Summer school goes online this year
The National Spiritual Assembly announces its decision to this year move summer school online — in this letter to Local Spiritual Assemblies and Bahá’í groups of 18 September 2020.
Dear Friends,
Summer school organisers and speakers will now focus their energies on creating the best possible online event …
As our national Bahá’í community responds with agility and resilience to exceptional circumstances, the National Assembly has decided to hold one virtual summer school this year for the whole country because of the uncertainty regarding the pandemic situation during the summer holiday period. We anticipate that this can be a positive, even exciting, opportunity to expand the range of ways that the friends can learn together and enjoy each other’s company.
Summer school organisers and speakers will now focus their energies on creating the best possible online event, and we have asked the existing logistics committees for the North and South Islands to combine into a single team to design a programme that makes good use of the online medium. This will include programmes for all ages from children to adults. As soon as the team have come up with dates and a brief outline of the programme, these will be announced to the community.
The theme of the school will be “Diffusing the Light”. As previously announced, one of our keynote speakers will be Mrs Alison Milston. Mrs Huti Watson has been appointed as the second keynote speaker. They will each be offering four one-hour talks for the summer school, and Mrs Milston’s proposed outline for her talks is set out in an appendix to this letter. Mrs Watson’s talks will focus on engagement with Māori, and titles for each talk are currently being decided. We anticipate that the summer school talks will be posted on YouTube or another platform for ongoing availability.
This being a first attempt at running such a big event online, it must be acknowledged that there will be a lot of learning involved about what works and what doesn’t. We encourage everyone to participate in a trailblazing spirit and help make it as successful as possible. The National Assembly’s vision aims for a virtual summer school that gives an impetus to the work of the Plan in the final few months. With many in our communities now having experience with online technology, we see this as an opportunity to build even more capacity in using online methods for areas of engagement beyond times of emergency.
Above all, we look forward to an event that truly feels like a Bahá’í summer school with qualities that stimulate devotion to teaching and a powerful sense of spiritual fellowship.
Loving Bahá'í greetings,
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of New Zealand
Sessions by Mrs Alison Milston
These sessions will draw extensively from major messages of the House of Justice, primarily those from the current Plan, as well as the Holy Writings. They will include stories of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and illuminate the herculean effort and heroism needed at this critical time, illustrating this with examples of heroism from the lives of early believers in the West. Mrs Milston will also share some of her own experiences and reflections on service in the Holy Land. It is likely that each plenary session will be supplemented by workshop sessions.
1. “A Mighty spiritual enterprise”
2. “A system for large scale transformation”
3. “Unlocking human potential—Looking to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá”
4. “A befitting response”
NB: A notice was published by “Bahá’í Aotearoa” on 19 August about Mrs Alison Milston serving as keynote speaker and sharing her brief biography — https://bahaiaotearoa.bahai.org.nz/home/2020/8/19/plans-for-next-summer-schools-take-shape
