Building Momentum - The Bahá'í Faith in Poland

Presentation in Krakow

2010-11-26T21:41:00.000+01:00

Addiction Reloaded

2010-11-07T23:22:00.001+01:00

Gosh it is really hard to get over one's obsessions :-(

Addiction

2010-10-29T02:15:00.000+02:00

I admit! I am addicted!

You might want to know what to and some of you might have some ideas. Probably they are all correct. I am addicted to a lot of things, nothing dangerous but things like chocolate, coffee or Nivea Creme (and no, I do not eat it!).

But I always thought I am not prone to addiction until I very recently had to face the elephant in the room.

What made me realize was ... here it comes ... a TV-Series. YES! I am such a loser!

Don't think there is anything wrong with enjoying TV to be honest. I will never be a person without a TV-Set at home. There is some good stuff on it and at least for me it works as relaxation. I also enjoy going to the movies, but TV is just so much less expensive :-)

Now while relaxation is not a problem, it becomes a serious issue once it governs your life. My TV-Series doesn't govern my life, but I have gone so far as to go to various forums online to see comments, reviews, spoilers, sneak peeks and so on. And believe me, there are people that clearly do not have a life beyond this series. It is scary.

People are writing pages long reviews and fan-fiction and while lots of it is really highly entertaining I am thinking of the waste of time. There are some people out there with enormous talent in writing, analyzing, graphic design and they basically live 24/7 for a TV-Series. If they would use their talent for the betterment of the world, they could actually greatly contribute to change.

I can see stories on economic awareness, religious freedom, principles that govern our life and so on. But instead I really only see fan-fiction that doesn't serve a long lasting purpose. If it takes me half an hour to read an extraordinary review, how long must it take that person to write it? I am a writer myself and I know how long it takes me to write a good 5 pages article. It freaks me out to imagine a person just spending half that time on a review for a TV-series.

Seeing the what-I-call waste of time right there in front of me, happening to so many people, literally thousands, it wasn't difficult to not get sucked into this world myself. High on my horse I was thinking: you people, use your time more wisely! And off I went to watch another episode.

While I still think that there is a tremendous difference between the world of "24/7" and "Just watching" I did soon realize that I was not using my time very wisely either.

And I still am not. I am horrible with time-management. You might want to say I am addicted to procrastination, too. Be it as it is, I am wiser now. Yes. Really! Not a lot, but a little.

Watching a TV-Series several hours a day gave me a much needed time-off, but every time off has its end. Otherwise it’s called laziness. It also allowed me to get to know a completely different life from my own and see where a lot of people of potential are hiding.

Still haven’t figured though how to reach out to them and how to help them shed the lethargy.

Chastity

2010-10-14T13:33:00.000+02:00

So, I have this friend, a very good friend. Let's call her B.

When I became a Bahá'í she was one of my closest confidants; she knew my troubles and thoughts and favourite Bahá'í books and quotes. There are not many people out there you will ever feel so close to in your lifetime. She helped me understand the Faith a great deal and she helped me became a better person, too.

But life has it that even the closest friends move away from each other. Sometimes this is just what life is and sometimes there are more obvious reasons - misunderstandings, certain decisions we take and so on. Let's just say with B. and me there were more obvious reasons. We moved away from each other, each of us having good reasons to think the reason/fault was more in the other than ourself. We didn't speak for a long time, I dare to say years. Not on purpose. We did not avoid each other or hate each other. We just didn't understand each other anymore and couldn't possibly fathom what we could still have in common.

But life also has it that our paths cross again and again and after seeking clarification and trying hard to find the lost friend within each other, we were more at ease again. We met again, laughed and enjoyed each others company.

The last time we met we spoke about my lack of a lovelife. Yes, that is what we call it. With all due respect to the chastity involved in any relationship I would want to enter. Now, that is what I thought anyways. We were talking gentlemen suitors and possible interests of my own. It was all the pretty girls talk you would expect from that meeting. Until at some point B. frankly spoke her mind by saying that I might be closing possible doors in front of me and that my lack of a lovelife might be due to me being too stuck on chastity.

OUTSH!

Now, believe it or not I am not prude. Not sure if this is something to be proud of, but I am not. Just a fact. And funny enough B. knows that very well. She referred to the practical aspect of the writings. And then and there I was told that I should allow a man to kiss me and to touch me, to let it happen when it feels right. To just go with the flow and enjoy life.

Believe you me, folks, I'd love to.

But believe you me too, that I was literally speechless. I don't think I was able to react in any other ways than 'Aha', 'Hm', 'oh, aha...' And that is not me, I usually have a lot to say (not to everybody's liking).

But there I was with one of my oldest and closest friends, learning how to break the law of God. It happened several months ago and only now I come to grips with the absurdity of this situation. When I had just found the Faith chastity was certainly not the easiest law to obey to and it was B. who helped me understand the wisdom and the guidance in the Writings. It was her that made me develop a very clear stance on the chastity issue, based on the Writings, an attitude she now called prude.

It is only now that I can voice my thoughts beyond the stumbling of shock. And you know what, I don't mind closing doors in front of me, I don't mind scaring away possibly interested men and I don't mind a lack of a lovelife if that means that I am faithful to the Covenant. I am not too stuck on chastity, I have only understood how important it is for a successful marriage and I have understood that a man who is really interested in me will not be scared away by it, because there is plenty of joy coming up when the vows have been said.

I can wait till then, and if - what B. foresees - this will never happen, then be it so. There is more to life than this world. Don't you think this is easy to say, but I have to weigh my loves consciously and I choose eternal life over material life.

Now back to B. This might have been a final breach to our friendship. Or not. Time will show as our paths will cross and at the bottom of my heart I certainly love her deeply. But do I really want to surround myself with people who do not contribute to me leading a life in accordance with the Writings? I understand certainly that all she wanted was to give me good advise with no bad intentions. After all she loves me, too. I know that. Maybe it is not a breach. Maybe it is just another few years of recovery from the shock.

Once upon a time ...

2010-10-09T21:24:00.000+02:00

Once upon a time there was a little girl, that dreamed of love. She was pretty and clever and everybody knew that she would make her way in life. She would travel the world and she would study the sciences. And she would be happy.

At the same time this little girl lived through childhood and puberty a prince in a far distant land prayed for a better world. He was tall and handsome and determined. He wanted to find a partner to develop himself and influence society for the better. But his heart got broken and he was lonely.

Sometimes God is funny and sends us all possible ways just so we can actually appreciate what we got.

Sometimes God seems mean and makes us suffer through periods of heartbreaking and loss.

But God always knows what he is doing.

So it wasn't until in his mid-40's that our prince would make his way to Europe. Together with one of his knights he would ride through the forests and the wilderness, around houses and farms looking for a hospitable place to lay down his head for the night.

Little did he know that he should return to the European country only two years later again. Welcomed by the people of that country with love and respect his eye soon fell on a maid and his heart feel for her. It was her door he should have knocked on two years before, but God's ways are mysterious.

So mysterious in fact that soon they celebrated a beautiful wedding in the land of the girl. The king and queen from the far distant land came as well and together with her parents and all the guests they made it a night to remember for everyone.

This happened for real. Not to me. I only happily observed and enjoyed their developing love. And I enjoyed the wedding. Oh, how I enjoyed it!

Bahá'í weddings are usually beautiful, but because they can be so different you never know what to expect. This wedding was simple with "only" around 50 guests and it was beautiful. The Bahá'í Ceremony consisted of prayers from the Bahá'í Writings being read. A few were sung and when the guests know the melody they would join in and make the room swing. Then the couple said their vows "We will all, verily, abide by the Will of God". Tears were flowing, more among the guests than with the couple, but their love just warmed the whole place. Afterwards there was food and singing from the guests and dancing and going home with laughter and hearts filled with love.

I just love Bahá'í weddings. I don't think there are more beautiful ones out there. The simplicity and devotion to God is nothing I have ever witnessed in a catholic church or anywhere else. I think the power lies in the vows. These words are among the most powerful sentences in human history, I think. We just don't know that yet.

"We will all, verily, abide by the Will of God"

Preparation done?

2010-09-23T23:35:00.000+02:00

Gathered participants - tick

Read the material - tick

Reading further literature on the topic - in continuous process
Booked the Bahá'í Centre - not yet

Finished organizing the lunches - not yet

Found accommodation for everyone - not yet

Gathering ideas for evening programs - in process

Ideas for arts - searching

Copied the materials for everyone - not yet

Book 8 is beginning Tuesday morning and I still seem to have quite a lot to do in preparation.

The plan is to do so tomorrow, as tonight I have to re-write a paper on Lexical borrowing in English from Yiddish. Over this topic I could almost forget that I am a student of history and not of linguistics.

Mírzá Yayha's son Ahmad ...

2010-09-22T01:15:00.005+02:00

I am currently reading "The Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh" by Adib Taherzadeh. I read it many years ago, but it is a really interesting and well-written book and with my bad memory I anyways have to read books again and again. This time I am also reading it in preparation for Ruhi 8, which is going to take place next week in Warsaw. Ruhi 8 is on The Covenant, hence Mr. Taherzadeh's book is a good preparation.

I am mentioning this reading because I came across a very interesting statement by Shoghi Effendi on the fate of Mirza Yayha, ... well indirectly on Mirza Yahya's fate, more directly actually on his son's fate.

Shoghi Effendi writes:
"Nor can this subject be dismissed without special reference being made to the Arch-Breaker of the Covenant of the Báb, Mírzá Yahyá, who lived long enough to witness, while eking out a miserable existence in Cyprus, termed by the Turks 'the island of Satan', every hope he had so maliciously conceived reduced to naught. [...] He himself became involved in a scandal which besmirched his reputation and that of his eldest son, deprived that son and his descendants of the successorship with which he had previously invested him [...] It was this same eldest son who, through the workings of a strange destiny, sought years after, together with his nephew and niece, the presence of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the appointed Successor of Bahá'u'lláh and Centre of His Covenant, expressed reprentance, prayed for forgiveness, was graciously accepted by Him, and remained, till the hour of his death, a loyal follower of the Faith which his father had so foolishly, so shamelessly and so pitifully striven to extinguish." (Shoghi Effendi, God passes by, p.233 / A.Taherzadeh, The Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh, p.96)

This eldest son is Ahmed (source), he died in 1933 and is buried at the Bahá'í cemetery in Haifa. (Source)

I did not know about this eldest son of Mírzá Yahyá before and I find this especially interesting, because Bahá'u'lláh revealed a prayer which reads:

O Lord! In this Most Great Dispensation Thou dost accept the intercession of children in behalf of their parents. This is one of the special infinite bestowals of this Dispensation. Therefore, O Thou kind Lord, accept the request of this Thy servant at the threshold of Thy singleness and submerge his father in the ocean of Thy grace, because this son hath arisen to render Thee service and is exerting effort at all times in the pathway of Thy love. Verily, Though art the Giver, the Forgiver and the Kind! ~ 'Abdu'l-Bahá

It can pretty safely be assumed that this eldest son knew about the impact of prayers on behalf of parents. The question that it stirs within me is, whether Mírzá Yahyá actually benefits from it, as the arch-breaker of the covenant ...

Names and archives

2010-09-19T00:01:00.005+02:00

So, I am doing research for my master thesis now. Well... not just now, for the past year actually. And that is also the period I have again and again come across a certain name when reading documents on the Bahá'í history of Poland before 1989. No matter if we are talking about the 70's or 80's almost every document I opened contained the name "Helmut Schmidt".

Now at first I must admit I thought it a funny coincidence, because a certain German Chancellor was also Helmut Schmidt, but it became pretty soon pretty obvious that that was not him.

However, I could not find any more detailed information on this mysterious (to me) person.
The documents were pretty vague about his identity and I had not reached the moment of final despair (meaning: asking at the National Office of the Bahá'ís of Germany). But the question on who he is, was on my mind non-stop.

Then one day a few weeks back I attended a seminar, where Uta von Both was also present. We got talking about my thesis and I mentioned this person whose identity I couldn't figure out and you know what she tells me? "That's my brother."

Can you believe it? Just had to mention it to the right person :-)

A talk found

2010-08-03T14:07:00.002+02:00

Yesterday, when going through Asia's Bahá'í books I found a pile of papers from a conference years back. Among the papers was a talk by 'Alí Nakhjavani from 1991. This in itself is not so astonishing, but I found that very talk translated into Polish. This is extremely surprising.

It might have circled back in the days within the community, but definitely not since I am here, which is what ... 6 years. If you have ever heard him speak, you know that he uses a lot of quotations, especially from Shoghi Effendi. Now the GREAT thing about this is, that we have very very few quotations, letters by Shoghi Effendi translated into Polish. Having found this talk makes me jump up and down :-)

I am in the process of typing it down, as it is only on paper and scanning wouldn't quite work. I am thrilled. Not only does it provide valuable translations, but also it is (as Mr Nakhjavani usually is) very up to date. It is about the youth as the hope for the future and what responsibilities that bears. I think this (not only in Poland) is always a very important issue.

I don't know, who translated that talk originally. But: THANK YOU!

Polish Bahá'í Summer School

2010-07-30T22:55:00.008+02:00

In the year 2010 the Polish Bahá'í Community organized this annual event in Masuria.

I was looking forward to it a lot, just like many others. For once, I had never been to Masuria before and had heard only the best about this part of Poland. The green lungs of Poland were awaiting me. And then again, it was the first time in years, that I had not been involved in organizing the event at all. I was meant to be just a participant, like many others. I would not have to deal with the hotel, with complaints and requests for changes. Then again I would also not enjoy all the nice things about this organization - basically knowing every participant before the event by registering him/her, connecting with the hotel staff, being responsible. I like being responsible for things ... I usually screw up badly (maybe not usually, but it happens from now and then), but that belongs to the process of learning and to the process of crisis following victory following crisis following victory following ...

In fact I also got to learn my lesson on crisis and victory this time. That is, I got sick before the school. Badly. I couldn't move and eat and would sleep all the time. The doctor said it wasn't contagious and that is why we decided in the end to go, even if we had already missed a day. If I wasn't contagious I could also sleep in the hotel bed and come down to meet people whenever I am a little better.

So when I was able to be up again for longer than 10 minutes we decided to set off. I was unhappy, because my stupid condition was e reason for Asia having missed a day of the summer school, too. Certainly she did not have to stay with me, but I was (apparently) so miserable that she didn't want to leave me alone. Also I was unhappy for being sick at all - when the weather is 35+°, being on holiday and nothing to benefit from a disease at all (sick leave ;-)) But I couldn't change it. So I accepted it.

Luckily Asia had arranged with our good friend Kasia from Ołsztyn that she would meet us at the train station in Ołsztyn. But now I felt even worse: Poor Kasia had to come 60km from the venue to pick us up, just because my body didn't want to obey my spirit. I was really upset with my body, not understanding what this was all about. After all it was not like I desperately needed a break from exams and there like. As a lucky coincidence Kasia had to work until that very day and she had not yet been to the venue. So she picked us up and I was seeing the bright sight of life again. Our dear friend Kasia did not have to make an extra trip, but lived just 10 minutes from the train station away. We had a fantastic lunch and visited her (getting real Maroccan Mint :-) in addition to that) before going together to Bęsia, the venue of our Summer School. By the way, this is the same Kasia I went to the Kiev conference with in February/March 2009 :-)

So we made it. We arrived safely after a fun trip and I was happy for Asia to not have missed the event and for having spent a wonderful time with Kasia, before almost immediately falling into bed and sleeping through most of the school.

I wish I could tell you more about the event. I wish I could have connected with more people, but that was very difficult. On the one hand I was hardly visible to people and on the other hand my voice was so hoarse, that wasn't even sexy anymore ;-P

I managed to take a few photos nevertheless and a few others I took from friends ;-)

From what I could see, the Polish Bahá'í Summer School 2010 was a great event. It was a small school with around 70 participants, but it was a very Polish school with a very warm atmosphere. It was easy making friends and besides a fantastic program there were a number of very enjoyable recreation activities available.

When the school finished I stopped taking my antibiotics and slowly got better. As if my body knew :-/ But I must say, it was worth it. Certainly it would have been more convenient had I stayed at home, but then I would have missed out on a few nice parts of the program, on seeing my lovely friends and meeting new wonderful people, on being cared for by so many people :-D and on experiencing Masuria for the first time together with Asia and Kasia. Life is great :-)

Come to our summer school next year. You will not regret it. Nobody has until now :-)
This year we had participants from Belgium, England, Germany, Poland of course and Russia with us. Come and join us, Bahá'í or Christian or Muslim or Jew or Atheist or anything else. Come and join us :-)

United 4 Iran

2010-06-23T23:49:00.003+02:00

On June 12th 2010 the Bahai Community of Warsaw initiated the action "United4Iran". The same event took place all over the world and below you can see a video from Warsaw and a video from Berlin.

In Warsaw, starting from 11 o'clock people were asked to sign cards for the freedom of
Habibollah Golparipour, a kurdish activist sentenced to death in Iran.

It was a beautiful summer's day and even though I could not be with the friends in Warsaw (I joined the activity in Berlin) I have heard only the best. It is probably true, that the event in Warsaw was smaller then in most other capitals, but taking into consideration the smaller numbers of supporters I am very happy to see what was happening. We need more people to join in our service to humanity. Help us!

Ridvan Message 2010 - My §3 Part 1

2010-06-04T23:54:00.007+02:00

"In recent messages we have expressed joy at witnessing the steady increase in the tempo of teaching across the globe. The discharge of this fundamental spiritual obligation by the individual believer has always been, and continues to be, an indispensable feature of Baha’i life. What the establishment of 1,500 intensive programmes of growth has made evident is how courageous and deliberate the rank and file of the believers have become in stepping outside their immediate circle of family members and friends, ready to be led by the guiding Hand of the All-Merciful to receptive souls in whatever quarter they may reside. Even the most modest estimates suggest that there are now tens of thousands who participate in periodic campaigns to establish ties of friendship, on the basis of shared understanding, with those previously regarded as strangers."

I had a look at a few messages from the Universal House of Justice from the last 30 years, after all recent can mean anything. There are expressions of joy, but what I found more interesting in this respect was the steady guidance from the World Center and the (until now) culmination of this guidance + efforts in 1.500 Intensive Programmes of Growth.

"The all- important teaching work must be imaginatively, persistently and sacrificially continued […]"(Ridvan 144, 1987)

"But the paramount purpose of all Bahá’í activity is teaching. All that has been done or will be done revolve around this central activity, the "head corner-stone of the foundation itself", to which all progress in the Cause is due. […] Let it not be imagined that expedience is the essential motive arousing this sense of urgency. There is an overarching reason: it is the pitiful plight of masses of humanity, suffering and in turmoil, hungering after righteousness, but "bereft of discernment to see God with their own eyes, or hear His Melody with their own ears".

"Wellgrounded in the mighty Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh, sustained by daily prayer and reading of the Holy Word, strengthened by a continual striving to obtain a deeper understanding of the divine Teachings, illumined by a constant endeavour to relate these Teachings to current issues, nourished by observance of the laws and principles of His wondrous World Order, every individual can attain increasing measures of success in teaching.

[…] we urge you, with all earnestness from the utter depths of our conviction as to the ripeness of the time, to lay aside your every minor concern and direct your energies to teaching His Cause to - proclaiming, expanding and consolidating it." (Ridvan 145, 1988)

These are extracts from only two messages and you can see urgency in tone. The guidance goes out to put teaching first place; no matter how, no matter what. The last but one quote does not only show us how we can be successful when teaching, but also how the individual aspects that help us become better teachers transform our souls. And after all it is THIS TRANSFORMATION that is the necessary requirement for our contribution to the process of enhancing the entry by troops. First we transform ourselves and then we help others. This call has finally been heard (this is what the Ridvan message 2010 seems to tell us) - there are now tens of thousands who participate in periodic campaigns.”.

"A sustained entry by troops, cannot be achieved by a mere series of spasmodic, uncoordinated exertions, no matter how enthusiastic. Confidence; unity of vision; systematic, realistic, but audacious planning; acceptance of the fact that mistakes will be made, and willingness to learn from these mistakes; and, above all, reliance on the guidance and sustaining confirmations of Bahá’u’lláh will advance this process."(Ridvan 153, 1996 – to the believers in Europe)

In the quote above we get an idea of teaching being a systematic effort. And we get the idea that teaching as a systematic effort will be more successful.

This reads just like today’s messages, doesn’t it?
It sounds just like the message about cycles of action, reflection and planning, of reflection meetings and of divine assistance. It is STRIKING to me how clearly the cycles have been already envisioned in this message, even though all of us, including the members of the Universal House of Justice and the International Teaching Centre, are learning along the way. The vision was already there.

"Ample attention must also be given to further systematization of teaching efforts, whether undertaken by the individual or directed by the institutions. In this respect, the International Teaching Centre has identified certain patterns of systematic expansion and consolidation for relatively small geographical areas consisting of a manageable number of localities."(To the Bahá’ís of the World, 26 November 1999.)

And then came the clusters, “the seedbeds” of our efforts. The vision that was already there needed room for detailed development in well defined areas. These small geographic areas made it possible to focus on a manageable scale – on more than just our family and yet not the whole world at once. The concept of clusters helps the more careful friends among us to step outside our living space and share the message with others and the concept also helps the very audacious friends among us to focus their planning and their actions on one area, so that their actions can be effective and not only little sparks. Being focused they have the power to light a fire!

The following sentence from the Ridvan 2010 - message also made me think a lot: "What the establishment of 1,500 intensive programmes of growth has made evident is how courageous and deliberate the rank and file of the believers have become in stepping outside their immediate circle of family members and friends, ready to be led by the guiding Hand of the All-Merciful to receptive souls in whatever quarter they may reside."

