the presentation edition of The Promise of World Peace, each of which is available from the Baha’i Distribution Service. The deluxe edition, designed as a collector’s item, sells for $30
Guidelines for disseminating peace statement
1. Planning
The International Year of Peace task force at the National Center, which coordinates responses to questions from Baha’ fs across the country, recommends that Baha’i communities view the dissemination of the peace statement as a long-term effort and that systematic planning take the place of “shotgun approaches.”
The process may include the following:
- A survey of the social, political and religious environment.
© Selection of target audiences.
- Determination of the most effective strategy for reaching each
audience.
© Preparation of a step-by-step approach to achieve the over-all
© Establishment of a timetable.
2. Formal presentations
- The Office of External Affairs
will coordinate and guide the presentations to the President, governors, senators and congressmen, national organizations, prominent individuals and nationally known figures in various fields, U.S. government officials, and the national media. is
Contact: National Spiritual Assembly, Office of External Affairs, _ New Haven, CT 06015 (phone 203-787-0303).
- The American Indian Teaching Committee will coordinate
and guide presentations to Indian tribal leaders and councils.
Contact: Jaci Delahunt, Baha’i National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091 (phone 312-869-9039, ext. 232).
° The Office of External Affairs and National Teaching Committee will coordinate presentations to state senators and representatives and state officials other than governors.
Contact: James Mock, National Teaching Office, Baha’i National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091 (phone 312-869-9039, ext. 234).
NOTE: If there is a question about whether or not an individual is a national figure, please contact the Office of External Affairs. A special presentation edition of the peace statement is
Public Affairs,
newspaper is usually one day).
NI TTS TSR Nn RR NS ERRATA SAAR RA AE ROR ON A EN ARN AN ELEN OMEN
with proceeds to be used to offset the cost of publishing the presentation edition and other materials to be produced during the Year of Peace. The presentation edition is $3 (see coupon on Page 14).
available from the Baha’i Distribution Service for $3. Reproduction of the peace statement
¢ A set of camera-ready copies is available for consistent and accurate reproductions.
- The camera-ready set includes
the peace statement, the summary, and the addendum. They are available to Bahá’í communities to reproduce as hand-outs at exhibits, fairs, seminars and other public gatherings.
The reproductions are not to be used for formal presentations. Preparing your own summary
Communities and_ individuals may prepare their own synopsis of the peace statement, if they so choose.
Using the media
The following tactics are encouraged:
- Placing advertisements that
call attention to one or more of the themes emphasized in the statement.
© Placing announcements or advertisements of Bahá’í peacerelated activities.
- Issuing press releases and
photographs of local Baha’i peace events.
- Offering public service announcements related to the peace
themes to radio and/or television stations.
For more information concerning use of the media, contact: Shirley Lee, Bahá’í Office of Wilmette, IL 60091 (phone 312-869-9039).
Although dissemination of the statement by printing it in newspapers affords widespread distribution, this method is not encouraged for the following reasons:
- The statement is much too
long to be readily assimilated.
© It is an expensive alternative.
- It is not as effective as a more
personal approach.
- Advertisements with voluminous text are often perceived as
exhortations on behalf of pressure groups and are therefore ignored.
© A newspaper is a ‘‘throwaway”’ item (the life span of a
[Page 27]
The American Baha'i
December 1985
27
Te
.. in The American Baha’i
National Teaching Conferences being held November 1-2 in Joliet, Illinois, and Brockport, New York, are urging individuals to “Arise, Teach the Cause!””
Glenford Mitchell, secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly and first speaker at the ‘Each One Teach One’’ conference in IIlinois, says this marks the beginning of a ‘‘new explosion”’ in the Cause in the U.S.
Auxiliary Board member Peter Khan, addressing the New York conference, says, ‘The pressure Baha’ is are facing in the world today is the pressure of the unfoldment of God’s Will in the world.””
Also speaking at the Illinois conference are the Hand of the Cause of God Zikru’lláh Khadem; Counsellor Edna True; and Charlotte Linfoot, assistant secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly.
