FHU IS ON BREAK FOR THE FAST UNTIL 3/29/2021
CLICK ON THE GRAPHIC TO VIEW FASTING STUDY GUIDE!
Moreover, in the traditions the terms "sun" and "moon" have been applied to prayer and fasting, even as it is said: "Fasting is illumination, prayer is light." And as the sun and moon constitute the brightest and most prominent luminaries in the heavens, similarly in the heaven of the religion of God two shining orbs have been ordained -- fasting and prayer.
(Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan, p. 39)
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Sunday is SOTE Day to Share
Topics of Study
1. October 10, 2018 Letter from UHJ on "Addressing the Double Crusade"
2. 10/1996 "Whatever Happened to the Double Crusade?"- by Glenford Mitchell
3. 1938- Shoghi Effendi (Double Crusade) ADJ
4. "A Rectitude of Conduct..." - excerpt from the ADJ by Shoghi Effendi
5. "A Chaste and Holy Life "- excerpt from Advent of Divine Justice
6. "Freedom from Racial Prejudice" - excerpt from Advent of Divine Justice
FACILITATOR TEAM
SOTE Facilitators
Schedule thru Feb. 2021
Elaine Montgomery - Jan. 10th
Hoda Hosseini - Jan. 17th
Helen Keniston Oney - Jan. 24th
Christian Hansen - Jan. 31st
Elaine Montgomery - Feb. 7th
Hoda Hosseini - Feb. 14th
Helen Keniston Oney - Feb. 21st
Christian Hansen - Feb. 28th
Aaron Crossley - Dec. 6th
Helen Keniston Oney - Dec. 13th
Elaine Montgomery - Dec. 20th
Joyce Olinga - Dec. 27th
Hoda Hosseini - Jan 3rd
PAST FACILITATORS
October 25 - Elaine Montgomery
November 1 - Hoda Hosseini November 8 - Helen Keniston Oney November 15 - Elaine Montgomery
SUNDAY IS SOTE DAY
SUNDAY FACILITATORS
OCTOBER 4, 2020- HODA HOSSEINI/HELEN KINESTON ONEY
SEPTEMBER 27, 2020 - HELEN KINESTON ONEY / HODA HOSSEINI
SEPTEMBER 20, 2020- HELEN KINESTON ONEY
SEPTEMBER 13, 2020 - BARBARA TALLEY/ GUEST SPEAKER (LEX MUSTA)
SEPTEMBER 6, 2020. (JENNIFER TREADWELL/HODA HOSSEINI)
AUGUST 30, 2020 (HELEN K, AND HODA H)
AUGUST 23, 2020 (HODA HOSSIENI/CAROL CAMPBELL)
JULY/AUGUST 2020, AARON CROSSLEY
"... I hope that ye may cause that down-trodden race to become glorious, and to be joined with the white race, to serve the world of man with the utmost sincerity, faithfulness, love and purity. This opposition, enmity and prejudice among the white race and the coloured cannot be effaced except through faith, assurance, and the teachings of the Blessed Beauty... This question of the union of the white and the black is very important for if it is not realized, erelong great difficulties will arise and harmful results will follow ... enmity will be increased day by day and the final result will be hardship and may end in bloodshed."
('Abdu'l-Bahá: The Advent of Divine Justice, p. 33)
"There are four qualities which I love to see manifested in people: first, enthusiasm and courage; second, a face wreathed in smiles and a radiant countenance; third, that they see with their own eyes and not through the eyes of others; fourth, the ability to carry a task once begun, through to its end." 1
"As to... and... verily the faces of these are as the pupil of the eyes although the pupil is created black yet it is the source of light. I hope God will make these black ones the glory of the white ones and as the depositing of the lights of love of God. And I ask God to assist them in all circumstances, that they may by encompassed with the favours of their Loving Lord throughout centuries and ages." (Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, vol. II, p. 292)
On Sunday's the SOTE speak and the POTE have the opportunity to listen and learn, just as the SOTE listen and learn on Friday and Saturday.
We will begin the session by sharing our insights and heartfelt thoughts from the preceding days before beginning our study. What did we hear from the POTE days that we can share now to show them that we are actively listening to learn? What have they said that matters to us?
We have discussed Sadie Oglesby's address to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahai's of the United States and Canada. She shared the Guardians directives to us to figure out why more black people are not in the Cause. He said he would write something to assist her. A letter was written twelve days later after her pilgrimage and seventeen days before her National Convention speech..
TODAY WE WILL BE STUDYING THE RESPONSE FROM THE GUARDIAN DATED APRIL 12, 1927
CLICK HERE TO SHARE HERE PLEASE! WE ARE WRITING A NEW STORY RIGHT NOW, PLEASE RECORD YOUR INSIGHTS OF WHAT YOU HAVE GAINED AND LEARNED ON THIS SITE AND WHAT YOU WILL START, STOP, AND CONTINUE DOING.
BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS
A Flame with Devotion: The Hannen and Knobloch Families and the Early Days of the Baha'i Faith
They Were Her Property (white women enslavers)
White Tears/Brown Scars: How White Feminism Betrays Women of Color
In short, O ye believers of God! Exalt your effort and magnify your aims. His Holiness Christ says: Blessed are the poor, for theirs shall be the Kingdom of Heaven.[1] In other words: Blessed are the nameless and traceless poor, for they are the leaders of mankind. Likewise it is said in the Qur'án: "And We desire to show favor to those who were brought low in the land, and to make them spiritual leaders among men, and to make of them Our heirs."[2] Or, we wish to grant a favor to the impotent souls and suffer them to become the inheritors of the Messengers and Prophets.
[1 Cf. Matthew 5:3.]
[2 Qur'án 28:5.]
