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.