JULY 2012
by Carolyn - 01:11 on 31 July 2012
'Whispering Gallery' at Belfast City Hall
We had a restful 10 days in France, spending a day with Carolyn's "60s" friend Joy on her farm, and hosting a Bahá'í Holy Day and then coming back for quite a quick turn-around before leaving for the Northern Ireland Bahá'í Summer School near Belfast.
This included an "International Alumni" Day at Surrey University including lunch and various lectures and exhibitions, and a special tea for the former 'Battersea' students who were presented with Honorary University of Surrey degrees last year. We saw various friends and had a very enjoyable day.
The following day was the quarterly Reflection Meeting for the Surrey Bahá'ís, which we endeavour to plan around despite our increasingly itinerant life... There was a good turn-out and we had a fruitful time.
The Irish Summer School was brilliant, possibly even better than last year, with a gentle pace, lovely devotionals and music, moderate weather and adequate food. All the Summer Schools in the U.K. this year are on the theme "Abdu'l-Bahá the Community Builder" and we had lots of very interesting talks, discussions and workshops about the life and times of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, and His contemporaries, learning a lot that we didn't know we didn't know...
After the School we spent 2 days as tourists in Belfast, getting very wet but managing to tour City Hall, the Botanic Gardens and Ulster Museum, and the newly-opened Titanic Experience which definitely merits a visit as it shows so much of the life and times of the people of Belfast and their pride in building these Big Ships.
We arrived back from Southampton Airport with barely time to shower and gather up materials for our monthly Devotional Meeting at the Pepperpot, but were rewarded by an excellent turn-out, including guests from Egypt who enjoyed this small-town experience, with all the flags still flying from the Olympic torch run and donkeys and traps clip-clopping by, for reasons as yet unknown...
The final event of the month was an invitation to Guildford & Godalming InterFaith Forum to take part in a broadcast, during Ramadan, from the Shah Jehan Mosque in Woking. Carolyn was part of this, with each member speaking about the work of the Forum as well as their own Faith's Teachings on relationships with other Faiths. This was a short-range broadcast but should be available on line soon...
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