That is a direct reference to the document Building Momentum, which put us on the path of focussing on family members and friends:

"It is evident, then, that a systematic approach to training has created a way for Bahá'ís to reach out to the surrounding society, share Bahá'u'lláh's message with friends, family, neighbors and coworkers, and expose them to the richness of His teachings. This outward-looking orientation is one of the finest fruits of the grassroots learning taking place." (ITC, 2003 Apr 23, Building Momentum, p. 9)

"Efforts to make lists and invite friends, family, neighbors, and co-workers have been fruitful, but for many Bahá'ís these lists may soon become exhausted and it becomes necessary to look beyond their limited circle." (ITC, 2004 Nov 28, Intensive Programs of Growth)

Comparing the quote from Building Momentum with the one from 2004 and then with the Ridvan message 2010 again shows the way of how we got here, to this achievement. The Bahá’ís around the world relied on the guidance from the World Centre and I find it amazing to see how long a way we have come from 2003. We were asked to focus on a tiny “area”; our immediate surroundings of family, friends, neighbours and co-workers. Only one year later it was already observed that this had been done, brought fruits and now the next step is necessary. Taking step 2 (looking beyond our limited circle) before step 1 (immediate surrounding) could have meant to neglect the ones closest to us. And let’s face it, in some parts of the world this is exactly what had happened – we were afraid to share the most important aspect of our life with our family, but we did not mind telling people on the street.

There is something unhealthy about this (even though I can understand it). So I am happy there is clear guidance on the efforts we must put first on our closest ones and where this has been done to step outside the immediate circle of family and friends.

There is one more aspect to this paragraph that is of immense importance to me: establishing ties of friendship! But I will write about this aspect in my next entry, which will hopefully follow a bit faster than this one - if exams and papers allow this will be the case.

Ridvan Message 2010 - My §2

2010-05-16T23:41:00.005+02:00

Finally I can take some time to share my thoughts on the second paragraph. Sorry for having you wait.

The 2nd paragraph:

We feel moved, as we take pause on this festive occasion, to make clear that what evokes such a deep sense of pride and gratitude in our hearts is not so much the numerical feat you have achieved, remarkable as it is, but a combination of developments at the more profound level of culture, to which this accomplishment attests. Chief among them is the rise we have observed in the capacity of the friends to converse with others on spiritual matters and to speak with ease about the Person of Baha’u'llah and His Revelation. They have understood well that teaching is a basic requirement of a life of generous giving.

The whole paragraph consist of only 3 sentences and too summarize it: It is not the goal of 1.500 IPG's that is impressive, but what this number stands for.

A Bahá'í-friend from Poland was in the Holy Land on Pilgrimage over Ridvan. During the evening talks one member of the Universal House of Justice referred to this paragraph when jokingly saying, that some of the pilgrims probably come from areas with IPG's and know the reality and are probably thinking "yeah right".

I must admit, that was me when reading the message. The IPG's I know from personal experience are just so far from my limited understanding of what they are supposed to be like. And they are also very far from the IPG's I see in other parts of the world.

So I am sitting at home reading and studying the message, I am out talking to people and doing core activities and am wondering if we are on the right track. I see that in 2010 Poland contributed 2 IPG's to the achievement of 1.500 worldwide. Our goal was 1 IPG by 2011.

Numerically we are a BLAST.
And looking at the combination of developments at the more profound level of culture, to which this accomplishment attests?? Can I see these developments? I will answer this question in a moment. Right now I would like to get back to my friends and the little pilgrim note.

The member of the Universal House of Justice continued after the "little joke" (quite some truth in it) referring to Shoghi Effendi's words about Local Spiritual Assemblies. When the LSA's were young and just put in place as part of the Administrative Order many Bahá'ís could not see the strength of this institution and they were doubting that these are really the Assemblies as they were meant to be. But Shoghi Effendi is supposed to have said (remember pilgrim note - except you can find me the quote :-) ) that the test is on those who question the authority and legitimity of those Local Spiritual Assemblies.

Hearing this makes me smile.
We are putting in place a completely new structure based on demographics and experience and it is really just natural that we can not compare clusters to the very end. The inhabitants are different and so are the needs, the realities. We can always try to get inspiration from other clusters of the world, but we can not imitate them.

It is just like with institutions. The very pattern and structure of the Local Spiritual Assembly is the same not matter if in Poland, Germany, USA or Malaysia; no matter if in Warsaw, Krakow or Poznan; in Washington, Seattle or New York; in Berlin, Munich or Cologne. They are essentially all the same and yet at the same time all different. Comparing will not work.

This struck me most about this paragraph. I have to stop comparing. We are were we are, with two IPG's at hand - Warsaw and Krakow. And even these two we can not compare. We can only learn from each other whenever possible.

Getting back to the question raised earlier: Can I see these developments?
Yes, I can. It is in the learning that takes place and in our growing understanding for making our community more solid (consolidation). We can not only focus on expansion OR consolidation but both need to go hand in hand. I can see it also in the atmosphere in our communities and our focus on serving society more. And of course, as the message reads, in the more and more obvious development of the understanding that teaching is a basic requirement of a life of generous giving.

Ridvan Message 2010 - My §1

2010-05-06T00:15:00.005+02:00

As promised two posts earlier, I am going devote some time to the Ridvan Message 2010.
And because it is so rich, I can impossible summarize my thoughts in one post. So I decided to write about paragraph by paragraph. This is going to be a very and entirely personal interpretation of the message and I feel obliged to add that I am not the smartest cookie on earth. Meaning, don't forget to do your own thinking, too :-) And let me know your thoughts in the comments.

The Ridvan message in the hands of Dr. Sezgin, Counselor for Poland

So here we go with my ideas on Paragraph 1:

"With hearts filled with admiration..."
"We bow our heads in gratitude to God for this astounding achievement, this signal victory"

The Ridvan messages usually start off with praise for the world wide efforts and achievements, but rarely have I felt so much strength in the expressions of love as in this message (the whole message). These elements from the first paragraph make me think about two points:

1. "With hearts filled with admiration..."

The Universal House of Justice, ordained by Bahá'u'lláh; this esteemed institution of the Faith, that together with the Guardianship forms the "Twin Successors" to Bahá'u'lláh and 'Abdu'l-Bahá, expresses its admiration for the followers of Bahá'u'lláh. Usually it is me (the individual believer) that admires the beauty of the plans outlined or the wisdom of the words chosen by the Universal House of Justice. And by all the achievements visible around the world it feels wonderful to know that they are not only recognized but that they actually arouse admiration. I am observing mutual admiration, not a one sided love.

2. "We bow our heads in gratitude to God..."

At the beginning of this current plan stood the 27. December 2005 message, where we could read: "Yet, above all, it is reliance on God that sustains them in their endeavours." The circle closes here. I remember over the past four years, how the challenges ahead looked far too big to be overcome and the victories unobtainable. And what our counselor, Dr Sezgin, repeatedly and repeatedly told us, was that we must rely upon God. We must pray and pray and act. We can only do so much, He will do the rest. But we must believe in it. I could see, that for many of us, this was the most difficult part of it all. To learn that we do not have it in our hands entirely. We must plan beyond our capacities, for we will do as much as we can, but we must leave something for Him to do, too.

What I found very interesting is that, I have always viewed the Ridvan messages with a certain structure of first showing the achievements and then what to do next.
Now, this is similar in this message, but right here in the first paragraph we can also find one of the goals for the last year of the current plan: "He has bestowed on His community in granting it a full year to strengthen the pattern of expansion and consolidation now everywhere established... "

So, yes, we have achieved the goal before time, but not for nothing. There is a reason why God is granting us this victory. Because we need one more year to strengthen the patterns.

And again, this is not for fun. There is a reason why we need this one year: "in preparation for the tasks it will be called upon to undertake in its next global enterprise"

It is a little like with the embryo and the child. The embryo in the womb of the mother needs to develop eyes to see, ears to hear and skin to protect it. If it does not have its nine months in the womb of the mother it is more fragile and if it did not have the change to fully develop every part of its body it will be handicapped.

The same goes for the intensive programmes of growth. The due date was April 2011, but the Intensive Programmes of Growths are already there and developed in April 2010. 1500 IPG's were planned and there they are. But they are still fragile. Some more than others. Just like an embryo in month 8. It is for the all-knowing Doctor to say that they are numerically achieved (1500 IPG's and in the case of the baby 10 fingers, 10 toes, one nose, 2 eyes, etc) and actually they could enter the world and encounter new developments (for the baby - meeting the father and siblings, being separated from the mother, the feeling of clothes and air, etc. For IPG's - we don't know). But no wise doctor would induct labour in month 8, if not necessary. The doctor knows the challenges ahead of the baby and acts wisely. So does the All-Knowing Doctor act wisely with the Bahá'ís of the world.

We don't know yet, what the next 5 year plan is about to bring. We can speculate. But we won't know. The only thing we know for sure from Paragraph 1 is, that in order to enter the next 5 Year Plan well prepared (not even well, simply to be prepared actually) we must make use of this last year until 2011. We do not only need the pattern of expansion and consolidation in our clusters, we need strong patterns of expansion and consolidation in order to meet the challenges starting next year.

So task No 1 outlined in paragraph 1.

Lets see what paragraph 2 tells us. Lets see in the next post though :-)

Role model - Parliamentary discussion???

2010-05-04T19:02:00.011+02:00

One aspect of the last National Convention I would like to get back to is consultation.

To many of you, consultation as understood by Bahá'ís, is not a new concept. And I will not get into a basic explanation now, but I would like to focus on it being a tool of the new world order.

It is a concept based on respect and unity. On the other hand it is also based on the necessity of a clash of opinions.

The clash of opinions can take varied forms. Politicians help us get closer to a number of those 'varied forms'. In the video below you can see a the Question Time of the Scottish prime minister. Wendy Alexander is questioned by the opposition party leader (Alex Salmond, Labour Party):

Now, tell me one thing. Did u enjoy this?
I certainly did. So much fun; interesting, too.

Tell me another thing. Would you want to be in either person's shoes?
I certainly wound't. Not because I haven't got a clue about the issue at hand (also true), but because it got personal and unprofessional.

Many people don't see anything wrong with this. And frankly speaking ... HOW COULD THEY? This is still a more civilized episode from parliamentary discussions around the world and people are used to discussing issues just like this. Interrupting each other, speaking with a loud voice, pointing fingers, hidden as well as straight forward insults, not talking about the idea or issue but about the person behind the idea or issue and most of all having a hidden agenda. Most of us are used to this and many of us do not even know anything else. Because there are simply no other role models.

But it freaks me out to know that people not knowing better than this are responsible for whole countries. They might not be the people right in charge, but they are involved the consultations that eventually lead to decision making.

I really don't have a problem with the clash of very challenging ideas. But what I do have a problem with is HOW ideas clash in our society. I do not consider this appropriate for a "civilized people". I expect more than the above from people that want my trust. And I certainly do not want to be entertained first place.

The consultations I experience in Bahá'í environment are so pleasantly different from the examples above. They are certainly not perfect either, but hey... we are building the new world right now, we haven't built it yet. Perfection is yet to come.

Still Bahá'i consultation is just plain pleasant. What I like most of all is that there is a fundamental and constant awareness, that we are talking ideas and not people. An idea is put into the room and it doesn't matter who had the idea. This means, people get much less personal - there are no credits to gain.

There is also one common goal in ALL Bahá'í consultations and that is the betterment of the world. No matter what the issue of consultation is ... children's classes, a university presentation or the place of some meeting, etcetc ... the overall goal is ALWAYS the same. Keeping this in mind allows for more of a focus on the idea and not the person, because quite rightly you will assume the best in the other persons objective. That leaves us also with no room for insults or hidden agendas. People come together and together strive for perfection.

How could anything really pure and good possibly be achieved through hurting others? The way is the goal! I loved our consultation two weekends ago.

Below are a couple of short interviews on Bahá'í Consultation (from the States):

19th National Convention in Poland

2010-04-28T11:27:00.016+02:00

Here is another post on the Bahá'í Community in Poland. I am really bad at posting frequently these days and am very sorry to my faithful readers. I can only repeat that this is not due to a lack of activities. In fact, I must come up with a better time management to give this blog its adequate attendance.

For the time being I can share with you the happy news of having attended the National Convention last weekend. Delegates consulted on issues concerning community development and they elected the new National Spiritual Assembly of Poland.

We are now in year 167 of the Bahai Era, which means that ONLY 166 years ago (year 167 has just started) a new age in human development began with the Báb revealing His station to Mullá Husayn, His first disciple.

In the early years of the Bábí and the Bahá'í Faith it was the privilege of the believers to get their guidance directly from the manifestations of God. Some early believers were in their presence, others received letters or copies from letters, yet others saw the manifestations of God from a distance. Still, they were there, right then and there, when the Word of God for this age was revealed.

Today we have another kind of privilege. In some sense an even greater privilege. For all of the history of humankind people were blessed to be around prophets and manifestations of God for their age, around Moses, Abraham, Jesus, Jesaja, Muhammad, Daniel, etcetcetc.

But never in human history have people been so blessed as today, to have a single continuous line of guidance for more than a century, undivided even after the passing of their prophet.
A lack of scripture and scisms early on created a disunity within the religious communities of the past and worse than that, they really didn't know where to get guidance from. Were they lucky they had some scriptures and they always had prayers and piests to follow and believe. But the stream of divine guidance had been cut in some way.

Today, in the age of maturity, we have an individed line of guidance straight from the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh through to the Center of the Faith - 'Abdu'l-Bahá, the Guardianship - Shoghi Effendi and the Universal House of Justice. Even though the latter ones do not create Holy scriptures themselves, they were to interprete them. The Universal House of Justice which was instituted as few years after the passing of the Guardian of the Faith can not interpret the Holy Writings, but:

"The provenance, the authority, the duties, the sphere of action of the Universal House of Justice all derive from the revealed Word of Bahá'u'lláh which, together with the interpretations and expositions of `Abdu'l-Bahá and of Shoghi Effendi ... constitute the binding terms of reference of the Universal House of Justice and are its bedrock foundation."
"...this Administrative Order is fundamentally different from anything that any Prophet has previously established, inasmuch as Bahá'u'lláh Himself revealed its principles, established its institutions, appointed the person interpret His Word, and conferred the necessary authority on the body Universal House of Justice] designed to supplement and apply His legislative ordinances."

At the National Convention we were blessed to begin to study the Ridvan message, the guidance for the world wide community for the year 167. It is filled with love and admiration for the Bahá'í communities in the world and it is filled with directions on what to focus our efforts. I think in my next post I will write a little more about this message. I love it!!!

Now back to the National Convention. There were 19 delegates elected prior to the Convention from all over the country. Delegates must be above 21 years of age and can be women or men. All 19 delegates casted their ballots either in person or by post. 15 delegates participated in person and had the blessing of attending a convention with prof. dr Ilhan Sezgin from Turkey, the representative of the Continental Board of Counselors.

Together with him, the delegates consulted on the Ridvan message and on matters connected with the Polish community. There were also many friends from Krakow present at the Convention, in total we were around 40 people. Non-delegates can not actively participate in the consultations at the Convention, for that they elected delegated before, but everybody can participate and gain insights and a better understanding by listening and being among the friends. Parallely quite a few friends were singing and dancing with dr Sezgin.

On Sunday the Auxiliary Board Members for Poland organized a workshop on the Covenant and respect&love for the institutions of the Faith. It was very interactive and interesting. They had strings hanging down from the ceiling, indicating the hem of the robe on which we can hang on all the time.

Our junior youth and kids were preparing food the participants, they were cooking soups, preparing salads and baking cookies for all the Convention and they prepared a slide show with photos from their time in the Lazienki Park and quotations from the Writings.

It was not my first Convention and certainly not my last. It is always such a blessing to be among the friends and to study the guidance from the institutions of the Faith. I learned a lot and am so happy about our spiritually and numerically growing and growing community.

Impressions from Bahá'í Naw Ruz celebration

2010-04-12T23:08:00.003+02:00

Prayers, Cookies, sandwiches

2010-02-28T21:42:00.005+01:00

Today our Poznan Bahá'í community gathered and celebrated Ayyam-i-Ha. It actually is too much to say that our community gathered, because it was really only Asia, Krzysztof and myself from the community, ... but let's face it - this is pretty much our active local community at the moment.

But no matter if small or big, strong or weak, old or young, the days of Há are for joy and celebration and so we gathered with two friends of the Bahá'í Faith and celebrated.

First we had a little introduction into what Ayyam-i-Ha actually is despite of the time of preparation for the fast and Asia nicely explained the meaning of the intercalary days. Then we had a short session of readings from the Most Holy Book and prayers, followed by two short "videos" about the Bahá'is in Poland, to give an impression of who we are. Below you can see the two "videos":-) It is actually more a collection of photos with some Polish Bahá'í music in the background.

Afterwards three of us disappeared into the kitchen, where we baked cookies and prepared tuna sandwiches, while Asia and Jacek had a lively conversation in the living room. While the cookies turned brown and yummy in the oven we devoured the sandwiches and chatted about our upcoming meetings.

On Thursday we have a Devotional Meeting at Krzysztof's. Feel free to join. Get in touch, if u need the address or want a cookie recipe. :-)

Bahá'í Pilgrimage - An experience for life

2010-02-27T23:16:00.003+01:00

The Bahá'ís in Olsztyn warmly invite everybody to come and see Kasia and Szymon Kokot-Gora's pilgrimage photos. The meeting will take place March 1st, Monday

Bahá'ís visit holy sites in Haifa and Acca (Israel), where the spiritual and administrative center of the Bahá'í Faith lies. Beyond Israel, where Bahá'u'lláh passed away in exile, the Bahá'ís consider several places in Iran as holy sites, but they can not be widely visited at the moment.

So, to remind you again about your Monday plans:
At 4pm you go to Olsztyńskie Centrum Organizacji Pozarządowych in the street: ul. T. Szewczenki 1 (tram/bus stop ul. Limanowskiego, from where you go towards Jagiellońskiej).
No entrance fee!!

For further contact write to: magikkasia [at] wp [dot] pl

Professional slide show - pix from Bangladesh

2010-02-25T21:19:00.004+01:00

On Sunday, February 28, 2010 the Bahá'í Community of Warsaw warmly invites everyone to a meeting with David Normington, a professional photographer. At 4 pm he will share his photos from his time at the Bahá'í school in Rajshahi (northwest Bangladesh).

In March 2009 Mr. Normington spent three days in Rajshahi and lived with the kids and coworkers of the school, sharing their daily life as the first foreign visitor. His photos create an intimate picture of the place and the life of its inhabitants during an important period of their Faith, the Fast.

The presentation is partially divided thematically and shows students when they get up, say their morning prayers, study or play in an unusually colourful and joyful beauty.

Come and get to know a different culture!

When: 28 February – Sunday – 4 pm

Where: National Bahá'í Center – ul. Lanciego 13 lokal użytkowy nr U6, Ursynów, Metro Natolin.

Contact: 0-22 371 44 80, 0-692 035 305

www.bahai.org.pl

Successfully Building Bridges

2010-02-06T18:25:00.005+01:00

For the third time the Warsaw Bahá'í Community hosted an inter-religious meeting.

This time the meeting took place on the first of February 1 with the title: „World Religions - building bridges between us”. The meeting was one of the events hosted for the World Religion Day.

The program began with prayers said, sung and recited in different languages (among others Hebrew, Arab, Old Chruch Slavonic and Esperanto) by representatives of Judaism, Islam, Christianity, the Sikh Faith and the Bahá'í Faith.

Following the prayers we listened to the short talks of the representatives on how we can build bridges between believers of different religions. The prayer sung by priest Marek Blaza spoke about it. In order to embrace unity, we must first embrace our own limitations. He added that we create imaginary enemies and do not manage to listen to others.

Rabbi Burt Schuman noted, that by getting to know and sharing the teachings and traditions of our religions, we can build bridges of understanding and begin their construction. We should not humiliate and mock other believers by stereotypes, because such behavior based on fear and ignorance is often the pretext for violence.

Anupam represented the Sikh Faith and was asking why, if there is only one truth, there are many religions. His answer was, that from time to time God comes to us in the form of a new manifestation of God, that shows us the path of action (meaning moral values).

Mohamet from the Islamic community remarked, that our human nature is in itself not bad. Bad things happen only then, when we are falling into extremes. We must, moreover, always have our own opinion about incidents happening around us, be attentive in respect to media, who often gather precisely extremes.

He added, that he had never before been to a meeting of believers of different religions, at which such an open and friendly atmosphere prevailed as it was the case with the meeting with the Bahá'í Community.

The meeting was a confirmation of one of the principles of the Bahá'i Faith: We are the fruits of one tree and the drops of one ocean. And we should treat one another with utmost respect and friendship.

[Polish original from Kushtar Mamytalliev and Agnieszka Szopińska]

Lidia Zamenhof

2010-01-29T08:59:00.004+01:00

Lidia Zamenhof's biography - why is it worth buying?

It is the first biography of Lidia Zamenhof in Polish.

For those, who like biographies: It is the history of the Zamenhof family, Ludwik's as well as Lidia's with interesting details from their family life. It is the story of a young woman who developed from a shy girl into a brave woman, who during the 20's of the last century at the age of 28 traveled alone through Europe and propagated her father's language as well as his idea and later the principles of the Bahá'í Faith.

“Lidia” is a book for those, who like history: especially the history of the late XIX. century - Poland's Russian partition - especially Białegostock and Warsaw; the twenty years of interwar period and the time of occupation - here also the Warsaw Ghetto.

For those interested in religion: Lidia came from a laicized Jewish family. How did this influence her life in her childhood and how was she treated by her peers? How did she learn about the new religion: The Bahá'í Faith? How was the Bahá'í Faith a continuation of that, in which her father Ludwik had believed? God is one and mankind is one big family.

