"The Lady's Creative Centre" in Ealing, London, has been awarded £3,750 from the National Lottery. Started up in 1982 by Iranian Bahá'í Nousha Pakpour, the aim of the Centre is to bring women from all backgrounds together in a warm and friendly environment where they can discover and share their creative talents.

In an interview with the local newspaper, "The Gazette", Friday 30th April, Nousha Pakpour explained how the Centre came about:

"'I thought there are a lot of ladies out there who are very talented and they don't realise their talent and I wanted to do something to help them.' But before coming upon the idea of the Lady's Creative Centre, which today runs courses in Yoga, meditation, sewing and painting, she trained as a counsellor.

'My English held me back - but when the course interviewer spoke to me he thought I had the right qualities, especially to help people from Iran, but I got depressed and sad. It wasn't me. 'Everyone told me I should be designing, creating, organising, enjoying life, and helping people.'

That's how she came to set up the Lady's Creative Centre, and now the Bahá'í follower has found a channel for her indomitable spirit, creativity and zest for life. As for the National Lottery money, she is looking to buy a new state-of-the-art Bernina sewing machine."

Nousha is also involved with Interfaith as a Bahá'í representative.

To find out more about activities at the Lady's Creative Centre speak to Nousha, Tel: 0181 997 4017.

In 1994 Miss Bluebell (centre,with dark collar and cuffs), famous for her dance group in the 60's, visited the Lady's Creative Centre. Nousha Pakpour is on Miss Bluebell's left.

Guernsey Bahá'í Group has been busy this year as usual holding fireside meetings once a month, even though nobody (enquirers) came, observing all Feast days and Holy days and once a Bahá'í month holding Group meetings to carry forward the work here in this lovely island.

As reported in Bahá'í Journal UK last month, during March we were blessed with the visit of Kay Hughes who was such an inspiration to us all.

Not able to rest on its laurels this small community set to work again, arranging a visit by Peter Lee from Exeter. Peter is a studio potter and a visit based around this craft was organised. An exhibition of Peter's work was displayed in the shop of local antique dealer and Bahá'í Kathleen Carre. Peter is particularly inspired at present by "Raku", a Japanese inspired form of firing and his lovely bowls and vases caught the imagination of many of the invited guests at the opening of his exhibition.

With our community's emphasis on education Peter was able to visit two schools where he demonstrated the art of pottery and talked about the inspiration and encouragement he received from Bernard Leach and about the fact that they had met due to their mutual belief in the Bahá'í Faith. Peter was very popular with the pupils and teachers and has been asked back next year.

At the end of his visit a soireé was held in the home of one of the Bahá'í friends where Peter showed his pottery and spoke about Bernard Leach's work and his own potting history. A Persian meal was served and the evening was a great success.

This is a small community with very limited manpower, sickness, hard-working people with non-Bahá'í families, old age and limited resources. Yet, due to our strong belief in Bahá'u'lláh and our idea that we must continue the teaching work despite our handicaps, what we do achieve amazes even us.

Over a thousand people were attracted to an exhibition of paintings by Ken Carter organised at the Brighton Bahá'í Centre as part of the Brighton Festival.

The Centre was open daily during three weeks in May and many people were able to meet and talk to the artist. In addition to viewing the paintings, visitors were able to take away leaflets which explained how Ken's inspiration for his work came through the Bahá'í Writings. Many were deeply moved by the paintings and remarked on the unique contribution that they made to the Festival, being the best exhibition that they had seen. (See photo below).

The climax was a lecture on the final evening when Ken displayed a new painting of the House of the Báb - "The Upper Room", as a prelude to the celebration of the Declaration of the Báb.

The Bahá'í Centre puts out its banner every year and dozens of works of art are on show inside as part of the Festival. The people of Brighton and tourists to the town can visit this along with other open houses systematically.

There is no doubt that this type of teaching activity attracts many to the Faith whose lives are enriched by it.

The community of Brighton and Hove is deeply grateful to Ken Carter.

During May the Bahá'ís of Manchester held an exhibition on the life of Bahá'u'lláh which dominated the public library in Withington, close to the Bahá'í Centre. This exhibition marked the beginning of a concerted campaign to spread the name of Bahá'u'lláh to the local community.

In addition to displays within the library and foyer, the Bahá'ís were able to use a huge glass cabinet to show examples of prayers and other Holy writings.

The Chief Librarian for South Manchester was delighted by the professionalism of the display. This helped convince him to stock some new books on the Bahá'í Faith.

The exhibition is already scheduled to move to other libraries in the Manchester area. Should anyone wish to borrow some of the material, if they contact Robin Bell, Manchester Teaching Committee will do its best to help, Tel: 0161 224 4161.

Ken Carter with two of his paintings at the Brighton Bahá'í Centre.

National Convention 157 BE - Dr Shapour Rassekh (centre) representing the Continental Board of Counsellors gave a talk to the youth on the importance of their role. Photo: Tony Sherwani.

We get up early on Sunday mornings, get the children and ourselves ready and drive to our Thomas Breakwell School. The input of pupils, parents, teachers, the management team and the directors contribute to the unique atmosphere, which we all enjoy and appreciate.

Our thanks go to two special friends, Soroush Fadaei and Zarin HainsworthFadaei, directors of the Thames Valley TBS and parents of four children. One can see and feel the tremendous, indefatigable effort they put into running the weekly school and their continuous search for improvements, trying out whatever promises to be a step forward.

