NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD THE 12th ANNUAL CONVENTION OF THE ABS, GERMAN SPEAKING EUROPE It was a star filled night on the 31st of October when an unusual scene at the European House of Worship in Langenhain could be observed: the participants of the 12th Annual Convention of the Association for Bahá’í Studies for German Speaking Europe walked across the path from the Hazíratu’l-Quds to the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár with nine lit torches, circumambulated that holy spot three times, left one torch at each of its entrances and participated in the spiritual inauguration of the conference with specially prepared texts from the Holy Writings. A special beginning foreshadowing a special event! That evening, just as the two days to come, was dedicated entirely to the arts. The ABS invited everybody to engage in a search for dimensions yet undiscovered in the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh and to gain new inspirations from the programme and through discourse with other friends. Mr. Gerhard Schweter from Vienna in his talk about “The Meaning of the Arts in the World Religions” brought to attention the influence of religious teachings on the creation of works of art in various cultural backgrounds, especially emphasising the great achievements of the arts as an act of Worship in Christianity and its impact on architecture, painting and music: artists from different fields such as Michelangelo, Raffael, Dürer, Mozart, Beethoven and Schiller were all aware of a special relationship between the spiritual world and the creative artistic process. In biographic presentations on Mark Tobey and Bernard Leach, Mr. Dieter Tober and Mrs. Ariane Link spoke about how the Bahá’í identity of those two great artists naturally influenced their creative process – an influence which has hardly been discovered by contemporary historians of art. The evening programme became a mirror for the artistic qualities hidden in the German Bahá’í Community and through its high quality and outstanding spirit cheered the hearts of the audience. All in all this special conference was an event that showed the depth that Bahá’í Studies can offer to a subject. The presentations of this Annual Convention will be published in volume No.6 of the Schriftenreihe der Gesellschaft für Bahá’í-Studien, and the talks are available on tapes via the secretariat (only Ms. Nakhjavani’s talk was given in English). Next year the ABS, German Speaking Europe, will hold its conference on “Mercy and Justice as an area of tension for Religion” at the Bahá’í National Centre from 30 October to 1 November, 1998. Further details can be obtained from Markus Mediger, Wirichsbongardstr. 40, 52062 Aachen, Germany, email: mediger@physikrwth-aachen.de. Report by Markus Mediger THE BAHÁ’Í ADVOCATE: A NEW LAWYERS NEWSLETTER Bahá’í lawyers in the United States have launched “The Bahá’í Advocate, A Newsletter for Bahá’í Legal Professionals”. The newsletter is an attempt to create cohesion among an otherwise dispersed community of Bahá’í lawyers around the world. There is no subscription fee or membership requirement, and while the newsletter is intended to serve mainly Bahá’ís in the legal professions, it will be made available to anyone who is interested. Please send short articles, news items, announcements, information, & classifieds to: martha@alai.com. UPCOMING IRFAN COLLOQUIUM The twentieth session of the Irfan Colloquium will be held at Louhelen Bahá’í School, USA on 6-8 November 1998. The main part of the program will be devoted to presentations on the revelation of Bahá’u’lláh during Istanbul and Adrianople periods (1863-68). Presentations of research papers on topics related to Bahá’í scripture are also welcome. Please contact Louhelen Bahá’í School for registration and reservation of accommodation. For presentation of papers and program inquires contact the Institute for Bahá’í Studies at the US Bahá’í National Centre (tel: 00-1-847-733-3425; Fax: 00-1 847- 733-3563; e-mail research@usbnc.org). Robert Stockman WORLD BANK & RELIGIONS TO SWAP DEVELOPMENT IDEAS Representatives from the world’s religions reached a landmark accord with the World Bank in February 1998. It is an historic meeting since it is the first time in the 53 year history of the World Bank that it has opened its doors to dialogue with the religious faiths. Participants included representatives from the following nine faiths: Bahá’í, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Jain, Jewish, Muslim, Sikh and Taoist. Kiser Barnes, head of the Bahá’í delegation to the event, said the meeting was unprecedented in terms of new collaborative initiatives it has generated. In respect of the subject-matter of the consultations, he stated “Specific spiritual principles, such as the oneness of humanity, equity and justice, and the equality of women and men, which are universal in nature and can be concretely expressed in development endeavours, have a special potential to create a new framework for development”. Working groups between the religions and the World Bank have been set up to discuss how best to ensure projects designed to eliminate poverty consider spiritual, moral and social factors as well as financial ones. Report by Danesh Sarooshi WEB-SITE UPDATES The ABS of North America now has a dedicated full website and registered domain name: www.bahaistudies.ca/~absnam. The ABS site features a full archive of tables of contents and abstracts of all publications of the ABS-North America. The site contains links to ABS news pages, a moderated bulletin board (BBS), a database of Bahá’í scholars, a search engine, and forms for ordering publications and membership. Suggestions for formatting and content for the website will be welcome. These and any other related correspondence can be sent to Jonah Winters at: absnam@bahai-studies.ca. The Yerrinbool Baha’i School in New South Wales, Australia now has its own web-site: www.bahai.org.au/nsw/yerrinbool/. The Associate is the newsletter of the Association for Bahá’í Studies (English-Speaking Europe), 27 Rutland Gate, London SW7 1PD, UK.