Building Clarity: The Transformative Influence of the Worldwide Conference in London-Elgin-Middlesex-Essex-Kent
The world is yearning for change. We hunger for it. We dream of it. We wait for it. And the introduction of the global conferences have swept friends from around the world into another realm, reinvigorating and re-instilling in them a love that will overpower the negative forces at work in their localities. It is […]
Camps, Campaigns and Service Reinvigorate the Friends Across Ontario
Amidst an ongoing pandemic and what often feels like the rising tide of a sea of uncertainties, one constant remains: a growing longing for joy, peace, and prosperity for all. As friends in Ontario continue to adjust to the evolving recommendations in a given locality, they are in essence, drawing on “characteristic creativity and determination […]
Preparing for the Nine-Year-Plan: Turning to New Guidance Across Ontario
Families, teams of friends, entire communities and those serving on institutions turn with eagerness to new guidance for the Nine-Year-Plan.
“This is Our Community”: Nipissing-Timiskaming Reaches a New Milestone
The friends in Nipissing-Tamiskaming not only increased the number of core activities but are rooting certain processes in the community.
Travelling the Bethany Galaxy
Do you ever wonder why we are so attracted to outer space and all the unknowns of the galaxy? And what that has to do with service?
Building Strength in Cobourg & Lindsay
With less than two cycles remaining of the current One Year Plan, dynamic intergenerational teams are surging forward in two Ontario clusters determined to establish an intensive program of growth before Riḍván 2022. They are aware of the remainder of this period of special potency and an extension on the time needed to establish as […]
The Stony Path to the Second Milestone in Sault Ste. Marie
Written by Chandyn Bachiu Louisa van Lith has lived in Sault Ste. Marie (Soo) for almost her whole life. In the spring of 2019, through reading the guidance of the Universal House of Justice, she realized that herculean effort was needed in order to help those in the Soo begin to establish the activities that […]
Reflections on Youth Service: Animating in Brockville and Ottawa
Contributed by Anis Alkhushi “…much depends on the ability of the institutions to draw on help from friends in other clusters, reinforcing the actions of an existing Bahá’í community by, for example, arranging the support of visiting teaching teams or tutors. In many places, the institute process begins with the assistance of believers from stronger […]
Ontario’s Virtual Baha’i Summer School: Fellowship, Music and Reflecting on the Life of the Master
Written by Emma Persaud From Friday, the 20th of August until Sunday the 22nd, people gathered in various groups across the province for a summer school. The focus was on making plans and laying the foundation for the Nine Year Plan to come. A special session was held on the first evening, with Dr. Firaydoun […]
“Together We Shine” ROBSI Summer Camp Dedicated to ‘Abdu’l-Baha
Written by Heather Harvey In late July, almost 60 participants gathered for a three-day online ROBSI camp experience inspired by the life and writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. For the last 35 years ROBSI (Rideau-Ottawa Bahá’í Schools Initiative) has run week-long residential camps in wilderness settings inspired by the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith. Due to the […]
A Tutor Reflects: Robot Competitions and Spiritual Perception in London
“Consort with all men, O people of Bahá, in a spirit of friendliness and fellowship. If ye be aware of a certain truth, if ye possess a jewel, of which others are deprived, share it with them in a language of utmost kindliness and good-will. If it be accepted, if it fulfil its purpose, your […]
Tending the Spiritual Garden: Book 3 Campaign plants the seeds for nurturing children’s classes in South-East Ontario
Written by Nancy Lavoie One of my favourite Ruhi books is Ruhi Book 3: Teaching Children’s Classes, Grade 1. The profound principles and concepts that inspire and shape the system for the spiritual education of children resonate with all who study it. It underscores why children need the spiritual precepts and teachings of the Divine […]
The Institute Inspires Expanding Conversations in Upper Don Mills
The Upper Don Mills neighbourhood, along Don Mills Rd and Finch Ave in Toronto, has been home to neighbourhood activities since 2006, during the first institute campaigns in Toronto. The work has concentrated in four smaller pockets since then, and as the process of growth strengthens, new pockets along these streets have opened to the […]
“I hope you don’t think this was easy!”: Adventures in Sharing Learning
seeing the way that a “development in culture finds expression in the quality of their interactions.”
