{"componentChunkName":"component---src-templates-archive-page-jsx","path":"/archive/78/","result":{"pageContext":{"strings":{"about":"About","additional_articles":"Additional Articles","administration":"Administration","africa":"Africa","all_bahaiorg_sites":"All Bahai.org Sites","all_sites":"All sites","all_sites_arising_serve":"Arising to Serve","all_sites_arising_serve_caption":"A film recounting highlights of the 41 regional Bahá’í conferences called by the Universal House of Justice in 2008","all_sites_bahai_org":"The official website of the worldwide Bahá’í community","all_sites_bahai_org_library":"Bahá’í Reference Library","all_sites_bahai_org_library_caption":"The authoritative online source of Bahá’í writings","all_sites_bahaullah_org":"The Life of Bahá’u’lláh","all_sites_bahaullah_org_caption":"A photographic narrative of the life of Bahá’u’lláh","all_sites_bic":"Bahá’í International Community Representative Offices","all_sites_bic_caption":"The official website of the Bahá’í International Community’s Representative Offices. The site contains news and information about recent activity and provides access to BIC statements, reports, and other publications","all_sites_bicentenary":"Bicentenary of the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh","all_sites_bicentenary_bab":"Bicentenary of the Birth of The Báb","all_sites_bicentenary_caption":"The official international website for the bicentenary of the birth of Bahá’u’lláh","all_sites_frontiers_learning":"Frontiers of Learning","all_sites_frontiers_learning_caption":"This film captures the insights and experiences of people from four communities across the world whose efforts to build vibrant communities are at the frontiers of learning","all_sites_light_to_the_world":"Light to the World","all_sites_light_to_the_world_caption":"A feature film about the life and teachings of Bahá’u’lláh","all_sites_media_bank":"Bahá’í Media Bank","all_sites_media_bank_caption":"Photographs available for downloading","all_sites_national_communities":"National Bahá’í Communities","all_sites_national_communities_caption":"A page containing links to the websites of many national Bahá’í communities from around the world","all_sites_news_bahai_org_caption":"The official news website of the worldwide Bahá’í community","all_sites_title":"Official Bahá’í Sites","all_sites_universalhouseofjustice_org":"The Universal House of Justice","all_sites_universalhouseofjustice_org_caption":"Information about the Universal House of Justice and selected statements and letters","all_sites_widening_embrace":"A Widening Embrace","all_sites_widening_embrace_caption":"A documentary film about the community-building efforts of the Bahá’í world","americas":"Americas","android":"Android","archive_results_to_of_a":"Results","archive_results_to_of_b":"to","archive_results_to_of_c":"of","asia":"Asia","back_to_story":"Back to Story","bahai_international_community":"Bahá'í International Community","bahai_media_bank":"Bahá’í Media Bank","bahai_reference_library":"Bahá’í Reference Library","bahai_world_centre":"Bahá’í World Centre","bahai_world_news_service":"Bahá’í World News Service","bahai_world_news_service_bwns":"Bahá’í World News Service (BWNS)","bahaiorg_home":"Bahai.org Home","bahais_semnan":"The Bahá’ís of Semnan","battambang_cambodia_house_worship":"House of Worship in Battambang, Cambodia","battambang_cambodia_temple":"Battambang, Cambodia Temple Inauguration","before_downloading_terms":"Before downloading please refer to the [Terms of use](/legal/).","bic_un_office":"Bahá’í International Community\nUN Office","brief_history":"Brief history","bwns_noTranslation":"BWNS","cdn_documentlibrary_path":"http://dl.bahai.org/bwns/assets/documentlibrary/","cdn_images_path":"//bwns.imgix.net/","chile_house_worship":"Chile House of Worship","chile_temple":"Chile Temple Inauguration","close":"Close","closed_doors_denial_education_iran":"Closed Doors: Denial of Education in Iran","comma":",","comprehensive_report":"Comprehensive report","contact":"Contact","contact_h1":"Contacting the Bahá’í World News Service","contact_h2":"Contacting Bahá’í institutions","contact_h3":"Reporting technical problems","contact_information":"Contact Information","contact_p1":"General inquiries about BWNS can be directed to [news@bahai.org](mailto:news@bahai.org). Information regarding news and media contacts is available in the [Media Information](/media-information/) section.","contact_p2":"The Bahá’í Faith is established in more than 100,000 localities in virtually every country and territory around the world. At the national level, the affairs of the Bahá’í community are guided by National Spiritual Assemblies, and a list of websites for many national Bahá’í communities can be found at the [National Communities page](https://www.bahai.org/national-communities/) on Bahai.org.","contact_p3":"To report a technical problem with this site, please send a detailed description and screenshot of the issue, along with the address of the page where it occurred, to [webmaster@bahai.org](mailto:webmaster@bahai.org). Please note that this email address exists to receive reports of technical problems with the site and it is not possible to respond to other queries through this facility.","copy_link":"Copy Link","did_not_match_any_documents_showing_results_for":"did not match any documents. Showing results for","did_you_mean":"Did you mean:","download":"Download","download_highest_resolution":"Download highest resolution","email":"Email","email_address":"Email Address","enlarge":"Enlarge","error_page":"Error Occurred","error_page_p1":"Sorry. An error has occurred with your request. It would help us if you let us know what you were trying to do when this error occurred by using our [contact form](https://www.bahai.org/contact/).","europe":"Europe","featured_stories":"Featured stories","featured_videos":"Featured videos","follow_updates_via_instagram_twitter":"Follow the Bahá’í World News Service on Twitter and Instagram for regular updates and stories","from_bwns_archive":"From the Bahá’í World News Service archive","get_notified_stories":"Get notified of stories","highest_resolution":"Highest resolution","historical_photographs":"Historical photographs","homepage_feature_audio_h2":"Recent podcast episodes","homepage_feature_audio_h3":"Audio versions of stories","homepage_feature_audio_p1":"Selected audio content from around the globe","homepage_feature_h1":"Subscribe to BWNS Updates","houses_worship":"Houses of Worship","human_rights_iran":"Human Rights in Iran","images":"images","ios":"iOS","iran_news_stories":"Iran News Stories","key_terms_facts":"Key terms and facts","latest_headlines":"Latest headlines","latest_video_category":"Latest","legal":"Legal","legal_h1":"Privacy","legal_h2":"Terms of Use","legal_information":"Legal Information","legal_li_1":"They must at all times be attributed to the Bahá’í World News Service.","legal_li_2":"Photographs and stories cannot be used in any way (including, without limitation, suggesting an association with or endorsement of any product, service, opinion or cause) that conflicts with the intent and premise of the original source.","legal_li_3":"Photographs may be edited for size only. Captions must remain with the photographs at all times.","legal_li_4":"The Bahá’í World News Service will not be responsible to any person or organization for any liability for any direct, incidental,  consequential, indirect, or punitive damages that may result from any access to or use of the stories and/or photographs on our site.","legal_li_5":"Although this blanket permission to reproduce BWNS material is given freely such that no special permission is required, the Bahá’í World News Service retains full copyright protection for its stories and photographs under all applicable national and international laws.","legal_p1_1":"On this Web site we try to ensure your privacy. We collect only personal information provided by you on a voluntary basis, in order to respond to your queries and to send you any additional information and material that you request.","legal_p1_2":"Visitors to this Web site are not tracked, except to produce aggregate statistical data that does not identify individual users. Where we must use cookies to provide essential functionality, these are not used to track your use of the site or to store personally-identifiable information. Steps have been taken to ensure that all information collected from you will remain secure, free from unauthorized access, use or disclosure. Please keep in mind that if you leave this site via a link, the other site may have a different policy regarding privacy.","legal_p1_3a":"We occasionally update this privacy policy and encourage you to review it periodically. If you wish to correct your personal information, or have questions regarding this policy, please send an email message to","legal_p1_3b":"or call the Bahá’í World News Service at +972 (4) 835-8412, between 8 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. GMT +2, Sunday through Thursday.","legal_p2_1":"All stories and photographs produced by the Bahá’í World News Service may be freely reprinted, e-mailed, posted to the World Wide Web and otherwise reproduced by any individual or organization, subject to the following restrictions:","legal_p2_2":"The Bahá’í World News Service is an agency of the Bahá’í International Community, a nongovernmental organization that represents and encompasses the five million members of the Bahá’í Faith.","links_other_websites":"Links to other Web sites","listen":"Listen","listen_bwns":"Listen to BWNS","load_more_results":"Load more results","media_bank":"Media Bank","media_information":"Media Information","media_information_about_bwns":"About BWNS","media_information_administration_h2":"International","media_information_administration_h3":"National","media_information_administration_h4":"Local","media_information_administration_p1":"The Bahá’í Faith is administered by a series of elected bodies at the local, national, and international levels. There is no class of ecclesiastics or clergy.","media_information_administration_p2":"The Universal House of Justice is the international governing council of the Bahá’í Faith. It is the supreme administrative body ordained by Bahá’u’lláh in His book of laws. The Universal House of Justice is elected every five years at the International Bahá’í Convention, where members of the National Spiritual Assemblies (see below) around the world serve as delegates. The Universal House of Justice was first elected in 1963. Its permanent seat is on Mount Carmel in Haifa.","media_information_administration_p3":"At the national level, the affairs of the Bahá’í community are administered by the National Spiritual Assembly, a nine-member elected council responsible for guiding, co-ordinating, and stimulating the activities of Local Spiritual Assemblies and individual members of the Bahá’í community within a given country. The responsibilities of a National Spiritual Assembly include channelling the community’s financial resources, fostering the growth and vibrancy of the national Bahá’í community, supervising the affairs of the community including its social and economic development activities and its properties, overseeing relations with government, resolving questions from individuals and Local Spiritual Assemblies, and strengthening the participation of the Bahá’í community in the life of society at the national level.","media_information_administration_p4":"At the local level, the affairs of the Bahá’í community are administered by the Local Spiritual Assembly. Each Local Assembly consists of nine members who are chosen in annual elections. As with all other elected Bahá’í institutions, the Assembly functions as a body and makes decisions through consultation. The responsibilities of the Local Spiritual Assembly include promoting the spiritual education of children and young people, strengthening the spiritual and social fabric of Bahá’í community life, assessing and utilizing the community’s resources, and ensuring that the energies and talents of community members contribute towards progress.","media_information_administration_p5":"In addition, the Bahá’í Faith has **counsellors**, appointed to five-year terms by the Universal House of Justice, who serve as advisers in countries and regions around the world. Currently there are 90 such counsellors assigned to specific countries or regions, and an additional nine counsellors who constitute the membership of the International Teaching Centre at the Bahá’í World Centre in Haifa.","media_information_administration_p6":"The Bahá’í International Community is a non-governmental organization that represents the worldwide Bahá’í community. It has been registered with the United Nations (UN) as a non-governmental organization since 1948. It currently has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social council (ECOSOC) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), as well as accreditation with the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI). The Bahá’í International Community collaborates with the UN and its specialized agencies, as well as member states, inter- and non-governmental organizations, academia, and practitioners. It has Representative Offices in Addis Ababa, Brussels, Cairo, Geneva, Jakarta, and New York.","media_information_bahai_world_centre_li_4_a":"the Seat of the Universal House of Justice,","media_information_bahai_world_centre_li_4_b":"the International Teaching Centre,","media_information_bahai_world_centre_li_4_c":"the Centre for the Study of the Texts,","media_information_bahai_world_centre_li_4_d":"the International Archives Building.","media_information_bahai_world_centre_p1":"The spiritual and administrative center of the Bahá’í Faith is permanently established in the Acre-Haifa area of northern Israel, following the explicit instructions of Bahá’u’lláh.","media_information_bahai_world_centre_p2":"The burial place, or shrine, of Bahá’u’lláh near Acre and that of the Báb on Mount Carmel in Haifa are the holiest spots on earth for Bahá’ís. Other sites associated with the life of Bahá’u’lláh as well as the burial site of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá are revered by Bahá’ís as holy places.","media_information_bahai_world_centre_p3":"The shrines are the object of pilgrimage for thousands of Bahá’ís each year.","media_information_bahai_world_centre_p4":"The administrative offices are positioned in an Arc across Mount Carmel in Haifa and include:","media_information_bahai_world_centre_p5":"Also in Haifa are the Bahá’í International Community’s Secretariat and Office of Public Information.","media_information_bahai_world_centre_p6":"The Bahá’í World Centre is known for the gardens surrounding the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh near Acre, and also for the gardens and terraces surrounding the golden-domed Shrine of the Báb on Mount Carmel in Haifa.","media_information_bahai_world_centre_p7":"At this time the Shrine of the Báb is open to the public.","media_information_brief_history_p1":"The Bahá’í Faith traces its origin to 1844 and the announcement by a young man, Siyyid ‘Alí-Muhammad, in Shiraz, Persia (now Iran), that He had been sent by God to prepare humanity for a new age and the imminent appearance of another Messenger even greater than Himself.","media_information_brief_history_p10":"During the 40 years of His exile, Bahá’u’lláh revealed a series of books, tablets, and letters that today form the core of the **holy writings of the Bahá’í Faith**. Comprising the equivalent of some 100 volumes, the writings of Bahá’u’lláh describe the nature of God and the purpose of human existence, give new religious laws, and outline a vision for creating a peaceful and prosperous global society.","media_information_brief_history_p11":"In His will, Bahá’u’lláh named His eldest son, ‘Abbás Effendi (1844-1921), as the head of the Bahá’í Faith and authorized interpreter of His teachings. ‘Abbás Effendi, known to Bahá’ís as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (“Servant of Bahá”), became well-known in the Haifa/Acre area for his charitable works, and he also traveled through Europe and North America to encourage nascent Bahá’í communities and to proclaim Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings to the general public. The writings of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá