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[Page 1]...knowledge is a veritable treasure for man....—Bahá’u’lláh

Bahá’ís to presence felt at Parliament of the World’s Religions

BY TOM MENNILLO

Plans are coalescing for a significant Bahá’í presence at the Parliament of the World’s Religions to be held in Chicago from August 28-September 5. Anticipated to be the largest interfaith gathering ever held, the Parliament marks the centenary of the 1893 World Parliament of Religions, where the Bahá’í Faith was first mentioned in a public forum in North America.

Two thousand to 4,000 people are expected to take an active part in the event. Three Bahá’í institutions—the Bahá’í International Community, the National Spiritual Assembly and the Spiritual Assembly of Chicago—are co-sponsors of the organizing body, the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions.

The Spiritual Assembly of Chicago was one of the first co-sponsors of the Council. The number of co-sponsors now exceeds 150.

Individual Bahá’ís have been involved at all levels of the planning for the Parliament since the Council was formed in 1988. Bahá’ís serve on the Board of Trustees (a Bahá’í was its first chairman), on all committees of the Board, and on the staff of the Council.

Since early April, representatives of the three Bahá’í co-sponsors have met every three weeks by conference call to coordinate Bahá’í participation and planning for the Parliament.

The following is a summary of Bahá’í plans for the Parliament to date:

PROGRAM ELEMENTS

Thirty-one Bahá’ís have submitted 21 workshop proposals and three major presentations.

INSIDE

• Bahá’í receives prestigious award
• Iran desecrates Bahá’í cemetery
• Colorado’s Dorothy Baker Project
• Kitáb-i-Aqdas in Bahá’í literature
• Bahá’ís to support ‘March on D.C.’
• Children’s public speaking project

House of Justice has historic meeting with International Teaching Center

To the Bahá’ís of the World

Dearly loved Friends,

Following fast upon the inspiring events of the seventh International Bahá’í Convention and the subsequent Counselors’ Conference, the opening weeks of the Three Year Plan have been marked with yet another highly significant event. On the morning of Saturday, June 5, the Hands of the Cause of God ‘Alí Akbar Furútan and ‘Alí-Muhammad Varqá, with all nine Counselor members of the International Teaching Center, joined the members of the Universal House of Justice in Bahjí and proceeded to the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh for prayer as the initial act of the newly appointed Teaching Center. All then held a first meeting in the room used by Shoghi Effendi in the Mansion of Bahjí, recalling the many historic associations of that blessed spot.

Joint consultations continued on the afternoon of that same day in the Council Chamber of the Universal House of Justice, exploring the tasks now facing the International Teaching Center as the world advances through the climacteric years at the close of the twentieth century.

During the five years since May 1988, when far-reaching decisions were made on the functioning of the International Teaching Center and, for the first time, the number of its Counselor members was raised to nine, that institution has abundantly demonstrated its capacity and eagerness to assume the wide range of responsibilities conferred upon it.

The clarification of various approaches to the teaching work which the Teaching Center has issued, its indication of potentially fruitful methods and fields of endeavor, and the collaboration of the Counselors with the National Spiritual Assemblies in the formulation of their goals for the Three Year Plan have contributed immeasurably to the deepening of the understanding of the individual believers; the teaching, enrollment and inspiriting of children and youth; the consolidation of growing communities; the strengthening of their institutions; and unflagging pursuit of the expansion of the Cause.

The Teaching Center’s former duties relating to the formulation of plans for our approval have undergone a change as a result of the devolution of planning upon National Spiritual Assemblies which was a mark of the opening of the Fourth Epoch of the Formative Age. We have been most favorably impressed by the guidance it provides.

Arc Projects advance; $74 million needed

To the followers of Bahá’u’lláh throughout the world

Rejoice announce major advance Mount Carmel Projects by issuance tender documents to building contractors for construction Center for the Study of the Texts. Development Terraces also proceeding apace. Sacrificial effort now needed friends all lands contribution seventy-four million dollars Arc Projects Fund during Three Year Plan ensure uninterrupted progress rapidly accelerating construction work.

Universal House of Justice June 27, 1993

Pictured is a model showing Terrace No. 19 above the Shrine of the Báb on Mount Carmel. Pedestrians will cross Panorama Street through an underground tunnel and enter Terrace 19. This connects the one-kilometer long terrace gardens to a lovely promenade recently opened to the public by the City of Haifa along Panorama Street. (Photo by Ruhi Vargha)

Congress again censures persecution of Bahá’ís in Iran

In June, 33 U.S. Senators warned Iran that the persecution of Bahá’ís in that country is a “significant factor” affecting its relations with the U.S.

The legislators urged President Clinton to work with other governments and with the United Nations to protect the religious and human rights of the Bahá’ís.

In a speech at the dedication in April of the Holocaust Memorial Museum, the President cited Iran’s “abusive treatment” of Bahá’ís, along with ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia, as a critical human rights concern.

A bi-partisan congressional resolution introduced June 17 condemns Iran’s “repressive anti-Bahá’í policy” as set forth in a confidential Iranian government document disclosed in a recent report to the UN Human Rights Commission.

The document, described by a Bahá’í spokesman as a “blueprint for the destruction of the Bahá’í community,” reveals that “Iran’s repressive actions are the result of a deliberate policy designed and approved by the highest officials of the government of Iran,” the Senate resolution declares.

Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut is spearheading the effort to support the Bahá’ís, with support from Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell of Maine and GOP Leader Bob Dole of Kansas.

Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and Sens. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut, Nancy Kassebaum of Kansas and John McCain of Arizona co-signed a letter urging their Senate colleagues to join in the appeal.

A similar resolution will be introduced in the House of Representatives, where Speaker Thomas Foley, key members of the Foreign Affairs Committee, and the House leadership are urging action to extend religious rights to Iranian Bahá’ís.

Firuz Kazemzadeh, the National Spiritual Assembly secretary for External Affairs, speaking on behalf of the U.S. Bahá’í community, welcomed the congressional action.

“There is good evidence,” he said, “that the [Iranian] regime has moderated its actions against Bahá’ís in response to resolutions adopted by the U.S. Congress, the German and European Parliaments, and the UN General Assembly.”

Although there has been only one known execution of a Bahá’í in Iran since late 1988, members of the Bahá’í community in Iran are victims of pervasive economic and social discrimination, said Mr. Kazemzadeh, amounting to a policy of “genocide by attrition.” [Page 2]

Meeting

has given to the Continental Counselors to promote consultation at the local and national levels, among institutions and believers, leading to the initiation and sustaining of processes of growth in the Bahá’í community, and we look forward to the perpetuation and expansion of this collaboration.

The responsibility of the Continental Boards of Counselors to protect the Faith, under the guidance of the International Teaching Center, will undoubtedly gain greater importance in the years ahead. They will encourage and assist the National and local Spiritual Assemblies, not only to deal with questions on the Faith raised by interested non-Bahá’ís, but also to counter attacks launched by external opponents.

Study of the Faith itself is a vital element in the soundness of the growth of Bahá’í communities, their consolidation and their protection. This should include systematic study of the Writings of the Faith, its history, its relationship to various systems of thought, and the application of its Teachings to the spiritual and material life of society. The International Teaching Center will contribute significantly to the advancement of such study.

In the production and dissemination of Bahá’í literature, which is fundamental to both the expansion and consolidation of the Cause, the support given by the Counselors to National Assemblies through the Literature Subvention Fund and especially the Teaching Center’s promotion of the core literature concept have resulted in an admirable surge forward, and we are confident that this effort will be augmented in the years ahead.

The flow of pioneers and traveling teachers has been notably increased through the development of the Continental Pioneer Committees under the aegis of the International Teaching Center, as well as by the actions of the Continental Counselors and National Assemblies. It has become apparent that, with the growth of the Bahá’í world and the increased mobility of the friends, new methods are required for advising and routing pioneers. The pioneering call for the Three Year Plan therefore assumes a character different from that to which the friends have been accustomed and will, we confidently expect, permit a far more fruitful use of the energies and devotion of the friends.

All the above matters were among the subjects of consultation between the Universal House of Justice and the International Teaching Center at their meetings on June 5, and during a subsequent meeting toward the close of the intensive consultations carried on by the Teaching Center itself. The five members who are still resident abroad are now preparing to move to the Holy Land.

It is our fervent prayer at the Sacred Threshold that these developments will impart a yet greater impetus to the activities of the individual believers and their institutions throughout the world and accelerate the work already so eagerly launched for the achievement of the Three Year Plan.

With loving Bahá’í greetings,

The Universal House of Justice June 24, 1993

Council of Women presents top award to Mildred Mottahedeh

Mildred R. Mottahedeh of New York City, former observer to the United Nations for the Bahá’í International Community, has been honored by the National Council of Women of the United States as one of five winners of the "Women of Honor Award."

At a reception May 11 at the United Nations, Mrs. Mottahedeh and the other honorees were recognized for their "integrity of character and exceptional accomplishments...whose lives and work have made a permanent and lasting contribution to humankind."

The program booklet contained a full-page description of Mrs. Mottahedeh’s accomplishments: "Mildred R. Mottahedeh’s unusual combination of careers has taken her to 80 countries and territories on all continents of the globe.... [Mrs.] Mottahedeh served for 19 years as an observer at the United Nations for the Bahá’í International Community, closely following the development of assistance to developing countries....In 1954 she undertook the most comprehensive survey to date of development possibilities throughout Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands...."

In her acceptance speech, Mrs. Mottahedeh responded to presenter Kitty Carlisle Hart’s reference to the extent and variety of her accomplishments by telling the 200 people in attendance: "I am a Bahá’í. For Bahá’ís service to humanity is worship."

PERSECUTIONS

Officials in Tehran remove bodies from Bahá’í cemetery to make way for construction of new 'Cultural Center'

Officials in Tehran have begun destroying gravesites and removing the bodies of Bahá’ís from the city’s Bahá’í cemetery to make way for construction of a local cultural center, the National Spiritual Assembly office in Washington disclosed in a statement to the nation’s press on July 2.

"The removal of the bodies of Bahá’í dead and their transfer to an unknown destination is the latest and perhaps the most literal example of the Islamic regime’s efforts to destroy the Bahá’í community and its cultural roots in the country in which the Faith emerged," said Kit Cosby, deputy director of the U.S. Bahá’í Office of External Affairs.

"These acts," she said, "are consistent with the guidelines detailed in a secret Iranian government plan, recently revealed in a UN report, which calls for suppressing the Bahá’ís and destroying their cultural roots."

Bulldozers are excavating part of the Bahá’í cemetery in Tehran to prepare the site for construction of the "Cultural Center of Khavaran," according to information received from Iran. The work is being directed by officials of the Tehran municipality, Ms. Cosby said.

In the early 1980s all Bahá’í cemeteries in Iran were confiscated by the Islamic Revolutionary government. The Tehran cemetery’s mortuaries and a memorial hall were razed, marble grave coverings were removed, and all gravesite markers were obliterated, she said. Many of the headstones were sold at public auctions.

Since 1979, more than 200 Bahá’ís have been executed by the Iranian government. In many localities Bahá’ís are having difficulty burying their dead, and they are not permitted to mark gravesites.

Although several Bahá’í cemeteries have been pillaged, the present action marks the first time that bodies have been exhumed and moved elsewhere.

Six Albuquerque women are given ‘Táhireh Awards’ for spiritual courage

On March 27, six women from Albuquerque, New Mexico, were presented the first "Táhireh Awards" for spiritual courage by the Albuquerque Women’s Institute, which functions under the auspices of the Spiritual Assembly of Albuquerque.

Honored for their efforts to "unite, inspire and advance the cause of women" in Albuquerque were:

• Ruth Hashimoto, a long-time member of the United Nations Association and one of the first civilian employees at Kirtland Air Force Base.
• Juba-Ometse Clayton, a poet, performer, and director of the UNM Women’s Center.
• Pat Jojola of Isleta Pueblo who has traveled widely throughout the U.S. and abroad furthering the cause of peace through American Indian traditions.
• Adibeh Mullen, an outstanding Bahá’í teacher whose family endured severe religious persecution in Iran.
• Dr. Nancy Clark, who launched the pilot program that brought Kentucky’s Frontier Nurse-Midwifery Program to the University of New Mexico and is now director of the UNM Graduate Nurse-Midwifery Program.
• Lucille Silva-Turietta, past president of the Holy Name Society and long-time devoted teacher of children’s spiritual education classes in Albuquerque.

The Táhireh Awards, given in honor of National Women’s History Month, are named for the Persian poetess whose outspoken belief in the equality of men and women, including the public unveiling of her face, led to her martyrdom in 1852.

Recipients were given a matted certificate that included a quotation from the Bahá’í Writings, a book about the life of Táhireh, and a silk scarf symbolizing the emancipation of women.

Those who would like to learn more about the awards program may write to the Women’s Institute c/o the Spiritual Assembly of Albuquerque, P.O. Box 35358, Station D, Albuquerque, NM 87176.

Excerpt from the Universal House of Justice

"...we urge you, with all earnestness from the utter depths of our conviction as to the ripeness of the time, to lay aside your every minor concern and direct your energies to teaching His Cause--to proclaiming, expanding and consolidating it."-- The Universal House of Justice, Ridván 1988 [Page 3]

3 YEAR PLAN 1993-1996 GROWTH

• • INTERNATIONAL GOALS**

Goal for the 3 Year Plan: 368 Completed as of this report: 357 Needed as of this report: 11

• • TRAVELING TEACHING GOALS**

Goal for the 3 Year Plan: 3,000 Completed as of this report: 2,902 Needed as of this report: 98

• • HOMEFRONT PIONEER GOALS**

Goal for the 3 Year Plan: 500 Completed as of this report: 491 Needed as of this report: 9

U.S. Bahá’í Community Current Goals and Status Kamál 150 August 1, 1993

SUMMER TEACHING AND SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES

Renton, WA Ongoing William Sears Hearts-a-Fire Project Spiritual Assembly of Renton Aaron Lewis 206/277-8326

Woodburn, OR-Ongoing Woodburn Teaching Project Spiritual Assembly of Clackamas Co. NW Janet House 503/678-5162

Oregon-6/28-8/19 Oregon Teaching Project DTC of Western Oregon Rachel Greco 503/623-8035

San Francisco, CA-6/14-8/22 San Francisco William Sears Project San Francisco Spiritual Assembly Chris Tara-Brown 415/626-4478

Norman, OK-Weekends Norman Teaching Project Spiritual Assembly of Norman Lawrence Hennion 405/321-8000

Chicago, IL-Weekends Rogers Park Teaching Project Spiritual Assembly of Chicago Tom Howe 312/274-4843

Southern TX-Ongoing from 8/12 Campaña de Bahá Project National Teaching Committee Ajit Giani 713/531-0975

Cleveland, OH-Ongoing Northcoast Necklace of Lights: William Sears Teaching Project Spiritual Assembly of Warrensville Heights Lynn Farnsworth 216/247-2135

Belle Glade, FL-Ongoing Lake Okeechobee Project Magdalene Carney Teaching Institute Eleanor Walker 407/996-0730

Torrington, CT-July 10-Sept. 10 Horace Holley Teaching Project Spiritual Assembly of Torrington. Kent Johnson, 205/496-7038

Northern Virginia N.Virginia Collaborative Teaching DTC of Northern Virginia Roxanne Brooks 703/591-3202

Conway, SC-Ongoing Jessie Entzminger Project Spiritual Assembly of Conway Margene Nelson-Willis 803/248-5903

Apopka, FL Ongoing Apopka Teaching Project Spiritual Assembly of West Orange Co. Antoinette Bianchi 407/831-0804

Several communities are involved in large-scale teaching projects this summer and would appreciate the participation of other believers and communities. Listed on the above map are the location of teaching projects reported to the National Teaching Committee, the time-frame in which they occur, the name of the project, the sponsoring institution, and the name and phone number of a contact person who can provide more information about the project. If your community would like to have your teaching project listed in an upcoming issue of The American Bahá’í, please contact the National Teaching Committee Office, Bahá’í National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091. Phone: 708/869-9039, ext. 236.

THE FUND

• • INTERNATIONAL FUND**

Total Contributions: 27,646 Earmarked Dollars: 27,646

• • ARC PROJECTS FUND**

Total Contributions: 62,771 Earmarked Dollars: 62,771

• • CONTINENTAL FUND**

From Nat'l Bahá’í Fund: 13,617 Earmarked Dollars: 13,617 Total Contributions: 692,055

• • NATIONAL FUND**

Goal for 150 B. E.: 11,500,000 Contributions to Date: [Not provided in text]

THREE YEAR PLAN CHECK LIST

Have you:

• Made plans to become a traveling teacher this summer?
• Investigated the possibility of pioneering either on the homefront or internationally?
• Reviewed the goals of the Three Year Plan and considered other contributions you can make?
• Developed a personal plan for teaching?
• Provided suggestions or recommendations to your Group or Assembly regarding its plan for teaching?
• Assisted with the implementation of local teaching plans?
• Reported your teaching activities to the National Teaching Committee office?
• Supported the Bahá’í Funds this month?

TOTAL ENROLLMENTS

June 1993: 130 Year to date: 177

Please stand up and be counted!

Your teaching activities can only be counted as a victory for the Three Year Plan if the National Teaching Committee is informed of them! To assist in our effort to track the progress toward our goals, please complete this simple report form and send it to: National Teaching Committee, Bahá’í National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091.

THREE YEAR PLAN TEACHING ACTIVITY REPORT

Name: Address: City/State/Zip: Home Phone: Bahá’í ID #: Work Phone: Activity Completed: Location of Service: Date Service Began: Date Completed: [Page 4]

Many overseas teaching projects need your support

Your support is urgently needed for the following short-term and long-term international teaching projects:

Ongoing traveling teaching opportunities during the next Bahá’í year

AFRICA: Botswana, Cameroon, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, The Gambia, Kenya, Niger, Senegal, South Africa, Transkei, Uganda, Zambia, West Africa (for Benin, Côte D’Ivoire, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Liberia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo).

ASIA: Bangladesh, China, India, Korea, Malaysia, Sri Lanka.

AUSTRALASIA: Cook Islands, Eastern Caroline Islands, Fiji, New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu.

CARIBBEAN: Barbados, East Leeward Islands, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Jamaica, Puerto Rico, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, West Leeward Islands.

EASTERN EUROPE: Albania, Croatia, Hungary, Macedonia, Poland, Ukraine, Yugoslavia.

LATIN AMERICA: Bolivia, Belize, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, villages, June 21-July 31; village teaching Guyana, Mexico.

WESTERN EUROPE: Canary Islands, Finland, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland.

Special international summer traveling teaching projects

BOTSWANA: "Star '93" project for southern Africa; June 23-August.

BOLIVIA: "A.Q. Faizi Teaching Project" in Santa Cruz, beginning August 6; initial phase to last one year, with the goal of establishing permanent teaching teams operating in the area. Ages 17 and up, some Spanish needed.

COLOMBIA: Firesides, proclamation events, deepening new believers, youth and children's classes; July and August.

ECUADOR: International Youth Conference, August 12-16, Otavalo.

FRANCE: Conferences, meeting members of local organizations, teaching, proclamation; starting mid-July.

GREECE: Proclamation, firesides, media activities, deepenings, children's and youth classes; June 15-August 15.

HUNGARY: Focused teaching in five consecutive localities; June 15-August 16. Bahá’í Summer school; August 17-24. Focused teaching in two consecutive areas; August 24-September 9.

ICELAND: Reforestation work on Bahá’í endowment land, summer school August 6-12, other teaching activities; June-September.

POLAND: Two teams of traveling teachers needed for summer months.

ROMANIA: "Moldova Project" encompassing both Romanian Moldova and the Republic of Moldova, June 21-July 18; "mobile institute" consolidation work in campaign aimed at "revolutionizing methods of teaching used in Romania," July 19-August 10; summer school in Curtea de Arges, August 10-15; teaching project on the Black Sea Coast, August 16-September 15.

ST. VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES: teaching and consolidation; June and July.

TURKEY: "Jinab-i-Munib" Teaching and Consolidation Project, July 15-October 15. Short pilgrimage to the House of Bahá’u’lláh in Edirne, teacher training course, teaching and consolidation work.

"Time of Transformation Youth Tour" to Albania, Macedonia, Turkey (Adrianople), Bulgaria and Romania; July 15-September 1.

UKRAINE, BELARUS, MOLDOVA: Final consolidation phase of three-month teaching project, August 7-25.

For more information, please contact the Office of Pioneering, Bahá’í National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091. Telephone 708-869-9039; fax 708-869-0247, Attn: Office of Pioneering.

UPCOMING Bahá’í Youth Service Corps/Pioneering Institutes:

August 31-September 5, Louis Gregory Bahá’í Institute, Hemingway, South Carolina. January 11-18, Bosch Bahá’í School, Santa Cruz, California.

If you are interested in pioneering, please contact the Office of Pioneering, Bahá’í National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091. Telephone 708-869-9039 or fax 708-869-0247 for more information.

Bahá’ís in Edwardsville, Illinois, assume position of leadership in community’s human rights efforts

What a difference a year makes!

Last July, the local Spiritual Assembly of Edwardsville, Illinois, approached the city's Human Rights Commission to arrange a presentation of "The Vision of Race Unity."

The commission chairman said it wouldn't be possible.

Now, as a direct result of the Bahá’ís' race unity activities, a member of the community has been appointed to that same commission.

The year of activities that led to this development started with a "spiritual retreat" in which the friends gathered for an afternoon of prayer to say 500 "remover of difficulties" for success in growth and development of the community and the local Spiritual Assembly.

Following the meeting, the community met to consult on the guidance of the Universal House of Justice and the National Spiritual Assembly for the Holy Year.

Out of that came the idea for a series of public race unity forums.

Nine such forums have been held. Each opens with a short talk by a Bahá’í host explaining the Message of Bahá’u’lláh and the principle of racial harmony.

Many of the forums have featured guest speakers on such topics as unity in diversity, models of race unity, Black History Month, and Martin Luther King Jr. Five of the forums presented leading African-American educators in Edwardsville.

One forum, held at a time the local media were full of news of an upcoming Ku Klux Klan rally, drew front-page newspaper coverage.

That meeting was taped by a cable television station and shown on two different evenings. Seven forums in all have been taped, resulting in about 15 showings.

This year, the Bahá’ís of Edwardsville are looking into collaborative efforts with the local schools and other organizations in town to maintain the community's leadership on race unity.

