The last few months has seen the usual well attended monthly Sacred Space meetings with additional study groups in between. The cluster celebrated Naw-Rúz with Alex and Perviz Reed at the home of Joanne and David, who had a Bahá’í wedding last January.

A particularly noteworthy event took place in February at St. Michael’s Church, Dumfries, where Robert Burns, the famous poet, is buried. The minister, the Reverend Maurice Bond, officiated at an interfaith ceremony and shared the lectern with Ken Carew. They both talked about love and its significance in the Christian and the Bahá’í Faith respectively. The interfaith service included readings from major religions and the Bahá’ís and Quakers were particularly well represented. Regular interfaith meetings continue as do the weekly interfaith discussion groups at the local branch of the University of Glasgow.

Visit from multi-national choir Nikolas Trebesh, a Bahá’í music director from British Columbia, in Canada, came to the UK recently. His school’s choir participated in the Easter Choir Tour organized by the Queen Margaret’s University of Scotland Association.

200 girls representing many countries (America, Australia, Canada, Chile, Japan, England, New Zealand, Scotland, Singapore and others) took part in the Easter Choir Tour, which was wonderful and amazing. They met in the UK and performed in various places: Dunfermline Abbey, St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, Chapel of St Peter and St Paul Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich and York Minster.

Having been firmly turned away from the main bookshop in Dumfries with an apologetic smile indicating that religious books don’t really sell Jeremy Fox took his “Letter to the Christians” to the local bookshop in Moffat where he encountered a much more enthusiastic reception. “Moffat people need a challenge”, the owner said with relish and a date was fixed which turned out to be Good Friday evening. The owner offered to provide the refreshments if Jeremy would look after the publicity.

Posters were created, and a press release led to an excellent article, with photograph, in the Dumfries & Galloway Standard. Jeremy writes:

“On the evening there was quite a good attendance including a fair number of Bahá’ís from the surrounding area to swell the ranks. It went well and most of the non-Bahá’ís bought a book. However the proprietor of the bookshop felt that we had ‘boobed’ by choosing Good Friday, as the church service was at the same time that evening, so she said she would be happy to have a second go. She also agreed to host a discussion evening a week later for those who had read the book. This resulted in another good article, this time in the Moffat News.

“Attendance was somewhat smaller, four to be precise, but discussion was very positive and one lady in particular asked lots of questions and borrowed other books as well. A Baptist born-again Christian attended the discussion and bravely asked some pertinent questions about Bahá’u’lláh’s claim to be the return of Christ and the resurrection. Altogether, between these occasions and other sales she has sold 16 books so far, mostly to non-Bahá’ís. Undoubtedly the fact that they are well displayed on the counter has helped. The lady who owns the bookshop has yet to tell me what she thought of the book, but I have much to be grateful to her for!”

The Ayrshire Bahá’í community have been hosting Sacred Space evenings for the past year and a half. The core attenders are a group of ladies whom Barbara Alexander met at a Health Group. These ladies attend regularly and it was felt that the time was ready for them to join a study circle. We approached the four ladies and they said yes! The first of the meetings has been held and the response has been very good. The participants are of course familiar with the writings and concepts and this removes the need for lengthy explanations. At the next meeting the need to share a prayer with a friend will crop up and the response will be interesting – we will share the results with you in due course.