FEBRUARY ON fhu
Join us Monday through Friday (and a couple of Saturdays) for special speakers or for study.
JOIN US MONDAY - FRIDAY ON ZOOM https://tinyurl.com/FHUtoZOOM to register!
Th- February 1- Gwen Massey, Study of the 11/28/2023 Letter from UHJ"
F- February 2- Carol Mansour (Refresh and Gladden the Souls of Black Folks)
M-February 5- Derik Smith (The Framework for Action and the Legacy of the Civil Rights Movement: The presentation suggests that we honor the richest legacy of the civil rights movement by pursuing—as best we can—noble endeavors in alignment with the framework for action laid out in the Plans of the Universal House of Justice.)
T - February 6 -Nadema Agard (The Fort Apache Connection: Nadema will be talking about an exhibition that she curated called the Fort Apache connection. This exhibition brought native American Americans to the Bronx to the area of the Bronx that was called Fort Apache, so that the Apache from Arizona and New Mexico, got to meet the so-called Apaches of the Bronx who are people of color African-American, and Hispanic predominantly Puerto Rican. There was a movie made called the Apache, the Bronx, which was very offensive to the community, and there was protesting. This exhibition examines the history of this event, and many many other interesting subjects.)
W- February 7 - Team Wednesday-Carmen and Clyde (Marcia Lample and Aram Ferdowsi will share stories of the Casey and Alice Walton and the Growth of the Faith in Nashville in the 60's)
Th- February 8 - Ladjamaya (Study of the 11/28/2023 Letter from UHJ)
F- February 9 - Dr. Jonathan King ("Let's Talk About DEI (Diversity , Equity , and Inclusion)". Dr. Jonathan King is a DEI (Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion) Consultant who works closely with Colleges and Universities to facilitate their journey toward becoming more inclusive at every level of the organization. His mission is to create workplaces that champion the idea of creating unity in diversity, where all employees are respected and valued regardless of their color, ethnic heritage, nationality, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. Contact: https://www.jkingconsulting.com
M- February 12- Richard Jeffers (Direct Wealth Transfer with Spirit from White to BIPOC)
A realistic plan to create DEI neighborhoods by sharing equity in White homes to help BIPOC buy homes partnering with JPMorgan Chase’s 5 year, $30 billion Racial Equity Commitment (REC). CONTACT: rjeffers@b100daily.com (602) 326-3420
T- February 13 - Aliyah and Sandy (An interview with Tierney Sutton on her new song release, 'Good People') Check out Radiance's article about Tierney entitled, "Tierney Sutton’s New Song ‘Good People’ Confronts Racism
https://bahaiteachings.org/tierney-sutton-song-good-people-confronts-racism/
W- February 14- Damita Hicks ( Art which emphasizes that "Mama A'free'ca" represents FREEdom to understand our true nobility, and dispel false racial narratives. Damita will share some new and updated paintings filled with spiritual messages.) https://youtu.be/nXqo9IBAxHI?si=ECL-4prYaPd5ztgP
Th- February 15 - Gwen Massey (Study of the 11/28/2023 Letter from UHJ on the First Century of the Baha'i Faith)
F- February 16 - Team Friday-Barbara Talley, Carol Mansour, Gary Bullard, and Martine Hubbard (Reflections and Discussions on Tierney Sutton's 'Good People' video.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 17, “FASTING IS MORE THAN JUST NOT EATING WITH BARBARA TALLEY (3-6PM EST)- A FOCUS ON PRAYER AND HOW SPIRITUAL FASTING ELEVATES THE STATION OF THE SOUL!
M- February 19 - Michael Orona (“A Shared Humanity between African Americans and Indigenous Peoples.” Black and Indigenous peoples of the world are of each great significance to the healing and spiritualizing of the America and of the world. We are now understanding that the destiny and work of one is the destiny and work of the other.)