In New York, Mr. Khan is joined by Counsellor Sarah Martin Pereira; Dr. Firuz Kazemzadeh, chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly; Dr. Magdalene Carney, a member of the National Spiritual Assembly; and Eileen Norman, secretary of the National Education Committee.
A special slide presentation is made at each of the conferences, accompanied by a recording of the new “Each One Teach One’? song, written especially for the conferences ...
The 28 local Spiritual Assemblies taking part in the LSA Development Program complete their training and split into two-person teams. They are to train other Baha’is to help in developing local Spiritual Assemblies across the country ...
Baha’is on the Umatilla Indian Reservation in Oregon elect their Assembly, the 13th to be formed on Indian Reservations during the Five Year Plan ...
More than 500 Baha’ gather at Lake Mohonk in New Paltz, New York, on October 20 to commemorate ‘Abdu’ l-Baha’s visit in 1912 to the Conference on Peace and International Arbitration ...
The program is held in the same parlor in which the Master delivered a memorable address on “The Oneness of the Reality of Human Kind,” explaining Baha’u’llah’s teachings on the topic and emphasizing that humanity is in need of the power of the Holy Spirit to bring enlightenment and
An Arts Fair is held over the
Labor Day weekend at the Green Acre Baha’i School in Eliot,
Maine
Letters
Continued From Page 3
My message—and I believe I can speak for the majority of American Baha’is—to Persian believers is:
“Welcome! We love you and are eager to incorporate your strengths and abilities into our communities in promoting the growth of the Faith as a whole and individual Bahá’ís according to each one’s capacity.’”
There. Now I feel much better.
Sonni Engel Urbana, Illinois
To the Editor:
I recently heard a talk on radio by Lucille Green, president of the World Citizens Association.
Although I did not catch everything she said, much of what I heard sounded quite similar to the Baha’i teachings. She spoke, for example, about a world government.
Their headquarters are in San Francisco. Does this interest Baha’is as a possible contact?
Carolyn des Granges Roxbury, Massachusetts
To the Editor:
In the book The Earth Is But Qne Country (by John Huddleston) we are told that ‘‘the first challenge (of the world) is how to establish a universal and lasting peace.”?
BUT BEFORE peace can be established, there must be equity and justice. As Bahá’u’lláh Himself tells us in The Hidden Word: “O Son of Spirit! The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice; turn not away therefrom if thou desirest Me, and neglect it not that I may confide in thee ...””
In light of the above, I again call attention to the plight of black South Africans. During this year alone, more than 650 have died, thousands have been injured and more than 2,000 jailed, while the denial of basic human rights continues for that country’s 70 per cent majority population.
Because of the rapaciousness of the governmental system of apartheid, I call again upon the Baha’i community to become more fully informed of the facts surrounding
California Baha’i killed in team diving accident
Ken Turner, a member of the Baha’i community of Broderick, California, died September 29 while on a team diving expedition at Timber Cove, California.
At the time of his death, Mr. Turner was chairman of the Spiritual Assembly of Washington J.D. and served as a National Treasurer’s Representative.
He was active in many community affairs, and was so wellliked and respected that a non-Baha’i forwarded a contribution to the National Fund in his memory.
Mr. Turner is survived by his wife, Nancy, and four sons, Mark, Michael, Troy and Dash.
this vicious system which precludes the unity of all people, for which we Baha’is stand, and after having searched our hearts and consciences, join me in writing to our President to support Congress and other elected officials in demanding justice and human rights for black South Africans including our Baha’i friends.
This is a moral and human rights issue, not a political issue. And just as I have written to the President and Congress urging support for our persecuted friends in Iran and other parts of the world, I believe we have no less a responsibility to our brothers and sisters—black, white, colored or Asian—in South Africa.
When ‘Abdu’l-Bahá spoke at Howard University in 1912, He told us that ‘‘Whatever is conducive to the unity of the world of mankind is most acceptable and praiseworthy . . . Therefore, in the world of humanity it is wise and seemly that all the individual members should manifest unity and affinity.’’