PIONEERING GOALS FOR THE THREE YEAR PLAN

COUNTRY	GOAL	FILLED	COUNTRY	GOAL	FILLED	COUNTRY	GOAL	FILLED	COUNTRY	GOAL	FILLED
AFRICA			AMERICAS			ASIA			EUROPE
Angola	1		Argentina*	1		Cambodia	2		Albania*	10	1
Bophuthatswana*	1	1	Bahamas*	5		Central Asia Republics	6		Austria*	2
Cameroon*	1		Barbados*	3		Hong Kong*	4		Belgium*	2
Central African Republic*	2	1	Belize*	4		India*	4		Bulgaria*	10
Chad*	1		Bolivia*	3		Korea	2		Croatia	1
Ciskei*	2		Brazil			Laos	1		Czech & Slovak Republics*	16
Congo	2		Chile*	5	1	Malaysia*	2		(10 Czech; 6 Slovak)
Côte d'Ivoire	1		Colombia*	2		Mongolia	4		Finland*	1
Equatorial Guinea*	2		Dominica*			Nepal	1		France*	1
Ethiopia	2		Dominican Republic*	1		Pakistan	1		Germany*	2
Gabon*	1		Ecuador*	4		Taiwan*	2		Hungary*	5
The Gambia*	1		East Leeward Islands*	4		Thailand*	5		Ireland*	3
Guinea-Bissau*	2		Grenada*	2					Italy*	30	0
Madagascar	1		Guadeloupe	1					Norway*	1
Mauritius*	1		Guatemala*	4		AUSTRALASIA			Poland	2
Nigeria	2		Guyana	8		Cook Islands*	4		Portugal	2
St. Helena	3		Honduras*	6		French Polynesia	3		Romania	10
Somalia			Jamaica*	6		Kiribati*	2		Russia, Georgia & Armenia*	67	10
Swaziland*	1		Martinique	2		Mariana Islands*	2		Slovenia	1
Tanzania*	2		Nicaragua	1		Marshall Islands	2		Switzerland*	2
Transkei	2		Panama*	1		New Caledonia & Loyalty I.*	1		Ukraine, Belorus & Moldova	15
Venda	1		Peru*	2		Papua New Guinea	1		United Kingdom*
Uganda	1		St. Lucia	4		Tonga	1
Zambia*	6	1	St. Vincent & The Grenadines	4		Vanuatu	1
Zimbabwe*	3		Suriname*	2		Western Caroline Islands*	4
			Trinidad & Tobago*	6
			Turks & Caicos	4
			Uruguay*	2
			Venezuela*	4
			Virgin Islands*	3
			West Leeward Islands*	8

TOTAL GOALS ASSIGNED: 368

Bahá’í Youth Service Corps goal countries: 17 Total goals filled: 28 Total BYSC goals filled: 3 Total pioneers to non-goals: 110 Total pioneers sent: 162 [Page 5]

May contributions down for third year in row

Figures just released for the first month of the fiscal year indicate a continuing decline in giving on a year-to-year basis. The table appearing elsewhere on this page shows contributions to the National Bahá’í Fund were $692,000 as of May 30, down 20 percent from their 1991 level and, after excluding an exceptional $500,000 gift in 1992, down 6 percent from May '92. Over-all contributions processed in Wilmette declined by 16 percent from the previous year while offerings earmarked by the friends for the International and Arc Funds continued their downward course, from a total of $420,000 in 1991 to only $91,000 in 1993, a drop of 78 percent in two years. This comes despite the clear language of the Universal House of Justice in its Ridván 150 message which, while praising the friends everywhere for the increased level of giving achieved in past years, indicated that contribution levels were still not adequate to meet the growing opportunities opening before the Faith daily.

"We don't know fully the reasons for these distressing trends," said William Allmart, assistant Treasurer for Fund Development. "The high cost of the World Congress and the rapidly growing strength of the Huqúqu’lláh certainly account for a part of the decline, but these are good things that will ultimately produce greater strength within the community.

"At the same time, contribution patterns we have begun to document suggest that we still need to pay more attention to reaching our capacity to give, moving away from levels that are simply convenient or habitual. These times," he stressed, "are different than any others the community has experienced in its recent history, and call for a different kind of response from each believer."

TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY-- Is it time for a local Bahá’í Center?

National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States Progress Update - May Year to Date

Contributions	May-91	May-92	May-93
National Bahá’í Fund	$866,261	$1,239,654	$692,055
Bahá’í International Fund	$293,278	$30,199	$27,646
Arc Projects Fund	$125,614	$129,546	$62,771
Continental Bahá’í Fund	$15,529	$13,289	$13,617
Estate Bequests	$21,684	$14,000	$402,767
Total	$1,322,366	$1,426,688	$1,198,856

Percent Change	91/93	92/93
National Bahá’í Fund	-20%	-44%
Bahá’í International Fund	-89%	-8%
Arc Projects Fund	-50%	-50%
Continental Bahá’í Fund	-12%	2%
Estate Bequests	1757%	2777%
Total	-9%	-14%

A growing number of local Spiritual Assemblies are looking seriously at the need for local Bahá’í Centers in which to house their activities. But is now the time to make those choices?

Because these are complex issues, the Office of the Treasurer has been asked to gather information from local communities with Centers and to formulate some practical guidelines for decision making. There is an important balance to be achieved that attends to the needs of the Faith, the maturity of the local Assemblies themselves, and the capacity of the local community to shoulder what can be a massive responsibility. The question is how the decision is made: what issues has the Assembly considered, and are all the relevant tradeoffs taken into account?

Suppose an Assembly is offered a local Center as a gift: should they accept the gift, or not? What are the factors that should be considered, and are there circumstances in which the gift should be gracefully declined?

Is there a critical population mass necessary to sustain a Center? Is a straight purchase the best option, or are there others that may be better? What are the financial and accounting consequences of owning a Center? How does a local Center fit into the international Bahá’í system of administration and finance? What strategic developmental issues can best be addressed using a local facility? What is the impact on teaching? On proclamation?

Answers to these and other questions are crucial in making such far-reaching decisions. The Office of the Treasurer expects to be contacting a sizable number of local Assemblies in the weeks ahead, by mail and phone, to gather information that will show how local or regional communities are implementing the guidance of the Universal House of Justice in this matter (as contained, for example, in the manual for Assemblies, Developing Distinctive Bahá’í Communities), and what has been the experience of Assemblies who have already obtained centers in the past.

Assemblies wishing to anticipate this process and share their experience are warmly encouraged to do so by contacting the Office of the Treasurer at the Bahá’í National Center.

Detroit-area program engenders dialogue among African-Americans, Asian-Americans

and Ron Armaki, a Japanese-American who is a consultant with Ann Arbor Counseling Associates.

On May 22, about 40 people, most of whom were not Bahá’ís, attended a program entitled "Promoting Dialogue Among African-Americans and Asian-Americans," sponsored by the Bahá’í communities of Detroit, Grosse Pointe and Highland Park, Michigan.

A majority of those attending were of Filipino, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Pakistani or African-American descent.

The program was presented at the request of a non-Bahá’í Chinese-American who is an assistant attorney general of Michigan.

The facilitators were two human relations consultants: L. Rod Toneye, an African-American who is president of Diversified Training Resources Inc. of Detroit,

Music was provided by harpist Kelly Yousoufian.

The guests discussed many of the stereotypes and misconceptions held by members of each group about the others, and confronted some of the fear, frustration, feelings of exploitation and anger often directed toward other ethnic groups.

One guest, an African-American radio talk show host, invited a Bahá’í and the two program facilitators to appear on his program and continue the dialogue there.

As they have done for 12 years, Jane and Werner Schnackenberg of Englewood, Colorado, spent a 'vacation from retirement' processing paperwork at the Bahá’í National Center. The couple volunteered in the World Congress and National Teaching offices for three weeks in May and June.

Wanted: stories about successful Feast ideas

The American Bahá’í is looking for a few good...examples.

A goal for the U.S. Bahá’í community in the Three Year Plan is to "foster the maturation of local and national institutions with particular emphasis on the development of Spiritual Assemblies, the refinement of the art of consultation, the refinement of the Feast, and the operation of the Funds."

With that in mind, The American Bahá’í is planning a series of articles that will focus on the role of the Feast as the foundation of Bahá’í community life.

The stories will explore how the Feast can better serve to energize the friends—both in developing their personal spirituality and in carrying the healing Faith of Bahá’u’lláh to others.

But to do that, we need your help. Please let us know what your community has done to:

• Reflect its diversity through the prayers and readings.

• Incorporate the arts into the Feast.

• Use newsreels, Feast letters and other communications from outside the community.

• Elevate consultation.

• Improve the relationship between the friends and their institutions.

• Share news of the activities of the community—and the individuals who comprise it.

• Advance the proclamation and teaching work.

• Encourage greater participation in giving to the Funds.

• More fully involve the children and youth.

• Nurture the involvement of newly declared believers.

• Overcome the language and cultural barriers that limit how some of the friends can take part in and enjoy the Feast.

• Boost Feast attendance and over-all involvement.

Please send any examples—large or small, major or modest—to the Editor, The American Bahá’í, Wilmette, IL 60091.

Thank you. [Page 6]

The Love of Bahá’u’lláh

by Jacqueline Mehrabi Illustrated by Michael Sours HC $15.95

These delightful stories will introduce children to the timeless theme of love in the life and example of Bahá’u’lláh. Including some familiar and some less well-known events, this delightful collection reveals through everyday occurrences the great love of Bahá’u’lláh for all.

Chosen and retold by popular children’s writer Jacqueline Mehrabi and beautifully illustrated by award-winning artist Michael Sours, this treasury of stories from the life of Bahá’u’lláh will be read and cherished for years to come. Written for the 5–12 age group. 6-5/8" x 9-1/8", 64pp. Oneworld Publications

One Universal Faith

PA 50/PK.—$5.75

A pamphlet emphasizing that the ‎prophesies prophecies‎ of the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, and Zoroastrian Faiths have been fulfilled in the coming of Bahá’u’lláh. 3-7/16" x 5-3/4", 6-panel Reprinted by Erich Reich Enterprises with the permission of the Bahá’í Publishing Trust U.S.

Issues Concerning Community Functioning

A Memorandum Prepared by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice SC $2.00

This memorandum was prepared because, “a number of questions have recently been raised about how to assist malfunctioning local Bahá’í communities, specifically those communities that have difficulty in responding to the needs and problems of their members, whose Spiritual Assemblies are unable to reach decisions, are unwilling to entertain frank and open consultation and which fail to acknowledge the existence of problems within the community.” The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States encourages the Local Spiritual Assemblies “to use this material which could be a powerful tool in readying the growing number of Bahá’ís for the challenges of the Three Year Plan that will be built on the enthusiasm and zeal engendered by the Spirit of the Holy Year.” 5-3/8" x 8-1/2", 19pp. Bahá’í Publications Australia

An Introduction to Persian

by Wheeler M. Thackston SC $25.00

An Introduction to Persian is intended to serve as an introduction on the elementary level to the modern Persian language. Persian is remarkably simple in terms of formal grammar: no gender, no noun inflection, no adjectival agreement, and no irregularities in verbal conjugation. Each lesson is provided with specific exercises and drills for the major grammatical and syntactical points introduced therein. Vocabulary are included at the end of each lesson and are intended for active acquisition. Specialized supplementary vocabulary lists are also scattered throughout the book. The supplementary vocabularies consist of concrete everyday items so they are easier to learn and remember. Wheeler M. Thackston is Professor of the Practice of Persian and other Near East Languages at Harvard University. 6" x 9", 287pp., contents, preface, introduction, index Iranbooks, Inc.

Thy Kingdom Come

A Biblical Introduction to the Bahá’í Faith by Thomas Tai-Seale SC $14.95

This startling and original interpretation of Biblical prophecy argues persuasively that three divine calls have been made since the advent of Christ—all clearly foretold in the promise found in the Christian Holy Books. The revelations of Muhammad, the Báb, and Bahá’u’lláh give meaning to these words. 5-1/2" x 8-1/2", 250pp., author’s note, contents, preface, appendix Kalimát Press

Passages

by Fred Johnson CS $9.95

Eight selections from the writings of Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and the Báb set to music. These a cappella arrangements are beautifully rendered by Fred Johnson. 38 minutes Lote Tree Productions

Bahá’í Newsreel Vol. 4, No. 1

The Holy Year in Review 149-150 B.E. by Bahá’í Media Services

A special Holy Year edition including: The Centenary of the Ascension of Bahá’u’lláh, the second Bahá’í World Congress, Holy Year activities in Russia, Albania, Bolivia, Ireland, Germany, Sao Tome, Papua New Guinea, Italy, Canada, Guyana, Brazil, Zaire, Turkey, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, Gambia, Japan, Philippines, United Kingdom, and the United States, arts and literature in the Holy Year including the publication of The Kitáb-i-Aqdas and Ministry of the Custodians. 30 minutes U.S. Bahá’í Media Services

Live Unity

VT $29.95

Live Unity celebrates the diversity of the human family through the universal language of music. Witness captivating performances by an international lineup of artists including Seals and Crofts, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Flora Purim, ‎Airlo Airto‎, Dan Seals, Kevin Locke, Red Grammer, Douglas Cameron, Lisa Lougheed, Renat Ibragimov, and Nova Bhattacharya. 90 minutes Live Unity Enterprises

Order now through the Bahá’í Distribution Service • 1-800-999-9019 [Page 7]

Together Forever

A Handbook for Creating a Successful Marriage by Professor Khalil A. Khavari, PhD and Sue Williston Khavari, MA SC $14.95

Following the success of their popular book on family dynamics, the Khavaris are back with a practical and inspiring look at marriage. Ranging from basics like partner selection to potential problem areas like equality, finances, and communication, this book is designed to help couples avoid the common pitfalls that can threaten even the most secure relationship.

Included are sections on understanding your partner and recognizing their needs, personality differences, stress factors, problem-solving, in-laws, housework, and much, much more. Divorce-proof your marriage with this positive and down-to-earth handbook, and transform your marriage into a fulfilling, nurturing, lifelong partnership.

5-3/8" x 8-1/2", 243pp., contents, Index Oneworld Publications

A Meeting with Shoghi Effendi

by Marcus Bach SC $6.95

Dr. Marcus Bach, then professor of the prestigious interfaith School of Religion at the University of Iowa and a distinguished author on comparative religion, set out in the 1950s to identify and interview the five people of his time whom he felt best exemplified the teaching of Jesus Christ in their lives. He travelled 40,000 miles in pursuit of this aim, interviewing Helen Keller, Pope Pius XII, Albert Schweitzer, Therese Neumann, and Shoghi Effendi.

This is the unique and fascinating account of Marcus Bach’s visit to the Bahá’í World Centre, his impressions of the Bahá’í Faith and his conversations with the Guardian one April evening in 1953.

5-1/8" x 7-3/4", 47pp., foreword, about the author, notes, selected bibliography Oneworld Publications

The Gardeners of God

An Encounter with Five Million Bahá’ís by Colette Gouvion & Philippe Jouvion SC $12.95

For the first time, two highly respected journalists from Paris decided to write a book on the Bahá’í Faith.

The result is an introductory book with a difference. Factual information on Bahá’í beliefs, history, community life, and current activities around the world, based on the authors’ personal research, is wrapped around a series of frank and lively interviews with Bahá’ís from many different backgrounds and nationalities.

This colorful book offers readers a chance to meet the Bahá’ís and to hear how they answer the probing questions of two journalists. What do they believe? How do they live? What are their hopes, and their vision of the future? These are some of the questions that the authors set out to answer. Their style is warm, candid, informative, and enriched with a wealth of personal opinions and anecdotes from the diverse characters that filled their notebooks. Above all, this book is their answer to the question, "Who are the Bahá’ís?"

5-1/2" x 8-7/8", 223pp., contents, references, selected bibliography, Index Oneworld Publications

Sustainable Development and the Human Spirit

PA 50/PK.-$8.95 PA 10/PK.-$1.95

Sustainable Development and the Human Spirit was one of the sixteen statements to be read by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) at the historic Earth Summit—and the only one delivered by a religious NGO. This brochure takes the debate over environmental conservation and equitable world development to a higher ground. It focuses on the importance of spiritual values and especially the principle of the oneness of humanity—in any effort to address our planet’s woes.

3-11/16" x 8-1/2", 6-panel brochure Bahá’í International Community

The Kitáb-1-Aqdas

We are now accepting backorders for the pocket-size edition of The Kitáb-i-Adqas.

The price for this publication is $3.00 (no discounts offered).

SHIP TO ITEM QUANTITY COST DAYTIME TELEPHONE ( ) PAYMENT METHOD -CASH -CHECK -CHARGE (VISA, MASTER, AMEX) TOTAL FOR ORDERS SHIPPED OUTSIDE THE U.S., PLEASE ADD 15% (MIN. $3.00) EXPIRATION DATE.

Bahá’í Distribution Service 5397 Wilbanks Dr., Chattanooga, TN 37343 1-800-999-9019 Fax 1-615-843-0836 [Page 8]

CLASSIFIEDS

Classified notices in The American Bahá’í are published free of charge as a service to the Bahá’í community. Because of this, notices are limited to items relating to the Faith; no personal or commercial ads can be accepted for publication. The opportunities referred to have not been approved by the National Spiritual Assembly; the friends should exercise their own judgment and care in responding to them.

SERVICE OPPORTUNITIES

THE GREEN ACRE Bahá’í School is seeking a program coordinator. This is a full-time, year-round position primarily responsible for planning and coordinating educational programs and activities at Green Acre. Qualifications include an in-depth knowledge of the Bahá’í writings and Administrative Order; experience in planning and coordinating instructional services; ability to communicate effectively to large groups and to interact with a wide range of people; proven success in organizing and coordinating multiple tasks over an extended period of time. The position requires a personable, creative, highly motivated person who is a strong self-starter; experience in teaching or direct involvement with Bahá’í educational programs for adults, youth and children is highly desirable. Please send letter of introduction and résumé to the Office of Human Resources, Bahá’í National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091.

THE NATIONAL Spiritual Assembly is seeking a general manager for the Bahá’í Publishing Trust. This position requires a strong general manager capable of managing large numbers of people, preparing and managing significant budgets, developing plans and strategies for producing desired results. Publishing experience a plus. Please send résumé to the Bahá’í National Center, Department of Human Resources, Wilmette, IL 60091.

THE BOSCH Bahá’í School wishes to extend its Youth Service Corps program to include three-month, six-month and one-year terms. If you would be interested in an opportunity to serve the Faith in this capacity, please phone the Bosch school, 408-423-3387, fax 408-423-7564, or write to 500 Comstock Lane, Santa Cruz, CA 95060. These positions are for 40-hour weeks as volunteers in the many areas of service required at a permanent school. A small stipend for food is provided if needed. Past experience has shown that a car is helpful due to the school's remoteness from town. This is a truly unique opportunity not only to be of service but also to develop and grow within a Bahá’í family setting.

THE GREENACRE Bahá’í School is seeking an individual or retired couple to serve as resident caretaker(s). This is a year-round volunteer position primarily responsible for building and grounds security at designated times, opening and closing buildings as needed for functions, helping with light-duty maintenance, responding to emergencies, and greeting visitors to the school. Requires a mature person or couple with proven experience in carrying out these responsibilities. On-campus residence (two-bedroom apartment) will be provided. Applicants may also apply for other openings at the school. Please submit a letter of introduction and résumé with detailed description of your qualifications and background to: Administrator, Green Acre Bahá’í School, 188 Main St., Eliot, ME 03903.

PIONEERING: OVERSEAS

EMPLOYMENT opportunities overseas: AFRICA—Kenya: program officer to help develop, monitor and evaluate program activities to sustain continuing African efforts in democratization and economic liberalization. AMERICAS—Guatemala: regional technical adviser to coordinate the training of CARE's overseas staff and counterparts in primary health programs. ASIA—Cambodia: Khmer/ English translator needed by non-profit medical organization. Taiwan: teachers to teach English to 1st-6th graders. AUSTRALASIA—Marshall Islands: associate administrator, chief financial officer to work with Marshallese administrator providing health care services. For more information on any of the above, please contact the Office of Pioneering at the Bahá’í National Center, Wilmette IL 60091. Telephone 708-869-9039 or fax 708-869-0247, Attn: Office of Pioneering.

ARCHIVES

THE NATIONAL Bahá’í Archives is seeking, at the request of the Universal House of Justice, original letters written on behalf of the Guardian to the following individuals: Virgie Preston (died Washington, DC, 1956), Wilford M. Provo, Amelia Pumpelly, Raphael Pumpelly (died New York City, 1949), Edwin A. Putnam, Mabel M. Quick, John Quinn (died Los Angeles, CA, 1948), and Mary M. Rabb. Anyone knowing family members or relatives who might have these letters from the Guardian is asked to contact the National Bahá’í Archives, Bahá’í National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091 (phone 708-869-9039).

THE NATIONAL Bahá’í Archives is seeking copies of Regional and District Teaching Committee bulletins or newsletters for the following committees: California/Nevada/Arizona RTC, 1944-46; Southern California No. 1 DTC, 1972-80; Western New York DTC, 1968-69. Anyone having bulletins or newsletters they could donate is asked to send them to the National Bahá’í Archives, Bahá’í National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091.

Employment opportunities

BAHÁ’Í NATIONAL CENTER Support Services: Assistant meeting and travel coordinator. Full-time position to help coordinate travel and meeting arrangements including hotel and airline reservations, ground transportation, room reservations, on-site set-up for meetings, refreshments. Clerical and word processing skills required.

BAHÁ’Í PUBLISHING TRUST Production Department coordinator. Responsible for developing and implementing production strategies under the direction of the Executive Secretary of the Publications Board to ensure the timely and cost-effective production of Bahá’í texts, literature, periodicals, video tapes, audio cassettes and other materials in support of the goals of the National Spiritual Assembly for expansion and consolidation of the U.S. Bahá’í community.

BOSCH BAHÁ’Í SCHOOL Assistant director. Responsible for helping the school director in all functions related to operating and promoting the school. The assistant director will contact urban Assemblies throughout California, Oregon, Washington and Nevada to apprise them of the programs/possibilities/opportunities existing at Bosch. Also helps with all administrative and personnel activities of the school.

Program coordinator. Primary duty is to develop and coordinate programs at the school to include adults, youth, children and the non-Bahá’í public.

NATIVE AMERICAN BAHÁ’Í INSTITUTE Program coordinator. Primary duty is to develop and implement programs at the Institute with special emphasis on teaching the Faith, the development of children, and a variety of social and economic development programs. When responding, please include a summary of your experience with Native American cultures, specifically Navajo.

Please submit current résumé including Bahá’í service to Stephanie Gladden or Karen Marcellis, Office of Human Resources, Bahá’í National Center, 1233 Central St., Evanston, IL 60201.

PIONEERING: HOMEFRONT

COME TO a Spiritual Assembly "goal city" and help teach the Faith in Warren, Michigan, whose Bahá’í community consists of three adults and two children. Our teaching plan includes celebrating the love of God among people of diverse backgrounds through the arts. Bring your talent, interest and enthusiasm. Warren (pop. 140,000), one hour from the Louhelen Bahá’í School, is the third largest V city in Michigan. It is home to Macomb Community College, GM's Tech Center, large GM, Ford and Chrysler plans and many small automotive industry manufacturers. Housing is affordable; city services are good. For more information, phone Roxie Schell, 313-757-2999, or Paula Drewek, 313-558-7545.

FORT MYERS, Florida, the City of Palms (pop. 45,000), once the home of Thomas Edison, and one of the fastest growing areas of southwest Florida, welcomes all interested Bahá’ís who would like to relocate there and help re-establish an Assembly in the city. Please contact Bea Meese, 4377. Myers, FL 33901, or phone 813-334-

THE BAHÁ’Í community of Smyrna, Tennessee, warmly welcomes homefront pioneers. Smyrna, less than 30 minutes by car from Nashville or Murfreesboro, both of which have many fine educational institutions, has eight active adult Bahá’ís, one youth and four children. There is a Nissan Motors plant and other industries. Smyrna lost its Assembly at Ridván and is establishing a teaching institute to begin large-scale expansion and regain Assembly status by Ridván 1994. For information, please write to Susan Hakiman, 4981. Smyrna, TN 37167, or phone 615-355-

THE BAHÁ’Í community of Spartanburg, South Carolina, needs homefront pioneers to maintain its Assembly status. For information about the Spartanburg area, please write to the Spiritual Assembly of Spartanburg, P.O. Box 2893, Spartanburg, SC 29304, or phone 803-583-3123.