For those who like to read about philosophic questions. Lidia's brave statements on the topics God, purpose of life, sense of life, the role of women and how to achieve peace.

For those, who like interesting details: How did dinner look like in the family Zamenhof;
Dla tych, którzy lubią ciekawostki: jak wyglądały obiady rodzinne w domu Zamenhofów; what surprised European citizens in the United States and how had Poland changed when she came back from the USA?

For those interested in language: the history of the Esperanto, the basic principles of the language, history of its advancement in Poland and the whole world.

For everybody: a wonderful present for family and friends for birthdays, name days, and other occasions.

For Bahá'ís: The history of the life of Poland's first Bahá'í A great present for Ayyam-i-Ha and Naw Ruz!

Price: only 20 zł!

You can order it here: nsa[at]bahai[dot]org[dot]pl

(Text in the Polish original from Agnieszka Szopinska)

Building bridges

2010-01-27T14:36:00.002+01:00

In November the Warsaw Bahá'í community invited other religions to the National Bahá'í Center for an interfaith meeting. You can find more information here.

Now the Warsaw Community again invites everybody interested, whether religious or not, to an evening for prayer and exchange.

On February 1, at 7 pm we are happy to welcome among other guests Rabbi Burt Schuman, representatives from the greek-catholic church, from Hinduism and Tibetan Buddhism in order to pray together and to consult about ways how to build bridges between the followers of different religions and how we can serve humanity together.

You can contact the National Bahá'í Office through the world wide web:
www.bahai.org.pl and nsa@bahai.org.pl

Or you can call for further information: 022 371 44 80

When: February 1, 2010 - 7 pm
Where: National Bahá'í Center in Ursynow - ul. Lanciego 13 bottom floor U6
(get off at Metro Natolin)

You are warmly invited to bring friends and family and join in this meeting.

Update on Development

2010-01-26T23:35:00.002+01:00

My absence from this blog was not due to a lack of activities in Poland, far the opposite. I simply did not have time to write anything.

Among many other things since December 2009 we were happy to welcome three new believers in the Beauty of Bahá to our Polish Bahá'í Community, more precisely to our Warsaw Community.

One is a friend from Ukraine, who learned about the Faith in the States, when visiting the Bahá'í temple in Wilmette, Chicago. She saw a poster during our September project and came to an evening with our musicians. Wonderful. Another friend found Bahá'u'lláh through Esperanto. Her friend became a Bahá'í not so long ago and introduced her to the Faith and to Ruhi.
The third friend was introduced to the Faith by a pioneer and made friends with a local friend, who helped her learn about the greatness of this day.

Having three declarations within such a short time, actually all in December, is very very special for us. It is a blessing and a confirmation.

There was also a Ruhi 6 going on in Krakow over New Years. You can see the group on the photo below. It was a fun bilingual group with a great tutor. Krakow is to start its IPG in the end of April/beginning of May and the spirits are up for this task.

In Warsaw we had another Junior Youth weekend that focused on "The Covenant and Administration". The Juniors learned about the Eternal, Greater and Lesser Covenant and about the different institutions of the Faith and their relation.

We also have a new believer in the Warsaw community from Iran, who immediately held a first fireside with a wonderful atmosphere.

A Ruhi 5 study circle started in Szczecin. Ruhi 5 is on becoming an animator for Junior Youth Groups. Junior Youth Grups are an essential element within the current activities of the world wide Bahá'í Community

A Ruhi 4 study circle started in Warsaw. Ruhi 4 is on the Twin manifestations of the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh.

These are obviously only very few of the activities going on in Poland and it was just to show you, that I have not forgotten about you and am coming back to keep you updated. I will, in fact, tell you a bit more about the activities mentioned here. Just not right now :-)

consultation: 1+1=3

2009-12-02T16:47:00.003+01:00

Recently I had a tough lesson in the art of consultation.
One of those principles within the Bahá'í Faith where more than once I have heard people say: Really not that difficult! But then I enter the room! And let me tell you: art can turn quite ugly.

First things first, let me give you a quotation on consultation from the Bahá'í Writings:

“Consultation bestoweth greater awareness and transmuteth conjecture into certitude. It is a shining light which, in a dark world, leadeth the way and guideth. For everything there is and will continue to be a station of perfection and maturity. The maturity of the gift of understanding is made manifest through consultation.” ~ Baha’u’llah

Now what does this mean?
It means [to me], that [amongst other things] in order to find the truth we need to consult. We consult the Writings for guidance and others during the process of decision making.

But how do we do this? The Bahá'í Writings are very clear on this question:

“The prime requisites of them that take counsel together are purity of motive, radiance of spirit, detachment from all else save God, attraction to His Divine Fragrances, humility and lowliness amongst His loved ones, patience and long-suffering in difficulties and servitude to His exalted Threshold.” ~ Abdu’l-Baha

(There are other quotations on the subject, but I find this one pretty much to the point)

Now, this can't be so difficult, right? To get together in harmony, detach yourself from an idea or suggestion and view it independent of who voiced it, consult on what decision is best to be taken, to refer to the Writings during the process, to always be humble and patient regarding the person opposite you or the assembly or the committee and yourself and to remember yourself as a servant to others and to mankind.

It probably isn't so difficult for many people, but there are a lot of obstacles for me at least. What gets in the way is personality (or personalities), capacity, timing, information (or lack of it), etc.

Abdu'l-Bahá said: "The members [...] must take counsel together in such wise that no occasion for ill-feeling or discord may arise. This can be attained when every member expresseth with absolute freedom his own opinion and setteth forth his argument. Should anyone oppose, he must on no account feel hurt for not until matters are fully discussed can the right way be revealed. The shining spark of truth cometh forth only after the clash of differing opinions.

I always liked this quote very much. I enjoy the clash of differing opinions and have experienced the shining spark of truth a few times afterwards. A great feeling. But what do you do if things do get personal, if your absolute freedom to express your own opinion is criticized? Not the idea is criticized, but you are criticized - how do you deal with that in the decision process? I find it possible to detach myself from an idea or suggestion, but I find it very hard to detach myself from attacks against me. I then have the desire to protect myself by either firing back or running away. Neither is a very good choice then.

I know my shortcomings and while still (or again? :-s) traveling through the valley of search I am learning patience patiently. And let me tell you, for that I need patience as I am one of the most impatient people to be found. Now, that is a good foundation for a good consultation, right? ;-) From what I can see the people I am consulting with usually - we all give our best and nobody tries to hurt anyone deliberately obviously. We are all equal and are all striving.

But tell me, what do you do if things do get personal? I understand that prayer works. Do you have any other ideas though. Things to be done on the spot??

Master thesis. Two world views.

2009-11-19T01:20:00.003+01:00

I am a fourth year history student and am starting to write my master thesis now. It'll be on the Bahá'í Faith and communism. Living in Poland, a former satellite state, this is pretty interesting. But not necessarily easier.

My mentor, who is one of the reasons why I chose to continue my studies at the UAM (Adam Mickiewicz University of Poznan), actually strongly encouraged me to write on the Bahá'í Faith as there is really little scientific material and it is a new field yet to be explored in Polish History Writing. I certainly did not say no :-)

Now, this is easier said than done. To find a topic was - as for everyone - a tough thing, not supported by the fact that I have too wide an interest into too many fields. But finally I made up my mind and am very happy with my choice.

Eastern Europe is my passion and its history particularly interesting to me. Plus I have somewhat of a soft spot for Marxism, which makes it all even more exciting to write about.

At the moment the timeframe for my thesis is 1949-89 and I will not so much have a look at the conceptual, methodological side of the topic than more at the practical issues.

Obviously there were Bahá'ís in the former Soviet Union and its satellite states: Where did they come from? How did they life their life as Bahá'ís under the communist rule? Did they somehow teach? How did travel teachers share the Faith? Germany had a special responsibility for the eastern countries - what does that mean? What did the committees trusted with the East really do. How did literature get into the country, etcetcetcetcetcetc There are a million questions arising. Send me yours, if you have any! I am interested and might not have thought of those yet.

Now finding sources is not so exciting yet. I have met a friend in Berlin, who used to travel a lot to the former GDR and later Poland and luckily he is an extremely well organized person, so he had quite a big archive available for me. But there are so many people to contact, meet, interview, so many materials to be sorted, looked through, analyzed, interpreted. Boy, not sure the time frame will stay that large. We'll see.

Next week I am to give an introduction into my "exotic" topic and particularly the Bahai Faith. The Prof leading the seminar doesn't know much about the youngest world religion, wants to learn and wants to give his students an opportunity to widen their horizon :-)

Being at the very beginning and trying to take careful steps in the right and not wrong direction is pretty exhausting. But yet again, smiling to myself at this point, I am so grateful to my mentor. Can't imagine anybody else there being so encouraging and forthcoming regarding my choice.

Sun, Nov 8th, 2009: Interfaith Meeting Warsaw

2009-11-10T01:30:00.004+01:00

On Sunday afternoon from 4-6pm over 30 people from 5 Faiths - Jewish, Buddhist, Christian, Muslim and Baha'i - gathered at the National Baha'i Centre in Warsaw for an evening of prayers, talks about protecting human rights and fellowship.

The spirit permeating the evening gave us an understanding of our oneness, that good people of every Faith can work together, being the best we can be, to arise and protect human rights.

Rabbi Haim Dov Beliak quoted Pastor Martin Niemöller about the inactivity of German intellectuals following the Nazi rise to power and the purging of their chosen targets.

"First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak out for me."

He also spoke about his personal efforts in defending the rights of Muslims in America after the rise of prejudice against Muslims following the attacks on the World Trade Centre.

Buddhist Thupten Kunga Chashals spoke about the need for each of us to clean our hearts and approach all people with love and compassion each and every day.

I happened to have been the Baha'i speaker and I quoted Baha'u'llah censuring two European governments for their treatments of the Jews and that it will only be the implemented principle of oneness of humanity that will really provide us with a firm foundation of friendship with other religions and nations.

It was a very nice evening with good spirits and interesting conversations.
The Bahá'ís in Warsaw organize Devotional Meetings in their private home on a weekly basis and those meetings are really meant to allow for more spirituality in our daily lives as well as quality communications.

It was very pleasant to attend this meeting and I am looking forward to the next one in December. A wonderful united effort of the Bahá'ís in Warsaw to pull this up and get it started.

Signs

2009-10-30T14:47:00.007+01:00

Another one of my favourite short movies. It is actually a story about loneliness and love but it is also a story of courage and communication.

We need to be more aware of our surroundings and we need to communicate more. We can make each other happy.

Interreligious Devotional Meeting

2009-10-27T14:10:00.003+01:00

new on www.buildingmomentuminpoland.blogspot.com

After studying some quotations at our last tutor encounter in Warsaw we got into planing a devotional meeting on human rights. This is not supposed to be just any devotional meeting, but a meeting of believers of different religions saying prayers together for the human rights of religious minorities around the world.

Naturally it all started with us talking about the persecution of the Bahá'ís in Iran, but there are so many other minorities that suffer. Let it be the Buddhists in Tibet or the Catholics in Bangladesh, every religious group is a minority somewhere and very often not treated according to the Declaration of Human Rights. If it is not the state itself it is individuals that discriminate other believers.

Our devotional meeting is supposed to be the starting point for inter-religious prayer meetings in Warsaw, Poland. We need more spirituality and more awareness. To raise awareness different religious groups will have each 4 minutes before the prayers to talk about their human rights situation. This will also give a possibility for the Bahá'ís to speak about their situation in Iran.

It will also give the possibility to invite everybody interested to other Devotional Meetings held at the homes of Bahá'ís in Warsaw.

If you have friends in Poland, particularly in Warsaw, please encourage them to attend this meeting. It is of utmost importance that many people attend, learn about and pray for religious rights!

Without Words

2009-10-21T12:54:00.003+02:00

new on www.buildingmomentuminpoland.blogspot.com

Well maybe a few words :-D
I must admit I simply love this actor (TJ Thyne that is) but that is not why I posted this video :-) It made me think of our society (something this movie is clearly about- dooh).

Especially here in Poland it is very difficult to make people smile.
In Germany I have observed that you can smile at people on street and they will smile back at you. They might be a little confused at first, but hardly ever it is that I wouldn't get a nice reaction.

Here in Poland I have made - speaking for myself - a completely different observation. Do you know this feeling that on the bus or tram somebody looks at you, but as soon as you catch their eyes, they would look away? And somehow the same goes for yourself? Consciously or subconsciously you look at someone, but when their eyes meet yours, you look away... You know that? Here on Poland it works like that: Someone looks at me, I feel it and catch their eyes. But instead of them looking away they continue staring. They keep their eyes on you and hold your gaze. When coming to Poland this was sooooooo irritating to me. It still is not pleasant. At some time I consciously decided to smile at those people.

Already before this I had smiled at people from time to time here but had only received confused, strange or even upset looks or verbal reactions. Very unpleasant. Well I thought, someone who basically stares at me and doesn't avoid my eyes might be different. Well WRONG. What happened in 99,9% of the cases:

Somebody looks at me
I catch their eyes
They continue looking - staring actually
I smile at them.
They continue looking/staring.

Even more unpleasant that is.
I have never been told that my smile is ugly, so I assume this can not be the reason. I am out of ideas, how to make people smile, once they already stare at you.

My friend who is slightly smiling all the time has quite different experiences, just so you know this is not the typical experience in Poland. She gets comments from strangers on street from time to time, saying that it is so nice to see someone walking the streets smiling. Why do I not meet such people?

In any case, enjoy that video. It makes you smile and wish for such an experience or to be such an experience for others :-)

Robert, I am sure, you are!!! :-D

The Comb and the Covenant

2009-10-19T14:35:00.002+02:00

New on www.buildingmomentuminpoland.blogspot.com

Today I read the following part of The Hidden Words by Bahá'u'lláh:

O Son of Desire!
How long wilt thou soar in the realms of desire?
Wings have I bestowed upon thee, that thou mayest fly
to the realms of mystic holiness and not the regions of satanic
fancy. The comb, too, have I given thee
that thou mayest dress My raven locks,
and not lacerate My throat.

I had long ago read an explanation by Abdu'l-Bahá of crucial words in this very Hidden Word and it is in Adib Taherzadeh's "The Revelation of Baha'u'llah" Volume 1:

"[...] the 'wings' and the 'comb' mentioned in the following verse are both interpreted by 'Abdu'l-Bahá as the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh."

Before reading this explanation, this particular part of the Hidden Words didn't make much sense to me, I must admit. It was exactely those two words that confused me.

Now it all makes sense. According to the Islamic Hadith the Prophet Muhammad said:

"All people are as equal as the teeth of a comb, there is no virtue to an Arab over a Non-Arab nor white over colored except by the fear of God."

Now, this was revolutionizing in the Arab world of Muhammad's time. Likening all people to the teeth of a comb and hence the comb to humanity meant that the power of individual tribes over others was wrong. All people are equal for they all have their origin in Adam.

Equally, if not more, revolutionizing is Bahá'u'lláhs quotation. Likening the comb to the covenant it includes the fear of God, mentioned in the Hadith.

The covenant of Bahá'u'lláh in itself is threefold. There is the (a) eternal covenant, (b) the greater covenant and (c) the lesser covenant.

a) The Most Holy Book of the Bahá'ís begins with a renewal of the eternal covenant, a covenant known in all other religions. It promises us that God will never leave us and calls us to recognizing Him and to follow His laws.

b) The Greater Covenant is the covenant that every manifestation of God makes with His followers, promising them the appearance of another manifestation. Abraham made a covenant re Moses. Moses made a covenant re Jesus. Jesus made a covenant re Muhammad. Muhammad made a covenant re The Báb. THe Báb made a covenant re Bahá'u'lláh. Bahá'u'lláh made a covenant re ...

With this covenant we promise to acknowledge the next manifestation and we are promised never to be left alone; that another manifestation will appear and the ones that recognize Him will be blessed.

c) The Lesser Covenant is uniqe and revolutionary in (religious) history. Just like Muhammad's calling to unity was revolutionary. The Lesser Covenant is a covenant between Bahá'u'lláh and His followers to accept His appointed successor in order for the Faith to remain united. Bahá’u’lláh made this covenant re 'Abdu'l-Bahá and 'Abdu'l-Bahá perpetuated it through the Administrative Order created by Bahá’u’lláh.

Through this covenant the teachings, principles and laws remain pure from human interference. This has never been there before.

When reading this quotation back in the days I always felt told off. And I kind of am told off. We got the covenant that will protect us from all evils and that will protect the Cause from all evils. But we didn't get it for free. We have our part to play and detachment is the keyword. Without practicing detachment on an on-and-on-and-on-going basis we can not adequately use our wings and our comb. Whilst the wings - to me - stand for my personal development and protection the comb stands - to me - for the development and protection of the community and the whole world.

...

You might be wondering what this really has to do with the Bahá'í Faith in Poland ... Well I am a Bahá'í in Poland trying to abide to the Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh as good as I can ;-) So I thought to share this bit with you.

On Junior Youth Groups. Again

2009-10-18T02:15:00.004+02:00

new on: buildingmomentuminpoland.blogspot.com

I found the video below on Bahai Coherence, a very good blog on world views of different Bahá'í contributors.

I found this a very worthy clip on the importance and on the "transformative power" of the Junior Youth Groups initiated by individual Baha'ís or Bahá'í communities all over the world. Have a look at a particular JYG in the States:

In Poland we currently have JYG's running only in one city, in Krakow. If you want to get in touch with the Bahá'ís in Krakow and maybe send your child to one of those Junior Youth Groups, you are most welcome to contact them via bahaikrakow@gmail.com

One Common Faith

2009-10-17T11:01:00.000+02:00

Sharing the Message - Part 2, Cycle 5

2009-10-09T10:03:00.004+02:00

Here comes: Sharing the Message, Part 2 on www.buildingmomentuminpoland.blogspot.com

Simple things are not always as simple as they might seem. Creating a poster can become a test for unity, when you really did not foresee it. We are waiting and preparing for the big test, the crisis before the victory and we get a challenge before the crisis before the victory. We did not want that. We wanted to prepare in unity and harmony, quick, fast, efficient!!

Well, to move forward this wishful thinking, let me ask you out there then. How do your posters look like? When announcing a musical evening during a Bahá'í project, what do your posters look like?

We eventually decided for a more anonymous poster and plastered the streets around the venue with 50 of the poster above and 50 posters of a different kind. We had a handful of people that came, because of this and believe it or not - this is 400% more than what we got from being out on the streets talking to people for three days. But as successful as this is for us, everything can be improved and I am interested in your posters :-) Send me links, attachments, descriptions. And tell me if they work :-)

For this 3-day-project in the heart of Warsaw we had our counselor Mr. Sezgin with us, which was a very special experience. We went out sharing the message of Bahá'u'lláh in the center of the city and invited our family, friends, new acquaintances and whoever wanted to come to three evenings filled with love, music and Bahá'í stories.

What I am extremely happy about in our small Polish Bahá'í community is the enormous potential of great artists, I even dare to say, that this is something I have not met in any other community.

For this project the Area Teaching Committee of Warsaw invited Siona Neale to perform together with her son Maxwell on Friday evening. She performed and talked about her Bahá'í life. If you missed it, you can get a glimpse here: http://buildingmomentuminpoland.blogspot.com/2009/03/sionas-thoughts-on-becoming-bahai.html

On Saturday Erik and Lilka Lutley from Krakow performed and made this a very memorable evening. Together with their kids they did not only entertain the audience, but also allowed a wonderful insight into the history of the Bahá'í Faith. Unfortunately my camera does not allow for very nice videos to be taken, but at least I captured a piece of one song :-)

And on Sunday, the last day of the project, Paulina and Patrick filled the air with their wonderful music. Not long ago they have recorded a CD and you can get a glimpse of their performance when listening to this song:

(Click the icon above and then press the red play button at the bottom of the black player that will appear)

We rented a room on a well known street in Warsaw near the old town and had more people coming than ever before when we offered programs at the Bahá'í Centre or at private homes. Certainly this is not very surprising, but worth mentioning :-) We also had three people declare their belief in Bahá'u'lláh :-)

The spirit was excellent and the learning continues.
The IPG for Warsaw is meant to start in the end of December!!!

Polish Interview with Kasia from Olsztyn

2009-10-09T00:21:00.003+02:00

Wyznawcy bahaizmu w Polsce from Kushtar Mamytaliev on Vimeo.

This Video was done at this years summer school.
Kushtar interviews Kasia from Olsztyn about how she became a Bahá'í. For the ones of you who do not understand Polish her history dates back to her primary school and her question about another way to paradise than through Jesus Christ. She found the answer in the Bahá'í Faith 14 years ago and she served in India at the Bahá'í House of Worship for some time.

Kasia encourages everybody listening to independently recognize Jesus as the manifestation of God, but also to independently investigate other religions, as such an investigation is the first step for spiritual development.

Junior Youth Weekend in Grodzisk Mazowiecki

2009-09-24T23:33:00.007+02:00

(www.buildingmomentuminpoland.blogspot.com)

“We are hoping that these youth can be seen by the Auxiliary Board members and their assistants and by the entire community, not simply as children for whom activity must be arranged, or as adjuncts to their parents, or as awaiting some future time when they take on adult responsibility, but as a living creation of God necessary at this very moment for the purposes of God in a civilising process which is now being called into existence.”

Das Internationale Lehrzentrum, Haifa 5.12.1988

From September 18-21, 2009 we gathered with our five Polish Junior Youth in Grodzisk near Warsaw for the first out of seven weekends to deepen our knowledge on issues relating to the Bahá'í Faith.

