Baha'i Councils & Training Institutes

Training Institute for England

Make me a Teacher in Thy Cause

Recently the Training Institute for England conducted a number of training weekends to prepare individuals who would facilitate the new course on teaching in the community: "Make me a Teacher in Thy Cause". This is the experience of one facilitator:

I began to think the journey would never end. The train carriage was full of cursing youth accompanying me to Liverpool. They were obviously going to a football match and I was obviously going to be trained as a facilitator for the Training Institute course "Make me a Teacher in Thy Cause".

I finally made it to the Ernest Miller Centre exhausted and eroded by the experiences of my journey. The door was open. I entered. It seemed deserted. There was an eerie silence, a quiet presence. I cautiously entered the main room and was instantly greeted by recognisable and smiling faces. What I had mistaken for desertion was actually the sound of a dozen or so Baha'is in deep contemplation, and what were they contemplating?

The course material was such that it challenged and forced the mind to reconsider and develop commonly held notions concerning the sacred act of teaching. For two days we struggled, we laughed, we sang, we prayed, but, more than this, we planned and resolved to act!

At times we giggled at the simplicity of some of the course questions and scenarios, at other times we acknowledged our ignorance and sheer presumption.

I shall always remember Viv Craig's face as we discussed the course on the way home. She openly confessed that she was exhausted and felt as if her mind had been rearranged. I felt this too, and it was tremendously exciting. With the course material under my arm, I felt I was in possession of an instrument that would challenge and galvanise the Baha'i community. It was like a blueprint to act!

I couldn't wait to share it. On behalf of the Training Institute for England Shahriar Razavi had asked us to go to our communities and await to be called upon by the Training Coordinator. But I secretly hoped that someone would say, "Where have you been this weekend Steve?", and then I could say, "My God you just have to see what I have here..!" and they couldn't help but respond with: "We must have this course here".

I cannot explain my excitement when the very next Sunday at our Unit Convention, after listening to the wonderful taped message from the National Spiritual Assembly and the importance of Training Institute courses on teaching, the Friends immediately resolved to hold a course on teaching in our community. I quietly announced that I had been trained as a facilitator for just such a course...

Since completing the course I have had some wonderful experiences. People seem so openly receptive, and the course has given me the solidarity, the identity, and the direction to state unwaveringly just what the Baha'i Faith is! And also to feel at last that YES! I am a teacher in Thy Cause.

Can you imagine being invited to participate in a meeting at Peterborough Cathedral and afterwards listening to the Canon recite a prayer to the assembled peoples and speak these very words:

"Thank You and praise You (God) for our Baha'i brothers and sisters, for their genuine openness and overriding desire for unity"

No! I'm not dreaming. I was there, and I am certain that this happened as a direct result of the influx of that vital force that is so much at the centre of the plea from our National Spiritual Assembly for each one of us to attend these courses and receive the inevitable bounties!

Steve Day

Are you interested in attending this course? Here's how to enrol:

Encourage your local Assembly to get the course running in your locality. They will need to get in touch with Joyce Spath (details below) who will give them the name and address of the nearest trained facilitators for the course. Your Assembly can liaise with the facilitator and then set a time and a venue to suit. If you are not in a district with a local Assembly, or your own local Assembly does not feel that it wants to host the course, you could get in touch with Joyce Spath and she will let you know when and where the course is running in the near future with a contact address so that you can find out if there is room for you as well.

Training Institute for England, Training Coordinator: Joyce Spath, 7 Barnfield, Cranleigh, Surrey GU6 7BN Tel: 01483 274979

Baha'i Council for Northern Ireland

Report from the Council

The newly appointed Council held its first meeting in the middle of December with representative of the National Spiritual Assembly, Dr Iain Palin. The following officers were elected:

Kevin Loughlin - Chairperson

Viny Robinson - Secretary

Pat Craig - Treasurer

Marion Khosravi - Vice Chair

Elizabeth Palin

Colin Rodgers

We are looking forward with renewed enthusiasm to the work to be done in the remaining phase of the Four Year Plan. We would like to thank Robert Elliott and Nami Haghighi for all their dedicated work carried out in previous years.

In December the Council received an invitation to meet Mr Lembit Opik, Liberal Democratic spokesman for Northern Ireland and sponsor of the Early Day Motion in the House of Commons about the persecution of the Baha'is in Iran. We believe this to be the first time a member of Parliament has requested a meeting with the Baha'is of Northern Ireland and also requested that this dialogue should continue!

The Council was approached to send speakers to a sixth form conference which aimed to suggest that in Northern Ireland there were other groupings besides Catholics and Protestants. Over 400 16-18 year olds from seventeen schools heard of the Faith and liked what they heard.

Again as a result of the World Citizenship Project being run in the province a speaker was invited to talk at the largest girls school in Northern Ireland to over 500 sixth formers.

A Winter School was held once again after a lapse of a number of years. There were visitors from as far afield as Greece and nearer to home, the Republic of Ireland. Shiva and Rob Dusenbach who served for fourteen years at the World Centre, and are now living in the south of Ireland conducted the adult morning sessions on "Individual Transformation" leading to the final session when everyone was inspired to draw up a personal teaching plan as requested by the National Spiritual Assembly and the Universal House of Justice.

The Council has been working closely with the Training Institute on a regional teaching project, the aims of which are to increase the number of teaching projects in the region, to have effective firesides and to train individuals to become effective teachers of the Faith.

Baha'i Council for Northern Ireland Contact: Mrs Viny Robinson, Secretary 8 Kensington Manor, Coleraine BT52 1WD Tel: 01265 58435 e-mail: s.robinson@ulst.ac.uk

Baha'i Council for England

Who are they now?

The new membership of the Baha'i Council for England came into effect on 26th November 1998. It gives the Council great pleasure to introduce the membership and its officers:

Dr Shirin Tahzib - Chairman

Mrs Tiffani Razavi - Vice Chairman

Mrs Laili Cleasby - Secretary

Mr Steven Cleasby - Treasurer

Miss Arezoo Farahzad

Dr Isa Hyde Forster

Dr Babak Javid

Mr Inder Manocha

Mrs Mitra Murray

During the past six months the over-riding focus of the Council for England has been the implementation of the National Spiritual Assembly Plan - the "Multiplying our Powers" document.

On 9th January 1999, at the National Baha'i Centre, a very exciting and momentous meeting took place. This meeting (the second in a series), brought together the Counsellor, Mr Patrick O Mara, representatives from the National Spiritual Assembly, members of the Auxiliary Board for England, the Baha'i Council for England and the Training Institute Board for England. Through strategies devised as a result of consultations with the aforementioned institutions, implementation of the plan has served to draw together many of the Council's earlier strategies, such as strengthening Spiritual Assemblies, promoting the concept of entry by troops, and stimulating increased teaching activity throughout the region.

One approach that the Council is currently pursuing is a pilot study of a group of Assemblies from across England, to assess the impact that training has on a Spiritual Assembly and the teaching work. It is the Council's hope that this study will provide invaluable learning points that will benefit all the Spiritual Assemblies in England for the remainder of the Plan and beyond.

The meeting also gave an opportunity for all institutions present to have an update on each other's work and the sharing of information vital for the success of the plan. It was apparent at this occasion that the impact on the Baha'i Community of all the institutions working closely in such a focused and united manner would release tremendous power.

Baha'i Council for England Contact: Mrs Laili Cleasby, Secretary 1 The Croft, Hollin Hall, Trawden, Colne Lancs BB8 8SS Tel: 01282 859843 e-mail: BCouncilE@aol.com