Posts from — February 2006

I’ve recently written this ‘editorial’ for UK Bah?’? Review, a magazine that is published by the UK National Spiritual Assembly as part of its public information outreach. We used to publish three times a year, but have now decided (for reasons of practicality) to make the Review an annual.

Barney’s editorial
I wonder if we humans are going through a collective ?near death experience?.

Our human soul seems to have been ripped from the body of humankind, we are in a dark tunnel of confusion and ? let?s be frank about it ? despair. We don?t know where we?re going.

But there?s a light ahead, a that light bears a promise of something new.

Bah??u?ll?h, Prophet-Founder of the Bah??? Faith, spoke in the 19th century about the rolling up of the old world order and the growth of a new order, based on unity and justice. This vision inspires Bah???s here in the UK and around the world to experiment, to reflect on their experience and to refine what they are doing.

And what are they doing? A glance at the pages of UK Bah??? Review will show some of the themes that get Bah???s going: human rights, social justice, the spiritual and moral education of children and youth, the arts, and ? underlying all Bah??? activity ? building unity.

Bah???s on every continent invite their family members, friends, neighbours, colleagues to join them in prayer and devotion, in learning about their own noble nature through study of the Bah??? teachings, and in providing spiritual education for children and young people.

Simple activities, on the face of it, but powerful.

Why powerful? Because Bah???s believe that these activities are the most effective way of building the new civilization envisioned by Bah??u?ll?h, street by street and neighbourhood by neighbourhood. No coercion, no aggressive marketing or proselytization, but invitation to those we know, love and respect to join us in walking a path of spiritual development and service to our fellow humans.

The new world order envisioned by Bah??u?ll?h is no totalitarian nightmare, but a transformation that takes place as people learn about their relationship to God and their spiritual reality, and as they choose a noble goal for their lives.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, UK Baha’i Review, religion

Erica and I picked Hari, Doug and Jacob up from their flat yesterday just after midday and drove up to Northampton for the family Ayy?m-i-H? party at Tom and Vicky’s. Alex and Charlie came, with Ethan and Emily. So did Ken (Charlie’s dad). Charlie’s mum couldn’t make it, nor could Vicky’s parents. Hayley, Charlie’s sister’ came later, but husband Kai couldn’t be with us.

Ayy?m-i-H? is a special time in the Baha’i calendar: four days that come between the penultimate and final months of the Baha’i year. Baha’is sometimes refer to them as ‘the intercalary days’ - and then there’s a great debate as to whether the emphasis goes on the syllables ‘in’ and ‘cal’ (as in intercalary) or ‘ter’ (as in intercalary - except that, in this pronunciation ‘cal’ is said very quickly with the ‘a’ almost elided - ‘interc’lary’).

More important to know what the Arabic phrase, ‘Ayy?m-i-H?’ means. Well, ‘Ayy?m’ means ‘days’ in Arabic and ‘H?’ is the Arabic letter H. The Days of H? Sounds very strange, doesn’t it? Actually ‘Ha’ symbolizes eternity and spirituality. The ‘Days of H’ are a time to express our spirituality through hospitality and acts of charity.

For our family the annual Ayy?m-i-H? party at Tom and Vicky’s has become something of a tradition. We all bring food and there are presents for everyone. It’s a great way to help the children feel something about the rhythm and pattern of the Baha’i calendar and to try to overcome the huge fanfare that Christmas blows in their minds. It’s always challenging to be counter-cultural - and Baha’is are counter-cultural in many ways - and it’s especially difficult for children. As parents and grandparents we want them to develop a strong Baha’i identity and a deep understanding of the Faith, but we don’t want them to feel isolated from their friends who aren’t Baha’is. You can’t develop a feeling of solidarity and unity with your fellow humans in the world if you are constantly harping on about differences and the exceptional nature of your religious or other identity. At the same time, Baha’is (and those of other faiths as well) do believe there is something special about their faith, their community, their identity.

The challenge is to recognize what is special about our faith and our being as Baha’is while living the reality of what ‘Abdu’l-Bah? says in the opening passage of Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bah?:

O peoples of the world! The Sun of Truth hath risen to illumine the whole earth, and to spiritualize the community of man. Laudable are the results and the fruits thereof, abundant the holy evidences deriving from this grace. This is mercy unalloyed and purest bounty; it is light for the world and all its peoples; it is harmony and fellowship, and love and solidarity; indeed it is compassion and unity, and the end of foreignness; it is the being at one, in complete dignity and freedom, with all on earth.

