The Bahá’í Council for Scotland has recently held a wonderful meeting in Dumfries. As part of our consultation two representatives from Manchester came and shared with the Council information about the process of growth taking place there. Currently Manchester is getting regular declarations of Faith in Bahá’u’lláh and often hosts up to 17 devotional meetings (per week) with around 120 people attending at any given time. There are study circles, children’s classes, a huge community of people interested in the Faith and lots of service projects going on.

The council hoped to learn how this process began and what kept the momentum going and so in a spirit of learning we share with you notes that were taken during this important meeting. Although Glasgow and Edinburgh are the two communities with numerical similarities to Manchester we hope that the wider community in Scotland may feel that the notes are useful to their current Bahá’í community situation.
 

Manchester had a cluster of around 120 Bahá’ís of which half were active. The cluster included 4 Local Spiritual Assemblies (LSAs) and a group. Devotional meetings were the easiest to start with. Children’s classes were a bit more difficult and two years ago few people would really commit to the Training Institutes or to studying any of the Ruhi courses.

Initially a weekly devotional was held with around three or four friends turning up. Gradually more individual initiative was shown – in fact individual initiative was very important as there was no particular help from institutions at this stage. Some nine friends from three areas began to really focus. A pattern was the most important thing. As long as there is a pattern, any Bahá’í and their friends can come along and is welcome – this doesn’t work when things are not systematic so a PATTERN is really important. Frequency needs to be every week for devotionals. This led to increased spirituality of those who were participating and this fed into the community.

It is important to acknowledge that not everyone is at same the level of enthusiasm; however there must exist opportunities to engage in spiritual activities. The devotional gatherings gradually went from three to ten participants, then to 20, and now to 40 and it is becoming contagious. People want to be involved. Numbers do create excitement and this means more people want to get involved. With 17 devotional meetings now happening on a weekly basis this equals large numbers attending at any one time.

So how did it go from three to ten? The three individuals initially involved invited, on a personal basis their closest friends so numbers went from three to ten. In Manchester people call into the centre and lots of non-Bahá’í Iranians were calling in. This needed the help of the LSA and Auxiliary Board member and this grew into more support for the devotionals and involvement of these minorities. These minorities very quickly became involved and this generated a great spirit. Meetings were simple but beautiful. There was attention to preparation and this was helped by the Year of Service person who was serving in Manchester. Youth year of service volunteers were based at the Bahá’í centre where the devotionals took place. Reminding people by phone was shown to be really important. This could be the role of an assistant perhaps.

There was another key ingredient – love; people who started the process just loved it. Not necessarily about numbers but more about the love for what is happening – really create love and unity in the core activities. Once things were happening the support of the institutions became the vehicle for the acceleration of the process. Manchester community is made up predominantly of students or young professionals and two older Persian families. Trafford, however, is a very stable community – pretty much all ‘older’ Persian families. Inspired by Manchester they started an open devotional meeting in a community centre. This didn’t really work so they hosted devotionals in their homes – some open to everybody, some which weren’t. These home devotionals went really well. Whereas home devotionals hadn’t really taken place in Manchester as youngish people felt that the centre was better (not many of them had ‘homes’ as they were mainly living in Halls of Residence or flat sharing). Manchester and Trafford really began learning from each other – especially during cluster meetings. Culture, demographics, age, etc. all count. So urban devotionals worked at the Bahá’í centre and devotionals in homes worked in a more rural area. Now devotionals are happening in the centre and in homes. For example Sarah recently held a devotional meeting in her home with 17 friends in attendance.

