The Dumfries & Galloway Bahá’í community has been particularly busy and active in recent months.

We have had some wonderful unity feasts and holy days with many friends and seekers attending. In particular we had a very well attended Rid. ván celebration at Joanne and Dave’s house (photo1). We started with a walk in the woods (photo2), passing by the grave of Bahá’í Annie Fraser in the local cemetery of the little village of Cummertrees.

Then there was a beautiful holy day programme of readings, prayers and story telling. Four readers (photo3) representing the gardener, a small boy, an old lady and a companion of Bahá’u’lláh, told the story of what happened in the garden of Rid. ván during those momentous twelve days. The story telling, although simple, was very moving and added to the atmosphere of joyous celebration. This was followed by a magnificent spread of food and barbeque in the garden (photo4), where a tent was erected to symbolise the tents in the garden of Ridván.

Jackie Mehrabi presented a photo of the Shrine of the Báb and some prayer books to the local hospital’s new multifaith prayer room, which can be used by patients, their visitors and hospital staff (photo5).

As requested by the National Assembly, the local community met with the MP for this area, Russell Brown, to discuss the plight of the Bahá’ís in Iran. After this meeting Russell Brown put a question to the minister for Foreign Affairs, but it was not chosen to be answered.

Our regular monthly Sacred Space for April was dedicated to the Bahá’ís in Iran. It was very well attended and of the twenty members of the community of interest present, many stayed for the reading of the Fire Tablet for the beloved friends in Iran. As well as regular devotional meetings, the community has regular press coverage; several study circles; and regular deepening meetings.

The devotional meeting every Friday in Invergordon continues regularly each week: always a happy occasion for Bella, Dianna and myself. The Five Year Plan for this area has been evolved by me. Many of the people in the area know that I am a Bahá’í therefore explaining the nature of the Faith in a concrete way must now be accomplished through writing, some of it of an indirect nature so that people will understand the nature of my values and beliefs. This scheme should cover a wider area in the North than Dornoch.

I will not be placing an exhibition in the Sutherland Agricultural Show this year since I feel that this does not reach a sufficient number of people relative to the amount of work put in. I want to see positive results now since I have been here for over eight years, though I do recognise that these should come towards the end of this plan and continue into the next.

My long term goal is to see a new university-like complex amongst the hills of Sutherland to research into crop growing and community building when climate becomes problematic for the temperate and Sub-Arctic zones. This will relate to my evolving desire to pioneer to the Khabarovsky Krai district in South East Siberia. This will clearly be a challenge for me, not only because I will be over eighty when I start, but also because it will require that both the spiritual and material message is clearly broadcast here before I go. Naturally I need to keep in good health to achieve these very long term goals.