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Photo Gallery Progress is being made on the Welcome Center at the Baha’i House of Worship. Click to enlarge and browse a gallery of related photos. Early winter had no power to deter progress on construction of the new House of Worship Welcome Center, as the steel framework of the building on the west side [...]
What type of person do you envision when you hear of people investigating the Baha’i Faith on the Internet? If it is the stereotypical “loner” who prefers a screen to human interaction, this doesn’t hold true in the experience of the National Teaching Office and those who follow up locally and regionally to nurture those [...]
You’re taking a year off from college and trekking to sunny, tropical French Guiana in service to the Baha’i community for 10 months. Imagine the adventures. Photo Gallery Anisa Norris leads a children’s class at the Baha’i center in Acarouany village, French Guiana. Photo courtesy of Anisa and Jasmine Norris Click to enlarge and browse [...]
Going abroad to serve God and humanity. Building the capacity of young people. Helping strengthen a society by advancing the equality of women and men. Putting fresh academic training to work in the real world. All those opportunities came together for Astrid Kersten in fall 2012, when she used sabbatical leave from her college faculty [...]
There’s strength in numbers. Also, diverse talents and backgrounds. Photo Gallery San Jose children’s class participants strike a pose. Photo by Joan Burt Click to enlarge and browse a gallery of related photos. Those factors have combined to produce 10 thriving teaching teams in the cluster of communities within Florida’s Pasco and Hernando counties. Team [...]
Photo Gallery Some members of a New York City junior youth group pose with groceries they collected. Photo courtesy of Lev Rickards Click to enlarge and browse a gallery of related photos. It’s easy to see why efforts by Baha’is to build community where they live revolve around the core activities of children’s classes, junior [...]
Recent growth of the Baha’i Faith in the Triangle cluster of North Carolina is closely tied to the evolution of the Spiritual Assembly serving one of its communities, Carrboro. Photo Gallery Several members of the Spiritual Assembly of Carrboro are among those pictured at a local Holy Day celebration. Photo courtesy of Nathan Shepherd Click [...]
Baha’is, and people who spend any amount of time around them, know that the teachings of Baha’u’llah are about building a way of life. It’s a way of life that brings hope and a refined character to the human soul and creates a pathway toward peace and justice in the neighborhood and beyond. For the [...]
All ages are learning together in the Creighton neighborhood of Phoenix, Arizona. Photo Gallery Collecting cell photos before her Jr. Youth Group is an effective way to keep distractions at a minimum. Photo courtesy of Marilyn Sanchez Click to enlarge and browse a gallery of related photos. The children are refining their character. The junior [...]
Seekers contact the Baha’i community from a wide variety of viewpoints and motivations. By way of example, here are a few brief vignettes centered on inquirers who contacted the Faith via www.bahai.us and 800-22-UNITE: Alex, a young man from the South Central region, was brought up Christian but underwent what he calls a “five-year phase [...]
If there’s a common thread running through Andrew Hartin’s experience before, during and after his 2011–2012 service at the Baha’i House of Worship in India, it’s this: Rely on God, do what prayer and study of the writings steer you toward doing, and marvelous confirmations will follow. Even before he knew his destination as an [...]
Photo Gallery Garden at the Baha’i Center in Jefferson County, West Virginia beautifies the neighborhood. Click to enlarge and browse a gallery of related photos. By Julie Gregg In fall 2012, after five years’ labor, the Baha’is of Jefferson County, West Virginia, offered a garden sanctuary as a gift to their neighbors who live or [...]
Photo Gallery A contemplative garden draws visitors to a Baha’i Center in Ranson, West Virginia. Click to enlarge and browse a gallery of related photos. A contemplative garden. A chili festival. A chocolate shop. A Baha’i history museum. The Baha’i House of Worship. Many are the places or events that bring the public in contact [...]
Baha’is, like other U.S. citizens, will cast their vote in this year’s general election, but they won’t be campaigning or promoting particular candidates for office. Partisan politics is not permitted in the Baha’i Faith, whose members strive to contribute to building a unified society in which problems are peacefully resolved through consultation, a non-adversarial form [...]
Act and let that experience inform your next steps. That’s what so many Baha’is are doing as they engage in meaningful and distinctive conversation with people they encounter. Intentions become reality Lisa Glines prayed to become more intentional in how she discusses her faith with others. The Derwood, Maryland, Baha’i had just returned from a [...]
On a daily, and sometimes hourly, basis seekers from across the country call 800-22UNITE or visit the web (www.bahai.us) to ask questions, invite contact while they explore their spiritual search, or request information to be sent to them. Across the country, and within each region, there are regional-level “seeker response coordinators” and some cluster-level contacts [...]
In its message to the Baha’is of the world at Ridvan 2011, the Universal House of Justice detailed the nature and character of ‘Abdu’l-Baha’s interactions with people of all stripes in His travels through Egypt and the West a century ago. The Supreme Institution explained its great hope “that frequent recollection, during this centennial period, [...]
Seeking souls encounter the Faith of Baha’u’llah from many perspectives, for many purposes and at all ages. But as illustrated by these stories received by the National Teaching Office through the Seeker Response System database, whether the seeker visited the national website (www.bahai.us) or Baha’i Facebook page or called 800-22-UNITE a consistent message comes through: [...]
In Blogcritics Phillipe Copeland speaks about the call of ‘Abdu’l-Baha, the son of the Founder of the Baha’i Faith, for us to direct “our efforts toward the unification of the human race. We must use these powers in establishing the oneness of the world of humanity.” “Racism is the beating heart of any number of contemporary conflicts [...]
Phillipe Copeland shares in Baha’i Thought his perspective on being “color-blind” verses “race-conscious”. “…even the virtue of closing one’s eyes to racial differences can go too far. “Not seeing” risks missing things that might actually matter. This includes real historical and contemporary differences in the degree to which power is shared and how it is [...]
In this blog entry from the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions, Van Gilmer, Director of the Music Department at the Baha’i House of Worship in Wilmette, Ill. discusses the Baha’i Faith, the significance of the Temple, and the practice of his religious tradition.
Elders are respected in Fiji. Ludi Johnson freely acknowledges that such respect, and the trust that goes with it, has enriched her service as a short-term Baha’i pioneer and traveling teacher in the Sigatoka Valley. A special bounty, though, emerged earlier this year in her latest six-month stay in Fiji. She played a role in [...]
“O Son of Dust! The wise are they that speak not unless they obtain a hearing, even as the cup-bearer, who proffereth not his cup till he findeth a seeker, and the lover who crieth not out from the depths of his heart until he gazeth upon the beauty of his beloved. Wherefore sow the [...]
It’s a tantalizing paradox: “The mystery of sacrifice is that there is no sacrifice.” An early American Baha’i coined that maxim in reflecting on the wisdom of ‘Abdu’l-Baha. And it was an assurance that an anxious Cher Gupta-Fletcher heard from Judi Behrendt when the two were preparing in early 2011 to spend most of a [...]
“['Abdu'l-Baha] demonstrated by word and deed such compassion and generosity that hearts were utterly transformed.” — Universal House of Justice, Ridvan 2010 When the ground is shaking below them, people look for something to hold on to. Something to believe in, something that can make their — and others’ — lives better. From someone they [...]
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