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Acclaimed jazz vocalist and Baha’i, Tierney Sutton, and her fellow band members have garnered their 4th Grammy nomination for ‘Best Jazz Vocal Album’ for their latest album, “American Road.” The new album also earned Sutton and her band a nomination for Best Arrangement Accompanying a Vocal, competing with orchestral arrangements written for Sting, Barbra Streisand, [...]
January 20, 2012 saw the premiere of Red Tails, a film highlighting the challenging and heroic efforts of the Tuskegee Airmen, a group of African American United States Army Air Force (USAAF) servicemen during World War II. The film is about a crew of African American pilots in the Tuskegee training program who, having faced segregation while kept mostly [...]
In observance of African American History Month, we pay tribute to some notable African American Baha’is who have made significant contributions to American society.
H. William (Bill) Richter, an electrical engineer, inventor and businessman, devoted 18 years of his retirement to development work for the Baha’i community and the general population of the Caribbean island of St. Eustatius, alongside his wife of 68 years, Marjorie. Bill passed away at age 92 on November 3, 2011. He had resided most [...]
Patricia Campbell was a pioneer for the Baha’i Faith in many places, both internationally and on the home front, alongside her husband of many years, Melvin. Patricia passed away October 10, 2011, at age 68. Her most recent residence was in Van Zandt County, Texas. A letter of tribute from the National Spiritual Assembly of [...]
More than 200 Human rights activists and supporters gathered in the Baha’i House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois, on Dec 10 for the annual Human Rights Day forum sponsored by Amnesty International’s Evanston-based Group 50 and co-sponsored by the Baha’i communities of Chicago, Evanston and Wilmette. The Baha’i House of Worship Choir, under the direction [...]
Thousands of American Bahá’ís inhabit the social spaces of society, and they derive much joy and satisfaction from sharing a Bahá’í perspective within them. From Neighborhood Watch to environmental organizations to the Internet, such spaces allow these friends to establish a sense of common purpose with fellow seekers of truth and justice. Just as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá [...]
Russell and Gina Garcia saw a lot of changes in the Bahá’í world, especially in the four decades since the Californians settled in New Zealand. But one consistent motivation for their service to the Faith rings as true now as it did in the 1970s: As Russ told many people, in many ways, over many [...]
*UPDATE, 1/11/2012* Education Under Fire DVD kits are now for sale through the Baha’i Distribution Service. As a part of this package, you will receive the documentary and five copies of the open letter regarding the Iranian government’s attack on the Baha’i Institute for Higher Education co-authored by Nobel Peace Prize Laureates Desmond Tutu and President of [...]
It’s protection of human rights, elimination of prejudice, upholding equality of women and men. It’s finding opportunities to apply spiritual principles at the grass roots to move cultural attitudes away from corruption and dishonesty. It’s offering a consultative option for resolving disputes in a world more familiar with an adversarial approach. These are some of [...]
World-famous composer and arranger Russ Garcia died peacefully at his Kerikeri home on Sunday, November 20, 2011 at the age of 95. Garcia, a member of the Baha’i Faith, wrote a wide variety of music for screen, stage and broadcast. Read the obituary from the Baha’i World News Service [...]
By the Office of Education and Schools Two volunteers began blazing a trail in the new role of youth mentor in June 2011 — one at Louhelen Bahá’í School in Davison, Michigan, and the other at the Native American Bahá’í Institute (NABI) in Houck, Arizona. Mentorship is a new practice being employed at the permanent [...]
Race is one of the most divisive and intransigent issues in American society, and that reality loomed large before the 60 Bahá’ís and friends who came to Louhelen Bahá’í School in October 2010 to consult on the relationship between black and white in the United States. But the participants in “Engaging in the Discourse on [...]
“The sweet fruits of unity.” That’s how Judy Post describes the participation of four neighborhood families in a celebration of Ayyám-i-Há, a late-February Bahá’í occasion for gift-giving, hospitality and charity. The party came in the wake of six months of outreach, focused on meeting people in the Sandy Lane neighborhood of Norwich, Connecticut. They led [...]
“The enthusiasm with which many communities responded to the Preach-In signaled the Baha’i community’s growing interest in engaging in contemporary discourses and social action,” Adriance said, noting that climate change is one of the topics of discourse that the world governing body of the Faith suggested to the Baha’is of the world in a major message April 2010. “Through reflection on principles of environmental stewardship and justice many were then inspired to engage in related acts of service and social action.”
Grace P. Bulboaca, 103, Shreveport, LA Grace Bulboaca was a tireless worker and voracious reader who was a co-founder of the Bahá’í community of Shreveport. She passed away October 1, 2010. Born in 1907 and brought up in New Jersey, Grace Provost was working at a seminary in New York City when she met and [...]
Editor’s note: Here is the retelling of a spiritual conversation from the perspective of someone just introduced to a passage from Bahá’u’lláh. By Timothy A. Sanborn, MD, with Lucki Melander Wilder Medicine and religion have this in common: They each strive to heal, whether in body or soul, through both brief moments of dramatic intervention and [...]
While in Baghdad, Baha’u’llah wrote The Four Valleys (around 1857) and The Seven Valleys (around 1860). Both works were in response to questions posed to him by a Sufi leader and written in a poetic, mystical style. In The Four Valleys, Baha’u’llah describes the qualities and grades of four types of mystical wayfarers. The Seven Valleys follows the soul on [...]
The principle of the unity of religion is at the center of Baha’i teachings. Bahá’u’lláh states that humanity is engaged in a collective growth process quite similar to the growth process of an individual: just as a person begins life as a helpless infant and attains maturity in successive stages, so humankind began its collective [...]
Freedom Trail March in Jefferson County, WV
Even weather that was well below freezing couldn’t stop about sixty people from attending the NAACP’s annual “Freedom Trail March” on Sunday, January 9 in Jefferson County, WV. Of the sixty participants, more than twenty were Baha’is, most traveling from other communities as far as Baltimore, Maryland. [...]
Announcement of New Website: Baha’i Reflections
Announcement of New Website: Baha’i Reflections “We are a group of Baha’is around the world who have come together to reflect on modern day issues through the truths provided to us by the Writings. We blog about anything that gets us thinking about spiritual themes. We blog about our personal lives, events around the world, [...]
Walk with me — learning together with newly awakened
“I want meaning more than things in my life. I want my neighborhood to be a better place. And for the first time I can do something about them.” If an inhabitant of a neighborhood were to utter such words it would delight any Bahá’í engaged in the process of expansion and consolidation. Delight, yes. [...]
Know the code — defining ‘dynamic coherence’
dy·nam·ic – adjective – Constantly active or changing; characterized by action or forcefulness; not static; vital, energetic, vigorous, robust co·her·ence – noun – the state of cohering or sticking together; logical and orderly and consistent relation of parts; balance, harmony, symmetry, unity What does the Universal House of Justice mean when it says, in the Ridván [...]
A process of learning — workshops model best practices
A process of learning we can all emulate marked workshops offered at the Bahá’í Conference on Social and Economic Development. They covered such topics as community health; taking moral leadership to neighborhoods; educating school teachers about the oneness of humankind; service through the arts; providing legal assistance to the poor; spiritual parenting; and spreading prosperity. [...]
Intersections — where SED, social action cross paths
Intersections. Of our social and economic development knowledge base built over the years and the emerging social action in neighborhoods. Of inner (personal) and outer (societal) transformation. They appeared at virtually every juncture of the recent Bahá’í Social and Economic Development Conference in Orlando, Florida. In adult, youth, junior youth and children’s programs devoted to [...]
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