Aberdeen

from Lynne Roberts

Association of Bahá’í Women

The local branch of the ABW started its meetings again when we met at Lorrie Fozdar’s house in Fyvie on 16th November. Ten of us gathered, two of whom were not Bahá’ís, from all over Aberdeenshire, from places with exotic sounding names like Turrif, Inverurie and Rothienorman, even Aberdeen itself!

Our first talk was on the subject of spiritual healing, given by Frances Scott. She had only attended one Bahá’í event previously and had asked to come to something similar again, getting more than she bargained for in being asked to talk to us about healing! We had a very good discussion about spiritual healing and Reiki and looked at what ‘Abdu’l Bahá said on the subject , including different types of disease and how treatment for disease will change in the future through nutrition, etc.

I have to say that the atmosphere was enhanced by the presence of four children and a dog who ran in and out and around, a part of it all but never a problem — lovely.

And we were more than nutritionally catered for by Lorrie and Joanie as a scrumptious lunch was served, for those of you who attended intensive ruhi over the summer you will know what I mean – I know I haven’t lost the extra pounds yet!

The proverbial ‘goodtime was had by all’ applies and we are looking forwards to meeting on a regular basis.

Fundraising

On 4th December aberdeen community are having a fundraising meal for the Edinburgh Bahá’í Centre where we hope to raise pots of money! After the meal we will have table tennis competitions, a craft sale, bring and buy sale, Bahá’í ‘who wants to be a millionaire’ and much more! Why not plan something similar in your community!

Community Reflection Meeting

After being given an inspiring talk by Ian Fozdar on advancing the process of entry by troops (stolen from his much prettier sister!), Aberdeen LSA decided to invite personally all the members of the community to consult with them. We met on Monday the 15th at Deborah Edens flat, were given a hearty meal (thanks Deb) and spent a fruitful couple of hours discussing how we could move forwards. It was a positive evening and allowed us to focus on where we are with the Ruhi process and how we can support each other in our efforts.

Inverness

compiled from reports from Ann MacKenzie and Rolf Schmidt

Holy Day Celebration

It was a bone-biting, cold first day of winter on 12th of November when over 30 Bahá’ís and friends (from Inverness, Ardersier, Nairn and the Black Isle) stepped into a warm welcome at Bahá’u’lláh’s birthday party. The spacious room became the flower garden of human diversity that is our trade mark. It is a wonderful experience when everyone does their bit and it all comes together on the night with amazing continuity and unity. With disability access in mind we moved out of our usual Holy Day celebration venue, at one of the Bahá’ís homes, to what proved to be an excellent venue at the Mackenzie Centre (a day centre for elderly folk) thanks to John Dunlop who arranged this for us.

After a short devotional meeting, with beautiful singing from Carmel, we enjoyed a Power Point presentation on the life of Bahá’u’lláh from Andrew Goodwin, who, along with Chehreh, came over from Alford through the first snow of the season. Overloaded perhaps by the power surges of divine assistance, the projector failed after a few slides. Not to worry, though; a member of the audience happened to have another one in his car. Fortunately our speaker knew his Ruhi books, so, without any difficulty, he recounted two entertaining stories about the life of Bahá’u’lláh while the new projector was brought in from the cold, plugged-in, and given a quarter of an hour to defrost.

Then followed Scottish folk songs, and music on piano and harp. Copious amounts of delicious food were wafting their scents over us by then, and the next part of the programme needs no explaining.

After the break we were tested in a multi-faith quiz (devised by John) with questions like “Who banished the Israelites to Babylon ?” The children performed the play “The blind men and the elephant”, followed by a display of Highland dancing. The Scottish theme continued with the recital of that famous poem that ends with:

For a’ that, an a’ that
It’s coming yet for a’ that
That Man to Man the world o’er
Shall brithers be for a’ that.

At this point proceedings moved to the dance floor, and dissolved into a whirling ceilidh with added international flavour. By the end of the night, a kilted Highlander and a vacuum cleaner ended up having a fight, and a Persian male joined in, with loud encouragement from his wife. A good party for a’ that, ...

The Scottish Bahá’í, No.38 – Winter, 2004	mainland community news
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