August 19, 2004
Processing of Credit Cards Back On Line!

The Wilmette Institute's website can process credit card
payments again, after more than two and a half months.

The trouble began in the spring when Iongate, our previous
credit card processing company, was bought by another
company. They promised no interruption in service, but
when the transition occurred on June 1st the new company,
unable to find any of Iongate's files about the Wilmette Institute,
shut us down and said we would have to reapply for service.
Then followed a string of telephone calls, day after day, week
after week, trying to arrange a plethora of details that kept
getting longer and longer. Finally after ten weeks of
paperwork, our account was approved!

The new registration software, which has been in development
for six months, is much easier to use than the old system,
and is more attractive to the eye. It should prove to be more
user-friendly as well. In addition, the Wilmette Institute now
has refund and privacy policies--both required by the new
company--accessible with a single click.

Go check it out at https://regmain.usbnc.org/

The easiest way to check out the software is to register
for a class! The Role of Baha'is in This Age of Transition:
The World Order of Baha'u'llah, Selected Letters is
a course designed to highlight the themes in three letters
the Universal House fo Justice has asked Baha'is to study in
depth. This is a request on top of the various classes we are
taking as part of the institute process.

Still open for registration is a course on The Dispensation
of Baha'u'llah, perhaps Shoghi Effendi's single most
important letter, which defines the stations of the Bab,
Baha'u'llah, `Abdu'l-Baha, and the Administrative Order,
speaks about the purpose of their coming, and the define's
the purpose of the administrative institutions. The course is
primarily filled with Baha'is from India, and has just turned
to the first study unit.

Beginning to receive registrations is our September course
(Sept. 15-Dec. 15), The Kitab-i-Iqan, a three-month
examination of Baha'u'llah's second most important revelation.
The course has extensive descriptive material about the Iqan
to read and absorb and involves reading the entire book. The
Wilmette Institute has offered the course at least three times
before, to ever-growing numbers of students.

October 15 through January 15, the Institute will offer for the
fourth time its very popular course Islam for Deepening
and Dialogue. Evens in the Middle East remind us almost
daily that Shoghi Effendi advised the Baha'is of the United
States to study Islam so that we can understand and appreciate
the roots of our Faith and can defend Islam to our Christian
neighbors. The need for this has become steadily more important.

For more details of the Institute's calendar of future courses, see

http://www.wilmetteinstitute.org/development/movabletype/calendar/

2004 Spiritual Foundations Summer Session

The 2004 Spiritual Foundations for a Global Civilization summer
residential session, held in Wilmette from July 30 through August
8, had an international and intensely inquisitive class. The six
students came from Canada, Samoa, South Korea, and the
United States and included one person investigating the Faith.

The theme of the year, Religion and Theology, was inaugurated
on the first full day of classes--Saturday, July 31--with a field
trip to Wat Dhammaram Buddhist Temple and the Chin Maya
Hindu Mission in the western Chicago suburbs. Both places
explained their programs, answered numerous questions
about their religions, and were warmly hospitable to the
students and faculty. The visits complemented Dr. Anne
Pearson's classes about Hinduism and Buddhism.

Littlebrave Beaston, who wore the hats of second-year student,
faculty member, and dormitory coordinator, gave a presentation
on the religions of North America's first peoples, a subject that
was extended into an additional class period by popular demand.
Robert Stockman covered Judaism and Christianity, answering
many questions on such topics as the efforts to reconstruct the
historical Jesus, the origin of the New Testament, and the
process of creating basic Christian doctrine.

Susan Maneck gave a very clear and well organized series of four
classes on the origin and basic teachings of Islam, followed by
four classes on the Báb, the Bábí community, and the life of
Bahá'u'lláh before His declaration in the Garden of Ridván.

Ghasem Bayat delivered a fascinating series of classes on the
Kitáb-i-Íqán for the annual section on Bahá'í scripture. Peter
Terry rounded out the week's intensive classes with a six-hour
section on Bahá'í theology, covering such subjects as the
nature of God, the worlds of existence, fate, and the basic
nature of human beings. His classes will form the basis of
a three-month distance-learning course on Bahá'í theology
that starts December 1.

A lively and interactive workshop on teaching the Faith was
offered by Delara Rapant, Secretary of the National Teaching
Committee, and Lacey Graves, Coordinator of the Youth
Desk. Videos on various world religions rounded out the program.

At the graduation dinner on Saturday evening, August 7, Dr.
William Roberts, Treasurer of the National Spiritual Assembly
of the Bahá'ís of the United States, told the assembled
students, faculty, alums, and guests that the Wilmette Institute
was making an effort that would be remembered prominently
in Bahá'í history. He mentioned how impressed he was to meet
Wilmette Institute distance-learning students in remote parts
of the world where internet connections were hard to obtain.
He praised the remarkable diversity of this year's class and
added that the National Spiritual Assembly often consulted
about the Wilmette Institute and appreciated its sacrificial efforts
to foster Bahá'í education. Before giving out the certificates
of attendance to this year's students, Dr. Iraj Ayman noted
that the gathering was just the "tip of the iceberg" and that
the Wilmette Institute embraced hundreds of current students
and thousands of former students via its distance-learning
program, whose presence was symbolically felt and acknowleded at that moment.

After the students received their certificates they shared
their talents: One sang and played on the guitar songs
he had composed, another told a story, and others recited
prayers. The gathering ended with a rededication to
expand the Spiritual Foundations program so that more
may benefit from the outstanding quality of its classes.

Photographs of the summer program will be posted in
a few days.