doberman pizza. a baha'i (bahai, bahá'í) blog.

hey hey hey hey have some photos! I’ve posted the photos from the ottawa Baha’i community’s recent reflection meeting. In response to comments, I tried to take a lot more face shots this time instead of back-of-head shots and crowd shots. hopefully this helps convey the active, participatory nature of reflection meetings. this weekend’s meeting wrapped up an exciting cycle (in which twenty people declared their faith in Bahá’u'lláh in only a few weeks—something Ottawa hasn’t seen in a very long time), and set a great foundation for the next cycle. keep your eyes on this blog for more news as Ottawa’s intensive program of growth chugs along.

It’s a warm, sunny Saturday in Ottawa. Saturday has become a de facto Service Day; I tend to spend most of my time here in the Baha’i Centre on Saturdays, while Sunday is quickly becoming a family-time day (for the past few weekends, anyway). This morning, our children’s class did a little spring cleaning on the grounds surrounding the Baha’i Centre, picking up trash in the parking lots and sweeping old leaves into piles to stuff into garden bags. They were proud to have offered a service to the Earth, or “one percent of a hundred percent” of the Earth anyway. The Weather Channel showed an interview this morning(!) with David Suzuki, who spoke a little about public involvement in keeping climate change and the environment high on Canada’s and the world’s agendas—mainly focusing on political action, of course. We seem to be doing our part of spreading some environmental awareness in our children’s class—we’ve already done several classes full of gardening and a few other ones about recycling and taking care of the Earth; that, and the children seem to be learning a lot about being “green” at school, which is good to see. Commuting by bike is an enjoyable way to stay environmentally friendly too—now that the sun is out, I’ve been biking to the children’s class every Saturday morning, since I don’t have a car (oh, and I just happen to live a twenty-minute walk away).

That’s all for now; time to close up shop.

Tonight at the Ottawa Baha’i Centre, there’s a community potluck organized by the east-end Baha’is (from “Sector 1″ as it’s habitually called). The sun isn’t down yet and already the tantalizing smell of food wafts through the air—oven-baked pasta, casseroles, persian rice, curries and meat. Fasting heightens the senses, especially when it relates to eating—the smell and taste of food seem amplified, and so much fuller. People have been slowly trickling in with bowls and platters large and small. Now, a program is starting in the main hall as I sit and type these words in the bookstore; one of the youth is delivering a presentation about his first time fasting. “Today is the fourteenth day of fasting, and I’m still going strong,” he says. “Fasting is of two kinds, material and spiritual,” he says, quoting from the writings of the Guardian of the Faith, Shoghi Effendi. “The material fasting is abstaining from food or drink, that is, from the appetites of the body. But spiritual, ideal fasting is this, that man abstain from selfish passions, from negligence and from satanic animal traits. Therefore, material fasting is a token of the spiritual fasting.” Prayers and devotions follow, as the Baha’is observe this “ideal fasting” in their hearts and spirits, sharing time as a community in worship of their loving Creator. One of the Persian friends, with a strong, solid, and melodious voice which reverberates in the reverent silence, chants a prayer in his native tongue, calling on God to accept our fast. Whether or not they understand the words, the friends—from every race and nationality understand the spirit of this call. He explains to me the gist of the chant once the program ends: “A lover suffers a great deal before he reaches his beloved, but in the process he teaches everyone patience.”