are considered part of the sacred scriptures of the Bahá’í Faith.","media_information_brief_history_p12":"‘Abdu’l-Bahá passed away in 1921. In his will he had designated his grandson **Shoghi Effendi** (1897-1957) as his successor, with the title of **Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith**. During the ministry of Shoghi Effendi, the religion spread around the world, and its local and national administrative institutions were established. With the passing of Shoghi Effendi in 1957, the line of hereditary leaders of the Bahá’í Faith came to an end.","media_information_brief_history_p13":"Following provisions established by Bahá’u’lláh, in 1963 the **Universal House of Justice** was elected to direct the affairs of the worldwide Bahá’í community. The nine members of the Universal House of Justice are elected every five years by the members of the Bahá’í national administrative bodies around the world.","media_information_brief_history_p2":"Siyyid ‘Alí-Muhammad took the title of the **Báb** (meaning “Gate” in Arabic) and said the one whose coming He foretold would be the universal Manifestation of God sent to inaugurate an age of peace and enlightenment as promised in all the world’s religions.","media_information_brief_history_p3":"The Báb’s teachings, which spread rapidly, were viewed as heretical by the clergy and government of Persia. More than 20,000 of His followers, known as Bábís, perished in a series of massacres throughout the country.","media_information_brief_history_p4":"The Báb Himself was publicly executed in the city of Tabriz on 9 July 1850.","media_information_brief_history_p5":"Bahá’ís consider the Báb to be both an independent Messenger of God and the forerunner of **Bahá’u’lláh** (“the Glory of God” in Arabic), who is the founder of the Bahá’í Faith.","media_information_brief_history_p6":"Bahá’u’lláh, whose name was Mírzá Husayn ‘Alí, was born into a noble family in Tehran on 12 November 1817. In His mid-20s, He declined a life of privilege and became one of the leading disciples of the Báb.","media_information_brief_history_p7":"In 1852, in the course of the persecution of the Bábís, He was arrested, beaten, and thrown into an infamous dungeon in Tehran. After four months, He was released and banished from His native land – the beginning of 40 years of exile and imprisonment.","media_information_brief_history_p8":"He was first sent to Baghdad, where He and His companions stayed for 10 years. In 1863, on the eve of His further banishment to what is now Turkey and then to the Holy Land, Bahá’u’lláh announced that He was the Universal Messenger of God foretold by the Báb.","media_information_brief_history_p9":"In 1868, Bahá’u’lláh arrived in the Holy Land with about 70 family members and followers, sentenced by the Ottoman authorities to perpetual confinement in the penal colony of Acre. The order of confinement was never lifted, but because of the growing recognition of His outstanding character, He eventually was able to move outside the walls of the prison city. He lived His final years at a country home called Bahjí, where He passed away in 1892. He was interred there, and His shrine is the holiest place on earth for Bahá’ís.","media_information_description":"Contacts, facts, style guide,\ngeneral information, and photos","media_information_h1":"National and local","media_information_h2":"International","media_information_h2_a":"Bahá’í World News Service","media_information_h2_b":"Bahá’í International Community","media_information_h2_c":"Bahá’í International Community - United Nations Offices:","media_information_h2_e":"For languages other than English:","media_information_houses_worship_li_1":"Wilmette, Illinois, United States. Opened in 1953.","media_information_houses_worship_li_2":"Kampala, Uganda. Opened in 1961.","media_information_houses_worship_li_3":"Sydney, Australia. Opened in 1961.","media_information_houses_worship_li_4":"Frankfurt, Germany. Opened in 1964.","media_information_houses_worship_li_5":"Panama City, Panama. Opened in 1972.","media_information_houses_worship_li_6":"Apia, Samoa. Opened in 1984.","media_information_houses_worship_li_7":"New Delhi, India. Opened in 1986.","media_information_houses_worship_li_8":"Santiago, Chile. Opened in 2016.","media_information_houses_worship_li_9":"Battambang, Cambodia. Opened in 2017.","media_information_houses_worship_li_10":"Norte del Cauca, Colombia. Opened in 2018.","media_information_houses_worship_li_11":"Matunda Soy, Kenya. Opened in 2021.","media_information_houses_worship_li_12":"Tanna, Vanuatu. Opened in 2021.","media_information_houses_worship_li_13":"Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Opened in 2023.","media_information_houses_worship_li_14":"Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. Opened in 2024.","media_information_houses_worship_p1":"Bahá’u’lláh designated Bahá’í Houses of Worship as spiritual gathering places for prayer and meditation around which will cluster social, humanitarian, educational, and scientific institutions. Eight continental, two national, and four local Bahá’í Houses of Worship have been built.","media_information_houses_worship_p2":"The physical structure of a House of Worship comprises a central building—a House of Worship—along with several dependencies. While the House of Worship forms the focal point of worship in a geographical area, its purpose is not solely to provide a place for prayer. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá explained that, through the provision of education, healthcare and other services it is also to support the social and economic progress of the community and afford shelter, relief and assistance to those in need. In this connection, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá anticipated that subsidiary branches—such as a hospital, school, university, dispensary, and hospice—would gradually be added to a House of Worship. Bahá’u’lláh refers to the House of Worship as a Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, Arabic for “dawning place of the mention of God.”","media_information_houses_worship_p3":"Bahá’í Houses of Worship are located in:","media_information_houses_worship_p4":"Plans are underway to build a national House of Worship in Brazil, Canada, and Malawi. A local House of Worship is also being constructed in Batouri, Cameroon; Bihar Sharif, India; Kanchanpur, Nepal; and Mwinilunga, Zambia. At the local level, meetings for worship are held regularly in Bahá’í centers and in the homes of believers all over the world.","media_information_key_terms_facts_h1":"Name of the religion and of the organization – the Bahá’í Faith","media_information_key_terms_facts_h2":"Founder of the Bahá’í Faith – Bahá’u’lláh","media_information_key_terms_facts_h3":"Year of founding – 1844","media_information_key_terms_facts_h4":"Head of the religion – the Universal House of Justice","media_information_key_terms_facts_h5":"Number of Bahá’ís – more than 5 million","media_information_key_terms_facts_h6":"Description of the religion and key beliefs","media_information_key_terms_facts_li_6_a":"the unity of the races and elimination of prejudice,","media_information_key_terms_facts_li_6_b":"the equality of women and men,","media_information_key_terms_facts_li_6_c":"universal education,","media_information_key_terms_facts_li_6_d":"the elimination of extremes of wealth and poverty,","media_information_key_terms_facts_li_6_e":"a spiritual solution to economic problems,","media_information_key_terms_facts_li_6_f":"establishment of a universal auxiliary language,","media_information_key_terms_facts_li_6_g":"the harmony of science and religion,","media_information_key_terms_facts_li_6_h":"the independent investigation of truth,","media_information_key_terms_facts_li_6_i":"the creation of a world commonwealth of nations that will keep the peace through collective security.","media_information_key_terms_facts_p1_a":"The Bahá’í Faith is an independent world religion.","media_information_key_terms_facts_p1_b":"A member is called a Bahá’í (plural: Bahá’ís). It is also correct to say that someone is a “member of the Bahá’í Faith,” a “follower of the Bahá’í Faith,” a “follower of Bahá’u’lláh,” or a member of the Bahá’í community of a given locality.","media_information_key_terms_facts_p1_c":"The term “Bahá’í International Community” refers to the non-governmental organization that represents the worldwide Bahá’í community. It has been registered with the United Nations (UN) as a non-governmental organization since 1948. It currently has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social council (ECOSOC) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), as well as accreditation with the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI). The Bahá’í International Community collaborates with the UN and its specialized agencies, as well as member states, inter- and non-governmental organizations, academia, and practitioners. It has Representative Offices in Addis Ababa, Brussels, Cairo, Geneva, Jakarta, and New York.","media_information_key_terms_facts_p2":"Bahá’ís consider Bahá’u’lláh to be the most recent in a line of great religious teachers, or Messengers of God, that includes Abraham, Buddha, Jesus Christ, Krishna, Muhammad, Moses, Zoroaster, and others. Bahá’u’lláh—the name is Arabic for “Glory of God”—was born in 1817 in Tehran, Iran, and passed away in 1892 in Acre, Israel. The coming of Bahá’u’lláh was announced by the Báb (Arabic for “Gate”), also considered by Bahá’ís to be a divine Messenger.","media_information_key_terms_facts_p3":"There are a number of important dates in the establishment of the Bahá’í Faith, but the first announcement by the Báb of the new religion came in 1844.","media_information_key_terms_facts_p4":"The Universal House of Justice is the international governing council of the Bahá’í community, an elected body of nine men. Its seat is at the Bahá’í World Centre in Haifa, Israel. Around the world, in almost all countries, a National Spiritual Assembly oversees the affairs of the Bahá’í Faith in that country, and Local Spiritual Assemblies oversee local affairs.","media_information_key_terms_facts_p6_a":"The Bahá’í Faith is an independent, monotheistic religion established in virtually every country of the world. Bahá’ís believe that the world’s major religions represent unfolding chapters in God’s teachings for humankind, and that the writings of Bahá’u’lláh represent God’s guidance for this age.","media_information_key_terms_facts_p6_b":"Bahá’u’lláh’s central teaching is the unity of humanity under one God.","media_information_key_terms_facts_p6_c":"Among the many Bahá’í principles are the following:","media_information_key_terms_facts_p7":"For more information, see [Bahai.org](https://www.bahai.org).","media_information_li_a_1":"Phone (office): +972 (4) 835-8412","media_information_li_a_2":"E-mail, for news inquiries: [news@bahai.org](mailto:news@bahai.org)","media_information_li_b_1":"Mr. Saleem Vaillaincourt (London)","media_information_li_b_2":"Senior information officer","media_information_li_b_3":"Phone (office): +1 (212) 803-2544","media_information_li_b_4":"E-mail: [media@bic.org](mailto:media@bic.org)","media_information_li_c_1":"Ms. Bani Dugal (New York)","media_information_li_c_2":"Principal Representative of the Bahá’í International Community to the United Nations","media_information_li_c_3":"Bahá’í International Community","media_information_li_c_4":"Phone: +1 (212) 803-2500","media_information_li_c_5":"After-hours phone: +1 (914) 329-3020","media_information_li_c_6":"E-mail: [uno-nyc@bic.org](mailto:uno-nyc@bic.org)","media_information_li_d_1":"Ms. Simin Fahandej (Geneva)","media_information_li_d_2":"Representative of the Bahá’í International Community to the United Nations","media_information_li_d_3":"Bahá’í International Community","media_information_li_d_4":"Phone: +41 (27) 798-5400","media_information_li_d_5":"After-hours phone: +41 (78) 880-0759","media_information_li_d_6":"E-mail: [geneva@bic.org](mailto:geneva@bic.org)","media_information_li_e_1":"Persian – Simin Fahandej, +41 (27) 798-5400","media_information_li_e_2":"French – Rachel Bayani, +32 (475) 750394","media_information_li_e_3":"To arrange other languages +972 (4) 835-8412","media_information_media_contacts":"Media Contacts","media_information_p1":"Editors, journalists, and other media professionals are encouraged to contact the National Office of the Bahá’ís of their own country. See [National Communities](https://www.bahai.org/national-communities/).","media_information_p2":"BWNS reports on major developments and endeavors of the global Bahá’í community.","media_information_p3":"Information about the Bahá’í Faith is available at [Bahai.org](https://www.bahai.org/)","media_information_p_native":"The website for BWNS is located at [news.bahai.org](https://news.bahai.org/)","media_information_photographs_p1":"To arrange for photographs, you are encouraged to contact the office of the National Spiritual Assembly of the  Bahá’ís of your country. See [National Communities](https://www.bahai.org/national-communities/).","media_information_photographs_p2":"For more information, or for international photographs, contact the Bahá’í World Centre:","media_information_photographs_p3":"Phone: +972 (4) 835-8412  \n            E-mail: [news@bahai.org](mailto:news@bahai.org)","media_information_photographs_p4":"Photographs here may be downloaded and published, with photo credit given to the Bahá’í World Centre. [Terms of use](https://news.bahai.org/legal/).","media_information_photographs_p5":"Additional photos are available through the [Bahá’í Media Bank](https://media.bahai.org/). Images attached to articles in the [Bahá’í World News Service](https://news.bahai.org/) main site may also be downloaded.","media_information_photographs_p6":"Photographs of Bahá’ís imprisoned in Iran are available in the [Iran Update](/human-rights/iran/iran-update/photos.html) section of this Web site.","media_information_sidecontent_h1":"Bahá’ís in Iran","media_information_sidecontent_li":"Updates, background, photos","media_information_statistics_p1":"There are more than 5 million Bahá’ís in the world.","media_information_statistics_p2":"The Bahá’í Faith is established in virtually every country and in many dependent territories and overseas departments of countries. Bahá’ís reside in well over 100,000 localities. About 2,100 indigenous tribes, races, and ethnic groups are represented in the Bahá’í community.","media_information_statistics_p3":"There are currently 188 councils at the national level that oversee the work of communities. A network of over 300 training institutes, offering formal programs of Bahá’í education, span the globe.","media_information_statistics_p4":"Of the several thousand Bahá’í efforts in social and economic development, more than 900 are large-scale, sustained projects, including more than 600 schools and over 70 development agencies.","media_information_statistics_p5":"There are currently 14 Bahá’í Houses of Worship – in Australia, Cambodia, Chile, Colombia, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Germany, India, Kenya, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Uganda, the United States, and Vanuatu. Plans are underway to build a national House of Worship in Brazil, Canada, and Malawi. Local Houses of Worship are also being constructed in Batouri, Cameroon; Bihar Sharif, India; Kanchanpur, Nepal; and Mwinilunga, Zambia. At the local level, meetings for worship are held regularly in Bahá’í centers and in the homes of believers all over the world.","media_information_statistics_p6":"The Bahá’í International Community has been registered with the United Nations as a non-governmental organization since 1948. It currently has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social council (ECOSOC) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), as well as accreditation with the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI). The Bahá’í International Community collaborates with the UN and its specialized agencies, as well as member states, inter- and non-governmental organizations, academia, and practitioners. It has Representative Offices in Addis Ababa, Brussels, Cairo, Geneva, Jakarta, and New York.","media_information_statistics_p7":"Bahá’í writings and other literature have been translated into more than 800 languages.","media_information_statistics_p8":"Each year, around one million people visit the Bahá’í Shrine, terraces, and gardens on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel.","media_information_statistics_p9":"In Iran, where the Bahá’í Faith originated, there are now about 300,000 Bahá’ís, constituting the largest religious minority in that country.","media_information_style_guide_h1":"Pronunciation guide","media_information_style_guide_h2":"Style guide and glossary","media_information_style_guide_p1":"**Bahá’í:**   Ba-HIGH  \n            **Bahá’u’lláh:**   Ba-ha-ul-LAH  \n            **Báb:**   Bahb (Bob)  \n            **‘Abdu’l-Bahá:**   Abdul ba-HAH  \n            **Naw-Rúz:**   Naw Rooz  \n            **Ridván:**   REZ-vahn","media_information_style_guide_p2_1":"**‘Abdu’l-Bahá** (1844-1921) – The son of Bahá’u’lláh who was the head of the Bahá’í Faith from 1892 to 1921. Bahá’u’lláh in His will had designated ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as His successor. