Skye (and Inverness)

I have often been struck by the fact that ‘Abdu’l Bahá was so well received by the Christian churches when he came to the UK, speaking in both St Giles Cathedral and Westminster Abbey, and have tried to imagine how it would be for the Bahá’ís of today to be in the position of addressing people from the front of a church. To my wonder and astonishment that is exactly what Farah Khavari and I found ourselves doing a couple of weeks ago.

It was at the invitation of my newly acquired in-laws, who are part of an interdenominational Christian group which meets monthly and invites guest speakers. We were the first non-Christian representatives to be invited.

Our expectation was that it would be in a church hall, with a group of five or six, and when my mother in law mentioned on the phone that the hall only held about 20 people so we might need to use the church I genuinely thought she was joking. You can imagine our shock when we arrived to discover that we would be “taking the floor” (not the pulpit, sadly,...I have always fancied being a preacher..) in the Episcopal Church in Tain, in front of about 25 people.

It was a most wonderful experience.

To start with, we were struck by all the plaques around the church which said “To the Glory of God..” How could one possibly not feel supported by the Concourse on High when speaking in God’s house, with Bahá’u’lláh’s name mentioned everywhere?

The only planning we had done was that we would play some music and read a few Hidden Words to start with, then Farah would give a brief account of the history of the Faith, I would say a few words about ‘Abdu’l Bahá’s visit to the West and the overriding importance of unity, then we would ask for questions and take it from there.

It was strange, but standing at the front of that church I suddenly felt aware of the authority which has been vested in us as representatives of this Faith, and was able to speak with a confidence I have never felt before in my teaching efforts.

Farah spoke beautifully and audaciously about the life of Bahá’u’lláh, and His station, unequivocally laying bare His claim to be the Manifestation God for this Day, something I felt it would be really difficult to do in a Church, in front of three clergymen and a group of devout Christians.

The warmth with which this message was received is expressed in the words of someone we later discovered to be a retired priest: is it possible to be a Christian and a Bahá’í, because I agree with everything that has been said?

There were questions about life after death, whether or not we are pacifists, and the station of women in the Faith. We also had the opportunity to talk about progressive revelation and the Covenant.

We were both struck by the warmth and openness of the people we addressed, and their continued interest over tea and sandwiches after the talk. The massive pile of 10 The Scottish Bahá’í – Summer, 2005 island community news literature we took almost all disappeared, something I have never experienced before.

We both feel really privileged to have had the opportunity to give this talk and experience such a warm welcome. To me it is a reminder that we are in new times, and that the dedicated commitment to the Five Year Plan, right across the world is yielding some unexpected results, in a general openness of heart.

For me, I had the bounty of being able to test my trust of the assistance we receive in these situations and found that it really IS safe to trust - and that the Ruhi training we are all having the opportunity to receive really is training us and preparing us to rise to exactly these kinds of challenges to deliver the Message of God.