The session was once again closed, and family members were not permitted in the courtroom, the Baha'i International Community has learned.

The hearing, which lasted just over one hour, does not seem to have gone beyond procedural issues. No date was given for any future sessions.

The seven were arrested nearly two years ago and have been held in Tehran's Evin prison since that time, spending the first year there without formal charges or access to lawyers.

After several postponements, their trial officially began on 12 January, when the seven were arraigned in Branch 28 of the Revolutionary Court in Tehran.

That session was also closed to the public, but accounts in government-sponsored news media said the defendants were formally charged with espionage, propaganda activities against the Islamic order, the establishment of an illegal administration, cooperation with Israel, sending secret documents outside the country, acting against the security of the country, and corruption on earth.

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This was the church my parents attended when I was a boy. The Baha'is are meeting there for prayers on Sunday. -gw

Copyright 2007 by Jim Frazier. This image is licensed for limited use ONLY under Creative Commons.

Baha'i event: The Bahá'í­ Community of Naperville is holding a devotional gathering on the scheduled day of the trial in Iran of seven Baha'i leaders. All are welcome to attend at 7:30 p.m. at the DuPage Unitarian Universalist Church, 4 S 535 Old Naperville Road, in Naperville.

http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/napervillesun/news/2030526,6_1_NA05_CALENDAR_S1-100205.article

The Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Chattanooga, 2405 Hamill Road, are offering a community prayer service on Sunday at 11 a.m. for seven leaders of the international Baha'i faith community who are being held in Iran. The service will focus on prayer for the deliverance of the seven, who have been held nearly two years without access to attorneys and, until two weeks ago, without being told their charges

Milwaukee's Baha'i community will hold a special prayer service Sunday for seven Baha'i leaders awaiting verdicts in Iran on charges of spying for Israel.

The charges and secret trial, which have been condemned by the international community, including the United States, are seen by many as part of a systematic persecution of Baha'is by Iran's Shiite Muslim majority since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

http://www.jsonline.com/features/religion/83693777.html

The Baha'is will conduct a mass prayer vigil this Sunday to pray for seven members of the faith who have been imprisoned in Iran for nearly two years. The prisoner’s trial begins Sunday in Tehran, Iran. While reported charges accuse the seven of espionage, those in the Baha’i faith said the imprisonment stems from the persecution of their religion.

A Baha’i representative said the group believes in the power of prayer and wishes to get all faiths, not just those of Baha’i, to remember their imprisoned members in Iran in their prayers Sunday.

http://www.lewisvilleleader.com/articles/2010/02/05/lewisville_leader/news/13.txt

DALLAS (AP) — Hundreds of Dallas-area followers of the Baha'i (buh-HYE') faith plan to gather to pray for the safe release of seven Baha'i leaders on trial in Iran.

Members of the Riverside Baha'i Center Sunday will participate in a devotional gathering to pray for seven Baha'i leaders imprisoned in Iran.

Members of the Baha'i community in San Clemente will hold a public prayer gathering at 7:30 p.m. Friday to show solidarity with seven Bahai's about to go on trial for their lives in Iran.

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http://news.bahai.org/story/755

30 incredible photos. -gw

Amid wreckage in Haiti, new birth brings hope

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I'm a 20-year-old college student who is on a grand adventure in El Salvador. This page is an account of my story and discovery. A long way from Alaska, the only place I've ever lived, I'm sure to learn much during my stay here :)

The new news of my service is that I'm moving on Tuesday to live near the capital. I'll travel in the mornings to teach English classes at Colegio Ridvan. The word ¨ridvan¨ means paradise and it is a Baha'i-inspired school with about 100 students from kinder to fifth year.

One morning recently, a marvelous thing happened. I woke up with a profound sense of belonging. I felt like I was adjusting well to my new home and work. A welcoming peace was about me as I arose out of bed. Not a few minutes later, I go to put on my shoes and discover a dead cockroach in one of them. Yuck. So that's how my existence here is, always something new!

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In this time of transition to a new social order, processes of social integration gather momentum alongside related processes of disintegration. Collapsed moral foundations, outworn institutions and a sense of disillusionment foment chaos and decline in the social order while, at the same time, integrative forces raise up new bases for collaboration and transform the nature and scope of collective action. Such integrative processes are evidenced by growing social networks facilitated by information technology; expanded suffrage and formal participation in governance; collective approaches to knowledge generation and dissemination; the spread of education and consciousness-raising regarding human interdependence; the evolution of new mechanisms of international cooperation, and the like. Similarly, one discerns emerging processes of decision-making that are increasingly inclusive, unifying and just, and that challenge partisanship as a means of addressing problems facing increasingly interdependent communities.

In this context, the Bahá'í International Community would like to offer its experience with a process of collective inquiry called consultation, which serves as the basis for deliberation and decision-making in Bahá’í communities around the world.

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