OZ Whitehead Firesides OZ Whitehead Firesides

Among the many religious groups that were active in nineteenth-century Palestine, the Baha'i community was one of the smallest. Since 1868, this religious community has established its presence around the bay of Haifa. The Baha'i' Holy Places in Haifa and the western Galilee were announced as "world heritage sites", by UNESCO, in 2008. Unlike many of the Baha'i properties in Palestine, the story of the Baha'i settlements in the Jordan valley is almost unknown. During the 1880 three settlements were established at the eastern and southern shores of Lake Tiberias: Umm-Jūna, Es-Samrā and Nuqeib. A fourth settlement, El-Adasiye, was established, at the first years of the twenty century, near the Yarmuk River. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, portions of the Baha'i's land in the Jordan valley were sold to the Zionist organizations and the kibbutzim of Deganya aleph, Deganya beth, Ein Gev et cetera were built on these lands. During the 1948 war, the Baha'i settlers of Nuqeib were ordered by the local HaHagana commander to evacuate. Since they weren’t allowed to return to these lands after the war ended, they were compensated by land near Acre. The Baha'i lands of Es-Samrā, that were part of the demilitarized zones, were bought by the Israeli government and their owners left the state. The inhabitants of El-Adasiye, the last Baha'i settlement in the area, left the village in 1960 and spread all over Jordan and the Baha'i settlements in the Jordan valley become an unknown part of both local and Israeli history.
I received my PhD from the University of Haifa. My research field for both M.A & PhD is the Baha'i community and its presence in the land of Israel between 1868-1968. In recent years, I've presented papers at international conferences (Association for Israel Studies, Irfan Colloquium for Study of the Baha'i Faith, International Society for Iranian Studies, Association for Baha'i Studies, Royal Geographical Society, Conference of Historical Geographers et cetera) all over the world and published articles on different topics related to my research field.

Bahá’is will recognize, in 2021, the centenary of the passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (son of the Faith’s founder). Starting in the springtime, many will commemorate the significance of this year by more consciously striving to emulate His exemplary life. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s call to arise and serve as “stars in the eyes of God’s Compassion” distills its own meaning for each reader who views it from their vantage point in history. Now, more than a century after He wrote the passage, our discussion will examine three aspects of this call to serve:
· A century of work that served the best interests of humankind;
· Current contexts for work as worship; and
· Tailoring personal communications and acts of compassion to the exigencies of our time.
Dr. Teresa Henkle Langness is an author in multiple genres, an educational development specialist, and founder of the Full-Circle Learning model. She serves on boards concerned with education, human relations, the arts, the environment and has met wonderful friends and collaborators along the way. She claims as a source of matchless inspiration the fact that this year, she has been a Baha’i for exactly half a lifetime.

Working with Fidelma Meehan, supported by a team of wonderful Bahá'í friends in Swindon, a programme was developed to help disaffected/vulnerable young people in the wider society. Aware that many young people are beset by a host of fears, worries, anxieties and insecurities along with superficial and discouraging relationships the team developed two special environments/experiences - the Tranquillity Zone and the Discovery Zone - to help them engage in rewarding personal and social behaviour - A host of aberrant, anti-social and various disorders experienced by youngsters were addressed in these two Zones with a programme that revolved around two passages from Bahá'í texts - that 'man is a mine rich in gems of inestimable value' and that all children are 'potentially the light of the world and at the same time its darkness.' In brief, the programme aimed at empowering individuals to transcend their disaffection with spiritual understandings. The programme was welcomed by 27 schools in Swindon, primary and secondary, with their most disaffected youngers identified as needing a novel intervention. A cohort of teachers and learning mentors were trained to deliver the programme. Viv Bartlett's book, Nurturing a Healthy Human Spirit in the Young, outlines this experience.

Born in Cardiff, Viv Bartlett began searching for answers to life’s problems after a tragedy struck, when his 14-year-old younger brother accidently electrocuted himself. Finding answers in religion he became a member of the Bahá’i Faith in 1966. After serving an engineering apprenticeship in ‘Tiger Bay’ Cardiff, he later travelled the world as an engineer in the merchant navy. Returning home, he married (Rita Bridge) in 1970 and gained a B. Ed Honours degree in Education as a mature student. He then taught in secondary education in S Wales.

