Archive for September, 2006

“The beautiful Baha’is of Hays, Kansas, at the Feast of Azamat,”
uploaded on May 18, 2006 by *EriQ*

Carissa notes: “the Baha’i community here is changing little by little and yesterday’s feast stood out above others.”

Feast in Tacoma, Washington, Flitzy Phoebie

[I thought I had lost this post in its bare-bones form when Blogger was having some issues, but lo and behold, it popped back up. Then I took it bacck to draft to add some more stuff to it, in consideration of the suggestions of the first commenter.

Any chance you can blog about the practice of 19-day Feast? What it is? How to do/enhance it? Maybe throw in some quotes from the writings as a foundation, and then invite comments from the friends on what their communities do so as to continually renew this cornerstone of community life.

Friday night I went with my friend Polin to a Seattle sector feast. (In Seattle they have so many Baha'is, they divide the city up into neighborhoods, and have a separate feast in each sector.) Boy, was it a wonderful! Great music, great prayers and meditations, great food, great people in a great small space, including a brand new two-week-old Baha'i.

Enhancing the quality of the Baha'i Feast is the goal of this website

Here is The Baha'i Feast Book, "quotations for all 19 Feasts, nicely laid-out with graphics and suitable for printing."

Here are more Feast programs. -gw]

London Ruhi 6 last session,

I went on Technorati and searched for “Ruhi study circle” and came up with 112 citings. That’s a lot! I went on Google Blog Search and came up with 71 mentions in .26 seconds. That’s fast! Ruhi is growing like wildfire. Here is one of the many mentions. -gw

I am doing Book 1 again tonight. I am actually looking forward to it. Anyone in my group who isn’t family is a seeker or a new Baha’i, which is so awesome because they are really excited about learning about the Faith. Lots of great stories, especially from one guy who has been investigating the Faith for about 2 years. It seems the only reason he hasn’t signed his card is because his parents are really adamant Christians, as in they would probably disown him if he changed religions. Not so much about what makes him happy, but what makes them happy. I know how that is.

A blogger, “My new minimum wage job!” LiveJournal

{Re-posted with permission}

Blogs are being used for purposes beyond just personal self-expression. The blog format is being used in education. Students are being asked to create a blog as a vehicle for responding to class assignments. It makes public a discussion which otherwise would be limited to a classroom or just between teacher and student.

Melinda’s comments, excerpted below, are from her blog entry for a course entitled “Method and Theory in the Study of World Religion, RLG404H.” Googling the name, I find that there is a course of that name taught by a Frances Garrett at the University of Toronto. Dr Garrett is a scholar of Buddhism, the study of which the University of Toronto is apparently quite a center. Reading of this professor’s various awards, I see that she was nominated for a National Technology Innovation Award for the project “Use of Blogging to Facilitate Engaged Learning” in 2005. Pretty neat, huh! -gw

Melinda’s LiveJournal pic

My first encounter with ‘world religions’ was in a grade eleven high school classroom. …

It is through this high school class that I first came into contact with Baha’i. Our final assignment was to choose a religion not included in our ‘major seven world religions’ and to research it. I find it particularly interesting that this ‘minor’ religion (as it would have been classified in my high school class) now often finds its place in the table of contents in many ‘world religions’ textbooks that are produced today. It would be interesting to track the development of a religion as it makes its journey from being minor to major. What qualifying features did Baha’i have to acquire or promote in order to be included among the elite? …

Years later I wonder how the Baha’i girl who sat in front of me in grade eleven religion class was affected by the fact that her religion had not yet graduated to the accepted list of ‘major world religions’ even though it possessed several of the required qualifications.

Melinda, “My First Encounter with World Religions,” Method and Theory in the Study of World Religion

midnightmirage did some research on religious beliefs and came across Baha’i. -gw

I did some study on the Mind, Soul, Spirit, and all that encompasses yesterday. I researched certain beliefs such as the Christians, Egyptian, Budda’s and even one called Baha’i’ (which is very simliar to the LDS beliefs). All of it was very educating.. but the only thing after reading so many documents left to come up with is that - you can only find out what those things are by your own experiences and thoughts.

midnightmirage, “Who Wants Some Country Music,” Just Dream

“Ruhi Rainbow,” Uploaded on February 5, 2006 by dragfyre

The doors of the Faith are wide open. Baha’i study circles are not just for Baha’is. -gw