WANTED

THE NATIONAL Spiritual Assembly is seeking information about programs and community-based efforts (both institutional and grassroots) that deal with the issue of eliminating racism, and asks that Bahá’ís who are working to help lift the burden of racism in their schools and communities send information about those efforts to the National Teaching Committee Office, Bahá’í National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091 (phone 708-869-9039).

WE HAVE several books that are near publication and would like to invite Bahá’í artists to submit their ideas for cover illustrations. These can be drawings or photographs, but must be creative. For information, write to Global Perspective, Mt. Pleasant, MI 48858, or phone 517-772-1432.

AM RESEARCHING the life of Lua Moore Getsinger, developing workshops based on her life as an example of teaching and obedience to the Covenant. I am not a writer, but will be cross-referencing all material. Looking for photographs, letters, stories, any other information you may have. I am willing to pay all costs of mailing and reproducing the material, which can either be mailed to me or faxed. Please indicate the source of the material, and if sending photos, please include place, time and event at which they were taken. If photos are copyrighted, please include the name of one from whom permission to use may be obtained in case a book is developed from this research. If you would like a copy of the research that is compiled, please indicate this when sending materials. Send to Linda Greer, Whitehorse, Yukon Y1A 2B2; phone 403-668-6628 (business), 403-633-2932 (home); fax 403-668-6638.

WANTED to buy: Mr. Faizi's "Analysis of The Hidden Words" (cassette tape, originally reel-to-reel). Trudy Eisenberg, Los Angeles, CA 90065.

WE PLAN to publish a book on methods of teaching the Faith. If you are a successful teacher and have some ideas about effective teaching, please share them with us. The book, Teaching: The Crown of Immortal Glory, is to be published in a few months. Please phone 517-772-1432 or write or tape record your ideas and send them to Global Perspective, Mt. Pleasant, MI 48858.

POETS: submissions are wanted for The Purple Rose, a poetry anthology to be published by a private non-profit press. This collection of new voices (and a few surprises, we hope!) is dedicated to the memory and spirit of Roger White. Styles and topics are open. Submission deadline is October 1. Please send double-spaced submissions to Purple Rose Press, S.K. Dapoz, editor, Greenfield, IN 46140, or phone 317-462-9450 (evenings).

IN CONJUNCTION with local public schools, the Bahá’í community of the Town of North Hempstead, New York, is planning to sponsor a program entitled "Save Our Earth" in which students will be asked to create posters, dioramas, etc., that relate to the theme. We would like input from communities that have sponsored similar programs. Write to Luann Scribani, 11501, or phone 516-747-5853. Mineola, NY

THREE MALE roommates wanted for the Parliament of the World's Religions to be held August 28-September 5 in Chicago. I have reserved a room at the Palmer House Hotel, the host hotel for the conference. With four of us, the cost would be $19/night per person. If interested, phone Michael Kafes, 914-737-4789.

NEEDED for our Bahá’í library: an illustrated copy of The Dawn-Breakers, either hard cover or soft cover. Will gladly pay for the book, shipping, etc. Write to Susan LeDuc, Bountiful, UT 84010, or phone 801-292-2387.

AN OPPORTUNITY to network with Bahá’ís who are experiencing new friendships with university students from other countries. Students from all over the world come to Gainesville to attend the University of Florida, and our friendships keep growing. If you'd like to share experiences, insight, questions, answers, and/or advice, especially related to seekers/friends from Southeast Asia and mainland China, please contact the Bahá’ís of Gainesville, P.O. Box 149, Gainesville, FL 32602. We look forward to hearing from you.

IF YOU were unable to purchase souvenirs during the second World Congress or would like to help a fund-raising effort, here is your chance. The Bahá’í community of Lansing, Michigan, is once again printing a limited number of T-shirts with the Congress logo printed on the front. The T-shirts are in two colors, white or gray, with black print. The cost is $7 for small size, $12 for medium, large or extra-large, plus $3 shipping and handling for each T-shirt. Please send checks to the Lansing Bahá’í Fund, P.O. Box 26011, Lansing, MI 48909. Include ordering information. (size, color, number of T-shirts wanted) with your check, and allow 2-3 weeks for delivery. For more information, phone 517-487-2323. [Page 9]

World News

The first deepening conference for Turkish Bahá’ís in Austria was held May 1-2 in Tel am See, Salzburg. More than 100 Bahá’ís and their friends attended the event, which was conducted in the Turkish language. The program was centered around a series of lectures by Violet and Atilla Bagcuvan and Hooshidar Balazadeh. As a result of the conference, nine people declared their belief in Bahá’u’lláh: eight from Turkey and one from Austria.

On March 26, the Bahá’í International Community and the Philatelic Service of Israel's Postal Authority co-hosted a reception to commemorate the issuance February 16 of a stamp honoring the Bahá’í World Center. The stamp was issued as part of an ongoing series printed by the Israeli Postal Authority to honor the religions represented in that country. A sample copy of the stamp has been sent to each of the 165 National Spiritual Assemblies. Among the dignitaries attending the reception were the Minister of Communications, the director of the Philatelic Service, consuls from various governments, and the mayor of Haifa. The Bahá’í International Community was represented by its deputy secretary-general, Paul Reynolds. Both the Minister of Communications and mayor of Haifa saluted the World Center for its contributions to beautifying the city of Haifa. Gifts of an album and frame featuring the stamp were presented to the Bahá’í International Community by Minister Moshe Shahal on behalf of the Israeli Postal Authority. In return, Mr. Reynolds presented the Minister with a framed photograph of the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh. Also honored at the reception was the stamp's designer, art student Ronit Salomon, whose illustration was chosen in a nationwide contest.

A "difficult and long-standing goal" of the National Spiritual Assembly of Australia was achieved on the first day of Ridván when the first resident believer of Norfolk Island was enrolled in the Faith. The declaration of faith, following "the devoted and untiring efforts of the Stevenson family," the National Assembly reports, "brings joy as we approach the launching of the Three Year Plan."

In spite of heavy snow and serious fuel problems, about 150 Bahá’ís and their guests from Austria, Luxembourg, Macedonia and Serbia gathered January 22-24 for a Regional Teaching Conference in Macedonia. After the program, which included talks, folk dancing, and the video "The Prisoner of Akká," a father of two Bahá’í youth declared his belief in Bahá’u’lláh.

In Vanuatu, Bahá’í youth volunteer Louie Albert is shown with six of his students at the Bahá’í School in Forchenale, on the island of Santo. There are no government schools in the area, and Bahá’ís have trained local teachers.

On April 21, the British Broadcasting Corporation's World Service radio station broadcast a Bahá’í message as part of its "Words of Faith" program. The four-minute script was read by Hugh Adamson, secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United Kingdom. It was about the Ridván period, the Declaration of Bahá’u’lláh as the Promised One of all ages, the spread of the Faith around the world, the election of local Spiritual Assemblies, and the International Convention that was about to begin in the Holy Land to elect the Universal House of Justice. The BBC invited the Bahá’ís to prepare another program to be broadcast on May 23 to commemorate the Declaration of the Báb.

More than 800,000 people visited the Bahá’í House of Worship near New Delhi, India, during the first three months of this year. For the first time, the Temple staff received a group of 30 Mongolian Chinese. Many tour groups came from Taiwan and Hong Kong, while a fairly large number of tourists from Singapore also visited. Many tour groups from Thailand were told about the Faith. They consisted of Buddhists, many of whom were Monks who had gone to India on a religious tour. The lotus has great meaning for Buddhists, and they toured the Temple with great interest and admiration. Among the prominent visitors during January, February and March were the ambassadors of Hungary and Panama in Delhi, the chargé d'affaires of the Czech Embassy in Delhi, and the secretary-general of the World Organization of the Scout Movement. Large groups of delegates to an Inter-religious World Conference for Peace visited the Temple, and made a ceremonial presentation of a sapling Ashoka tree. Two Nigerians, members of an international group of police officers who visited the House of Worship, became interested in the Faith and attended several firesides. One of them has since been enrolled in the Faith, and the other is still investigating.

Seosamh Watson (left), chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly of Ireland, presents a copy of the Statement on Bahá’u’lláh to the President of Ireland, Mary Robinson. The presentation was made March 15 at Aras an Uachtarain.

At Naw-Rúz, about 300 people attended a "Unity in Diversity" program organized by the Bahá’ís of Havana, Cuba. The event was held at the new Continental Theatre in the Chinese district of Havana to honor the centenary of the establishment of Cuba's Chinese colony. The program consisted of Spanish, African and Chinese dances by a number of groups. Among those in the audience were the consul and other officials from the Embassy of the People's Republic of China as well as people of note from the Cuban Chinese, Andaluz and Catalan societies.

On February 17, the Bahá’í community of Auckland, New Zealand, hosted a tribute at the Auckland Town Hall to jazz trumpeter and be-bop pioneer John Birks (Dizzy) Gillespie. Of the estimated 1,400 people in the audience, no more than 200 were Bahá’ís. The concert was performed by 17 jazz musicians from New Zealand directed by Bahá’í composer-conductor Russ Garcia. Mr. Gillespie, who became a Bahá’í in 1968, died January 5 at age 75.

In Luxembourg, members of the Bahá’í community joined more than 1,000 other participants from many countries and religious groups March 27 in a "Silent March" to protest the violation of human rights in the former Yugoslavia. Among those taking part in the march was Erna Hennicot-Schoepges, chairman of the Parliament of Luxembourg.

At the invitation of the national Holy Year Committee, Dorothy Nelson, vice-chairman of the U.S. National Spiritual Assembly and judge of the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, paid a four-day visit in March to San Juan, Puerto Rico. Her visit was preceded by the mailing of 1,300 printed invitations to her two scheduled lectures to local judges, attorneys, professors, journalists, police officers and government officials. Judge Nelson's topics were "New Approaches to the Issue of Crime and Justice" and "Justice...Just Around the Corner: A Bahá’í Perspective." Besides speaking at the two public meetings, Judge Nelson was interviewed at least half a dozen times on radio, was the focus of a prominent article in an English-language newspaper, met with judges of the U.S. Federal Court in Puerto Rico, received several representatives of the governor and three high-ranking aides for a two-hour discussion on reforming the criminal justice system, and met with members of the National Spiritual Assembly and other Bahá’ís in Puerto Rico. At her first lecture, a stirring tribute to the Faith was given by the governor, and a warm message from the Secretary of State was read.

Rights are removed

The National Spiritual Assembly has removed the administrative rights of of Columbia, Maryland. Mr. is known to be traveling in the South, and the friends are advised not to lend him money or offer hospitality to him. [Page 10]

PARLIAMENT OF THE WORLD'S RELIGIONS

presentation proposals to the program committee.

Counselor Wilma Ellis, administrator-general of the Bahá’í International Community, has been asked to speak at the opening plenary session in response to the keynote address on "Interfaith Understanding and the 1993 Parliament."

The Parliament's opening processional of the represented faiths will include approximately 20 Bahá’ís, in diverse ethnic dress where applicable, representing the oneness of humanity and the universal message of Bahá’u’lláh.

• Several Bahá’ís have submitted proposals for performances that will supplement the plenary sessions and be offered in ancillary programs. The World Congress Choir and Bahá’í Gospel Choir are making arrangements to perform.
• A number of Bahá’í names will be submitted for nomination as chairmen and presidents of plenary sessions.
• Counselors and members of the National Spiritual Assembly who plan to attend the Parliament will be nominated to take part in the Assembly of Religious and Spiritual Leaders scheduled to meet during the final three days of the event.
• Bahá’í youth involvement is being coordinated by a member of the National Center staff. Bahá’í youth have been active with other youth in planning the Friday, September 3, plenary session for youth and other activities. A Bahá’í youth workshop will perform.
• The U.S. Bahá’í Refugee Office has worked to attain Bahá’í participation in a plenary session entitled "Voices of the Dispossessed." The session will focus on the impact of religious and other forms of persecution on human lives.
• Six videotapes produced by Bahá’ís have been submitted for review as part of a planned film festival.
• Three Bahá’í artists have offered their work for inclusion in an art exhibit.
• The Bahá’í House of Worship is preparing for an increased number of visitors during the week of the Parliament and is planning a special afternoon program on Sunday, September 5, in conjunction with the Parliament.
• The Spiritual Assembly of Chicago is planning a Bahá’í-sponsored worship service and is arranging for a Bahá’í-sponsored prayer room at the conference site.

PUBLIC RELATIONS/INFORMATION

• Representatives of the Bahá’í International Community and the National Spiritual Assembly took part in a press conference held by the Council in January in New York City to announce the Year of Interreligious Understanding and Cooperation and to spotlight the Parliament.
• Press opportunities at the Parliament are expected to be numerous. The annual convention of the 150-member National Religion Writers Association is being held in Chicago at the same time. Approximately six independent documentary efforts are under way by various organizations, including PBS.
• A press kit is being developed by the Bahá’í International Community and the National Spiritual Assembly for use at the Parliament.
• The National Spiritual Assembly and the Bahá’í International Community are planning an exhibit for the conference. The exhibit will illustrate Bahá’í principles and will be the primary dissemination point for Bahá’í literature. Bahá’í volunteers, coordinated by the Spiritual Assembly of Chicago, will staff the exhibit.
• The Bahá’í Distribution Service is planning a sales display of Bahá’í books and materials.
• The National Spiritual Assembly has submitted background material on the Faith for use in the Parliament's "SourceBook," which will describe the views of participating religions on a range of critical issues being examined at the Parliament and will convey basic information about each religion.
• The National Spiritual Assembly will issue a statement on the Parliament and on the International Year of Interreligious Cooperation for inclusion in the monthly journal of the Council for a Parliament of the World's Religions.
• The Bahá’í co-sponsors will host a hospitality suite at the headquarters hotel during the Parliament at which Bahá’ís and their guests may meet. Literature and press kits will be available and light refreshments will be provided. The suite will be staffed by Bahá’í volunteers coordinated by the Spiritual Assembly of Chicago.
• The U.S. Bahá’í Public Information Network will be informed of Bahá’í participation in the Parliament and kept abreast of developments.
• The National Spiritual Assembly donated its production facilities to create an eight-minute promotional video tape on the Parliament. The tape is being used widely by participating groups.

BAHÁ’Í OUTREACH EFFORTS

• Each faith represented at the Parliament has organized a host committee. The Bahá’í Host Committee, working in cooperation with the Bahá’í co-sponsoring institutions, helps to publicize the Parliament and assists with general outreach and fund-raising.
• Articles about the Parliament have appeared and will continue to appear in The American Bahá’í.
• The Spiritual Assembly of Chicago has publicized the Parliament in its newsletter and will do a mailing to midwestern Spiritual Assemblies informing them of the Parliament and asking for volunteers.

Plans for the event are grounded in the belief that global interfaith efforts can make a genuine and lasting contribution to healing the misunderstandings that have fueled the division, competition and mutual condemnation that have shaped world history, and that there is a need for a moral and ethical foundation on which to build the sort of social structure conducive to the perpetuation of a lasting peace.

The Parliament will celebrate the unity and diversity of the world's religions in a spirit of openness, mutual respect, and shared humanity.

The stated goal of the Council, its more than 150 co-sponsors, and the various communities who have committed their time and energies to the Parliament is to extend and build upon a century of interfaith dialogue.

Jacksonville's New Era Committee works to create spirit of love, harmony and unity among the friends

Pictured are many of those who attended the first Singles Conference for Northeast Florida April 2-4 at the Bahá’í Center in Jacksonville, Florida. The event was planned by the New Era Committee, which was appointed by the Spiritual Assembly of Jacksonville to help strengthen the social fabric of the community.

To help strengthen the social fabric of its community, the Spiritual Assembly of Jacksonville, Florida, has created the New Era Committee. Its mandate is to create and promote projects that foster love, harmony and unity as they work to fulfill the needs of a growing Bahá’í community.

On April 2-4, the committee organized the first Singles Conference for Northeast Florida at the Bahá’í Center in Jacksonville.

The inspiration to bring singles together was born from the needs of a Bahá’í community with more than 30 adult singles (ages 17-60) who were eager to meet and interact with other single Bahá’ís.

Attendance was large, with singles attending from Florida, Georgia, the Carolinas, Ohio, California and Texas. About 50 of the registrants said they learned of the event through a notice in The American Bahá’í calendar of events or from flyers sent throughout the southeastern U.S.

The program included guest speakers and workshop sessions on such topics as Choosing a Partner, Marriage in Religious History, Interracial Marriage, Keeping the Bahá’í Lifestyle, A Single Life of Honor, and Bahá’í Teachings on Developing a Relationship.

Participants were inspired by the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh on love, unity and harmony. Prayers were recited in several languages, and spirits were filled with renewed vitality.

If you would like information about holding a similar event, please phone Jon Everson, a representative of the New Era Committee, at 904-737-2461.

'Peace pole' planted at Los Angeles Bahá'í Center

On April 29, the ninth day of Ridván, exactly one year after the city of Los Angeles was torn apart by rioting in the wake of the Rodney King verdict, a redwood peace pole was planted in the courtyard of the Bahá’í Center in Los Angeles as representatives of a number of religious groups and peace organizations looked on.

The event was organized by the Rev. JohnAlexis Viereck, representative of the spiritual director of L.A. Clean-Up, who chose the Bahá’í Center as the proper site for the peace pole because it embodies the concept of unity and harbors a spiritual ambiance that welcomes everyone.

The peace pole, which includes the words "May peace prevail on earth; may peace prevail in our homes and communities" in English, Korean, Spanish and Pan-African, was provided by the Chapel of St. John's, which "helps groups, individuals and organizations awaken and develop the life of the spirit."

The ceremony at the Bahá’í Center initiated a 24-hour prayer vigil in which representatives of diverse religious groups each hosted an hour of prayer, music and meditation.

Among those taking part were Nigerian drummers, the Sante Diame Dancers, and the World Peace Prayer Membership, a Japanese group that unfurled the flags of the 170-180 countries represented in Los Angeles and prayed for peace among them. The vigil ended with Sufi leaders teaching the multi-cultural group some of Gandhi's favorite dances and chants.

Howard County Bahá'ís host dinner for Ridván

To celebrate the ninth day of Ridván, the Bahá’ís of Howard County, Maryland, hosted a dinner at a local country club. About 100 people, many of whom were not Bahá’ís, attended the event at which Dwight Allen spoke on "The Impact of Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation 100 Years After His Passing" and music was performed by Bruce Casteel and Pinnock Casely-Hayford. [Page 11]

Dorothy Baker Project helps underprivileged in Denver area

They knew almost nothing about establishing a non-profit community service agency.

But when a small group of Denver, Colorado-area Bahá’ís looked around and saw neighbors, friends and members of the Bahá’í community in need, they were impelled to take action.

So they began to gather information, assess needs and solicit advice from other community assistance volunteers about establishing a formal organization.

Thus, in February 1991, was the Dorothy Baker Project incorporated "to be of service to mankind as espoused by the charitable and social principles of the Bahá’í Faith: to provide relief to the poor, distressed or underprivileged; to offer assistance while promoting personal dignity and self-sufficiency...."

Today the growing, thriving organization serves the needs of individuals and families throughout metropolitan Denver.

It provides emergency food, clothing and household items, as well as counseling, resource referral and financial assistance with medical and dental needs.

"Initially, the project was intended to operate under the guidance and sponsorship of a local Spiritual Assembly," said organizer Kate Wilkinsen, a home health nurse from Denver.

"But after consultation with the National Center and under the direction of the National Spiritual Assembly, the Dorothy Baker Project became an independent non-profit corporation," she said, "which meant it would be eligible for funding from non-Bahá’í organizations. Nevertheless, we do endeavor to maintain close working ties with the Bahá’í institutions throughout the area."

The project was named after Dorothy Baker, said Mrs. Wilkinsen, because her life was such an inspiring example of active concern for others. "We hope the project will be a tribute to the memory of this marvelous Hand of the Cause of God."

According to Mrs. Wilkinsen, "For some time, it had been evident to many of us that fellow believers in our communities had, at one time or another, gone hungry, homeless, without proper medical or dental care and, in the end, without an outpouring of love and concern from the Bahá’í community.

"Often, fellow believers were simply unaware of the dire circumstances of individuals and families in their community," she said.

"Those in need were frequently too embarrassed to ask for help. And there was no active system to respond to needs if they became known.

"To many of us this was a shameful situation that became increasingly intolerable. Sometimes, if the Bahá’ís received aid at all, it was from other religious organizations, and this further embarrassed and saddened the recipients," Mrs. Wilkinsen said. "We felt it was necessary to set up an organization to help our own.

"What better way to spread the healing Word of God than to put our beliefs into action? What better means of implementing the spiritual principles of the Bahá’í Faith?" she asked.

"In the process of establishing the project's administrative structure, we incorporated the principles of consultation and Bahá’í election procedures," she said. "And each day, we attempt to follow the example of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá by helping those in need regardless of religion, race, nationality or sex."

Initially, the project established three service banks: food, clothing and household items. They were housed in the basements and garages of three board members.

Within six months, contributions to all of the banks increased to the extent that a storefront had to be rented.

During 1991, the project's first full year of operation, 85 food deliveries were made, at an estimated value of $3,900; in 1992, project volunteers made 130 deliveries of almost $6,500 in food.

Similarly, 40 families and seven organizations were served by the clothing bank in 1991; last year, 50 households and seven organizations were served.

Dorothy Baker Project: three success stories

"This is the Day whereon the Ocean of God's mercy hath been manifested unto men, the Day in which the Day Star of His loving-kindness hath shed its radiance upon them, the Day in which the clouds of His bountiful favor have overshadowed the whole of mankind. Now is the time to cheer and refresh the downcast through the invigorating breeze of love and fellowship, and the living waters of friendliness and charity."—Bahá’u’lláh

The Dorothy Baker Project has helped hundreds of people in the Denver, Colorado, area. Here are the stories of three of them (names have been changed to protect their privacy):

Marina

Less than three years ago, Marina left the Soviet Union for a visit to the United States. A romance and marriage to an American brought her to Colorado.

Soon afterward, her five-year-old son came to America. Then the marriage failed and Marina found herself in foreign circumstances trying to support herself and her child.

"I rented an apartment and found a job cleaning, and then found another," she said. "Although I have a master's degree and was trained as a piano teacher, my English was not very strong, so I found the best jobs I could.

"Even so it was difficult to pay for baby-sitting and we had no health insurance. I felt very lonely and helpless," she said.

Then Marina learned about the Dorothy Baker Project.

She was able to obtain clothes for herself and her son. A donated bed, some furniture and a few kitchen items made her apartment more comfortable.

And, with a little guidance on how to cope with American society, Marina was soon enrolled in school, working to obtain appropriate immigration status and feeling much better about her adopted home.

Now she volunteers time to the project, sorting donated clothing and preparing food for delivery. She also serves on the board of directors.

"I can't express my appreciation for the project," she said. "It made me feel like a human being."

Alice

For Alice, like many elderly women, living on a low income was tolerable when her husband was alive but became a real struggle after he died in September 1990.

When she got a call from Kate, a Dorothy Baker Project volunteer, she anticipated a brief, friendly visit, nothing more.

But when Kate came to see Alice, she was observant—and persistent.