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá occupies a special station as the authoritative interpreter of the writings of Bahá’u’lláh and as the perfect example of how a Bahá’í should live. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá traveled widely through Europe and North America from 1911-1913, explaining his Father’s teachings in talks, interviews, and addresses at universities, churches, temples, synagogues, and missions for the poor. (Bahá’ís capitalize pronouns—for example, “He”—that refers to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá out of respect for his special station. Such pronouns are not capitalized in this guide in deference to international journalistic style and also to avoid confusion with Bahá’u’lláh and the Báb, who are considered to be divine Prophets.) For more information, see [Bahai.org](https://www.bahai.org).","media_information_style_guide_p2_10":"**Bahá’í Faith** – The correct term for the religion is the Bahá’í Faith. It is an independent, monotheistic religion established in virtually every country of the world. It is not a sect of another religion. In a list of major religions, it would look like this: Hinduism, Zoroastrianism,  Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, the Bahá’í Faith.","media_information_style_guide_p2_11":"**Bahá’í International Community** – The Bahá’í International Community is a non-governmental organization that represents the worldwide Bahá’í community. It has been registered with the United Nations as a non-governmental organization since 1948. It currently has consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social council (ECOSOC) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), as well as accreditation with the United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP) and the United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI). The Bahá’í International Community collaborates with the UN and its specialized agencies, as well as member states, inter- and non-governmental organizations, academia, and practitioners. It has Representative Offices in Addis Ababa, Brussels, Cairo, Geneva, Jakarta, and New York. For more information, see [bic.org](https://www.bic.org).","media_information_style_guide_p2_12":"**Bahá’í World Centre** – The spiritual and administrative center of the Bahá’í Faith, comprising the holy places in the Haifa/Acre area in northern Israel and the Arc of administrative buildings on Mount Carmel in Haifa. The Bahá’í World Centre itself uses the spelling “Centre”; elsewhere both “Centre” and “Center” are used, depending on the custom of the country.","media_information_style_guide_p2_13":"**Bahá’u’lláh** – The founder of the Bahá’í Faith, who lived from 1817 to 1892, considered by Bahá’ís to be the most recent divine Messenger, or Manifestation of God, in a line of great religious figures that includes Abraham, Buddha, Jesus, Krishna, Moses, Muhammad, Zoroaster, the Báb, and others. Bahá’u’lláh was born in Tehran in present-day Iran, and passed away near Acre, in what is now Israel. “Bahá’u’lláh” is a title that means the “Glory of God” in Arabic; His name was Mírzá Husayn-‘Alí. His writings, which would equal about a hundred volumes, form the basis of the Bahá’í teachings. For more information, see [Bahai.org](http://www.bahai.org).","media_information_style_guide_p2_14":"**Bahjí** – The place near Acre where the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh (His burial place) is located, as well as the mansion that was His last residence and surrounding gardens. It is a place of pilgrimage for Bahá’ís. The word “Bahjí” is Arabic for “delight.”","media_information_style_guide_p2_15":"**children’s classes** – Classes in moral education, open to all, that are provided for children, operated at the community level by the Bahá’í training institute.","media_information_style_guide_p2_16":"**Convention** – See [International Bahá’í Convention](#internationalbahaiconvention) and [National Bahá’í Convention](#nationalbahaicconvention).","media_information_style_guide_p2_18":"**counsellor** – An adviser appointed by the Universal House of Justice who serves in a particular geographic area or at the Bahá’í World Centre in Haifa. At present, there are 90 counsellors assigned to specific countries or regions, and nine counsellors who form the membership of the International Teaching Centre at the  Bahá’í World Centre. Appointments are for five years.","media_information_style_guide_p2_19":"**devotional meetings** – Gatherings, often in people’s homes, for prayers and to read the sacred writings of the Bahá’í Faith and other religions. Usually undertaken as an individual initiative.","media_information_style_guide_p2_2":"**accent marks** – Bahá’í, Bahá’u’lláh, and other names are written with accent marks, but many publications and websites do not have the facility for using such marks.","media_information_style_guide_p2_20":"**fast, the** – A period during which Bahá’ís abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sundown during the Bahá’í month of ‘Alá’, from 2 March to 20 March. Bahá’u’lláh enjoined His followers to pray and fast during this period. The sick, the traveler, and pregnant women, among others, are exempt.","media_information_style_guide_p2_21":"**feast** – See [Nineteen Day Feast](#nineteendayfeast).","media_information_style_guide_p2_22":"**Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith** – See [Shoghi Effendi](#shoghieffendi).","media_information_style_guide_p2_23":"**Haifa** – The city in northern Israel that, along with nearby Acre, is the location of the Bahá’í World Centre. The international administrative buildings of the Bahá’í Faith (including the Seat of the Universal House of Justice), the Shrine of the Báb, and surrounding terraces and gardens are all located on Mount Carmel in the heart of Haifa.","media_information_style_guide_p2_24":"**Holy days** – Eleven days that commemorate significant Bahá’í anniversaries. The nine holy days on which work is suspended are the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh, the Birth of the Báb, Declaration of the Báb, Ascension of Bahá’u’lláh, Martyrdom of the Báb, Naw-Rúz, Ridván (a 12-day festival, of which the first, ninth and 12th days are holy days). The other two holy days are the Day of the Covenant and the Ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. *See names of individual holy days.*","media_information_style_guide_p2_25":"**Holy Land** – The area associated with present-day Israel, which is holy to a number of religions, including to Bahá’ís. The resting places of Bahá’u’lláh near Acre and of the Báb in Haifa are, to Bahá’ís, the holiest spots on earth.","media_information_style_guide_p2_26":"**International Archives Building** – One of the buildings at the Bahá’í World Centre on Mount Carmel in Haifa. The repository of many sacred relics of the Bahá’í Faith, it is visited by thousands of Bahá’í pilgrims each year.","media_information_style_guide_p2_27":"**International Bahá’í Convention** – A gathering every five years of delegates from around the world to consult on the affairs of the Bahá’í Faith and elect the members of the Universal House of Justice. Members of the National Spiritual Assemblies serve as delegates.","media_information_style_guide_p2_28":"**International Teaching Centre** – One of the institutions at the Bahá’í World Centre in Haifa. The International Teaching Centre has nine members, all counsellors appointed by the Universal House of Justice. Appointments are for five years.","media_information_style_guide_p2_29":"**Local Spiritual Assembly** – At the local level, the affairs of the Bahá’í community are administered by the Local Spiritual Assembly. Each Local Assembly consists of nine members who are chosen in annual elections. As with all other elected Bahá’í institutions, the Assembly functions as a body and makes decisions through consultation. The responsibilities of the Local Spiritual Assembly include promoting the spiritual education of children and young people, strengthening the spiritual and social fabric of Bahá’í community life, assessing and utilizing the community’s resources, and ensuring that the energies and talents of community members contribute towards progress.","media_information_style_guide_p2_3":"**Acre**– English rendering of the name of the city north of Haifa where Bahá’u’lláh was exiled in 1868. He lived in or near the city until His passing in 1892. Bahá’ís often use the Arabic name, ‘Akká, which was the name in general use during the time of Bahá’u’lláh. In Hebrew the name is Akko.","media_information_style_guide_p2_30":"**Mount Carmel** – In Haifa, Israel, site of the Bahá’í World Centre, including several Bahá’í holy places, the most important of which is the Shrine of the Báb, and the buildings housing the administrative offices of the Bahá’í World Centre.","media_information_style_guide_p2_31":"**National Bahá’í Convention** – In each country, the annual gathering of elected delegates to discuss the affairs of the Bahá’í Faith in their jurisdiction and to elect the members of the National Spiritual Assembly.","media_information_style_guide_p2_32":"**National Spiritual Assembly** – At the national level, the affairs of the Bahá’í community are administered by the National Spiritual Assembly, a nine-member elected council responsible for guiding, co-ordinating, and stimulating the activities of Local Spiritual Assemblies and individual members of the Bahá’í community within a given country. The responsibilities of a National Spiritual Assembly include channelling the community’s financial resources, fostering the growth and vibrancy of the national Bahá’í community, supervising the affairs of the community including its social and economic development activities and its properties, overseeing relations with government, resolving questions from individuals and Local Spiritual Assemblies, and strengthening the participation of the Bahá’í community in the life of society at the national level.","media_information_style_guide_p2_33":"**Nineteen Day Feast** – An administrative gathering at the local level. The term refers to a spiritual “feast” of prayers,  consultation and fellowship. It is held every 19 days, on the first day of each Bahá’í month.","media_information_style_guide_p2_34":"**pilgrimage** – Each year thousands of Bahá’ís undertake pilgrimage, during which they forge a profound and lasting connection with the spiritual and administrative centre of their Faith, located in the Haifa-Acre area of what is now northern Israel. Bahá’í pilgrims pray and meditate at the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh and the Shrine of the Báb, as well as in the beautiful gardens that surround them. They also draw inspiration from the time spent at various historical sites associated with the lives of Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and Shoghi Effendi, as well as from visits to the edifices dedicated to the worldwide administration of the Bahá’í Faith.","media_information_style_guide_p2_35":"**progressive revelation** – The central belief that Manifestations of God have successively provided the guidance necessary for humanity’s social and spiritual evolution.","media_information_style_guide_p2_36":"**Regional Bahá’í Council** – In some countries, the National Spiritual Assembly assigns certain of its functions to Regional Bahá’í Councils, which serve a designated geographical area within the land in question. The responsibilities of a Regional Council may include carrying out policies of the National Spiritual Assembly, supervising progress of particular plans and projects, and taking steps to stimulate and coordinate the growth of the Bahá’í community within the region.","media_information_style_guide_p2_37":"**Shoghi Effendi** (1897-1957) – The head of the Bahá’í Faith from 1921 to 1957. His title is Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith. He is the grandson of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the great-grandson of Bahá’u’lláh. For more information, see [Bahai.org](https://www.bahai.org).","media_information_style_guide_p2_38":"**Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh** – The resting place of the mortal remains of Bahá’u’lláh, located near the city of Acre in what is now Israel. The shrine is the holiest spot on earth to Bahá’ís and a place of pilgrimage.","media_information_style_guide_p2_39":"**Shrine of the Báb** – The resting place of the mortal remains of the Báb, located on Mount Carmel in Haifa, Israel. It is a sacred site to Bahá’ís and a place of pilgrimage.","media_information_style_guide_p2_4":"**‘Akká, Akko** – See entry above for “[Acre](#acre)”.","media_information_style_guide_p2_40":"**study circles** – A study circle is one of the principal elements of the process of distance education offered by the [Bahá’í training institute](https://www.bahai.org/action/response-call-bahaullah/training-institute). It is a small group that meets regularly to study the institute course materials.","media_information_style_guide_p2_41":"**Universal House of Justice** – The international governing council of the Bahá’í Faith. It is the supreme administrative body ordained by Bahá’u’lláh in His book of laws. The Universal House of Justice is elected every five years at the International Bahá’í Convention, where members of the National Spiritual Assemblies around the world serve as delegates. The Universal House of Justice was first elected in 1963. Its permanent seat is on Mount Carmel in Haifa.","media_information_style_guide_p2_5":"**Arc** – An area on Mount Carmel in Haifa, shaped like an arc, where the major international administrative buildings of the Bahá’í Faith, including the Seat of the Universal House of Justice, are situated.","media_information_style_guide_p2_6":"**Báb** – The title, meaning “Gate,” assumed by Siyyid ‘Ali-Muhammad, the Founder of the Bábí Faith and the Forerunner of Bahá’u’lláh. Considered by Bahá’ís to be one of the twin Manifestations of God associated with the Bahá’í Faith. Born on 20 October 1819, the Báb proclaimed Himself to be the Promised One of Islam and said His mission was to announce the imminent coming of another Messenger even greater than Himself, namely Bahá’u’lláh. Because of these claims, the Báb was executed by firing squad in the public square in Tabriz on 9 July 1850. His remains were hidden in Iran for many years before being taken to Haifa/Acre in 1899 and buried on Mount Carmel in 1909. For more information, see [Bahai.org](http://www.bahai.org).","media_information_style_guide_p2_7":"**Bábí Faith** – The religion founded by the Báb. After 1863 and the announcement by Bahá’u’lláh that He was the Messenger whose coming had been foretold by the Báb, the Bahá’í Faith gradually became established and most followers of the Báb began to call themselves Bahá’ís.","media_information_style_guide_p2_8":"**Badí‘ calendar** – The Bahá’í calendar, consisting of 19 months of 19 days each, with the addition of intercalary days known as Ayyám-i-Há. The number of these intercalary days varies according to the timing of the vernal equinox in the northern hemisphere in successive years. The first day of the year corresponds to the spring equinox. The Bahá’í era (B.E.) begins with 1844, the year of the Báb’s declaration. For more information, see [Bahai.org](https://www.bahai.org/action/devotional-life/calendar).","media_information_style_guide_p2_9":"**Bahá’í** – (1) A