pilgrim progress

Wendi's Wanders blog

25 May 2008 04:27 PM CDT
. . . although pilgrims upon earth we should travel the road of the heavenly kingdom’ `Abdu’l-Bahá, Bahá’í writings
One hundred and ten years ago, in the summer of 1898, Phoebe Apperson Hearst - philanthropist, promoter of women’s education and founder of the National Congress of Mothers (a forerunner of the Parent Teacher Association) - became a Baha’i.

A few weeks later, on 22 September, a small group of Baha’is, invited by Mrs Hearst, set out on the first Bahá’í pilgrimage to be undertaken by westerners. Travelling via New York and Paris, the group of 15 arrived in the holy land on 10 December. They split themselves into three parties, using Cairo as a staging post, with each small party visiting the holy land for a few days.
It was a period of `firsts’ for the new religion. Not only was it the first pilgrimage of western Bahá’ís, but included in the first party was Robert Turner, Mrs Hearst’s butler and the first black person to become a Bahá’í anywhere in the world. On 31 January 1899, before the third party could make its pilgrimage, the remains of the Bab, forerunner to Bahá’u'lláh, arrived in the holy land for burial. Shortly afterwards the foundation stone for the Shrine of the Bab was laid by`Abdu’l-Bahá. And in the spring of 1899, on return home from her pilgrimage and inspired by what she learned there, May Bolles established the first Bahá’í group on the European continent, in Paris.
Today, following in the footsteps of Phoebe Hearst and her friends and co-workers, Bahá’í pilgrims converged on Haifa, across the bay from `Akka, to begin their pilgrimage. But this time there are more than 30 times the number there were 110 years ago. This time people come from every background imaginable - many from Iran and the United States, but also large numbers from Europe, Africa, Asia, the Pacific and the Americas. There are tiny children, including a newborn infant, and very elderly people. The pilgrim groups are divided on language lines - Persian, English, German, Russian. A Portuguese pilgrim wonders whether he should go with the English or the Persian group; the Mongolians go with the Russians. The Australians and Pacific Islanders are exhausted after their 24 hours of travelling but of course they came by air, not by sea as Mrs Hearst’s party did.
The first visit is to the environs of the Shrine of the Báb. When the first western pilgrims visited, there was no shrine - the remains of the Báb were yet to arrive. Not so long ago all the pilgrims were able to enter the Shrine together to say prayers - now there are so many pilgrims that the best that can be achieved is a circumambulation of the Shrine, with people squeezing into the Shrine afterwards to say their individual prayers.

Already one can see how inspired people are - the buzz at the lunch tables about the direct teaching of the Faith and the new Baha’is who have recently entered as a result is surely born of the same excitement and love of Bahá’u'lláh that prompted May Bolles to create a Bahá’í community in Paris.
Tomorrow we are off on the next leg of the journey - to Bahjí, where Bahá’u'lláh Himself is buried - and we meet the newly elected Universal House of Justice - something that was only a dream in 1898.

THE FACES OF THE BAHA'I WORLD

HAIFA, Israel, 12 May 2008 (BWNS) -- Experiencing the diversity of the human family can be humbling, as Baha'is attending their recent international convention learned.

One can meet an industrialist from Italy, a civil engineer from Barbados, and a presidential advisor from South Africa - but realize that a 25-year-old student from South America is equally impressive with her knowledge of how to organize classes for children and youth.

Or discover that the Ph.D. who works with the international research agency speaks two languages, but the woman who owns a small business in Cameroon speaks five.

A thousand delegates from more than 150 countries came to Haifa for the 10th International Baha'i Convention, and at least some participants say the diversity was unprecedented.

Gregory C. Dahl, who formerly worked at the International Monetary Fund and has attended many U.N.-related meetings, had never seen anything like it.

"This is easily the most diverse gathering of people on the planet," he said of the convention. He compared it to a U.N. meeting but said the diversity at the Baha'i gathering came not just from the different nationalities but from the backgrounds of the participants.

"At the United Nations, there are representatives from many countries, but not from so many different social, economic, and professional classes," said Mr. Dahl, who attended the Baha'i convention as a delegate from Bulgaria. He noted that the others from Bulgaria included someone who works for a coal-mining company, another employed by an insurance company, a musician, and a secretary.

The purpose of the Baha'i convention, held every five years, is to elect the Universal House of Justice, the international governing body of the Baha'i Faith. Delegates also consult about their experiences and concerns. The nine delegates from each nation are themselves the elected members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of their country.

Alan Smith of the Virgin Islands was attending his sixth International Baha'i Convention and said he noticed a difference this year.

"It's feeling far more international," he said, attributing the change not to additional countries but to more diverse groups of delegates from within each country.

Among the delegates from Russia, for example, were two ethnic Russians; one Russian with Estonian ancestry; two individuals of Buryat-Mongolian ethnicity from Eastern Siberia; a Tatar, whose family background is Muslim; an Osetin woman from the Caucasus; and an American-born man descended from Russian Jews who is married to a Russian and lives in Siberia.

