Aberdeen
Greetings to all in Scotland at this exciting time in Scottish Bahá’í history. News
of any worth at the moment cannot ignore the recent announcement that the Forth
Clyde cluster is now an A cluster. This has been inspiring all of our communities’ efforts.
A number of Aberdonians attended the historic cluster meeting in Glasgow where the
granting of ‘A cluster’ status was announced. They brought a flavour of that spirit back to
the North and it is no doubt infusing us all.
Our community’s activities are geared towards getting a great number of our
community through the sequence of Ruhi courses before Rid. ván. Many of our youth have
just finished book six and at the end of the book met with Parvin Morrissey to talk about
forming teaching teams.
Soon they will be embarking on book seven and at the end of this a goodly proportion
of our community will be able to tutor Ruhi circles and we will be concentrating on
expanding our communities of interest, home visits etc.
To prepare and deepen us in this endeavour , the community met together to discuss
and deepen on the recent letter from the Universal House of Justice.
Knowing that we are going to be continuing along the same path , getting better and
better and attracting more and more Divine Confirmations …well , we can be a bit slower
to warm up in the North (it is colder after all), but the sense of excitement and the building
of momentum is palpable.
Our recent cluster meeting, held in Aberdeen and attended by approx 30 people
(approximately a third of the cluster’s population) saw a new spirit. Much was talked about
the effect our activities are having on ourselves and others , often vicariously. It seems that
for a relatively small cluster , widely dispersed in terms of location , our activity levels are
quite high. Our communities of interest may still be small at this stage; however, with the
basic truths and fundamental verities of our Faith being right at the forefront of the minds
of those longstanding believers who are advancing through the Ruhi process at an
accelerating pace, surely the spiritualising effects of these endeavours will become more
and more apparent.
More use of the arts was evident and has inspired one person to organise an event
entitled ‘Arts to Hearts’, idea shamelessly stolen from Edinburgh communities ‘Art and
Soul’ workshops. There is a wealth of untapped artistic talent in the North and it will be an
important task for the local Assembly to encourage and develop this resource and potential.
Yet another inspired initiative is the organising of a travel teaching trip to the Faroe
Islands in April. We are blessed in Aberdeen by having a direct link to the Faroes, one of
our members being born there and another of our members shares a flat at university with
Faroese people. A great deal of sacrifice and expense is being made to organise this trip
and the blessings will no doubt follow from such an outpouring. We are all excited to
support this project and you will have to wait till the next issue of the Scottish Bahá’í for
stories and pictures!
LR
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