Summer initiative spreads love and friendship
Youth and families from 13 clusters participated, including 21 children, creating the largest attendance in the history of summer initiative, and auguring well for an exciting year ahead.
In the waning years of His life, when all the resources of His physical strength had been exhausted, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá proclaimed, “O how I long to see the loved ones taking upon themselves the responsibilities of the Cause!”
As 2021 came to an end, and with it, the centenary of the passing of the Master, dedicated souls put into motion a summer initiative that drew a record number of 160 participants into service and learning in action. Youth and families from 13 clusters participated, including 21 children, creating the largest attendance in the history of summer initiative, and auguring well for an exciting year ahead.
Summer initiative is a period of the summer where individuals dedicate time to intensively serving the community-building process in their own cluster or another. The first phase comprised a week of orientation in early January. While past orientations have been held in Auckland, the growing strength of Hawke’s Bay community allowed that cluster to also host an orientation and demonstrate their burgeoning capacity in the community-building process.
Participants in both areas spent their mornings in study, and afternoons and evenings gaining the experience of meeting new people and sharing the vision of the community-building process. Hundreds of homes were visited, numerous meaningful conversations exchanged, and the teachings of the Faith were directly shared. In Hawke’s Bay alone over 295 homes were visited.
Themes such as teaching, fostering meaningful conversations in communities, extending an invitation to a path of service through participation in the institute process, and the vital role played by youth in the advancement of their communities were studied. Highlights in Auckland included study of the 30 December 2021 message from the Universal House of Justice and the viewing of the recently launched film, Glimpses of a Hundred Years of Endeavour.
An emphasis was also placed on learning about “Safeguarding the Interests of Young People” — a training course crucial for the conscious protection of the young who engage in activities promoted by the community. More than 35 people completed this course.
One participant described the orientation experience as a heavenly week, adding, “the amount of love and support we had for each other just made it such a great environment.” He was immensely grateful for the opportunity to participate and develop his capacities.
Another participant was so enkindled, excited and exhausted by the week’s orientation that he felt almost “as if I have returned from the conference of Badasht.”
I would that words could transport you there: let you see the radiant faces of those youth, adults and children who gathered and grew together there; let you hear their voices lifted in songs of praise and devotion, traditional Māori karakia and waiata woven among exquisite Bahá’í chants and songs, like red and black threads woven together with the incandescent threads of the Word of God; let you feel the warm embrace of those friends who gave their love and true friendship so readily to one another.
Everyone who came was enflamed by the great spirit of service, of devotion and faith that was present.
Photographic report
The featured photo above shows members of an outreach team in Wellington cluster. The majority of these friends are from Naenae neighbourhood in Hutt City, and had been part of the summer initiative orientation in Hawkes Bay.
Below are galleries showing activities in Hawke’s Bay and Auckland. (Click on photos to enlarge them.) At the end is a video which captures the ardent spirit of devotion during a collective worship time in Hawke’s Bay.