noun referring to a member of the Bahá’í Faith. The plural is Bahá’ís. (2) An adjective describing a person, place, or thing related to the Bahá’í Faith. Examples: a Bahá’í book, the Bahá’í community, a Bahá’í holy day, a Bahá’í holy place.","media_reports":"Media Reports","menu":"Menu","meta_description_bwns":"The Bahá’í World News Service - BWNS - The official news source of the worldwide Bahá’í community, reports on major developments and endeavors of the global Bahá’í community.","minutes_short":"min","mobile_app":"Mobile app","national_bahai_communities":"National Bahá’í Communities","news_email":"news@bahai.org","news_service_home":"BWNS Home","no_matches_for":"No matches for","no_results_for":"No results for","number_of":"of","oceania":"Oceania","official_news_site":"Official news source of the worldwide Bahá’í community","one_country":"One Country","other_bahai_sites":"Other Bahá’í Sites","other_sites":"Other sites","other_stories":"Other Stories","overview_section":"Overview of this Section","page_link":"Page link","photographs":"Photographs","photographs_download":"Photographs for download","podcast":"Podcast","podcast_available":"Podcast available","podcast_description_bwns":"Reporting on major developments and endeavors of the global Bahá’í community.","podcast_p1":"The Bahá’í World News Service (BWNS) podcast reports on major developments and endeavors of the global Bahá’í community.","podcast_subscribe":"Subscribe to the BWNS podcast for additional audio content.","print":"Print","privacy":"Privacy","recent_articles":"Recent Articles","recent_headlines":"Recent headlines","recent_media_reports":"Recent media reports","recieve_stories_email":"Receive stories via email","related_stories":"Related Stories","results":"Results","return_top":"Return to top","rss":"RSS","search":"Search","search_bahai_reference_library":"Search the Bahá’í Reference Library","search_bahaiorg":"Search Bahai.org","search_news_service":"Search the News Service","section_shrine_of_abdulbaha_description":"Read reports on the progress","section_shrine_of_abdulbaha_title":"Coverage of Construction Work of the Shrine of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá","see_all":"See All","seven_bahais_leaders":"The Seven Bahá’í Leaders","share":"Share","share_this_article":"Share this article","share_this_page":"Share this page","show_more":"Show more","sign_up":"Sign Up","slideshow":"Slideshow","social_media_name_instagram":"Instagram","social_media_name_instagram_account":"bahaiworldnewsservice","social_media_name_twitter":"Twitter","social_media_name_twitter_account":"bahainews","special_reports":"SPECIAL REPORTS","special_reports_shrine_construction":"Coverage of construction work for the Shrine of ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá","statistics":"Statistics","story_archive":"Story Archive","style_glossary_pronunciation_guide":"Style guide, glossary and pronunciation guide","subscribe":"Subscribe","subscribe-confirmation-message":"Thank you for your interest in Bahá’í World News Service (BWNS)","subscribe-souble-optin-email":"You will receive an email shortly, asking you to confirm your subscription.","subscribe_bot_submission":"This doesn't look like a human submission.","subscribe_check_email":"Please check your email to confirm your subscription!","subscribe_email_exists":"This email already exists! 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Among the participants in that conference was the Baha'i International Community."},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_InlineImageRecord","slideshowImageNumber":2},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"Designed to give support to United Nations efforts to promote religious tolerance, the Declaration specifically affirms that \"every human being has a responsibility to condemn discrimination and intolerance based on religions and belief, and to apply religion or belief in support of human dignity and peace\" and gives recognition to the idea that \"religions and beliefs teach peace and good will.\"\n\n\"The Oslo Declaration creates the obligation to work together for religious freedom, tolerance and mutual respect,\" said Hilde Frafjord Johnsen, Norwegian Minister of International Development, in a speech at the ceremony. \"It represents an important step, also internationally, in the direction of actualizing the United Nations' instruments in this area.\"\n\n\"Just now, in these days we fully see the importance of work for tolerance, equality and respect across old lines of division and conflicts,\" Ms. Johnsen continued. \"Tuesday, the 11th of September, the day that has been burned into our consciousness, has become a turning point. Our task will be to ensure that it becomes a turning point under the sign of reconciliation, and not allow the forces of negativity -- even if they are ever so strong -- to decide which direction our lives and our global community shall take.\"\n\nThe signing ceremony was initiated by the Cooperation Council of Religions and Life-Stance Communities and the Oslo Coalition of Freedom of Religion or Belief. The Baha'i community of Norway has been a member of both groups. The ceremony took place at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters and was observed by more than 100 guests, including officials of the Norwegian government, members of parliament, representatives from some 16 foreign embassies, and representatives of various human rights groups and academic organizations.\n\nIn a speech at the signing ceremony, Anne Sender, a representative of the Jewish Community of Norway, noted that the country's official policies on religion had long been dominated by its acceptance of Christianity as the state religion, but added that today it could not longer isolate itself from international trends.\n\n\"Today, the greatest challenge for religious and ethical communities is precisely the meeting with modernity, with individual freedom, and the great population movements,\" said Ms. Sender, who was also coordinator of the 1998 Oslo Conference. \"In these three main areas, there are subjects so volatile that if they really do explode, it would be a matter of our existence or nonexistence as a society of values.\" We have to place ourselves in a global picture that is based on reality.\"\n\nMembers of the Baha'i community of Norway contributed to the success of the event in a number of ways. Baha'i pianist Trond Schau played as people arrived for the ceremony and Maiken Schau, also a Baha'i, played a flute solo during the signing ceremony itself.\n\nAfter the ceremony, Mr. Gunnar Stalsett, the Bishop of Oslo and president of the Oslo Coalition of Freedom of Religion or Belief, thanked the participants, stating that he would give a copy of the signed protocol to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Kofi Annan, when he comes to Oslo on 10 December to receive the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of the United Nations."}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418991-bwns7595-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Representatives of 25 religions in Norway signed the Oslo Declaration on Freedom of Religion or Belief at a dignified ceremony held at the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters on 8 November 2001."}],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":141,"evergreenUrl":"bahais-issue-statement-on-education-freedom-belief","title":"Baha'is issue statement on education and freedom of belief","description":"The Baha'i International Community presented a statement, entitled \"Belief and Tolerance: Lights Amidst the Darkness,\" for the International...","date":"2001-11-25","customDateline":null,"city":"MADRID","country":"","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1687959778-bwns-default-missing-image-endslate-still-8-1-1.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"The Baha'i International Community presented a statement, entitled \"Belief and Tolerance: Lights Amidst the Darkness,\" for the International Consultative Conference on School Education in relation with Freedom of Religion and Belief, Tolerance and Non-discrimination, a United Nations conference held in Madrid on 23-25 November 2001. The full text of the statement follows below:\n\nThe human spirit must be free to know.  Apprehending who we are, for what purpose we exist, and how we should live our lives, is a basic impulse of human consciousness.  This quest for self-understanding and meaning is the essence of life itself.  The innate and fundamental aspiration to investigate reality is thus a right and an obligation of every human being.  It is for this reason that the Baha'i teachings affirm that the \"conscience of man is sacred and to be respected.\"(1)\n\nTo search for truth--to see with one's \"own eyes and not through the eyes of others\"--is to undertake a process of spiritual discovery with a keen sense of justice and openness.(2)  It is by its very nature a process that is creative and transformative; if pursued with sincerity and fairness, it can bestow upon the seeker of knowledge \"a new eye, a new ear, a new heart, and a new mind.\"(3)  The rational soul is thereby awakened to the capacities of kindness, forbearance, and compassion that lie within it.  Clearly, the human yearning for truth is a power that cannot be shackled, for without the freedom to know, human nature remains the prisoner of instinct, ignorance and desire.\n\nIn the midst of an age convulsed by moral crisis and social disintegration, the need for understanding about who we are as human beings is vital to the achievement of lasting peace and well-being.  Historically, such insight about human existence and behavior has been provided by religion.  Its indispensable function in addressing the universal inclination towards transcendence, and its essential role in civilizing human character throughout the ages, have been central to defining human identity as well as promoting social order.  Through its cultivation of humanity's spiritual nature, religion has ennobled the lives of peoples everywhere and has engendered cohesion and unity of purpose within and across societies.  Religion, in a very real sense, provides the warp and woof of the social fabric--the shared beliefs and moral vision that unite people into communities and that give tangible direction and meaning to individual and collective life.  The right to exercise freedom of conscience in the matters of religion and belief is therefore not only crucial to satisfying the spiritual promptings of the aspiring soul, but to the enterprise of building harmonious and equitable patterns of living.\n\nCoercion in matters of faith vitiates the very principles of religion.  For commitment can only be born of belief that is freely chosen.  The right to freedom of thought, conscience and belief now codified in international human rights instruments directly finds its roots in the scriptures of the world's religions.  This fact should assure each of us that truth need not be feared, as it has many facets and shelters all of our diverse expressions of faith.  If, after all, people of religious faith believe that the Creator is eternal and the center of all existence, then they must also believe that the unfettered and genuine search for truth will lead to truth.\n\nThe elimination of all barriers to the free exploration, acceptance, and expression of religious belief is critical to the objective of creating a universal culture of human rights.  However, to clear the way for a constructive dialogue about the role of religion in establishing social justice, an historical accounting must be taken.  That religion has been responsible for immense suffering cannot be denied.  Much darkness and confusion can be attributed to those who have appropriated the symbols and instruments of religion for their own selfish purposes.  Fanaticism and conflict poison the wells of tolerance and represent corrupt expressions of true religious values.  Consequently, vigilance is necessary in safeguarding the transformative power of religion from the forces of extreme orthodoxy on one hand, and irresponsible freedom on the other.\n\n\"The purpose of religion,\" Baha'u'llah states \"...is to establish unity and concord amongst the peoples of the world; make it not the cause of dissension and strife.\"(4)  In unity--a unity that embraces and honors the full diversity of humankind--all problems can be solved.  When applied on a universal basis, the teaching that we should treat others as we ourselves wish to be treated, an ethic variously repeated in all the great religions, will undoubtedly reveal the salutary power of unity.  The building of a global society based on cooperation, reciprocity, and genuine concern for others is the ultimate expression of unified action.  In short, the core spiritual values held in common by the world's religions contain within them the principal means for the reconciliation and advancement of the earth's peoples.  Through these values and the commitment they inspire, \"Minds, hearts and all human forces are reformed, perfections are quickened, sciences, discoveries and investigations are stimulated afresh, and everything appertaining to the virtues of the human world is revitalized.\"(5)\n\nIn order to play its part in overcoming the prejudices and suspicions now afflicting the world's faith communities, religious leadership must devote attention to these commonly shared spiritual precepts rather than doctrinal differences or claims of exclusivity.  Let each religion demonstrate its capacity to guide the world's inhabitants to peaceful coexistence, moral rectitude and mutual understanding, rather than spreading enmity, fear and intolerance.  The recent trend toward interfaith dialogue around the globe offers a positive example of how disparate communities can work together to broaden vision and shape public discourse in a unifying way.  Religious leaders are uniquely placed to draw attention to the potentialities and promise of the present moment in human affairs, and challenge all key societal players to action.  Increasing interchange among spiritual leaders and their followers, especially children, will no doubt lead to new understandings of what is possible for human beings and how peaceful patterns of collective life can be nurtured.  \"Shut your eyes to estrangement, then fix your gaze upon unity,\" is Baha'u'llah's counsel.  \"Cleave tenaciously unto that which will lead to the well-being and tranquillity of all mankind. This span of earth is but one homeland and one habitation.\"(6)\n\nFor the global Baha'i community, the protection of human freedoms is part of a larger spiritual undertaking of fostering a set of attitudes and practices that truly release human potential.  Genuine social progress, it believes, can only flow from spiritual awareness and the inculcation of virtue.  From this perspective, the task of creating a universal ethos of tolerance is intimately bound up with a process of moral and spiritual development.\n\nEducation, then, emerges as an indispensable tool--a tool of active moral learning.  To accomplish the broad objectives of ensuring the \"full development of the human personality and the sense of its dignity\" and promoting \"understanding, tolerance and friendship among all nations, racial, ethnic or religious groups,\" education must strive to develop an integrated set of human capabilities--intellectual, artistic, social, moral and spiritual.(7)  There is no other way to raise up positive social actors who are builders of amity and agents of service and probity.  \"Regard man as a mine rich in gems of inestimable value,\" Baha'u'llah urges, \"Education can, alone, cause it to reveal its treasures, and enable mankind to benefit therefrom.\"(8)  These \"treasures\" must be consciously developed because even though nobility, goodness and beauty are innate aspects of our nature, human beings can fall prey to inclinations that corrupt the inner self and quench the light of love.\n\nEducational curricula cannot therefore be solely concerned with the knowledge of physical and social phenomena, but must also be directed toward the goal of moral and spiritual empowerment.  As a consequence of the deep connection between individual and social well-being, programs of education need to instill in every child a two-fold moral purpose.  