The Inverness Baha’is June 2013 report

The community in Inverness has continued with the monthly  Prayers and Elevenses (on the last Friday mornings of each month), the Multi-Faith Prayers (on the second Tuesday afternoons) and the Open House evenings (the first Mondays) throughout the Spring. A variety of topics have been explored, we have had some visitors, some inspirational prayers and social connection over baking!!.

These events will continue in the Summer but the Multi-faith Prayers will be suspended until the Autumn.    (Liz)

 

June 3^rd-7^th Baha’i Visitors to Inverness: On June 3^rd Pixie MacCallum (from Canada) and Vi Walkup-Gilbert (from Uganda) shared their experiences of Core Activities in their countries.  On June 4^th they attended the International Women’s Group with Liz. Vi gave a long and interesting talk about her experiences in Uganda. On June 5^th they attended the 19 Day Feast. And on June 6^th they went with Tom to visit isolated believers: Harold in Dornoch and Sarah in Culrain.  These visits were very welcome.  That afternoon Ann provided a meal for the visitors and the community, also welcoming Erfan and Norman from Stornoway.  (Tom)

 

Vi and Pixie visiting Hilda in her Inverness flat-June 2013

 

 

Prayers and Elevenses on Friday June 28^th

 

The theme this morning was “Divine Educators” and those present heard words from the Baha’i Scriptures. Baha’is believe that all the major religions of the world are from the same source: God.

 

That God is one and that the Founders of all the major religions are one, is the fundamental principle that underlies the teachings of Baha’u’llah, who founded the Baha’i Faith. No man, however wise, can know and understand God except through His “Manifestations”.

 

This is part of a passage that was read this morning was written by Baha’u’llah who Baha’is believe is the Manifestation of God for this age:    

“No man’s understanding shall ever gain access unto His (God’s) holy court. As a token of His mercy, however, and as a proof of His loving-kindness, He hath manifested unto men the Day Stars of His divine guidance, the Symbols of His divine unity and hath ordained the knowledge of these sanctified Beings to be identical with the knowledge of His own Self.”  

(Baha’u’llah Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah)

                                                and again

“They are the Manifestations of God amidst men and the evidences of His truth and the signs of His glory.”

(Baha’u’llah Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah)

               

          (Liz)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday July 1^st

Open House and fireside talk

 

Tom Mackenzie, a Baha’i from Inverness, gave a short interesting talk to those present on the subject of “Prejudice” with the intention of starting a good discussion of the subject.

 

The Abolition of Prejudice is one of the foremost Principles of the Baha’i Faith, he said. That is, prejudice of all kinds (Religious, Racial, Class, Cultural ….in fact in all its ugly forms including, as we heard, of people with disabilities).

 

Tom mentioned that education has the largest part to play in how we behave towards each other in society, education both in school and in families. We are aware of the drive to abolish acts of racial prejudice and the Scottish Government’s “Belief in Dialogue” campaign to get the many faiths to understand each other’s beliefs through dialogue, but are we as aware of the many other areas in which we make snap ill-informed decisions about something or someone based on no information at all and that is pure prejudice.

pre-judging a person or situation……

 

The discussion, over refreshments, that Tom inspired was extremely interesting digging out not only the obvious prejudices that we have in our society to-day but also the many veiled ones of which, quite often, we are unaware.

               

(Liz)