Wairarapa cluster passes the second milestone of growth
The Regional Bahá’í Council for the North Island made the following joyful announcement on 4 May 2021, in a letter to all Local Spiritual Assemblies and groups in the region.
Dearly loved friends,
Featured image: Milestone moment! Cluster reflection meeting where the friends identified as a cluster they had traversed the second milestone, in the presence of Counsellor Tessa Scrine (centre of back row).
It is with great joy and gratitude that the North Island Regional Bahá’í Council shares with you the news that the Wairarapa cluster has passed the second milestone along the continuum of growth. This cluster was able to achieve this goal of the Five Year Plan through the persistent efforts of those in the cluster, supported by a combination of visits from youth from Auckland, close accompaniment by Auxiliary Board member Leyla Neilsen alongside a member of the Council, and the settlement of a couple and a youth pioneer from Tauranga.
These support structures enabled the friends living in Masterton, the largest town in the cluster, to see themselves as a nucleus of the growth process. The nucleus continued to expand through a pattern of holding regular whānau days every six weeks, thereby widening the circle of those from among the local population participating in the four core activities which are central to the community building process.
The friends serving in Masterton have recorded a narrative of the steps they took to achieve this goal. We share with you some selected extracts from this to illustrate the nature of the growth process which is continuing to unfold, beginning with the first whānau day some nine months ago:
There were 40 participants (32 adults, one youth, and seven children) at this first whānau day. In August the new weekly class started, with nine children from Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Wairarapa.
The community decided to host whānau days every six to eight weeks, developing a pattern of introducing concepts about community building, the institute process and walking a path of service. The second whānau day on 30 August was therefore focused on the junior youth spiritual empowerment programme.
As the school term came to an end, the community decided to arrange for a week-long programme for children, combining spiritual education with service, held at the Kura and supported by a visiting team of four youth from the neighbouring Wellington cluster.
The children's service week embraced some 15 children from eight families. Every morning started with prayers and singing, followed by a children’s class lesson on the themes of love, patience, justice followed by art and music, and then service projects within the school grounds: weeding the gardens, cutting back flax, repainting an ageing mural. This service week was a turning point for the progress of the cluster as it enabled our community to demonstrate that service is at the core of the Bahá’í Faith.
Following the summer initiative training in Auckland, a core group of five to seven friends who were able to give much time met each day, carried out home visits to all the families from the Kura who had been met during the various whānau days and invited them to an institute camp. The programme was arranged to work for whole families: Book 1 – Reflections on the Life of the Spirit for youth and adults, Breezes of Confirmation and Glimmerings of Hope for junior youth and a programme based on Grade 1 lessons for the children. The local Bahá’í community arose and managed to tutor/facilitate and arrange the whole camp. There was a total of nine children in the children’s class, seven junior youth in the junior youth group and four adults in the Book 1 study circle.
The first nucleus retreat was held in March, where nine friends came together to study guidance, read the Ōpōtiki narrative and reflect on the current core activities running in the community. The concept of an expanding nucleus was explored, so as to deepen the understanding of it being a core group of friends which then gradually grows to include more and more people. The outcome of this retreat assisted the vision and built a stronger sense of unity and purpose.
During the same month, the weekly children’s class which was previously held at a family home moved to the Kura with the vision of growing the class. Two more children joined during term one bringing the number of families connected to the programme for the spiritual education of children to six, many of whom have attended our whānau days. Three children also attended the First Day of Riḍván Holy Day. The hope is to rearrange the participants by age into two classes in term two.
Over the course of term one, it has been challenging to home visit the parents of all the children in the class, however a Facebook page has been set up where parents can comment, and photos of their children are posted regularly to provide a record of lessons covered and the virtue studied.
During this past cycle we have been focused on strengthening the institute process with the goal to raise a cadre of tutors, accompanied by the Cluster Institute Coordinator and Auxiliary Board member. Each nucleus meeting the friends assess the progress of the core activities and study circles in particular and make plans to begin new ones.
At Easter, a second institute campaign was held at a Bahá’í home in Masterton. Four adults participated in a study circle for Book 2 – Arising to Serve, three junior youth studied Wellspring of Joy, and two children worked through four lessons from the Grade 1 materials, all facilitated by nine tutors, animators, teachers and art workshop facilitators. There were helpers and visitors to the evening presentations and devotions; up to 30 friends gathered over the four-day period, over a third of whom were friends of the Faith.
By the 9th of April, there were a total of 12 core activities with 73 participants, of which 28 were friends of the Faith. At the joyful cluster reflection meeting held across half a day on the 1st of May, the friends recognised that they had passed the second milestone.
Dear friends, we are certain that this passage past the second milestone will be the first of many victories in the North Island during this year of special potency, when every community is called on by the Universal House of Justice to cultivate “the conditions necessary for welcoming larger and larger numbers of souls into the embrace of a community recognized for its fortitude and outward-looking orientation” and to “draw on whatever untapped potential it may possess and seek to overcome any obstacles that are impeding its growth.”
Arohanui,
The North Island Regional Bahá'í Council
Te Kaunihera Bahá'í ā-Rohe o Te Ika-a-Māui
Slideshow
The slideshow below tells a visual narrative of the cluster’s movement to the second milestone of growth, displaying the vibrancy and unity of the cluster and the intensity of activity.
