As we approach the end of the year, the Wilmette Institute has been lucky to schedule seven of the twelve Web Talks it plans to offer in 2017. We invite you to put the dates for the talks on your calendar now so that you can make them priorities in the coming year. The diversity of topics and speakers and the quality of the Wilmette Institute’s Web Talks are poised to continue in the new year. Here is the list of 2017 Web Talks now scheduled (please note that the Annette Reynolds talk has been moved forward one week):
- January 22, 2017: Annette Reynolds—“Trudy [White] and Bahá’ís’ Spiritual Path in South Carolina”
- February 12, 2017: Greg Dahl—“Globalization and Current Events—A Bahá’í Perspective”
- March 12, 2017: Houshmand Badee—“Is There a Bahá’í Economic System?”
- April 2, 2017: Todd Lawson—“The Bahá’í Faith and the Qur’an”
- May 14, 201: Jena Khodadad—“The Hand of the Cause of God Zikrullah Khadem and the Ministry of the Custodians”
- June 11, 2017: Michael Penn—“A Philosophy of Mind Grounded in Relationships: A Bahá’í-Inspired Perspective”
- October 22, 2017: Paul Hanley—“Eleven.”
The new speakers include Annette Reynolds, a long-time Bahá’í from South Carolina, an author, and a former Auxiliary Board member; author Greg Dahl, an economist with the International Monetary Fund for many years; Houshmand Badee, another economist and author; Jena Khododad, the daughter of a Hand of the Cause of God; and Paul Hanley, author of
Eleven. Two of the 2017 speakers have presented Web Talks before. One is Dr. Michael Penn, who will be speaking on “A Philosophy of Mind Grounded in Relationships: A Bahá’í-Inspired Perspective.” Some of you may remember his talk on a similar topic in December 2015, during the Wilmette Institute’s celebration of its twentieth year. Unfortunately, technical difficulties made it impossible to upload the talk to the Institute’s YouTube. Michael promised to make up for the difficulties in the first talk and is now making good on his promise. The other repeat speaker is Dr. Todd Lawson who will talk about “The Bahá’í Faith and the Qur’an.” His talk in September 25, 2016, on “
Bahá’u’lláh: The Return of Joseph” was very well received. All Wilmette Institute’s Web Talks are free and open to the public, but they require you to sign up in advance. Check “Web Talks/Webinars” in this issue; or watch for flyers and announcements; or check
http://wilmetteinstitute.org and click on “Web Talks.” The Web Talks use a system that transmits audio and video of the speakers and the PowerPoint slides that speakers generally use. Audience members listening to the live broadcast can comment on the talks and ask questions by typing them into a “chat” box. Anyone viewing the talk at a later date will hear the questions and the answers from the live broadcast. The talks are held on
Sundays at 2 p.m. Eastern Time (11 a.m. PT; 7 p.m. in the UK.; 8 p.m. in Western Europe). After a live Web Talk is given, it is generally posted on the Wilmette Institute’s
YouTube channel, usually within 24 hours, where you can also access most of the talks from 2015 and all of the 2016 Web Talks that have already been given. The Institute will continue uploading Web Talks in 2017.
