Robert H. Stockman
The Wilmette Institute has completed another successful semester at Graduate Theological Union. Its three credit courses were Introduction to Bahá’í Scripture: The Writings of Bahá’u’lláh; Bahá’í Theology; and Reconstructing Blackness: Anti-Racism and Unity in the U.S. They had a total of eight registrations, which included three persons who were not Bahá’ís, one of whom said she was now sharing the Bahá’í perspective widely in her other courses.
We also conducted two webinars for GTU students and faculty; Michael Karlberg spoke about “Responding to Injustice with Constructive Agency” and Arthur Dahl presented about “Navigating the Urgent Transition Toward Sustainability.” The latter presentation garnered a co-sponsorship from Sustainability 360, the GTU’s sustainability program, and the Wilmette Institute hopes to work closely with the program in the future.
We are already looking forward to offering one course for credit in August through the Wilmette Institute’s own Moodle, on the harmony of science and religion, and two courses through GTU’s Moodle to their students. We are aware of three Bahá’ís who plan to sign up for the courses. We will offer webinars to GTU in the fall as well.
To continue the Wilmette Institute’s momentum, the full- and part-time staff are meeting at the Los Angeles Bahá’í Center June 4 to 7 to discuss the extension course program and consider other aspects of the development of the Institute. There will be a report about that meeting next month.