As Bah?’u'll?h says:

That the divers communions of the earth, and the manifold systems of religious belief, should never be allowed to foster the feelings of animosity among men, is, in this Day, of the essence of the Faith of God and His Religion.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, family

A quick hello for Ayyam-i-Ha. These four days in the Baha’i calendar come between the penultimate month and the final month of the Baha’i year. They are a time for charity and celebration and immediately precede the month of fasting (19 days of fasting from sunrise to sunset) that leads up to Naw-Ruz, the Baha’i new year, on 21 March.

Erica and I are off to a family Ayyam-i-Ha party at the home of our son Tom and his wife Vicky in Northampton. We’ll be taking Hari, Doug and Jacob, and Alex, Charlie, Ethan and Emily will be there.

I’ve things stacking up to write in my blog, but time and tiredness have led me to be lazy! I’ve also got to write a short piece for the Commonwealth Day Observance in Westminster Abbey and four or five Pause for Thought scripts for BBC Radio 2.

More about all of the above later on.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, family

I must apologize for the big gap in postings to my blog. Erica and I have been embroiled in our house-move from Oxfordshire to Hertfordshire. They say that moving house is one of the most stressful events in life. Whoever ‘they’ are, ‘they’ are quite right. Although we’ve been moved for just over a week, we’re still sitting in a wilderness of boxes and stuff that came with us from Abingdon. One problem is that the house we’ve moved into is smaller than the one we moved out of, but we didn’t take the time to get rid of surplus things.

To be honest, my books are the biggest space taker. Many years of buying (but not necessarily reading) books has given rise to a huge collection. I will have to sell some of them. Not that I want to, but needs must.

Erica and I are also redecorating the rooms we’ve chosen to use as studies, putting up shelves, moving desks and cupboards and filing cabinets.

I hope I won’t have to move house again in the near future. I don’t think I could bear it. I feel utterly decentred. We’d lived in Abingdon for almost 20 years and our routines were well established. Now we have to establish new routines, learn the train timetable, find our way around to the necessary shops, and try to keep our work going. Erica really needs to deal with orders and issue invoices every day to keep George Ronald going. I’ve let my work for the National Spiritual Assembly tick over, but I’ll really have to get back up to speed again very soon.

Gradually we are recentring ourselves in our new abode. We’re very happy with the house, but it’s things like getting our Internet connection fully and smoothly functioning again that are deeply distracting.

One joy is that we are 15 minutes away from our daughter and our No. 3 grandchild (7 weeks old).

Technorati Tags: autobiography, Baha’i, Bahai, family, moving house

The packers have been here all day. I’m sitting in my little office, which is close to the open front door, freezing and fiddling around with the computer. I managed to do some work this morning, but I’ve become so desperate that I’m resorting to writing my blog - which I haven’t done for a while.

I flew to Edinburgh from Luton on Wednesday evening for a meeting at and about the new Baha’i Centre in Albany Street. The meeting, with representatives of the Edinburgh Local Assembly, the Baha’i Council for Scotland and with a property developer and an architect (both Baha’is), was about how the rooms in the new Centre should be used. The Universal House of Justice stated in three separate letters to the National Spiritual Assembly that the building should be suitable to receive distinguished and prominent visitors. However, there was talk during the meeting about rooms for craft activities and children’s classes. I felt constrained to remind the meeting of the House of Justice’s guidance.

We walked through the building (mostly occupied by MORI at the moment) and admired it yet again. What a great purchase! We agreed by and large on what the main rooms should be used for, particularly two rooms on the first floor, which can be separated by elegant curved double doors or used as a single room. This is definitely the room for receptions, buffets and the like. It’s here that the Queen and the First Minister will come. Vain imaginings? I hope not.

Flew out of Edinburgh at 6.15 on Thursday morning for a meeting of the executive committee of the Inter Faith Network.

Anyway, I’m gradually freezing as I sit in my office. Erica’s sitting on a hard stool and we’re keeping the dog in here too, so she doesn’t get under the packers’ feet. There’s nowhere else to go until they finish. And once they have finished the house will look like the bailiffs have been in!

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, family, inter-faith, interfaith, moving house