Baha’i group went really well! Reid didn’t order the books in time, so we’ll have them next week. So this meet was mainly spent learning history and hearing stories about the Bab, Baha’ullah, and Abdul Baha (sp? ;__;). I loved listening to them! We went over the beliefs as well; all of this an intro for Rhett and Brittany who Mallory dragged along as well. Mark kept showing off my painting, and how he’s working on framing it REALLY elaborately, and I’m just going: Ugh, this is why I HID IT in an ENVELOPE and sneakily left it! I didn’t want to be pointed out! However, I took it all a lot better than I expected. It was so nice getting to see everyone again, I hadn’t realized how much I missed them.

I skipped out on the prayer vigil because I didn’t get home until 11:30, and I’m tired. I prayed with the Baha’s; does that count?

alchera, “O Baha’i. I Missed Ye.” Ordered Chaos

{Re-posted with permission}

I BEG Thy forgiveness, O my God, and implore pardon after the manner Thou wishest Thy servants to direct themselves to Thee. I beg of Thee to wash away our sins as befitteth Thy Lordship, and to forgive me, my parents, and those who in Thy estimation have entered the abode of Thy love in a manner which is worthy of Thy transcendent sovereignty and well beseemeth the glory of Thy celestial power. -The Bab

Baha’is are to love their parents. Sometimes we must love them in the face of their opposition to what we hold most dear, as Andrew mightily strives to do as evidenced by this post. -gw

They, currently, cannot accept that I can love Christ and Baha’u'llah simultaneously. To me it’s all or nothing. The teachings of the Baha’i Faith enabled me to accept, unconditionally, the teachings and words of Jesus when beforehand, while attending church, I sincerely doubted there validity. If my parents wanted me to love Christ, wouldn’t they want me to choose the path that leads me to love Christ in my own way? There are thousands of sects of Christianity, what’s one more variation of thought on his station in this world?

Andrew, “750 Miles and Counting,” This Is Not Reality

{Re-posted with permission}

Thanks Deb K for the heads up about “Anthem of the World “by Mathew Levine, a flash movie/song available in its entirety and just a click away. Levine has released the album A House Divided which includes the following songs: 1. A House Divided, 2. On The Fence, 3. Seven, 4. The Mother Tongue, 5. The Hunter, 6. Children of the Amazon, 7. Trio, 8. The Man Upstairs, 9. Wherever You Are, 10. Beautiful, 11. A Home That Forever Will Stand. -gw

Check out family foto and text of best blogger Leila of love from leila. So moving. -gw

Recent steps were taken to call attention to the persecution of the Baha’is in Iran by the House of Representatives of the U.S. Congress. -gw

HCON 415 RFS
109th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. CON. RES. 415
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
September 20, 2006
Received and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION
Condemning the repression of the Iranian Baha’i community and calling for the emancipation of Iranian Baha’is.

Whereas in 1982, 1984, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, and 2000, Congress, by concurrent resolution, declared that it deplores the religious persecution by the Government of Iran of the Baha’i community and holds the Government of Iran responsible for upholding the rights of all Iranian nationals, including members of the Baha’i Faith;

Whereas on March 20, 2006, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Ms. Asthma Jahangir, revealed the existence of a confidential letter dated October 29, 2005, from the Chairman of the Command Headquarters of Iran’s Armed Forces to the Ministry of Information, the Revolutionary Guard, and the Police Force, stating that the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, had instructed the Command Headquarters to identify members of the Baha’i Faith in Iran and monitor their activities;

(1) condemns the Government of Iran for the October 29, 2005 letter, calls on the Government of Iran to immediately cease such activities and all activities aimed at the repression of the Iranian Baha’i community, and continues to hold the Government of Iran responsible for upholding all the rights of its nationals, including members of the Baha’i community; and

(2) requests the President to–

(A) call for the Government of Iran to emancipate the Baha’i community by granting those rights guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international covenants on human rights;

(B) emphasize that the United States regards the human rights practices of the Government of Iran, including its treatment of the Baha’i community and other religious minorities, as a significant factor in the foreign policy of the United States Government regarding Iran; and

Passed the House of Representatives September 19, 2006.

flickr is always a good source for Baha’i pics. -gw

Uploaded by John Bryden on 21 Sep ‘06, 4.45am PDT. Tags:

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