This first weekend focussed on Bahá'í history. We began our endeavor with a look at general history and Bahá'í history and visualized it a little.

Then we studied the history of the Shaykhi Movement with Shaykh Ahmad and Siyyid Kazim leading the way to the Báb.in Persia. We further talked about the Báb, the Letters of the Living and the Conference of Badasht. All this took us right to the life of Bahá'u'lláh and further to Abdu'l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi.

It was a nice weekend with a very lively bunch of Junior Youth. 4 out of 5 JY were boys, so it was a particularly active weekend. We gathered the most important facts of the life of the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh and played a number of games and included some visualizations.

When we finished talking about Siyyid Kazim's search for the Báb, we found a few clues in the Qu'ran, just as Siyyid Kazim and Mulla Husayn did. True, our clues were more of the obvious kind - we did not have to study the Qu'ran in detail and pay attention to everything, we "just" had to find a green card with a clue guiding us in our search for the Qa'im. With this clue in hand we went up to a specified room and looked for the answer of that clue. If our clue was that the Qa'im would unasked explain the Surih of Jospeh then logically the answer would be found in the unasked revelation on this particular Surih.

We enjoyed delicious food from our hosts, Sara and Patrick, and we had long breaks during which some collected apples, some played with the dogs and others fell of trees.

The last activity we did was a picture of all participants, on which they shared what new they had learned during the weekend. The picture you can see below.

It was a lovely weekend and I am looking forward to our next meeting on the covenant. Yippieh. No date yet set, but soon.

Sharing the message

2009-09-22T21:46:00.005+02:00

(http://buildingmomentuminpoland.blogspot.com)

Teaching the Bahá'í Faith in Poland is considered to be rather difficult. People are afraid of new religious groups and, more easily than in other countries, Poles categorize anything new as negative. People, no matter if young or old, tend to be more negative than positive and therefore anything new is easily a threat, a sect.

This is a general picture people have of Poland and I must admit it is not all wrong. BUT also not all right. People are more closed in their own circles and are more afraid of new religious groups, but it is not impossible to teach the Bahá'í Faith over here.

And so we also have collective teaching campaigns just as the International Teaching Center calls all the world to put into place. Our last teaching project we had in Warsaw from 12-14 of August 2009.

We had our two Auxiliary Board Members present and nine more teachers that went out in the university area to find receptive souls that would be happy hearing about the Bahá'í Faith. In total we spoke to 141 people and had 81 positive responses or good conversations.

Out of 81 positive responses - some were really long conversations - 0 people attended the evening programs, which were once a musical fireside and the other days firesides on chosen topics. Yes, you read correctly and no I did not make a mistake: 0. Zero. Null.

What to do? People have difficulties to commit themselves. That is the easy explanation. Finding the reasons down the road at the other end. But maybe we have to adjust in several ways, one being to not invite people to private homes anymore. People won't come. Now it doesn't look very easy to find a public place for the next project that wants to have us for two hours in the evening either. We'll see if it is possible to implement this learning.

Another reason is that we still do not invite to a place right around the corner. Even though people don't necessarily live in the area where we happen to talk to them, they also do not necessarily live where we organize meetings in private homes 30 minutes walk away. So another learning is to meet people right back where we met them originally. To find a place so close you can basically point at it when saying: hey let's meet back right over there.

Seekers are all around and the Bahá'í Faith is right there. We tend to live comfortably our daily life noticing that we are missing something in life but can't put a finger on it. Now the Bahá'í Community of Warsaw together with friends from all over Poland is out there to draw attention to the diversity of humanity and to the need for a new approach to the world order. We are no missioners but we want to share the word of God with those people that have an open ear. It is not easy. But not impossible. We had people attending the evenings from our personal contacts.
Heart to heart contact is still the best ;-)

United for Bahá'í Human Rights

2009-09-02T00:16:00.000+02:00

Bahá'ís at the Esperanto Kongress

2009-08-31T01:02:00.003+02:00

This year, the annual Esperanto Congress was organized in Poland - in memory of Ludwig Zamenhof's 150th Birthday. The Congress took place from July 25 - Aug 1, 2009 in Białystock (North-east of Poland).

The big question comes up: What does this have to do with the Bahá'í Faith in Poland?

Well, A LOT! We must remember that one principle of the Bahá'í Faith is a world language. This does not necessarily mean that this language will be Esperanto, but Ludwig Zamenhof also saw the need for an axillary language for all people.

His daughter, Lidia Zamenhof (1904-1942), was one of the first Bahá'ís in Poland. She translated a lot of Bahá'í Writings into Polish, such as the "Hidden Words" of Bahá'u'lláh. She declared her belief in Bahá'u'lláhs teachings in 1925 at the World Congress of Esperantists in Geneva.

At the Esperanto Congress this year we had Bahá'ís present from various countries, such as New Zealand, Germany, Poland, Kirgistan, Belarus and Ukraine. All of them greatly contributed to the exhibition on Lidia Zamenhof and the Bahá'í Faith, which was organized by the Liga of Bahá'í Esperantists and the Bahá'í Community of Poland.

During that exhibition a lot of people were greatly interested in the Bahá'i Faith and one elderly lady came to the stand, that had known Lidia Zamenhof personally.

The Bahá'ís had also prepared flyers and a long article for the Esperanto magazine.

Part II: How I became a Bahá’í

2009-08-19T23:23:00.007+02:00

Ela's story.

Even though I grew up in the catholic Faith, I felt already for a long time, that I do not identify with this church. Jesus is very important for me, but he was more of an example to me than God.

When reading about the gospels I became a vegetarian. That happened from one moment to the next. I felt the inner desire and I knew that I will go that way. What convinced me was the attitude of Jesus towards animals. He protected them and treated them as younger brothers.

Such parables do not exist in the four well known gospels unfortunately, if they did maybe animals would suffer less.

At that time I read a lot, mainly american translations on spiritual movements. I got also interested in other religions. I was looking for the right one, but that was not easy.

Closest to me was Buddhism, as an average religion and I was fascynated by the personality of the XIV Dalai Lama, who was and still is for me the highest spiritual authority amongst the living.

But I did not become a Buddhist, but was rather sympathizing with it, because except from following the teachings of several mantras and the reading of a few books, I did not make the effort to commit to a different religious group and to deepen in the teachings of Buddhism. Thinking about it, I did no feel it with all my heart

I remember describing my attitude towards religion until recently as being inbetween Christianity and Buddhism.

After that came a period in which – after years – I went back to the study of Esperanto. Even though I had known that Ludwik Zamenhof developed Esperanto in order to bring people closer together I only learned about the idea of homaranismo recently.

I immediately liked it - Humanity as one big family, speaking one language and believing in one religion. A world without war But then I did not know that a religion with such principles exsited already for many years.

I really found my way to the Bahá’í Faith directly through Esperanto.

Once I asked a friend about another Esperantist lady, who had become a Bahá’í and had left for service in Haifa. I asked what exactly this religion is about. I listend to a few very positive sentences, interesting enough to have a closer look online.

I was lucky to immediately find the official Polish website: www.bahai.org.pl

When I started reading I immediately felt that the principles are close to me and similar to the ideas of Mr. Zamenhof. Once again I felt this internal spiritual impuls and I knew that I entered the end of my search. I want to walk this path of the religion that says that God is one and accepts all religions, with principles of the oneness of humanity and equality between men and women, the elimination of prejudices between peoples of different cultures and races (beauty in diversity) and the elimination of extremes between rich and poor as well as the emphasis on education. I especially liked the principle of the unity between religion and science. That was exactly what I had been looking for for years.

A few days later, when we didn’t have have a topic for our Tuesday evenings at the Esperanto club, I suggested to invite Bahá’ís.

But even before that the Bahá’ís invited us for their holiday Naw Ruz, meaning their New Year. That was exactly on the 21 march. I remember that immediately I enjoyed the atmosphere of the celebration, it was filled with joy. Around us were a lot of yellow and red tulips. Wonderful and delicious snacks had also been prepared.

Personally I felt, that the connection of the New Year with the joy following the first day of spring makes more sense, than the date of 31 December with all the noise and the shooting champagne corks.

During my conversations with the Bahá’ís I felt strengthened in my decision, with which I had already arrived and so I signed a declaration card before leaving.

Only at home I realized the meaning of an earlier dream, in which I visited the mother of a friend, who is strongly roman-catholic. Mrs. Alicja had two calenders on the wall, but upside down.

On the last page of the first was a grey paper covered by a colorful paper with yellow tulips. I had wondered and asked her about it, but she had answered me, that she has to alternate the old calendar with a new.

I became a Bahá’í and began the New Year 166, when we have a new calendar. This calendar has 19 months and every months has 19 days.

For me everything for clear. It happened to me, what had to happen and for which I had already been prepared for. I think that it is just like that: God decides what he happens to us in every moment. All the time I feel this great spiritual joy for being a Bahá’í.

Thinking, that I could have lived my life without hearing about the two great manifestations for this time – Báb and Bahá’u’lláh, I feel like floating in the mercy of God. Maybe this is to much to say, but I just feel like this. So many people are searching but don’t find what they are looking for.

Maybe they are not yet ready, because the right moment just doesn’t come for them, or they simply don’t have the information and we have to bring the information to them in order for them to take their decision, just as we all did at some point.

Elżbieta S.

Polish Bahá'í Summer School

2009-08-17T23:44:00.004+02:00

Sorry for keeping silent for so long. Too many things went on. I had a whole lot of exams to pass, the summer school to plan, a trip with friends through Poland to do and a teaching project in Warsaw to attend. So much fun each of those activities.

I sometimes have difficulties getting my act together and just do things. Especially when it comes to travels. I love travelling. I could only travel and enjoy that immensely. I wouldn't even need a base. BUT just getting up, packing and setting off takes me forever. Once I am on the run I love it and don't want to return ever.

Same with our summer school. I love them. Over the past years we had an amazing venue and I knew that what I had to expect was pure fun, lovely people, a great program and an intense boost of spirituality. But when packing I just wanted to stay home and not move. I was dead tired from my exams and planing projects and I just wanted to not go anywhere.

I had to though. A missing registrar would have been noticed. Well too bad. I went and I loved it as usual. :-D

What did I get? I got an amazing speaker: Khazeh Fananapazir from England. Gosh, an excellent scholar on the history of the Bahá'í Faith and Christianity. And a true example for my practice hours in becoming humble. I loved his sessions, even though I did by far not get to half of them.

An excerpt from one of his sessions:

The most distinctive feature of the Bahai Faith is that there are two individuals. The Báb has a twofold station: the hero, the forerunner and at the same time an in independent manifestation of God in whom all the messengers of the past unify. And these two stations contribute to the power, strength and uniqueness of this dispensation.(SE)

When the Báb's father died, his uncle was looking after him. After the Báb declared his mission, that uncle believed in him. When he believed in him, he really believed. When in those days you believed in someone it could lead to your death. The first of the seven martyrs of Tehran is this uncle. People commented on the Bab being his nephew and himself the uncle. “To refuse to acknowledge his mission, I would have to deny the reality of Mohammad, Jesus, Moses and all the messengers of the past.” The night before Christ was crucified, Peter was asked by a woman three times “Are you following him?” Peter denied.

But in the case of the uncle of the Báb, they wanted to pay him money if he denies. But he didn’t. The Bab was standing in the line of succession of the manifestations of God and in himself was the founder of a new faith.

“If you buy one, you get two.”
When you present Anna’s presentation – you know there is more than one manifestation. This revelation has twin founders. Shoghi Effendi wrote “this dispensation has twin aspects to it.” - Twin manifestation, twin places of pilgrimage, twin gardens, twin cities, two interpreters, etc.

But we did not only have sessions with Khazeh but also with Jan Jasion, the author of i.e. the biography on Marion Jack. He has Polish roots and used to live in Poland for some time back in the days. This time he helped us gain some insight into Polish Bahá'í History and opened our eyes to such facts as a document in the archives of the library of Włocławek (??) by a person having met 'Abdu'l-Bahá in Paris. Documents that have never been studied. Very precious. This is something I want to take on this summer. Go to that place and find those papers. Wish me luck.

We also had lots of fun things going on. Children's programs, Youth sessions, evening programs, freetime activity, painting, dancing, etcetc as you can see on the photos.

Everybody was present - from Junior to senior, women and men, Bahá'ís and Christians, etcetc.

Come and join us next time!

Lua and Aidan climbing the ladder ...

2009-07-22T21:57:00.002+02:00

Bahá'u'lláh says:

"We, verily, have made music as a ladder for your souls,
a means whereby they may be lifted up unto the realm on high"

Click on the icon and here two of our youngest Polish Bahá'ís sing "Kindle the fire of love"

Polish Bahai Artists

2009-07-20T14:33:00.003+02:00

Before going on introducing members of the Polish community I would like to share a piece of music with you by two of our most creative and talented Baha'is in Poland. Paulina and Patrick recorded a wonderful CD and the texts are prayers and quotations from the Baha'i writings put to music.

The release date of the CD is at the Polish Baha'i Summer school and that is where you can purchase them. The Polish SUmmer school will take place in Serock, near Warsaw from July 31 - August 6, 2009. Come and join us and get to know the artists of the day.

There is an immense creative potential within our growing community and I am touched and happy to see it coming to light so brightly. Myself being handicapped with a terribly unmusical ear and voice I love seeing the joy that art can create - especially music.

Listen and enjoy the voice of Baha!

(Click the icon above and then press the red play button at the bottom of the black player that will appear)

10 aspects of the life of Nadine

2009-07-05T01:54:00.013+02:00

Yesterday I scrolled through this blog and noticed that I have never actually introduced you to the Bahá'ís of Poland. Now I was wondering, how best to do this and think I might just do so by sharing a few profiles with you.

And because it seems most logical I will start right with myself. Over the next few posts you will then also meet a number of other Bahá'ís from all over Poland, but firstly stay with me for a few lines.

Who: Nadine, 28
From: Germany

1. I am a Bahá'í because I believe Bahá'u'lláh is the manifestation of God for our time and his message is the most efficient tool for humanity to progress and to achieve unity in the world.

2. I am a student of history because I love learning about the past. In my perception a thorough understanding of the past is necessary in order to understand how we got to the present moment, why humanity did not chose option B over option A on its path towards the future and what implications the chosen way carries for the future yet ahead of us. I don't think I could be a good Bahá'í without my desire for learning about the past.

3. "A good Bahá'í" is a term I try to entirely use for myself and not for others and it involves more than accepting Bahá'u'lláh and following His laws. To me it means a daily deepening of my love for Bahá'u'lláh and an ever deeper understanding of why I follow the laws. This - for me - is essential if I don't want to lose track of how to best serve humanity. I do not drink alcohol, not because I am not allowed to do so as a Bahá'í. That would be very superficial (to me). I do not drink, because I have difficulties with moderation and one sip would lead to another, but I know that my reason and consciousness is extremely precious - so why risk putting it in danger.

4. I moved to Poland 5 years ago to support the community in Poznan for some time and I would have never thought that it will be 5 years with no end in sight. It was meant to be a short term pioneering post until I move on to Belarus (a country I love like no other). Now it is a long term pioneering post with a lot of responsibility and an endangered but longing look over the border. But I guess the grass is always greener on the other side ;-)

5. If it wasn't nice, I wouldn't be in Poland anymore :-) It is as simple as that. If you are not happy at a given place you only last a certain amount of time and I certainly wouldn't last 5 years ;-) It is not difficult to teach the Faith in Poland. People are open and happy to listen. But I have observed many Poles being afraid of making a commitment. Even if they love the Bahá'í Faith, accept Bahá'u'lláh, want to participate in all activities and so on and on and on they don't want to join the community. Things are changing but only slowly. There is a lot of tradition (in the best and in the worst sense) and a lot of family relations involved that contribute in the small number of Bahá'ís in Poland. But when teaching I can only give on the message, what the listener does with it, is his responsibility. Sometimes it is frustrating ;-) I admit. But I don't think that sharing the Bahá'í Faith in Poland is any more difficult than in any other European country.

6. I love facilitating the Ruhi Courses. More than as a first-time participant I learn and learn and learn from reviewing, facilitating and preparing. Interestingly enough my favourite books to facilitate are book 2 (On the path of service) and 4 (The twin manifestations), the two books that at first I did not enjoy at all myself. I find it very precious being with a small group of people and study the materials and am heartbroken when I see facilitators rush through it. There is so much one can do with the material and so much love to be strengthened.

7. I like chocolate, chocolate cake, hot chocolate, iced chocolate, cocoa, chocolate milkshake, chocolate muffins, chocolate pudding, ...

8. I am not married, enganged, divorced or anything remotely connected to that. The fact that many of my close friends are by now married, parents or pregnant is not threatening at all to me but living in a country where the average age for getting married would almost be unlawful in Germany can give you the feeling of being somewhat of a spinster at an early age. That is annoying at times, especially when you get "the look". In Germany I know "the look" from elderly Persian ladies, here in Poland it is from everybody female, no matter if younger or older than you - but married. Whooooo - goosebumps.

9. I like the old fashioned deepenings on Bahá'í themes :-) There is a lot of movement within our community activities and I am in support of it all! There is just one thing I am really missing and that is meeting with Bahá'í friends and studying the writings together, to deepen our understanding of the writings. Now, I live in such a small community that we have difficulties meeting for the Local Spiritual Assemly meetings, not to speak of extra meetings for deepenings. Alone it is only half the fun.

10. I dislike the dislike for Eastern Europe. I have a hard time and often fail to accept the narrow mindedness of some people. It is one thing if a person has traveled to Eastern Europe and has good reasons to say "not my cup of tea" but many people don't even want to try and are just blabla-ing some stereotypes from 50 years ago as "good reasons". REALLY HARD TIME!

... Anything else you want to know?...

A message full of love

2009-06-28T00:01:00.001+02:00

The Universal House of Justice has addressed a message full of love to the Baha’is of Iran in light of recent events in that country.

23 June 2009

To the Bahá’ís of Iran

Dearly loved Friends,

With hearts grieved by events unfolding in Iran, we address this letter to you, the steadfast followers of Bahá’u’lláh in that land. To the concern for your safety that has long weighed on us is now added mounting fear for the safety of millions of Iranian men and women, so many of them at the pinnacle of their youth, their vast potentialities yearning to be realized. How rapidly have veils been rent asunder! Cruelty meted out in calculated measures to you and others over the years has been unleashed in the streets of Iran for all humanity to see. No matter what the turn of events, we are confident you will adhere firmly to the fundamental principle of our Faith that strictly prohibits any involvement in partisan political activity by individual Bahá’ís or by Bahá’í institutions. Yet you cannot remain aloof and insensitive to the suffering of your people. Decades of hardship have prepared each of you to stand as a beacon of strength in the circle of your family and friends, your neighbours and acquaintances, radiating hope and compassion to all those in need. Keep alive in your hearts the feeling of confidence that the future of Iran holds bright promise, the certitude that the light of knowledge will inevitably dispel the clouds of ignorance, the conviction that concern for justice will protect the nation from falling prey to calumny, and the belief that love will ultimately conquer hatred and enmity. You have demonstrated in the example of your lives that the proper response to oppression is neither to succumb in resignation nor to take on the characteristics of the oppressor. The victim of oppression can transcend it through an inner strength that shields the soul from bitterness and hatred and which sustains consistent, principled action. May the words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá resound: “Iran shall become a focal centre of divine splendours. Her darksome soil will become luminous and her land will shine resplendent.” You and your compatriots are in our continued prayers.

[signed: The Universal House of Justice]

Iran - Where is my vote?

2009-06-18T22:41:00.004+02:00

In 1979 the Iranian Revolution put an end to the "long lasting" rule of the the Pahlvani dynasty. It lasted two long Shahs and 52 years until a man came along that many believed to be 12 Imam.

One needs to understand that one of the central figures in Shia Islam is the Hidden Imam. He is the actual spiritual leader and will one day appear back and save the world.

In 1979 Ajatollah Ruhollah Chomeini conceptualized a substitutional rule of the clerus until the return of the Hidden Imam. This concept, part of the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, is the basis of the Republic's theocratic character.

Most understand Ajatollah Ruhollah Chomein, who passed away in 1989, to be the representant of the Hidden Imam, some understand him as THE ONE.

Either or. Did he save the world? Did he bring peace? Did he unite the nations? Let it be under the banner of Islam - but did he? He did not even bring peace, development and unity to his own country. If at all he caused hatred and discontent.

Today we can see the people of Iran united in a cause against a regime he put in place. People like you and me are back on the streets, just like in 1979. And again the ruler has fled.

Back then the Shah had fled Iran, just for some time as he said. Just until things have calmed down. He was never to return.

Today "President" Ahmadinejad is nowhere to be found. Good for him. The masses are peaceful, but not happy.

We have seen a change at the other end of the world last year, when the first black man became the President of the United States. This is only the beginning. I wish it to be today that we can see change to come in Iran as well. It might not be today, it might only be tomorrow. But change will come.

Certainly the question remains if Mr. Mousavi will be so much better for Iran, will be so much better for the Bahá'ís. It might just be the way out from the frying pan into the fire, because when during the 1980's Bahá'ís were persecuted so badly and between 1980-1985 alone 210 Bahá'ís were executed for their Faith alone, the Prime minister of Iran was noone else than Mr. Mousavi. Some say: People change. Other's say: History repeats itself.

Please find below some photos from the streets of Tehran. Change is going to happen.

Approaching Azadi (Freedom) Square (June 15)

"We shatter idols, not glass"

As far as the eye could see down Tehran's longest street.

...

A leaked letter from staff of the Ministry of Interior alleging that the real results were 19 million votes for Moussavi, 13 million for Karroubi and 5 million for Ahmadinejad. Photocopies of this and other documents were passed around from car to car and person to person.