I believe letters of support for the elimination of apartheid are a responsibility that falls within this context.
Jihmye Collins San Diego, California
To the Editor:
Like a desert in the Holy Land, the Amoz Gibson Project in South Dakota is blooming with new believers, and one can almost feel that it is the blood of the martyrs that is watering the seeds through the devoted deeds and actions of those heroes and heroines of God who have given, and continue to give, so much of them‘selves and of their substance to this most noble effort.
The glowing victories won for Baha’u’llah in the last three years in this very special place are even more significant in the face of the harsh and extreme realities of the living conditions.
To pioneer here for any length of time requires a great capacity for spiritual maturity, steadfastness and detachment.
It also requires the physical means to ensure the health and well-being of those dedicated souls, an adequate facility for living and teaching within spiritual guidelines, as well as the means to travel safely and reliably to the many outlying areas within the project.
The Spiritual Assembly of Rapid City, 125 miles from Wanblee, has offered to act as a clearing-house through which gifts to the project may flow. They have all the information about the practical and immediate needs of
Thelma Blackmon, 75
Thelma Blackmon, a Baha’i for 30 years and a member of the Spiritual Assembly of Pontiac, Michigan, for the past 15, died October 23 in Detroit. She was 75 years old.
the project.
The Assembly feels that if the Baha’is know what their brothers and sisters are enduring here in the path of service, they will readily respond to help ease their hardships.
Winter, most harsh of all, is fast approaching. May the material capacity of the American believers meet the physical challenge of the Amoz Gibson Project.
“All men are not of the same capacity. To serve to full capacity is meritorious with God. God judges men by how they use their capacity.”’—‘Abdu’l-Bahá
For more information about the special needs of the project, write to Patt Haugen, acting recording secretary, Spiritual Assembly of
Rapid City, P.O. Box 565, Rapid
City, SD 57709, or phone 605343-1054 or 605-342-3562.
Anne Lunt Rieck
Olympia, Washington
To the Editor:
I wish to thank J.F. Strain for his letter (September). Not only was it helpful to know how to find out about the owner of a design, it is also helpful to know how to proceed to distribute a new design.
His letter and your publishing it is very timely in view of the accelerating activity in the Baha’i community. Thank you both very much.
Cynthia G. McDaniel El Toro, California
Eve Nicklin, ‘spiritual mother of Peru,’ pioneer more than four decades, dies
Eve Blanche Nicklin, one of the first Baha’i pioneers to South America and known widely as “the spiritual mother of Peru,’’ died June 10 in Callao, Peru, at the age of 90.
In 1937, inspired by the example of Martha Root, Miss
Nicklin pioneered to Bahia, Brazil, but later was forced to return to the U.S.
Four years later, however, she arrived to stay, this time in Lima, Peru, whose first Spiritual As sembly was formed April 20, 1944.
In 1949 she helped form ‘‘CEBSA,”’ the first continental teaching committee in South America, and in 1951 she was elected to the first National Spiritual Assembly of South America.
Miss Nicklin pioneered to Paraguay from 1953-55, returned to Peru, and went to Paraguay again from. 1969-77 before spending her final years at the National Center in Lima.
