The Covenant Level Three —The Covenant 9 TO APPRECIATE THE UNIQUENESS OF THE LESSER COVENANT OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH ITS PURPOSE TO PRESERVE UNITY SPIRITUAL QUALITIES RELEVANT TO THIS TOPIC: FIRMNESS IN THE COVENANT, OBEDIENCE, TRUSTWORTHINESS Today, the most important affair is firmness in the Covenant because firmness in the Covenant wards off differences . ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The Compilation of Compilations, vol. 1, p. 116 As to the most great characteristic of the revelation of Baha’u’llah, a specific teaching not given by any of the Prophets of the past: It is the ordination and appointment of the Center of the Covenant. By this appointment and provision He has safeguarded and protected the religion of God against differences and schisms, making it impossible for anyone to create a new sect or faction of belief. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, pp. 455–56 —The Covenant 11 GOAL: TO APPRECIATE THE UNIQUENESS OF THE LESSER COVENANT OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH TOPIC: ITS PURPOSE TO PRESERVE UNITY Learning Objectives and Suggested Activities KNOWLEDGE OBJECTIVES • To know that obedience to the Covenant preserves the unity of the Bahá’í Community, and assures its strength and progress Suggested Learning Activities • Learn the definition of “obedience” and talk • Invite children to share their ideas on how about our responsibility to be obedient to obedience strengthens the Bahá’í the Covenant. community. • Discuss how the links in a chain can • Memorize quotations from the Bahá’í represent the Covenant. Obedience is writings about obedience to the Covenant. necessary to keep the chain strong and unified. WISDOM OBJECTIVES • To understand that obedience to the Covenant will protect the Bahá’í Faith from schism and disunity Suggested Learning Activities • Share stories from the history of the Faith • Encourage children to share how they have that show what happened when people felt when they obeyed or disobeyed their obeyed or disobeyed the Covenant. parents or a teacher. • Provide opportunities for the students to • Use historical examples to illustrate how express their thoughts about unity, and what various religions divided into different it is like to experience unity. groups. 12 World Order of Bahá’u’lláh—Level Three GOAL: TO APPRECIATE THE UNIQUENESS OF THE LESSER COVENANT OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH TOPIC: ITS PURPOSE TO PRESERVE UNITY SPIRITUAL PERCEPTION OBJECTIVES • To perceive the effect of obedience to the Covenant on the relationships within one’s own family and one’s own personal life Suggested Learning Activities • Role-play situations from daily living that • Encourage students to share how they feel illustrate obedience, or disobedience when their actions promote family unity. transformed into obedience. Discuss the • Invite students to create artwork illustrating effect of these behaviors on family members their understanding of the relationship and identify practical methods for restoring between obedience to the Covenant and unity and obedience. one’s daily life. • Provide opportunities for students to demonstrate obedience in their daily lives. ELOQUENT SPEECH OBJECTIVES • To articulate stories from the history of the Faith and from one’s own life as examples of obedience and disobedience to the Covenant Suggested Learning Activities • Provide opportunities for students to retell • Invite students to share with others in the stories from the history of the Faith that class what happened when they consciously illustrate obedience or disobedience to the demonstrated obedience in their families. Covenant. • Assist students to plan and carry out a • Encourage students to recite a daily prayer fireside on the importance of the Lesser for firmness in the Covenant. Covenant for the development of human civilization. —The Covenant 13 GOAL: TO APPRECIATE THE UNIQUENESS OF THE LESSER COVENANT OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH TOPIC: ITS PURPOSE TO PRESERVE UNITY Sample Activities ACTIVITY 1: A COVENANT FOR UNITY KNOWLEDGE OBJECTIVE: To know that obedience to the Covenant preserves the unity of the Bahá’í community and assures its strength and progress SPIRITUAL PERCEPTION OBJECTIVE: To perceive the effect of obedience to the Covenant on the relationships within one’s own family and one’s own personal life INSTRUCTIONAL METHODS AND LEARNING TOOLS: Direct use of Bahá’í sacred writings; Use of play; Use of consultation; Use of memorization SUGGESTED TIME FOR ACTIVITY: 45 MIN. Materials Needed: • For each team of 3 students: 1 mixing bowl; 1 large cooking pot; 1 large spoon; 1 blindfold; 1 bag of cotton balls or small balls of crumpled newspaper, leaves, or other clean, lightweight objects • Chart paper and markers Advance Preparation: Decide how to organize teams for the game described below in Steps 2 and 3. If you do not have even groups of 3 students, you may adjust the game to use teams of 2 by combining the roles of the holder and the coach. If your class is very small, the activity will work if you have even 1 small team. Display the quotations in Steps 7 and 9 in the classroom. 