Viv Bartlett, whilst pioneering in S Wales, served on several national Bahá’i committees until 1976, when he was appointed an Auxiliary Board Member in the UK serving for over 20 years with a special interest in the empowerment of young people. Since then, he has served on the Bahá’i Training Institute for Wales and then on the first elected Bahá’i Council for Wales. He was a Bahá’i representative on the first Interfaith Council for Wales established in 2003 serving until recently. He is a founder member of the Swindon Young People’s Empowerment Programme (SYEP), a programme inspired by Bahá’í Teachings to help vulnerable, disaffected young people. A total of 27 primary and secondary schools have employed this programme.
Viv has authored three books, with a fourth in process. His beloved wife, Rita, died of cancer 7 years ago, prior to which they parented three children and were foster carers.

In this talk, Kelly Snook will provide a guided tour through the exquisite beauty of the Badí Calendar, which is followed by Baha'is around the world. She will explain in simple terms the daily, monthly, yearly, and even less frequent astronomical events that anchor the calendar to the physics of our local solar system. This Calendar, believed to be the first to be revealed by a Divine Messenger, was laid out by The Báb in the mid-19th Century and adopted fully by Baha'is worldwide in 2015. It is uniquely tied to both solar and lunar movements, such as the northern vernal equinox and new moon conjunction. Have you ever felt a little fuzzy on why the dates of the Gregorian calendar shift with respect to the dates of Baha'i Holy Days and other days of interest? Or what the equinox is and why it is a good marker of time? Or why the Lunar Calendar is so different from solar calendars like our modern standard calendar, which has leap years to stay aligned with the sun? Kelly hopes to make it all not just a little less confusing, but hopefully generate genuine appreciation for its beauty and perfection by bringing in the music of the spheres and demonstrating how the Calendar directly manifests God's principles of Oneness and Harmony.
Dr Kelly Snook was trained in Aeronautics and Astronautics, as well as in music. She is now creating a new field of research, called "Investigative Music" that is partially a return to Johannes Kepler's time, when music was used as one of the four tools for exploring the world. Arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music comprised the Quadrivium, the four modes of scientific inquiry. Before science as we knew it existed, these were the ways that the physical world was investigated. Arithmetic, the study of number; geometry, the study of number in space; music, the study of number in time; and astronomy, the study of number in space and time. When Johannes Kepler discovered his three laws of planetary motion, it was through the application of musical principles of harmony and spiritual principles of oneness that emerged the mathematical equations he will forever be famous for. Calendars are essentially the application of our astronomical understanding of space and time to the collective patterns of human activity. Kelly seeks to make audible and explorable these fundamental patterns in Nature.

It is the general understanding of people that religion deals with the moral and spiritual aspects of life, and economics with the material aspect. If the role of economics is to accomplish a good life and religion, on the other hand, show us how to live a good life, then religion and economics should work together as partners. This presentation will maintain the view that a partnership between material and spiritual aspects of life are potent forces to solve economic problems and improve well-being and prosperity.
Hooshmand Badee is an academic economist with a Doctoral degree in Bahá’í economics. His Doctoral research title is "The Bahá’í teachings on economics and their implications for the Bahá’í community and the wider society." Hooshmand’s two recent books are Economics and the Bahá’í Faith; and Principles of Spiritual Economics – A Compilation from the Baha’i writings with an overview of Baha’i economics.
Hooshmand has worked as a lecturer of economics for more than 25 years in several universities, mainly in the West Indies and the UK. He was one of the founders of Carmel High School, a Bahá’í inspired school in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. He is currently a faculty member at the Wilmette Institute in US and an academic member of the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education (BIHE) in Iran. He also offers an enterprise training program for the Baha’is in Iran and also for the refugees coming to Scotland, all on a voluntary basis.
He married and left Iran in 1975 and lived in Bangladesh, Canada and the Island of St. Vincent and the Grenadines before moving to the UK in 2001. Currently, he lives in Glasgow, Scotland.

A conversation with Payam Zamani. He will share his personal journey growing up in Iran, escaping Iran as a teenage refugee, settling in the U.S. and his entrepreneurial experiences. The business world is in a dire need of a new framework, one that is based not solely on the maximization of wealth and profits but rather a framework that considers the positive impact businesses can have on communities and the betterment of the world. Is there a framework offered by the Baha'i Faith? Are there elements of a spiritual approach shared in the Writings that can be our guide?

Payam Zamani is the founder, chairman, and CEO of One Planet Group, a hybrid tech firm that owns and operates a suite of online technology and media businesses. He is also the co-founder and Editor-in-Chief of BahaiTeachings.org, and is an early-stage investor. Payam came to the United States as a 16-year-old Baha’i refugee. He’s built One Planet on a model not focused solely on financial success, but with an ethos of sacrificial giving and universal philanthropy, believing that businesses should consider the betterment of the world and be a source of good.