The first relates to the process of personal transformation--of intellectual, material and spiritual growth.  The second concerns the complex challenge of transforming the structures and processes of society itself.  To pursue this dual purpose of individual and collective transformation, specific moral capabilities must be developed.  The capabilities of a moral person encompass the concepts, values, attitudes, and skills that enable the person to make appropriate moral choices and to promote creative and cooperative patterns of human interaction.(9) Underpinning all such capabilities is a commitment to discover and apply truth in every domain of human endeavor.  Since moral behavior is a concrete expression of humanity's spiritual nature, moral education efforts should draw in a systematic way on both the methods of science and the insights of religion.\n\nAn integral feature of any educational initiative having a moral and spiritual focus must be the notion of the oneness and interdependence of the human race.  Oneness and diversity are complementary and inseparable.  That human consciousness necessarily operates through an infinite diversity of individual minds and motivations detracts in no way from its essential unity.  Indeed, it is precisely an inhering diversity that distinguishes unity from homogeneity or uniformity.  Hence, acceptance of the concept of unity in diversity implies the development of a global consciousness, a sense of world citizenship, and a love for all of humanity.  It induces every individual to realize that, since the body of humankind is one and indivisible, each member of the human race is born into the world as a trust of the whole and has a responsibility to the whole.  It further suggests that if a peaceful international community is to emerge, then the complex and varied cultural expressions of humanity must be allowed to develop and flourish, as well as to interact with one another in ever-changing patterns of civilization.  \"The diversity in the human family,\" the Baha'i writings emphasize, \"should be the cause of love and harmony, as it is in music where many different notes blend together in the making of a perfect chord.\"(10)\n\nThe rich religious heritage of humankind can also be viewed through the lens of unity.  Baha'u'llah states:  \"There can be no doubt whatever that the peoples of the world, of whatever race or religion, derive their inspiration from one heavenly Source, and are the subjects of one God.\"(11) The world's religions can thus be seen to be one in their nature and purpose with each being a wellspring of knowledge, energy and inspiration.  They each have served to unlock a wider range of capacities within human consciousness and society--a process that has impelled the human race toward moral and spiritual maturity.  Accordingly, curricula exploring the history and teachings of religion may wish to highlight the complementary aims and functions of the world's faith systems as well as the theological and moral threads that link them.  In this regard, the right to investigate religion and the spiritual roots of human motivation can be understood to be a vital element of an integrating framework of collaboration and conciliation.\n\nThe promotion of tolerance and mutual understanding among the diverse segments of the human family cannot be a passive or rhetorical exercise.  All forms of provincialism, all insularities and prejudices must be directly confronted.  It is unfortunately the case that religious prejudice is a particularly virulent influence that continues to block human progress.  Overcoming its corrosive effects will require deliberate and sustained effort.  Toward this end, innovative and substantive programs of education are essential.  But so too is an attitude of true humility among all those who believe in a loving and almighty Creator.\n\nLet us be assured, and let it be communicated to the world's children, that it is possible to both tread the path of religious faith and to be tolerant.  Civilization's future course depends on it.  In the words of Baha'u'llah, \"observe tolerance and righteousness, which are two lights amidst the darkness of the world and two educators for the edification of mankind.\"(12)\n\n1. 'Abdu'l-Baha, A Traveller's Narrative (Wilmette:  Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1980), p. 91.\n\n2. Baha'u'llah, The Hidden Words (Wilmette:  Baha'i  Publishing Trust, 1985), p. 4.\n\n3. Baha'u'llah, The Kitab-i-Iqan (Wilmette: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1983), p. 196.\n\n4. Tablets of Baha'u'llah revealed after the Kitab-i-Aqdas  (Wilmette: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1988), p. 129.\n\n5. 'Abdu'l-Baha, The Promulgation of Universal Peace  (Wilmette: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1995), p. 278.\n\n6. Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 67.\n\n7. Article 13 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.\n\n8. Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah (Wilmette: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1983), p. 260.\n\n9. The educational philosophy of Nuúr University, the second largest private institution of higher learning in Bolivia and Baha'i-inspired, is largely based on this idea of moral capabilities.\n\n10. 'Abdu'l-Baha, Paris Talks,  (London: Baha'i Publishing Trust, 1972), p. 53.\n\n11. Gleanings from the Writings of Baha'u'llah, p 217.\n\n12. Tablets of Baha'u'llah, p. 36."}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":140,"evergreenUrl":"bahai-inspired-ngo-receives-grant-vocational-training-amazon","title":"Baha'i-inspired NGO receives grant for vocational training in the Amazon","description":"As part of a government program to reduce unemployment, a Baha'i-inspired development organization in the Amazon basin has received a major grant...","date":"2001-11-16","customDateline":null,"city":"MANAUS","country":"BRAZIL","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1687959778-bwns-default-missing-image-endslate-still-8-1-1.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":" As part of a government program to reduce unemployment, a Baha'i-inspired development organization in the Amazon basin has received a major grant from the Brazilian Ministry of Education to expand its vocational education program here, with the goal of offering courses to more than 4,000 students per year by 2006.\n\nThe grant, equivalent to some US$850,000, will allow the Associacao para o Desenvolvimento Coesivo da Amazonia (ADCAM) [Association for the Cohesive Development of Amazon] to build and equip a three-story technical education building on its 12-acre property in the Sao Jose suburb of Manaus. Construction is scheduled to begin in December, leading to completion of the building in July 2002.\n\n\"This is a major expansion of vocational training opportunities in the region, which is greatly needed because of the high level of unemployment in the Amazon basin, especially among young people,\" said Ferial Sami Farzin, general director of ADCAM. \"Our goal is to strive to improve the quality of life and release the potential of the rural population so that they become leaders in the vanguard in support of their own development.\"\n\nUnder the terms of the grant contract, 50 percent of the money will be used for construction and the other 50 percent will be used to fit the building with equipment -- such as computers, chairs, tables, instruments, and blackboards. ADCAM will shoulder all operating costs, relying on tuition fees and voluntary contributions for its funding. Under the terms of the contract, as well, at least 50 percent of the students will receive full scholarships.\n\nThe new building will be known as the Masrour Technology Institute. Current plans call for the building to include the following laboratories: design, computer, air- conditioning, language, music, ceramic, textile, chemical, environmental, electronic, and esthetic. The building will have a total floor space of 2,800 square meters.\n\nInitially, courses will be offered in business management, social development facilitation, and environmental technology. By 2003, courses in design, nutrition and air conditioning technology will be added, as the teaching staff is expanded. A number of shorter, basic-level modular courses, in similar subjects, will also be offered.\n\nBy offering courses in the morning, afternoon and evening, the Institute hopes to make maximum use of the facility, offering as many sessions as possible. By 2006, the Institute expects to have a full complement of staff, with the capacity to serve approximately 640 students per year in the main subjects, and another 4,350 per year in the shorter, basic-level courses.\n\n\"ADCAM serves disadvantaged people who, for the most part, would be without any aid, education or social services if this development project did not exist,\" said Ms. Farzin. \"It is located in the midst of one of the poorest neighborhoods in Manaus, serving people who would have no other opportunity to develop their innate capacities if this project wasn't placed in this region.\"\n\nEstablished 16 year ago, ADCAM's first project was an orphanage. With a mandate to operate following Baha'i principles, ADCAM soon added other programs focused on helping the young people of Manaus. Currently, ADCAM operates three major programs: an elementary school, a youth leadership project, and a supervised youth service project. These programs currently serve more than 700 youth.\n\n\"In all of our programs, the overriding goal is to balance material instruction with individual spiritual and moral education in order to help the people of the Amazon develop their innate capacities and become self-sustaining in their social and economic development,\" said Ms. Farzin. \"We strive to fit these programs into a context of the needs of the region, based on our long experience with other organizations here, while at the same time following Baha'i principles in our operation and activities.\"\n\nThe grant contract was signed at a ceremony on 21 September 2001 at the seat of the Ministry of Education in Brasilia. Present were various federal and state authorities, including Brazil's Minister of Education, Professor Paulo Renato.\n\nADCAM was represented by Ms. Farzin and invited guests Carlos Alberto Silva, representing the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Brazil, and Guitty Milani, representing the Masrour Association, a donor for the project in Manaus.\n\nMs. Farzin added that the Institute will expand its staff considerably in the next few years and she said she hoped that Baha'is around the world with appropriate backgrounds will apply to offer service at the Institute.\n\nMore information on ADCAM is available at http://www.bahai.org/article-1-8-1-24.html."}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":139,"evergreenUrl":"bahais-participate-interreligious-dialogue-on-faith-ecology","title":"Baha'is participate in interreligious dialogue on faith and ecology","description":"Reflecting the increasing Baha'i involvement in interfaith dialogue and consultation about major social issues, the Baha'i view on the environment...","date":"2001-09-06","customDateline":null,"city":"CINCINNATI","country":"","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1687959778-bwns-default-missing-image-endslate-still-8-1-1.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":" Reflecting the increasing Baha'i involvement in interfaith dialogue and consultation about major social issues, the Baha'i view on the environment was presented at an interreligious conference on religion and ecology at Xavier University in September.\n\nHeld 5-6 September 2001, the Symposium on Religion and Ecology was the first major program of the Brueggeman Center for Interreligious Dialogue, which was inaugurated last year.\n\nThe program included the presentation of Christian, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish and Native American perspectives on the environment and its relationship to religious faith.\n\nThe Baha'i presentation was made by Dr. Roxanne Lalonde, faculty lecturer in the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Alberta in Edmonton, Canada, and Mr. Peter Adriance, liaison with non-governmental organizations for the National Spiritual Assembly in its Office of External Affairs in Washington.\n\nIn a joint presentation, Dr. Lalonde spoke on the spiritual principles underlying the Baha'i approach to the environment, while Mr. Adriance spoke about Baha'i efforts internationally to advance those principles.\n\nIn her presentation, Dr. Lalonde noted that the Baha'i Writings speak of nature as a reflection of the Divine and see all life as interconnected and interdependent. The Baha'i teachings uphold principles of moderation, humility and respect for ecological balance.\n\n\"The Baha'i vision of a civilization that extends thousands of years into the future implies that human beings have a profound responsibility for stewardship of God's creation,\" Dr. Lalonde said, adding that a global vision is essential to carry out such stewardship.\n\nShe noted that the Baha'i teachings clearly make humanity's acceptance of the principle of the oneness of the human family a prerequisite for achieving sustainable development, citing Baha'u'llah's injunction: \"The well- being of mankind, its peace and security are unattainable, unless and until its unity is firmly established.\"\n\nMr. Adriance's presentation focused on three examples of Baha'i efforts internationally to advance such spiritual principles: Baha'i involvement in the '92 Earth Summit; Baha'i contributions toward the development of the Earth Charter; and the application of conservation measures in the Baha'i gardens and terraces on Mt. Carmel.\n\n\"During preparations for the Earth Summit, the Baha'i International Community issued numerous official statements advancing spiritual principles, and it initiated projects that conveyed those principles in different ways,\" said Mr. Adriance, referring to the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development, held in Rio de Janeiro.\n\nThe projects sponsored by the Baha'i International Community at the Earth Summit included a symposium on leadership qualities for a sustainable civilization, a book of children's art and essays on the future, a Peace Monument and a series of unifying cultural events at the '92 Global Forum, a gathering of non-governmental organizations held during the summit.\n\nMr. Adriance also said that the Baha'i representatives contributed to the development of the Earth Charter - a statement of ethics for living sustainably on Earth, and an expected product of the '92 Summit.\n\n\"Determining the content of the Earth Charter evolved into a decade-long consultative process,\" Mr. Adriance said. \"During that process, the principles of consultation often helped foster a sense of unity among the diverse participants. When the final Earth Charter was released in early 2000, many principles important to the Baha'is were reflected in the document.\"\n\nMr. Adriance also clarified the Baha'i position on the Charter. \"While not officially endorsing the Earth Charter, the Baha'i International Community considers the effort toward drafting it and activities in support of its essential objectives to be highly commendable, and it will continue to participate in related activities, such as conferences, forums and the like,\" he noted.\n\nThe last section of Mr. Adriance's talk focused on the newly completed Baha'i gardens and terraces in Haifa, Israel. In addition to addressing the practical measures associated with the development of the gardens and terraces - such as water conservation, organic planting methods, reduction of pesticide and herbicide use and related educational components - Mr. Adriance emphasized the spiritual purpose of the gardens in preparing pilgrims and visitors to approach one of the holiest sites to Baha'is.\n\nHis presentation included a series of images of the widely praised results of the project. The audience expressed great enthusiasm with the way the gardens reflected a dynamic balance between the practical and the spiritual.\n\nAt the end of his talk, on behalf of the National Spiritual Assembly Mr. Adriance presented a coffee table book of photographs of the new garden terraces, published by the Haifa Tourist Board, to Father Joseph Bracken, Director of the Brueggeman Center.