UK Bahá’í News Update
30 March 2022
10 Bahá’ 179 B.E.
Contents:
– New Elevate collection on Forging Peace
– Our response to current world events
– Archives Open Day in Cardiff
– BIC New York: Forum highlights women’s critical role in climate action
– BIC statement at UN Human Rights Council on the situation of the Bahá’í community in Iran
– Qatar’s Bahá’ís in danger of eradication, Human Rights Council warned
New Elevate collection on Forging Peace
A new collection of quotations and reflections on the subject of Forging Peace has been launched on the Elevate website. It is hoped that the collection will be of use in devotional meetings, firesides and as a resource for meaningful conversations responding to people’s concerns about world events and the call of the Universal House of Justice in its Naw-Rúz 177 message:
The world stands more and more in need of the hope and the strength of spirit that faith imparts. Beloved friends, you have of course long been occupied with the work of nurturing within groups of souls precisely the attributes that are required at this time: unity and fellow feeling, knowledge and understanding, a spirit of collective worship and common endeavour. Indeed, we have been struck by how efforts to reinforce these attributes have made communities especially resilient, even when faced with conditions that have necessarily limited their activities. Though having to adapt to new circumstances, the believers have used creative means to strengthen bonds of friendship, and to foster among themselves and those known to them spiritual consciousness and qualities of tranquillity, confidence, and reliance on God. The elevated conversations that have occurred as a result, whether remotely or in person, have been a source of comfort and inspiration to many. Such efforts on your part provide a valuable service at this hour when many souls are perplexed and dismayed, unsure of what will be.
Our response to current world events
Friends are reporting that they have been having numerous conversations, emerging from the anxieties people have around the world situation. The National Spiritual Assembly would like to hear more of your stories about such conversations at this time so that these can be shared as an inspiration to others.
One example that has been received is of a couple who spontaneously dropped a note to each of the houses in their street, inviting their neighbours to gather the following night for a peaceful space to remember those enduring the situation in Ukraine. Nearly every household responded with immense gratitude, and some even with a sense of relief. Six neighbours attended. The conversation was focused on concepts of unity and justice to bring about global peace. While the conversation naturally frequently veered towards politics, the Bahá’ís just listened and gently kept bringing things back to concepts of unity and justice. A couple of short quotes from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá were shared, relating to humanity as one body and thus the importance of wellness for its entirety.
The friends reported, “It turned out to be a beautiful space. We were able, simply by listening, to discern what our neighbours concerns are, where each one was coming from, and it was a wonderful opportunity to forge new bonds of friendship while deepening with the two we did know a bit. The love in our living room was palpable. Next, we’re thinking about what fireside topics we can set up now we’ve heard where they’re at.”
Archives Open Day in Cardiff
More than 60 friends from Wales and surrounding areas attended an Archives Open Day in Cardiff on Saturday 26 March. They were able to view priceless items associated with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá from the National Bahá’í Archives. Among the visitors were new friends from the Ely neighbourhood in Cardiff whose reverent participation had a major impact upon them and profoundly moved the Bahá’ís present.
BIC New York: Forum highlights women’s critical role
in climate action
The New York Office of the Bahá’í International Community (BIC) recently brought together representatives of member states, agencies of the United Nations (UN), civil society actors, and Bahá’í Offices of External Affairs from around the world to explore how women are uniquely situated to lead responses to the climate crisis.
BIC statement at UN Human Rights Council on the situation of the Bahá’í community in Iran
The Bahá’í International Community continues to be deeply concerned by the state-driven and organized systematic persecution of the Bahá’ís in Iran, now entering its 44th year. Read statement, here > in English and here in Persian >
Qatar’s Bahá’ís in danger of eradication,
Human Rights Council warned
The Bahá’í community of Qatar is at risk of being eradicated from the country, according to a statement made at the United Nations Human Rights Council, because of ongoing government discrimination based “solely” on their religious beliefs. Read statement, here > and here in Arabic >