The huge majority of the protesters are young, but it's nice to see our elders making the effort

Haifa thoughts

2009-06-16T14:40:00.004+02:00

Today I would like to share a few photo's of my recent visit in the Holy Land.
A closer account of the visit you can read here.

In Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Bahá we can read :
"O servant of God! Through the power of God’s love the weak become mighty, the poor become rich, the little bird becomes a great eagle soaring on the ethereal wave, the tiny plant grows into a great palm tree."

I find this very inspiring. In respect to our individual lifes as well as in respect to community development. We are all more or less little birds, with some exceptions. When we become eagles our communities will, too.

For long I was wondering: How, How, how to become and eagle? How can the Polish Bahá'í Community become an eagle? Here, too, 'Abdu'l-Bahá gives guidance:

"Be constantly attached to and seek always the confirmations of Bahá’u'lláh for these turn the drop into a sea and convert the gnat into an eagle."

Most of us often forget about the power of Divine Assistance and this might be our greatest difficulty.

I love this place. It is at the bottom of the terraces, photographed from the stairs leading up to the Shrine of the Báb. I find it a very welcoming place to everyone and really feel like entering a different world, when going through this gate.

Asia walking down the stairs to the Shrine of the Báb.
There are morning prayers sometimes in Haifa and Bahji. This year I stayed up the mountain and had to walk down the terraces to the Shrine. Last year, I stayed in Jaffa Road down Ben Gurion Street. Comparingly I can say that I enjoy walking up the stairs much more than walking them down. I find it easier in the long run (weird I know) and more rewarding to enter the Shrine of the Báb after a real big effort, which walking up all those steps undoubtedly is. The Shrine slowly appears while walking up the stairs, first you see the dome and slowly also the rest of the Shrine. It is like the sun is rising before my eyes.

Walking down I always had the Shrine before me and knew exactely where I was heading (walking up I knew that too, but I didn't see the Shrine all the time).This, was a beautiful scenery but somewhat not fulfilling enough. I seem to look for difficulties wherever they hide.

Intensive intensity

2009-06-09T14:31:00.002+02:00

3 days left until the big day.
We had a number of pretty big days over the last 6 months. To name only a few:

Every day with a new declaration of love to Bahá'u'lláh was a pretty big day for the whole community
Our Naw Ruz Celebration with a lot of friends that filled up the National Bahá'í Center - very big and happy occasion
The Frankfurt Conference that was attended by so many wonderful Polish Bahá'ís

Now another big "day" will be the upcoming weekend during which our National Center will be blessed with three different intensive Ruhi Courses.

For the first time the Bahá'í Community of Poland offers Ruhi Book 1, 2 and 3 at the same time and at the same place. I am very happy about this development as this is not only a number of courses happening but there is so much more to it.

You need someone to organize all of the courses and accommodation (I love you Pat!!!), you need tutors that are happy to facilitate the courses (Nick, Paulina, Jadzia, Larissa - I love you, too!) and you need people that host friends from other parts of the country (Thank you all!). Last but not least - you need participants.

As "funny" as it seems, this can sometimes proof to be the most difficult aspect. It is a long free weekend for most people in Poland and usually you would go away. Also sometimes we just don't want to spend Thursday - Sunday inside studying. These are two major factors.

But I am so happy for the participation :-)
People that want to learn more about the Faith will do book 1, new believers do Ruhi book 1 or 2, and friends that want to move on in the sequence do book 3.

Each of these courses is equally important to every community and every person. They are a way to learn more about the human nature, about society and about change. They are tools for our individual and common desire to make the world a better place.

In the Warsaw cluster we have three children's classes running. Over the summer they are all on hold due to summer holidays. But when looking back - for years it has been the same person/the same people that provided the classes. They are well visited but being the only children's class teacher is not easy. We need more people that do book 3 and act afterwards, more people that are happy supporting the children's classes already in place and more people to start their own neighborhood class.

The number of children's class teachers is not small, but the priorities lie elsewhere. This is normal I guess, but I am wondering what to do to help friends in the Warsaw cluster that have already done book 3 to want to become engaged with children's classes. Do you have experience to share?

This weekend we have a fantastic tutor coming in from Krakow to facilitate Ruhi 3, a training that helps the roots of every community grow. Coz, as I learned to understand at the Kiev conference:

Children’s classes are the natural activity after Book 3. Those classes are the centres of attraction for young people and the roots of our community will be stronger through Children’s Classes. Through the roots a tree can grow. Therefore we have to multiply our roots and we really need more people in this path. Children’s Classes lay the foundations for an upright character. Book 3 needs to become our reference guide and we have to understand that children’s classes are not an activity to be started and dropped. Children’s Classes initiate a process until Junior Youth Groups.

The ascension of Bahá'u'lláh

2009-06-06T00:21:00.006+02:00

Asia and I went to the most holy spot on earth for a couple of days in the end of may. Not for no reason. The most holy spot is the Haifa-Acca area in Israel and we went for the ascension of Bahá'u'lláh. His earthly remains are laid to rest near Acca, in what is known to Bahá'ís as in Bahji and this is the direction Baha'ís turn to for their prayers.

It was a special blession to attend the ceremony on the ascension a second time after last years experience and I am very grateful for this possibility.

The ceremony itself begins at 3am with prayers in different languages (Arabic, English, Persian) for about an hour, followed by the reading of the Tablet of Visitation and the circuambulation of the Shrine of Bahá'u'lláh.

It is a moving and very spiritual occasion for me, even more so in Bahji itself. Around 10pm I went to the room of Bahá'u'llah in His mansion and prayed. The mansion is my favourite place to be I must admit and at that hour it was very quiet. It was just after most of the visitors had left and right before all the pilgrims were let inside. I loved the peace and quiet.

For me the 29 May is more special than any other day. It is weird, one might say. I should have picked a day such as May 23 with the Declaration of the Báb as the Messenger of God or November 12 with the Birth of Bahá'u'lláh. What shall I say? It was not a conscious decision.

I get very emotional on that day and i feel closer to Bahá'u'lláh than on any other day. Even more so for the past two years, when I was blessed to set my foot into the room of His passing and the treshold of His resting place.

My first commemoration of the ascension of Bahá'u'lláh I experienced in Potsdam, with Fariba. Our community gathered at her place around 11pm and we would read and tell stories until 3am, when also we read prayers and said the Tablet of Visitation. Of course it was entirely different to my experience in the Holy Land, but it opened my heart even more for the beauty His message.

To be with your community, to spend time together in those precious hours until dawn and to read, learn, share and pray together in hours so full of spiritual energy is extremely special. This is something I was not able to do in Israel of course, as my beloved community stayed in Poland. But I had Asia with me :-)

And we got to know some wonderful Brazilian Bahá'ís.
Asia and I literally speak not a single word of Portuguese and only one of them spoke a little English, so it was one of those heart-communications, where you fully connect.
It was lovely learning about them, their lives, their communities and to see and feel this perfect harmony possible between hearts connected through God. We had never met before and who knows, if we will ever meet again, but when saying Good-Bye on our last day in Haifa all of us had tears in our eyes.

But I believe in the saying: You always meet twice in life ... :-)

Devoltional Meetings in Warsaw

2009-05-20T19:10:00.002+02:00

There are a number of Devotional Meetings going on at the moment in Warsaw, each different in its own design.

1. Joy is offering Devotional Meetings on Wednesdays. They are called "Open Meetings for reflecting and praying" or in Polish "Otwarte spotkanie refleksji i modlitwy"The description in the Calendar of bahai.org. pl reads the following: "Chcesz zobaczyć, jak się modlimy? Chcesz dowiedzieć się więcej o wierze baha`i i poznać bahaitów? Przyjdź, pogadaj, zobacz." and in English that is: "Do you want to find out how we pray? Would you like to know more about the Bahá'í Faith and get to know Bahá'ís? Come, talk and see." Joy is a great woman from the USA, who lived in hundreds of places all around the world - from California to Wales from India to Poland she has been everywhere. A wonderful woman with a lot of experience offers you to meet Bahá'ís and learn about the Bahá'í Faith. Learning by doing if you want so :-) Because after all it is a prayer meeting. If you want to find out how Bahá'ís pray you can go and join her and her guests or just obseve in silence. Nobody will be sent away and everybody is welcome.

2. Siona offers Devotional Meetings for families. If you would like to get to know the musical side of Devotional Meetings, join her. She has her own website, through which you can get in touch: http://www.sionaneale.com

3. Devotionals at Pat. The description in the calendar of our national website of Pat's devotional is: "Spotkanie modlitewne, podczas którego czytane są modlitwy i fragmenty Pism na dany temat, np. 'pokój/spokój w nas', 'sens cierpienia', i in." - In English that means: "Prayer meetings, during which prayers and quotations from the Writings are read on a a given topic, i.e. peace [...]"

The photos on here are from Pat's Devotional Meeting. It is so much more than just sitting together, the meetings are spiritual conversations with God. The atmosphere of the place is very peaceful and inviting and as a lovely host, Pat makes everybody feel just like at home.

The meetings do not only provide food for soul but also have a social part during which the guests can talk amongst each other about the topic of the meeting, while having a snack. This is particularly interesting as the meetings are also international and provide a wonderful occasion to learn about different views on spiritual topics. Regular participants come from Norway, the USA, Canada, Poland and Kirgistan.

If you are hungry for spiritual food, prayer and connection or re-connection with God, you are most welcome on Tuesdays! Further information on bahai.org.pl (Tuesday=Wtorek).

Bahá'í Birthday

2009-05-15T22:29:00.003+02:00

Last year was my 10-year-anniversary of becoming a Bahá'í. Half of that time I lived in Germany and half in Poland. My anniversary I celebrated in Haifa though. It was my first pilgrimage and I went with my mom. She is Protestant herself but participated in everything during the full program and enjoyed it a great deal. In fact on the very day of my 10th anniversary she said her first Bahá'í prayer at the Bahá'í cemetery. She said a prayer for her mother, my grand-mother, who passed away so many years ago. We both miss her a lot and it was a very special moment.

on that particular day I also met with a few friends ind the evening. In the picture you can see two of them, Patrycja from the South of Poland and Irmina from Warsaw. They were both serving at the Bahá'í World Center last June and it was very special to have some Polish connection that night.

This year, I will be in Haifa again on my birthday :-) The first of June!!! 11 years!!! What wonderful years. I am going for a 3-day-pilgrimage with my best friend. I am so looking forward to that. Let me know, if you want prayers :-)

"So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth."

2009-05-13T11:19:00.004+02:00

A video on the 41 conferences that took place between November 2008 and March 2009 all over the world. If found it on http://www.bahaiviews.net

The music is by Ellis & Knight and you can find more of their art on http://www.reverbnation.com/ellisandknight

I myself am happy to have participated in two conferences (Frankfurt & Kiev) and I got a lot out of them.

Here are a couple of my note from the Kiev conference. Mrs. Penny Walker gave the welcome talk. These are a few excerpts from my notes.

It is important for us to understand the forces of events that are underway nowadays. They are the mysterious events of the Greater Plan. He works through the instruments he chooses. “As Shoghi Effendi has pointed out, God's Major Plan uses "both the mighty and the lowly as pawns in His world-shaping game, for the fulfilment of His immediate purpose and the eventual establishment of His Kingdom on earth."” The Greater Plan of God folds up the Old World Order.

Unlike the Major Plan, which works mysteriously, the Minor Plan of God is clearly spelled out. It lays out a New World Order with a civilization building plan through community building using as its instruments the core activities.

The disintegration process is dramatic. The integration (Minor Plan) is not flashing, not obvious and slow. But it constitutes the one hope of a stricken humanity. It is easy and fast to tear down a skyscraper. But the construction of a new one is a slow process.

“We were cautioned by the Guardian not to be "misled by the painful slowness characterizing the unfoldment of the civilization" being laboriously established or to be "deluded by the ephemeral manifestations of returning prosperity which at times appear to be capable of checking the disruptive influence of the chronic ills afflicting the institutions of a decaying age."

Don’t be fooled, the world is getting together. If we see a positive development in politics or a better economic situation today than yesterday - these steps of the Major Plan are not going towards a new civilization. Even if we are able to devise the instrument for political unity – this is not the antidote. The only antidote is the revelation of Bahá’u’lláh.

Over the past 25 years there have been a lot of changes and receptivity is today much different. Ideologies have been swept under the carpet and religious institutions rendered ineffective. Now there is a hunger for meaning and a yearning for soul.

The implications of the two divinely guided processes for our own lives are

an understanding of the process, which brings about the confirmation of the plan of God at work. Mr. Khadem used to read all the news in the newspapers every morning; the good as well as the bad. And he would be happy about both, because he said, with all news he recognized God’s plan at work.
We need to reflect and evaluate ourselves. Are we devoting our time, energy, resources to the integrating process? The Universal House of Justice says: “… [E]ach individual, too, must make a conscious decision as to what he or she will do to serve the Plan, and as to how, where and when to do it.”

Knowledge alone ... Teaching alone ...

2009-05-12T09:57:00.002+02:00

Today I came across this quotation by the Universal House of Justice from 1993:

"[...] knowledge alone is not adequate; it is vital that training be given in a manner that inspires love and devotion, fosters firmness in the Covenant, prompts the individual to active participation in the work of the Cause and to taking sound initiatives in the promotion of its interests."

Over the past few years another quotation by the Universal House of Justice from 2001 has come up again and again:

"Training alone, of course, does not necessarily lead to an upsurge in teaching activity."

This is interesting. We tend to substitute one approach with another and stop at it. Back in the days we thought we would change the world through our knowledge and then we thought we only need to train our skills. Now, as it is more and more stressed, we have understood that neither alone can bring about change.

But what happens if we combine knowledge and training? We get practise. To understand / to know the effects of training means to know how to implement our trained skills in society. This is not a theoretical knowledge gained from books, but only from active engagement in our Bahá'í Communities and societies.

Without this knowledge we will not develop. We need practical knowledge. Practical knowledge will grow with encouragement. Encouragement comes from love and own experience. Own Experience comes from doing. We can only be of use in this day if we put in practice what we learn, before we forget it again.

I would like to share a little story about a beautiful lady in our community, let's call her just J.
She is doing book 7 now and because she lives in a small town with now other believers and no book 1 in sight, she recently joined book 1 in Warsaw and co-tutored. Over the long June-weekend we will have an Institute campaign in Warsaw and there she will co-tutor book 2.

She is lovely and just as all of us uncertain of herself sometimes. But she did not hesitate a split-second when I invited her to co-tutor book 1 in May. She was eager to and met with another friend to get inspiration on how to go about chapter 3.

This is what our communities and societies need. People that do not only get training but are happy to put it into action. And that do so with love. That actually don't even have to be asked what needs to be done, but go around with open eyes, see the needs and respond to them.

This is what we hope will also happen after the June weekend. People will receive training in book 1, 2 and 3 and will hopefully implement their new skills.

Everybody needs this training, this is not a training merely for Bahá'ís. Our world needs spirituality and quality conversations. Book 1 helps us to understand the Bahá'í writings and how Devotional Meetings are the sacred heart of our communities. Book 2 helps us to better find our way on our individual paths of service and how to connect with other people and through book 3 we become children's class teachers.

If you are interested joining any of these books, maybe even as a refresher - let me know!!

Nadine in Poland

2009-05-10T23:11:00.009+02:00

When I first came to Poland I was 22 and Poland was just a country on my way towards the east.

...

Well that is not quite true. The first time I actually came to Poland I was 20 years old and I attended a European Bahai Youth Conference in Warsaw with a hundred other youth or so from all over Europe (some of us you can see in the photo). Before that I had been to Belarus and terribly fallen in love with Belarus. *Gosh, how I still miss it* So I was prepared for a basic standard and that is what we had. The conference happened at the Jazz Polo hostel (I think it was called) on the outskirts of Warsaw and getting there was a nightmare but I still remember my friend Conne commenting, that at least the trains in Poland are on time, something rare in Germany. As little as I would recommend that hostel, I must admit that the spirit of the youth gathered there left me with a positive memory of Poland. When I returned the year after that for the same kind of conference in a much nicer venue, I had already grown to like *at least* Warsaw, as I had not seen anything else of the country apart from the countryside by the train tracks on the way to Belarus.

As it happend I decided to go to Poznan then in 2003. Poznan is half way between Berlin and Warsaw and a lovely old city with many historical sites. I didn't know that though when I first came here. I had written to the NSA of Poland saying that I could - if needed - support any Bahá'í community in their activities near the German border. After some re-direction I ended up writing with Asia from Poznan and when after one year we still had not managed to find a common weekend to meet I decided that they don't really need me there. But suddenly Asia and I found a day and so I went to Poznan early in the morning on November 2nd, 2003 with Euro City from Berlin at 6am.

I had gone through Poznan serveral times on my way to the east and had always been wondering if I would ever get off at that stop one day. POZNAN, with that ugly ugly mega ugly train station. Well, there I was early in the morning, heading right towards that city.

I was welcomed by Asia, Kushtar, Olya and Robert and as I should later learn, that was quite a big welcome and in fact most of the people had never met themselves before. Asia is Polish, Kushtar is from Kirgistan, Olya from Belarus and Robert from Wales.

After introducing each other we took off to discover the town as Olya and Kushtar had basically just arrived themselves in town. It was a rainy November day and I remember being not aaaall too impressed with the city, but then there are few cities only that make an impression even in bad weather. Even Paris didn't impress me much when it was rainy. And true it is. Poznan is beautiful, in snow and in sunshine especially!

Only Asia had really taken off that day from any responsibilities and so it happened that after some hours it was only us two left in some tiny cafe in the old town. We literally spend there 6 hours until my train in the evening and had some good talking. We clicked right away and so we made plans for a Devotional Meeting in Poznan together. Back then I studied nearby in Frankfurt/Oder, which is only 1,5 hours away and I could come anytime.

For a couple of months we had lovely Devotional Meetings happening even sometimes with guest from Warsaw. Paulina came once, i.e. She's got a lovely voice and enriched the meeting greatly. I had the feeling I knew her somehow m´but could not place her. It was only 4 years later that I found an old photograph from one of those Warsaw conferences where she happened to be a key note speaker. Funnily enough I had not recognized her until I found the photo, which also only shows her from the back :-)

The Devotional Meetings went on for quite a while but stopped at some point due to too little participation. Today I know that there is never too little participation for a Devotional Meeting. Even if only the host is there, the prayers will spread and find their ways to the hearts of the people.

Anyways, I had planned to only come from time to time to Poznan as my real goal was Belarus really. It happened differently and for the time being I am still in Poland after 5 years. Sometimes I can not believe it myself. Time flies.

We have all sorts of activities going on in Poland as you can see on my blog here, and also on our national Bahá'í website www.bahai.org.pl
And what I particularly like are the friendships that are developing so naturally. The participants of a study circle go out playing Billiards in the evenings or the participants of a Devotional Meeting stay on for a movie night or go out to a Cafe. A small Bahá'í community with a lot of great friends.

Poznan has a lovely community just as Poland does. We are very diverse and are happy meeting new people all the time.

We are few but we are very welcoming. There is so much to do for the betterment on the world and our neigborhoods, but so few people to help. If you want to come and help us, please don't hesitate! Come and join us!

Message from the French National Convention to the Baha’is of Iran

2009-05-08T08:36:00.005+02:00

When attending our National Convention in Poland a couple of weeks ago, we remembered our dear fellow believers in Iran, where Bahá'ís are facing difficult times. They are denied the right to education, they are arrested simply for their belief, they are charged without trial and have to fear for their lives, they can neither live a completely free community life nor a completely free personal life and are in constant danger of a regime, that is becoming ever more frightening. We remembered our friends in Iran in our prayers, and our efforts to draw public attention to the case of the Bahá'ís in Iran will continue in the cities of Poland. But we never let them know. And assumed they simply know.

Now the French community was very attentive when gathered at their National Convention. They wrote a letter to the Bahá'ís in Iran assuring them of their prayers and efforts and it is a touching sign of love within our international community. Here it goes:

To Our brothers and Sisters in Iran

Dearest Friends,

You have been constantly present in our minds, our consultations and our prayers as we were gathered at our National Convention last May 1 & 2. Our spirits were both uplifted by our Ridvan celebrations and saddened by the dawn of the anniversary of the imprisonment of the seven Yarans [former Baha'i leaders in Iran].

We observe with admiration and gratitude the exalted example of our brothers and sisters in the cradle of the Faith. Your commitment to the spiritual rebirth of your fellow-citizens and of all mankind, your courage, your steadfastness and your determination in the face of tribulations are a constant source of inspiration for us.

Your sacrifices, which bring Divine confirmations to the community of the Most Great Name as a whole, enable the Cause to gain historic victories.

This year, in France, the authorities have been active at the highest level on your behalf, thanks to the initiative of our Minister for Foreign Affairs, Monsieur Kouchner, who personally wrote a long letter addressed to the French [Baha'i] community re-affirming France’s total commitment to your defense.

Furthermore, we are particularly happy to inform you that, by the end of this year, 2009, the French Baha’i community will have fulfilled its commitment to the Universal House of Justice by launching nine intensive programs of growth and is getting ready to face the challenge of exceeding this goal by the end of the Plan.

Conscious that we are blessed by being able to serve the Blessed Beauty in complete freedom we are privileged to work alongside you, and in your name, in order to achieve the goal fixed for us by the Universal House of Justice in its Ridvan message « to liberate humankind from the yoke of the most grievous oppression. »

Rest assured, dearest friends, of the total commitment of the French community to play its part humbly, alongside yourselves, in the progress of the Divine Plan and that you are constantly present in our thoughts and prayers.