\n\nBaha'i participation in the symposium was facilitated by the efforts of Faramarz Samadany, a member of the Cincinnati Baha'i community and a Trustee of the Brueggeman Center. One of the Center's inaugural events was a 1999 millennium peace gathering that drew an audience of more than 8,000. A Baha'i Youth Workshop performed a dance on the unity of religions at that event.\n\nThe Brueggeman center is named after a Xavier faculty member known for promoting understanding among Catholics, Protestants, Muslims and Jews. \"By bringing together diverse faith groups the Center is able to benefit from a range of views in seeking solutions to the human and environmental challenges facing humanity,\" noted Father Bracken.\n\nIn recent years, the Baha'i International Community has participated in a number of major interfaith events on social issues, ranging from the Summit on Religions and Conservation, held in 1995 at Windsor Castle, UK, to the World Faiths Development Dialogue, sponsored by the World Bank."}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":138,"evergreenUrl":"in-switzerland-landegg-international-university-passes-an-important-milestone-winning-new-level-recognition-from-gove","title":"In Switzerland, Landegg International University passes an important milestone, winning a new level of recognition from the Gove","description":"Although an African herself, Njeri Mwagiru was turned off by brochures from top universities in the United States and Canada that touted special...","date":"2001-10-14","customDateline":null,"city":"WIENACHT","country":"SWITZERLAND","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1687959778-bwns-default-missing-image-endslate-still-8-1-1.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":" Although an African herself, Njeri Mwagiru was turned off by brochures from top universities in the United States and Canada that touted special clubs for Africans, Indians and other major ethnic and racial groups.\n\n\"There just seemed to be a lot of separation on those campuses,\" said the 20-year-old Kenya native, discussing her decision to come instead to Landegg International University, a Baha'i-inspired institution of higher learning in the foothills of the Swiss Alps. \"It seemed to me that things were designed so that people of different cultures could stay apart.\"\n\n\"But here at Landegg, the emphasis is on having people of different cultures get together -- and that is what I was looking for.\"\n\nEntering her third year in Landegg's Bachelor of Arts program, Ms. Mwagiru is happy with her choice -- a choice made somewhat venturesome by the fact that Landegg's degree programs are only five years old.\n\nBut she has indeed found the kind of unity amidst diversity that she was seeking, and Ms. Mwagiru also believes she is receiving a topflight education, one with a distinctive approach.\n\n\"It aims to combine various disciplines of study so that they make more sense and the education is more applicable to life,\" said Ms. Mwagiru, enrolled in a program that brings together the fields of psychology, human development and education.\n\n\"And it has delivered everything in terms of the education I expected,\" she continued. \"We have lots of contact with the professors and many in-depth discussions. The school has a general belief in the uniqueness of the individual -- and at the same time the unity of all.\"\n\nMs. Mwagiru's description of her experience at Landegg quite accurately matches the university's stated goals, which are to develop and practice a new \"integrative\" approach to education that combines modern scientific thinking with spiritual and ethical values in a way that meets the needs of an interdependent and global civilization.\n\n\"Our curriculum seeks to make sure that the students not only receive the latest academic and scientific information about what they are studying, but that they will also be exposed to the various ethical considerations that pertain to it -- and that they will then learn how to apply it in the real world,\" said Hossain Danesh, president of Landegg.\n\nOn 20 September 2001, Landegg received an important new level of recognition for its approach, when it was formally registered by the cantonal and federal authorities as a private university in Switzerland. To achieve that, the university had to meet the rigorous criteria set by the government at both the canton and federal levels.\n\n\"One of the most significant implications of Landegg's new status is that the Swiss Government has recognized the legitimacy of an approach to education that is global in reach and that has as its basis the idea of applied spirituality within a framework of integrated studies,\" said Michael Penn, who served as vice rector at Landegg from 1998-2000 and is currently an affiliate professor.\n\n\"It is a recognition of the idea that an institution of higher learning can, in an academically rigorous way, apply principles of ethics to the interrogation of social problems in the world,\" said Dr. Penn, who is professor of psychology at Franklin and Marshall University in Pennsylvania, USA.\n\nLandegg is also winning recognition in other important ways. A high percentage of its graduate students have gone on to prestigious doctoral programs at universities like Stanford and Cambridge. And it has launched a major peace education project in Bosnia and Herzegovina that is winning high praise from government officials.\n\nA Gradual Evolution\n\nLandegg's evolution into a full-fledged university has been a gradual process. Located on some 31 acres on a hillside overlooking Lake Constance in the rustic Swiss village of Wienacht, Landegg International University was previously known as Landegg Academy, and it was used primarily as a conference center.\n\nIn that role, Landegg was the venue of a number of significant meetings, including a series of \"International Dialogues on the Transition to a Global Society.\" The first such Dialogue was held in September 1990 and included the participation of Federico Mayor, then UNESCO's Director- General; Karan Singh, a leading Indian author and diplomat; and Bertrand Schneider, then secretary-general of the Club of Rome.\n\nIn addition to such high-level gatherings, Landegg was also host to a number of international programs, focusing on peace and world order studies for young people.\n\nCurrently comprising some nine buildings, the campus was originally built as a holiday retreat in the 19th century. The campus was acquired by a Baha'i family in 1982 and the properties were donated to a newly established Landegg International Baha'i Foundation, operating under the aegis of the Baha'i community of Switzerland, which undertook the renovation of its main buildings and established it as a conference center.\n\nIn the mid-1990s, the Foundation decided that Landegg's role as a center of learning should become formalized, and Landegg's functions were transferred to an independent board, whose charter states that the university will be operated as an independent university, directed by an international governing board. Among the most important responsibilities of the board is to ensure the academic excellence and independence of the university.\n\nIn September 1997, Landegg formally inaugurated a new program of graduate studies, offering a Master of Arts Degree in eight areas, including conflict resolution, psychology, education, and religion. In 1998, Landegg began to offer undergraduate degrees as well and by 2000, the school began seeking formal recognition as a university.\n\nOver the years, Landegg has opened active scholarly exchange programs with a number of universities worldwide, including the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Beijing University in China, the State University of Sergipe in Brazil, and the University of Wisconsin at Oshkosh, in the USA.\n\nCurrently, Landegg offers undergraduate degrees in four areas: economics and international development; political science and international relations; psychology, human development and education; and the integrative study of religion. Students may also design their own area of concentration, with the guidance of the academic office, from among courses offered.\n\nGraduate degrees are offered in six areas: consultation and conflict resolution, moral education, applied ethics, the integrative study of religion, leadership and management, and spiritual psychology. A certificate program in Information Technology has also been launched this year.\n\nThe way in which areas of degree concentration combine fields of study across various disciplines gives but a glimpse of how the school seeks to provide an integrative approach.\n\nThe cornerstone of that integrative approach, Dr. Danesh explained, is to first study all of the relevant theories and models that currently exist in a given field. Professors and students themselves are then encouraged to create a new model, based on the new insights into human nature and those universal ethical and spiritual principles that are present in the spiritual and philosophical heritage of humanity, and to see if such a model can have a practical application.\n\n\"For example, if we are studying conflict resolution, we first study all of the different theories and models of conflict resolution,\" said Dr. Danesh. \"And we keep them. But we have also developed our own model, which we call 'conflict-free conflict resolution.'\" [CFCR]\n\nThe new CFCR model, Dr. Danesh said, does not accept that conflict or aggression is necessarily an inevitable feature of human nature. \"Rather, our new theory suggests that conflict is a reflection of the different stages in human development and evolution and that it reflects the absence of unity,\" said Dr. Danesh, whose own work in psychology and spirituality has helped to lay the foundations for the new model.\n\nDr. Danesh said the theory of conflict-free conflict resolution indicates that the best way to overcome conflict is by seeking higher and higher levels of unity.\n\nBased on the CFCR model, Landegg has developed a subsidiary program, called \"Education for Peace,\" which seeks to help war-torn communities incorporate peace education into the standard public school curriculum. Currently, Education for Peace (EFP) operates a pilot project in six schools in three different communities in Bosnia-Herzegovina, reaching some 6,000 students.\n\nGlobal Campus\n\nAlthough the Landegg campus is relatively small, with a current capacity of approximately 100 full-time, on-campus students, its reach is global. At any given time, only about one third of the school's students are on campus. The rest study from afar, using an array of distance-learning technologies but principally email and the World Wide Web.\n\nThe global diversity of the student body is another hallmark of the Landegg experience. For example, the 30- some young people in the undergraduate program come from 20 different countries. The graduate student population of approximately 120 students is as diverse.\n\n\"We have students from countries as diverse as Mongolia, Russia, the United States, Venezuela, Canada and China,\" said Graham Hassall, associate dean of undergraduate studies. \"This is one of the wonderful things about Landegg, the global nature of our very small campus.\"\n\nNyambura Mwagiru, 21, Njeri's sister, said she also felt one of the best things about Landegg is the global diversity of its student body. \"Just being able to sit down and talk with people from so many different places is one of the best things about Landegg,\" said Nyambura, who, like her sister, is in the psychology, human development and education program. \"We learn from each other, and have time to reflect and grow.\"\n\nNyambura said she was on her way to King's College in London when she stopped with her sister to visit Landegg. She was so taken with the atmosphere that she stayed, even though it meant giving up on a degree from a school that is much better known around the world.\n\n\"It was a big decision but I don't believe I made the wrong decision,\" said Nyambura. \"It is exciting to be part of something that is growing and that is so different.\"\n\nThe faculty of Landegg is similarly global in its diversity. Of its more than 70 professors, many who are affiliated with other colleges and universities around the world, only about 10 are on campus at a given time. Nevertheless, the ability to draw on well-respected academics from more than 20 countries contributes greatly to the internationalism of the educational process at Landegg.\n\nThe school has also had a surprising degree of success in placing its graduates. Although only about 30 students have so far received graduate degrees from Landegg, a number have gone on to prestigious graduate programs.\n\nJenni Menon of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, for example, has been accepted this year into a doctoral studies in psychology and education at Stanford University in the USA; Tania Sargent of Zimbabwe is currently in her second year at the Graduate School of Education at the University of Pennsylvania in the USA; and Mieko Bond went on to do a master's degree in criminology at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom.\n\n\"Landegg was instrumental in helping me get into my current PhD program,\" said Ms. Menon, who received an MA in Moral Education from Landegg earlier this year. She cited two key factors in Stanford's acceptance: her experience as one of the coordinators in the pilot phase of the Education for Peace project in Bosnia and, second, the \"close, caring and thoughtful attention and advice\" she received from her professors at Landegg.\n\n\"As a student at Landegg I feel I was simultaneously exposed to a rigorous theoretical and practical service- oriented type of learning,\" said Ms. Menon. \"Of course, many universities promote this theoretical-practical approach to learning, but a unique aspect of Landegg is that this approach occurs through an effort to integrate the scientific and the ethical/moral and spiritual aspects of knowledge and investigation. I think that this unique integrative approach sounded appealing to Stanford, indicating to me that [they] are seeking fresh approaches.\"\n\nMs. Sargent likewise feels her experience at Landegg contributed greatly to her acceptance as a PhD candidate at the University of Pennsylvania last year.\n\n\"It is quite a hard school to get into,\" said Ms. Sargent, who finished her course work at Landegg towards an MA in moral education a year ago. \"And I think one reason I was accepted was some of the academic writing I had done at Landegg.\" She wrote a paper entitled \"Cultivating the Chinese Intelligence: Costs and Benefits of Chinese Achievement Motivation,\" which she believes was critical in her U Penn application.\n\n\"I was still very surprised when I was accepted and given a good scholarship offer,\" said Ms. Sargent. \"Some people used to ask me, 'Why are you going to such a new school, don't you need to get real credentials?' But getting an MA from Landegg obviously doesn't hinder you from going somewhere else.\"\n\nMs. Bond likewise found that some of her friends questioned her decision to go to Landegg to get a master's degree in conflict resolution in 1996. \"They would say, 'Will it be recognized by an established university? Will it look good on your CV?,'\" said Ms. Bond, who is currently pursuing a PhD at the University of Manchester. \"But I thought it would be an exciting place to study. And in the end, I did end up at Cambridge. So now my friends have changed their minds.\""}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":137,"evergreenUrl":"worldwide-bahai-communities-respond-terrorist-attacks-u-s-with-prayers-offers-service","title":"Worldwide, Baha'i communities respond to terrorist attacks in the U.S. with prayers and offers of service","description":"At the international, national and local levels, Baha'i communities around the world responded to last month's terrorist attacks in the United...","date":"2001-10-01","customDateline":null,"city":"NEW YORK","country":"","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1687959778-bwns-default-missing-image-endslate-still-8-1-1.