LETTERS TO THE JOURNAL

The Training Institute

The Institute for England Wanted us to train To "Draw on Our Love for Bahá'u'lláh" To Harpenden we came

Sally's house - an Aladdin's cave Objects from far and wide Books and pictures, a friendly host For weeks I could abide

Stories of Bahá'u'lláh help us to love Him more how He evaded the assassin and was Father of the poor.

Nuts, raisins, sweets and chocs cakes, coffee and tea keep the body energised what lucky people, we

Maps and time lines show us when and where He wrote, the journeys of Bahá'u'lláh by horse, howdah and boat.

Talk for 3 minutes on His life then do it all once more pretend we have an audience 'Don't let them out the door!'.

Grieg, Mozart and Elgar Pachelbel and Bach Lift our hearts while working and meditating in the dark.

We read about His suffering In the dark black pit with heavy chains around His neck and barely room to sit.

Long journey in the winter snow moved from place to place A prisoner for forty years for teaching "just one race".

Wooden table with centre tiles candles white and red A feast of food for every taste thanks Sally - we were well fed!

Finally an "activity" take your choice of five precis, video, learn some lines, write or be creative!

Many thanks to Joy from Preston for coming all this way The Institute was well worthwhile We've had a lovely day.

Stella Herbert

Well done us! - Keep up the interfaith work

An Interfaith link meeting was organised by the 'Interfaith Network' and held in Taunton some weeks ago. The main purpose is to facilitate communication and information sharing between Interfaith and like minded organisations in a general area. An interesting and fruitful meeting, it was attended by many groups from surrounding towns. However, what especially caught my attention was the number of times the name Bahá'í was mentioned. For example, "We have Christians, Buddhists... and Bahá'ís in our group." "Our secretary is Mrs X who is a Bahá'í." "Bahá'ís are staunch supporters of the Interfaith group in xxxxx." "We had an excellent Bahá'í speaker at a recent meeting." "Our most loyal supporters are Bahá'ís, Christians...." and all of these comments were made by friends of the Bahá'ís, not the Bahá'ís themselves!

It made me realise what a wonderful job many Bahá'ís are doing around the South West and probably all around the UK by supporting their local Interfaith groups and at the same time promoting the Faith. I just wanted to say "Well done and keep up the excellent work."

Tony Flemming

Bahá'í treasures were kept safe by the McKinleys

The passing of dear Hugh McKinley brings to mind an anecdote to British Bahá'í history which the friends might be interested to hear about.

When war broke out in 1939, Hugh and his mother Violet were living in Okehampton in a remote part of Dartmoor. The National Spiritual Assembly, deeply concerned with the safety of the sacred relics contained in the British Bahá'í archives and in view of the predicted heavy bombardment of London, decided to pack all the archives into a trunk and send it down to the McKinleys for the duration of the war. This they did and the McKinleys, I believe, kept it until the war was over.

David Hofman

'Abdu'l-Bahá says Never strike a child

As the NSPCC promotes its "Full Stop" campaign to end cruelty to children in a generation, I suggest Bahá'ís do all they can to strengthen 'Abdu'l-Bahá's teaching when He states: "It is not permissable to strike a child". (Selections from the Writings of 'Abdu'lBahá, p125)

Joan Niblett

LETTERS - Letters may be edited for reasons of brevity or clarity. Opinions expressed in these columns are not necessarily those of the National Spiritual Assembly or the Editor.