(Abdu'l-Baha, Tablets of the Divine Plan, p. 34)
SUNDAY IS SOTE DAY
SUNDAY IS SOTE DAY
SOTE is an acronym and shorthand for the sclera of the eye. The role of the sclera is to provide protection and support for the pupil. This is the day that POTE (pupil of the eye) listen, while the SOTE discuss the most vital and challenging issue. Baha'u'llah specifically designated the black people as "pupil of the eye" and mentioned that the pupil was surrounded by the white. This is why you will hear us use the acronyms POTE and SOTE.
"Bahá'u'lláh once compared the coloured people to the black pupil of the eye surrounded by the white. In this black pupil you see the reflection of that which is before it, and through it the light of the Spirit shines forth." (Abdu'l-Baha, Abdu'l-Baha in London, p. 68)
"Let the white make a supreme effort in their resolve to contribute their share to the solution of this problem, 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, to persuade them through their intimate, spontaneous and informal association with them of the genuineness of their friendship and the sincerity of their intentions, and to master their impatience of any lack of responsiveness on the part of a people who have received, for so long a period, such grievous and slow-healing wounds. ... Let neither think that the solution of so vast a problem is a matter that exclusively concerns the other. Let neither think that such a problem can either easily or immediately be resolved (Shoghi Effendi, Advent of Divine Justice)
RULES FOR SHARING WHEN STUDYING A DOCUMENT
- Read and reflect on the document ahead of time to become familiar with the subject matter being discussed..
- Share the page number, paragraph number, and sentence you are referencing.
- Read the text you are referencing slowly for all to hear..
NOTE: Comments, ah-ha's, and insights are to be shared on Mondays.
Please peruse the three levels of understanding during your private reflections. Use a dictionary to make sure you understand the words. Think about what are the implications for the world if this becomes reality. Finally, what can or will you do to make it a reality?
Three Levels of Comprehension (Ruhi)
1. Understanding - Study the words and sentences with the focus to understand their meaning, rather than on one's own opinion of them.
2. Application - Think deeply about the obvious application of the statement in one's daily life.
3. Implication - Think about the implication of the statement in situations with no apparent or immediate connection with the statement.
Design Barbara Talley- Information from the Advent of Divine Justice
Sunday, September 13, 2020
SPECIAL SPEAKER TODAY: LEX MUSTA
LEX MUSTA IS A RESEARCHER AND WILL SHARE STORIES ABOUT AGNES PARSONS AND LOUISE BOYLE, TWO SOTE MEMBERS OF THE NATIONAL COMMITTEE ON INTERRACIAL AMITY. TWO OF HER GRANDCHILDREN WILL ALSO JOIN US TO HELP US UNDERSTAND HER LIFE AND CONTRIBUTIONS
Louise Dixon Boyle was recognized by the Hand of the Cause of God Mr. Louis George Gregory as “particularly well informed with regard to the inter-racial work in the Southern States”, as he recommended her to the 1926 National Race Amity Committee.
She was the grand daughter of an enslaver, the daughter of the first Baha’i of the Southern States, the wife of a lead engineer of the Mother Temple of the West, a home front pioneer to the heart of the Confederacy, and mother in law of one of the four select European Descent Americans singled out by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in his famous letter from a Birmingham jail as follows, “I am thankful, however, that some of our white brothers in the South have grasped the meaning of this social revolution and committed themselves to it. They are still all too few in quantity, but they are big in quality. Some -such as … Sarah Patton Boyle--have written about our struggle in eloquent and prophetic terms.” She like Agnes Parsons was transformed by Baha’u’llah to undertake Race Amity work within the other tradition of multiracial cooperation for significant advancement of America towards Racial Amity.
SOTE DISCUSSIONS
Seeing Whiteness - June 28-August 2020- Discussion Led by Aaron /Susan C., Carol C, & Helen K.
Seeing Whiteness - June 28-August 2020- Discussion Led by Aaron /Susan C., Carol C, & Helen K.
Seeing Whiteness - June 28-August 2020- Discussion Led by Aaron /Susan C., Carol C, & Helen K.
HOW RACE WAS MADE
"For much of human history, people viewed themselves as members of tribes or nations but had no notion of “race.” Today, science deems race biologically meaningless. Who invented race as we know it, and why? By John Biewen, with guest Chenjerai Kumanyika. "
May 24, 2020- SOTE REFLECTIONS
Seeing Whiteness - June 28-August 2020- Discussion Led by Aaron /Susan C., Carol C, & Helen K.
Seeing Whiteness - June 28-August 2020- Discussion Led by Aaron /Susan C., Carol C, & Helen K.
DISCUSSING RESULTS OF THE SURVEY AND CONCERNS
In reflecting on the struggles we are all having in understanding and openly and honestly examining our barriers in overcoming how we have been poisoned by institutional racism, overtly and covertly, consciously and unconsciously, willingly and unwillingly, we are presenting this survey.
The purpose is to be able to objectively gain insights into what we experience when dealing with the “most vital and challenging issue”. Some of the barriers may fit you and some may not. This is not about identifying any individual but being able to step back first, then reflect on what I personally have to work on, and finally, what are steps to overcome the barrier(s).
April-May 2020 - Discussion of Dr. Smith's Letter
Seeing Whiteness - June 28-August 2020- Discussion Led by Aaron /Susan C., Carol C, & Helen K.
April-May 2020 - Discussion of Dr. Smith's Letter
Excerpt from Dr. Derik Smith's Essay
"This essay extends those explorations by proposing a number of interpretive possibilities organized around two interrelated claims. First, by giving black people a principal position in the figurative body of humanity, Bahá’u’lláh’s metaphor is reflective of the material reality that black people were among the principal builders of global modernity—a reality that has been obscured in scholarly and lay discourse, but which is becoming increasingly prominent in the work of influential historians."