The Association for Bahá’í Studies
 in Southern Africa

 

Email: abs@bahai.org.za
website: www.bahaistudies.org.za

 

Postal address: P.O. Box 2142, Houghton, 2041 **

South Africa

 

Tel: +27 11-462-0100

 

October 2004

 

Call for Papers

 

Sixth Annual Conference - 2005

 

Cape Town, South Africa

 

The 6th Annual Conference of the Association for Bahá'í Studies in Southern Africa (ABS-SA) will take place in Cape Town on the 11th – 13th February 2005. The venue is: University of Cape Town, Kramer Hall, middle campus. Further details regarding registration and other relevant information will be sent in November. The Conference will start on Friday afternoon and end on Sunday.

 

The theme of this year's conference is:

 

 

The role of religion in building a peaceful society

 

 

Submissions for papers or presentations, including presentations involving drama, poetry, music or the visual arts, are invited. People of all religious backgrounds are welcome as the intention of the conference is to include a spectrum of ideas for thought and discussion. The ABS encourages submissions from youth to provide a forum for the development of scholarship and gain understanding from diverse perspectives.

 

Please send an abstract, approximately 500 words, or a brief description of a presentation proposal to: abs@bahai.org.za; and do feel free to ask for clarification or assistance. The deadline for submission of complete presentations is Friday, 16 January.  After the conference, the ABS-SA will produce a refereed publication based on selected contributions. 

.

 

The Association has sponsored conferences, interfaith and university seminars, to promote discussions on ways of creating unity and cooperation amongst those involved in creating peaceful and harmonious solutions to the problems facing humanity. There will be time during the Conference for presentations, consultations, formal and informal discussions, and socialization with conference participants.

 

The ABS-SA Executive is looking forward to an exciting and fruitful weekend. Additional information about the ABS-SA is on the following addendum.

 

 

 

The Organizing Committee

 

C/O

Dr Robert Sarracino

Centre for Research in Computational and Applied Mechanics

Department of Chemical Engineering

University of Cape Town

Rondebosch 7701 South Africa

tel:      27 21 650 2604

email:  robert@chemeng.uct.ac.za

 

 

Addendum

 

Association for Bahá’í Studies in Southern Africa

 

 

A Southern African volunteer association, one of several similar associations throughout the world.

 

 

Email:                               abs@bahai.org.za

 

 

Websites:

 

Regional:               www.bahaistudies.org.za (ABS-SA website)

                             www.bahai.org.za (South African Bahá’í website)

 

International:        www.bahai.org (international Bahá’í website)

 

 

 

 

Statements and documents (available on the websites):

 

          Statement to the Religious Leaders of the World (2002)

          The Promise of World Peace

          Who is Writing the Future?

          The Prosperity of Humankind

 

 

Purpose of the Association:

 

The purpose of the Association is four-fold:  

 

 

1.     Study of the Bahá’í Faith: To promote the study of the Bahá’í Faith, its history, teachings, beliefs and practices.

   

2.     Scholarship: To promote research and scholarship in subject areas of interest and relevance to the Bahá’í community.

   

3.     Teaching: To promote teaching of the Bahá’í Faith, its principles and practices, to leaders of thought, prominent people, people of capacity, and more generally the public.

   

4.     Collaboration: To cooperate and collaborate with like-minded groups and societies in the promotion of world unity.