On the first Saturday of the month, the Arcos family hosts a "Pancakes and Prayers" interfaith devotional at their home in the historic Stockade district of Schenectady. People from all faiths are invited to come and share in a pancake brunch followed by interfaith prayers and readings. "The reason for having the brunch is so that people from all faiths and traditions can mingle and get to know each other. I feel it's important to build a sense of community before we sit down to worship together," says JoAnn Arcos.
The Bahá’ís of Albany have been invited to participate in an Interfaith Symposium. Dirk Padfield will be representing the Bahá’í community and will be, along with other religious representatives in the area, answering the question 'World peace and harmony; How my religious founders teachings can lead to world peace?’ There will be a portion for a prayer as well as a book stall where we can have introductory books or pamphlets.
The event will take place on Sunday December 13th from 10:00- 1:00pm at the Hindu Temple Community Center (450 Albany Shaker Road, Albany, NY 12211) with lunch being served afterwards.
It would be wonderful to have support for the community, so if you are able to attend the event or help with the book stall, please contact Dirk Padfield at 518-937-9379.
The Birth of Bahá'u'lláh was celebrated in Schenectady at the Bahá'í Reading Room, Tuesday evening, November 11 2009. It began at 7 PM with devotions and a video presentation about Bahá'u'lláh set to the music "In This Day" by the Baha'i Gospel Choir. That was followed by a pot luck desert and celebration.
The community of Albany also had a very lively gathering that was held at the Padfield residence. The gathering was attended by 3 members of the Unitarian church in Albany. The program for the evening included introductions about everyone present, prayers as well as readings from Rúhi book 4 on the life of Bahá'u'lláh. This was followed Tracy Offield’s narration about various important events that occurred during the lifetime of Bahá'u'lláh.
The event was attended by friends from Albany, Watervliet, Voorheesville as well as the outer regions of the cluster and was concluded with the social portion.
The Junior Youth Empowerment Group in Schenectady had slowed down with the advent of the school year but they are back in action. The group performed several service projects in November helping with moving the piano from the Reading Room to its new home and also helped with landscaping for some of the friends.
Another exciting activity was thought up by the group during some brainstorming about inviting friends into our group. The youth decided to start a "Movie Night" activity on a semi-regular basis at the Reading Room on Jay Street. The first movie nigh was on Saturday, November 14th and there were 4 Bahá'í youth along with 5 of their non-Bahá'í friends. Things started out with pizza and the group then voted on what to watch from a selection that had been made available by the animators (Joseph McDermott and John Rafalak) of the group and settled on the movie "Seven Pounds" with Will Smith. There was still a little time at the end for the group to talk about what they got out of the film and to help clean up the Reading Room before they headed home. The group is planning another Movie Night in early December.
Tahirih and Travis, who have relocated to back to Watervliet after their months of service in Haifa, have initiated a Junior Youth class in Cohoes with Heidi. The class is held on Saturday evenings at 3 PM.
If you would like to start a junior youth class in your area, enlist the assistance of these and other junior youth animators in the cluster.
The Birth of the Báb was celebrated in Schenectady at the Bahá'í Reading Room, Tuesday, October 20 2009. It began at 5 PM with a devotions and a video presentation about a Pilgrimage to the House of the Bab. The presentation was followed by a pot luck hosted by Brenda Thomas. A number of local friends were joined by Nancy and Adrian McKee who were visiting the area from Chicago.
The Albany community celebrated the Holy day at the Sanai residence. The gathering included friends from Abany, Troy, Voorheesville and Watervliet. Friends had the opportunity to pray and meditate on the life of The Báb. After prayers and readings, the friends spent time in socializing and enjoy the delicious spread put out by the Sanai family.
If you look at the calendar of events, you'll notice that a large number of events are dedicated to devotional meetings taking place all over the cluster. Albany, Athens, Schenectady, Scotia and Watervliet all have homes where the friends host such gatherings.