The French National Convention

News for tutors: A culture of Growth

2009-05-08T00:49:00.008+02:00

Since April 2009 we have a newsletter for tutors in Poland. First I was wondering: what for? We have 23 tutors in the whole of Poland, is a newsletter really necessary? But then I thought of the communication between tutors at the moment and also of the communication of the Institute Board with the tutors and apart from refresher meetings once in a while they were pretty much left alone.

So I came to think that a newsletter actually is not the worst idea of getting in touch with the tutors, of letting them know what is happening in other areas of the country and of offering answers to frequently asked questions.

Now this first newsletter is pretty basic still in terms of content as it is introductory. And every newsletter always faces the risk of being completely ignored, ending up somewhere in spam and never being read. But this is the risk you take. Some might ignore it, others might find it useful! So on the 4 pages of the first newsletter we can now red about the role of the tutor, about the priority cluster Warsaw and its needs, about the practical element of book 1 and so on and so on.

The hope is that the tutors become ever more aware of their role in the current plans of the Universal House of Justice and understand it not only as a facilitator of a number of courses but as see themselves as guides on a path of service.

The feedback has been pretty positive so far, so people at least look at the newsletter :-)

Hopefully more and more friends will get down to reading it and hopefully more and more friends will become engaged in creating it.

On the wisdom of experience

2009-05-06T02:38:00.007+02:00

Last weekend we had another intensive Ruhi 1 course happening in Warsaw.

It was the long may-weekend and a few people had taken their time, gathered at the Bahá'í Center and studied the Bahá'í Writings on issues such as prayer and life & death. The participants came from as far as Gdansk (Baltic Sea, the very North), Krynica Zdroj (mountains, the very South) and of course Warsaw.

Unfortunately I could not join the group the whole weekend, but I experienced a few hours with them and was very grateful for the glimspe into that particular group. It was lovely. Currently I am serving as the coordinator for the Institute Process and part of this service is really to be up to date with the skills and know-how of our Ruhi-tutors.

For the may-weekend we had decided to skip a possible book 4 and have two of the participants join the book 1 as co-tutors instead so as to get experience in tutoring. Those two are already a great asset for our community's institute process and as there are not many "big" courses happening at the moment it was a perfect opportunity to give them some practise in facilitating.

I experienced an eagerness to learn within them, a happyness - readiness - thankfulness for changing the plan for their training and a passion in serving as co-tutors. We generally neeed more people being happy to serve. In the world I mean. And I was touched to see these two souls being ready to do whatever is needed, necessary and best, independend of the previous plan. This is what the Universal House of Justice is calling for when it writes about the resolve of the friends, I am sure.

The tutor of the Ruhi 1 that weekend is a very experienced tutor, who herself is always ready to learn and serve with other people. So this was a wonderful team of three people knowing what they are doing and learning while doing. The experience gained when co-tutoring is of major importance for the future quality of the institute process. There are friends out there that just know how to tutor a wonderful study circle, they don't need much assitance and are still among the best tutors ever. But they are the minority.

Most of us are not born Ruhi-Super-Tutors.
Most of us are not fully convinced of how to go about it, how to start the meeting, how to move between sections, how to include arts, how to raise the level of understanding, how to do the practical component. We might leave the arts out completely, we might ignore the practical part and hope that it will take care of itself.

Some of us think they have learned everything and don't need further training. The study circles are going alright and people are moving through the sequence. This is good. This is wonderful. But we always need further training. Within only ten years the understanding of the Universal House of Justice has widened tremendously. In 1996 there was no clear understanding of how the Institute Process will really look like. It was a movement set in motion with a goal ahead. But within ten years the Universal House of Justice understood from the developments in the various parts of the world and with the assistence on High how to really go about things and advised the internatonal community. Now we are at a point in the history of the Institute Process where quantity is really secondary to quality. When in 2000 it was important to go as quickly as possible through the sequence and become tutors it is now more important than ever to go through the sequence doing the practical part and implementing your learnings into your every day life.

As Mr. Arbab said in one of his many talks, the sequence of the training institute had not been chosen for the sequence of ideas presented (for the knowledge gained) but because it presents a sequence of service acts. It doesn't help us to rush through the courses and it doesn't help our community.

If we want to be good tutors we need to have experience in the practical part of each book. If we do not have experience we will not be able to fully convey what a certain book is about. Ruhi book 1 is about spirituality. Not necessarily in the candle/incense stick way, but in respect to our everyday life. We need more spirituality in our world and this also means more quality conversations. To study a prayer with someone raises the level of our conversations. This is the foundation for the change of the world. We need a change towards quality, towards spirituality.

As participants we were hopefully lucky to have a tutor that understood the importance of implementing the practical parts. As co-tutors we learn how to animate participants to do the practical part. This is not easy either. Not always anyways. And it needs training. Of course I can ask my former tutor of how to animate the participants in my course, but he/she might not know the people and then it is difficult to answer.

There are a lot of people out there that say Ruhi Book 1 is far too easy and if we have someone like that in our course it is important to know, how to raise the level of a question. How to move away from the mere understanding of the word to our personal life and even further to implications. This is something we theoretically know how to do, but many of us need experience in how to apply this knowledge in practise as tutors.

As I had mentioned before, I was not able to attend the whole meeting last weekend, but the glimpse I got was fascinating. It was actually three very skilled people that managed to support each other and learn from each other.

Each of them on their own would have tutored the course beautifully, but together I fell in love with their harmony.

(The photos are from other courses, as I did not have my camera with me last weekend.)

Little Mosque on the Prarie

2009-05-06T02:19:00.005+02:00

Please find the English below!!

Mały Meczet na Prerii
Promowanie zasady jedności w serialu komediowym

Chcemy zaprosić naszych przyjaciół i znajomych na spotkanie z

Mary and Clark Donnelly

producentami telewizyjnymi z Kanady, którzy będą gościli w Polsce na konferencji Telewizyjnej INPUT prezentując swój program komediowy pod tytułem Mały Meczet na Prerii.

Serial, który z sukcesem zagościł w telewizji kanadyjskiej, promuje jedność ludzi jako uniwersalną zasadę. Państwo Donnelly, którzy są bahaitami, pokażą ok. 20 minutowy odcinek z serii a po projekcji opowiedzą o swojej motywacji rozpoczęcia tej właśnie produkcji.

Zapraszamy w poniedziałek11 maja
o godz. 18:30
do Centrum Wiary Baha’i.
ul. Lanciego 13/6 (lok. Użytkowy)
Więcej informacji pod numerem 601 156 848
Prosimy zaproście swoich przyjaciół i znajomych!

INPUT po raz pierwszy odbędzie się w kraju Europy Środkowowschodniej, w Warszawie. Uczestnikami Konferencji INPUT http://www.input-2009.org/en/input2009.html corocznie są szefowie i dyrektorzy telewizji publicznych, autorzy i producenci telewizyjni, pracownicy i współpracownicy telewizji, producenci niezależni, a także przedstawiciele instytucji kultury i organizacji audiowizualnych z całego świata. Współorganizatorem Konferencji INPUT 2009 jest Miasto Stołeczne Warszawa.

English:

Little Mosque on the Prairie
Promoting oneness through television

We would like to invite our dear friends to a meeting with

Mary and Clark Donnelly

television producers from Canada, who will participate INPUT television conference, presenting their production, a successful sitcom series: Little Mosque on the Prarie.

The show promotes unity as a universal principle. Mrs ad Mr Donnelly will first show one episode of the series and then will share with us their motivation behind this exciting project.

We warmly invite you this coming Monday, 11th May at 18:30 to the Bahá’í Center are Lanciego 13 (near Metro Natolin. More information, please call: 601 156 848. Invite your friends!

Each year INPUT is held in a different country. For the first time INPUT will be held in Warsaw, Poland. Participants at the annual INPUT conference include the heads and directors of public television stations, authors and producers, workers and co-workers, independent producers, as well as representatives of cultural institutions and audiovisual organizations from around the world. Thus the Warsaw conference may very well be the greatest media event not only in Poland, but in all of Central/Eastern Europe.The conference organizers are Polish Television (Telewizja Polska S.A.) and the city of Warsaw

The Polish Bahá'í Community in photos / Polska wspólnota Bahaicka

2009-04-28T21:49:00.000+02:00

Photos from the National Convention of the Bahá'ís in Poland

2009-04-26T20:38:00.003+02:00

The Program of the National Convention 2009

The Ridvan Message of the Universal House of Justice to the Bahá'ís in the World (po polsku)

The Annual Report of the Bahá'ís in Poland for the year 165 (po polsku)

Some of the participants of this years National Convention in Warsaw (in the picture delegates and one of the Auxiliary Board Members for Poland)

The materials for the election of the new National Spiritual Assembly of Poland

Delegates to the 18th National Convention of the Bahá'ís in Poland

The Ridvan Message for the Bahá'í year 166

Participants of the 18th National Convention in Poland

Aureliusz, Bahá'í z Katowica (a Bahá'í from Katowice)

participants of the National Convention

National Convention of the Bahá'ís in Poland

2009-04-24T09:07:00.004+02:00

Tomorrow at about this time the National Convention of the Bahá'ís in Poland will begin. It is a weekend-meeting during which the National Spiritual Assembly of Poland will be elected, as every year during the period of Ridvan.

National Spiritual Assemblies function as Houses of Justice on a national level. While the Universal House of Justice in Haifa is considered infallible by Bahá'ís, the National Spiritual Assemblies are not. They at present exercise the purely spiritual task of guiding their national communities in their plans and actions towards the Most Great Peace.

The National Spiritual Assemblies around the world consist of nine members, elected yearly. Every Bahá'í above 21 years of age can be elected on the National Spiritual Assembly, man and women alike and every five years the members of the National Spiritual Assembly elect the Universal House of Justice.

The coming weekend now the National Spiritual Assembly of Poland will be re-elected and it is an exciting event as always. Some might consider it an honor to be elected on this body, but in fact the responsibility is great.

The National Convention fulfills a second purpose as well:

"As the principal purpose of Convention, apart from the election of the National Spiritual Assembly, is the consultation of the delegates with the National Spiritual Assembly, as much time as possible should be made available for the delegates to consult."

Every region of the country send one or a few delegates to the National Convention to consult and elect. It is the official space for the individual regions of the country to meet through their delegates face to face with the National Spiritual Assembly, bring to attention needs and make suggestions for advancing the national plans.

The meeting tomorrow will not only be visited by the current National Spiritual Assembly and the delegates but every Bahá'í from all over the country can participate in that meeting, get to know new members of the community, meet old friends and learn about the development of the community. Even though all the Bahá'ís at the National Convention can be present during the whole meeting and listen to all consultations, they can not actively participate in the consultation of the delegates with the National Spiritual Assembly.

In Poland we have one priority region, which is Warsaw. This means that it is a region that receives the main attention in bringing forward the betterment of its neighborhood through individual initiative and collective efforts. At the National Convention though all the regions where Bahá'ís live in Poland are present and will receive attention as to how to bring the healing message of Bahá'u'lláh to the masses in their area.

Looking forward to a meeting where harmony and common spiritual ideals will win and prevail over financial issues and materialism.

Polish Bahai Summer School / Szkoła Letnia w Polsce

2009-04-16T13:14:00.003+02:00

I will soon post a lot of info here. For the time being it is in English and Polish the following piece of news:

Host:	Polish Baha'i Community
Type:	Meetings - Club/Group Meeting
Network:	Global

Start Time:	31 July 2009 at 18:00
End Time:	06 August 2009 at 23:00
Location:	OSW KPRM, Jadwisin
Town/City:	Jadwisin, Poland

Wydarzenie organizowane przez polską wspólnotę bahaicką w celu promowania nauk wiary baha'i oraz pogłębienia uczestników w tematach związanych z tegorocznym tematem – historią i tożsamością bahaitów.

Szkoła letnia obędzie się tu (jak w poprzednich latach):

http://www.owjadwisin.pl/

Mapa satelitarna google:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=&daddr=&hl=pl&geocode=&mra=mr&ie=UTF8&ll=52.48883,21.064535&spn=0.002682,0.008261&t=h&z=18

YESSSSSSS! Uwierzcie swoim oczom, to się znów dzieje! ;) lol

Ale na serio.
Jak w latach ubiegłych, co stało się już tradycją dla większości europejskich krajów, organizujemy Polską Bahaicką Szkołę Letnią. W tym roku chcemy się skupić na bahaickiej historii i tożsamości, kierując się otrzymanymi sugestiami. Będziemy również obracać się wokół tematów chrześcijańskich, bowiem istnieje duże zainteresowanie takimi tematami.

Miejsce naszej szkoły usytuowane jest w okolicy Warszawy, co zapewnia dobry transport, tak przy podróżowaniu z kraju, jak i z zagranicy. Ośrodek jest własnością Kancelarii Prezesa Rady Ministrów i ma unikalną lokalizację, bezpośrednio nad Zalewem Zegrzyńskim.
Our venue is situated near Warsaw, which ensures good transportation, whether travelling within Polish borders or from outside of them. The facility is a property of the Prime Minister's Chancellery and has a unique location, just over the “Zalew Zegrzyński”.

(http://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jezioro_Zegrzy%C5%84skie)

Chcielibyśmy widzieć Was wszystkich podczas naszej szkoły letniej. Niniejsza strona będzie aktualizowana w miarę napływu nowych informacji. Całym sercem wyrażam nadzieję na zobaczenie niektórych z Was w tym roku w Polsce.

Nie muszę dodawać, że ta okazja jest „pokarmem dla duszy”, którego w świecie są wielkie braki.

Poza tym życzę miłego dnia ;)

An event organized by Polish Baha'i community to promote teachings of the Baha'i Faith and deepen participants in matters relating to this year's topic - history and identity of Baha'is.

The summer school will take place here (just like in previous years):

http://www.owjadwisin.pl/

Satelite google-map:
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=d&source=s_d&saddr=&daddr=&hl=pl&geocode=&mra=mr&ie=UTF8&ll=52.48883,21.064535&spn=0.002682,0.008261&t=h&z=18

YESSSSSSS! Believe you eyes, it's happening again ;) lol

But seriously.
Like in previous years, which has become quite a habit for most European countries, we are organizing Polsih Baha'i Summer School. This year we want to focus on Baha'i history and identity, following received suggestions. We will also float around Christian topics, as there is a great interest in such.

Our venue is situated near Warsaw, which ensures good transportation, whether travelling within Polish borders or from outside of them. The facility is a property of the Prime Minister's Chancellery and has a unique location, just over the “Zalew Zegrzyński”.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zegrze_Reservoir)

We would love to see all of you here during our summerschool. This page will be updated frequently as more and more information come. I wholeheartedly hope to see some of you in Poland this year.

I do not need to mention, that this opportunity is “food for a soul”, of which there is a huge shortage in the world ... ;)

Have a nice day as well ;)

If you wanna come, contact me!!! More soon!!

The event is also on facebook!

Ayyami-Ha celebration in Kraków

2009-04-03T09:42:00.003+02:00

Ayyam-i-Ha Ayyam-i-Ha Ayyam-i-Ha Ayyam-i-Ha!!!
You probably wonder what that means.

Ayyami-Ha = a four day festival and a period of which Baha'u'llah writes: "It behoveth the people of Baha, throughout these days, to provide good cheer for themselves, their kindred and, beyond them, the poor and needy, and with joy and exultation to hail and glorify their Lord, to sing His praise and magnify His Name.".

It is held from sunset on Feb. 25 to sunset of March 1 and serves as a preparation for the Fast, which begins March 2 and ends March 20.

The festival is also called "The Intercalary days", a term that refers to the Bahá'í Calendar.
Originally the Bahá'í Calendar was introduced by the Báb, the Forerunner of Bahá'u'lláh. Bahá'u'lláh confirmed the calendar later on and today it is used by Bahá'ís besides the Gregorian calendar.

The difference to the Gregorian calendar is, that the year consists of 19 months with each 19 days. The four days during which Ayyam-i-Ha is celebrated (five days in a leap year) are those days needed to balance out the solar year or 365 days. That is why they are called the "intercalary days".

Ayyam-i-Ha is a period full of love and joy, in which the community spends more quality time together and offers lots of acitivities. Those activities differ from community to community again and so Bahá'ís in Singapore, i.e. use this time to collectively donate blood. It is a time for giving - not only to Bahá'ís, but a time of charity and giving to everybody. A period that spiritually prepares us in practising detachment. First we detach ourselves from material things in whatever way we would like. We do this joyfully, because we usually do it together with our communities. Children get presents, adults give presents (and get them as well ;-)), we give parties, donate clothes, blood, time or money but we can eat and drink and have fun. After four filled days of giving and partying we all enter our individual period of detachment during the period of the fast, which is less often filled with parties but more with prayer.

The 19 days of fasting that follow Ayyam-i-Ha are a period of material detachment. From sunrise to sunset we can neither eat nor drink and this is not always easy. The body has to get used to not always immediately getting what it wants and we have to get used to fill the times we would usually spend eating a snack here and there. Those times are meant to be filled with prayer and meditation. The time of the fast is a very individual experience and I get back to this in another post.

You might be wondering, why I am writing about Ayyam-i-Ha now, ... a month later ... :-)
Because I have just found some wonderful photos, from an Ayyam-i-Ha celebration in Krakow.
Enjoy! You can contact the Bahá'ís in Kraków here: bahaikrakow [at] gmail [dot] com

Devotional Meetings

2009-04-03T08:43:00.002+02:00

"Immerse yourselves in the ocean of My words, that ye may unravel its secrets, and discover all the pearls of wisdom that lie hid in its depths."

I have already described Devotional Meetings in my previous post on IPG's.

There you can see, that Devotional Meetings represent the sacredness at the heart of any Bahá'í community. Humans are essentially spiritual beings who have a longing for a sense in life. Devotional Meetings give room for everyone interested to talk about things that have usually come short in everyday life.

‘Abdu’l-Bahá said that "Man must live in a state of prayer. The most blessed condition is the condition of prayer and supplication. In the highest prayer, men pray only for the love of God, not because they fear Him or hell, or hope for bounty or heaven... The spiritual man finds no delight in anything save in commemoration of God."

Devotional Meetings (Spotkanie modlitewne) can look very different, depending on the participants. In New York there is a Devotional Meeting at the New York Bahai Center and it is very musical, energetic and international. In other localities devotional meetings might be very artsy and include some artistic activity after reading prayers.

In Poland, devotional meetings are regularly offered in a number of Bahá'í communities, such as i.e. Warsaw and Krakow. In Warsaw they happen every Wednesday at ul. Pereca in Śródmieście. In the Calendar on www.bahai.org.pl they are described as Open Meetings or "Spotkanie Otwarte", because everybody is invited and everybody can contribute. They take place from 4pm-5.30pm and offer a possibility to get to know the Bahá'í way of praying.

If you want to know the exact place, you can call 0-22 371 44 80 (Żeby uzyskać dokładny adres, zadzwoń: 0-22 371 44 80)

IPG = Intensive Program of Growth

2009-03-25T23:23:00.002+01:00

Bahá'ís all over the world are talking about IPG's recently. IPG's here and there and everywhere. IPG's seem to be THE big thing recently. But what ARE IPG's really?

IPG = Intensive Program of Growth

What do Bahá'ís want to grow though? Tea would be plausible, ... but maybe it is tomatoes or potatoes. Maybe they themselves want to grow as individuals and as a community. NOW, we all want to grow as individuals, that is fine. And obviously the Bahá'ís want to grow as a community as well, fine too. BUT if the "Growth" in "Intensive Program of Growth" stands for growth of community, do Christians, Muslims, Jews, Atheists and all those out there have to be afraid now? Afraid of Bahá'ís that are intensely going to preach their Faith and in organized programs try to lure their neighbours into their religion?

The answer is a clear: NO! And you know why? I will tell you:

To have an IPG means to build a new civilization in a certain area with intensified effort and Bahá'ís believe that this "betterment of the world can be achieved through pure and goodly deeds". Going around and preaching the end of the world is not necessarily a pure and goodly deed and you will hardly find Bahá'ís doing this. Instead, what we can understand from "pure and goodly deeds" are a number of activities Bahá'ís offer to an intensified degree in an Intensive Program of Growth.

Those activities include studying a prayer together or holding Devotional Meetings.
We might wonder how Devotional Meetings can help us build a better world, but in fact they do. Devotional Meetings represent the sacredness at the heart of any Bahá'í community. It is not just reading a couple of prayers together, eating a few cookies, talking about work and going home. Bahá'ís regard those meeting as a place to talk about the concept of prayer, why Bahá'í prayers are different from other prayers and in particular as a place where we talk about themes of spiritual impact. We have more to talk about in life than work, troubles and money. Humans are essentially spiritual beings who have a longing for a sense in life. Few really find that sense in money. Devotional Meetings give room for everyone interested to talk about things that have usually come short in everyday life.

Another one of those activities that characterize IPG's are home visits.
The guiding principle in the life of a Bahá'í is unity. Home visits serve unity. They disperse all causes for disunity and make us focus only on the person that visits or we are visiting. They make us forget the negative qualities we see in others or we might have heard about. This is in no way an articifal thing Bahá'ís are doing, just to get people's attention. During an IPG Bahá'ís take more time off their everyday life in order to focus on their friendships, family, neighbours. We very often live just a life next to each other, without really spending quality time together. For everybody "quality time" might mean something else. One thing Bahá'ís understand from this term is to get together in unity and to talk about meaningful themes, like the life of Bahá'u'lláh or the Covenant of God. If a Bahá'í happens to invite you to talk about any of these topics, this means in the very first place, that he/she wants to spend time with you, get to know you and offer you room to talk about meaningful subjects.

