Montreal, Quebec, 1 October 2008 (CBNS) — On the weekend of September 19-21, a diverse group of young adults gathered at the Montreal Bahá’í Centre and the House of Friendship – a community centre that is owned by the Mennonites and that has several local groups working out of it – for a “skills-share” conference aimed at contributing to the transformation of their physical, emotional and spiritual environment.

‘Learning and the Unfoldment of the Baha’i Community’ was the topic of the opening plenary address, given by Paul Lample, member of the Universal House of Justice.

SAN DIEGO, United States — The 32nd annual conference of the North American Association for Baha’i Studies drew some 1,400 people from 23 countries - the largest-ever representation from outside the United States and Canada.

The gathering, held this year in San Diego, had as its theme “Religion and Social Cohesion.” The four-day conference concluded on 1 September.

The presenter of the 26th Hasan M. Balyuzi Memorial Lecture was Hushmand Fatheazam, former member of the Universal House of Justice, who offered “Some Observations on the Scope and Value of Baha’i Scholarship.”

Former member of the Universal House of Justice, Hushmand Fatheazam

Hushmand Fatheazam will be the 26th Balyuzi Lecturer at this year’s Association for Baha'i Studies Conference, taking place in San Diego, California from 29 August to 1 September 2008. The Memorial Lecture is named in honour of Hasan M. Balyuzi, a distinguished historian of the Baha'i Faith.

Mr. Fatheazam served on the Universal House of Justice, the international governing body of the Baha'i world community, from its inception in 1963, until 2003. He was born in Tehran, Iran and holds two masters degrees in arts, one from Tehran University, where he also worked as a curator at the library of the Faculty of Arts, and the other from Wiswa Bharati University in India.