Yes, Alice needed more than a friendly visit. Food would be a big help. And she did need some shoes.

Problems with her teeth had plagued her for some time, but getting them fixed was out of the question. She simply didn't have the income.

She was embarrassed by her appearance and, so, rarely came out to Bahá’í activities.

Help from the project made all the difference.

Now the 77-year-old widow not only has supplemental food, she can chew it! And she's no longer embarrassed to go out in public.

As a result, Alice has become a project volunteer herself.

"At first, I telephoned board members about meetings," she said. "Then another person took over that task.

"Now I deliver food and help with refreshments at some meetings. It's been a big help to me. And it has helped others in a big way," she said.

Elaine

"I was born in 1914. Even though I was not educated to be a teacher, I taught schools in the slums of Cleveland for years because it was so hard to keep teachers there," recalled Elaine.

"I raised two children on my own," she said. "And I did pretty well...."

But then, "My health began to fail—especially my eyesight," she said.

"One of the wonderful things about the Dorothy Baker Project is that they realize that people in need are not there because of lack of initiative or capacity," Elaine said. "Not all deprivation is the result of slovenliness.

"Project volunteers bring me groceries. [They] saw to it that I got surgery for glaucoma and cataracts, [and] made sure I took my medication and had what I needed after surgery," she explained.

The volunteers "keep their fingers on the pulse of all kinds of needs," she said. "They know how to preserve a person's dignity. And the wonderful thing is that every person who has a feeling that people care begins to care more himself."

She concluded, "It has given me more self-respect and enabled me to take my mind off myself and what is going to happen to me."

The project networks with many other non-profit organizations for information, referral and assistance.

These include Operation Love, Colorado Empowerment, Visiting Nurses Association, Ecumenical Refugee Services, Denver Rescue Mission, Denver Indian Center, and several shelters for victims of domestic violence.

"Over time, it has become apparent that our most valued service is the food bank," said Susie Jones, a founding member of the project from Highlands Ranch, Colorado.

"So in recent months we've strengthened our ties with Food Bank of the Rockies and the SHARE Colorado program, a division of Catholic Charities and Community Services of the Archdiocese of Denver," she said.

"In SHARE Colorado," she explained, "people purchase shares for $13 each, in cash or food stamps, and donate two hours of community service for each share purchased. They then can collect a monthly food package valued at $35 or $40" for each share.

"Much of our support comes from our Adopt-a-Share program in which Bahá’ís, Assemblies and others purchase shares and donate them to the project," said Mrs. Jones.

"Also," she said, "we agree completely with the SHARE belief that everyone can give back to the community. So we find ways for all those who receive aid from the project to donate time and service.

"Unlike other participating organizations, we also give 'community service' credit to aid recipients who work to better themselves—through job training, or taking classes in English or parenting," she said.

"It is a very powerful means of honoring the value of each individual," she said, "and making connections throughout the community."

Besides the Adopt-a-Share program, the Dorothy Baker Project raises funds through the sale of its "Feast with Friends Cookbook" and special events such as the Feast of Music concert and dance held this past February.

Support from two local grocery chains is also a key part of the project's success.

For project founders and board members, the past two years have been a crash course in organization, management, networking and promotion. Hundreds of hours are donated each year.

Yet the rewards, say participants, have been well worth it.

"We've never had such wonderful opportunities to teach the Faith," said Mrs. Jones. "Those who receive our aid and the organizations we network with want to know why we established the project, who Dorothy Baker was, and what makes us different.

"We are virtually always able to discuss the tenets of the Faith," she said. "Lasting friendships have been formed. And the project has also been a vehicle for inspiring Bahá’ís who have been less active to become involved in community activities again."

The bottom line? "So far, it's been a tremendous success," said Mrs. Jones.

For more information on the Dorothy Baker Project of Colorado Inc., please write to P.O. Box 4173, Highlands Ranch, CO 80126. [Page 12]

The Kitáb-i-Aqdas: Its Place in Bahá’í Literature

This article, "The Kitáb-i-Aqdas: Its Place in Bahá’í Literature," was produced by Bahá’í World Center Publications.

1992 marked the centenary of the passing of Bahá’u’lláh. In the past hundred years, the Faith He founded has grown from an obscure movement in the Middle East to the second most widespread of the world's independent religions (World Christian Encylopedia, 1982; Encyclopedia Britannica, 1992). The Bahá’í community, which embraces people from virtually every racial and tribal group, and has maintained its unity in doing so, very likely represents the most diverse organized body of people on the planet today.

The centenary coincides with the appearance of the first authorized English-language edition of the book that is central among Bahá’u’lláh's writings, the Kitáb-i-Aqdas ("The Most Holy Book"). Nucleus of a body of writings supplementing and explaining it, the Aqdas was first published in its original Arabic, in Bahá’u’lláh's lifetime. As the Bahá’í community emerged throughout the world, the book's provisions determined its shape and development, through the insights provided by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi, Bahá’u’lláh's son and great-grandson. Both were successively appointed under His authority as the interpreters of His message.

The newly published volume is extensively annotated on the basis of Bahá’u’lláh's own amplification of the text and the work of His two interpreters. Translations into other languages will quickly follow.

HUMANITY'S COMING OF AGE

The expansion of the Bahá’í community has brought the teachings of its Founder to the attention of an ever-widening public. Frequently cited among these themes are the oneness of the human race, the equality of the sexes, and the essential harmony of faith and reason. Perhaps especially familiar are concepts of the underlying unity of all religions and the common purpose of the Prophets Who have inspired them.

Bahá’u’lláh's teachings on the evolutionary process provide a helpful context for an understanding of the purpose of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. The human race as Bahá’u’lláh describes it has neither fallen from some primordial perfection nor is it the product of socio-economic forces. As the arrowhead of evolution, human consciousness has latent within it all of the attibutes of a Divinity Whose essence is forever unknowable.

What should be recognized, Bahá’u’lláh says, is that these capacities have owed their cultivation chiefly to the driving force provided throughout history by successive interventions of that same ultimate Reality. Associated with the missions of such transcendent figures as Abraham, Moses, Zoroaster, Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad, the phenomenon of Divine Revelation is an ever-recurring one. Without either beginning or end, it is an integral feature of the evolutionary order and the ultimate cause of the civilizing of human nature.

Bahá’u’lláh's writings describe humanity as today entering on its collective coming-of-age, capable of seeing the entire panorama of its development as a continuum. The challenge of maturity is for the peoples of the world to accept that they are one race, and to build together the foundations of global civilization. The influence that is awakening this consciousness throughout the world is that universal Revelation of God which was promised in all the scriptures of humanity's past. Bahá’u’lláh writes as its Spokesman, in the line of Divine Messengers stretching back beyond the beginnings of recorded history.

In the Kitáb-i-Aqdas the Divine guidance for the age of humanity's collective maturity is endowed with a system of law, precept and institutions capable of bringing into existence a global commonwealth ordered by principles of social justice.

"This is a Book," its concluding pages state, "which hath become the Lamp of the Eternal unto the world, and His straight, undeviating Path amidst the peoples of the earth. Say: This is the Dayspring of Divine knowledge, if ye be of them that understand, and the Dawning-place of God's commandments, if ye be of those who comprehend."

FOUNDATIONS OF A GLOBAL ETHOS

The Kitáb-i-Aqdas makes its appearance in a world which, since the Enlightenment's rejection of religion as the ultimate moral authority, has engaged in an increasingly urgent search for an alternative place to stand. Today, it is apparent that this effort has failed. Neither Marxist determinism nor popular faith in situational or consensus ethics offers a basis upon which the system of values required by an emerging global society can be erected.

Bahá’u’lláh reasserts the sovereignty of God as the sole Authority governing moral life. God exists: He is the Source of all that is; He reveals through His Messengers those laws and principles that are primarily responsible for the civilizing of human nature. The autonomy of the individual is conditioned, therefore, not only by the limitations of the natural world he or she inhabits, but also by a spiritual universe that transcends and pervades it.

"Hold ye fast unto His statutes and commandments," is the counsel of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, "and be not of those who, following their idle fancies and vain imaginings, have clung to the standards fixed by their own selves, and cast behind their backs the standards laid down by God."

Fundamental values around which all past societies have organized themselves are reformulated in the Aqdas to meet the needs of a planet contracted into a single homeland and a human race awakening to greatly enhanced powers of reason and perception. New laws and concepts are enunciated whose aim is to free human consciousness from culturally conditioned patterns of response and to nurture the emergence of a global civilization.

The Aqdas is not a systematic code of law. Guidance that relates to details of individual life or social practice is set in passages which summon the reader to a challenging new conception of human nature and purpose. Evgenii Eduardovich Bertels, the nineteenth-century Russian scholar who first attempted a translation of the book, compared Bahá’u’lláh's pen writing the Aqdas to a bird, now soaring on the summits of heaven, now descending to touch the homeliest questions of everyday need.

The book's prescriptions range across subjects as varied as aesthetics, weapons control, sanitation, penal law, and the need for an auxiliary, international language. The inextinguishable human proclivity toward ritual is directed into a few areas of personal life. Various prohibitions inherited from earlier religious traditions are annulled and the door is firmly shut on the emergence of a professional clergy. The principal themes addressed in the Aqdas, however, are those great issues that are the dominant concerns of all Bahá’u’lláh's writings and of contemporary society: justice, government, law, liberty, belief, education, family, and the promotion of civilization.

ON JUSTICE

Throughout the ages of its long journey from barbarism, the human race has been sustained by the promise-enshrined in the scriptures of all the great religions that an age of justice would one day come. The central thrust of Bahá’u’lláh's writings is that we are witnessing its dawn. Through travail and suffering the peoples of the world are being purged of anachronistic habits and attitudes and awakened to the possibilities that their common humanity confers. They are being prepared to accept both their own oneness and their ultimate dependence on the justice of a loving and unfailing Creator.

Justice is conceived by Bahá’u’lláh as the foundation-stone of the coming global civilization. It is the essential means for the integration of the diverse peoples and communities of the planet. "The purpose of justice," Bahá’u’lláh's writings state, "is the appearance of unity among men."

Love, mercy and forgiveness are among the qualities that must distinguish human beings in their personal relationships one with another; the gradual cultivation of such responses in human nature has been one of the primary objects of the successive revelations of the Divine will. For these qualities to flourish as the distinguishing features of human life, however, each member of society and each component group must be able to trust that he or she is protected by standards that apply equally to all.

The concepts, laws and principles enunciated in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas are intended to provide the spiritual bedrock of this assurance. The book represents, in its own words, "the infallible Balance which the Hand of God is holding, in which all who are in the heavens and all who are on the earth are weighed....Through it the poor have been enriched, the learned enlightened, and the seekers enabled to ascend unto the presence of God."

ON GOVERNMENT

The Aqdas reiterates Bahá’u’lláh's endorsement, expressed in a number of places in His writings, of the principles of democratic and constitutional government. Its prescriptions envision the State as the servant of God and an instrument ensuring the rights of all society's members.

Several passages of the book make reference to monarchs of the nineteenth century. They are warned that through historical processes over which they will have no control, the governors of human society will be compelled to recognize that they are essentially "vassals" of God answerable for the powers they exercise.

These passages are best appreciated in the context of a larger body of major writings addressed to these same rulers. In them, Bahá’u’lláh insists that the real "treasures" of any land are its people. Governments are warned "not to deal unjustly with any one that appealeth to you"; they are called on to recognize that "the poor are the trust of God in your midst"; the growing burden of public taxation is declared to be "wholly and grossly unjust"; should any government commit aggression, the rest are called on to "rise ye all against him, for this is naught but manifest justice."

Against this background the Kitáb-i-Aqdas admonishes the arbiters of human affairs to defend the rights of the helpless and disadvantaged. Governments are not only summoned to "bind...the broken with the hands of justice," but also have the moral right and obligation to "crush the oppressor" who is responsible for such abuses, "with the rod of the commandments of your Lord."

ON LAW

As Western civilization has spread, legal codes everywhere have parted company with the metaphysical moorings that originally anchored them. A consequence has been that the concerns of law have come to focus chiefly on the tasks of deterring crime and settling disputes. In practice, even this relatively limited resolve has steadily weakened in the face of accelerating social breakdown. The behavioral sciences, however valuable, have not fulfilled their early promise as a sufficient source of relief.

Elaboration and full codification of the Divine Law revealed by Bahá’u’lláh is a task for posterity, and much of its application envisions a condition of society that will emerge only in the distant future. Its essential nature, however, is already apparent. The Kitáb-i-Aqdas reasserts both man's moral responsibility for his actions and the right of society to enforce those laws established for the maintenance of the general well-being: "Beware lest, through compassion, ye neglect to carry out the statutes of the religion of God; do that which hath been bidden you by Him Who is compassionate and merciful."

The fundamental purpose of the Divine [Page 13]commandments, whether or not they carry legal sanctions, is to awaken the rational soul to its own real nature and to the powers latent within it. The Book of God is thus the "quickener of mankind," the "source of true felicity." When seen with the eyes of the spirit, it is "the Bounty of God." "Consider the mercy of God and His gifts," the Aqdas counsels: "He enjoineth upon you that which shall profit you, though He Himself can well dispense with all creatures."

ON LIBERTY

One of the central dilemmas of Western civilization is society's need to draw a clear line between freedom and license. Civil and other legitimate human rights have come to be used as justification for the expression of almost any human impulse. At best, the accepted limit on the individual's rights is the point at which these claims infringe on the rights of others. Such a standard, even if it could be achieved, assumes a human race that is capable of determining, in most areas of moral decision, behavior that will serve its real needs. Thus, analogies are frequently drawn to various fields of scientific activity, the implication being that objective standards exist for attaining a reasonable measure of consensus on the promotion of human well-being.

But science is admittedly amoral and the cultural perceptions of humanity widely divergent. We confront again in Bahá’u’lláh’s writings His fundamental assertion that moral insight and coherence come only as the gift of that Divinity which "chose to confer upon Man the unique distinction and capacity to know Him and to love Him—a capacity that must needs be regarded as the generating impulse...underlying the whole of creation."

It is in this perspective that the Kitáb-i-Aqdas condemns strongly attempts to invoke "liberty" as justification for conduct that "causeth man to overstep the bounds of propriety," conduct that "debaseth him to the level of extreme depravity."

ON BELIEF

The Revelation of God for the age of humanity's collective maturity, Bahá’u’lláh says, transcends the diverse sectarian systems inherited from past ages. As there is but one ultimate Reality, and one human race inhabiting our planet, so the relationship between them has always been one and unbroken. The primary purpose of the Messengers of God has not been to teach different religions but progressively to unlock a wider range of capacities within human consciousness and human society.

In a commentary related to the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, Bahá’u’lláh states: "The Prophets and Chosen Ones have all been commissioned by the One True God...to nurture the trees of human existence with the living waters of uprightness and understanding, that there may appear from them that which God hath deposited within their inmost selves." The investigation of truth is, therefore, a right and responsibility of the individual conscience. No person or agency can claim the authority to coerce belief or compel uniformity of opinion.

It is in this spirit that the Aqdas urges: "Consort with all religions with amity and concord, that they may inhale from you the sweet fragrance of God," and that it counsels: "Beware lest any name debar you from Him Who is the Possessor of all names." Its sharp warning to clergy and theologians of the world's diverse religious traditions must be read in this same perspective: "Weigh not the Book of God with such standards and sciences as are current amongst you, for the Book itself is the unerring Balance established amongst men."

ON LEARNING

Bahá’u’lláh’s writings declare education to be the right and obligation of every person, woman and man alike. "Knowledge is as wings to man's life, and a ladder for his ascent. Its acquisition is incumbent upon everyone." An age has dawned, He says, in which "the secrets of the earth are laid bare," and their exploration in a spirit of service to humanity is an act of worship.

The most important goal of education is the discovery and cultivation of the moral capacities latent in human nature itself. In consequence of the universal Revelation of God, "a new life is, in this age, stirring within all the peoples of the earth." A revolution in information, arts and technologies has been set in motion that will most greatly advantage those who learn to function as moral beings, committed to the ideal of global unity. It will be through the acquisition of knowledge, not through privileges of sex, race or wealth, that the true empowerment of the world's peoples will increasingly come.

Such education calls for the exercise of self-discipline. The motivation that will make the effort possible is love for God. The Divine commandments, the Aqdas says, are no "mere code of laws," but the "lamps of My loving providence among My servants, and the keys of My mercy for My creatures."

ON FAMILY

"God hath prescribed matrimony unto you," the Aqdas says, "...that ye may bring forth one who will make mention of Me amid My servants." Bahá’u’lláh envisions the re-emergence of the extended family as the norm throughout the world, and various ordinances of the Aqdas reinforce this ideal. While the selection of a marital partner rests with the son or daughter concerned, for example, the requirement to seek parental consent aims at creating a family investment in the success of the marriage.

The provisions of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas relating to family must be read in the context of Bahá’u’lláh’s general teachings. "Women and men," He writes, "have been and will always be equal in the sight of God." Justice today demands that society so reorganize its affairs as to provide equality of opportunity to all persons, without regard to differences of sex. Should financial resources be so limited that choices must be made, educational priority should be given to girls over boys.

The latter injunction relates to certain responsibilities and claims that attach to sexual identity. The education of girls is particularly important because, although both parents participate in the education of children, mothers have the predominant influence during the earliest years. They are the primary agents of the civilizing process.

Similarly, men are called on to assume the chief responsibilities for the maintenance of families' financial well-being, and a number of provisions in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas take this particularly into account.

ON THE ADVANCEMENT OF CIVILIZATION

A common feature of all the great religions of the past has been the teaching that the purpose of human life is for the soul to know, to love and to worship its Creator. Bahá’u’lláh’s writings on this theme are particularly rich and evocative. They emphasize, however, that this inner spiritual quickening must motivate each human being to respond in his or her own way to the truth that "All men have been created to carry forward an ever-advancing civilization."

Capacities as yet undreamed of are awakening in the peoples of all races and cultures; their blending will transform the very nature of cultural experience: "This is the Day in which God's most excellent favors have been poured out upon men....Soon will the present-day order be rolled up, and a new one spread out in its stead."

As the peoples of the world are drawn inescapably into a single planetary society, they are being challenged to free themselves from cultural limitations and prejudices, and to embrace the message of God that alone can unite their hearts and minds. In the words of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas: "O peoples of the earth! ...Cast away that which ye possess, and, on the wings of detachment, soar beyond all created things. Thus biddeth you the Lord of creation, the movement of Whose Pen hath revolutionized the soul of mankind."

THE KITÁB-I-AQDAS AND THE BAHÁ’Í COMMUNITY

"The earth," Bahá’u’lláh says, "is but one country, and mankind its citizens." Today, His teachings find expression in the life of a united worldwide community representing the entire diversity of humankind and established in every part of the globe. Its achievements in such matters as racial integration, the equality of the sexes, and the promotion of education are particularly noteworthy.

The distinguishing feature of the Bahá’í community, however, is the administrative system with which its Founder endowed it. Operating on consultative principles taught by Bahá’u’lláh, the community is administered by democratically elected councils at the local, national and international levels. It has no clergy. Its activities are supported solely by the financial contributions of its own registered membership.

The system is based on explicit provisions of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas: "The Lord hath ordained that in every city a House of Justice be established....It behoveth them [its members] to be the trusted ones of the Merciful among men and to regard themselves as the guardians appointed of God for all that dwell on earth."

To the Faith's international governing body, the Universal House of Justice, Bahá’u’lláh entrusted the function of deciding on all matters not explicitly revealed in the Text itself. Thus He ensured that, until the advent of the next Manifestation of God a thousand or more years hence, the World Order He founded will be equipped with a legislative authority able to keep it abreast of the needs of a rapidly changing world.

The new pattern of society which He inaugurated, Bahá’u’lláh says, will unfold in the same gradual and inexorable fashion that characterizes all the phenomena of the evolutionary process: "Consider the sun. How feeble its rays the moment it appeareth above the horizon. How gradually its warmth and potency increase as it approacheth its zenith, enabling meanwhile all created things to adapt themselves to the growing intensity of its light."

'Many Faces, Many Voices'

The Bahá’ís of Stamford, Connecticut, played a leading role May 2, the Twelfth Day of Ridván, in a citywide multicultural family celebration, "Many Faces, Many Voices."

About one-third of the narrative part of the event consisted of quotations on race unity from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the Universal House of Justice's statement, "The Promise of World Peace," and the National Spiritual Assembly's statement, "The Vision of Race Unity," all of which were listed as references in the printed program.

Among the highlights of the wide-ranging celebration was a performance by the Connecticut Bahá’í Youth Workshop, which received a standing ovation from the more than 700 people attending.

"At one point, under the direction of the Connecticut Bahá’í Youth Workshop," said a front-page article in The Stamford Advocate, "half the audience shouted 'Unity! Diversity!' and the other half responded 'Peace! Peace!'"

"The memorable moment came during a rap song called 'Race Unity Rap,' written and performed by 19-year-old [Bahá’í] Ennis Addison."

The Bahá’í involvement came about as a result of its membership in Mayor Stanley Esposito's Multicultural Council, which was set up a year ago in response to the riots in Los Angeles.

Also on May 2, the Unitarian minister in Stamford, who had asked the Bahá’ís for information about the Twelfth Day of Ridván, gave a sermon in which he quoted Bahá’u’lláh about the meaning of Ridván and His Revelation, in effect proclaiming to his congregation that "the Promised One of all ages" had appeared in the Person of Bahá’u’lláh. [Page 14]

Seven young Bahá’ís from Texas serve Cause around the world

The last time they were together was for a teaching project in 1990. Now seven young Bahá’ís from Texas are scattered throughout the world on youth service projects. One of the seven, Brian Guequierre, wrote the following account of their current activities.

"Alláh-u-Abhá! I'm writing you from my youth service post at the Banani International Secondary School here in Zambia to tell you a little bit about the response made by the Bahá’í youth of Texas to the Universal House of Justice's call to 'emblazon the name of Bahá’u’lláh’ across the globe during the Holy Year....

"During the Holy Year, seven youths from Texas have traveled to the far corners of the world for their year of service.

"ZHALEH AFSAHI has joined the 14 Routes project in Europe and has been traveling and teaching through Sweden, Norway and now Ireland. She left the States shortly after World Congress, and from the sound of her letters the teaching there has been wonderful. She is with four other girls and one boy and they've been using the arts to teach the Faith.

"HEATHER BELIVEAUX has traveled to Moscow in the former Soviet Union and is working at the National Center there. She has also been able to go on some teaching trips and is giving English classes. In her last letter she mentioned she was planning on going to Ishqabad to visit one of the early believers and write a story of his recollections of the Temple.

"MARYAM TIRANDAZ has been working at the School of the Nations in Macau and is now in mainland China opening up a new city, being the first Bahá’í ever to live there. She was doing a lot of public relations work at the School of the Nations, but when I spoke with her at the World Congress she seemed eager to be out in the field teaching full-time, as she is now.

"VAHID BRIGNONI is serving in Mongolia teaching the Faith full-time and helping to deepen the Bahá’í community there. He left shortly after World Congress and sounds happy with the progress the Faith is making there. In a re-cent letter home he said the only thing he is in need of is some Oreo cookies!

On February 21, the Bahá’í children's classes of West Contra Costa County, California, hosted a fund-raising talent show. About 120 people attended, and $600 was raised from the sale of tickets and baked goods, half of which was sent to the National Fund and the other half set aside in a fund to finance future activities for the children.

