I spent a lovely couple of hours yesterday afternoon at the Sion Centre for Dialogue and Enounter just north of Notting Hill Gate in London. I’d been asked to speak to the monthly dialogue group that meets at the Sion Centre about how the Baha’i scriptures have influenced my life.
The group included some Sisters of Sion, who are truly delightful and spiritual, with warm hearts and open minds. It also included some who had been educated at schools run by the order, as well as others, mostly Catholic and one Jewish friend.
The subject was a challenging one, not because it is controversial or “difficult” in any way, but because there is just so much that I could have said in the relatively short time available. I’m afraid I made it all too abstract in the first part of the meeting. I read passages from the Writings of Baha’u'llah and told some of the story of Baha’u'llah’s life. I emphasized the individual spiritual life. But I made it too “out there”, too distanced, I think.
What the group wanted was the story of my spiritual journey and how the Baha’i scriptures had influenced that. So, in the second half of the meeting (after chatting and answering questions over a cup of tea) I spoke about my spiritual journey and answered all sorts of interesting (and interested) questions about different aspects of the Baha’i Faith.
A number of people had heard of the Faith or had Baha’i connections. In fact, the way I had been identified as a possible speaker for this meeting illustrates some of the curious links that our lives are full of. One of the Sisters, Tessa, has a sister who is a Baha’i. Tessa’s sister had served for four years at the Baha’i World Centre, working with Carolyn Wade in the Finance Office. Carolyn is a long-standing friend – we served together on the UK National Spiritual Assembly for several years and had known each other for quite a time before that. Anyway, Tessa asked her sister to suggest a Baha’i in the UK who might be invited to speak. Tessa’s sister had asked Carolyn, and Carolyn had suggested this humble servant.
The meeting was warm-hearted and generous in receiving what I was able to offer them. They were open to genuine dialogue and learning. This was rather a different experience from my recent participation in a studio discussion on Premier Christian Radio. (I may write about this at some point.)
Technorati Tags: Baha’i, Bahai, Sisters of Sion, interfaith dialogue, scriptures, spirituality
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As sisters in Zion, we’ll all work together; the blessings of God on our labors we’ll seek.
We’ll build up his kingdom with earnest endeavor; we’ll comfort the weary and strengthen the weak.
The errand of angels is given to women; and this is a gift that, as sisters, we claim:
to do whatsoever is gentle and human, to cheer and to bless in humanity’s name.
How vast is our purpose, how broad is our mission, if we but fulfill it in spirit and deed.
Oh, naught but the Spirit’s divinest tuition can give us the wisdom to truly succeed.
–Emily H. Woodmansee, hymn
you were gentle and human, Barney
Thanks for the verse from the hymn, Kurt. It’s certainly descriptive of the sisters that I met at the Sion Centre.
I hope I was gentle and human – although I can’t always manage these particular virtues, I’m afraid!
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