1. Welcome students to class. Invite them to think The lifter: of one quality that makes them unique, • sits with the bowl of objects on the lap. something that may not be the same as others • uses the large spoon to lift the objects from in the class. After allowing some time to think, the bowl into the pot held overhead. introduce yourself as the teacher and share one • is blindfolded and is the only person who interesting fact about yourself that students may may touch the bowl and the spoon. not know. Then invite students to introduce • remains silent. themselves and share something unique about themselves with the class. Acknowledge all. The holder: Briefly discuss: How can we celebrate all these • stands holding the pot over the head of the unique gifts while also working together as a lifter. unified group? How can we make new students • remains silent. or guests feel welcome when they join our class? Record student ideas on chart paper. The coach Explain that the class will return to these • is the only one who may speak. questions after exploring these ideas through a • may not touch other team members, the game. bowl, pot, spoon, or objects to be moved, but must observe the team’s movement and 2. Organize students into teams of 3. Each team coach the lifter to a successful conclusion. will have 3 roles: a lifter, a holder, and a coach. Explain that the goal of the teams is to move After explaining these parameters, signal the these objects (refer to cotton balls or other teams to start and time them for 2 minutes. At small objects) from the bowl into the pot. No the end of 2 minutes, invite each team to count one may actually touch the objects to be moved. the number of objects moved successfully into the pot. Applaud all! 14 World Order of Bahá’u’lláh—Level Three GOAL: TO APPRECIATE THE UNIQUENESS OF THE LESSER COVENANT OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH TOPIC: ITS PURPOSE TO PRESERVE UNITY 3. Briefly discuss: What helped us to achieve our 6. Refer to the ideas recorded by students in goal? How can we strengthen the unity of our Step 1. Continue the discussion: Thinking again teams? How can we increase the effectiveness about ourselves as individuals in a group, what of both our individual roles and the team as a would we like to add to our list? Would we like whole? to agree to all of these ideas or should we discuss some of them further? After the class 4. Invite teams to guess how many more objects could be moved in the next 2 minutes after this consults and agrees on ways to build the unity short consultation. Time the teams for a second of the group and to welcome newcomers, round. Invite teams to count the number of explain that the class has just created—or objects moved in this second round. Applaud renewed—its covenant as a class. Briefly all! discuss: What is a covenant? What is the purpose of a covenant? 5. Discuss again: How did the teams utilize the strengths of the different roles? How did the 7. Listen carefully to student comments. Then power of unity help the teams? How did this read aloud the following quotations twice: game illustrate the sorts of words and actions The purpose of religion as revealed from the that promote unity? heaven of God’s holy Will is to establish unity and concord amongst the peoples of the world. Bahá’u’lláh, Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh, p. 129 The purpose of the Blessed Beauty in entering into this Covenant and Testament was to gather all existent beings around one point so that the thoughtless souls, who in every cycle and generation have been the cause of dissension, may not undermine the Cause. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, p. 209 Today, the most important affair is firmness in the Covenant, because firmness in the Covenant wards off differences. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The Compilation of Compilations, vol. 1, p. 116 Briefly discuss: What are some of the ways that religion promotes unity and concord among the peoples of the world? How can the Covenant ward of differences? CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE ¾ —The Covenant 15 GOAL: TO APPRECIATE THE UNIQUENESS OF THE LESSER COVENANT OF BAHÁ’U’LLÁH TOPIC: ITS PURPOSE TO PRESERVE UNITY 8. Listen carefully to student responses. Review 9. Then read aloud the following quotation: the definition of a Covenant: The primary characteristic of true believers is A Covenant in the religious sense is a binding trustworthiness. agreement between God and man, whereby ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The Compilation of Compilations, vol.