"ALY ROSE is travel teaching in Poland as another member of the 14 Routes project. She, too, left for her post shortly after World Congress. I haven't heard from her as yet, but I'm sure she is doing well, because she is one dynamic individual and she could be successful travel teaching in Antarctica.

"SOLOMON OSBOURNE is serving in Mexico, travel teaching and working with one of the members of the Auxiliary Board, Mike Peterzak. They are also engaged in deepening activities for the Mexican community.

"One of the really special things about Solomon's post is that some of the Bahá’ís he's working with now are Bahá’ís who enrolled in the Faith during a teaching project all of us took part in with Mr. Peterzak and Robert Ramirez, the Auxiliary Board member for propagation in Texas, in the summer of 1990.

"In fact, the last time the seven of us were together was in Mr. Ramirez's living room. And from there the path of service to the Blessed Beauty has taken us to these distant lands.

"Finally, I am BRIAN GUEQUIERRE, and I'm serving here at the Banani International Secondary School in Zambia. This is the school's first year, and it's been quite an experience to be here witnessing the birth of what will one day undoubtedly become such an august institution.

"The Universal House of Justice has given the school its mandate, and Judge Dorothy Nelson will be here...for the official inauguration ceremonies.

"I've been teaching world religion and art here at the school, and in addition to that have had the tremendous bounty of traveling and teaching throughout Zambia for six weeks, two of which were spent with one of Africa's Continental Counselors, Hizzaya Hissani from Zaire.

"I've been from Victoria Falls to Lake Tanganyika in these travels, and the land and the people of Zambia are truly beautiful. The adventure's here and all the wonderful confirmations have been too numerous to even begin to recount—suffice it to say that this experience has been everything I'd hoped for and more.

"On my way back to the States I will be joining some of the British youth I-met at the World Congress for a month to travel and teach around the United Kingdom."

If you seek a similar experience by serving our beloved Cause internationally, please contact the Office of Pioneering, Bahá’í National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091. Telephone 708-869-9039; fax 708-869-0247.

A Few Special Places Are Like Nowhere Else. Louhelen.

A Special Place For Your Meeting. Conference Center Retreats Business Meetings Education In-Service Peaceful, secluded -- yet near urban centers. Overnight accommodations for 120. The finest in meal service. Simple elegance with unluxurious rates. Attractive and effective facilities. Warm hospitality and service. 55-acre wooded campus. Louhelen Bahá’í School - 3208 South State Road - Davison, MI 48423-(313) 653-5033; (313) 653-7181 fax

BOSCH IS THE PLACE

BOSCH IS THE PLACE for vacations for everyone! Study, recreation and devotions in a distinctive Bahá’í environment. Meditate, contemplate and socialize on the deck under the umbrellas at the newly opened bookstore/cafe. Walk in the redwood forest on a granite mountain overlooking the bay toward Carmel-by-the-Sea. Study the Writings and explore ways to make them real in your life while your children have excellent classes and activities. Summer sessions each Saturday-Thursday through August 26. For complete details, phone 408-423-3387.

Summer 1993 Schools Calendar

August 5-8, Texas School, Bridgeport. Contact: Walter Palmer, Allen, TX 75002; (214) 727-4310.

August 6-8, Georgia School. Contact: Reginald and Natalie Colbert, Atlanta, GA 30342; (404) 239-0357.

August 6-10, Washington (West) School, McKenna. Registrar: Becky Cleere, McKenna, WA 98558; (206) 458-3910.

August 7-9, California (Southern) School, Cherry Valley. Registrar: Susan P. Millett, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730; (909) 987-7129.

August 11-15, Oregon (West) [Badasht] School, near Roseburg. Registrar: Norman Ives, Coos Bay, OR 97060; (503) 267-3157.

August 13-22, New York School, Poughkeepsie. Registrar: Charles and Barbara Clark, Middletown, NY 10940; (914) 342-4082.

August 18-22, Colorado (East) Summer School, near Wetmore. Registrar: Sandra Bolz, Lafayette, CO 80026; (303) 666-9275.

August 18-22, Minnesota School, Onamia. Registrar: Steve Grams, Willmar, MN 56201; (612) 235-6530.

September 3-6, Tennessee School, Monteagle. Contact: Kaihan Strain, Hixson, TN 37343; (615) 842-1750.

September 17-19, Green Lake Conference, Wisconsin. Addresses and workshops will be given by members of the National Assembly. Registration: Green Lake Conference Center, 1-800-558-8898. [Page 15]

Bahá’ís to join 30th-year celebration of ‘March on Washington’

Thirty years ago, some 250,000 people of all races converged on Washington, D.C., in a massive demonstration for "Jobs, Justice and Freedom."

It was on that historic occasion that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his famous "I have a dream" speech articulating his vision of racial unity for this country.

On August 28, people from all over the country will once more march on the nation's capital to take up Dr. King's call for racial justice and harmony.

The National Spiritual Assembly encourages Bahá’ís to join in efforts to support this year's 30th anniversary March to promote the principles of race unity and the oneness of humanity. While the National Assembly does not necessarily support each specific provision of the organizers, it does support the spirit of the March and the general vision of race unity expressed by Dr. King in his "I have a dream" speech.

The goals of the March, "Jobs, Justice and Peace," reflect the need for all people to recognize the essential oneness of humanity and to reflect that reality in their daily lives. "The well-being of mankind, its peace and security," said Bahá’u’lláh, "are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established." As followers of Bahá’u’lláh, the plan for establishing this unity is ours to share.

The March provides an opportunity for Bahá’ís to connect with members of many organizations taking part in the mobilization of the 30th anniversary March on Washington.

Organizations such as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the National Education Association (NEA), Association of Federal, State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and the National Organization for Women (NOW) are conveners of the March. Bahá’í communities may be contacted by local affiliates of these organizations in the effort to mobilize participation in the March, or Bahá’í communities may wish to seek them out to offer their help in the local mobilization effort.

More details about the March will appear in the next issue of The American Bahá’í. However, Bahá’ís planning to take part may contact the National Teaching Committee office (708-869-9039, ext. 361) for information about where to meet, etc.

In addition, all those who travel to Washington to march are asked to send a note to the National Teaching Committee so that they may be counted toward the goal for traveling teaching.

It should be noted that the National Spiritual Assembly cannot reimburse the travel or other expenses incurred by Bahá’í participants in the March, or make arrangements for housing. Bahá’ís must make arrangements on their own.

BIC delivers collection of children's art work to heads of state around world to honor Earth Summit

One year ago the Bahá’í International Community Office of the Environment organized the Bahá’í participation at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED/Earth Summit) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The U.S. National Spiritual Assembly also took an active part in that historic conference.

Readers of The American Bahá’í will recall that one of the Bahá’í contributions to the Earth Summit was "Tomorrow Belongs to the Children," a collection of children's art work and essays contributed by students in Bahá’í schools and literacy programs in 25 countries.

To commemorate the first anniversary of the Earth Summit, the Bahá’í International Community fulfilled its commitment to deliver a special personalized copy of "Tomorrow Belongs to the Children" to all heads of state and government throughout the world.

In addition to heads of state, the book was sent to heads of UN specialized agencies and the heads of other major UN-related agencies. It was very well received, and many of the recipients have written letters expressing their appreciation, commending the work of the Bahá’í International Community. Following are some sample responses.

From former President George Bush: "Thank you for the thoughtful note and for the copy of "Tomorrow Belongs to the Children....I am delighted to have the book and appreciate your remembering me in such a special way."

From the office of the Secretary-General of the United Nations: "The Secretary-General...was most touched to receive this colorful and moving collection of art work by children in honor of the first anniversary of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development."

From the executive director of the International Monetary Fund: "Thank you for sending me the delightful book of art work and essays produced by the Bahá’í International Community....I shall enjoy looking at [it] in the coming months."

Responses are still coming in. Bahá’ís who would like to obtain a copy of "Tomorrow Belongs to the Children" may do so by ordering from this address: Eric Reich Enterprises, P.O. Box 22003, Milwaukie, OR 97269. The cost is $10 per copy plus $2 for shipping. All proceeds go to UNICEF.

U.S. UNICEF Committee hosts 3rd annual Day of African Child

On June 16, the U.S. Committee for UNICEF, in collaboration with the Organization of African Unity, hosted the third annual Day of the African Child.

The Day of the African Child was begun by the Organization of African Unity to commemorate the killing of school children in Soweto, Africa, in 1976. Over the past few years, however, the events of the Day have been broadened to focus on the general well-being of all the children of Africa. This year's observance went further to link the children of Africa with African-American children and children throughout the world.

The primary goal of the celebration of the Day of the African Child is to call attention to some of the positive aspects of the lives of African children while becoming aware of the challenges that they face.

Observances in and around the United Nations included lectures, activities for children, musical and award presentations. Among the speakers were Gov. Mario Cuomo of New York; David Dinkins, the mayor of New York City; Nadine Hack, New York's commissioner for the United Nations; James Grant, executive director of UNICEF; and several ambassadors from Africa.

Other highlights included an interfaith church service at which two passages from the Bahá’í Writings were read; a concert by singer Harry Belafonte; and the presentation of the "Africa's Future Award" to Bryant Gumbel, host of NBC-television's Today Show.

During the Day of the African Child, the National Spiritual Assembly's UN representative had an opportunity to share with several prominent individuals the goal of the National Spiritual Assembly "to educate Bahá’í and other children to be the first generation of Americans to be free from all kinds of prejudices."

In each case the response was extremely positive, and some offers were made to work with the Bahá’í community in promoting this goal.

Make Us As Flowers One Garden

Baharukih Merry

Bahá’ís from Charleston, South Carolina, and surrounding communities proclaimed the Name of Bahá’u’lláh last December during the Charleston's annual Holiday Parade down historic King Street.

UN to mark Universal Children's Day at Halloween with annual 'Trick-or-Treat' for world's children

On October 31, the U.S. Committee for UNICEF will once again commemorate Universal Children's Day with "Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF," one of the oldest and most effective tools for public education and fund-raising of any UN support system in this country.

During the past four decades, Children's Day activities have raised more than $100 million and brought to the attention of the American public UNICEF's tireless efforts on behalf of the children of the world.

The U.S. Bahá’í Office at the UN would like to encourage the American Bahá’í community to support Universal Children's Day, as it has so generously in past years with dances, races, carnivals, and trick-or-treat activities.

We call on Bahá’í communities to use the occasion to undertake activities that will promote the National Spiritual Assembly's Three Year Plan goal "to educate Bahá’í and other children to be the first generation of Americans to be free from all kinds of prejudices." Activities can be sponsored by local Assemblies, Groups, children's classes or schools. Also, parents of Bahá’í children can play a leading role in organizing UNICEF activities at their children's schools, while youth classes can work with younger children to design activities that will be both fun and educational as they raise funds for UNICEF.

To receive a free curriculum guide, fund-raising brochure, maps and other materials, please write to the United States Committee for UNICEF, P.O. Box 182248, Chattanooga, TN 37422-7248.

[Notice]

The National Spiritual Assembly would like to remind the Bahá’ís that it is necessary to obtain permission from the Universal House of Justice before traveling to Israel, whether for personal reasons or to visit the Bahá’í Holy Places.

Kevin Locke performs Lakota music, dances in Washington state

On May 13, Bahá’í Kevin Locke, a Lakota Indian from Mobridge, South Dakota, performed traditional music on the flute and presented his remarkable hoop dance for members of the Swinomish tribe on Fidalgo Island in northern Puget Sound, Washington.

Mr. Locke, accompanied by local Indian drummers, mesmerized a large and diverse audience with his playing and dancing as he skillfully and emphatically wove into his performance lovely threads from the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh.

Mr. Locke's performance was the culmination of years of prayerful efforts by Bahá’ís to establish friendships with their neighbors on the Swinomish Reservation, and was planned by three local Spiritual Assemblies—Mt. Vernon, Anacortes and Snohomish North—and two teaching institutes—Four Colors and Living Waters—working in harmony on a single event. [Page 16]

EXCELLENCE IN ALL THINGS

On June 1, MIKE MALONEY, a Bahá’í from Great Falls, Montana, received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Montana School for the Deaf and Blind during its centennial ceremony for his "dedicated service to Montana's blind citizens and to the blind children of MSDB." Mr. Maloney, who attended the school from 1928-40, was graduated magna cum laude with a degree in psychology from the University of Minnesota and was the first blind person certified to teach in public schools in Montana. He became a Bahá’í in 1969 and pioneered with his wife, Kay, to Micronesia (now the Caroline Islands) from 1975-80.

FAUD (FRED) KHAVARI, a Bahá’í from Shawnee, Oklahoma, is one of eight employees singled out from Eaton Corporation's 38,000-member force worldwide to receive the James R. Stover Award for Community Service for their outstanding records of accomplishment as community service volunteers. Mr. Khavari, a quality assurance manager, is on the executive board of the local NAACP chapter and serves as treasurer of the Southern-West Regional American Indian Committee. His Bahá’í affiliation is mentioned in the Eaton newsletter announcing the awards.

In May, CAROL ALMONY, a Bahá’í who teaches in the Columbia, Missouri, School District, was chosen from among 500 teachers to receive the district's Outstanding Elementary Teacher of the Year award. She has been teaching for 15 years including 10 in Columbia.

YASAMIN YAZHARI, an eight-year-old Bahá’í from Hust, Texas, received the only honorable mention for her grade group at the state level in a nationwide music competition sponsored by Parent Teacher Associations for her original piano composition, "Peace on Earth." Yasamin, who has been playing piano for four years, was competing against 71,695 entrants after winning first place in her school and district.

SETH MENNILLO, a 14-year-old Bahá’í from Columbus, Ohio, was named an Outstanding Student this year at Heritage Middle School in Westerville. He was one of seven students, and the only boy, honored. Seth also was awarded the Certificate of Achievement for Academic Excellence for maintaining a 4.0 grade point average for two straight years; the Certificate of Achievement for Outstanding Performance for twice being named Citizen of the Month; and third prize in the Ohio Math League contest. As an eighth-grader, Seth was first-chair violin in the school orchestra and a member of the cross-country and track teams. He has been recommended for honors English placement in high school.

DAVID MICHAEL HOLDEN, a 13-year-old Bahá’í from Cumberland County, North Carolina, recently attained the rank of Eagle Scout in Boy Scout Troop 761, Occoneechee Council, Fayetteville, only the 13th Scout in that Troop to do so in 37 years. Fewer than two percent of all Scouts attain Eagle rank, and the average age is 16-17. David has won 23 merit badges ranging from citizenship, first aid and canoeing to reading, public speaking and environmental sciences. His Eagle Scout service project consisted of coordinating a blood drive.

RACHAEL LEDUC, a Bahá’í ninth-grade student from Bountiful, Utah, was recently crowned queen in the Senior Advanced Division for the state in a competition sponsored by the Stars dance organization, competing against girls in 8th through 12 grades throughout the state. In addition to a solo dance routine, each contestant was required to give a 30-second to one-minute speech and to list four personal accomplishments she felt were most outstanding.

JACOB RYAN BOLM, an eight-year-old Bahá’í from Emporia, Kansas, recently earned his "Unity of Mankind" merit badge from the Cub Scouts and was given a party to celebrate the occasion. The badge is awarded to young persons in Scouting programs for accomplishments in self-awareness and service to humanity.

ROXANNE REISKE, a 14-year-old Bahá’í from Greenfield, Indiana, has won a number of awards this year including Outstanding 8th Grade English Student, the Presidential Academic Fitness Award, the Achievement Awards for Industrial Technology and American History, and the American Citizenship Award. Roxanne is also a member of the Indiana Dawn-Breakers Bahá’í Youth Workshop.

Two junior high school students from the Bettendorf, Iowa, Bahá’í community, EMILY CASON and BEN SHORT, were honored at the Iowa Talent Search Recognition Ceremony at Iowa State University with the designation "Commended Scholar" for exhibiting exceptional academic aptitude, Emily in verbal skills and Ben in math and science. As commended scholars, their scores on the SAT and ACT college entrance exams ranked in the top 10 percent of participants.

PENELOPE PAULEY, a Bahá’í from Huntington Beach, California, has been inducted into the Mortar Boards Society, a national college honor group that rewards scholarship, leadership and service, and promotes the advancement of women. Ms. Pauley, who is past president of the Honors Scholars Student Association at California State University-Long Beach, spent 12 weeks last summer traveling and teaching in Siberia with the Marion Jack Teaching Project.

CHRIS SUMMER, a Bahá’í from Roscoe Township, Wisconsin, was graduated this year from Rock Valley College with highest honors and a 3.76 grade point average. She received a Phi Theta Kappa scholarship and an RVC Communications Division writing award.

Children and teachers enjoy the outdoors during one of the well-organized classes for ages 5-9 held during a Bahá’í teaching conference April 9-11 at the 4-H Educational Center in Front Royal, Virginia.

Virginia conference for children, youth demonstrates clearly to 190 attendees that 'Future Is in Our Hands'

About 190 people attended a teaching conference for Bahá’í children and youth April 9-11 at the 4-H Educational Center in Front Royal, Virginia.

The conference was sponsored by the Spiritual Assembly of Fairfax County Central South and planned by a task force of that Assembly whose creation was inspired by Auxiliary Board member Jim Sturdivant.

The over-all theme was "O God, Guide Me," and the sub-theme was "The Future Is in Our Hands."

The program for each participant consisted of dawn prayers, three class periods, an arts workshop, a family teaching institute workshop, a community service project, and evening entertainment.

Classes were divided by age group—5 to 9 years, 10 to 16, and 17 and older. Each was designed to support these goals:

1. To inspire and englighten children and youth so that the life of Bahá’u’lláh has personal meaning, and the teachings and principles of the Faith become a natural part of their lives.

2. To inspire local teaching insitutes for children and youth that will continue after they return to their communities.

3. To inform/educate/network parents, future parents, teachers of children and youth, and other interested adults so that they would be inspired to encourage and support the efforts of children and youth in teaching the Faith.

The teaching institute workshops were led by assistants to the Auxiliary Board for propagation. Topics discussed included how to form a teaching institute, what activities to plan, service projects, parental support for children and youth teaching institutes, and what existing institutes have done successfully.

The service project, in the town of Front Royal, consisted of color-coding bolts with spray paint and soaping 30,000 bolts at a new playground, "Happy Creek Fantasy Land."

One of the goals set forth by the task force that planned the event was realized with the formation of "The Uniters," a teaching institute for children and youth. The northern Virginia group was inspired to form by members of "The Peace Weavers," a teaching institute from New York state, who attended the conference.

FROM THE DECK of the new Bosch School Bookstore/Cafe, study and meet new friends in the distinctive atmosphere of the Bahá’í School of the West. See sunsets on the Pacific Ocean through the redwood forest of this lovely 67-acre site near Santa Cruz. Each week features a study session on the Kitáb-i-Aqdas and the practical application of Bahá’í principles in our own lives. Outstanding children's program too. For details of summer programs, phone 408-423-3387. Registrations can be made by phone.

THE FUTURE IS IN OUR HANDS! Bahá’í Faith

Bahá’í is invited to deliver benediction at New Jersey college commencement

On May 25, Benjamin Kaufman of Dumont, New Jersey, was invited, as a Bahá’í, to give the benediction during commencement ceremonies at Passaic Community College in Paterson.

In his remarks, Mr. Kaufman explained that Bahá’u’lláh is the Prophet-Founder of the Faith, and asked his audience to listen carefully as he read the advice given by Bahá’u’lláh on page 285 of Gleanings in a passage that begins: "Be generous in prosperity, and thankful in adversity. Be worthy of the trust of thy neighbor, and look upon him with a bright and friendly face."

Afterward, the Commencement Committee wrote to Mr. Kaufman, thanking him for his inspiring benediction and saying the students were moved by the message. [Page 17]

LETTERS

"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 denigrate another's views or to attack anyone personally. Opinions expressed in these columns are those of the writers, and are not necessarily those of the National Spiritual Assembly or the editors.

Letters should be as brief as possible (a 250-word maximum is suggested) and are subject to editing for length and style. Please address all letters to The Editor, The American Bahá’í, Bahá’í National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091.

Humanity's coming of age

To the Editor:

One of the two signs of the coming of age of the human race disclosed by Bahá’u’lláh in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas (paragraph 189) was accomplished in 1919 when Ernest Rutherford in England changed nitrogen into oxygen.

This was followed by the changing of many other elements into other elements—phosphorus into sulphur, hydrogen into helium, mercury into gold, among others. The University of California at Berkeley was especially noted for these accomplishments.

Bahá’u’lláh wrote, "We have appointed two signs for the coming of age of the human race: the first, which is the most firm foundation, We have set down in other of our Tablets, while the second hath been revealed in this wondrous Book."

Note 194 explains that "the first sign of the coming of age of humanity referred to in the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh is the emergence of a science which is described as that 'divine philosophy' which will include the discovery of a radical approach to the transmutation of elements. This is an indication of the future stupendous expansion of knowledge."

In the Synopsis and Codification (p. 163), we learn that the second sign of the maturity of the human race is "the selection of a single language and the adoption of a common script for all on earth to use..." We now look forward prayerfully to the fulfillment of this second sign as we strive to do our part to effect its accomplishment.

Frances S. (Patsy) Posin Millbrae, California

Town Meetings

to be held in August and September*

DIST.	DATE	TIME	PLACE	CONTACT PERSON	PHONE
AR	08/01/93	10:00a-4:30p	Little Rock, Park Plaza Mall	Angelic Renique Caruthers	(501)666-6358
CA	09/18/93		San Jose	Verna Rowley	(408)253-2595
CACI			Modesto	Jennifer Muratore	(209)529-4270
CAC2			Temecula (?)	Paulette Pappas Ward	(909)699-0403
CT	08/21/93	9:00a-5:00p	Farmington, Am. Red Cross Ctr.	Janet C Rothman	(203)232-8869
DEMDVA	08/15/93	9:00a-4:00p	Salisbury, MD	Nahid Wilf	(302)478-1395
DEMDVA	08/22/93	10:00a-3:00p	Wilmington, DE	Nahid Wilf	(302)478-1395
FLSEC	08/01/93	1:00p-?	Deerfield Beach (?)	Helen Hauck	(305)426-4532
FLSEN	08/01/93	9:00a-12:00p	Ames (?)	Eric Green	(407)793-6445
IA	08/07/93		Pocatello, Bonneville Ctr. (?)	David/Molly Smith	(515)292-6156
IDS	08/15/93		Evanston, Bahá’í National Ctr.		(208)233-8353
ILN2	08/08/93	9:00a-4:00p	Lafayette, Ivy Tech.	Karen Pease	(708)673-0573
IN	08/08/93	9:00a-4:00p	North Hampton	Tom Wood	(317)477-7350
MA	08/07/93		Vicksburg	Judith A Russell	(413)323-6123
ME	08/28/93		Portland, USM Campus Ctr.	Gina Shamey	(207)879-6007
MDDC	08/15/93	9:00a-4:00p		Sally Herr	(410)992-7860
MS	08/29/93	10:00a-1:00p		Pat Autry	(601)636-8628
NMSTXW	09/04/93		Alamogordo	David Alperin	(505)437-1824
NYLI	08/22/93	10:00a-4:00p	Brookhaven Town (?)	John W Smith	(516)289-2006
NYW	08/28/93		Webster Town (?)	Myrna Johnson	(716)265-0746
NCE	09/11/93 or 9/12		Charlotte	Marie McNair	(919)859-0261
NCW (84)	08/08/93		Okla. City, Bahá’í Center	Bonita Perkins	(704)366-3487
OK	08/14/93		Pendleton	Debra Reid	(405)271-6110
ORE	08/21/93		Eugene, Electric & Water Bldg.	Basheer Badiei	(503)276-1868
ORW	08/14/93		Philadelphia, Bahá’í Center	Katherine M Young	(503)342-3605
PAE	08/15/93	9:00a-5:00p	Monroeville (?)	Ayned McComb	(215)438-3657
PAW	08/07/93		Arlington (?)	Nancy Tichenor	(412)373-6909
TXE1 (148)	08/21/93 or 08/28		Houston	Rhea Howard-Harmsen	(817)572-2912
TXE2	08/21/93		Amarillo	Nigel Austin-Weeks	(713)531-0975
TXNC	08/15/93		Salt Lake City	Martha Giani	(806)372-8803
UT	08/14/93		Fairfax City (?)	Pamela Gallaway	(801)485-6601
VAN	08/22/93		Staunton (?)	Dale Edwin Marxen	(703)591-3202
VASW	08/01/93	1:00p-4:00p	McKenna, Brighton Creek Ctr.	Roxanne L Brooks	(703)885-6247
WASW	08/28/93			Joan Belshaw	(206)588-6778
WINMIUP	08/08/93			James Stokes	(715)345-0571

• Please note: This is not a complete listing of town meetings in August or September. It is based on confirmed dates reported to the National Teaching Committee as of July 5, 1993.

