UK Bahá’í News Update
1 March 2020
2 ‘Alá’ 176 B.E.
GC-34657
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Contents:
- Group pilgrimages – video released
- Opportunities to serve at the Bahá’í World Centre
- BWNS: Religion and the integration of new arrivals into Canadian society
Group pilgrimages – video released
As one of the divine ordinances enshrined in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, pilgrimage to the Holy Land provides an opportunity for the friends to forge a stronger spiritual bond with the Central Figures of our Faith, thereby potentially invigorating and stimulating them to greater services to the Cause.
The Universal House of Justice announced in April 2017 a number of measures to make pilgrimage more accessible to a greater number and diversity of believers. These measures included encouraging groups to travel from neighbourhoods and communities and that these groups might also include relatives and friends who are not registered members of the Bahá’í community.
A short film has been prepared by the friends from the Windsor neighbourhood in Belfast, sharing their experiences of organising and participating in a group pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 2016. The National Spiritual Assembly is sharing this film with Local Assemblies and Groups, and asking that the film be shown at the Nineteen Day Feast, or other suitable gatherings, with time be given to reflect upon the film and the benefits of group pilgrimage. Group pilgrimage can also be considered for members of an extended family, friends serving together, such as teaching teams and nuclei of friends, or those who regularly meet together, such as participants of a study circle or devotional.
Statements made by and on behalf of the beloved Guardian indicate that pilgrimage to the Holy Shrines can become a means whereby one “can experience that mystic love which constitutes the very core of every true religion”, can enable one to obtain “a clearer vision of the mission and significance of the Faith”, and can “greatly invigorate the friends and stimulate them to greater services and sacrifice.”
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