“We became a food hub”: The power of collaboration in Vaughan
Sunder Singh grew up in India. When she was 14, she met three fashionable Persian women in the marketplace. They were so kind and friendly that she invited them to her home. For the rest of her life, she remembered this encounter. “The gentleness about them stayed with me,” she says. She also remembered the […]
Navigating Crisis and Victory: Studying Book 4 in Rowntree
The isolation caused by the pandemic can lead to feelings of frustration, even despair, among youth. In Rowntree, a neighbourhood in the northwest part of Toronto, one youth found resolve by recognizing a confirmation from Baha’u’llah. Rowntree was opened up with the junior youth spiritual empowerment program in 2012 when some 80 junior youth registered […]
“They’re a Group of Youth at the Vanguard”: Working with Groups in Greenboro
In Ontario, several centres of intense activity have been making incredible strides towards their goals, witnessing the “swelling tide, whereby the capacity, confidence and accumulated experience of most communities are rising.” [1] Many friends and teams across the region are engaged in setting audacious plans for the summer. In the Greenboro-Heatherington neighbourhood of Ottawa, one […]
Service Week in St. James Town
In the fall of 2020, the team in Toronto’s densely-populated neighbourhood of St. James Town was thinking about how their efforts to draw new youth into the community-building process could continue. Winter was looming, and restrictions around the pandemic were likely to increase. They were conscious of the need to weave together a pattern of […]
Developing Virtues on a Farm in Martintown
The Tremblay-Savoie family lives on their farm, Nature’s Acres Homestead in Martintown, Ontario, in the Cornwall cluster. Alex and Zac, both participants in a junior youth group, created this video, wishing all the friends a Happy Naw-Rúz and describing daily life on their farm. With humour and joy, the twin brothers reflect on how their […]
Zooming on Manitoulin Island: The Spirit Island
Written by JP Mayer and Pam Jackson How would you conduct a children’s class without children being present? Ask Ina Swain and Pam Jackson, two friends who live on an island in the Sudbury-Manitoulin cluster. When you live far from children and grandchildren but your heart aches to serve, you get creative. When one door […]
Touching the Hearts Through Service and Artmaking in Ruddington
The Ruddington Drive neighbourhood is comprised of seven apartment buildings with a population of about 3,200 people in the North West of Toronto. Newcomers from China, Iran, Hong Kong and South Korea make up close to 60% of the population and almost 30% of the population are young people. Since 2014, the expanding nucleus of […]
Believing is Seeing: Reflecting on Prayer and Service
“There is no time to lose. There is no room left for vacillation…Such an opportunity is irreplaceable. Let the doubter arise and himself verify the truth of such assertions. To try, to persevere, is to insure ultimate and complete victory.” – Shoghi Effendi [1] By Subrina Bhullar My children’s class participants are almost junior youth […]
Bringing our Questions to Families: Collective problem-solving around Children’s Classes and Junior Youth Groups
In both the Springdale neighbourhood of Brampton and the St. James Town neighbourhood of Toronto, youth from the local population who have graduated from children’s classes and the junior youth program are now tutoring, animating, teaching children’s classes, and beginning to coordinate activities. In both neighbourhoods, the expanding nuclei of friends holding activities are turning […]
Seeking Untapped Potential: An Expanding Nucleus in North York
Sara Louie Daliran came to Canada from Iran 15 years ago. Early in her university education, she married her husband, Reza, who is from a Muslim family. Soon after they were married, the couple began studying the books of the Ruhi Institute, and two years later he enrolled in the Faith. Since that time, and […]
Deciding to Pioneer: “Our role is to walk the path of service with our friends”
By Sonya Appadoo Our desire to homefront pioneer was first sparked when we studied the 29 Dec. 2015 message from the Universal House of Justice with a group of friends in London, Ont., soon after it was released. Helping to raise “the number of clusters where a programme of growth has become intensive to 5,000 […]
“How could we offer something without leaving our homes?” Dawn Prayers in Stratford
The Oxford-Perth cluster first advanced beyond a couple dozen activities just last year, through holding more frequent institute campaigns every cycle. These regular institute campaigns strengthened a dynamic youth movement and opened pockets in the cluster to children’s classes and junior youth groups, and soon the cluster could see a path towards the vision of […]
The Power of Intergenerational Friendships in Stratford
In the Oxford-Perth cluster, the friends have seen dramatic growth with respect to devotional gatherings over the past few cycles. The spirit of intergenerational accompaniment and friendship is strong in the cluster and is solidified through both a pattern of collective worship, as well as an outward-looking orientation. The passing of Mary Helen Hazen, a […]
“A True Rallying Point”: A New Neighbourhood Centre in Sudbury
In early November 2020, through support from the region, the friends in Sudbury were able to lease a neighbourhood centre, at the exact midpoint between the Flour Mill and Louis Street focus neighbourhoods, just a kilometer apart. Having their own space became a necessity after the summer and fall cycles of intense activity when, despite […]
Online seasonal school to be held this summer
Two of Ontario’s seasonal schools are joining forces to host an online school this year due to the ongoing circumstances with COVID-19. Kawaa’aataae and Shining Lamp Bahá’i Schools have released the registration form for a three-day school to be held from 31 July to 2 August. The program has sessions for all ages to take […]
New Ruhi Book 10 unit focuses on accompanying one another to serve
ONTARIO – The first unit of Ruhi book 10 has arrived, and study of it is already underway. On the first weekend of June over 40 participants that included the Bahá’í Council, Institute Board, Auxiliary Board members, and regional teams gathered in Toronto for the first Ontario study of Unit one Ruhi Book 10, entitled Accompanying […]