North of England Bahá’í Summer School
23 June 2017
1 Raḥmat 174 B.E.
Please see below a message from the Bahá’í Council for England for your kind attention
Dearly loved friends,
The Bahá’í Council for England is delighted to announce that the registration for this year’s Northern English Summer School is live!
The school will be held in the beautiful school of Queen Ethelburga’s Collegiate, near York, starting on Thursday 3rd August and finishing on Tuesday 8th August 2017.
The theme of this year’s summer school is ‘The Twin Manifestations’.
We warmly invite you and your friends to register!
Go online to register: http://www.bahaievents.org.uk/wp/english-summer-school-2017/
The registration for the confirmed Southern English Summer School (held on 26th-31st August in Culford), will be ready next week with a similar announcement announcing the offered courses coming in a few days.
This year, the Regional Council for England has been working closely with the training institute board to bring intensive training to summer school, giving the opportunity for entire families, especially friends of the Faith, to attend and train in a selection of courses from the institute process intensively while their younger children and friends can attend other courses or sessions in the sanctified environment of summer school; benefitting from plenaries, organised sporting activities, a book store, devotional spaces and intense Bahá’í community life in the beautiful environs.
This year we are pleased to bring some new courses, especially for our friends of the Faith including a dedicated Introduction to the Bahá’í Faith in Farsi for Persian friends as well as a daily ‘rolling’ ‘Introduction to the Bahá’í Faith’ in English for day visitors.
There will also be several dedicated Book 1: Reflections on The Life of the Spirit courses.
The theme of the Twin Manifestations will run throughout the plenaries and courses and there will be a full and extensive program for children and junior youth based on the institute materials.
The courses on offer in the Northern School this year are:
- Nabil’s Narrative: The Dawn Breakers
- The Kitáb-i-Íqán
About these two books, the beloved Guardian has written extensively, including the following to an individual believer in 1932:
‘…. Of special importance is the Book of the Íqán which explains the attitude of the Cause towards the prophets of God and their mission in the history of society. Besides this there is Some Answered Questions of the Master and The Dawn-Breakers of Nabíl. Every Bahá’í should master these books and be able to explain their contents to others. Besides their importance, they are interesting and most absorbing.’
- Exploring the Qur’án
‘The beloved Guardian stressed that one of the important purposes of Bahá’í summer schools is to deepen the knowledge of the believers in the history and Teachings of the Faith so that they can become better teachers. To this end he emphasized the study of Islam and the Qur’án so that the friends would have a background against which to study the Bahá’í Writings.’
- Wealth and Prosperity
This course will look at personal and collective wealth and the economic life of the Bahá’í community in relation to the welfare of humanity as well as our contributions to the global community-building process.
- Letter to the Kings
This course is based on The Summons of the Lord of Hosts of which the beloved Guardian writes the following testimony:
‘The magnitude and diversity of the theme, the cogency of the argument, the sublimity and audacity of the language, arrest our attention and astound our minds. Emperors, kings and princes, chancellors and ministers, the Pope himself, priests, monks and philosophers, the exponents of learning, parliamentarians and deputies, the rich ones of the earth, the followers of all religions, and the people of Bahá—all are brought within the purview of the Author of these Messages, and receive, each according to their merits, the counsels and admonitions they deserve. No less amazing is the diversity of the subjects touched upon in these Tablets. The transcendent majesty and unity of an unknowable and unapproachable God is extolled, and the oneness of His Messengers proclaimed and emphasized. The uniqueness, the universality and potentialities of the Bahá’í Faith are stressed, and the purpose and character of the Bábí Revelation unfolded.’
The Ruhi courses on offer this year, run by the training institute are:
- Book 1: Reflections on the Life of the Spirit
- Book 3: Teaching Children’s Classes (Grade 2)
- Book 4: The Twin Manifestations
- Book 3 Refresher course
- Book 5 Refresher course
- Book 8 Unit 1: The Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh: The Centre of the Covenant and His Will and Testament
- Book 8 Unit 2: The Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh: The Guardian of the Faith
- Book 8 Unit 3: The Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh: The Universal House of Justice
Please note that institute courses are to be done in sequence. If you have any further questions about institute courses, please contact the training institute board secretary, Christine Boyett: tiben.secretary@bahai.org.uk
It is, therefore, the abiding hope of the Council, that many of you and your friends from the wider community, will attend the summer school in order to give it ‘the full importance it deserves in the teaching plans and activities of the believers.’
“How wonderful it would be if all the friends could arrange to spend at least a few days in one of these summer schools and take an active part in their development. These centres could attract many souls if properly arranged and made interesting; those non-Bahá’ís who visit them will then have some time to get into the spirit of the place and make a study of the Cause….”
(From a letter written on behalf of the Guardian to an individual believer, received about May 1, 1932: Centres of Bahá’í Learning, p. 2)
Beloved friends, the Bahá’í Council for England, will humbly look to learn, as an institution, how to help ‘attract’, ‘deepen’ and welcome, an increasing number of souls, to experience the loving and warm embrace of the ‘close and intense community life’ that will undoubtedly continue to permeate and distinguish Summer School this year.
With abiding love to you all,
Ronnie Y. Bindra
Secretary, Bahá’í Council for England
Email: bce@bahai.org.uk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bahaicouncilforengland