Arlington Bahá’ís Take Part in Historic Conferences

Many Arlington Bahá’ís are excited about taking part in a series of forty-one conferences taking place all across the globe . The conferences were called by the Universal House of Justice, the supreme administrative body for the Bahá’ís of the world, to discuss community activities. Six of the forty-one conferences are being held at various locations in the United States, two of which have been or will be attended by Arlington Bahá’ís including one this past weekend (December 6-7) in Atlanta, Georgia and one this coming weekend (December 13-14) in Stamford, Connecticut.

The Bahá’í World News has created a website to capture a summary of each of these meetings and provide a space for participants to share their comments. Mehrdad who attended the conference in New Delhi, India stated “The highlight here is the coming together of diverse peoples, sitting under one roof, and thinking the same—the unity of thought of people. I am seeing this for the first time in my life. It’s the realization of what Bahá’u’lláh described: the garden with different flowers.”

The conference in New Delhi on November 22 and 23 had over 2,700 participants from all over northern India, 480 from Nepal, 120 from Pakistan and 50 from Afghanistan joined together to talk about concrete actions to build love and unity. The focus of the conference was on tending to needs of the children of the world and offering them lessons that develop their spiritual faculties and lay the foundations of a noble and upright character. They discussed how systematic study of the Word of God in small groups can build the capacity for service, as well as shared stories of efforts to help young people form a strong moral identity in their early adolescent years and empower them to contribute to the well-being of their communities. All of this was done is a spirit of joy and fellowship. Naheed and Tuba, two participants from the New Delhi conference, submitted the photos that are accompanying this story.

We expect to post a report from Arlington Bahá’ís who attended the Atlanta conference later on this week. A summary by Arlington Bahá’ís of the Connecticut conference will be posted next week. While each conference is unique, all will have the same theme, looking at the activities that Bahá’ís are doing in their own neighborhoods to build love and unity. If you are interested in learning more about the Bahá’í Faith, or the activities happening here in Arlington, we invite you to contact us.