Spirituality: The Meaning of Life  

Annual Meeting of BFF / Germany

On July 5^th,, one day before the big Summer Feast around the European House of Worship, the German Bahá’í Women’s Forum (BFF - Bahai-Frauen-Forum) held its annual meeting 2003 in Wiesbaden, not far from Frankfurt / Main. During the day, first the executive board gave its report about the activities in 2002 and further plans, then the seminar about the main topic of this conference took place: Spirituality - The Meaning of Life. For this subject, a friend from Italy had been invited to talk about at night in the German Bahá’ì Center, in the Hazirá at the European House of Worship in Hofheim / Langenhain near Frankfurt.  

Founded in 1996, BFF, the German Bahá’í Women’s Forum, is a registered association of today more than 300 members. About 20% of those members are male, some few are not Bahá’í. Every two years a board (five members) is elected. Since 1996 BFF has been holding seminars and conferences at the grass-roots level with the aim of encouraging and enabling women to participate in the processes forming our society with self-assurance and a sense of responsibility. The Forum encourages women to leave their decisive mark on the spiritual climate and make full use of all available educational and professional possibilities that give them access to positions of influence. The Forum is dedicated to the task of making a wider public aware of the importance of equality for our future civilisation. It also co-operates with other national and international organisations in this field. Furthermore, the Forum supports the Banani School for Girls in Zambia, Africa, as its first social project.

In 2003 the annual meeting was held on July 5^th  - during the day in the beautiful Bahá’í center of Wiesbaden, at night accomplished by a public talk of Linda Marshall-Youssefian in the German Bahá’í Center in Hofheim near Frankfurt, under the shadow of the European House of Worship.

At the beginning of the conference, Ms. Inge Behjat, chairwoman of BFF, reported to members and guests the activities in 2002:

-         a two-day training seminar about public relation in June 02 with talks and workshops conducted by capable friends most professional in the different fields of this topic

-         an journey of Bahiyyih Nakhjavani, author of “The Saddlebag”, who crossed Germany in 12 days in June 02, invited by BFF, some of its local associations and some local communities, to read and talk about her book

-         a workshop of BFF- Berlin about Education for Peace in September

-         participation of BFF at a huge German feminist conference in Düsseldorf in November

-         a talk about Man’s Burden with his Maleness, arranged by BFF- Berlin in February 2003

-         publishing BFF-News, articles in German Bahá’í News and website (www.bahai.de/bff)

-         contact to national and local groups, NGO and authorities in the fields advancement of women, human rights, peace

-         strengthening contact to and financial support of Banani School for Girls in Zambia

The seminar on Spirituality - The Meaning of Life focussed on increasing the understanding of our meaning of life and on the conversion of spirituality in everyday-life. It covered workshops that concentrated on the Individual Soul, on Charity, Partnership and Other Relations and on Children’s Education before it turned over to Spirituality in Job and in Society. The prepared materials could be used by the participants to be applied for local seminars in the same fields.

The event, which took place at night, was the highlight of this day. BFF and the Bahá’í community had invited to “meet a fascinating women”  - and did not promise too much! The talk was held in front of numerous guests about the topic that occupied the participants of the seminar in Wiesbaden: Spirituality - The Meaning of Life. The speakers agility, and inspiring and motivating examples drew minds and hearts towards what really is important in life and awakened aspiration for spirituality and for a more careful way of dealing with our life, our potentials and the time that is ours.

The next day, on Sunday the 6^th of July, you could meet members of the Bahá’í Women’s Forum behind an information desk at the annual summer feast under the shadow of the House of Worship. Here every year thousands of guests come together: Bahá’ís from all over Germany and Bahá’ís from other countries, and many non-Bahá’ís living in and around Hofheim and Frankfurt / Main. At this desk countless conversations with guests of both sexes and nearly every age took place, and there you could taste “worldburgers”, or you could throw balls on can pyramids, and you could get the BFF News and other written or spoken information about aims and activities of BFF, about “Advancement of Women” by Janet and Peter Khan (translated into German), or about the Banani School for Girls in Zambia, Africa.