From the United States came a federal judge, a psychologist, a medical doctor, a corporate retirement plan manager, and an administrator who works with health-care issues for Native Americans. Some are white, some are black, and one is American Indian of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe of the Sicangu Lakota.

From Albania came a police officer, a lawyer, a teacher, a secretary, some from the northern part of the country, some from the south.

From Venezuela came "younger" and "older" - three of the delegates were 25 years old, and two were in their 60s or older.

Daniel Woodard, an engineering student from Caracas, said he realized at the convention that not only is the Baha'i community diverse but that it truly encompasses the whole world. He was even more heartened by the unified spirit, as Baha'is and others work together to create a better world.

"Despite the fact that there are now many of us, and we are so diverse, nobody is being left behind," he said of the people he saw. "We are so intertwined that as we move forward, if someone falters or has difficulties, they will be sustained and helped by the others."

More about the delegates to the International Baha'i Convention:

-- The oldest delegate, from Niger, was 82. The youngest was a woman from Belarus who turned 21 last August and was elected to her National Assembly in a by-election in November. (The minimum age for election is 21.)

-- Delegates came from almost everywhere, from Greenland in the north to Chile, Argentina, and New Zealand in the south; from Kiribati just west of the international date line, around the world to Samoa just east of the date line. Those remote islands were balanced by delegates from the world's great cities - London, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Buenos Aires.

-- Twelve delegates were 25 years old or younger.

-- English was the main language, and most participants apparently were comfortable with it because only about 320 participants requested earphones to listen to translation to Spanish, French, or Russian. (Convention organizers also noted that a small handful of people might not have been able to manage any of the four official languages and required one-on-one help with translation.)

-- More than 40 percent of the convention delegates were women.

NewsChannel 5.com - Nashville, Tennessee - Issues of Faith

Mona Heern tells her story of faith and persecution as a Bahai child in Iran at the Utah Valley National Day of Prayer Commemoration on Thursday, May 1, 2008.

City united by desire to believe


Janice Peterson -DAILY HERALD

People of all faiths gathered Thursday night to pray and learn about one another's faiths in the Provo Tabernacle for Utah Valley's National Day of Prayer celebration. The keynote speaker for the night was Mona Heern, who spoke of her experiences with religious intolerance in Iran.

"My family experienced a lot of persecution there, and it still continues," she said.
Heern grew up in the largest minority faith in Iran, Baha'i. The Baha'i were among the first people to be attacked in the 1979 revolution, and Heern was forced to leave school at the age of 8 because of her religion. The Baha'i were no longer allowed to attend school, teach school, hold positions of power or work in certain jobs. Instead, Heern said she attended secret underground schools taught by Baha'i teachers who were no longer allowed to work.
Heern said her father went to work one day and never came back. For seven months, the family searched from prison to prison to find him, and were only given visitation rights after 10 months. Even then, Baha'i families visiting their loved ones were forced to arrive at the prison once a month at 7 a.m. and wait until 4 p.m. for 10 minutes of visitation. One day, the family waited for hours to visit her father, and when it was their turn Heern's mother presented the visitation card to the guard.
"This man looked at the card and he just started laughing and laughing," Heern explained, saying she could never forget his laugh.
"Why didn't they tell you?" he asked. "We killed him a month ago."
After her father's death, Heern's mother sold all her jewelry to escape the country, fearing for the safety of her children. The family was smuggled into Pakistan in the middle of the night and spent years as refugees before moving on to Germany.
Despite all the struggles her family went through, Heern said she wanted to make the point that there are good people everywhere, including good people of other faiths who helped her family along the way.
Heern is now a teacher in Salt Lake City, and she said her students often ask if she wants to return home. Heern tells them that she could not be who she is if she were to return.
"I know, in this country, not a lot of people want to become teachers, but I remember sitting in Iran thinking, 'I want to be a teacher,' " she said.
Heern concluded with a Baha'i prayer for humanity and unity. She said she believes the message is important because there are many people in the world who do not have religious freedom, but it is time for different faiths to unite.
The world is becoming a global village, and people cannot close their eyes to other cultures anymore, she said. Heern said she believes her message is especially important to residents in Utah Valley, because many do not know who the Baha'i are or about much of the religious persecution in the world.
"To me, the root of prejudice is ignorance," she said.
The theme of the night was "From Tolerance to Love," which Chaplain Linda P. Walton of Utah Valley State College, chairwoman of the event, said implies that there must be more than just tolerance for other religions.
Walton said the National Day of Prayer is a time for all religions to come together in prayer, but she believes it is also a celebration of the Bill of Rights. Walton read the First Amendment to the audience, which includes freedom of religion, and copies of the Bill of Rights were handed out to attendees.
"We need to celebrate that we have the right to do religion or not to do religion," she said.
Walton said the day is one for citizens to be reminded of their freedoms and pray for those who provide it, such as government leaders and those in uniform.
The celebration included scripture readings from books of several faiths, music by the One Voice Children's Choir and the Utah Valley Handbell Choir, and prayers for the military and religious freedom.
Connie Giblon of Tooele said she attended the event because her daughter was in the handbell choir, but she believes the celebration is important for people of different faiths.
"Whatever religion you are, that's a time to come together and have our purpose be the same," she said.
Giblon said she thinks it is important for people of all faiths to get together and the day of prayer is important for a country that was founded on the basis of religious freedom.
The National Day of Prayer is a time for people to remember the problems in the world and pray for all people, she said.
"I think it's a good thing. I think there's too much emphasis on taking prayer out of people's lives."

