Membership of Regional Bahá’í Councils
25 November 2019
3 Qawl 176 B.E.
GC-34372
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To all believers in the United Kingdom
Dearly loved Friends,
The National Spiritual Assembly is pleased to share with you the names of those who will serve on the Regional Bahá’í Councils for the coming year, commencing on 26 November, the Day of the Covenant. Those serving on the Council for England were elected, and those serving on the Councils for Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Wales were appointed by the National Spiritual Assembly, in consultation with Counsellor Shirin Fozdar-Foroudi, having due regard for the confidential nominations of the members of Local Spiritual Assemblies and the Auxiliary Board members in those regions. The members of the Regional Councils are as follows:
England:
Stephen Agahi-Murphy, Shirin Beheshti, Christopher Lee, Talieh Mann‑Kapoor, Marco Milone, Farshid Taleb, Stephen Vickers, Natasha S. Wilkinson, Ronnie Y. Bindra
Northern Ireland:
Jamie Anderson, Isabella Devine, Rhianna Giffin, Edwin Graham, Patricia Jamshidi
Scotland:
Diane Edwards, Allan Forsyth, Jessica Fusco-Naish, Sean Morrissey, Carrie Varjavandi
Wales:
Tessa Abbas, Mat James, Fleur Missaghian, Munyaradzi Mumvuma, Jon Whitehead
The National Assembly would like to take this opportunity to express its deep appreciation to Naghme Adab-Fozdar (England), Maria Graham and Patricia Irvine (Northern Ireland), Arlette Manasseh (Scotland), and Bernardo Kerr and Tristan O’Neill (Wales) who will no longer serve as members of Regional Councils. Undoubtedly they will continue in their distinguished efforts to advance the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh and our love and prayers are with them and their dear families who have supported them during their service.
Dear Friends, in the coming year in which these Councils will serve, we will pass through four of the final six cycles of this 25-year series of Plans, culminating at Riḍván 2021. For progress to occur in all clusters – including in those clusters where a programme of growth must become intensive in order to win the goals of this Plan – the Universal House of Justice noted that “a herculean labour will be required; that many sacrifices will have to be made.
But faced with the plight of a world that suffers more each day bereft of Bahá’u’lláh’s elixir, we cannot, in conscience, ask anything less of His devoted followers. God willing, their exertions will prove worthy to crown a hundred years of toil and set the stage for exploits as yet unimagined that must adorn the second century of the Formative Age.”
Universal House of Justice, 29 December 2015, To the Conference of the Continental Boards of Counsellors
The services of Regional Councils in guiding, supporting, stimulating, and lending strategic coherence to the overall efforts of the friends across the United Kingdom are vital in enabling each region to advance and make its contribution to the Plan. The National Assembly invites you to join it in ardent prayers that their endeavours may be richly blessed and confirmed.
With loving Bahá’í greetings,
Patrick O’Mara,
Secretary