In 2016, Jennie Colbert-Kennedy and Dennis Kennedy celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary. That was also the year that they became Baha’is. The spiritual journey that ultimately led this loving couple to embrace the Baha’i Faith began in their childhoods, when they attended Baptist churches in Augusta, Georgia, one of which was a church Jennie’s great-great-grandfather […]
By Karen Withem In Springfield, Illinois, some powerful and effective partnerships are producing dividends in the community. The three dozen or so Baha’is there work with the Urban League, the Ministerial Alliance, the Greater Springfield Interfaith Association and several race relations groups. For example, four years ago after the shooting death of a young girl, […]
By Lindsey Lugsch-Tehle What would it mean to experience the “Theater of the Noble”? Green Acre, a Baha’i center of learning in Eliot, Maine—is exploring this notion in collaboration with the Seacoast Repertory Theater and Artists Building Capacity as World Citizens, both of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, through an approach piloted by “Project Empathy.” The program’s […]
Note: This article is edited from a report by Reese Weatherspoon, a youth participant who has been accompanied within the Educate Youth program by Dr. Richard Thomas, a Baha’i and university educator of long standing. Amid a global pandemic and heartbreaking violence nationwide, one professor’s efforts to connect with and support young people in his […]
Race-Unity-Justice Harriet Gibbs Marshall Source: Star of the West | Baháʼí Faith in Haiti Harriet Gibbs Marshall (1868-1941) became a Baha’i in 1912 while ‘Abdu’l-Baha was visiting the US. It is possible that she heard Him speak on 23 April 1912 at both Howard University and in a Black church later that same evening. It […]
Impressions on ‘Abdu’l-Baha Coralie Franklin Cook Source: Maḥmud’s Diary|The Baha’i Faith and African American History Coralie Franklin Cook was born in Virginia in 1861, into slavery. Her ancestors, enslaved by President Thomas Jefferson and her parents were born into slavery. Raised in the wake of the Civil War, she became a gifted writer and public […]
By Layli Miron Growing up in a small town has its benefits: kids often enjoy a tight-knit community and relative safety. But they may not have as many opportunities to expand their horizons as their urban peers do. Take Federalsburg, Maryland, a town of 2,700 nestled near the center of the Delmarva Peninsula between Chesapeake […]
By Karen Withem “We’re really beginning to understand what it means to put our deeds at the forefront of our learning. It makes the Baha’i Faith so beautiful, alive and growing.” These are the words of Ashiya Gillette, who was part of the 2021 “Summer of Service” (SOS), a month-long outreach program aimed at helping […]
The Baha’i community of New York City used the occasion of Juneteenth 2021 to host an online celebration and to kick off a study circle initiative leading to the observance of the 100th anniversary of the Ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Baha on Nov. 28. “This was a very special occasion,” Roxann Stafford, a Baha’i from Brooklyn, said […]
While winter and pandemic hibernation may seem far in the past, several initiatives originally undertaken during the previous winter months have blossomed. Though diverse in focus, these initiatives shared a common thread of building networks of people in the Midwestern states dedicated to sharing Baha’u’llah’s teachings in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Ohio. Youth heartened by […]
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