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":" At the international, national and local levels, Baha'i communities around the world responded to last month's terrorist attacks in the United States with prayers, voluntary acts of service, donations and messages of condolence.\n\nMany of the world's 182 Baha'i National Spiritual Assemblies issued statements, messages of condolence, and calls for prayer meetings.\n\nIn New York City itself, some members of the local Baha'i community rushed to the site of the World Trade Center complex and offered help. Several individuals donated time working in restaurants to help prepare food for rescue workers. Other Baha'is donated blood or items like clothing or food.\n\nBaha'is in all four boroughs of New York City held prayer services immediately after the attack. The New York Baha'i Center, which is located on 11th Street, was inaccessible to the general public for much of the week because it is below 14th Street, in the area cordoned off by police. However, by Friday, 14 September, that area was opened and the community sponsored a service at the Center as part of a national day of prayer and mourning.\n\nOn the same day, in cities large and small, thousands of Baha'is in hundreds of communities gathered to pray, light candles, and remember the thousands of people who died in the attacks. In the Baha'i House of Worship for North America, located outside of Chicago, 800 people gathered on Friday for a noon prayer service."}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":135,"evergreenUrl":"bahai-community-uganda-celebrates-its-50th-anniversary","title":"Baha'i Community of Uganda celebrates its 50th anniversary","description":"In a week-long celebration that opened to the joyous beat of African drums -- and which went on to feature a statement by Ugandan President Yoweri...","date":"2001-08-05","customDateline":null,"city":"KAMPALA","country":"UGANDA","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418932-bwns4706-0.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ImageRecord","image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418932-bwns4706-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Mr. Ali Nakhjavani (third from left) speaks with Captain Michael Mukula, Uganda's State Minister for Health, at a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Baha’i community of Uganda held 2 August 2001 at the Baha’i House of Worship near Kampala. Mr. Nakhjavani, a member of the Universal House of Justice, was one of the six Baha’is who founded the Baha’i community in Uganda in 1951. (Photo: Ryan Lash)","imageStyle":"body-right","imageLink":""}],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"In a week-long celebration that opened to the joyous beat of African drums -- and which went on to feature a statement by Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, the Ugandan Baha'i community commemorated in early August the 50th anniversary of its founding.\n\nThe Ugandan Baha'i community was established on 2 August 1951 when a small group of Baha'is from Great Britain and Iran arrived in Uganda with the intention of bringing the teachings of the Baha'i Faith to people here.\n\nThe principles of unity and social progress offered by the Faith soon won acceptance from individuals in every region of the country and most of the major tribal groups. Within two years the community had expanded to nearly 300 members in some 25 localities who represented 20 tribes.\n\nToday, the Baha'i Faith has an estimated 105,000 members in Uganda, organized into some 200 local governing councils and established in more than 2,800 localities. Its members represent virtually every tribal and religious background.\n\n\"You will find we have Baha'is in all regions of the country, in the western, northern, eastern, southern and central regions of Uganda,\" said George Olinga, Director of External Affairs for the Baha'i Community of Uganda. \"And you will find that the diversity of all Uganda is clearly seen in the Baha'i community and in our activities.\"\n\nPraise for the Faith's record of promoting harmony and development in a country that has often been divided by tribalism was a main message of President Museveni's statement, which was read on 2 August 2001 by Captain Michael Mukula, State Minister for Health, before a crowd of some 2,000 people at the Baha'i House of Worship in Kampala.\n\n\"In Uganda we are constantly fighting against ethnic and religious sectarianisms and our politics was played out and polarized along those major fault lines for a very long time,\" wrote President Museveni, explaining that his government has sought to \"bring all the people together irrespective of their faith, race, color or ethnicity.\""},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_InlineImageRecord","slideshowImageNumber":2},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"\"We have been doing what you in the Baha'i Faith began to do a long time ago,\" President Museveni stated in prepared remarks. \"Yours is a very useful message and can contribute greatly to nation building.\"\n\nPresident Museveni's statement went on to highlight the need to fight the evils of corruption and the necessity of reducing poverty -- goals which he said he and his government share with the Baha'i community.\n\nPresident Museveni also said his government shares a commitment to bring about equality between women and men. \"I appeal to members of the Baha'i Faith, who hold the equality of rights and opportunities for women and men as an act of faith and as their basic principle, to join in our crusade for the empowerment of women,\" stated President Museveni.\n\nAmong other highlights of the week-long celebration, which began on 31 July in Kampala and ended on 5 August in Tilling, Kumi District, in Eastern Uganda, were the presence of four of the six founding members of the community, the attendance of various officials in the Ugandan government, and extensive coverage of the celebration in the Ugandan media.\n\nAmong the founding members of the community in attendance was Mr. 'Ali Nakhjavani, who is currently a member of the Universal House of Justice, the international governing body of the Baha'i Faith. He spoke at several events during the week, on the theme of \"The Spiritual Destiny of Africa.\"\n\nBefore some 2,500 people on 5 August in Tilling, for example, Mr. Nakhjavani said that when he came to Uganda in 1951, the Faith was like \"drops of water here and there.\"\n\n\"Now the Baha'is are like a lake,\" Mr. Nakhjavani said. \"They should now transform that lake into an ocean.\" He added that Africans -- and all of humanity -- are from a single lineage and that we should \"see ourselves as one family\" in the world.\n\nPhilip Hainsworth, another of the six founders who returned for the celebration, told how the fledgling Baha'i community of Uganda became an important nucleus for the spread and expansion of the Faith to neighboring countries in the 1950s and 1960s, through the hosting of various international conferences and, in 1957, with the start of construction on the first Baha'i House of Worship on the continent. Completed in 1961, the nine-sided Ugandan Baha'i House of Worship is now a well-known landmark in Kampala.\n\nIn recent years, the Baha'i community of Uganda has sponsored a number of social and economic development projects. The Faith operates two primary schools, in Odusai in Pallisa District and in Tilling in Kumi District. With about 1,000 students and a solid reputation for excellence, the school in Tilling is now considered to be the top school in the district.\n\nIn the 1990s, in some 30 villages in the Kumi and Soroti Districts in Eastern Uganda, the Uganda Baha'i Institute for Development (UBID) undertook a project to train and support local volunteer community health workers, whose effectiveness at improving basic health and sanitation in the region has been documented by several outside organizations.\n\nA Baha'i-inspired non-governmental organization (NGO), UPLIFT, has also recently started a literacy project in the northern region of Uganda, where literacy rates are low. Focused around the town of Packwach in Nebbi District, the project serves about 200 people in some six communities.\n\nGovernment officials present at Jubilee events commended the Ugandan Baha'i community's contribution to the country's development. At the opening ceremony on 31 July, the Honorable Zoe Bakoko Bakoru, the Minister of Gender, Labor and Social Development, was the featured speaker. Ms. Bakoko Bakoru praised the Baha'is for their unity and for their support of equal rights for women. She urged the Baha'i community to work harder to spread such teachings and to undertake more development work. The Minister was also present on 5 August at the closing event in Tilling.\n\nAt a Jubilee event on 3 August at the Baha'i Center in Bweyeyo, Luwero District, the guest of honor was Edward Masiga, the Resident District Commissioner for Luwero. The local Baha'i community there operates a community school with about 40 students. Mr. Masiga urged the Baha'is to spread their principles \"aggressively,\" adding that he hoped they would undertake more development projects like the school.\n\nAt least three major television stations (CTV, UTV and WBS) carried two- to three-minute segments on their evening news broadcasts. The government newspapers \"The New Vision\" and \"Etop\" carried articles with color photographs of Jubilee events. The newspapers \"Monitor\" and \"Sunrise\" and numerous radio stations also covered the Jubilee.\n\nLike most other Ugandans, the Baha'i community suffered in the 1970s during the repressive regime of Idi Amin. The Faith, along with many other religious groups, was banned in 1977. After Amin was ousted in 1979, however, the Faith was legally reconstituted and, after a period of political instability, the community has continued its expansion.\n\n\"The time from 1977 to 1981 was a period of great trials for the Ugandan community generally, and there are stories of many heroic feats and sacrifices by Baha'is during this time,\" said John Anglin, Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Uganda, the national Baha'i governing council. \"But the 1990s were a period of re-building our former capacity and strength.\"\n\n\"Now, over the next ten years, we expect to see steady growth both in numbers and also in capacity and maturity,\" Mr. Anglin continued. \"The successful conclusion of the Jubilee events is one of the signs of this new capacity and new willingness to achieve.\""}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418931-bwns4705-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Captain Michael Mukula, Uganda's State Minister for Health, reads a statement from the President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni at a commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Baha’i community of Uganda, held at the Baha’i House of Worship near Kampala on 2 August 2001. (Photo: Ryan Lash)"},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418933-bwns4704-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Some 2,000 members of the Baha’i community of Uganda gathered on 2 August 2001 at the Baha’i House of Worship near Kampala to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the community. (Photo: Ryan Lash)"},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418932-bwns4703-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Mr. Philip Hainsworth, one of the six Baha’is who founded the Baha’i community in Uganda in 1951, attended the 50th anniversary commemorative event held at the Baha’i House of Worship near Kampala on 2 August 2001. (Photo: Ryan Lash)"}],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":134,"evergreenUrl":"more-than-54-000-have-toured-bahai-terraces-on-mount-carmel-since-june-opening","title":"More than 54,000 have toured Baha'i Terraces on Mount Carmel since June opening","description":"More than 54,000 people have taken pre-reserved guided tours of the cascading garden terraces surrounding the Shrine of the Bab on Mount Carmel...","date":"2001-08-30","customDateline":null,"city":"HAIFA","country":"ISRAEL","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418902-bwns4702-0.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ImageRecord","image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418902-bwns4702-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Three newlywed couples have their wedding photos taken on the entrance plaza of the Baha'i Terraces on Mount Carmel, a practice that has become very common among newlyweds in Haifa.","imageStyle":"body-right","imageLink":""}],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"More than 54,000 people have taken pre-reserved guided tours of the cascading garden terraces surrounding the Shrine of the Bab on Mount Carmel since they opened in June, indicating that the site may soon become one of the top tourist draws in Israel.\n\nIn addition, thousands more have visited the three sections of the gardens that are open to drop-in visitors. In all, more than 400,000 entries have been recorded since 4 June 2001, when the terraces were officially opened to the public, and at this rate the number of entries per year will add up to more than 1.5 million.\n\n\"The remarkable thing about the high volume of visitors is that it is coming at a time when tourism in Israel has dropped by 30 per cent in the last six months.  In contrast, in Haifa we've seen only an 8 per cent drop,\" said Moshe Tsur, General Manager of the Haifa Tourist Board.  \"There is no doubt the Baha'i gardens have had a big role in saving Haifa's tourism industry.\"\n\nThe vast majority of the visitors are Israelis, coming to Haifa from other parts of the country. \"This is 95 per cent domestic tourism,\" said Mr. Tsur.  \"The number of day visitors has tripled since the gardens opened. Many others are staying in local hotels with a package deal that includes a tour through the gardens.\"\n\nThere are no fees for entry into the gardens or for the guided tours, but Mr. Tsur estimates that other spending, such as on food, refreshments and transportation, has contributed millions of dollars to the local economy since the gardens opened.\n\nThe effect of this economic vitality is particularly visible in the evenings, after the gardens close and the dramatic nighttime illumination of the terraces and Shrine is turned on.  Along Ben Gurion Avenue, which runs in a straight line from the base of the Terraces to the Haifa\n\nport, sidewalk cafes and restaurants are now bustling, even on mid-week evenings, whereas just a few months ago the area was largely quiet after dark. The lighted terraces rise above the avenue, which runs through the historic German Templer Colony.  The whole neighborhood, including"},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_InlineImageRecord","slideshowImageNumber":2},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"rows of red-tiled homes built by German settlers in the late 19th century, has recently been restored by the city of Haifa.\n\nThe Haifa Tourist Board is located in one of the Templer homes and runs the booking system for the guided tours of the Terraces.  Five telephone operators work full time to take calls on the tour reservation lines.\n\n\"The lines are continually jammed, and people complain that they can't get through,\" said Mr. Tsur.  \"The demand for the tours is certainly not slowing.  We have more than 70,000 people registered for the coming months, and we are almost fully booked through December.\"\n\nTwo different guided tours are offered: the first goes down the top nine terraces from the crest of the mountain to the Shrine mid-way down the slope, and the second tour goes from the Shrine down the lower nine terraces to the Entrance Plaza on Ben Gurion Avenue.  There are 19 terraces altogether, extending one kilometer from the crest to the foot of Mount Carmel.\n\nThe Terraces and two adjacent administrative buildings were recently completed after 10 years of work at a cost of some $250 million in voluntary donations from the worldwide Baha'i community of five million believers. The terraces were built primarily as a path of approach for Baha'i pilgrims to the Shrine of the Bab, the second-most holy spot for Baha'is.  The Terraces also offer a symbol of peace and hope to the world at large, and the guided tours come with a message: that harmony and co-existence are possible.