Great news - fabrication of components for the new Baha’i temple in Chile in South America has begun, as this story on the Baha’i World News Service makes clear:

The structure will be created by nine translucent alabaster and cast-glass “wings,” which during the day will allow sunlight to filter through. At night the temple will emit a warm glow from the interior lighting.

The huge segments that will form the sides and dome of the building are being fabricated in Toronto and then will be transported to Chile.

Mind you, it will take some time before the temple is complete:

It will take two to three years to complete the pieces of the temple that are being fabricated in Canada. At the actual site in Chile, construction of the foundation is tentatively set to begin next October.

Technorati Tags: Baha’i, temple, Chile

You may not think of sitting down with a group of people to study a series of training books as a religious activity. But it’s what large numbers of Baha’is and their friends are doing all around the world.

Baha’is in pretty much every country of the globe have found that a series of courses developed by the Ruhi Institute in the South American country of Colombia meet all sorts of individual and community needs.

The curriculum of the Ruhi Institute consists of a sequence of courses that can be worked through in small groups called “study circles”. Although we think of these courses as “training”, they’re really about transformation. The Baha’is website explains this:

At the heart of the Revelation of Bah

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Erica celebrated her birthday on 15 February with this cake!

Erica’s birthday cake, beautifully made by our daughter. Allegedly the figures are members of the family.

Erica and I drove to Coventry on Friday evening to attend the UK Training Institute Tutors’ Conference. Of course (of course?) we went via Northampton so that I could meet our new granddaughter, Maya, for the first time.

Erica, lucky thing, had said hello to Maya a few days before. So I got to hold Maya, who fell asleep in my arms (after a bit of wriggling and complaining) and slept for a good hour.

Health warning: I’m about to bore the pants of non-grandparents.

Sorry, I can’t help myself, but I have to say that she is really lovely - she doesn’t look a bit like Winston Churchill. However, she is giving her parents a hard time. She’s demanding to be fed about once every hour and Vicky and Tom are exhausted.

I assured them that it will get better. Until, that is, Maya enters her teens…

Technorati Tags: family, Leith, grandchildren

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