The 1st Annual International Bhikkhuni Day

The 1st Annual International Bhikkhuni Day is on Saturday 17th September 2011,

from 9am - 5pm, and in the UK a meeting will be held at

The Buddhist Society, 58 Eccleston Square, London SW1V 1PH.

The Bhikkhuni Day is a global, grassroots effort, sponsored by the Alliance for Bhikkhunis, and devoted to honouring Mahapajapati Gotami, the founder of the Bhikkhuni Sangha. On this day, supporters will gather at various venues around the world, to celebrate their spiritual legacy, learn about the history of prominent Buddhist women, meditate and raise funds to support bhikkhunis, via a meditation pledge-a-thon.

The home page of Alliance for Bhikkhunis ( http://www.bhikkhuni.net) contains details about the day on the bottom right-hand corner of the page - together with a link to the brochure for the day: http://www.bhikkhuni.net/documents/IBD%20Brochure%20rev.%205.23.11.pdf

All those who would like to attend the London meeting are very welcome. Those who would like to attend but who live too far away, are encouraged to set up a local meeting of their own, and can contact me, Josephine Snell, at josephinebarton@hotmail.co.uk for details on how to do this. Setting up a meeting has been designed to be incredibly easy to do, and there are resources on the AfB website to help, plus my support via email. Ideally, we would like to end up with groups all over the country...

Those who are planning to attend a meeting, or who are unable to attend but would like to support the day through taking part at home, are invited to set up a FirstGiving page via the Alliance for Bhikkhunis' website - see http://www.firstgiving.com/allianceforbhikkhunis/1st-annual-international-bhikkhuni-day
- so that they can help raise funds through the meditation pledge-a-thon. Alternatively, supporters can sponsor people who already have FirstGiving pages of their own.

It would be really helpful if you could you let me know, via my email address josephinebarton@hotmail.co.uk, if you plan to attend the London meeting or would like to attend one elsewhere, so that I can start to get an idea of numbers and can put people from outside the London area in touch with each other.

With many thanks for your interest, and much metta,

Josephine Snell
(Member of the AfB committee for International Bhikkhuni Day)