One way to win friends

To the Editor:

Dale Carnegie, author of How to Win Friends and Influence People, says that if you want to win friends and get them to listen to what you have to say, you must begin with the other person and his most important interest.

Notice what happens, he says, when you show someone a group picture. First, he looks for himself; if he isn't in the picture, he looks for a friend or a familiar face. Using this principle, I often look in the phone book when I am in another city to find people with the same family name (True). Almost immediately there is a positive response, and one can speak freely without problems.

Often, people ask "where do you live?" and "what do you do?" Inevitably, there is an opportunity to mention the name Bahá’u’lláh or Bahá’í.

While at the World Congress I copied the names of some "Trues" from the New York phone book, and although I didn't get around to writing to any of them until a few weeks ago, I have already received two letters in response.

Both writers want to know what I am doing here, and are interested in the genealogy of the True family.

So please look in your phone books, and if you find anyone named True (or Trauger or Fenstermacher, from my family's side), please send me their names and addresses. Who knows, it may open a new avenue of approach.

We know as Bahá’ís that "the world is one family," but to most people the "family" includes only relatives. We can widen their horizons.

Peggy True La Gomera, Canary Islands

Forms of address

To the Editor:

I am so pleased that the new addressing system for The American Bahá’í does not include "Miss" or "Mrs." in front of my name. I have long wondered why communications from the National Center identify women as married or single but do not do so when communicating with men.

I hope this is a sign that that practice will be phased out, since it does not seem to me to be consistent with our teachings about the equality of the sexes.

Vicki Morrison Goble Baudette, Minnesota

'Lowest common multiple'

To the Editor:

From initial study of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, everyone is feeling closer to Bahá’u’lláh. We can better perceive His great wisdom, gentleness, suffering for love of us, the faithfulness to the inescapable mission He was made for and called to.

To read and memorize the holy verses seems to put me in His presence as He is giving a discourse, and we are all unable to look up. It must be because "the Soul of God...pervadeth all His Laws." (Gleanings, p. 160)

An interesting topic has arisen in connection with the number 2,520, "the lowest common multiple of all integers up to nine" (see Questions and Answers, No. 5, p. 106, Kitáb-i-Aqdas). This is the number of shares Bahá’u’lláh allots to the seven inheritors of estates.

The number looked familiar to me, and sure enough, I found that William Sears discusses it on pp. 27-28 of Thief in the Night. There, it is the number of years in the lunar calendar from 602 B.C. to 1844 A.D., and is the "seven times" mentioned in Daniel 4:23.

It is also a Muslim prophecy, related in The Dawn-Breakers (p. 49) from Muhyi’d-Din-i-Arabi: "The year of His [the Báb’s] Revelation is identical with half (1,260) of that number which is divided by nine (2,520)."

Mark Townsend Portland, Oregon

"Freedom from racial prejudice, in any of its forms, should, at such a time when an increasingly large section of the human race is falling victim to its devastating ferocity, be adopted as the watchword of the entire body of the American believers...."—Shoghi Effendi, The Advent of Divine Justice, p. 30

KAMÁL B.E. 150/ AUGUST 1, 1993 [Page 18]

Una entrevista con un viajero de enseñanza

Para familiarizar los amigos con el papel de un viajero de enseñanza, el Comité Nacional de Enseñanza pidió que Charles George, un maestro jubilado de escuela secundario que ha viajado para enseñar la Fe por todo el país, compartiera algunas de sus experiencias:

¿Por cuántos años has viajado para enseñar?

De vez en cuando por 18 a 20 años. Hasta que me jubilé en 1990, fui durante las vacaciones de la primavera o navidad. Pero ahora trato de ir a algún lugar cada mes, más o menos. Mis viajes duran entre ocho días a siete semanas.

¿Cómo decide Ud. dónde va a ir?

En los años que he sido un Bahá’í, he conocido a muchas personas. Desde 1967, he faltado solamente dos años de no trabajar en la librería Bahá’í o ayudar en alguna otra manera durante la Convención Nacional, ¡y me encuentro con tantos amigos! Nos encontramos y decimos, "Verdaderamente debemos juntarnos alguna vez." ¡Y lo hacemos!

Saco mi libro de direcciones, llamo a mis viejos amigos, y hago los arreglos para venir y dar una charla Bahá’í o ayudar en cualquiera otra manera con el trabajo de la enseñanza. Y si voy a viajar a áreas en donde no conozco a ninguna persona, llamo a los Coordinadores Regionales de los Viajeros de Enseñanza y ellos hacen los arreglos para planear mi itinerario.

¿Usualmente, qué hace Ud. cuando viaja para enseñar?

Eso depende en que arreglos hace la gente. Usualmente doy charlas o reuniones Bahá’ís, en varios formatos. Tengo dos series de transparencias, una de peregrinaje y la otra de mis viajes a Micronesia, y si los huéspedes piensan que es apropiado mostrarlas, lo hago. También tengo dos charlas Bahá’ís básicas, una sobre la Paz Menor y una que se llama "¿Quién es Bahá’u’lláh?" Pero no digo exactamente las misma cosas cada vez. Consulto con los amigos antes de la reunión sobre los buscadores que piensan que vendrán y trato de averiguar lo que los buscadores respondan. Cambio lo que digo de acuerdo con eso.

¿Qué le gusta mejor con respecto a viajes de enseñanza?

¡Tengo la oportunidad para conocer a tantas personas! Es fantástico porque dondequiera que vaya encuentro el mismo espíritu, calor, y deseo para promover la Causa. Es tan exaltador. Y encuentro que muchas otras personas se sienten elevadas y animadas que un maestro viajero ha tomado el tiempo para venir a verlas.

Yo recuerdo un viaje, hace varios años, viajé a una reserva en Montana para ver a una señora Bahá’í que vivía 40 a 50 millas de otros Bahá’ís. Pasamos la tarde entera solamente hablando de la Fe. Ni mostré las transparencias ni nada. Ella dijo que era como una fiesta para ella; una fiesta espiritual. Esta es la razón que ya no tengo ninguna vacilación para ir a áreas donde no hay muchas personas. Cuando uno está allí afuera solo, la importancia de la visita de otro Bahá’í es inmeasurable.

¿Cuál es su experiencia más memorable como un maestro viajero?

Pues, ¿sabe dónde dice en los Escritos que si se entrega a Dios y abre la boca estará proveído con las palabras apropiadas? [Vea, por ejemplo, las Selecciones de los Escritos de ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, (inglés) p. 269.] Otra vez, pienso que estaba en algún lugar en Montana. Estaba dando una charla Bahá’í y estuvimos hablando sobre la Paz Menor. Un buscador me preguntó, "¿Cómo puedes decir que ya vamos a lograr la paz cuando hay tanta violencia y dolor y sufrimiento en el mundo?" No tuve la menor idea como responder.

Pero él me preguntó como tres veces entonces supe que tenía que darle una repuesta que lo satisfacería. Me sentí desesperado. Oré por ayuda y luego hablé. Comparé el progreso de la humanidad con el dolor y sufrimiento del nacimiento. Miré a una mujer en el cuarto que venía con sus niños y le pregunté, "¿Los devolvería si no hubiera tenido que sentir el dolor?"

Sin embargo, a través de esa analogía pudimos demostrar que belleza puede venir después del sufrimiento y que todo puede valer la pena. Y el buscador pareció estar satisfecho con la respuesta. Pero no había sido mi idea decir eso. Verdaderamente supe en aquel momento que tenía ayuda.

¿Usualmente cómo viaja Ud.- maneja Ud?

Siempre manejo. Es conveniente y tengo la oportunidad para ir a lugares más fuera de lo normal. El año pasado puse 24,000 millas en mi carro cuando viajaba para enseñar. Es cómico como esto funciona, porque viajar en esta manera me da la oportunidad para contribuir más al Fondo.

¿Qué quiere decir con esto?

Aumenta mis deducciones de impuestos. Maestros viajeros deben guardar sus recibos de recorridos en millas, peajes, hoteles, y comida. La deducción por el recorrido de millas es solamente 12 centavos, y tal vez piensa que no es mucho, pero con 24,000 millas eso es casi $2,900 que puedo deducir allí.

¿Tiene Ud. otros consejos que daría a potenciales maestros viajeros?

¡Hágalo!

Muy bien, ¿pero qué más?

Pues, pienso que es bueno hacer los arreglos muy por anticipado, por lo menos tres o cuatro semanas para que la comunidad tenga tiempo para hacer planes. Pero lo que he notado es que a veces se les olvida que voy a venir, y o les doy una sorpresa o encuentro que nadie está en la casa. Entonces ahora, siempre mando una tarjeta postal 10 días antes de la fecha prevista, solamente para recordarles y asegurarles que todavía pienso ir.

¿Qué consejos daría a una comunidad que desea ser el anfitrión de un maestro viajero?

Pues, ofrecer hospitalidad es la decisión de la comunidad, y una comunidad puede decidir si desean hacerlo o no. No lo espero, pero es bueno cuando lo ofrecen. Pienso que es más importante, sin embargo, que la comunidad haga los arreglos para hacer algo un poco diferente con respecto a la enseñanza cuando un maestro viajero venga. Un maestro viajero no siempre puede hacer sus planes para llegar en una comunidad exactamente el día en que la comunidad tiene sus reuniones Bahá’ís, por ejemplo, si la comunidad puede ser flexible y cambiar el horario un poco será una ayuda.

¿Tiene Ud. otros pensamientos que le gustaría compartir sobre los viajes de enseñanzas?

Solamente que es fantásticamente una experiencia belleza. Una vez que empiece hacerlo, lo amará. Si desea enseñar y le gusta conocer a personas, verdaderamente, esto es la cosa que debe hacer.

EL RUISEÑOR/The Nightingale

SPECIAL ISSUE SPONSORSHIP NEEDED

The first Bilingual-Spanish/English Bahá’í magazine Special Arts issue dedicated to Bahá’u’lláh on the occasion of the anniversary of His birth, is seeking sponsors to cover added costs of color reproduction of works of Bahá’í artists. If you would care to place an ad in the commemorative issue, please contact the office of El Ruiseñor P.O.Box 512, San Fernando, CA 91340, or call (818) 896-9268.

Hispanic community to make vital contribution toward establishment of a lasting world peace

The recognition and contribution of the Hispanic community, and other racial and cultural minorities in the United States, is vital and indispensable for the establishment of world peace. In "The Promise of World Peace," the Universal House of Justice states: "For the first time in history, it is possible for everyone to view the entire planet, with all its myriad diversified peoples, in one perspective. World Peace is not only possible," they declare, "but inevitable," adding that it "is the next stage in the evolution of this planet."

The question that each responsible and conscientious member of the Hispanic community might ask is: What is the vital contribution that we Hispanics can make? Besides the beauty and cultural variety, traditions and family values, factors that contribute to the cultural diversity in this country, what is it that we Hispanics can offer to the process of universal peace that will encompass the entire world?

The answer to that question is in the past and present history, and in the soul of our peoples. The answer is also found in the Hispanic society in this country and in each society of all Latin American countries where Hispanics live.

That contribution is the product of decades of oppression and exploitation that not only Hispanics have experienced in life, but also all those peoples whose poverty has been the common denominator, where hope and faith in the various political ideologies has failed. That contribution to the process of world peace that Latin Americans can offer is a deep sense of social justice, acquired through the different generations and without which the peace mentioned by the Universal House of Justice is impossible.

Since justice is indispensable to this process, the role of the Hispanic peoples and their contribution to world peace is inevitable. The fact that an institution like the Universal House of Justice which has in its name the word justice, leads us to believe that universal peace without social justice is impossible.

For every Hispanic it is obvious that this contribution to world peace (that deep sense of social justice) is not the product of pure intellectual activity or a sociological study of various political currents, neither is it something learned through formal education; it is the result of our battle for survival with dignity as human beings.

The proof is that in almost every country in Latin America, peasants and people with no formal education have arisen to offer their lives to the aspirations of social justice. Just a little understanding of social justice was necessary for these people to sacrifice for this cause.

In other words, we have learned about social justice through social injustice. It is something we have lived with for almost 500 years and are still experiencing. Nevertheless, the day is coming when the fruit of that battle will become clear before the eyes of humanity, and with pride and a sense of responsibility, this fruit will be offered up to the process of universal peace.

When we contemplate the history of the Hispano-American community, we can easily observe that from the border of Mexico to Tierra del Fuego in Chile, our peoples have lived under the yoke of oppression without relief and not having had the opportunity to be heard at a world forum of peace and justice.

Bahá’u’lláh says: "The time must come when the imperative necessity for the holding of a vast, an all embracing assemblage of men will be universally realized. The rulers and kings of the earth must needs attend it, and, participating in its deliberations, must consider such ways and means as will lay the foundations of the World's Peace amongst men."

That will be the day when the social values of our peoples will not only be recognized, but also deemed indispensable for the establishment of social justice in the world. Our aspirations and desires are reaching their final goal. The suffering and deprivation will finally bear the fruit of social justice and universal peace.

Alejandro Melendez Greeley, Colorado

New 'Monajjem' software program developed to help friends calculate calendar

Monajjem (an Arabic word for astronomer), an inexpensive ($25) computer program, has been developed by a Bahá’í to help the friends perform calendar and astronomical calculations.

The program can convert dates using the Christian (Julian/Gregorian), Muslim lunar, Persian solar, and Bahá’í calendars; calculate various astronomical functions such as the exact times for sunrise and sunset (especially useful during the Fast); the time of true noon for reciting the short Obligatory Prayer; the dates and times of equinoxes, solstices and the four phases of the moon; and determine the true direction from one city to another, useful in finding the direction of Qiblih.

The program requires an IBM or IBM-compatible personal computer, MS-DOS, monochrome or EGA monitor, and 5.25-inch or 3.5-inch disk drive.

Those who are interested in the program may contact the Persian/American Affairs Office, Bahá’í National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091, or phone 708-869-9039. [Page 19]

Program gives children chance to hone skills in public speaking

BY TOM MENNILLO

"Encourage ye the school children, from their earliest years, to deliver speeches of high quality so that in their leisure time they will engage in giving cogent and effective talks, expressing themselves with clarity and eloquence."—Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 134

That advice from the Master animates a remarkable public speaking project started 13 years ago by Gayle Woolson of Evanston, Illinois. The project helps children as young as two and one-half years old memorize short Bahá’í talks for presentation at firesides and at other teaching or proclamation events.

In training to speak publicly, the children grow in their knowledge of the Faith, says Mrs. Woolson, a Knight of Bahá’u’lláh who was a pioneer to Latin America for 29 years. Just as important, she says, they learn how to express those beliefs confidently.

Mrs. Woolson chooses for each child a speech from among the many she has written on such topics as "The Beauty of Courtesy," "Humanity Is One Family," "The Vision of the Future of Mankind" and "The Great Mission of Children."

The talk is selected carefully, she says. It must contain only words that someone of the child's age would use. The child must also be able to comprehend its thoughts.

The speech is then memorized and practiced until it can be delivered naturally and with the "penetrating power" ‘Abdu’l-Bahá intended. With experience, the child feels empowered to speak extemporaneously.

The results, says Mrs. Woolson, are remarkable. One Rotary Club president told her, "One doesn't think of children saying something important."

A Kiwanis Club secretary wrote, "On behalf of our club, thank you so much for bring us today's wonderful inspirational program....May the messages from these 'babes' become a reality in our time."

And the message is spreading. Bahá’í communities in this country [see article on this page] and as far away as Asia and Australasia have adopted Mrs. Woolson's methods—with her blessing. "Today, I am sending out materials to Brazil for two Bahá’í schools and to Spring Valley, California," she said recently.

Some of the calls are coming in from Bahá’ís who learned of her project from messages posted on a computer network. "This has to succeed," Mrs. Woolson declares, "because it is putting into practice the words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá."

For more information and to obtain sample copies of speeches, please write to Gayle Woolson at Evanston, IL 60202.

San Diego area readies 'army' of children to proclaim Message

Diedre Merrill can attest to the impact of Gayle Woolson's method for teaching children to speak in public. After only two months of preparation, an "army of light" comprised of more than 50 San Diego, California-area children ranging in age from 2½ to 15 has been dispatched, under Dr. Merrill's guidance, to deliver the healing message of Bahá’u’lláh.

At first glance, they are like any children. They skateboard and take part in soccer, dance classes, swimming and other ordinary activities. At the same time, however, they take quite seriously the pronouncement of the International Teaching Center that "the children of the world at this time have a destiny before God" to contribute to the progress and betterment of humanity.

And their communities have taken up the responsibility to provide them with the necessary training, motivation and opportunities to achieve that destiny.

It started last December, when children in the San Diego area coordinated a visit by students from Maxwell School. "We began to recognize the talents among the children here," says Dr. Merrill.

A list was drawn up of children willing to speak publicly. The names and ages were sent to Mrs. Woolson, who responded with individual speeches varying in length from a couple of paragraphs to two pages.

Each child was encouraged to choose as a "partner" an adult or youth with whom he or she felt comfortable. At an orientation meeting, the purpose and techniques of the public speaking project were explained. The speeches then were distributed to the children and their partners.

For the next few weeks, the partners called their students two to three times a week to practice the speeches over the phone and explain any words with which the students were unfamiliar.

The following month, a practice session was held, allowing the children to perform their speeches in any degree of completion before an audience of their peers, parents and partners. The talks were video taped so the children could see the progress of their efforts.

Pictured are many of the more than 50 children from a dozen localities in San Diego County, California, who are taking part in a public speaking project guided by Dr. Diedre Merrill.

Since then, a number of the children have spoken to such audiences as Scout groups and school classes. One evening alone, five children spoke at three separate firesides, resulting in one declaration.

Because the talks are short, the children speak in conjunction with an adult who can field questions from the audience. Entertainment often is a part of the program.

"Spiritual bounties have descended in bucketfuls" since the beginning of the project, according to Dr. Merrill. "An increase in the vitality of the faith of the families and partners taking part in the project has been obvious."

Dr. Merrill encourages anyone to write to her at Poway, CA 92064, with questions about the San Diego-area project or to ask for help in organizing a public speaking project for children.

On March 20, the Bahá’í Club and International Club of Winthrop University in Rock Hill, South Carolina, co-sponsored a 'Celebration of Diversity' to welcome the Bahá’í new year. About 80 people from more than 20 countries enjoyed food, fellowship and music by Bahá’ís (left to right) Andy Murphy, Beverly Rogers and Mike Rogers. Also included was a tribute to Bruno Torok, a Winthrop tennis player who was killed March 10 in an auto accident.

UN declares 1993 'Year of World's Indigenous People' to focus attention on planet's 'most neglected' groups

On Human Rights Day, December 10, 1992, the United Nations General Assembly declared 1993 the "International Year for the World's Indigenous People" to "provide an opportunity to focus the attention of the international community on one of the planet's most neglected and vulnerable groups of people."

An estimated 300 million indigenous people live in more than 70 countries from the Arctic regions to the Amazon and Australia. They are descendants of the original inhabitants of many lands, strikingly diverse in their cultures, religions and patterns of social and economic organization.

To mark the Year, the UN family of organizations is evaluating and enhancing its programs and activities relating to indigenous peoples. International efforts are aimed at strengthening global cooperation for solving the problems faced by indigenous communities in areas such as human rights, the environment, development, education and health.

The Year's theme—"Indigenous people: a new partnership"—encourages the development of new relationships between the international community and indigenous peoples.

For more information, contact The International Year for the World's Indigenous People, Center for Human Rights, Department of Public Information, Room S-1040, United Nations, New York, NY 10017, or your local chapter of the United Nations Association of the U.S. (UNA-USA).

BOSCH BAHÁ’Í SCHOOL

1993 Spring/Summer Program

To request a catalog, write to the Bosch Bahá’í School, 500 Comstock Lane, Santa Cruz, CA 95060. Phone 408-423-3387; fax 408-423-7564. [Page 20]

یادی از جناب ابوالقاسم قبله

سید ابوالقاسم قبله فرزند بی بی سکینه و سید حسین در سال ۱۲۹۷ در یزد متولد شد. مادرش زنی مهربان و پدرش مردی روشنفکر بود ولی خانواده او در یزد بعنوان یکی از متعصب ترین و مذهبی ترین خانواده ها به شمار می رفت.

در سیزده سالگی مادر را از دست داد و به خاطر علاقه شدیدی که به او داشت نتوانست آرام و قرار یابد و به همین جهت او را برای ادامه تحصیل به طهران فرستادند. جناب قبله در دانشسرای مقدماتی به تحصیل پرداخت و چون شاگرد اول شد بدون اشتغال به آموزگاری به دانشسرای عالی راه یافت و در رشته‌های تاریخ و جغرافیا به تحصیل ادامه داد و در آنجا نیز شاگرد اول شد.

جنگ جهانی دوم مانع از آن شد که جناب قبله بتواند برای گرفتن دکترا به اروپا اعزام شود و ناچار برای خدمت دبیری به رضائیه فرستاده شد. پس از یکی دو سال اقامت در آنجا به بابل منتقل شد و پس از یک سال با یکی از شاگردان بهائی خود خانم طلعت بصاری ازدواج کرد.

با اینکه در یک خانواده متعصب پرورش یافته بود هیچ تعصبی نداشت و همسر را در انجام امور دینی بویژه رفتن به تشکیلات آزاد می گذاشت. دو سال بعد از ازدواج تصدیق امر مبارک کرد و از آن پس تا آخر عمر به خدمت امر مبارک و یاران کمر بست.

از طرف محفل مقدس روحانی ملی ایران در شمار مبلغین وناطقین رسمی تشکیلات قرار گرفت و بعنوان عضو لجنه ملی تربیت امری مأمور سرکشی به جوامع مختلف امری در ایران گردید. در طهران معلم درس اخلاق و ناظم ضیافات بود و چند بار نماینده یاران در انتخابات محافل مقدسه روحانیه گردید.

