From the Council table

The members of the Bahá’í Council for Scotland send their loving greetings to all of you. The Council would like firstly to convey its heartfelt love, prayers and sympathy to the Mehrabi and Fox families on the recent passing of Nickie Mehrabi (see obituary page). Nickie has been a much loved member of the Scottish Bahá’í Community who, along with her husband Vahid and children Kian and Maitri, has rendered innumerable services to the Faith. Nickie and Vahid contributed greatly to Bahá’í youth development in Scotland most notably through the formation of Transforming Arts Scotland and also organizing and touring with TRACES. The work they did both empowered the youth and helped to bring out great talent and creativity.

The on-going fund raising for the Edinburgh Bahá’í Centre continues to need prayers. Although the money raised has been nothing short of miraculous the National Assembly still has an outstanding bill of approximately £150000 (as of 20th September) to cover the full cost of purchasing such a prestigious building. The Universal House of Justice has linked the purchase of the Bahá’í Centre with a hope of increased participation in the three core Bahá’í activities of devotional meetings, study circles and children’s classes.
 

Throughout Scotland the friends are doing their best to carry out the practice elements of study circles especially focusing on visiting Bahá’ís and friends to share prayers and deepening material. The outcome of this is a more closely connected, warm and supportive community with a widening circle of friends who are interested in taking part in Bahá’í community events.
 

Summer schools and winter schools are a way of demonstrating Bahá’í community life in action and the recent summer school in St. Andrews was a great success. The highlight of this year’s summer school was the attendance of Mr. and Mrs. Nakhjavani. Mr. and Mrs. Nakhjavani were Bahá’í pioneers in Africa before Mr. Nakhjavani was elected to serve on the Universal House of Justice – a position he served in for 40 years. Mrs. Nakhjavani was the travelling companion of Amatu’l-Bahá Rúhíyyih Khánum. Both spoke at length at the summer school and inspired everyone who heard them talk. Mr. Nakhjavani spoke about the Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh while Mrs. Nakhjavani shared moving stories about Rúhíyyih Khánum. Praise and thanks must also go to those people who sacrificed their time to ensure that the children and youth also had a brilliant summer school. This year there will also be a winter school in Glasgow – don’t miss your opportunity to spend four great days in a spiritually uplifting environment (see page 25).
 

Assisting children and youth to grapple with the challenges of living a religious life in 21st Century Scotland is a continual challenge and the Bahá’í Council for Scotland was happy to support the Western Isles children’s summer camp which took place on Mull this year. This camp has been running successfully for a number of years now and is the highlight of the summer for many young people.
 

Dear friends, we are almost at the end of the Five Year Plan and are thrilled with the dedication of the Bahá’í Community in Scotland to strive for the goals set by our beloved Universal House of Justice. Currently Scotland has a priority cluster area – the newly formed Forth and Clyde Valley cluster – and the hope is that very soon this will be an A cluster with the ability to attract large numbers of people to become involved in our community activities. The A clusters of Manchester and London are now at the stage of involving hundreds of people in their regular core activities and we pray that we will witness such growth here in Scotland too.
 
With loving Bahá’í greetings,
In His service,

The Bahá’í Council for Scotland