WHEN COMPOSER Richard Leigh became a Bahá’í he gave himself the task of setting Bahá’u’lláh’s words to music. Before long he had several choral settings for Hidden Words and he decided to put nine of these together as one piece, which he entitled Myriads.

To perform Myriads he assembled a chamber choir from the Northamptonshire Youth Choir and a small group of musicians. The choir also included two Bahá’ís, Fleur Bartlett and Mina Beint. Mina was to chant three of the Hidden Words in the original Persian and Arabic and these were woven into the English renditions of those three Hidden Words.

After months of practice a CD was recorded followed by the premier, which took place on May 19 at Brixworth Parish Church, a large and very ancient church, packed to capacity with about 250 people. The full county youth choir also premiered O Son of Earth, another of Richard’s compositions, which is not part of Myriads.

THE KINGSTON UPON THAMES community are holding a celebration for the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh once again this year after the enormous success last year. It will be held at the same venue, Surbiton Library Large Hall on Saturday, November 10, at 7.15pm.

We hope to have even better entertainment this year than last if that is possible. Please bring a potluck dinner and lots of non-Bahá’í friends. MPs, MEPs, the Mayor and Mayoress, Amnesty, SACRE, and many others will be invited.

We would appreciate it if as many multi-cultural dishes as possible could be brought, especially Persian khoresh and rice, curry and rice, and any others like sushi, etc. Please let the secretary know as early as possible how many will attend from your community because we need to know for seating and catering arrangements.

E-mail Dianne at dianne.mahbouby@virgin.net.

EACH TIME A NEW MAYOR takes office in Londonderry – which is usually every year – the Spiritual Assembly seeks an interview with him or her in order to explain something about the Faith and the activities of the local community and to present some Bahá’í literature. This has always been a worthwhile activity and has led to some interesting developments as well as a significant amount of recognition for the Faith.

This year Keith Munro and Sarah Munro represented the Assembly and community in the meeting with the newly-elected mayor, Councillor Mildred Garfield. The interview took place in the mayor’s parlour of the city’s historic Guildhall and lasted just over half an hour. It was friendly and positive. The mayor’s office had arranged for press photographers to be present and two good-sized pictures subsequently appeared in local papers. In a piece of even-handedness worthy of the Bahá’ís one of the papers is of a strongly Protestant/Unionist position and the other an equally firm Catholic/Nationalist publication.

THE BAHÁ’Í COMMUNITY of Wycombe transformed the Spring Gardens Arts Centre into a Tranquillity Zone and Persian style cafe for 70 guests, musicians and artists. The Juliet Thomson Story was performed beautifully by Beverley Evans and the video of the Wayfarer’s Journey was shown. There was a happy and lively atmosphere during the interval when the friends answered questions about the Faith and the contents of particular Persian sweetmeats.

Members of the Arts Council Committee were especially complimentary and noted in their report that “... it had proved to be a very interesting evening including a brilliant dramatic performance and exceptional hospitality.” One young man who attended the event has been to a Tranquillity Zone and dinner at one of the friend’s homes. We are certain to be asked to take part in next year’s Festival and this we intend to do as another way of sharing creativity, hospitality and, of course, the Faith, within our local community.