… the members of the Friends in Iran - the group that coordinates the activities of the Baha’i community in the absence of a National Spiritual Assembly in the Cradle of the Faith - have been summarily and unjustly arrested by the Iranian authorities in raids conducted in the early hours of this morning, 14 May 2008. Details are as follows.
During the last [US] Baha’i National Convention, Bill Davis addressed the convention attempting to re-direct their attention away from the NSA’s own annual report, which presented an honest assessment of the situation on the ground in Baha’i communities in the US, to the letter from the UHJ directing Baha’is to “stay the course”.
Towards the end of the remarks Bill Davis says (4:37):
“We do not want to find ourselves pushing a rewind button and arguing over core curriculum and Ruhi.”
The reason that excerpt stands out for me is that it means there were disagreements over Ruhi and core curriculum with some obviously feeling very strongly against it. And so much so that the NSA as a body wrote that letter basically calling both Ruhi and core curriculum, bunk. But the UHJ came down on them like a tonne of bricks. Sending an enforcer to oversee the National Convention from the ITC as well as erasing the NSA’s own annual report and replacing it with their own.
The Universal House of Justice has communicated the expansion and continuation of renovations and beautifications for existing and expanding Baha’i properties in Israel. Click to read the full letter here.
The BWC has been able to exchange some land north of Akka for a plot adjacent to the Mansion of Bahji. The current resident is the Israeli Military. There are continuing negotiations with the government for additional land exchanges adjacent to the Mansion of Mazra’ih and the Ridvan Garden.
There are renovation and beautification plans for the Ridvan Garden (in Israel) and well as Junayn Gardens, also frequented by Baha’u'llah (although much less frequently). I haven’t visited the Junayn Gardens but when I was in the Ridvan Garden I didn’t find anything that looked shaby or needed beautifying.
As you may have surmised by now, all of this will require money.
It was, to my eyes, a beautiful and relaxing place with little or no evidence of the hyper-manicured lawns and flowers of Mt. Carmel. In fact, I preferred its more rustic and natural look. I’m certainly no expert but it would seem to me that it was more historically accurate and in keeping with the conditions that were present at the time of Baha’u'llah. But then again, I don’t want to make assumptions because the UHJ hasn’t detailed what exactly they will be doing to “beautify” the Ridvan Garden.
[Horatio] Dresser ... praised Greenacre not only as an outpost for the metaphysical movement, but also more broadly as a center of religious liberalism and progressivism, a place where one could live "the ideal of the fullest spiritual life":
The two months spent there in camp, at the Inn, or at some farmhouse nearby, have been the turning-point in life for many people, and many return year after year because of the great help they receive in daily living.... Early and late there is some lover of nature ready to call you up to see the sunrise, to study insect or plant life, or sit in silence with you while the sun sets across the river. It is indeed a unique experience to be one of a throng of people gathered on the hill at sunset, while the Parsee chants a native hymn, or some one reads from one of our own poets. And after one has heard Emerson expounded underneath the pines, or listened to the Swami setting forth in his quiet way the venerable doctrines of Vedanta, one is ready to exclaim that there are no such woods anywhere outside of Greenacre.
In light of the new revelation Greenacre became in Farmer's mind less about an open door than a final realization, less about a quest than a fulfillment.
There were few airtight compartments or creeds in New Thought, at least as Dresser and his friends in the Metaphysical Club articulated their mission. They seemed as bound and determined as any Whitmanite to pursue self-reliant individuality and boundary-crossing cosmopolitism.
One of the implications of that openness was that the New Thought contingent at Greenacre formed a natural alliance with the Transcendentalist wing. Horatio Dresser's Applied Metaphysics with Franklin Sanborn's Concord School. New Thought leaders were as charged with a heady sense of emancipation from authority and tradition as ever Emerson was in addressing his audience at Harvard Divinity School. "We affirm the freedom of each soul as to choice and as to belief," the International New Thought Alliance proclaimed. "The essence of the New Thought is Truth, and each individual must be loyal to the Truth he sees. The windows of his soul must be kept open at each moment for the higher light, and his mind must always be hospitable to each new inspiration." Religious identity, in this light, was free form and improvisatory, not fixed or ascribed. By definition, people were supposed to keep seeking, to remain open to new perspectives and insights, not to settle on one path alone among many. A generous dose of open-mindedness was at the heart of the spiritual quest.
Barack Obama has emerged as a classic example of charismatic leadership — a figure upon whom others project their own hopes and desires. The resulting emotional intensity adds greatly to the more conventional strengths of the well-organized Obama campaign, and it has certainly sufficed to overcome the formidable initial advantages of Senator Hillary Clinton.
One danger of such charisma, however, is that it can evoke unrealistic hopes of what a candidate could actually accomplish in office regardless of his own personal abilities. Case in point is the oft-made claim that an Obama presidency would be welcomed by the Muslim world.
This idea often goes hand in hand with the altogether more plausible argument that Mr. Obama’s election would raise America’s esteem in Africa — indeed, he already arouses much enthusiasm in his father’s native Kenya and to a degree elsewhere on the continent.
But it is a mistake to conflate his African identity with his Muslim heritage. Senator Obama is half African by birth and Africans can understandably identify with him. In Islam, however, there is no such thing as a half-Muslim. Like all monotheistic religions, Islam is an exclusive faith.
As the son of the Muslim father, Senator Obama was born a Muslim under Muslim law as it is universally understood. It makes no difference that, as Senator Obama has written, his father said he renounced his religion. Likewise, under Muslim law based on the Koran his mother’s Christian background is irrelevant.
Of course, as most Americans understand it, Senator Obama is not a Muslim. He chose to become a Christian, and indeed has written convincingly to explain how he arrived at his choice and how important his Christian faith is to him.
His conversion, however, was a crime in Muslim eyes; it is “irtidad” or “ridda,” usually translated from the Arabic as “apostasy,” but with connotations of rebellion and treason. Indeed, it is the worst of all crimes that a Muslim can commit, worse than murder (which the victim’s family may choose to forgive).
Unremitting faith, prayer, the promptings of the soul, Divine assistance — these are among the essentials of progress in any Bahá’í undertaking. But also of vital importance to bringing about entry by troops is a realistic approach, systematic action. There are no shortcuts. Systematization ensures consistency of lines of action based on well-conceived plans. In a general sense, it implies an orderliness of approach in all that pertains to Bahá’í service, whether in teaching or administration, in individual or collective endeavour. While allowing for individual initiative and spontaneity, it suggests the need to be clear-headed, methodical, efficient, constant, balanced and harmonious. Systematization is a necessary mode of functioning animated by the urgency to act. Universal House of Justice, Ridván 155/1998 message
O ye men of wisdom among nations! Shut your eyes to estrangement, then fix your gaze upon unity. Cleave tenaciously unto that which will lead to the well-being and tranquillity of all mankind. This span of earth is but one homeland and one habitation. It behoveth you to abandon vainglory which causeth alienation and to set your hearts on whatever will ensure harmony. In the estimation of the people of Baha man's glory lieth in his knowledge, his upright conduct, his praiseworthy character, his wisdom, and not in his nationality or rank. O people of the earth! Appreciate the value of this heavenly word. Indeed it may be likened unto a ship for the ocean of knowledge and a shining luminary for the realm of perception.
Peruse ye every day the verses revealed by God. Blessed is the man who reciteth them and reflecteth upon them. He truly is of them with whom it shall be well.
~ Baha’u'llah
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As you may have surmised by now, all of this will require money. 