Then the youth committee of England asked if Manchester would host intensive training institutes in Manchester at the Centre. Two years ago no one from Manchester attended these initial training institute meetings. There was a Ruhi book Book One going on but really slowly. Although no one from Manchester was involved – Gemma Parsons, Karmel Helmy and Diane Lees from Scotland were. Sarah said that Manchester didn’t have an enthusiastic attitude at this stage. Manchester community however hosted the participants at this intensive training and many members of the community visited the centre while it was going on. After the two weeks intensive training activities the Manchester Bahá’ís were so impressed with what they saw that some ten of them wanted to do the courses straight away. Presentations by the participants at the Manchester Feast also helped and two groups from Manchester started to be trained intensively. Time off work was taken by some, others undertook the training at weekends and in evenings after work. It was exhausting but everyone wanted to do it. The quality of the tutors was vital. Service to humanity was very much encouraged as part of the training and the practice elements of the courses were emphasised. The tutors came from outside of Manchester. Initially it was important to nag people to come and this involved constant, one–to-one encouragement to attend.

Fifteen people went through the courses at a brisk pace and some of those 15 took the rest through. Having a ‘core group’ serving really helps. In August 2004 there were 30 through the courses and by Naw-Rúz there were about 40. From nothing to 40 took 14 months – probably semi intensive. A mixture of approaches works. Practice elements of the books are really important, as are the service elements. It is vital to make the practice a systematic pattern of life.

There was then a great need to increase the community of people interested in the Faith. How do you meet new people? Actually all of us know plenty of people we are just not tapping in to them.

Two Assemblies took a really active role from the beginning and the other two are also now involved. The Assembly members did the Ruhi books so that they could lead by example – now assemblies work in conjunction with the area teaching committee. The Assembly is an hugely important player – especially at reflection meetings and Feasts. The consultative part of the Feast, for example, is really critical – particularly in the ‘agenda’ for reporting to believers. The agenda is now mainly focused on the Five Year Plan, three core activities, teaching activities, correspondence, and treasury.

A key element in the Feasts was the Building Momentum document. The Assembly studied the document and then shared extracts at the Feast. The Assembly created a pattern – for example, at each Feast the community watched one section from the Building Momentum video – they broke people into groups and asked, ‘What does this community have that we don’t?’ ‘We want to be like them what can we do – what do they have – what don’t we have?’ For seven Feasts in a row they watched sections from the Building Momentum video – and by that time they were beginning to understand what might be needed in Manchester. Right now Manchester are developing into one of those communities that so inspired them on the video.

The Auxiliary Board members and their assistants consulted with the local Assemblies about the agenda for the reflection meetings. Reflection meetings are key, and need to be able to tap into the spirit of what everyone is trying to do. Luckily, in Manchester not very many people are against the process. There were a few people who didn’t like the Ruhi books. Those ‘few’ people are now involved in a very loving process and they had a right to say they weren’t excited by the study material. They have supported the whole process without direct engagement in study circles.

Two Persian families in their 80's did Book One and that was enough for them but they support everything by their spirit and prayers. Very early on during intensive study circles, the Assembly wrote to the whole cluster and told the communities about the plans for people to sacrifice and do books intensively and asking for support with food etc. – they did this so lovingly and the support was fantastic. From the beginning, as far back even as 2 years ago, Manchester community has been ‘open to all’ and this helps with the process of unity and love. What happened to those who weren’t comfortable with the Ruhi courses? There were not many, and now they are really happy as they can see the wonderful growth and dynamic energy in Manchester.

Well – those are the notes – the Council apologises for the fact that the above is pretty much in note form but hopes that the friends in Scotland will enjoy reading about what is happening in Manchester. The Council is also confident that Scotland can also experience a similar pattern of excitement and growth.
With loving Bahá’í greetings,
In His service,

The Bahá’í Council for Scotland

From a letter circulated by John Parris to the members of the National Spiritual Assembly on Friday, 10th June.

“I have just received a call from Miss Ying Wai Chan of our firm of solicitors to say that the missives for 44 Albany Street were formally concluded at 4.00pm today. This is the formalised contract of sale with all I’s dotted and T’s crossed. The missives are legally binding in full on both parties.”

Note: Conclusion of missives is equivalent to exchange of contracts in English law.