پس از ۶ سال اقامت در بابل به خاطر ادامه تحصیلات همسر خود به طهران منتقل شد و در دبیرستان البرز و چند دبیرستان دیگر به تدریس مشغول شد. جناب قبله جز ریاست دبیرستان شاهپور بابل تا پایان خدمتش جز معلمی هیچ شغل دیگری را نپذیرفت.

در ابتدای انقلاب اکثر اعضاء خانواده ایشان در آمریکا بودند و قرار بود جناب قبله پس از اتمام تحصیل یکی از فرزندانشان که در ایران مشغول تحصیل بود به آنان ملحق شود ولی تقدیر جز این بود یک روز برای احوال پرسی به دیدن یکی از دوستان که بیمار بود رفت و در آنجا گرفتار شد و او را به زندان اوین بردند. شبانه روز خبری از او نشد تا اینکه پاسداران برای بازرسی خانه جناب قبله او را به منزل بردند و پس از بردن کتابها و اثاثه قیمتی و کلیه اوراق و نوشته ها به او گفتند در خانه بماند تا دستور برسد.

در این میان جناب قبله بیمار و در بیمارستان بستری شد. مأموران هر روز به سراغش می رفتند و پس از بهبودی نسبی او را به زندان اوین بردند و سرانجام بعد از گرفتن ۵۰۰ هزار تومان تضمین مالی او را آزاد کردند. پس از چندی به بهانه های گوناگون همه دارائی او و همسرش را تصاحب کردند و از جناب قبله خواستند که ۱/۵ میلیون دلار بابت حقوق دریافتی سالهای کار را پس بدهد و چون ایشان گفتند که ندارند باز او را به زندان اوین بردند و چند روز در آنجا نگاه داشتند.

جناب قبله پس از تحمل دشواریهای بسیار روز ۱۲ فروردین ۱۳۷۲ به ملکوت ابهی صعود کرد. ایشان مردی روحانی و فروتن و مهربان بود. صدای بلند او را کسی نشنیده و خشم او را کسی ندیده بود رفتارش با همگان در نهایت احترام بود عیبش این بود که عیبی نداشت روانش جاودانه شاد باد.

ساعت انعقاد جلسات ایام متبرکه

به تازگی ساعت انعقاد برخی از جلسات ایام متبرکه باعث ایجاد سو تفاهم در میان احباء شده است. دارالانشاء دفتر محفل ملی در طی نامه ای موضوع فوق را از طرف محفل مقدس روحانی ملی ایران توضیح داده است که خلاصه آن در زیر درج می گردد:

حضرت ولی عزیز امرالله در یکی از توقیعات مبارکه خود که در سال ۱۹۳۸ به زبان انگلیسی صادر شده است فرموده اند که در جلسات صعود حضرت بهاءالله باید زیارتنامه مبارک در ساعت ۳ صبح و در جلسه شهادت حضرت اعلی ساعت ۱۲ ظهر تلاوت شود.

از سال ۱۹۶۷ بسیاری از ایالات این کشور ساعات را در طول تابستان برای صرفه جوئی در استفاده از برق تغییر دادند؛ بدین ترتیب که آن را از ماه اپریل تا ماه اکتبر یک ساعت به جلو می برند. به همین جهت ساعات ویژه ای که حضرت ولی عزیز امرالله معین فرموده بودند در ماههای تابستان با ساعت رسمی ایالات تطبیق نمی کند.

صعود جمال مبارک حدود ۸ ساعت پس از غروب ذکر شده است که در ماههائی که ذکر آن گذشت مطابق با ساعت ۴ صبح خواهد بود و شهادت حضرت اعلی در حدود ظهر مشخص شده که به این ترتیب برابر با ساعت ۱ بعد از ظهر خواهد بود. لازم به تذکر است که بیت العدل اعظم الهی این تغییرات را تعیین و تصویب فرموده اند.

انجمن ادب و فرهنگ ایرانی

پس از انجام موفقیت آمیز سومین کنفرانس انجمن ادب و فرهنگ ایرانی که در اپریل سال جاری در مانت ایگل در ایالت تنسی برگزار شد عده ای از یاران درخواست فرمودند که در صورت امکان آشنائی بیشتری با هنرمندانی که در کنفرانس شرکت کرده بودند حاصل کنند. در این شماره فرصتی به دست آمده که با شرح کوتاهی از آنچه در کنفرانس گذشت، از هنرمندان مذکور تجلیل و سپاسگزاری کنیم.

روز جمعه در محفل شعر و ادب خانم دکتر طلعت بصاری و خانم ماه مهر گلستانه و خانم گلنار مطهر و دکتر علی توانگر و آقای دکتر منوچهر روشن قطعات منظوم خود را برای حاضران خواندند. در برنامه هنری غروب آن روز خانم گلنار مطهر به همراه سنتور جناب روح الله محمودزاده کاشی چند شعر امری و نیز اشعاری از چند تن از شاعران معاصر ایران را دکلمه کرد و حاضران را تحت تأثیر قرار داد. جناب فروغ الدین فرزانه نیز به یاد استادانی که از محضرشان استفاده کرده بود - استاد اقبال سلطان و استاد شهریار - دو شعر از شهریار را در دستگاه سه گاه و آواز افشاری خواندند. خانم سوسن توفیقیان نیز به همراه سنتور جناب محمود زاده به خواندن ساقی نامه پرداخت و خانم روحا سبحانی و جناب منصور سبحانی همراه با سنتور جناب محمودزاده یک برنامه هنری شعر و آواز اجرا کردند.

بعد از ظهر روز شنبه دکتر توانگر قصیده ایرانیه اثر طبع ادیب بیضائی کاشانی را خواندند و سپس به یاد متصاعد الی الله جناب نصر الله عرفانی چند قطعه از مجموعه آثار ایشان "گلبرگ عرفان" را برای حاضران خواندند. سپس جناب اشلی یکی از احبای باذوق آمریکائی دو قطعه از آثار منظوم خود را به زبان انگلیسی خواند و مورد تشویق و استقبال حاضران واقع شد.

در برنامه هنری غروب شنبه ابتدا گروه کر نشویل به رهبری آقای تام پرایس Tom Price و شرکت خانم نرگس فانی و آقای دش کرافتس به اجرای قطعات گوناگونی پرداختند که برخی از آن در کنگره جهانی بهائی اجرا شده و برخی دیگر به تازگی تنظیم شده بود. این برنامه ها نیز با استقبال گرمی روبرو شد. سپس دو خردسال بهائی نیما و پیمان روحانی فرد با ویلن دو قطعه موسیقی کلاسیک اجرا کردند. یک نوجوان بهائی رامتین مطهر دو قطعه آواز اجرا کرد که یکی به سبک ایرانی بود. این نوجوان عزیز اخیراً با گروه کر جوانان به روسیه رفته بود. پس از این برنامه آقای تام پرایس و خانم نرگس فانی به همراه بعضی از اعضاء گروه کر نمایشنامه فکاهی ملا نصرالدین را به زبان فارسی اجرا کردند. این برنامه ابتدا در استرالیا اجرا شده بود و نخستین بار بود که در آمریکا اجرا می شد. ناگفته نماند که آقای پرایس این نمایشنامه را از فرهنگ ایرانی تهیه کرده است و در شب اجرا کارگردان آن بود.

کوتاه سخن اینکه هنرمندان عزیزی که نامشان در بالا آمد و نیز دوستانی که در جلسات کنفرانس با لحن زیبا مناجات تلاوت می کردند: خانم قائم مقامی و جناب موهبت سبحانی و دکتر کامران لطفی و جناب گرشاسب مطهر و دکتر روشن، با حضور خود بر رونق انجمن ادب و فرهنگ افزودند. زحماتشان را ارج می نهیم و از خدماتشان سپاسگزاری می کنیم.

بنا بر گزارش رسیده تنها در سه ماه اول سال جاری بیش از ۸۰۰هزار نفر از مشرق الاذکار هندوستان دیدار کردند. [Page 21]گورستان بهائی را جهت آماده ساختن محل برای بنای «مرکز فرهنگی خاوران» خراب کرده‌اند.

به گفته خانم کازبی برای بهائیان جهان مزارستان بهائی طهران [گلستان جاوید] با هزاران مقبره ای که دارد، از اهمیتی تاریخی برخوردار است. از آغاز پیدایش امر بهائی در میانه‌های قرن نوزدهم در ایران، طهران یکی از مراکز مهم بوده است و گورستان بهائی آن آرامگاه بسیاری از بهائیان اولیه است.

در اوایل دهه ۸۰ همهٔ گورستان‌های بهائی ایران توسط حکومت اسلامی تصرف شد. شستشوخانه و سالن اجتماعات گورستان طهران تخریب شد و سنگ‌های مرمر روی قبرها به غارت رفت و علامات شناسایی مزارها از میان برده شد. بسیاری از سنگ‌قبرها در حراج همگانی به فروش رسید.

از سال ۱۹۷۹ بیش از ۲۰۰ نفر از بهائیان ایران اعدام گردیده و هزاران نفر صرفاً به علت اعتقاد به امر بهائی زندانی شده‌اند. بهائیان ایران در بسیاری از نقاط برای دفن مردگانشان با مشکلاتی روبرو می‌شوند و اجازه ندارند محل قبر را علامت گذاری کنند. اگر چه تا کنون چندین گورستان بهائی تخریب و غارت شده است، معذلک این نخستین بار است که اجساد نبش قبر شده‌اند.

اعلامیه ۳۳ سناتور آمریکائی درباره بهائیان ایران

U.S. SENATORS APPEAL ON BEHALF OF IRANIAN BAHA’IS

۳۳ تن از سناتورهای ایالات متحده به دولت ایران اخطار کردند که آثار و تضییقات احبای ایران عامل مهمی در خصوص تصمیم‌گیری برای برقراری روابط با آن کشور خواهد بود.

سناتورهای مذکور به آقای بیل کلینتون، رئیس جمهور ایالات متحده توصیه کردند که برای احقاق حقوق دینی و انسانی بهائیان با دیگر دولت‌ها و نیز با سازمان ملل متحد همکاری نماید.

آقای کلینتون در طی سخنرانی اخیر خود رفتار ناهنجار دولت ایران را با بهائیان از جمله موارد نقض حقوق بشر در جهان محسوب کرد و آن را همراه با تذکری دربارهٔ «پاک‌سازی نژادی» که در یوگسلاوی سابق جریان دارد، ذکر نمود.

پس از افشای مدرک محرمانهٔ ایران در مورد رفتار با بهائیان، کنگرهٔ ایالات متحده در طی بیانیه‌ای که روز ۱۷ جون سال جاری صادر شد، خط مشی ضدبهائی دولت ایران را محکوم کرد. در آن مدرک محرمانه سیاست دولت ایران در قبال بهائیان آن کشور آشکارا معین شده بود. در بیانیهٔ کنگرهٔ آمریکا آمده است که در مدرک مذکور «رفتار سوء ایران حاصل سیاست عامدانه دولت است و به تصویب و امضاء عالی‌ترین مقامات مملکتی رسیده است.»

حمایت از بهائیان توسط سناتور کریستوفر داد Christopher Dodd از ایالت کنتیکت صورت گرفته و از حمایت سناتور جورج میچل George Mitchell رهبر اکثریت مجلس سنا و سناتور باب دُل Bob Dole رهبر جمهوری‌خواهان مجلس سنا نیز برخوردار است.

بیانیه مشابهی نیز از جانب مجلس شور نمایندگان ایالات متحده در دست تهیه است. رئیس مجلس شورا آقای تاماس فولی Thomas Foley و دیگر رهبران مجلس توصیه کرده‌اند که اقدامات لازم برای حمایت از حقوق بهائیان ایران صورت گیرد.

دکتر فیروز کاظم‌زاده منشی امور خارجی محفل روحانی ملی از جانب جامعهٔ بهائی ایالات متحده از اقدامات کنگرهٔ آمریکا قدردانی کرد و اظهار داشت: «شواهدی در دست است که نشان می‌دهد که دولت ایران در نتیجه بیانیه‌ها و قطعنامه‌های کنگرهٔ آمریکا و پارلمان‌های اروپا و اجلاسیه‌های سازمان ملل متحد رفتار خود را نسبت به بهائیان ایران تعدیل کرده است.»

هر چند از سال ۱۹۸۸ فقط یک نفر از جامعهٔ بهائی ایران اعدام شده است، با این حال جامعهٔ امری آن کشور تحت فشار و تبعیضات شدید اقتصادی و اجتماعی قرار دارد و این به گفته دکتر کاظم‌زاده همانند نابود کردن جامعه از راه فرسایش است.

پارلمان ادیان جهان

‎PARLIMENT PARLIAMENT‎ OF THE WORLD’S RELIGIONS

پارلمان ادیان جهان که انتظار می‌رود بزرگ‌ترین جلسه بین‌الادیان باشد که تاکنون در جهان منعقد گردیده، از ۲۸ آگست تا ۵ سپتامبر سال جاری در شیکاگو تشکیل خواهد شد.

اولین جلسه این مجمع در سال ۱۸۹۳ تشکیل شد و در همان جلسه بود که از امر بهائی برای نخستین بار در آمریکای شمالی نام برده شد.

تخمین زده شده است که حدود ۲ تا ۴ هزار نفر در این کنفرانس شرکت کنند و جامعهٔ بهائی نیز در صدد است که حضور آشکاری در آن داشته باشد.

سه مؤسسه بهائی — جامعهٔ بین‌المللی بهائی و محفل روحانی ملی و محفل روحانی شیکاگو — از جمله دست‌اندرکاران هیئت برگزاری این کنفرانسند و نمایندگان آنها از ماه اپریل سال جاری هر سه هفته یکبار جلساتی برای برنامه‌ریزی و دیگر امور تشکیل داده‌اند. کلیات برنامه‌های بهائی که در نظر گرفته شده است، در زیر درج می‌شود:

• ۲۱ برنامهٔ کارگاهی و سه برنامهٔ مفصل به هیئت برنامه‌ریزی پیشنهاد شده است.
• از خانم ویلما الیس، دبیر کل جامعهٔ بین‌المللی بهائی دعوت شده است که در جلسهٔ عمومی افتتاح کنگره سخنرانی نماید.
• در مراسم ورود نمایندگان ادیان مختلف به جلسهٔ افتتاحیهٔ کنگره ۲۰ نفر از احباء با جامه‌های بومی شرکت خواهند کرد.
• گروه کُر کنگرهٔ جهانی و گروه کُر بهائی به سبک آوازهای مذهبی سیاهیان قرار است برنامه‌هائی اجرا نمایند.
• دفتر امور پناهندگان کوشش نموده است که بهائیان در برنامه‌ای با عنوان «صدای بی‌خانمان‌ها» نیز شرکت داشته باشند.
• محفل روحانی ملی و جامعهٔ بین‌المللی بهائی نمایشگاهی برای ارائه اصول امر مبارک تشکیل خواهند داد.
• مؤسسهٔ توزیع انتشارات امری نمونه‌ای از آثار بهائی را به نمایش خواهد گذاشت.
• محفل روحانی ملی بیانیه‌ای دربارهٔ سال جهانی همکاری بین‌الادیان صادر خواهد کرد.

تضییقات و تبعیضات دینی و نژادی

REPORT ON SUPPRESSION OF ETHNIC OR RELIGIOUS GROUPS

اخیراً در گزارشی که دربارهٔ تضییقات اقلیت‌های نژادی و دینی توسط سازمان ملل متحد تهیه شده – و در روزنامه واشنگتن پست و لوس آنجلس تایمز درج گردیده – است بعنوان نمونه آمده که حکومت ایران در صدد است که در صورتی که بهائیان ایران اعتقاد به دین خود را اظهار کنند، آنان را از طریق محروم ساختن آنان از تحصیل و اشتغال به کار از میان ببرد.

راهپیمائی در واشنگتن

MARCH ON WASHINGTON

قرار است روز ۲۸ آگست سال جاری به یادبود راهپیمایی معروف سال ۱۹۶۳ در واشنگتن، راهپیمایی دیگری در همان شهر صورت گیرد.

در راهپیمائی اصلی که در آگست سال ۱۹۶۳ انجام گرفت، بیش از ۲۵۰ هزار نفر از سراسر ایالات متحده شرکت کردند. هدف از آن راهپیمائی «کار و عدالت و آزادی» بود. در همان زمان بود که دکتر مارتین لوتر کینگ، رهبر نهضت احقاق حقوق اقلیت‌ها نطق معروف خود را که به نام «خوابی دیده‌ام» شهرت دارد، ایراد کرد و از آرزوی خود برای ایجاد وحدت نژادی سخن گفت.

محفل روحانی ملی از یاران عزیز دعوت کرده است که برای گسترش وحدت نژادی در مراسم مربوط به بزرگداشت سی‌امین سال آن راهپیمائی تاریخی شرکت نمایند. اگر چه محفل روحانی ملی الزاماً از همهٔ شرایط برگزارکنندگان این یادبود پشتیبانی نمی‌کند، با این حال از روح جاری در مراسم حمایت می‌نماید.

اهداف این راهپیمائی — کار، عدالت و صلح — حاکی از نیاز همهٔ مردمان به دریافت این نکته است که وحدت اصلی بشر را اذعان نمایند و مفهوم آن را در زندگی روزمره به کار برند. راهپیمائی مذکور به یاران امکان می‌دهد که با اعضای سازمان‌های گوناگون که دست‌اندرکار برگزاری این مراسم بوده‌اند، آشنا شوند و تماس برقرار کنند.

برگزارکنندگان مراسم مذکور عبارتند از: سازمان ملی پیشبرد امور سیاه‌پوستان NAACP، سازمان ملی آموزش و پرورش NEA، سازمان کارمندان فدرال و ایالتی و شهری AFSCME و سازمان ملی زنان NOW.

جوامع بهائی می‌توانند برای شرکت در مراسم راهپیمائی با شعبه‌های این سازمان‌ها تماس حاصل نمایند.

اطلاعات بیشتر دربارهٔ راهپیمائی مذکور در شمارهٔ آیندهٔ «آمریکن بهائی» درج خواهد شد. در عین حال احبائی که مایلند در این مراسم شرکت جویند، می‌توانند برای کسب اطلاعات بیشتر با دفتر لجنهٔ ملی نشر نفحات تماس حاصل نمایند.

از همه کسانی که قصد دارند برای شرکت در راهپیمائی ماه آگست به واشنگتن سفر کنند، تقاضا می‌شود نام خود را به همراه یادداشتی به دفتر لجنهٔ ملی نشر نفحات ارسال دارند تا این اقدام آنان از جمله تحقق اهداف مربوط به مبلغان سیار محسوب شود.

لازم به تذکر است که مخارج سفر به واشنگتن بر عهدهٔ شرکت کنندگان است و محفل روحانی ملی نخواهد توانست هزینه سفر یا محل سکونت احباء را تأمین نماید.

حقوق الله

از دوستان عزیز مستدعی است تقدیمی‌های حقوق‌الله را در وجه ‎Baha'i Huququ'llah Trust Bahá’í Huququ’lláh Trust‎ به نشانی یکی از امنای حقوق‌الله ارسال فرمایند.

Dr. Amin Banani

Santa Monica, CA. 90402

Dr. Daryush Haghighi

Rocky River, OH. 44116

Dr. Elsie Austin

Silver Spring, MD. 20901

[Page 22]

ای اهل عالم، مذهب الهی از برای محبت و اتحاد است؛ او را سبب عداوت و اختلاف منمائید.

حضرت بهاءالله

ترجمه پیام بیت العدل اعظم

MESSAGES FROM THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE

خطاب به بهائیان سراسر عالم مورخ ۲۴ جون ۱۹۹۳

یاران عزیز الهی،

اندک زمانی پس از رویدادهای روح‌بخش هفتمین کانونشن بین‌المللی بهائی و کنفرانس مشاورین که متعاقباً منعقد گردید، نخستین هفته‌های آغاز نقشه سه ساله شاهد واقعه مهم دیگری بوده است. در بامداد روز شنبه پنجم ماه جون بعنوان اولین اقدام هیئت جدید دارالتبلیغ بین‌المللی نه نفر مشاورین عضو آن هیئت در معیت حضرات ایادی امرالله ‎جناب‌ان جنابان‎ علی اکبر فروتن و علی محمد ورقا به اتفاق اعضاء بیت‌العدل اعظم برای دعا و مناجات عازم روضه مبارکه گردیدند و سپس اولین جلسه را در اتاقی که معمولاً حضرت ولی‌امرالله در قصر بهجی در آن اقامت می‌فرمودند و یادآور موقعیت‌های تاریخی بسیاری در آن مکان مبارک است، تشکیل دادند.

مشاورات مشترک درباره وظایفی که دارالتبلیغ بین‌المللی در سال‌های بحرانی پایان قرن بیستم در مقابل خود دارد، در بعد از ظهر همان روز در محل اجلاس بیت‌العدل اعظم ادامه یافت.

در مدت پنج سنه از ماه می ۱۹۸۸ که تصمیمات وسیعی درباره وظایف و نحوه کار دارالتبلیغ بین‌المللی اتخاذ گشت و برای نخستین بار تعداد مشاورین عضو دارالتبلیغ بین‌المللی به نه نفر ازدیاد یافت، مؤسسه مزبور کراراً توانائی و اشتیاق خود را برای تقبل و تعهد مسئولیت‌های پردامنه ای که بدان تفویض گردیده، به ثبوت رسانده است.

راه‌های گوناگون تبلیغ امر الهی که دارالتبلیغ بین‌المللی آنها را طرح کرده، ارائه روش‌ها و میادین خدمتی که می‌تواند مفید و مؤثر باشد و همکاری مشاورین با محافل روحانی ملی در تعیین اهداف نقشه سه ساله، در ازدیاد عرفان افراد احباء و نشر نفحات الله و افزایش عدد مؤمنین و تشویق نونهالان و جوانان بهائی و تحکیم مبانی جوامع در حال رشد بهائی و تقویت مؤسسات امریه در آن جوامع و نیز ادامه پرشور و هیجان توسعه امرالله بی‌نهایت مؤثر واقع شده است.

وظائف قبلی دارالتبلیغ بین‌المللی مربوط به تهیه و تنظیم نقشه‌ها برای تصویب این هیئت در اثر انتقال مسئولیت مزبور به محافل روحانی ملی که نشانه آغاز عهد چهارم دور تکوین بود، تغییر یافته است. اقدامات دارالتبلیغ بین‌المللی در راهنمائی مشاورین قاره ای برای ترویج اصل مشورت بین مؤسسات امریه و افراد احباء در سطوح ‎محولی محلی‎ و ملی که موجب شروع و استمرار جریان رشد و توسعه گردید، مایه کمال خوشوقتی است و این هیئت مشتاق و منتظر آن است که این همکاری همچنان ادامه و توسعه یابد.

مسئولیت هیئت‌های مشاورین قاره ای جهت صیانت امرالله در ظل هدایت دارالتبلیغ بین‌المللی در سال‌های آینده بدون تردید حائز اهمیت بیشتری خواهد شد. هیئت‌های مزبور نه تنها محافل روحانی ملی و محلی را برای پاسخ دادن به سؤالات علاقه مندان غیربهائی تشویق و مساعدت خواهند کرد، بلکه در مواجهه با حملات مخالفین خارج از جامعه امر نیز آنان را ترغیب و یاری خواهند نمود.