T- February 20 - Lex Musta (Mobarek Anderson, Alan Arthur Anderson, Coralie Franklin Cook, and the Louis Gregory Museum )
In 1912 'Abdu'l-Baha named a child whose life represented the best of Interracial Cooperation, "Blessed", in 2023 a Headstone honored her life. In preparing a bus tour of Mobarek's life, I discovered her father Alan Anderson's unmarked grave, a recipient of the 1910 Pupil of the Eye Tablet of 'Abdu'l-Baha which is famous in Selected Writings of 'Abdu'l-Baha, "Received Tablet from 'Abdu'l-Baha in 2024. In preparing the headstone for Alan Anderson, I re-discovered the magnificent Mausoleum of renowned Baha'i Coralie Franklin Cook, but it had been "vandalized and worn down," as the Cemetery's Manager explained to me. Finally, as the Charleston Assembly is working to renovate the Louis George Gregory Baha'i Museum; we are launching the Louis Gregory Across America Project, where you can help take the pictures, and do the deep local research regarding Louis Gregory's visit to your own town; as he visited most every Baha'i community in the country over his life, to help fill this great gap in our knowledge about the Hand of the Cause of God's example to us all. In all this work, we keep in mind the guidance provided by the Master at Howard University in 1912, "Create love between you, by loving, honoring and working for mutual advancement with the other.")
W- February 21- Gene Marie (The Institution of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar)
Th- February 22-Gwen or Ladjamaya "Study of the 11/28/2023 Letter from UHJ"
F- February 23 - Martine Hubbard "The “Goo” of Transformation: My Artistic Journey!"
Martine will show a slide presentation of her art sharing and telling her story about what motivates her as an artist, how she responds to inspiration and a bit about her process as an artist and graphic designer. At the end, she will share a simple art meditation that people can do if they wish. The exercise will not be new however I believe the spiritual context will be inspiring.
SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 24, PART 2: “FASTING IS MORE THAN JUST NOT EATING WITH BARBARA TALLEY (3-6PM EST) - A FOCUS ON MEDITATION AND THE HOLY SPIRIT
M- February 26 - Carl Murrell (The United Nations Decade for People of African Descent)
T- February 27 - Gwen Etter Lewis (Stories of POTE Pioneers)
W- February 28- Barbara Talley (WINTER FHU REFLECTION GATHERING ON FHU -
TH- NO SESSION, PREPARE FOR THE FAST WHICH STARTS FRIDAY
FRIDAY- NO SESSION, FIRST DAY OF THE FAST
SATURDAY, MARCH 2, PART 3: FASTING IS MORE THAN JUST NOT EATING (A FOCUS ON SPIRITUAL RECUPERATION)
NOTE: NO SCHEDULED WEEK DAY PROGRAMS IN MARCH TO ALLOW EVERYONE TIME FOR PERSONAL REFLECTION, PRAYER, MEDITATION, AND SPIRITUAL RECUPERATION!
Scroll down for 2024 study documents
A Big Thank-you to our regular facilitators and teams.
We have a program every weekday, Monday through Friday. We begin at 10:30am EST, 9:30am CST, 8:30am MST, and 7:30am PST. We will have some night classes in April!
Second Tuesday of the month- Sandy Simmons and Aliyah Aziza (Arts)
First Wednesday of the month- Carmen Brown and Clyde Herring (Special Guests)
Third Wednesday of the month- Gene Marie Kennedy (Mashriqu'l-Adhkar Study)
Every Thursday Ladjamaya and Gwen lead a study on the November 28th letter.
Black Friday meets every Friday- Barbara, Carol, Gary, and Martine (Special Topics of interest to the pupil of the eye). Note: Everyone may attend and listen, but the conversation is only between people of African descent on Fridays. (Pupil of the Eye)
ALL OTHER DAYS NOT MENTIONED, HAVE SPECIAL SPEAKERS PRESENTING!
Please read the statement below before and after your study.
“IF WE ARE SERIOUSLY COMMITTED TO THE MOST VITAL AND CHALLENGING ISSUE, THAT OF ELIMINATING RACIAL PREJUDICE AND WORKING TOWARDS TRUE RACIAL JUSTICE, TRUE RACIAL UNITY, TRUE RACIAL HEALING, AND THE ONENESS OF HUMANITY,”
- What would you start doing?
- What would you stop doing?
- What would you continuing doing?
ALSO, KEEP IN MIND, HOW MIGHT WE VIEW THE TEXTS WE ARE STUDYING AND HOW MIGHT THESE VERSES BE ABUSED?
january at fhu
Join us Monday through Friday for special speakers or for study.
JOIN US MONDAY - FRIDAY ON ZOOM https://tinyurl.com/FHUtoZOOM to register!
