Phases of Cycle 6

Pinellas Reflection Gathering - July 21, 2018: - Notes of Reflection, Review, and Consultation

Brief PowerPoint slides showing passages from the messages of the Universal House of Justice: The concept of cluster, broad scope of teaching activities, and what constitutes core activities. Bullet points from a passage in Ridvan 2013 message of the universal House of Justice on reflection gatherings.

• Consultation on each bullet point – Questions prompted discussion (eg. “How can we imbue the cluster with love?”) Examples: ATC send thank you notes to those who attended RG; participants singing Allah’u’Abha in a circle, holding hands; have fun; expressing kindly acts to our neighbors; loving actions.
• Examples of to “take joy and encouragement from every instance of progress”: Oldsmar increased membership; Junior-youth activities at Palm Harbor; St. Pete Beach resumed monthly devotional gatherings.
• Suggestions for this Expansion phase: firesides; sharing stories from “The Dawn Breakers”; special prayers by everyone; more teaching activities.
• Suggestions for goals during next cycle: Focus on prayer and reliance on spiritual forces in our lives; 500 times Remover of Difficulties prayer; Sepideh s; recitation of “Yá Alláhu’l-Mustagháth” [this is an invocation revealed by the Báb. He prescribed it for recitation by His followers in times of trouble and difficulty. Shoghi Effendi has translated the word “Mustagháth” as “He Who is invoked for help”.]
• Universal participation occurred in response the the bullet point:“To welcome “earnest and uplifting deliberation” in “community's efforts, in their entirety”” The question was asked: “What does it mean to have ‘uplifting deliberation’? A suggestion was made to go around the room and have everyone say something positive that was occurring in the cluster. Comment was made that reflection at an RG (and Feast consultation) is to identify learning and adjustments that can be made, leading to improvements.
• The group decided to have each person say something positive/”uplifting” and also something that needs improvement.
• Among “positives were Pinellas Voice newsletter is a good source of info; Seeing each other; New and younger members on St. Pete LSA; Ruhi book 10.
• Need more focus on children’s classes & devotional gatherings
• Use “teams” (Pasco-Hernando cluster did this effectively)
• More reflection spaces for people engaged in specific activities (eg. children’s classes) (Use the next RG to have breakout groups as a way of initiating this process)
• Need to put specific plans into action

Theme for Reflection Gathering July 21, 2018: - To hear and review our cluster “community's efforts, in their entirety”

Inspired by this excerpt from the 2013 Ridvan message of the Universal House of Justice that “the Cause proceeds at different speeds in different places and for good reason” –  we are hoping to go over the following points at this reflection gathering. We need your experience, insight, and creative ideas! We also welcome input from the younger members of our cluster community: children, junior youth, and youth!

• To “take joy and encouragement from every instance of progress”
• To “recognize the benefit that accrues from the contribution of each individual to the progress of the whole”
• To welcome the “service rendered by each one, in keeping with the possibilities created by a person's circumstances”
• To welcome “earnest and uplifting deliberation” in “community's efforts, in their entirety”
• To “learn what has been accomplished overall” and compare it to one’s “own labours in that light”
• To “enhance… [our] knowledge about the process of growth by absorbing the counsels of the institutions”
• To draw “on the experience of… [our] fellow believers”
• And, to share views on how to make our cluster’s “environment imbued with love”

Passage from Ridvan 2013 message of the Universal House of Justice

“Occasions where the community's efforts, in their entirety, are the subject of earnest and uplifting deliberation”

Furthermore, the friends are conscious that the work of the Cause proceeds at different speeds in different places and for good reason -- it is, after all, an organic phenomenon -- and they take joy and encouragement from every instance of progress they see. Indeed, they recognize the benefit that accrues from the contribution of each individual to the progress of the whole, and thus the service rendered by each one, in keeping with the possibilities created by a person's circumstances, is welcomed by all. Gatherings for reflection are increasingly seen as occasions where the community's efforts, in their entirety, are the subject of earnest and uplifting deliberation. Participants learn what has been accomplished overall, understand their own labours in that light, and enhance their knowledge about the process of growth by absorbing the counsels of the institutions and drawing on the experience of their fellow believers. Such experience is also shared in numerous other spaces that are emerging for consultation amongst friends intensely engaged in specific endeavours, whether they are pursuing a common line of action or serving in a particular part of the cluster. All these insights are located in a wider appreciation that progress is most easily achieved in an environment imbued with love--one in which shortcomings are overlooked with forbearance, obstacles are overcome with patience, and tested approaches are embraced with enthusiasm. And so it is that, through the wise direction of institutions and agencies of the Faith functioning at every level, the friends' exertions, however modest individually, coalesce into a collective effort to ensure that receptivity to the call of the Blessed Beauty is identified quickly and nurtured effectively. A cluster in this condition is clearly one where the relationships among the individual, the institutions, and the community--the Plan's three protagonists--are evolving soundly.

- The Universal House of Justice  (Ridvan 2013)