The time is 7:08 PM; the time of “sunset” has officially come, and my mother brings me a glass of water. Another day of fasting is done.

well it’s certainly been a while since the last update, hasn’t it? I blame the season. I love winter, but for some reason, every time it comes around, I just slow down like nobody’s business. sad. I guess it’s more of the winter blahs (I keep blogging about them every year… I sense a pattern developing). On a positive note, I got a chance to get out and visit ottawa’s winterlude festival—no skating that day, but got to admire the ice sculptures and have a taste of some maple taffy on snow:

this winter, I definitely want to go out and visit a sugar bush somewhere out in the country. I haven’t even taken a vacation this winter for crying out loud! last year at around this time, I had just come back from a week’s worth of travelling across Canada—visiting friends in Vancouver, Edmonton and Winnipeg. …Actually, that’s not quite true. At this time last year, I was recovering from a sudden attack of kidney stones… well, more like a massacre, actually, but it did teach me some things.

a few weeks back, we had a very intense windstorm which not only pruned branches off trees (leaving them strewn along the roads) but also pruned the sign off our beloved Baha’i centre :( thankfully, nobody was hurt when it fell - it fell over into one of the parking spots, and no one was parked there at the time. in fact, no one was at the centre at all, and most of us only realized the change on the weekend. I went through an entire children’s class without having noticed that the sign was gone. and then I was sad :(

[English below the first video.] Voilà une perle rare! Il s’agit d’un film documentaire archi passionnant qui montre le premier essai d’un projet collectif d’enseignement centré sur les pré-jeunes—c’est à dire les jeunes ayant de 11 à 14 ans—dans un groupement près de Paris, en France. Passionnant parce qu’il s’agit de l’apprentissage en temps réel—la première fois que les Baha’is de cette région ont tenté de prendre leur élan de façon tellement systématique. Passionnant aussi parce qu’il s’agit d’un projet très semblable aux projets collectifs lancés à Ottawa l’été passé—et en plus de ça, certaines personnes qu’on voit dans le vidéo avaient aussi participé dans les projets à Ottawa! Ils chantent même des chansons écrites durant le projet “Fire and Snow” à Toronto! Le monde est petit non? Allez voir les vidéos sur Youtube: Parties 1 et 2.

Now here’s a special treat: an amazing documentary about the first attempt at a collective teaching project centred around junior youth—youth from 11 to 14 years old—in an area near Paris, France. Amazing because it documents real-time learning—the first time the Baha’is of this region took on such a systematic project. Amazing also because the project is very similar to the projects launched in Ottawa last summer—and not only that; some of the folks seen in the video actually participated in the Ottawa projects! They even sing songs that were written for the Fire and Snow project in Toronto! Small world huh? Go check out the videos on Youtube: Parts 1 and 2.

I remember blogging way back about this neat initiative spearheaded by a couple of Baha’is from New York City called the Children’s Theatre Company (CTC). It’s a theatre company that goes far beyond your average elementary school plays and instead promotes theatre as an active way of learning and building character qualities.

Ottawa now has a chapter of the CTC, which just ended its first run of Yertle the Turtle, a story about a turtle king whose greed and lust for power get the better of him—to the great detriment of his subjects. One of the children from our children’s class played Yertle, which made us all feel quite proud of her. All the actors were eight- to ten-year-old children from the area; for some, English was only a second (or third) language. All the same, the production was impressive, well presented and funny, and the children seemed to have gained insight into the themes explored in the play, and how said themes apply to their own lives.

I was lucky enough to be able to be present during a few of the company’s rehearsals, since they rehearsed at the Bahá’í Centre right after our children’s class finished. Each week, they would learn their lines and then alternate between games one week and character education the next. Apparently the character education part—during which Bahá’í teacher (and excellent storyteller) John Rager would join the kids for a session of discussing moral and character qualities and how they apply in our day-to-day lives and in the world of humanity—was the children’s favourite part.

The company presented several times at local elementary schools, and once at the Bahá’í Centre to conclude their well-received run. Children and parents alike eagerly await a new season—which, although there isn’t yet a firm starting date, will hopefully be soon!

Photo © Louis Brunet, elbi.smugmug.com.