T- January 2- Kevin Genus & Barbara Talley "Sadie Oglesby and Shoghi Effendi"
W-January 3- Carmen and Clyde (Lloyd Lawrence on Hush Harbor/Urban Juke Joint)
Th - January 4 -Gwen and Ladjamaya Study of the 11/28/2023 Letter from UHJ"
F- January 5 - Black Friday, Carol Mansour (Discussion on Identity)
M- January 8- Lucki Wilder "Twigs of a Family Tree" (Book)
T- January 9 - Aliyah and Sandy "A Focus on the Arts”(Music/Poetry)
W- January 10- Lucas Rivera "My AfroRican State of Soul" (Book)
Th- January 11 - Gwen or Ladjamaya "Study of the 11/28/2023 Letter from UHJ"
F- January 12 - Martine Hubbard "A Discussion on Participating in Public Discourse"
M- January 15 - Shawn Talley MLK, "More Than a Dreamer"
T- January 16 - Barbara Talley "National Day of Racial Healing"
W- January 17- Gene Marie "The Institution of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar"
Th- January 18-Gwen or Ladjamaya "Study of the 11/28/2023 Letter from UHJ"
F- January 19 - Gary Bullard "The Power of Divine Trust, Destiny, and Nothingness"
M- January 22 - Dr. Joy DeGruy ”What’s Coming?”
T- January 23 - Kim Douglas and Masud Olufani “The Community Building Power of the Art”
W- January 24- Laina Green ”New Culture of Development: Community-led Social Action”
Th- January 25- Gwen or Ladjamaya "Study of the 11/28/2023 Letter from UHJ"
F- January 26 - Carol Mansour : “Refreshing and Gladdening the Souls of Black Folks"
M- January 29- Chuck Egerton "Exiting Whiteness and Patriarchy:
Embracing Oneness and Belonging
T - January 30 - Oletha DeVane/Tadia Rice "Beyond Bars" Documentary
W - January 31- Sovaida Ma'ani "It's High Time We Built a System of Collective Security Grounded in Justice." Sovaida Ma’ani Ewing is a prolific author, speaker, and international lawyer with 20 years of experience in public and private legal practice. She is the founding director of The Center for Peace and Global Governance (cpgg.org), a virtual think tank and online forum that pools and proposes principled solutions to pressing global challenges. She has published five books in the area of peace and global governance including “Building a World Federation: The Key to Resolving our Global Crises.” Her latest book, available on Amazon, is “The Alchemy of Peace: 6 Essential Shifts in Mindsets and Habits to Achieve World Peace.” She also hosts a video podcast
"Re-Imagining Our World” on the CPGG YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/c/centerforpeaceandglobalgovernancecpgg -- that is dedicated to creating a vision of the world we want and infusing hope that we can make the choices necessary to attain it.
Consultation
If an Assembly member feels that there are BARRIERS affecting the consultation of the body, he should frankly and courageously raise his concerns; these barriers could include, for example, ... behavioral characteristics which unwittingly EXPRESS CONDESCENSION leading to the HUMILIATION of others, or a feeling that one is being ignored.
Such BARRIERS may well arise as the Faith continues its inexorable progress in creating dynamic consultative bodies which bring together, in a spirit of unity and equality, the historically divided elements of humanity, thus laying the foundation for a new and ever advancing civilization.
22 June 1989 UHJ letter to an NSA --
https://www.bahai.org/library/authoritative-texts/the-universal-house-of-justice/messages/19890622_001/1#309563878
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Unwittingly...subconscious
"...to abandon once for all their usually inherent and at times subconscious sense of superiority, to correct their tendency towards revealing a patronizing attitude towards the members of the other race..." (ADJ)
2 May 1912, Talk at Hotel Plaza
Chicago, Illinois: Notes by Joseph H. Hannen
In this Cause consultation is of vital importance, but spiritual conference and not the mere voicing of personal views is intended. In France I was present at a session of the senate, but the experience was not impressive. Parliamentary procedure should have for its object the attainment of the light of truth upon questions presented and not furnish a battleground for opposition and self-opinion. Antagonism and contradiction are unfortunate and always destructive to truth. In the parliamentary meeting mentioned, altercation and useless quibbling were frequent; the result, mostly confusion and turmoil; even in one instance a physical encounter took place between two members. It was not consultation but comedy.
The purpose is to emphasize the statement that consultation must have for its object the investigation of truth. He who expresses an opinion should not voice it as correct and right but set it forth as a contribution to the consensus of opinion, for the light of reality becomes apparent when two opinions coincide. A spark is produced when flint and steel come together.
