Efforts to build community in the South Island
Despite the health crisis, many Bahá’ís and collaborators in Aotearoa have continued learning to contribute to the social and spiritual well-being of their communities.
Here, the South Island Regional Bahá’í Council has described a number of examples demonstrating the creative and constructive responses to the current crisis.
Stories from Te Tau Ihu cluster
An overarching theme shared by a number of friends in this cluster, which is geographically far-flung, is that there has been greater participation — especially of friends who aren’t often able to attend — in the virtual gatherings of all kinds.
Tasman
Covid-19 and the resulting physical distancing has led to some surprising outcomes for the more isolated friends in this small and far-flung community. Devotions, Holy Days and Feasts have all been celebrated virtually at both the local and cluster level, and Local Spiritual Assembly meetings have also taken place via Zoom. For those technophobes in the community, one of the older friends has helped each of them to connect and this has meant that isolated older believers have attended devotions and Holy Days which would otherwise not have been accessible for them.
One believer, who teaches at a local Catholic High School, has been asked to share a prayer via video on the school’s Facebook page, to support the school community at this difficult time. When she asked if the Deputy Principal would like a Christian or Bahá’í prayer she was told “a Bahá’í prayer would be amazing — we appreciate the diversity of all Faiths at the school and think this needs to be celebrated!”
Marlborough
An older friend who lives in a retirement village in the Marlborough community is enjoying her lockdown bubble which comprises 12 members. Inspired by the challenges of the current situation she asked the other members of her ‘bubble’ if they would like to have interfaith devotions on a weekly basis. This was warmly welcomed and she has included Writings from all the major religions, including of course the Bahá’í Faith. She states she would not have felt comfortable to take this leap in other circumstances and is grateful for the opportunity the pandemic has created. We are grateful for her courage!!
Stories from Canterbury
Christchurch
First Day of Ridvan Holy Day celebration via Zoom
This inspiring Holy Day was well-attended by the friends, including a number with younger children. The participants were delighted to see each other and the whole programme was uplifting. A beautiful video was prepared for the occasion and this brought great delight to all the participants. It was followed by a family-friendly treasure hunt!
“Packages and positive messages”: One family describes their efforts to connect and offer support to their neighbours during lockdown.
“It actually started with the small packages we made right before the lockdown and distributed to a number of our neighbours with young children to say that we think of them and that they can contact us if they need to talk to anyone. We just wanted to make a connection with our neighbours, so the packages contained a couple of colouring sheets for adults and children, some useful links (e.g., Brilliant Star magazine, Soulpancake, TED talks, etc.) and some fun tips and facts as well as a short message from our family with a contact phone number. We also contacted a couple of elderly families and let them know that they can contact us when they need help with things such as shopping, etc.
“Then we decided to use our time at home during the lockdown to spread positive messages to the neighbourhood. We live on a busy road and have a large fence which creates a great opportunity to spread these messages. We aim to gradually add more and more positive messages on our fence and spread the love.”
Photo below: a Christchurch family displayed positive messages on their fence during lockdown.
Interfaith prayer video for World Day of Prayer, May 14 2020: The Faith was one of 15 religious groups represented in this video coordinated by the Canterbury Interfaith Society. Rebeccah and Sofia Grace Hibbert recited two prayers, which are shown second in the video.
Waimakariri
After realising how easy it was to set Zoom up and link it in with the Assembly’s gmail account and google calendar, the community decided to start online devotions every Sunday evening. Attendance has been regular, giving community members a chance to connect with each other. This smaller community has also seen a slight increase in Feast participation since moving online.
Selwyn
Setting up online spaces was initially a bit of a challenge as the friends learnt to navigate the different platforms. In one instance, the host hadn’t realised friends had joined and after some time was about to close down the space saying “strange, no one is here” when suddenly the voices of community members rang out that they had been there for the last 10 minutes.
The community set up a weekly catch-up space that is predominantly a social space but includes the sharing of prayers as well. It has been well attended. They have decided to study the Ridván message together on this platform.
Stories from Aoraki
Timaru
Since the lockdown regular devotions have been hosted by the Local Spiritual Assembly and were not only attended by Bahá’ís but friends of the Faith as well. The online devotion is well attended. There are also study circles — Book 8, Book 2 and Book 3 via Zoom.
Oamaru
Bahá’í friends who are working as essential workers were asked several times why they are not looking so worried but rather look happy, calm and not really stressed about the pandemic. The friends shared their understanding of the Bahá’í Faith. It really helped to calm down the workmates as well and they became interested to know more of the Bahá’í Faith. One friend of the Faith mentioned that since the start of this conversation, he started to go back and read the Bible more, which is something that he hardly did before. The Bahá’í friend mentioned the smoko time has lots of meaningful conversations now and the attitude of the workmates has changed. They start to think more of positive things to talk about rather than being negative all the time.
The whole Bahá’í community is in a Messenger group. The secretary finds it easy during the lockdown to check or get in touch with the friends as they are in one group and another group for the Local Spiritual Assembly members. Even though they can’t meet in person, they are connected through these two groups. Regular devotions are held by every family via Zoom or just their own bubble. The Ridván message was studied and also online firesides are held when the friends of the Faith are available.
Stories from Coastal Otago
Dunedin
The Bahá’í community of Dunedin has celebrated the Holy Days and the Feasts online with great success. The community has been enjoying a vibrant and spiritual atmosphere in the Zoom space beyond what was thought possible, and the Local Spiritual Assembly has been agile at creating reverent, inclusive, and loving spaces online.
The new cluster growth facilitator for Coastal Otago organised a brilliant virtual Cluster Reflection Meeting on April 10th. A beautiful learning space focused on the processes of growth, helping us bring our thinking into cycles of activity, and to consider creating a nucleus of friends who can work together as a team to achieve the goals of the plan in their neighbourhood.
This stimulated the formation of one neighbourhood nucleus that went on to complete the first two units of Ruhi Book 10. The group has also started a Book 2 with four local youth. Two members of this study circle have invited a university friend of the Faith to join Book 1 in May. Also, one member of the nucleus is hosting an online early morning devotional which has attracted members of the local community, as well as including his own family overseas, and many friends of the Faith locally and overseas as well.