Bahá'ís also offer children's classes and Junior Youth Groups during those Intensive Programs of Growths. And you know why? Children are our future and the children's classes Bahá'ís are offering all around the world lay the foundations for an upright character. Don't be afraid to have your child join one of those classes. They might hear the name 'Abdu'l-Bahá or Bahá'u'lláh, but they are not going to be indoctrinated. They will learn essential qualities for an upright character, such as honesty, love and truthfulness. You can have a look at the materials and join the classes yourself, if you want. But what you might want to understand is, that children's classes are no one-time-event. Certainly it is your choice, if you want your child to participate regularly, but children's classes - the way Bahá'ís are offering them - are meant to iniciate a process of development. A character development. This process will lead to Junior Youth Groups (age 11-15). This is an age group very often neglected in society or even worse treated as children. They are no children anymore. This age groups suffers the most, because they are receptive to the troubles in the world, in their families and in their own lifes and they want to improve. But they need a forum for this and Bahá'ís offer Junior Youth Groups as a forum for this civilization building generation. There materials used are tailored to their needs and develop in the Junior Youth a moral identity and initative. They study materials about qualities, they play games, become friends and they serve society in projects they chose themselves. Different groups come up with different programs. Some might want to go to asylum hostels to teach English or give children's classes themselves, others might want to clean a park or ....

But Bahá'ís also intensely offer such acitvities for adults. They are called study circles. It is not only Junior Youth or children that need to develop. Each of us is on a constant path of development. Study circles offer the possibility to learn about the Bahá'í approach of development and about Bahá'í concepts (prayer, life and death, Holy writings, service, etc), they will touch your heart through arts and make you act through pracitcal components. Don't be afraid of any of these parts - you might think you are not artistic, nobody is going to force you to anything, but you might want to be drawn into singing along :) Study circles are holistic meetings, that help us develop the essentials of our selves (head, heart and hand). And as unity is the most important for Bahá'ís, those meetings are not seperate from society, what we learn in those meetings is meant for us to serve society - for "the betterment of the world through pure and goodly deeds."

Now this is what Bahá'ís are talking about, when they are having IPG here and IPG there. They are trying to find people that want to make the world a better place and they offer programs that are essentially conducive to character building, independed of the participants background.

Now let's go out and find Bahá'ís near us to help them with their IPG's!!! To help them achieve the betterment of the world!!!

Siona's thoughts on becoming a Bahá'í

2009-03-24T21:13:00.003+01:00

What do I think about the faith in Poland. You know, the faith in Canada is huge, there is just no comparison at this point unless you were to compare the joy and fervour of the pioneers and Polish believers which is the same the world round. Polish Bahai's are a little shy to share their faith, but that is rapidly changing now thanks to each of us studying about what it means to be a Baha'i and how to teach the faith. The faith has a lot to offer Poland in terms of the wisdom of its teachings and in the openess and tolerance of its believers

The faith has a very special place in my heart and I really feel as though I have a personal relationship with Baha'u'llah through prayer (as do we all) and meditation and study of the writings. Constantly, each day I am developing, as is my family and we are closer and closer to one another and our actions are much more sensible and beautiful on a daily basis as we strive to make our inner and outer life mirror this gift that we all have been given. Now looking back I can really appreciate that the process of devlopment although each day one my think why can't I justbe perfect now!

Now that is something! I am a musican and teacher because I am a Baha'i. The Baha'i Faith teachers that the role of the teacher is very great and the music moves the soul. Isn't it wonderful that I have two passions that are equally supported by our faith? I always wanted to be a great mother and wife, and in teaching I have the opportunity to look at myself , to take myself to account as no othe rjob perhaps would permit me. Because I teach I am a better mother, and isn't it interesting that when asked how to educate their child, Abdu'l- Baha recommended the Montessori method to the parents of one of the greatest heorines of our faith? It made me wonder,and now (having completed the training and taught in the environment, I know why.) In fact the first Montessori school in Canada was out of the home of that Baha'i family in Montreal.

As a musician, I can only say what a better vocation than a vocation that makes people full of joy and life. It is a vocation that helps people think about who they are and where they have been and what they have done. Not every song has to be happy or full of beautiful melodic lines as long as it awakens within the listener the desire to do better, be better, serve better. When I sing the music of the blues composer Willie Dixon, or jazz composers like Jobim or Ellington, even when I sing soul pieces or the great Caribbean songs of Arrow, Crazy or the Mighty Sparrow i am reminded of how important the story is to our lives and how these stories mirror the stories of each of us on our journey to live and love better.

Siona

Bahá'í Explorer

2009-03-24T19:58:00.002+01:00

Today I found this website, which is a wonderful All-Around-Bahá'í-Website. You can find news and Blogs on the Faith as well as Audio and Video presentations, quotes and resources. It is still a Beta-version, but I highly recommend a visit if you want to be up to date :-) It basically collects Bahá'í content from the internet and presents you the cherry on the ice-cream (if I got it right).

I actually came across this website, because it features an excerpt from Kushtar's website with a quotation on music from Siona, a Bahá'í from Warsaw. Go and check it out! :)

Question from Soulpancake

2009-03-24T09:22:00.003+01:00

If you could erase one mistake in history, what would it be? There is one Polish answer in this video, but would be yours? No matter if you are Polish or from another area of the world. I'd be interested to know!

New Year in Warsaw

2009-03-23T02:34:00.002+01:00

The Warsaw Bahá'í Community celebrated its 166th New Year (Naw Ruz / Nowy Rok) and approximately 30 people came. We had Bahá'ís present as well as friends, flatmates, collegues, contacts from the internet, students of sociology and Esperantists and all of the enjoyed the feast a great deal.

It was a wonderful celebration with a lot of artistic talents. Wojtek recited one of his poems, Lidka danced, Paulina&Patrick, Otar, Kushtar, Daniel and Helena played the guitar and sang, Siona and Maxwell performed the musical interpretation of Bahá'í quotations and and and ... It was a joyful meeting with lots of fun and laughter.

People had the chance to learn about the Bahá'í Faith and a number of wonderful talks developed on Bahá'í culture, principles and history. It was a fantastic beginning of a new year and I am looking forward to what this year has in store for us.

Happy New Year to everybody! I hope your celebrations were as wonderful as ours!

Bahá'í Naw Ruz / Nowy Rok Bahaicki

2009-03-20T08:49:00.008+01:00

The President's Message to the Iranian People

I have posted this video for several reasons here:
a) it is a message of recognition of an important holiday to the Iranian people
b) it is a message of peace, that is so so necessary after all these years
c) it is also directed to the Bahá'ís, who also celebrate Naw Ruz as their New year and in fact there are 300.000 Bahá'ís in Iran who are longing for that great future mentioned in this speech, because they are persecuted, arrested, killed and harassed only for their religious belief.

While Bahá'ís all over the world will today celebrate their Naw Ruz feast it is with great concern for all their fellow believers in the cradle of the Bahá'í Faith.
The prayers read at this joyous occasion will include the imprisoned Bahá'ís in Iran and the cheerful gatherings will remind us of what our fellow believers in Iran are denied to enjoy. But as big as our concern for the situation of the Bahá'ís in Iran is our belief into a bright future. Naw Ruz is the beginning of the 166th Bahá'í Year. 166 years ago the Báb proclaimed his message in the Iranian city of Shiraz, claiming to be the Iman and a messenger from God, Who has come to announce the coming of the Promised One of All Ages. We Bahá'ís believe that this Promised One is Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the Bahá'í religion. Below you find a video that shows both, the tribulations & the achievements.

The Naw Ruz celebrations vary from community to community, but they usually include prayers, stories from Bahá'í history and some program, food, joy and laughter. In warsaw we are going to celebrate it on Saturday, March 21, 2009, 5pm (godz.17:00)at the Local Bahá'í Center: Ul. Lanciego 13, lokal użytkowy nr 6 (Informacje: nsa[at]bahai.org.pl, 0-22 371 44 80)

Come and join us!

Beyond Borders workshop

2009-03-18T23:51:00.010+01:00

Pat and I went to a conference in Warsaw last weekend. It was called "Beyond Borders. Overcoming Prejudice". It was organized by the Department of Psychology of Warsaw university and whilst Pat attended a workshop on refugees, I went to one on the Near East.

Due to terminology difficulties between Polish (Bliski Wschód - Near East) and the English equivalent Middle East I will name the countries we were focused on: Liban, Israel, Palestine, Egypt, Irak, Turkey, (Iran, Saudi-Arabia, Jemen, Oman, etc) +/- --> meaning: these are the ones I remember off the spot :-)

It was a very interesting experience as we were a small group of approx. 10 participants and two facilitators and various backgrounds (history, archeology, psychology, Religious studies, etc). We went a little into theory and learned about Geert Hofstede's concept of cultural dimensions.

Pretty interesting concept. The dimensions are as follows:

Low vs. High Power Distance: this indicates, how members of a culture accept the uneven power distribution. According to Hofsteede High power distance cultures, such as Malysia, accept the distance to people in power whereas Low power distance cultures, such as Denmark, are ruled by more democracy among each other and also subordinates can (more or less freely) express their critizism of people in power.

Individualism vs. Collectivism: This indicates how much people identify as members of a grop (family, tribe, nation, etc) or as individuals who are free to take their own, unbiased, independed decisions. This was most interesting to find out within the group. Coz for me, a German in Poland, Poles are real collectivists. But in the consultation within the group, of where to rank Poland all the other workshop participants (exclusively Polish) said Poland tends much more to Individualism. I thought I do not hear very well. You will hardly find anybody in Central Europe as catholic and family oriented as Poles. But whatever they say ;-)

Masculinity vs. Femininity: Here again I was surprised by their reaction. Many defined Poland to tend more to Feminity. Feminity and Masculinity refer to the traditional male (competitive, assertive) or female (relationships, quality of life) qualities, that can also be attributed to a people. I think Poland is very male by now. It probably wasn't always. But it has become. How different perceptions can be :-)

Uncertainty avoidance: Now, this one I like and find very clearly represented in Poland. It reflects the extent to which members of a society attempt to cope with anxiety by minimizing uncertainty. This means for example for me as a Bahá'í, that people avoid talking about my religion, because it could threaten their life and traditions.

In fact, the last dimension, was proven just a couple of minutes after we had spoken about it in the workshop. We went into small groups to do some funny exercise and there were 4 of us. One guy and us three girls. Now, he suddenly asked about the Bahá'í Faith and I gave a very basic introduction in my terrible terrible Polish and it turned out he knew quite a bit already. Now the girls both suddenly said that they had never even heard of it and once it had become clear, that it is a religion with a claim to this age they were leaning back in their chairs and I could smell the fear. He continued asking questions and they became more quiet and anxious of what I am preaching there. Now, in order to relax this tight up atmosphere a bit I referred back to the fourth dimension, saying, that as a Bahá'í I can only agree with Poles generally being very uncertainty-avoiding. And suddenly both of them relaxed and smiled and said that this is definitely true as fearing their tradition endangered. I felt as if they realized their own reaction, which made it easier for all of us to openly speak about the Bahá'í Faith as something new and interesting and nothing that puts their life in danger.

He was a charming and well-versed young guy with a profound knowledge of Islam who is coming with a couple of friends to our Naw Ruz celebration this saturday! Very happy :-)

Quite frankly, I did not learn much about the Near (or Middle) East but I had a nice experience and met lovely people. Can only encourage participation in conferences or workshops.

The Krakow Community Blog

2009-03-16T20:43:00.002+01:00

Our wonderful Krakow Community now has its own Blog. Considering the amount of their acitivities it was about time, really :-D

It is an Only-Polish-Blog and pretty young in the net, so for everyone interested either just click the following link and start reading: http://bahaikrakow.blogspot.com/or click the same link and learn some Polish :-)

So far you can find out about the Krakow Bahá'í activities and find a general introduction to the Bahá'í Faith. The Blog also features Ophra's interview with Rainn Wilson on his website Soulpancake and the Bahá'í Faith.

Go and check it out. Some support for our Krakow friends please!!! Clapclapclap!!!!

Kraków presentation on the Bahá'í Faith / prezentacja: Wiara Baha'i

2009-03-12T08:32:00.009+01:00

Yesterday our dear Duda from Krakow gave a presentation on the Bahá'í Faith. This is one in many activities the Krakow community has going on in order to let people know of the peace-bringing message of Bahá'u'lláh. They also have presentations at the university or at conferences and beyond that a vivid community life. If you want to meet the Krakow Community, visit them on one of their Prayer Meetings, Children's Classes, Youth meetings, Study circles, information evenings or simply at their regular barbeques. If you want to get in touch with them, write to nsa [at] bahai.org.pl and ask for contacts.

Bahai Prezentacja

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Historia Bahá'í z Nowego Miasta Lubawskiego - The Story of a Bahá'í from Nowe Miasto Lubawskie

2009-03-09T01:37:00.003+01:00

My name is Robert Domżalski. I come from Nowe Miasto Lubawskie in northern Poland. I am 21 years old.

I met the Bahá'i Faith one week after my last matura exam. I started my summer holiday with a 3-day trip to Warsaw. I was looking through a book of sacred architecture in a bookshop when I was riveted by a picture of the Bahá'i House of Worship in New Delhi, India, the so-called 'Lotus Temple'.

The name of the religion intrigued me. I had taken part in a school competition of art history several months before. Participation in it obliged me to get to know the artistic heritage of many cultures and religions. The success, which I achieved there, emboldened me to have the mistaken conviction that I knew each of the better-known religious systems. But I had never heard of Bahá'u'lláh and His faith!

The astounding design of temple was the second thing that kept me from turning the page. This monumental building has 9 identical sides - each one representing one of the world religions. The temple is open to everyone, no matter where you come from and what you believe. Its design expresses the fundamental Bahá'i priciples – the oneness of God, the oneness of religion and the oneness of mankind.

I was charmed! I had never heard of any doctrine, which directly says that people turn to the same God, no matter what they formally belong to. The idea of unifing people in one common faith, one universal cause captured my soul.

What's more, I had pilgrimaged to Jasna Góra, the most holy place for Roman-Catholics in Poland. It had taken an entire 2 weeks to get there on foot. I had prayed for the return of Christ, the promised "one shepherd and one flock". I couldn't understand why there was a division between the Roman-Catholic and the Othodox Church. I knew that their dogmas were mostly the same. In my childhood I used to dream I could unify them one day. All my life I supported the efforts of John Paul II, who did a lot for ecumenism.

I bought the book but the information in it turned out to be very short and I wasn't satisfied.

I went back to Nowe Miasto Lubawskie and began my search in the local library. Unfortunately there's a real lack of information about the Bahá'i Faith in Polish literature, even in religious books.

I found the official site of Polish Bahá'i community in the internet at www.bahai.org.pl. This was the source I was looking for! It seemed to me there were fewer Bahá'i's in Poland than I suspected. There were no active Bahá'i's in my neighbourhood. This site recommended a presentation of the Bahá'i Faith at Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. It was something for me! I sent an e-mail to National Spiritual Assembly and asked them when the next presentation would be. The answer made me upset - the presentation was done once a year in the spring. It was summer. I had to wait a year. My enthusiasm passed and I left my search.

However the message of the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh came to mind from time to time. I felt inwardly that the human race needed a fresh manifestation of God. A few months later I wrote to the National Spiritual Assembly once again. I asked for some Bahá'i writings. They sent me some - including prayers and "The Hidden Words" by Bahá'u'lláh. I was delighted!

The more I read the words of the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh, the more sure I was that they are The Messengers of God for now. Gradually I was enriching my spiritual life with Bahá'i prayers. The prayers made my relationship with God more direct. No indoctrination contaminated them. Each person truly praying to God would not reject them!

One day I read a quotation that asked me for a definition of my identity. 'Abdu'l-Bahá, son of Bahá'u'lláh, wrote something what really touched me:

"A man, who lives a life conforming to the principles of Bahá'u'lláh, is a Bahá'i"

Am I a Bahá'i?

I thought a long time... There's no initiation in the Bahá'i Faith. A believer doesn't even take a new name. There's no border between being a Bahá'i and not. Did I become a Bahá'i while reading this quotation? ... when I saw the 'Lotus Temple' in the picture? Maybe I have been a Bahá'i all my life?

I decided to register myself officially as a Bahá'i. I had't met any Bahá'i's, so I asked for a declaration card via e-mail. The declaration card was delivered to me by traditional post. I signed it and sent it back. I was 19.

A few weeks later I met my first Bahá'i in Warsaw. I participated in a presentation of the Bahá'i Faith several months later.

The acceptance of the Báb and Bahá'u'lláh has been the most important and wonderful decision in my short life.

Singing with Joany Lincoln at the Frankfurt conference

2009-02-14T22:54:00.003+01:00

Happy about the Frankfurt conference

2009-02-14T22:54:00.002+01:00

Frankfurt Baháí conference No 2

2009-02-12T14:55:00.002+01:00

Below you find another video of the Frankfurt conference. Marco Abrar, the wonderful photographer put this on online. It really show the spirit of the conference and the diversity of its 4600 participants. Approximately 400 children rounded the number of participants up to 5000 people.

The Regional Bahá'í Conference in Frankfurt

2009-02-12T13:30:00.003+01:00

It happened. And we were there. 4600 Bahá'ís from all over Europe gathered in Frankfurt the past weekend to celebrate the achievements and to plan ahead.

We listened to exciting stories from Slovakia, Germany, France, Switzerland and we sat together with our Polish Bahá'í community to plan our next projects, to consult about our commitment and to refocus our energies.

It was an exciting event and I will soon post photos and videos and reports here, but for the time being - have a look at the Hungarian perspective on the Frankfurt conference. Ajang at his best again in doing the video :)

Regional Bahá'í Conference in Frankfurt (a Hungarian perspective) from secondlight on Vimeo.

Denial of education to Bahá'ís in Iran

2009-01-30T13:42:00.002+01:00

In 2007 I gave a presentation for my Polish class in Poznan on the persecution of Bahá'ís in Iran and more specifically on the denial of education for Bahá'ís. The presentation is very basic, which is partly because of my inadequate powerpoint skills and was partly meant to be like that. If you want to help the Bahá'ís in Iran to be allowed back into universities again, contact me !!!

Denial of Education to Bahá'ís (in Polish)

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Wprowadzenie do Wiary Bahá'í

2009-01-30T00:06:00.002+01:00

Below you find an introduction to the Bahá'í Faith in Polish. It familiarizes you with the purpose of the Bahá'í Faith, the concept of the covenant of God as Bahá'ís understand it, with the station of Bahá'u'llah and with different laws. If you are interested to view this presentation in a different language (English, German, Russian, etc) let me know!

Wprowadzenie Do Wiary Bahai

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Robert's sharing on becoming a Bahá'í

2009-01-28T02:10:00.003+01:00

This video is also done by Kushtar and after Szymon telling his story on becoming a Bahá'í, you can now watch Robert's story. For the one's among you, who do not understand Polish: Robert is a wonderful young man from Nowe Miasto, studying history of art in Torun. He first saw a picture of the Indian House of Worship with a caption and investigated upon this discovery. Before he met the first Bahá'í, he had read dozens of books and had declared his Faith in Bahá'u'lláh already.

The word of God is powerful!!!

I am so excited - Frankfurt & Kiev: We are coming!!!

2009-01-27T22:58:00.004+01:00

Last weekend three more conferences have been held around the world to celebrate achievements in community-building work and make plans for future activities at the local level.

1.700 Bahá'ís from Mongolia, Russia and other areas attended the conference in Ulaanbaatar.

5.500 Bahá'ís attended the conference in Sidney, Australia and 1.400 Bahá'ís attended the conference in Madrid, Spain.

Soon, soon, soon the Frankfurt conference will be on. This will be February 7-8 and we have almost 40 Bahá'ís from Poland participating. This is a milestone in participation and incredibly exciting to witness. After Frankfurt I am so happy also being able to join the conference in Kiev on Feb 28-March 1. Even though I have been to Belarus and places, in Kiev I will be a newbie and that is exciting as well. Over the next days, I am going to add some of the preparation to go through for such a conference. This means practical as well as spiritual preparation :-)

And below I have added some news on the conference in Ulaanbaatar and the recollections of Sasha Kononova. Sasha used to live in Poznań and be a member of our local Bahá'í community. Good times. Now she is back in Ulan-Ude and attended that conference instead of our Frankfurt one.

Ms. Sasha Kononova, 28, Ulan Ude, Russia: “I had no idea so many people would be attending the conference. The consultations have helped greatly to deepen my understanding of how we must act.”

Ulaanbaatar was the gathering place for more than 1,700 Baha’is from Mongolia, Russia and other countries who braved fierce cold as they traveled to what is in fact the coldest capital city in the world.

Temperatures reached minus 30 C a day or two before the conference as people made their way to the gathering, including two groups who had to get special permission from the government to travel during a major snowstorm. More people than expected came from various regions of the country, including 408 individuals from Khovsgul, 143 from Khente, 160 from Uliastai, 120 from Sainshand, and 450 from the capital itself. More than 50 Baha’is arrived from Russia.

“The first reaction of many people on entering the conference hall was utter amazement and exhilaration at the number of participants,” said one member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Mongolia. “Some even declared that a gathering of such a size was very rare in Mongolia.”

The conference was held in an exhibition hall – a vast empty space resembling a warehouse or a deserted aircraft hanger – that had been transformed through the efforts of a production team into an inviting, attractive, and serviceable conference center. There was a large stage, a huge screen on which the action could be seen, and rows of movable chairs that allowed for workshops, too. Simultaneous translation through wireless headphones was provided in three languages.

[...]

“The input that the counselors gave through their talks was an inspiration to all the participants as it helped them to find, in the words of the Universal House of Justice, ‘the courage to make whatever sacrifices are needed to ensure the resounding success of the Plan’ and to ‘recognize the profound implications of their mission,’” a member of the organizing team wrote later.

[...]