Man should weigh his opinions with the utmost serenity, calmness and composure. Before expressing his own views he should carefully consider the views already advanced by others. If he finds that a previously expressed opinion is more true and worthy, he should accept it immediately and not willfully hold to an opinion of his own. By this excellent method he endeavors to arrive at unity and truth.
Opposition and division are deplorable. It is better then to have the opinion of a wise, sagacious man; otherwise, contradiction and altercation, in which varied and divergent views are presented, will make it necessary for a judicial body to render decision upon the question. Even a majority opinion or consensus may be incorrect. A thousand people may hold to one view and be mistaken, whereas one sagacious person may be right. Therefore, true consultation is spiritual conference in the attitude and atmosphere of love. Members must love each other in the spirit of fellowship in order that good results may be forthcoming. Love and fellowship are the foundation.
The most memorable instance of spiritual consultation was the meeting of the disciples of Jesus Christ upon the mount after His ascension. They said, “Jesus Christ has been crucified, and we have no longer association and intercourse with Him in His physical body; therefore, we must be loyal and faithful to Him, we must be grateful and appreciate Him, for He has raised us from the dead, He made us wise, He has given us eternal life. What shall we do to be faithful to Him?” And so they held council.
One of them said, “We must detach ourselves from the chains and fetters of the world; otherwise, we cannot be faithful.” The others replied, “That is so.”
Another said, “Either we must be married and faithful to our wives and children or serve our Lord free from these ties. We cannot be occupied with the care and provision for families and at the same time herald the Kingdom in the wilderness. Therefore, let those who are unmarried remain so, and those who have married provide means of sustenance and comfort for their families and then go forth to spread the message of glad tidings.” There were no dissenting voices; all agreed, saying, “That is right.”
A third disciple said, “To perform worthy deeds in the Kingdom we must be further self-sacrificing. From now on we should forego ease and bodily comfort, accept every difficulty, forget self and teach the Cause of God.” This found acceptance and approval by all the others.
Finally a fourth disciple said, “There is still another aspect to our faith and unity. For Jesus’ sake we shall be beaten, imprisoned and exiled. They may kill us. Let us receive this lesson now. Let us realize and resolve that though we are beaten, banished, cursed, spat upon and led forth to be killed, we shall accept all this joyfully, loving those who hate and wound us.”
All the disciples replied, “Surely we will—it is agreed; this is right.” Then they descended from the summit of the mountain, and each went forth in a different direction upon his divine mission.
This was true consultation. This was spiritual consultation and not the mere voicing of personal views in parliamentary opposition and debate.
"The Bahá’ís must learn to forget personalities and to overcome the desire—so natural in people—to take sides and fight about it. They must also learn to really make use of the great principle of consultation." (From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi, To the National Spiritual Assembly of Germany and Austria, 30 June 1949)
"Settle all things, both great and small, by consultation. Without prior consultation, take no important step in your own personal affairs. Concern yourselves with one another. Help along one another's projects and plans. Grieve over one another. Let none in the whole country go in need. Befriend one another until ye become as a single body, one and all…"(From a Tablet, translated from the Persian)
"If five people meet together to seek for truth, they must begin by cutting themselves free from all their own special conditions and renouncing all preconceived ideas.
In order to find truth we must give up our prejudices, our own small trivial notions; an open receptive mind is essential.
If our chalice is full of self, there is no room in it for the water of life. The fact that we imagine ourselves to be right and everybody else wrong is the greatest of all obstacles in the path towards unity, and unity is necessary if we would reach truth, for truth is one." (Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks, p. 136)
“A rebuttal is necessarily influenced by the material under scrutiny. The latter determines the logical structures of the critique. If in what purports to be an academic study, the most sacred elements of a religion-its founding figure, its teachings and its followers-are subjected to biting, frequently cynical criticism, and are disparaged and defamed, then the dictum 'suaviter in modo, fortiter in re!'cannot be applied. Gentle hints using 'words as mild as milk' are insufficient. A lit must be called a lit, a manipulation a manipulation. Clear and direct language has been employed here. Someone who publishes such a baneful work should not complain about polemics. No-one regrets more than the present authors of this rebuttal that the tone of Ficicchia's book forces all who critically examine it to lower themselves to the same seamy depths in order to refute his arguments.”
Udo Schaefer, "Making the Crooked Straight"