The Lamp, vol. 3, no. 4 September, 1998 The 1998 Spiritual Foundations Summer Session The third annual summer session of the Spiritual Foundations for a Global Civilization program provided a unique combination of challenges and successes for the twenty-seven students and thirteen faculty who participated between July 18 and August 8. The theme of the program was "Community and Governance": how communities are created, maintained, and organized, from a secular and particularly from a Bahá'í point of view. The theme was approached using the academic disciplines of political theory and sociology and through the Bahá'í writings, particularly those of Shoghi Effendi on the Administrative Order. The challenge of building community among the faculty and students was heightened four days before the program began when a final count of attendees--which had kept changing, as students informed the Institute of spouses and children coming, and as the Persian class grew in size--revealed that about fifteen more people were coming than anticipated. The dormitory (Baker Hall at National-Louis University), normally capable of accommodating dozens of extra people, was to be largely closed for renovation and could hold less than half the extras. What to do? Fortunately, Kendall College, a half mile away, had ample space for the extra students. Those attending the Spiritual Foundations program were split between two facilities, requiring an extra effort to build community or even to use the Institute's Bahá'í library, located at Baker Hall. Students rose to the challenge, giving each other rides from place to place. The challenge also proved to be a future bounty for the Institute, which will be able to use a renovated facility next year at National-Louis University or, utilizing its new contacts, choose alternative facilities at Kendall College. This year's faculty proved exceptionally good. (Impressions of each teacher's classes may be found in an article by a student inside.) The program began with a class introducing the Bahá'í Administrative Order and one outlining the Bahá'í concept of unity. A series of classes by Bill Collins about the life, writings, and work of Shoghi Effendi followed. Although a part of the history module, not the primary module of the session--on Community and Governance--a presentation on the Guardian reinforced the theme of governance and community and set the context for academic presentations on it. Arash Abizadeh presentations on political theory, a subfield of Political Science that focuses on the concepts behind governing systems. Michael McMullen offered a series of classes about the sociology of communities, introducing the theory behind creation of communities. Both Abizadeh and McMullen constantly wove Bahá'í material into their presentations, integrating Bahá'í and academic theory into a whole. The course then switched back to Bahá'í material with a series of classes by John Hatcher, based on his book Arc of Ascent, about the spiritual and ethical nature of the Bahá'í Administrative Order. The topic allowed students to reflect, in a Bahá'í context, about the academic material they had learned. Various faculty explored specific Bahá'í institutions. Robert C. Henderson invited the entire class to the council chamber of the National Spiritual Assembly for a presentation about that institution. Iraj Ayman spoke about the Universal House of Justice and its Constitution, the Bahá'í World Centre, the local spiritual assembly, and the institution of the Haziratu'l-Quds (Bahá'í administrative center). Morris Taylor, a member of the Regional Council for the Central States, spoke about the new institution of regional councils. Gayle Morrison spoke so eloquently about the Institution of the Learned (the International Teaching Center, Continental Boards of Counselors, Auxiliary Board members, and their Assistants) that the students invited her back for a second ninety-minute class. The module on governance closed with classes by Jeff Huffines, representive of the National Spiritual Assembly to the United States, about the relationship between Bahá'ís and their institutions, on the one hand, and politics and governments on the other. The Bahá'í history covered during the Spiritual Foundations summer session did not just include the life and work of the Guardian; it also looked at the construction of the Administrative Order from 1921 to 1957, persecution of the Cause during that period, construction of the Bahá'í House of Worship in Wilmette, and the spread of the Faith through the First and Second Seven Year Plans and the Ten Year Crusade. The Bahá'í scripture module, taught largely by Dann May, focused on works relating to governance and community: the Kitáb-i-Aqdas as it relates to Bahá'í administration, the Kitáb-i-Ahd, the Tablet of Carmel, the Tablets of the Divine Plan, the Will and Testament of `Abdu'l-Bahá, Bahá'í Administration, and The World Order of Bahá'u'lláh. The skills module also related to the year's theme; Roya Ayman covered the management of meetings