Stories from Wales
16 February 2016
10 Mulk 172 B.E.
To all believers in the United Kingdom
Dearly loved friends,
The message of the Universal House of Justice to the Bahá’ís of the World dated 2 January 2016 speaks of the “creativity, tenacity, and burgeoning abilities of the community of the Greatest Name and, above all, its reliance on the confirmations of the Almighty”. Everywhere you turn across the United Kingdom, you hear accounts which confirm this! It seems as if Bahá’u’lláh is blessing the community with the fruits of the labours exerted during the current Five Year Plan, the remaining potent days of which are rapidly passing. We have in hand a number of stories which attest to this. Following the quote below, is an account received from Wales, and we will share some others with you each week for the next few weeks!
“Central to the pattern of action evolving in a cluster is the individual and collective transformation effected through the agency of the Word of God. From the beginning of the sequence of courses, a participant encounters Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation in considering such weighty themes as worship, service to humanity, the life of the soul, and the education of children and youth. As a person cultivates the habit of study and deep reflection upon the Creative Word, this process of transformation reveals itself in an ability to express one’s understanding of profound concepts and to explore spiritual reality in conversations of significance.”
(Universal House of Justice, 29 December 2015 to the Conference of Counsellors)
A young woman from Newport became friends with a Bahá’í on her University course in Caerleon and was introduced to the Faith. She was already attending Buddhist meditations and felt “at home” joining the devotional gathering of an older couple in Abercarn. Her friendship with them and other Bahá’ís grew and over the coming months she started having on-going meaningful conversations and firesides with these friends. This led to her joining a Ruhi Book 1, and soon after she declared as a Bahá’í. Over the next couple of years she continued through the sequence of courses with the older couple and another friend, and is currently studying Book 4.
Following a Cluster Reflection Meeting early this year, in response to the National Assembly’s goal to double the number of core activities in the UK, the tutor of this young lady focused his attention on accompanying her as a true friend, consolidating her spiritual understanding and knowledge of the Faith and helping her plan her first monthly devotional as part of her personal teaching plan during an expansion phase. She hosted three devotionals in her home, giving careful thought to which friends to invite into the sacred space of her small living room. She used the arts to inspire, integrate, and share meaningful interactions. She focused on spiritual qualities such as ‘kindness’ and ‘gratitude’, longing for the devotional space to be a service to her family, neighbours and friends – a respite from the stresses of life and a way to connect to their spiritual essence and higher nature.
A fellow dog-walker who she had met in the park started to attend her devotionals and immediately noticed the sense of joy they all expressed. The tutor invited this new contact and the younger devotional host to his home the following week to continue their conversations, and soon the small group of three met weekly. They committed to developing their spiritual understanding through a weekly fireside that lead to a Book 1. In the third week this individual also declared and since then has invited the young lady and the tutor to talk to a group she runs in nearby Pontypool – and is sure that there are many in the group (as well as her husband) who will also respond to the Bahá’í teachings.
Another Bahá’í couple have had weekly devotionals in their home for the past few years, which have been sporadically attended, yet they have persevered and have ardently prayed together for their area every week. The woman who has recently declared only lives about 10 minutes away from them and is keen to meet them and form a small group together to support each other.
These stories are wonderful examples of perseverance and why even when it seems there are no immediate results, we must believe in the power of prayer, for as Bahá’u’lláh assures us: “Whoso reciteth, in the privacy of his chamber, the verses revealed by God, the scattering angels of the Almighty shall scatter abroad the fragrance of the words uttered by his mouth, and shall cause the heart of every righteous man to throb.”
With loving Bahá’í greetings,
Patrick O’Mara,
Secretary