In Memoriam
Bahieh Azadeh Margaret Johns Annie Paulos
San Jose, CA Idaho Falls, ID Detroit, MI September 21, 1985 September 26, 1985 December 21, 1984 Daryl R. Barry David Jones Mousa Rastegar-Kashi
Indian Valley, ID
Corvallis, MT
Agoura, CA
September 9, 1985 October 3, 1985 Date Unknown Ira Guy Camp George Kenebrew Carl Shepherd Erial, NJ Bluefield, WV Carlsbad, NM May or June, 1985 Date Unknown Date Unknown Eula Cato Vera Kleimenhagen Carol Skaggs Bowman, SC Inglewood, CA Ansted, WV Date Unknown December 1981 October 19, 1985 Mabel J. Clark Clarence Lashley Albert Spider Washington, DC St. Albans, NY Batesland, SD 1984 January 10, 1984 August 1985 George Defender Sandra Lichtenfeld | Dorothy Summers Eagle Butte, SD Kailua, Kona, HI Bowman, SC September 1985 October 15, 1985 November 1984 Gloria T. Ehn Charles McAllister Hermina Surbeck Delafield, WI Kingstree, SC Englewood, CO September 6, 1985 Date Unknown August 29, 1985 Nematullah Gandomi James McCausland Etoy Thomas
Mesa, AZ August 26, 1985 Florence Glover
Beverly, MA September 5, 1985
Robert McDonald
Georgetown, TX Date Unknown
Kenneth Turner
Camden, ME Minneapolis, MN Broderick, CA Date Unknown January 7, 1985 September 29, 1985 Rose Gronsund William Morris Valerie Wade Wilmette, IL Santa Fe, NM Shelby, NC August 13, 1985 September 14, 1985 August 11, 1985 Mary Hammond Zona Morrison James Walker Bowman, SC Wounded Knee, SD Shelby, NC
March 31, 1985 September 1985 September 12, 1985 Jocelyn Horvat Elnor Murray Henry Washington Spokane, WA Sioux Falls, SD Bowman, SC August 24, 1984 October 10, 1985 April 2, 1985 Eddie Jenkins Elmerene Neff
Sanford, FL Fairfield, CA
December 21, 1983
Date Unknown
[Page 28]
The American Baha'i
etary Ua ee ate VY AS! 14 be
28
NON-PROFIT ORG. US. POSTAGE PAID WILMETTE, IL.
RMIT NO. 479
Ads
Continued From Page 17
minent Persian Baha’i refugee sponsorship. High-tech, secretarial, and medical jobs available. Contact Nina Scott, secretary, P.O. Box 14, Hartford, VT 05047 (Phone 802-295-2387 or 802-2955115).
WANTED: Information on the names of relatives or the location of personal papers of the following early California Baha’is: Ida Benjamin, Mary Jane Churchill (d. 1930, Santa Barbara), and Esther Davis (d. 1937, La Jolla). Anyone having information is asked to write to the National Bahai Archives, Bahá’í National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091.
A FULL-TIME coordinator of child education is needed at the Louhelen Baha’i School. The position involves recruiting teachers for weekend conferences and week-long sessions, developing
Md. Baha’i opens ‘Dry Spot’ for teens
Paula Myers, a member of the Baha’i community of Westminster, Maryland, was so inspired this summer by a Social and Economic Development Conference held in her hometown, and by the recent conference in Massanetta Springs, Virginia, that she embarked on a new career.
Ms. Myers, the mother of four Yaughters, has founded The Dry Spot Inc., an alcohol- and drugfree night spot for teens and adults.
So far, the mayor of Westminster, the principal of the local high school, the owner of a real estate agency, two radio stations and local newspapers have called or otherwise given their support to the enterprise.
Also, many musicians have expressed an interest in performii in a ‘‘non-drinking atmosphere.””
Says Ms. Myers, ‘‘We need Baha’i musical groups who are in or traveling to the Maryland-D.C. area to offer their talents and receive good public exposure. Hospitality and a fee will be provided.””
Westminster has blossomed during the past 10 years, and is now the site of annual District Conventions, the Mid-Atlantic Baha’i Summer School, and other Baha’i conferences.
The people of Westminster are made aware of Baha’i activities through numerous newspaper articles and requests by local groups to take part in peace-related activities.
The Dry Spot is tentatively set to open Friday, December 27. Adult nights will be alternated with those for teens.