SYSTEMATIC TRAINING INITIATIVE SHOWING RESULTS, SAY CONVENTION DELEGATES
HAIFA, Israel, 2 May 2008 (BWNS) -- There is a new wind blowing in the Baha'i world.
That message came through loud and clear in three days of consultations at the 10th International Baha'i Convention.
Delegates from 153 countries described how a systematic, grassroots process of community-building -- focused on training, learning and service -- is creating a new dynamism in Baha'i communities worldwide and striking a chord in wider society.
On the convention floor and in the hallways, delegates talked about how the emphasis on service to humanity through four core activities - children's classes, devotional meetings, study circles, and programs for young teens - is starting to yield results in country after country.
In India, for example, more than 80,000 people have completed a study circle based on material from the Ruhi Institute in Colombia, and some 6,000 people have advanced to the seventh book in the same series of material.
As a consequence, said Nazneen Rowhani, a delegate from India, many people have become interested in the Baha'i Faith, and thousands have become Baha'is since last May.
"So India's challenge has been how to mobilize a substantial percentage of these new believers into the field of service," said Ms. Rowhani.
Reports from other countries described similar degrees of success at both energizing Baha'is and reaching out to others - all with the ultimate goal of addressing the ills that afflict humanity.
-- In Colombia, in an area known as Norte del Cauca, the number of people involved in core activities has risen dramatically since 2005, when a cyclical campaign to inspire more involvement was begun. Hundreds of young teens have participated in the junior youth empowerment program, and a thousand have attended devotional gatherings. There are about a hundred neighborhood children's classesAs a result of this increased activity, said Carmen Caldas Hernandez, the number of Baha'is has doubled.
"Our reflection gatherings have become like a party, like a feast, where we celebrate the achievements of the previous cycle," said Ms. Hernandez, describing the atmosphere at periodic Baha'i meetings to assess the progress of core activities.
-- In Kenya, since January 2005, the number of people who have completed Ruhi Book 7 in an area known as Tiriki West has risen sharply and the number in children's classes has reached more than 1,000.
-- In Brazil, an effort to reach out to young teens around Porto Alegre now has hundreds of participants. Such classes for "junior youth" do not teach the Baha'i Faith but rather focus on improving literacy and thinking and articulation skills, and encouraging better moral choices - all designed to "empower" young people.
The classes have been so successful, said Katherine Monajjem, a delegate from Brazil, that some local public school officials have embraced them as a model. "One school supervisor was so impressed that, although she is a Baptist, she asked that her young son be trained in the program," said Ms. Monajjem.
Such reports were echoed, often on a smaller scale, by delegates from countries where Baha'i communites have also begun more intensive outreach efforts.
"What we're seeing are the fruits of a worldwide education process that is trying to empower the Baha'i community with the skills that it needs to enrich their own community and also carry the message of Baha'u'llah to others," said Joan Lincoln, a Counsellor at the International Teaching Centre at the Baha'i World Centre in Haifa. She is involved in monitoring many of these efforts.
"What Baha'i children's classes have to offer is character development," she said. "What junior youth programs have to offer is assistance to young people trying to find their place in a very chaotic world."
The situation in the world at large was very much on the minds of the some 1,000 delegates at the convention. In addition to the mechanics of systematized study and outreach, delegates discussed wider topics relating to the deteriorating social conditions in the world, from the crisis in moral education to the impact of HIV/AIDs in Africa.
In particular, many delegates responded passionately to a letter from the Universal House of Justice, the international governing body of the Baha'i Faith, that discussed the new dynamism in Baha'i communities worldwide and said its impact on wider society will only come to the degree that Baha'is live lives of high morality and "champion the cause of justice."
"Sustaining growth ... will depend on the qualities that distinguish your service to the peoples of the world," said the message, released as part of the Festival of Ridvan observed by Baha'is at this time every year.
"So free must be your thoughts and actions of any trace of prejudice - racial, religious, economic, national, tribal, class, or cultural - that even the stranger sees in you loving friends.
"So high must be your standard of excellence and so pure and chaste your lives that the moral influence you exert penetrates the consciousness of the wider community," said the message.
Muin Afnan, a delegate from the United States, like others, observed that the essential teachings of the Baha'i Faith emphasize the importance of service to humanity at large.
"When we look at the life of 'Abdu'l-Baha, we see that service meant serving the poor and people of all classes, all ranks," said Dr. Afnani. "The core activities of the plan are really bringing us back to a focus on serving the people."
Gregory Dahl, a delegate from Bulgaria, explained that the new emphasis on a few core activities, along with a systematic process of learning and reflection, is indeed aimed at building up the Baha'i community's capacity for such service.
"The whole orientation of the Baha'i Faith is service to humankind, and we can do that better if we can do that systematically," said Mr. Dahl.