In order to encourage the friends to rise up and help other communities establish intensive programs of growth, Ms. Khursheda Porsayeva used the example of a group of neighbors helping another neighbor to build a house, doing it without being asked and in a spirit of selfless service. The spirit alone furthers the development of a community, she said.

[...]

For the Baha’is, the conference was not only a time to celebrate past achievements and make plans for the future, but it was a wonderful opportunity to be together with so many fellow believers, including with Sean Hinton, who came to Mongolia in 1998 out of his desire to share the Bahá’í teachings and who returned to Ulaanbaatar to attend both days of the conference.

The task of organizing 1,700 people into 41 workshops on Saturday and 17 cluster groups on Sunday seemed daunting, yet on both occasions – through careful planning and training of the facilitators and the many youth serving as ushers – the groups were positioned and formed with remarkable ease. Both workshops were very successful, and a number of people, including some of the participants from the wider community, commented on the high quality of the consultation.

At the Sunday workshop a great number of commitments were made to help certain areas establish intensive programs of growth, and many individuals said they would strengthen their commitment to the core activities. Among the participants who came from Russia, seven people from Ulan Ude offered to move to Yakutsk to assist with the work there, and it was decided that the goal for Vladivostok should be the establishment of an intensive program of growth by July of this year.

Ms. Ninge, 16, Uliastai, Mongolia: “The journey here took one and a half days. There were 30 of us on the bus, and we were singing all the way. I have learnt many things so far and feel that I now know much better what to do when I return to Uliastai.”

Mr. Tumeroo, 27, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia: “This is the first time the Baha’is in Mongolia have organized an event on this scale…. The consultations have been conducted in a very effective and respectful way.”

This has only been a small take-out of the news entry on Bahai World News Service If you wanna read more, go there. Don't miss it. Join me to Kiev!!!

Bahá'í Junior Youth Groups

2009-01-23T11:29:00.003+01:00

Bahá'ís regard the age between 10 and 15 as utterly important for the development of every young person. Girls and boys between the age of 10 and 15 are young but they are no children anymore.

Below you can watch segments from the Baha'i Newsreel describe the Baha'i approach to cultivating the talents and spiritual qualities of teens and showcases teen service projects in Chicago and North Carolina.

Similar projects are underway in the Polish cities of Krakow and Szczecin. If you are interested in participating or having your children participate write to nsa@bahai.org.pl with request for further information.

"These years of early youth, in today’s world in particular, are very difficult, but at the same time we see from the sacred Writings that the capacity to grasp fundamental moral and spiritual principles, by which the light of a good character is made evident, is deposited within these children. This suggests that if thousands upon thousands were invited into the Cause, and assisted to become deepened teachers of the faith, they could in turn rescue their peers. In this decadent phase of human history spiritual battles will be won on the street corners of village and city, in the school hallways, and in the places of recreation."

The Polish Bahá'í Website

2009-01-23T01:23:00.003+01:00

Go and check out the website of the Polish Bahá'í Community: www.bahai.org.pl

That website informs you about news from the national as well as international Bahá'í life, you find out where the next meeting will take place in which you can participate, you learn about Bahá'u'lláh, the Holy Writings, the Holy Places, why and how to pray and famous Bahá'ís.

Whatever your heart desires to know about the Bahá'í Faith can be found on that site, and if not ;-), then just write an email to nsa@bahai.org.pl

Unfortunately the site is only in Polish, but what to do :-) it is a Polish community :)

Part III: Letters to kings and rulers of the late 19th century

2009-01-22T00:13:00.002+01:00

"The face of him on whom I gazed I can never forget, though I cannot describe it. Those piercing eyes seemed to read one's very soul; power and authority sat on that ample brow.... No need to ask in whose presence I stood, as I bowed myself before one who is the object of a devotion and love which kings might envy and emperors sigh for in vain!"

Prophetic words spoken by Edward Granville Brown, an orientalist from England who was the only Westerner to meet Bahá'u'lláh in person on four occasions.

In fact, the European emperors during the second half of the 19th century have MOST PROBABLY sighed for such a devotion and love. If we look at Europe, only England could really consider itself to have a monarch generally appreciated and most likely generally even loved. Other than her, Europe had little to offer in respect to lovable monarchs.

Whom do we have? The German Emperor Wilhelm I. (1861-1888) and after him more (than less) immediately his grandson Wilhelm II. (1888-1918). The first a puppet in the hands of a powerful prime-minister and the second an inexperienced wanna-be-ruler who wanted to boost his self-esteem in competition with his superior cousin on the island.
In France we see an extraordinary Napoleon III (1852-1871) who unfortunately changed his course from helping the poor and needy to avenging his uncles Russian nightmare. His desire for revenge and power led his country into one of the darkest periods characterized by famine, chaos and poverty.
In Russia it doesn't look much different. From Alexander I to Nicholas II there was no hope in sight. Certainly, Alexander I introduced fundamental reforms to his country (abolishment of serfdom) but really ... not out of love for his peasants, out of love for power and ... yes his country. Just that "his country" does not equal "the peasants" ... in fact they were just an unwelcomed have-to-be. He reformed his country for war, for an advanced army and for expanding Russia on to the Balkans. His outwardly clever movement of reform (which was a necessary thing to do, no doubt!!) was not implemented to the fullest and his later reign of terror pursued by his successors led Russia into the worst crisis it had ever experienced.
The Ottoman Empire, Persia, Austria, ... it didn't look much different in those parts of the continent. Corrupt emperors and a path directed to war.

At that time Bahá'u'lláh addressed the leaders of the world both, individually and collectively. His letters are preserved in the International Bahá’í Archive of the Bahá’í Community in Haifa, Israel. They are either written in Bahá’u’lláhs handwriting or as transcriptions in the hand of his amanuensis. The process of transcription is described as 1) the content to be spoken aloud, 2) transcription in a shorthand script, 3) revision and approval by Bahá’u’lláh. The translation of these letters is based on the original documents from the Bahá’í archives or photocopies of the originals.

From 1921 to 1957 Shoghi Effendi, Bahá’u’llahs Great Grandson, was the authorized interpreter of the Bahá’í Writings and he set the standard for translation still to be followed today by numerous scholars and translators at the Bahá’í Research Department in Haifa.

The first tablet Bahá'u'lláh revealed for any monarch was the first tablet to Napoleon III. It was revealed shortly after his arrival in Adrianople in 1863. 'Abdu'l-Bahá tells us: "Upon His arrival in prison He addressed an epistle to Napoleon, which He sent through the French ambassador. The gist of it was, 'Ask what is Our crime, and why We are confined in this prison and this dungeon.'"
Napoleon did not reply and he received a second letter a few years later.

In the meantime though, Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Shah of Persia. The epistle to Nasiri'd-Din Shah Qajar (1848-1896) was revealed in Arabic and Persian in Adrianople and was delivered from Acre in early 1869 by a young man named Badí.

From 'Abdu'l-Bahá we learn the following about Badi: "A youth named Mirza Badi, a native of Khurasan, took the epistle, and hastened toward the presence of His Majesty the King. The Royal Train had its abode and station outside Tihran, so he took his stand alone on a rock in a place far off but opposite to the Royal Pavilion, and awaited day and night the passing of the Royal escort or the attainment of admission into the Imperial Presence. Three days did he pass in a state of fasting and vigilance: an emaciated body and enfeebled spirit remained. On the fourth day the Royal Personage was examining all quarters and directions with a telescope when suddenly his glance fell on this man who was seated in the utmost respectful attitude on a rock. It was inferred from the indications [perceived] that he must certainly have thanks [to offer], or some complaint or demand for redress and justice [to prefer]. [The King] commanded one of those in attendance at the court to inquire into the circumstances of this youth. On interrogation [it was found that] he carried a letter which he desired to convey with his own hand into the Royal Presence. On receiving permission to approach, he cried out before the pavilion with a dignity, composure, and respectfulness surpassing description, and in a loud voice, "O King, I have come 59 unto thee from Sheba with a weighty message!"* [The King] commanded to take the letter and arrest the bearer. His Majesty the King wished to act with deliberation and desired to discover the truth, but those who were present before him loosed their tongues in violent reprehension, saying, "This person has shown great presumption and amazing audacity, for he hath without fear or dread brought the letter of him against whom all peoples are angered, of him who is banished to Bulgaria and Sclavonia, into the presence of the King. If so be that he do not instantly suffer a grievous punishment there will be an increase of this great presumption." So the ministers of the court signified [that he should suffer] punishment and ordered the torture. As the first torment they applied the chain and rack, saying, "Make known thy other friends that thou mayest be delivered from excruciating punishment, and make thy comrades captive that thou mayest escape from the torment of the chain and the keenness of the sword." But, torture, brand, and torment him as they might, they saw naught but steadfastness and silence, and found naught but dumb endurance [on his part]. So, when the torture gave no result, they [first] photographed him (the executioners on his left and on his right, and he sitting bound in fetters and chains beneath the sword with perfect meekness and composure), and then slew and destroyed him."

The letter itself is the longest epistle to any monarch and the Shah was the only emperor addressed who was familiar with both, the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh. He had called for the first persecutions of the Báb and his followers and had met him face to face. During his reign the Báb was publicly executed in 1850 and Bahá’u’lláh exiled from Persia.

The English translation is available since 2002 and it consulted the first English version by E.G. Browne in 'Abdu'l-Bahá's A Traveller's Narrative. In that book Browne, himself not a follower of either the Báb or Bahá’u’lláh, had also translated Bahá’u’lláhs words to Badí. He had obtained the texts from Baron Rosen who had kept them in the collection of the Institute of Oriental Languages in St. Petersburg, where they had been sent to after a Russian consular obtained them in Persia. As to the relation towards other writings Bahá’u’lláh quotes four Hidden Words in this letter and cites parts of this letter in what came to be authoritatively translated as The Epistle to the Son of the Wolf, p.11 and 39 written in 1891 in Acre.

The style of the letter is authoritative in tone and Bahá'u'lláh presents the Shah his message of unity and justice. He elaborates His station as a Manifestion of God and he takes a close look at the concept of justice

“A just king is the shadow of God on earth. All should seek shelter under the shadow of his justice, and rest in the shade of his favour.”

Despite his early attempts for reforms he turned out a dictator of the worst kind.
He killed around 20.000 Babís and Bahá'ís but despite of his ignorance one needs to attribute his character with weakness as well. Bahá'u'lláh asked the Shah to gather the Learned and test His Cause and the Shah in fact obeyed by this request. A prisoner he himself has exiled from His home country is writing to the powerful Shah and is asking him to test if his message is true. AND the Shah abides. He did. But it was the Ulama that were to stupid to test Bahá'u'lláh. And here we are back to the ignorance of the powerful Nasiri'd-Din Shah Qajar - he was upset, but he left it at that.

I wonder where his soul really wanders.

Becoming a Bahá'í in Poland

2009-01-21T10:04:00.002+01:00

A video Kushtar made. Szymon is sharing how he became a Bahá'í. (in Polish)

Bahá'u'lláh & Justice

2009-01-21T00:55:00.005+01:00

Recently I had the chance to present Bahá'u'lláhs address to the emperors of the XIX century in one of my history classes at university. I am gonna share part II with you on here today and it is gonna be a rational intro into the concept of justice.

The purpose of justice “is the appearance of unity among men.”

Bahá’u’lláhs teachings are based on the understanding of a fundamentally spiritual nature of man and this spiritual nature, according to Bahá’u’lláh finds expression in justice. He writes, that

“My object is none other than the betterment of the world and the tranquillity of its peoples. The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established” and “O Son of Spirit! The best beloved of all things in My sight is Justice […]”

The concept of justice presented in the Bahá'í Writings is based on the principle of righteous action and it suggests fair-mindedness as a necessity to accept rational proofs. Without fair-mindedness the best king can not accept that his expenditures are responsible for the poverty in his lands and with fair-mindedness the most ignorant of the people are ready to make a change if proofs are against them. According to Bahá’u’lláh justice is the very foundation of unity and hence of a better world.

The search for a better world has been part of human history since its beginnings and despite of its failures we can observe a progress towards greater political and social justice during the 19th century. From earliest times until the 18th century concepts of justice developed regarding a maturing understanding of ethical values at the level of the individual and at all levels of society. Western society entered the 19th century out of three revolutions that had brought about a range of developments advancing a just society . Especially the French Revolution greatly contributed to the process of nation building and the development of the common identification with a state in whose government ordinary people could participate to an ever greater degree.

Justice in the Bahá’í understanding can be viewed in the light of William Gladstones third principle of foreign policy:

“Common action means common objects; and the only objects for which you can unite together the powers of Europe are objects connected with the common good of them all.”

(Only that for obvious reasons the Bahá'í Faith does not only speak about Europe, but the whole world.)

A very short introduction to Bahá'u'lláh and the Bahá'í Faith

2009-01-19T23:54:00.007+01:00

Recently I had the chance to present Bahá'u'lláhs address to the emperors of the XIX century in one of my history classes at university. I am gonna share parts of my thoughts with you on here in bits and pieces. I will start with a general and short intro to who Bahá'u'lláh actually was.

The Bahá’í Religion evolved in 19th century Persia from the Bábí Religion. The founder of the Bábí Religion, the Báb (1819-1850), claimed to be the forerunner of “the Promised One”, the Messiah of the Jews, the return of Christ and of the Imam Husayn. The emergence of the Bábí Religion in 1844 in the Persian city of Shíraz set off a wave of persecutions and arrests of the followers of the Báb through clergy and state. In 1850 the Báb fell victim to this persecution in a public execution.

The Shrine of the Báb on Mount Carmel, Haifa, Israel

With the proclamation of the Bahá’í Religion in 1863 through Bahá’u’lláh (1817-1892), and as a result of the massive inflow of new believers, the persecution was augmented and lasts until the present day in nowadays Iran. Bahá’u’lláh is an Arabic title meaning Glory of God and attributes to a Persian man by the given name of Mírza Husayn ‘Alí, who was born on November 12, 1817 in Tehran. He is the founder of the Bahá’í Religion and is considered by Bahá’ís as the messenger of God for today, “the Promised One”. Soon after the proclamation of his mission the Persian government imprisoned Bahá’u’lláh and soon afterwards banished him to Baghdad in neighbouring Iraq, further to Adrianople, Constantinople and eventually to the prison city of Akká in the Ottoman Empire, where he lived for twenty-five years in exile and passed away in 1892.

The Most Holy Spot for Bahá'ís, the place where Bahá'u'lláhs physical remains are laid to rest.

For his years in exile hundreds of written works are attributed to his person and the Bahá'í Archives at the Bahá’í World Centre in Haifa, Israel held 7,169 original and photocopies of original Tablets of Bahá'u'lláh in 2001. An additional 98,000 copies of other Tablets and letters are in the Archives, of which many have not yet been authenticated. 98.000 is the total number concerning writings of Bahá'u'lláh, his son and authorized interpreter ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (1844-1921) as well as his successor Shoghi Effendi (1897-1957). The total of Bahá’u’lláhs writings is an estimated 15.000 works. His writings cover a wide range of subjects, such as social issues (i.e. the equality of man and woman), the nature and purpose of religion (i.e. in The Book of Certitude written in 1862) the claim to prophethood (i.e. The Tabernacle of Unity) or “a prescription for peaceful and just leadership in the modern world” as in his letters to the emperors of the world.

41 conferences and a video

2009-01-18T11:32:00.003+01:00

The series of 41 conferences is still on its way and currently 30 conferences have been held all over the world. Beginning in November with conferences in Zambia, this weekend sees Bahá'ís gather in New Guinea, Canada and Nicaragua. At present there are almost 40 friends from Poland going, which is quite exciting, considering the small number of believers in this strongly catholic country.

Below is a video, made by Ruben Jimenez and originally published on vimeo.com. I saw in his comments that one can download it and would like to share it with you. It is a call for YOUR participation in that historical event. Come and join us!

41 Conferences from Rubén Jiménez on Vimeo.

Separation vs. Integration

2009-01-17T13:27:00.006+01:00

(First photo: Malcolm X / Second Photo: Martin Luther King)

Now this is not precisely about Bahá'ís in Poland, but about unity. I am posting this entry on this blog, because it is a discussion I had at university with a lecturer from the States and fifteen Polish students. Which to choose, separation or integration, is a question on peoples minds. It is a tough one and not always easy to approach. If our neighbor is unpleasant, shall we try to avoid him or try to befriend him even more? If at school we are taught that Germans blame Poles for the Concentration camps (yes, that is what I was told yesterday that some kids at Polish school learn such things), shall we stick to our prejudices or meet them and find out? If..., if..., if ... many possible ifs to think about.

Now, the purpose of the Bahá'í Faith is to unite all mankind in one universal Cause and one common Faith. Bahá'u'lláh says: "So powerful is the light of unity that it can illuminate the whole earth" and addressing the kings and rulers of the earth Bahá'u'lláh called them to the cause of "well-being, the unity, the harmony, and the reconstruction of the world, and of the tranquillity of the nations." Unfortunately there are always people around that try to use separation instead of integration in order to achieve their goals. But even if the goals are honorable it does not mean that the way necessarily is as well. Recently I had a conversation on the "I Have a Dream" speech by Martin Luther King and the "Ballet or Bullet" speech by Malcolm X.

These two famous speeches were both given in America around 1964. Both dealt with racism and the future of the African Americans in the States. One of them was inspiring and promising whereas the other showed a general distrust and aggression not very unpopular in those days.
In his “Ballot or Bullet” speech Malcolm X advices the Black Population to wisely exercise their right to vote, but at the same time he outlays his world view of revenge. His goals were honorable; the means he chose were dangerous.

“So we’re trapped, trapped, double-trapped, triple-trapped”, “America is just as much a colonial power as England ever was” and “The government has failed us” are expressions from this speech representing the basis for his hatred and revenge. But could we ever credit either of the two with the development of an advancing society?

Malcolm did not deny his dislike: “I hate every drop of that white rapist blood that is in me”, and he was proud of it. If the White man advanced thanks to his feeling of superiority and at the expense of the Black Man, then the Black man must come out of his shell and lift himself up above those prejudices. The superiority of one is not in his genes, but in his intelligence, Malcolm argues. And if the White man is successful, why not copy him with all that comes with it? If it means Black Racism – do it. The fundamentals of his hatred towards the White man are not irrational. It was because of him, that the African Americans came to the New Continent at all, and it was him who made them suffer from political oppression, economic exploitation and social disintegration. He is right, there is nothing to deny.

But as Martin Luther King used to put it: “Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true“.

This is what happened to Malcolm X. Instead of seeing the beauty in 250.000 people from all kinds of backgrounds demonstrating for civil rights, he chose to call it “the farce on Washington” and to see the participants being tricked into it by the White man.

Malcolm’s and King’s “sense of values” could have not been more differently expressed than through the “I have a Dream” and the “Ballot or Bullet” speech. Where one wants to fight against an enemy, the other is encouraging the fight for freedom. One wants to eventually arise on the very means that history proved to be a failure, whereas the other encourages soul force and warns of the guilt of wrongful deeds. Where one is calling his audience to turn to themselves, the other is sending out a warning from generalizing distrust towards all white people.

The keyword for understanding Malcolm X is separation and for Martin Luther King integration. Two powerful forces opposed to each other and yet aimed at a common goal: racial equality. The Universal House of Justice of the Bahá'í's commons on this with these words:

“The progress of racial integration is a development that is not merely an expression of sentimentality or strategy but arises from the recognition that the earth's peoples constitute a single species whose many variations do not themselves confer any advantage or impose any handicap on individual members of the race.”

Attendance nears 50,000 people at conferences

2009-01-16T11:44:00.004+01:00

Read the story also on Baha'i World News Service

13 January 2009

Guadalajara, Mexico — In Mexico, the prayers were in Spanish, Mayan and Nahuatl. Across North America, in Toronto, they were in English, French, and the Northern Tutchone language.

But the spirit was the same - members of the Baha'i Faith coming together in regional conferences to celebrate past achievements and to plan for upcoming activities.

The gatherings last weekend in Guadalajara and Toronto were part of the series of 41 conferences in cities around the world convened by the Universal House of Justice, the elected body that is the head of the Baha'i Faith.

The conferences began on 1 November and will finish on 1 March. Nearly 50,000 people have participated in the 27 gatherings to date.

Some 4,000 attended the Toronto conference, which attracted people from throughout eastern Canada, including Nunavut, and from Bermuda.

In Mexico, 600 people - from Baja California in the northwest to Chiapas and Quintana Roo in the southeast - participated.

"This was a small conference compared to some in other countries," said one of the Mexican attendees, "but its heart and spirit were enormous - enough to cover a country as big as Mexico."

Next weekend there will be gatherings in Vancouver, Canada; Managua, Nicaragua; and Lae, Papua New Guinea.

19 Day Feast

2009-01-05T19:20:00.007+01:00

Here are some photos of our 19 Day Feast on December 11th. A Blog entry on the fireside with some of these friends on the topic of Climate Change you can find below.

At that 19 Day Feast we were blessed with the company of Bahá'í friends from France and the United States and it was a lovely feast we had.

This is not all of us that were present, but the greater selection of the ones that stayed longer.

After some prayers we welcomed Ola to the community and she shared with us her reasons for becoming a Bahá'í after many years of investigation. It was emotional and inspiring and it is great to have another active and enthusiastic co-worker on our way to world peace.

Krzysztof, a dear member of the Poznan community.

We then shared the 19 Day feast letter and the news of an intensive project in Warsaw as well as of the conference to be held in Frankfurt in February. All of the Poznan friends are going to Frankfurt and 4/5 joined the project that took (already) place in Warsaw from December 28th - January 1st.

It was a very inspiring gathering, especially as we do not usually have many Bahá'ís coming by. So, if you want to visit us - we are more than happy and will be good hosts :)