Monday 27 September 2010

19 Day Feast

I'm with my local Bahá'í friends this evening, celebrating the 19 Day Feast at the home of Aramesh Mahboubi in Rushey Mead.

Minou Cortazzi, stalwart of the Leicester Bahá'í community and former Chair of the Council of Faiths, joins the meeting late, having attended the Faith Leaders Forum earlier in the evening. This meeting, convened by the Bishop of Leicester, focused on the issue of the demonstrations next month by the English Defence League (EDL) and Unite Against Fascism (UAF). Minou talks to us about the meeting, what was decided and what is to be done.

In the devotional part of the Feast (which comes at the start of the meeting), I'm asked to read aloud an extract from the writings of Bahá’u’lláh that strike me as being appropriate to the mood that many are feeling at the close approach of these demonstrations in Leicester:

Say: O people of God! Beware lest the powers of the earth alarm you, or the might of the nations weaken you, or the tumult of the people of discord deter you, or the exponents of earthly glory sadden you. Be ye as a mountain in the Cause of your Lord, the Almighty, the All-Glorious, the Unconstrained.

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