Wave 1: August Training Institute Seminar
We gathered – some 45 from Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana – for a heart and spirit-filling institute seminar in an intensive five day format. It was August 2022 at the dawning of a new series of Plans mapping our path for the next twenty-five years. Building on the significant advance in the process of entry by troops pursued by the Baha’i world since 1996, the new Plans focus on expressing the society-building power inherent in the Cause in an ever-greater measure. We learned to welcome all comers into an understanding of Baha’u’llah’s vision for community building, social action and participation in the discourses of society.
The seminar kicked off a collective endeavor of tutors throughout the Region to generate experience and learning around the following two questions:
- How do we increase the flow of new human resources into the institute cycle after cycle?
- How do we support participants to become protagonists in the context of an expanding nucleus?
The seminar returned to the roots of the Institute Process, looking carefully at the new Book 1 together with our own experience to gain insights into how we can tutor it to advance these objectives. The five-day format brought back an intensity some of us experienced in the very first Ruhí courses in Texas in the early 90’s but had not experienced since. Songs, drums, prayers and art were intermixed throughout – it was awesome!
We returned home in teams committed to carry out a second wave of seminars in our respective sub-regions: Arkansas & Oklahoma, Austin & San Antonio, Houston & Louisiana, and North Texas. Subsequent waves will follow until all South Central tutors have an opportunity to engage. We are thrilled at the prospect of carrying this new process forward with waves of seminars 2 or 3 times each year, building on accumulated learning each time!