مطالعه و کسب معلومات درباره امر بهائی برای رشد و پیشرفت صحیح و تحکیم مبانی و حفظ و صیانت جوامع بهائی عاملی حیاتی محسوب می‌گردد. این مطالعات باید متضمن فرا گرفتن منظم آثار مبارکه، تاریخ امر، ارتباط امر بهائی با انواع نظام‌های فکری و به کار بستن تعالیم الهی در حیات روحانی و مادی جامعه باشد. دارالتبلیغ بین‌المللی به پیشرفت چنین مطالعاتی مساعدت شایان خواهد نمود.

در تهیه و توزیع نشریات و آثار امری که برای توسعه و تحکیم امرالله ضرورت اساسی دارد، مساعدت مشاورین به محافل ملیه از طریق صندوق مخصوص کمک‌های نقدی به انتشارات امری و به ویژه تشویق به استفاده وسیع از طرح مجموعه آثار اساسی بهائی توسط دارالتبلیغ بین‌المللی سبب پیشرفت سریع و تحسین‌آمیزی شده است و اطمینان داریم که این مساعی در سال‌های آینده افزایش خواهد یافت.

اعزام مهاجرین و مبلغین سیار در اثر توسعه خدمات لجنات قاره ای مهاجرت در ظل دارالتبلیغ بین‌المللی و مجاهدات مشاورین قاره ای و محافل ملی افزایش قابل ملاحظه ای داشته است. معلوم است که با رشد و توسعه عالم بهائی و ازدیاد توانائی احباء برای سیر و سفر، روش‌های جدیدی برای راهنمائی و اعزام مهاجرین مورد لزوم است. بنابراین در نقشه سه ساله نحوه دعوت برای مهاجرت در مقایسه با آنچه در گذشته مرسوم بوده، متفاوت خواهد بود و با اطمینان انتظار داریم که از قوا و فداکاری احباء به نحو مؤثرتری استفاده شود.

کلیه مطالب فوق‌الذکر از جمله موضوعی بود که با حضور اعضاء بیت‌العدل اعظم و دارالتبلیغ بین‌المللی در جلسه پنجم جون و در جلسه ای دیگر در اواخر ایامی که دارالتبلیغ بین‌المللی خود به بحث و مشاوراتی مفصل اشتغال داشتند، مورد مذاکره و مشورت قرار گرفت. پنج نفر اعضای جدید دارالتبلیغ بین‌المللی که هنوز در خارج از مرکز جهانی سکونت دارند، برای انتقال به ارض اقدس آماده می‌شوند.

در اعتاب مقدسه دعا می‌کنیم که این اقدامات سبب تحرک بیش از پیش مجاهدات یاران و مؤسسات امریه در سراسر جهان گشته و مساعی و مجاهداتی را که هم اکنون مشتاقانه برای وصول به اهداف نقشه سه ساله آغاز شده، شدیداً تزايد بخشد.

با تحیات ابدع ابهی بیت العدل اعظم

کاهش تبرعات به صندوق ملی

MAY CONTRIBUTIONS DOWN

آمار اولین ماه سال مالی کنونی حکایت از آن دارد که مقدار تبرعات در سه سال گذشته کاهش یافته است. تا ۳۰ می سال جاری ۶۹۲ هزار دلار به صندوق ملی تقدیم شده بود که در مقایسه با مقدار تبرعات در همین دوره از سال ۱۹۹۱ حدود ۲۰ درصد کمتر بوده و با کسر یک تقدیمی استثنائی به مبلغ ۵۰۰ هزار دلار در سال ۱۹۹۲، دریافتی های امسال ۶ درصد کمتر از دریافتی های سال گذشته بوده است.

در مجموع مبالغی که توسط دفتر امین صندوق دریافت گردیده، نسبت به سال گذشته ۱۶ درصد کمتر از آن بوده است. از میزان تبرعات برای صندوق بین المللی و ساختمان های قوس نیز کاسته شده است. این مبلغ در سال ۱۹۹۱ ۴۲۰ هزار دلار بود و در سال ۱۹۹۳ به ۹۱ هزار دلار بوده که نمایانگر کاهشی بالغ بر ۷۸ درصد است. این کاهش در زمانی صورت می‌گیرد که بیت‌العدل اعظم الهی در پیام رضوان سال ۱۵۰ بدیع در عین حال که از تبرعات یاران در گذشته قدردانی فرموده اند، اظهار داشته اند که مبالغ فعلی بهیچوجه پاسخگوی نیازهای مالی جامعه جهانی نیست.

یکی از کارکنان دفتر امین صندوق اظهار می‌کرد که معلوم نیست که روند کنونی از کجا مایه می‌گیرد. مخارج هنگفت کنگره جهانی و نیز مبالغی که احباء به صندوق حقوق الله تقدیم می‌دارند از جمله عوامل تقلیل تبرعات به صندوق ملی بوده است ولی گمان می‌رود که نهایتاً همه اینها سبب تحکیم جامعه امری شود. وی همچنین اشاره کرد که با توجه به فرصت های موجود و نیازهای جامعه بهائی باید در نحوه و میزان مشارکت احبای الهی در خصوص تقدیم تبرعات تغییری اساسی حاصل گردد.

تخریب گلستان جاوید تهران

IRAN EXHUMES BODIES FROM BAHÁ’Í GRAVESITES

دفتر امور خارجی محفل روحانی ملی روز ۲ جولای سال جاری اطلاعات زیر را در اختیار جراید و رسانه های همگانی نهاده است:

نبش قبر در مزارستان بهائی توسط مقامات دولتی تهران، آخرین کوشش دولت ایران برای از میان بردن یک اقلیت دینی

واشنگتن، ۲ جولای — سخنگوی جامعه بهائی آمریکا اعلام کرد که مقامات طهران برای ایجاد یک مرکز فرهنگی دست اندر کار تخریب قبور بهائی و نقل مکان اجساد شده اند.

خانم کیت کازبی Kit Cosby نماینده رئیس دفتر امور خارجی بهائیان آمریکا اظهار داشت که نبش قبر و نقل مکان اجساد بهائیان به محلی نامعلوم آخرین و شاید بهترین نمونه کوشش های رژیم اسلامی ایران برای از میان بردن جامعه بهائی و ‎ریشه کردن ریشه کن کردن‎ مبانی فرهنگی آنها از زادگاه امر بهائی است.

خانم کازبی افزود که این اعمال با دستورالعمل هائی که در مدرک محرمانه دولت ایران آمده بود و در گزارش سازمان ملل افشاء گردید، و بر مبنای آن می‌باید ریشه‌های فرهنگی بهائیان را از میان برد، مطابقت دارد.

روز ۲۲ اپریل سال جاری رئیس جمهور ایالات متحد آقای بیل کلینتون رفتار ناهنجار دولت ایران را با بهائیان آن کشور از جمله یکی از موارد نقض حقوق بشر ذکر کرده بود.

خانم کازبی گفت بنا بر گزارشی که روز قبل رسیده است در حال حاضر تعدادی بولدوزر بخشی از

ترجمه ابلاغیه بیت العدل اعظم

خطاب به پیروان جمال قدم در سراسر عالم مورخ ۲۷ جون ۱۹۹۳

با کمال خوشوقتی پیشرفت عمده ای را که در اجرای طرح های ساختمانی مشروعات کوه کرمل حاصل شده، اعلام می‌داریم. مدارک مربوط به قرارداد مناقصه جهت ساختمان مرکز مطالعه و تحقیق نصوص برای اطلاع مقاطعه کاران آماده گردیده است. همچنین ساختمان طبقات مقام اعلی نیز به سرعت در جریان است. اکنون ضروری است که یاران الهی در جمیع نقاط به کمال فداکاری سعی فرمایند تا در طی نقشه سه ساله با تبرع هفتاد و چهار میلیون دلار به صندوق مخصوص این مشروعات پیشرفت بدون وقفه امور ساختمانی را که پیوسته سرعتی بیشتر می‌یابد، تأمین نمایند.

بیت العدل اعظم [Page 23]

New magazine aims to help educate, deepen friends

News you can use.

That’s what Trey Yancy of Austin, Texas, aims to provide as publisher of Deepen, a new magazine for Bahá’í adults and youths.

Mr. Yancy envisions Deepen as a resource to educate the friends and equip them to employ a deepened knowledge of the Faith in their teaching efforts.

He says the magazine will provide well-rounded deepening materials such as essays and book reviews. Each issue will include a pull-out pamphlet devoted to a specific topic.

Don’t expect a dry scholarly tome, though. Mr. Yancy says Deepen will have the feel of an "old-fashioned journal," with a little homespun humor where appropriate.

The 8½- by 10-inch publication will feature a full-color glossy cover. A removable double-size poster also is planned.

Many of the articles will be written by Mr. Yancy and three helpers from the Austin area. Additional editorial contributions will be solicited from Bahá’ís around the country who want to "serve in a way that reaches many people."

He also hopes the friends will contribute financially to the success of the not-for-profit magazine. Five hundred free copies of the premiere issue are being mailed with a cover letter outlining 12-month and "lifetime" subscription options.

Bahá’ís who are interested in receiving a free copy can write to Deepen, P.O. Box 4307, Austin, TX 78751.

Mr. Yancy will gauge interest from response to the initial offering and "go from there." He expects to produce Deepen on a monthly basis.

Mr. Yancy conceived of Deepen last December. Since then he has formed a board of directors and an advisory board that includes several Auxiliary Board members and their assistants. He also has applied for non-profit status for the venture.

And he has been laboring on the magazine whenever his duties as an elementary school art teacher allow him to do so.

Aiding Mr. Yancy in the task are his 22 years of experience in producing newsletters, including the Austin Bahá’í community's bulletin. With desktop publishing equipment, he can write, edit and lay out stories on a computer for camera-ready delivery to the printer.

Mr. Yancy has been in active consultation with his local Spiritual Assembly, and the copy for each issue will be submitted to the Literature Review Office at the Bahá’í National Center.

Opinion will be strictly separated from the teachings, he says, with all quotations scrupulously attributed to their source.

Two founders are present as Bahá’í community of Reno, Nevada, marks Assembly's 50th year

Two founders of the Bahá’í community in northern Nevada were on hand April 24-25 to help celebrate the 50th anniversary of Reno’s first Spiritual Assembly.

Catherine M. Parr and Robert Takashi Imagire joined Bahá’ís and non-Bahá’ís in recalling the path-blazing days of the Faith in the Truckee Meadows region.

Weekend events included an open house, potluck dinner, public commemoration and a dinner to honor the early believers. A 50th anniversary wall display was exhibited at the Washoe County Public Library in Reno through May 1.

Miss Parr became the first Bahá’í in Hawthorne, Nevada, in 1943. She retired in 1972 as an equipment engineer with Nevada Bell.

Mr. Imagire, who declared his belief in Bahá’u’lláh in 1942 amidst the World War II prejudice against Japanese-Americans, was a member of the first local Spiritual Assembly of Reno.

He came in from Oakland, California, for the anniversary. He has traveled extensively to the South Pacific and plans to settle there when he retires this summer from his job as a drafting operator for the city of Berkeley.

Mr. Imagire entertained at the public commemoration with a Polynesian dance and was interviewed by KOLO-TV, Channel 8.

Auxiliary Board member Richard Groger spoke at the commemoration ceremony on "The Global Picture of the Bahá’í Faith"; presentations were made on the history of the Faith in Reno; East Indian dancers performed, and John Cook sang Bahá’í children’s songs.

The dinner to honor the early believers was attended by Rollan Mellon, a widely read newspaper columnist for the Reno Gazette Journal, and his wife, and by Sandra Bernardi, director of the Reno/Sparks Metro Ministry.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá passed through Reno on October 26, 1912, while traveling by train from Denver to Sacramento. Five years later, Isabella Brittingham, a Bahá’í traveling teacher, wrote about Reno.

Gertrude Frazier and Kathryn Frankland visited Reno as traveling teachers in 1937, and in 1939 Helen Griffing became the first pioneer to the city.

The first Spiritual Assembly, elected April 20, 1943, was comprised of David Mayberry, chairman; Ray Cheatham, the first African-American Bahá’í in Reno, vice-chairman; Mr. Imagire, secretary; Florence Mayberry, treasurer; Mary Bode; Margery Dixon; Gladys Bodmer; Myrtle Robinette; and Helen Griffing.

Review of human rights abuses around world includes Bahá’ís in Iran

A recent review of cases involving the suppression of one ethnic or religious group by another, compiled by the United Nations, human rights groups and news accounts and reported in the Los Angeles Times, includes that of Iran, "where the Islamic government is trying to wipe out the Bahá’í minority by denying them education and jobs so long as they declare themselves to be Bahá’ís."

The article, written by The Times' Stanley Meisler and Tyler Marshall, appeared in a number of other newspapers including The Washington Post.

THE AMERICAN BAHÁ’Í Subscription rates

Outside continental U.S. only 1 Year: $24 (First class/Surface), $32 (Air Mail) 2 Years: $45 (First class/Surface), $60 (Air Mail)

Please make check payable to: Bahá’í Subscriber Service, c/o Bahá’í National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091.

All orders must be pre-paid in U.S. currency. VISA/MasterCard accepted; please include full account number and expiration date.

Sacramento Bahá’ís support Bowl-a-Thon for kids

Pictured are some of the Bahá’ís and their friends from the greater Sacramento, California, area who took part in April in a "Bowl for Kids’ Sake" fund-raiser for Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Sacramento.

On April 3-4, Bahá’ís from several communities in the Sacramento, California, area took part in the Big Brothers/Big Sisters' annual Bowl for Kids’ Sake fund-raiser.

Participating as the Bahá’í Faith of Greater Sacramento, 45 individuals—39 of whom were Bahá’ís—raised more than $2,500 in pledges to help Big Brothers/Big Sisters. Last year, 25 Bahá’ís and their friends raised $1,600.

Besides performing a community service, the friends were able to proclaim the Faith, as this year’s pledge sheets were personalized with a nine-pointed star and a quote from the Kitáb-i-Aqdas:

"He that bringeth up his son or the son of another, it is as though he hath brought up a son of Mine; upon him rest My glory, My loving kindness, My mercy, that have compassed the world."

Big Brothers/Big Sisters also gave free T-shirts to those who bowled. The shirts had the "Bowl for Kids’ Sake" logo on the front and a nine-pointed star on the back with the words "Bahá’í Faith Greater Sacramento Area."

A large number of the Bahá’ís who took part were of Hmong descent; the bowl-a-thon provided a vehicle for these Bahá’ís, many of whom are new believers, to take part in a Bahá’í community activity.

One week after the event, members of the Bahá’í community of Sacramento presented the Big Brothers/Big Sisters organization with copies of the National Assembly’s statement on race unity.

Notice about brochures

It has come to the attention of the New York State Bahá’í School Committee that brochures including registration forms for the summer session (August 13-22) may have been mailed out incomplete. A complete brochure is three pages long.

If you feel you have received an incomplete brochure or need more information, please contact Charles or Barbara Clark, Middletown, NY 10940 (phone 914-342-4082), or Jean and Stephanie Jaczko, Newburgh, NY 12550 (phone 914-564-3813).

IN MEMORIAM

Luther Alston Sellers, SC Date Unknown

John W. Arnold Albany, GA June 10, 1993

Gertrude Blum Honiara, Solomon Is. June 5, 1993

Sharon Bogner Filer, ID June 14, 1993

Doris Bosserman W. Sacramento, CA June 14, 1993

Barbara J. Burke Kokomo, IN May 4, 1993

Richard Davison June 15, 1993

Judy A. Dennis Lubbock, TX April 1991

Leroy Durham Columbia, MD May 25, 1993

Elena Gasparini Pomona, CA May 25, 1993

Dorothy Harvey May 19, 1993

Woodrow Jackson Inglewood, CA May 2, 1993

Kenneth Jennrich Wilmette, IL June 18, 1993

Nancy Jentimane Portsmouth, NH 1987

Rouhanghiz Akhtar Khavari Farmville, VA June 3, 1993

Claire Newport Eugene, OR June 1, 1993 [Page 24]

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

Undaunted by a climate that produces snow eight months of the year, young Bahá’ís in Marquette, Michigan, have been on the march with innovative teaching plans. This spring, accompanied by seekers, they snowshoed two miles into the wilderness to a tipi where they stopped for prayers, deepening and hot chocolate. Since February there have been seven declarations in Marquette-three adults and four youth. Presently, there are 47 Bahá’ís-adults, youth and children-in the county.

MOVING? TELL US YOUR NEW ADDRESS

To avoid unnecessary delays in receiving your copy of The American Bahá’í, send your new address and your mailing label to MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEMS, Bahá’í National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091, as soon as you know what your new address will be.

A. NAME(S): 1. I.D.# Title 2. I.D. # Title 3. I.D. # Title 4. I.D. # Title

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.

B. NEW RESIDENCE ADDRESS: Street address Apartment # (If applicable) City State Zip code

C. NEW MAILING ADDRESS: P.O. Box or Other mailing address Apartment (If applicable) City State Zip code

D. NEW COMMUNITY: Name of new Bahá’í Community Moving date

E. HOME TELEPHONE NUMBER: Area code Phone number Name

F. WORK TELEPHONE NUMBER(S): Area code Phone number Name Area code Phone number Name

G. WE RECEIVE EXTRA COPIES BECAUSE: we do not have the same last name. We do not want extra copies, so please cancel the copy for the person(s) and I.D. number(s) listed above.

the last names and addresses on our address labels do not match. We have listed above the full names of all family members as they should appear on the national records, their I.D. numbers, and the corrections so that we will receive only one copy.

H. I WOULD LIKE A COPY: Our household receives only one copy of The American Bahá’í. I wish to receive my own copy. I have listed my name, I.D. number and address above.

BAHÁ’Í NATIONAL CENTER 112 Linden Avenue Wilmette, IL 60091

AUGUST

6-11: Family and Friends: Session Two, Louhelen Bahá’í School. For information, phone 313-653-5033.

7-12: "The Dynamics of Group and Individual Action" and "Law for a New Age: A Study of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas," Bosch Bahá’í School. For information, phone 408-423-3387.

13-18: Family and Friends: Session Three, Louhelen Bahá’í School. For information, phone 313-653-5033.

14-19: "The Bahá’í Concept of Law: A Study of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas," "The Art of Drama," and "A Time for Poetry," Bosch Bahá’í School. For information, phone 408-423-3387.

20-25: Youth Eagle Institute (ages 14-19), Louhelen Bahá’í School. For information, phone 313-653-5033.

21-26: Advanced Research Institute, Bosch Bahá’í School. Intensive study of the theory and method of Bahá’í scholarship, directed by Habib Riazati. Students who have laptop computers are encouraged to bring them. Also, "From Design to Example." For information, phone 408-423-3387.

27-29: Eleventh annual Massanetta Springs Conference, Harrisonburg, Virginia, sponsored by the Spiritual Assembly of Staunton. Theme: "Building the New World Order." Please register by July 15. Two nights, six meals: adults $96, youth $72, children $52. Registrar: Jim Lamb, Staunton, VA 24401 (phone 703-885-6996).

27-29: Young Black Males' Conference (co-sponsored with South Carolina Action Council for Cross-Cultural Mental Health and Human Services), Louis Gregory Bahá’í Institute. For information, phone 803-558-5093.

27-29: Arts Academy, Louhelen Bahá’í School. For information, phone 313-653-5033.

28: 30th Anniversary Observance of the March on Washington: Jobs, Justice and Peace Washington, D.C. Bahá’ís who would like to take part should contact the National Spiritual Assembly's Washington office, 202-833-8990.

28-September 4: 1993 Parliament of the World's Religions, Palmer House Hotel, Chicago, Illinois.

29: Annual International Bahá’í Picnic, Canatara Park, Sarnia, Ontario, Canada.

31-September 5: Bahá’í Youth Service Corps Training and Pioneer Training Institute, Louis Gregory Bahá’í Institute. For information, phone the Office of Pioneering, 708-869-9039.

SEPTEMBER

3-6: Homecoming, Louhelen Bahá’í School. For information, phone 313-653-5033.

3-6: "Race Unity and the Revolutionizing Agency of Bahá’u’lláh," Green Acre Bahá’í School. For information, phone 207-439-7200.

3-7: "Fire in the Darkness," the fourth annual regional Carolina Bahá’í Youth Conference, Camp Chestnut Ridge, near Chapel Hill. Cost is $65 and is for youth in grades 6-12. For information, phone Vance Remick, 919-942-3909, or write to Carrboro, NC 27510.

5-11: "The Three Year Plan and Beyond," Landegg Academy, Switzerland.

10-12: "Faith, Family and the Future," annual commemoration of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s visit to Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Confirmed presenters: Counselor Wilma Ellis, Marguerite Sears, Louise Matthias, Sharon and Carl Ewing. Special program for youth; children's classes, nursery. For information, phone 303-928-0543.

10-12: Chinese weekend, Bosch Bahá’í School, co-sponsored by the Spiritual Assembly of San Jose and the Bosch School. Tuition is $50 per person (special reduced rate). For information or to register, phone the school at 408-423-3387. Plan to arrive Friday at 4:30 p.m. to register and have dinner before the opening session. Registration deadline is September 1.

17-19: Green Lake Bahá’í Conference, American Baptist Assembly Conference Grounds, Green Lake, Wisconsin. To make housing reservations, phone 1-800-558-8898. The conference begins at 1:30p.m. Friday and ends at noon Sunday. Special guests: Counselor Wilma Ellis, the National Spiritual Assembly, the National Teaching Committee, Auxiliary Board member Robert Malouf, Morris Taylor.

17-19: "Marriage: The Second Most Challenging Issue," conference for young adults, Hilton Great Valley Conference Center, Malvern, Pennsylvania. Sponsored by the Spiritual Assembly of Lower Merion. For information, phone 215-527-3114 or 215-664-2127.

17-19: Second annual Ohio Regional Women's Commemoration Conference, Center for Pan-African Studies, Kent State University. Theme: "Teaching Racial Unity." Sponsored by the Kent State Bahá’í Club and the Spiritual Assembly of Kent. For information, phone Barbara Geisey, 216-678-0226.

24-26: Peace Fest '93 and South Carolina Peace Week, Louis Gregory Bahá’í Institute. For information, phone 803-558-5093.

24-27: Annual meeting of the Association of Bahá’í Studies in German-speaking Europe, Landegg Academy, Switzerland.

26: 81st memorial service for Thornton Chase, Inglewood Park (California) Cemetery.

OCTOBER

8-11: National Hispanic Conference, Bosch Bahá’í School, sponsored by El Ruiseñor magazine. Fees: $60 for ages 11 and older, $25 for ages 1-10. Classes for children included. Participants must register and mail in fees by September 24 to assure their space. To register, phone the Bosch School, 408-423-3387 (credit card only) or write to the Bosch Bahá’í School, 500 Comstock Lane, Santa Cruz, CA 95060.

16-17: Lehigh Valley Parliament of Religions, Cedar Crest College, Allentown, Pennsylvania. Keynote speaker: Dr. David Ruhe, retired member of the Universal House of Justice. Registrar: Laura Lawrence, 215-868-5604.

28-November 1: Annual meeting of the Landegg Music Forum, Landegg Academy, Switzerland.

DECEMBER

24-27: Ninth annual Grand Canyon Bahá’í Conference, Phoenix, Arizona. Keep this date in mind. More information to follow.

30-January 2: South Carolina Bahá’í Winter School, Louis Gregory Bahá’í Institute. For information, phone 803-558-5093.