Here’s wishing all the fans and readers of doberman pizza a happy celebration of the Birth of Bahá’u'lláh. 190 years ago, a new day dawned and a new sun rose from the horizon of Persia to illuminate the whole world. Last night’s celebration in Ottawa was pretty epic—over 700 people attended! Here’s a video presentation that was shared as part of the celebration.

people at the Ottawa Baha’i Centre, sharing stories about teaching the Baha’i Faith during the Varqa Teaching Project. One had an hour-and-a-half-long conversation with an eighty-year-old woman who, while seeming hostile at first, warmed up immediately once she realized what the Baha’is were there to discuss—they continued on to share a good part of Anna’s presentation; another couple visited a middle-aged woman and stayed for two hours building friendship with her. fifty people participated in the project, young and old, men and women.

As blogged here earlier, the 11th Conference of the International Environment Forum (IEF) took place in Ottawa this weekend, and many of my friends within the Baha’i community showed up there. I’ll probably blog a little more about it later, but for now, you might want to check out the conference yourself: presentations and notes of the plenary and workshop sessions are available in PDF, DOC and MP3 formats, along with the conference schedule and official photo gallery; as well, videos of most of the presentations are available on Youtube! Here’s a list of links—share them with whoever may be interested!

• The science of climate change, with a specific focus on the Arctic region
  John Stone - 2 3
• Ethical challenges of climate change
  Arthur Dahl - 2 3
• From the Arctic to the Small Island Developing States: Ethics and Adaptation
  John Crump - 2 3 4
• The spirit of climate change
  Heather Eaton - 2 3
• Faith-based NGOs and the Common Good
  Ted Reeve - 2 3
• Governance of Energy from the Local to the Global - A Necessity for Climate Change Mitigation
  Sylvia Karlsson - 2
• The Bahá’í International Community at the United Nations: Global Focus on Climate Change and Sustainable Development
  Tahirih Naylor - 2 3
• PANEL—Reflections on Value-based Approaches to Environmental Action: Lessons Learned and Challenges Ahead
  • Clive Doucet - 2
  • Jessica Lax - 2
  • Peter Adriance - 2 3

In May 2006, the Universal House of Justice wrote to the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Canada regarding the goals and plans of the Canadian Baha’i community. The latter had set some ambitious goals for the growth and development of the community, promising to firmly establish intensive programs of growth in no less than 46 areas of the country (Ottawa, of course, being one of them). The Universal House of Justice pointed out in its letter that “[s]uch a bold objective cannot be achieved merely by adopting the outer form of the activities of the Five Year Plan [i.e. the ‘core activities’]”, and that “a true change in culture is required”.

So what’s this whole “intensive growth” thing? Is it freaky or evil? Not really. The Baha’i community, just like any religious community, can either stagnate or grow. A healthy community grows; an unhealthy one stagnates (or worse, God forbid—disunity sets in and it dies out). Bahá’ís naturally want their community to grow, to become more united, and to attract receptive souls who are willing to throw their lot in to build a divine civilization. “Intensive growth” is simply what’s needed at this time because of the lamentable, perilous and frightening state of the world. If the world were in better shape, we might be able to just go along at our regular (slow) pace, getting more and more united as the years went by, gradually learning how better to serve humanity and follow the teachings sent by Baha’u’llah; but because the world around us is losing it so quickly, we have to learn quicker—put some Miracle-Gro on our garden—so that if and when things start spinning out of control—which seems to be real soon now—the Bahá’ís will be able to offer your average Jack and Jill somewhere to turn to for a respite from all the confusion.

That “change in culture” has been happening gradually within the Baha’i community over the past year. Taking on a new way of acting and living our lives is challenging, and like any change, it begins with friction and discomfort. Let me give an example…

read more… »

what began as an Ottawa in-joke is growing into an international meme thanks to the power of the Internet. imagine my surprise at the uproar caused by an innocent photo of me and Hooman posted to flickr following a local celebration of the ninth day of Ridván (the same one where Eric Farr performed). Not only have people around the world discovered the hilarity of heyvooning, they’re doing it themselves—and posting the photos to flickr, where a new heyvoon group collects the fallout. Check it out, and be sure to contribute samples of your own neighbourhood heyvoonery.