Steven Zepeda, an MA student at the Graduate Theological Union (GTU), presented his research paper, “Disney, Brer Rabbit, and Me,” in the final seminar to an audience including his instructors (Drs. Gwendolyn Etter-Lewis and Chitra Golestani) as well as other Wilmette Institute faculty and learners from the community learning course “Anti-Black Racism in the U.S. and Building a Unified Society.” This is Steven’s final project for the Wilmette Institute’s university level course of the same name, being run with its partner institution, the GTU.

In his final paper, Steven wrote: “…what I have learned through this course is how to approach religions as “wellsprings” of knowledge, from which insights into academic quandaries emerge. My engagement with Bahá’í leaders, writers, and artists (through their texts and videos) has made me realize that principles of humanity’s oneness, constructive resilience, and consultation are crucial components of the multimodal solutions for racism. Before this course, I had perhaps relied too much on principles of individualism and competition to construct my activism—thinking, for instance, that “power” is something fought for, successfully or not, and is a limited commodity. However, Bahá’í perspectives reveal that lasting power is forged through unity, which benefits all.”

This first symposium sponsored by the Wilmette Institute focuses on the early Bahá’í history of three states. Duane L Herrmann explores the beginnings of the Faith in Kansas, which had the second local Bahá’í community in the United States, in the town of Enterprise starting in 1897. While that community did not endure, members of it moved to other cities and remained active Bahá’ís. Behrad Majidi has explored the founding of the Faith in Missouri, beginning with the relocation of an Enterprise Bahá’í and Thornton Chase’s visit to a Bahá’í group in St. Louis in 1905. Newspapers in both states, however, published articles about the Faith in Persia as far back as 1846. Finally, Steve Kolins will describe the early history of the Faith in North Carolina, beginning with newspaper articles in the 1850s, Bahá’ís visiting the state by 1902-03, and the gradual building of a community that elected its first local Spiritual Assembly in 1943.

Theater as Tool for Moral Reasoning: How to intentionally create inclusive communities through the power of theater with a focus on capacity building and spiritual empowerment.

With the objective to bridge the divide, to raise consciousness, and break down the roots of racism and bigotry we will discuss opportunities for using theater as tool for healing within a spiritual perspective. Exploring the power of theater as a tool for moral reasoning, we will discuss the Children's Theater Company's approach to creating a theatrical experience that not only bears witness to humanities’ past, but that through an authentic interaction with audiences, we can create a profound community of listeners and change agents. We will review audience engagement tools and how audience-driven post-show workshops, within safe spaces, can reveal how dialogue and empathy are inextricably linked.

The Children’s Theater Company has a social-justice imperative at its core. By developing musicals that cultivate an understanding of the personal, cultural and spiritual forces that shape society, CTC’s original musicals explore the theater’s power to impact diversity, to develop empathy and compassion for the human condition, and to allow us to learn from lives we’ve never lived. The Children’s Theater Company is rooted in the belief that through the magic of theater youth can become the voices of positive change and agents of healing in their communities.

Is there any hope for those who despair at the state of the world and the powerlessness of governments to find a way forward? Global Governance and the Emergence of Global Institutions for the 21st Century provides ambitious but reasonable proposals to give our globalized world the institutions of international governance necessary to address effectively the catastrophic risks facing humanity that are beyond national control. The solution, the authors suggest, is to extend to the international level the same principles of sensible governance that exist in well-governed national systems: rule of law, legislation in the common interest, an executive branch to implement such legislation, and courts to enforce it. The best protection is unified collective action, based on shared values and respect for diversity, applying widely accepted international principles to advance universal human prosperity and well-being

Topic

When Mírzá Mihdí fell from a skylight in the roof of the prison where he, his family and many Bahá'ís were imprisoned with the Manifestation of God, he was severely injured and likely to die from his injuries. When offered his life by his father, he chose instead to sacrifice it so that the doors of the prison might open and those who longed to see Bahá'u'lláh attain their desire.

Presenter: Dr Boris Handal is a Professor of Education at the University of Notre Dame Australia. His publications comprises over 100 conference and journal papers, books and book chapters published in Australia, the United States of America, Europe, Latin America, Africa and Southeast Asia. Dr Handal has also published several books in the field of 19th Century Persian history and culture.

As COVID-19 sweeps the world, fear and panic are natural responses. The world was already in a mess, and now mass suffering is impacting everyone. For young people, their future already overshadowed by the climate catastrophe, hope may seem impossible. Yet this cloud does have a silver lining giving hope, which we can explore together. My recent book "In Pursuit of Hope", suggests ways to arm ourselves for the environmental, social and economic challenges we are now facing and those still to come. At the individual level, all the great spiritual traditions speak of trial and suffering as paths to spiritual growth and refinement of character as we fight our inner battles. From the perspective of systems science, in a globalized world in which human organization has to adapt to a new scale of functioning, a process of rapid and often chaotic change is necessary to sweep away old institutions no longer adapted to the new reality, allowing a new and better system to emerge bringing justice and sustainability. Join us to see if you leave this discussion with more hope in the future.

Dealing with the coronavirus pandemic is one thing, what comes next another. What do we need to be able to rebuild? Humanity is facing an incredible challenge of collaboration and coordination at all levels and among diverse populations. Consultation is an essential tool for this effort. By aiming to understand the truth of an issue, consultation enables participants to transcend their own points of view and, together, chart a wise course of action. Come join us and learn the basics of this vital approach to problem-solving.

Speaker: Sara DeHoff

Sara DeHoff

Daniel Truran

Vahid Masrour

Presented as a partnership with

Wilmette Institute

A person participating in this webinar will not only learn many of the central features of the Bahá’í Faith, but, more importantly, a person participating in the webinar will be inspired by the extraordinary things that can happen to an ordinary person, once they embrace the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh

This webinar will cover the remarkable events in the life of John David Bosch. Those events include John Bosch’s presence at the passing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, his participation in hoisting the Master’s coffin to His temporary resting place on Mount Carmel, and his presence at the public reading of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Will and Testament. Most striking in the story of John Bosch is the moment when the Guardian entrusted a portion of the Will and Testament into the hands of John Bosch so that he deliver it to the National Bahá’í Convention in April of 1922. The webinar will also touch on John and Louise Bosch’s establishment of a permanent Bahá’í school with race unity as its focus. In addition to these extraordinary experiences, this webinar will also tell of John and Louise’s encounters with so many Bahá’ís who later would be regarded as heroes, martyrs, and saints.

Angelina Diliberto Allen

Why Bahá’í? In this live webinar series, we invite you to have a conversation with Rainn. What are your questions about the Bahá’í Faith? What is your hope for the world in these tumultuous times? How can we help make the planet a more livable and breathable place? Rainn responds to the audience: "What's the Bahá’í 'Bible'?" "Are there any ceremonies, like Mass?" and more. And we ask the audience: "What do you usually do when you feel annoyed by the actions of others?"

What are the major risks for humankind today?

This is the first in a series of interactive "Bahá'í Conversations on Climate Change."

Other talks in the series are to be scheduled, and will include:

How Will Climate Change Affect All of Us?

Why is the Earth Warming and What Can We Do about it?

What Do Scientists Say Needs to Be Done to Avoid a Climate Catastrophe? - The Spiritual Challenge of Climate Change

The Interconnectedness of Climate Change with other Environmental and Social Problems

Christine Muller