and David Rouleau offered a series of workshops and case studies on the local spiritual assembly. Keyvan Nazerian gave workshops on teaching the Faith; teaching is a theme explored every year. This year's workshops, however, had unexpected success; the Wilmette Institute students taught the owner of a restaurant where they often ate and she declared two days before the end of the session! Another very interested seeker is being nurtured by telephone and e-mail. While the Wilmette Institute students are expected to make strong efforts to teach the Faith at home--last year's 27 students brought at least 4 new Bahá'ís into the Faith--no one expected them to lead souls into the Cause in Wilmette as well. At the Farewell Dinner on Saturday evening, August 8, certificates of attendance were given to twenty-seven students and certificates of completion of the previous year to two (others are in the process of completing the final exercise). Juana Conrad, assistant secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly, gave an excellent talk entitled "Morality: The Government of One's Self." The restaurant owner who had become a Bahá'í was introduced to the crowd. The student council read the letter to the Universal House of Justice that it had composed (see p. xx). Then the summer session ended with a poem, a dance, and a prayer. The students have scattered to their homes all over North America to pursue home study for the rest of the year, including the giving of deepenings and firesides about the material they have learned. (Second Lead Article) First Intensive Persian Course Given Simultaneous with the 1998 Spiritual Foundations for a Global Civilization program, the Wilmette Institute and the Persian-American Affairs Office sponsored their first three-week intensive course on the Persian language. Designed for introductory, intermediate, or advanced students, the course attracted six students, mostly college-aged youth of Persian background. The primary teacher of the course was Lili Ayman, who also teaches Persian at the University of Chicago. She gave the students three hours of Persian classes each morning using special educational materials developed exclusively for the course and commercially available materials. Afternoons and evenings the students did homework and exercises, watched movies, and enjoyed Persian cultural activities. The students took an exam at the end of the course which showed they had learned a significant amount, in spite of the short time involved. The Wilmette Institute plans to offer the course again next year, probably for $400 (which was the tuition this year). The materials developed for the course may also prove usable at Persian-language courses across the country. Inside This Issue: (Also Starts on Front Page?) Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh Courses Continue The course on the revelation of Bahá'u'lláh, 1853-68, which began in January, was extended from June to September in order to give its students more time to complete the work. Since it was the Wilmette Institute's first correspondence course, the Institute had no previous experience in designing the weekly exercises, and it was uncertain how much work to assign if it wanted its students to receive a thorough introduction to the revelation of Bahá'u'lláh. The amount of work proved more than the students could do, and many students wanted to spend more than six months to study half of Bahá'u'lláh's revelation. They now have nine months to complete the assignments together with their fellow students. Subsequently the Institute will continue to accept homework and provide advice, but the listserver and conference calls will cease. Many of the students in the first course wish to take the second course (covering Bahá'u'lláh's revelation from 1868 to 1892), hence the second course was delayed until October 4. For the thirty students who had already signed up for the second course, homework assignments were sent and a listserver was set up. Most, however, have decided to read, but delay their completion of homework assignments until October. In January the Wilmette Institute plans to start the cycle of courses again, but this time the revelation of Bahá'u'lláh will be divided into four six-month courses rather than two: 1853-63, 1863-68, 1868-73, and 1874-92. Students will be able to take the courses in any order and stretch out the two-year cycle over as long a period as they wish. The courses will also be complemented by others on specific works by Bahá'u'lláh; one on the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, scheduled to begin September 3, and one on the Kitáb-i-Íqán scheduled for the spring. (Page 2 or 3) 1998 Spiritual Foundations Summer Session: One Student's Impressions by Patricia Campuzano I could tell you of my arrival into the Wilmette Institute's Spiritual Foundations for Global Civilization program, but then I would have to explain what it was like putting the rest of my life on hold for the three weeks of the residential part of the program.