If you are interested in what Ms. Myers is doing and how you can make it work in your community, please write to The Dry Spot, P.O. Box 1609, Westminster, MD 21157, or phone 301-8768879.—Brenda Rickell
bene RN kU UN A RNR EN
curricula and child education materials, ordering materials and supplies when needed, and planning and coordinating teacher training programs. It calls for a person who is able to consult and work well with others, who is patient and easy-going and who loves children. Experience in teaching Baha’i children’s classes is needed; experience with Baha’i summer and winter sessions is preferred. This is a volunteer position and requires someone with an independent income of at least $5,000 a year. Free housing is provided. The position would be ideal for a retired teacher. Someone who would be willing to take a part-time teaching job in the area and devote about 20 hours per week during the school year and 40 hours per week during the summer would also be suitable. Applicants may send a curriculum vitae to the Louhelen Child Education Committee, 3208 S. State Road, Davison, MI 48423, or phone 313653-5033.
SPIRITUAL Assemblies: We are willing to send traveling teachers to more affluent Assembly areas in return for help in raising funds for a much-needed Baha’i Center in Florence, South Carolina, the heart of mass teaching, WLGI Radio, and the spirit of Tabarsi. We have everything but money! If interested, please write to Anne Breneman, secretary, Spiritual Assembly of Florence, P.O. Box 4323, Florence, SC 29501 (phone 803-667-1540).
“HANDS ON!,” a workbook of Bahá’í educational activities for children by Sandy and Alonzo Coleman and Diane Bogolub Petit, is available from the Louhelen Baha’i School, 3208 S. State Road, Davison, MI 48423 (phone 313-653-5033). Included are more than 100 practical activities, 178 pages, 80 photos of activities described in the text, along with sample record-keeping forms and reproducible activities. The cost, including a three-ring binder, handling and shipping, is $19 (for orders within the U.S. only). Phone orders with VISA or MasterCard accepted.
Schopflocher
Continued From Page 4 In April of that same year, Mr. Schopflocher attended the National Convention in Canada and proceeded afterward to the Intercontinental Conference in Chicago where he contributed greatly to discussions concerning the Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds and Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in North America.
At the Feast of Ridvan, he made an inspiring presentation on the functions of the Hands of the Cause of God and shared notes from his pilgrimage to Haifa in January 1953. His talk, so typical of his profound devotion and humility, deeply moved the friends who were gathered there.
Mr. Schopflocher had a deep affection for the friends in India, and had been looking forward to
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This form may be used for one person or your entire family. Please be sure to list FULL NAMES AND I.D. NUMBERS for
all individuals, ages 15 years or older, who will be affected by this change.
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[ © We receive extra copies because:
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visiting them at the New Delhi Conference. But it was not to be. He died in Montreal on Monday, July 27, 1953, after a few days’ illness.
As requested by the Guardian, Mr. Schopflocher was buried near the grave of Sutherland Maxwell, the first Hand of the Cause of God from Canada, and a memorial service was held August 23 at the Maxwell home which was attended by members of the Na-tional Spiritual Assembly and other friends.
On learning of Mr. Schopflocher’s death, the Guardian cabled:
“Profoundly grieved passing dearly loved, outstandingly staunch Hand Cause Fred Schopflocher. Numerous, magnificent services extending over 30 years administrative teaching spheres
United States, Canada, institutions Baha’i World Centre greatly enriched annals Formative Age Faith.
“Abundant reward assured Abha Kingdom. Advising American National Assembly hold befitting memorial gathering Temple he generously helped raise. Advise hold memorial gathering Maxwell home commemorate his eminent part rise Administrative Order Faith Canada. Urge ensure burial close neighborhood resting place distinguished Hand Cause Sutherland Maxwell.’”
Note: Anyone having further information about the subject of this month’s ‘Champion-Builders’’ column is asked to write to the National Baha’i Archives, Baha’i National Center, Wilmette, TL 60091.
Issaquah Baha’is take part in ‘Salmon Days’
In October, Baha’is gave out about 3,000 balloons and 500 “‘Wage Peace’’ buttons during the annual Salmon Days parade in Issaquah, Washington.
It was noted in the Bellevue Journal-American on October 6 that balloons with the ‘‘Wage Peace’’ message were fastened by the Baha’js to the gun on an Army armored personnel carrier and to the sword of a ‘‘Seafair pirate.”
Baha’i National Center Office Hours
8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Central Time) Monday-Friday
Phone 312-869-9039
