Vikings Conference 2008:
Applying Bahá'í Teachings and Principles
"It is certain that man's highest distinction is to be lowly before and obedient to his God; that his greatest glory, his most exalted rank and honor, depend on his close observance of the Divine commands and prohibitions. Religion is the light of the world, and the progress, achievement, and happiness of man result from obedience to the laws set down in the holy Books.
Briefly, it is demonstrable that in this life, both outwardly and inwardly the mightiest of structures, the most solidly established, the most enduring, standing guard over the world, assuring both the spiritual and the material perfections of mankind, and protecting the happiness and the civilization of society -- is religion."
-'Abdu'l-Bahá, The Secret of Divine Civilization
As we all know, the teachings and principles of the Bahá'í Faith are not addressed only to the bahá'ís - Bahá'u'lláh's Faith is here to illuminate the whole of mankind. Bahá'í Faith promotes the unity of religions, unity of different races and peoples - all in all the unity of mankind. In order for us to truly be able to achieve unity in this world, we must learn to understand the wonderful teachings and the principles underlying them and then apply them into our everyday lives.
Our life consist of many different parts: we study, we work, we act in our communities, we have our hobbies, friends and interests. The teachings in the Bahá'í Faith define who we are and how we act. Then, who we are as people influences the people and the surroundings which we live in. Wherever we go, we will always take our principles with us. Bearing this in mind, we realize that the Bahá'í teaching not only apply on a personal level but in also in all the communities we live in!
In order for us to be able to teach this wonderful faith at all, we must have the teachings and principles crystal clear in our minds. It is also vital for living one's life: It is impossible to live a wholehearted bahá'í life without being thoroughly familiar with the profound teachings and principles of the faith. On the other hand, living the life that's in accord with these principles will even more deepen and clarify our comprehension of the Faith. Understanding the teachings helps us to fully understand the reason we choose to live our lives the Bahá'í way - a way that continuously motivates us to improve our manners, habits, thoughts and actions.. our whole being! We will see what potential for improvement we as human beings have but also what potential the world has in it's usage. And our desire for improvement in itself is one of the many ways of teaching the faith. There's a lot ahead of us, a lot to achieve so let's get prepared! We have Mr Barney Leith coming from UK to speak to us about our quest for understanding and then applying the teachings of our faith in our everyday environment.
It's the big picture that counts. Come count with us.
The conference program outline is available for you to download here! (pdf)
Our main speaker this year is Barney Leith from the United Kingdom:
John Barnabas Leith
John Barnabas (Barney) Leith has been an active Bahá’í in the UK since the mid-1960s. He has lived in a number of Bahá’í communities in different parts of the UK, including ten years homefront pioneering in the Shetland Islands.
Barney has served on the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the UK since 1993. He served as its Secretary from 1998 until 2005, as Secretary for External Affairs from 2005 until 2007, and is currently Principal Representative, Diplomatic Relations. In this capacity his focus is on the defence of the human rights of the Bahá’ís in Iran and Egypt. This involves regular meetings with Foreign Office Ministers and officials, with parliamentarians and with NGOs.
He has many years experience in inter-faith work and chairs two national multi-faith bodies in the UK, the Religion and Belief Consultative Group on Equality, Diversity and Human Rights (which tracks the UK government’s domestic equalities and human rights agendas; it also works on the relationship between the religion and belief equality ‘strand’ and the UK’s newly established Equality and Human Rights Commission) and the Faith-Based Regeneration Network (which focuses on community development and neighbourhood renewal). He is a trustee of the Inter Faith Network for the UK. He is a member of the Attorney General’s Equality and Diversity Advisory Group and serves on the Crown Prosecution Service’s Community Accountability Forum.
Barney has published articles in the Faith in magazines and national newspapers, and has written and recorded many ‘Pause for Thought’ scripts for BBC radio (World Service and domestic radio) over the years.
He has been blogging for the past three years (www.leithjb.net/blog) and has posted an extensive collection of photos on Flickr. Writing and photography are both passions, as is music. He has sung in many choirs, plays the piano abominably, misses being able to get to the Proms, and listens to copious amounts of recorded music on his iPod – classical, rock, jazz, folk…
Barney has been married to Erica since 1970. They have three grown-up offspring and four grandchildren.