"Until the public sees in the Bahá'í community a true pattern, in action, of something better than it already has, it will not respond to the Faith in large numbers" (From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer, 13th March 1944).

Werner Katzer

Over the bank holiday weekend of 1st - 2nd May while Bahá'ís from all over the UK were gathered at National Convention in Llandudno, the friends in Lancaster were celebrating their Faith with members of other religions at Lancaster University. If you missed some faces from the north of England at Convention don't fear for their continued commitment to our Faith - they were in Lancaster helping us out.

For several years now the Bahá'ís of Lancaster have taken advantage of the facilities at the University Chaplaincy Centre to hold regular weekly meetings and talks on a variety of subjects. This Centre is a multi-faith provision with permanent rooms designated for Jews and Buddhists as well as Catholic and Anglican Chapels. A large Quiet Room is also available for use by other Faiths and has been used frequently by the Bahá'ís.

As a result of our involvement we were asked to take part in the 30th anniversary of the establishment of the Chaplaincy Centre, 1st - 2nd May. The celebrations started on Saturday with exhibitions and displays by Bahá'ís, Buddhists, Jews, Muslims, Quakers, Christian denomi nations and several non-religious groups. Many groups offered additional attractions such as aromatherapy, face painting and a tranquillity zone (courtesy of the Bahá'í group). The proceedings on Saturday were attended by about 200 people, many of whom were highranking religious leaders from all around the United Kingdom.

On Sunday a formal celebration was held and attended by 250 people. This started with a talk by Ninnian Smart, a world renowned professor of religious studies, who was responsible for setting up the religious studies department of Lancaster University over thirty years ago. This was one of the first of its kind in the UK and it was Professor Smart who was instrumental in the provision of a multi-faith centre at the University. In his talk he stressed the value of sharing spiritual writings and beliefs and offered his opinion that no one religion had "all the answers" and that we can all learn from each other's beliefs. He specifically mentioned the Bahá'í Faith by name on several occasions in his talk.

After the talk members of five Faiths read excerpts from their Holy Scriptures with a short pause between readings for quiet reflection on the readings. The Faiths represented were Bahá'í, Buddhist, Christian, Jew and Muslim, in that order.

One of the most encouraging outcomes of what was a very spiritually uplifting experience, was the fact that the Bahá'í Faith was presented very much on an equal footing with all the other Faiths. Indeed the Bahá'ís were consulted at all stages of the organisation of this major event in the University's calendar.

We were asked discretely by a first year Religious Studies student, "what is the Bahá'í Faith?" - and for the first time we had been approached by someone who was genuinely embarrassed by the fact that they had not heard of this Faith that was being mentioned by everyone. She was apologising for her ignorance rather than using it as proof of our obscurity.

K Naderi

Almost 200 children in South Warwickshire were honoured at an exclusive ceremony after proving that they were truly "citizens of the world". The children took part in a special "World Citizenship Project" sponsored by the Bahá'í community.

The project encouraged students and teachers of twelve South Warwickshire secondary schools to consider the impact we have on the planet. Seven of those took part.

The children were asked to write either an essay or a poem or design a poster on one of three themes - racism, the environment or the eradication of poverty. There were 194 entries.

Shomais Afnan representative of the Bahá'í community said: "This was a great idea and we have been very impressed with the standard of work that the children have done. The question of citizenship is a concept which is absolutely necessary for children to understand. Survival depends on the interdependence between people and nations and this project has helped to make them aware of this. Citizenship is not about uniformity, but unity and diversity."

Prizes were awarded to the children at a special presentation ceremony held on 7th May at Arden High School, in Henley where there was an opportunity to see all the work entered.

The Chairman of Warwickshire County Council Cllr Sweet and Mrs Sweet, Chairman of Stratford District Council Mrs Ann Simpson and consort, Mayor of Alcester Cllr Graham and Mrs Graham, representative of UNA Stratford-uponAvon Mrs Hodges Roper and Mr Hooper Inspector of Humanities from the Education Department, were amongst the 350 dignitaries and guests who attended the ceremony.

[Top] Ridván cards made at Rusholme Children's Centre, Manchester

[Bottom] South Warwickshire World Citizenship Project: Committe organisers with Cllr Ann Simpson who presented the prizes to the children. Left to right - Roya Rashidi, Hediyeh Golmohamad, Shomais Afnan, Cllr Ann Simpson, Mastaneh Golmohamad and Elham Tashakor.

As part of the Ridván celebrations, the Bahá'ís of Manchester organised an educational event at an inner city children's centre covering the areas of Rusholme and Moss Side.

Helen Marlow, of the Manchester Teaching Committee shared the story of Ridván with the children. This was followed by practical work as the children made Ridván cards for their parents and produced a display which showed Bahá'u'lláh's tent and His horse amongst a mountain of roses.

The children enjoyed the activities and after the story-telling they were proficient at pronouncing His name.

The Centre, which is run by the council, lies within an area of the city which is highly multi-cultural and children are encouraged to learn about different religious festivals. It is used for nursery and after school education for children of 2 - 10 years and also as a meeting place for community groups.

The Manchester community has learned a great deal about educating young non-Bahá'í children from this project and would be very happy to pass it on to anyone hoping to do something similar.

If anyone wants a more detailed account they should contact Helen Marlow, Tel: 0161 286 1125.