\n\nIn groups of 40 to 50 at a time, tourists are led by Israeli guides who are recruited and trained by the Beit Hagefen Centre, an Arab-Jewish cultural center that is well known in Haifa for its programs to promote coexistence among all the ethnic groups in the city.  Many of the guides are university students and they represent a great diversity of backgrounds: Christians, Druze, Jews, Muslims, Russian immigrants, and others.\n\nHila Naftali is a student at Haifa University who responded to an advertisement posted at the university last March to become a tour guide on the Terraces.  She now guides up to four tours per day. During a pause between tours this week, she said she believes that the camaraderie fostered among the tour guides from many different backgrounds is one of the hidden effects of the terraces.\n\n\"I actually get to talk with a lot of people who I otherwise would not have a chance to meet,\" said Ms. Naftali. \"One of my friends now is another guide, a Druze from the Golan.  We have reached a completely different level of understanding, based on friendship rather than politics.\"\n\nOne of the supervisors of the tour guides, Gad Zorea, reiterated that having guides from many backgrounds working together adds to the appeal of the gardens.\n\n\"Haifa is a special, unique place in Israel.  People know this city for the coexistence of Jews and Arabs, and also Christians, Druze and Baha'is,\" said Mr. Zorea. \"The visitors can see our guides working together, and they remark on this.\"\n\n\"Israel is a difficult country. People are stressed and nervous because of the things that are happening,\" he said. \"Our guides are the first people they encounter when they enter the gardens, and slowly we try to show them a different perspective, give them a glimpse of the way the Baha'is view the world -- in a way educate them that the world can be a better place.\"\n\nAbout 35 guides have been recruited and have gone through an intensive three-day training session to become a guide on the terraces. The training program, which will be repeated periodically as new guides are recruited, included sessions with the architect of the terraces, Fariborz Sahba, and the caretaker of the Baha'i Holy Places, Jamsheed Ardjomandi.\n\nMs. Naftali said she was deeply touched during the training program, and that nearly all the guides share her sense that what they are doing is much more than a job.\n\n\"It was so meaningful when Mr. Ardjomandi described the significance of these Holy Places, when he told us of Baha'u'llah's dialogue with the mountain [in the Tablet of Carmel],\" said Ms. Naftali. \"After that I felt: this is a mission. I started caring more, doing more. These gardens\n\ntouch people's souls.\"\n\nTwo of the visits she had guided particularly stuck in her mind: a group of retarded adults and a group of young soldiers on leave from their duty in the Gaza.\n\n\"While I had to speak at a different level for the retarded adults, it was a joy, maybe because they feel things more deeply, more truthfully.  The soldiers -- they were maybe 18 to 20 years old -- came in joking and daring each other to race to the bottom.  But the minute they walked into the\n\ngardens, they relaxed and seemed ready to listen.\"\n\nThe guided tours are giving many Israelis their first glimpse of a religious community that has maintained a remarkably low profile during its century-long presence on Mount Carmel. From the time in 1868 when the Founder of the Baha'i Faith was brought to the neighboring city of Acre as\n\na prisoner under the Ottoman Turks, the community has observed a strict policy of not seeking or accepting converts in the Holy Land, a policy that has continued to the present day. As a result, virtually the only Baha'is who live in Israel are the staff of the Baha'i World Centre, some 800 adherents from more than 75 countries who offer temporary volunteer service here.\n\nOn a recent afternoon, standing on the bridge over Hatzionut Street which links the upper terraces to the Shrine, one could see a tour group making its way down from the crest of the mountain, another group approaching the bridge from the upper terraces, and a third group approaching from a side gate to begin the lower terraces tour. The upper and lower terrace tours intersect on this broad, garden-covered bridge, which crosses one of Haifa's busiest thoroughfares.  More than 20 tours, each lasting 45 minutes to an hour, begin or end here each day.\n\nOne of the visitors, pausing on the bridge with several family members, was Lynn Taubkin, a Haifa resident for 22 years.\n\n\"The gardens are a wonderful contribution to the city,\" said Ms. Taubkin. \"If I may speak as a representative of the people of Haifa, I have never heard anything but positive remarks about the gardens. And knowing that it is all based on voluntary contributions and the work of volunteers adds to our appreciation.\"\n\n\"There is beauty here -- harmony, balance and symmetry -- and there is a spiritual element that even those of us who do not belong to the religion can pick up on,\" she said. \"The gardens have a personality that seems to personify the religion.\"\n\nAnother visitor, Orit from Kadima, agreed that the explanation she had heard about the Baha'i Faith reinforced the impression given by the gardens.\n\n\"The impression of symmetry, order and neatness was intertwined with the presentation of the Baha'i religion. The harmonious, unifying principle is very pronounced in the gardens.  It is beautiful and very inspiring,\" she said.\n\nReuven Gover, one of the tour guides, observed that visitors often remark on how carefully the gardens are maintained.\n\n\"They see the young Baha'is who come from all over the world to volunteer in the maintenance of the gardens, and their dedication and attention to detail.  It is a wonderful example for Israelis to see something that is so beautifully kept and looked after,\" he said.\n\nAnother tour guide, Yohai Devir, gathered his group about him on the bridge, speaking through a small portable amplifier carried on his waist.  He pointed to the imposing marble buildings to the left of the upper terraces and described their functions as the international administrative center of a world religion.  Looking up at the terraces, he pointed out the three distinct zones of the gardens -- the formal central axis, surrounded on either side by informal gardens and drought-resistant ground covers, blending finally into the natural wooded cover of the mountain -- and described the high-tech water conservation methods used in the gardens.\n\nMr. Devir, a student of electrical engineering at Haifa's Technion University, then led the group down around the side of the Shrine of the Bab to a shady area where he told the story of the Bab -- His declaration of a new revelation from God in mid-19th century Iran, the dramatic impact of this declaration on Persian society, His execution by a firing squad in 1850, and how His remains had been hidden by His followers for nearly 60 years until they were brought for burial in a mausoleum on the slopes of Mount Carmel.  He spoke of Baha'u'llah, the promised Messenger foretold by the Bab, who had arrived in the Holy Land in 1868 as a prisoner under the Ottoman authorities, had indicated the precise spot where the Bab's remains should be buried, and had chosen Mount Carmel as the future center of His Faith.\n\nThe group continued down through the informal gardens and crossed on to the central staircase of the terraces just below the Shrine.  They paused again on the bridge over Abbas Street, four terraces above the base of the mountain.  Here Mr. Devir described the basic principles of the Baha'i Faith, its international activities, and its focus on promoting the oneness of humanity and the elimination of all forms of prejudice.\n\nThe visitors, particularly the young people, then peppered him with questions: how do they cut the grass on these steep slopes? How much does it cost to maintain the gardens? What other gardens in the world can these compare with? Who is buried in the Shrine? Why is it here in Israel? What is the meaning of the calligraphic symbols on the Shrine?\n\nOne of the visitors, Susan Soto from Karmi'el, a village about 45 minutes north of Haifa, said she came on the tour because she had seen the gardens on television. \"These gardens have become famous. They are beautiful and very impressive. Baha'is believe in good things. They believe in\n\none God, in peace. It's good for everyone,\" she said.\n\nAnother visitor was Inbal Shabtai, who had come with her parents from Ashdod, about a two-and- a-half hour drive from Haifa. \"It's charming,\" she said. \"Whatever attracts the eye, attracts the heart. It is very attractive. Here is a religion that accepts the equality of men and women.  The beliefs are good for modern life.\"\n\nAs the group exited the gardens, four newlywed couples were having their wedding photos and video taken in the plaza surrounding the fountain at the base of the terraces, a practice which has become very common among newlyweds in Haifa."}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418904-bwns4701-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"A group of tourists listens to an explanation of the history of the Shrine of the Bab during a guided tour of the Baha'i Terraces on Mount Carmel."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418901-bwns4700-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Tour guide Yohai Devir, a student at Haifa's Technion university, takes questions from tour participants while pausing on a terrace below the Shrine of the Bab."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418902-bwns4699-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"More than 20 tour groups, each with 40 to 50 tourists, are guided through the Baha'i Terraces on Mount Carmel each day."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418901-bwns4698-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"More than 400,000 entries into the Baha'i Terraces on Mount Carmel have been recorded since they opened to the public on 4 June 2001."}],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":133,"evergreenUrl":"bahai-international-community-issues-statement-world-conference-against-racism","title":"Baha'i International Community issues statement to World Conference against Racism","description":"The Baha'i International Community has issued the following statement to the United Nations World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination,...","date":"2001-08-25","customDateline":null,"city":"DURBAN","country":"SOUTH AFRICA","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1687959778-bwns-default-missing-image-endslate-still-8-1-1.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":" The Baha'i International Community has issued the following statement to the United Nations World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance, scheduled to be held in Durban, South Africa, from 31 August 2001 to 7 September 2001:\n\nRacism originates not in the skin but in the human mind. Remedies to racial prejudice, xenophobia and intolerance must accordingly address first and foremost those mental illusions that have for so many thousands of years given rise to false concepts of superiority and inferiority among human populations.\n\nAt the root of all forms of discrimination and intolerance is the erroneous idea that humankind is somehow composed of separate and distinct races, peoples or castes, and that those sub-groups innately possess varying intellectual, moral, and/or physical capacities, which in turn justify different forms of treatment.\n\nThe reality is that there is only the one human race. We are a single people, inhabiting the planet Earth, one human family bound together in a common destiny, a single entity created from one same substance, obligated to \"be even as one soul.\"\n\nRecognition of this reality is the antidote to racism, xenophobia and intolerance in all its forms. It should, accordingly, be the guiding principle behind the discussions, deliberations and ultimate output of the World Conference against Racism.\n\nA proper understanding of this fact of existence has the capacity to carry humanity not merely past racism, racial and ethnic prejudice, and xenophobia but also beyond intermediate notions of tolerance or multi-culturalism -- concepts that are important stepping-stones to humanity's long-sought goal of building a peaceful, just and unified world but insufficient for the eradication of such deeply rooted afflictions as racism and its companions.\n\nThe principle of human oneness strikes a chord in the deepest reaches of the human spirit. It is not yet another way of talking about the ideal of brotherhood or solidarity. Nor is it some vague hope or slogan. It reflects, rather, an eternal spiritual, moral and physical reality that has been brought into focus by humanity's collective coming of age in the twentieth century. Its emergence is more visible now because, for the first time in history, it has become possible for all of the peoples of the world to perceive their interdependence and to become conscious of their wholeness.\n\nThe reality of human oneness is fully endorsed by science. Anthropology, physiology, psychology, sociology and, most recently, genetics, in its decoding of the human genome, demonstrate that there is only one human species, albeit infinitely varied in the secondary aspects of life. The world's great religions likewise uphold the principle, even if their followers have, at times, clung to fallacious notions of superiority. The Founders of the world's great religions have all promised that one day peace and justice would prevail and all humanity would be united.\n\nThe contemporary realization of humanity's collective oneness comes after a historic process in which individuals were fused into ever greater units. Moving from clans, to tribes, to city-states, to nations, the next inevitable step for humanity is nothing less than the creation of a global civilization. In this new global civilization, all people and peoples are component parts of a single great organism -- an organism that is human civilization itself. As stated by Baha'u'llah more than 100 years ago, \"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.\"\n\nFurther, as explained in the Baha'i writings, the oneness of humanity \"implies an organic change in the structure of present-day society, a change such as the world has not yet experienced.... It calls for no less than the reconstruction and the demilitarization of the whole civilized world -- a world organically unified in all the essential aspects of its life, its political machinery, its spiritual aspiration, its trade and finance, its script and language, and yet infinite in the diversity of the national characteristics of its federated units.\"\n\nIn considering the themes of the World Conference against Racism, a proper understanding of the reality of the oneness of humanity holds a number of implications.\n\nIt implies that any law, tradition or mental construct that grants superior rights or privileges to one grouping of humanity over another is not only morally wrong but fundamentally at odds with the best interests of even those who consider themselves to be in some way superior. It implies that nation-states, as the building blocks of a global civilization, must hold to common standards of rights and take active steps to purge from their laws, traditions and practices any form of discrimination based on race, nationality or ethnic origin.\n\nIt implies that justice must be the ruling principle of social organization, a corollary principle that calls for widespread measures on the part of governments, their agencies, and civil society to address economic injustice at all levels. The Baha'i writings call for both voluntary giving and government measures, such as the \"equalization and apportionment\" of excess wealth, so that the great disparities between the rich and the poor are eliminated. The Baha'i writings also prescribe specific measures, such as profit-sharing and the equation of work with worship, that promote general economic prosperity across all classes.\n\nIssues of xenophobia before the Conference in relation to contemporary problems of minority diasporas, the uneven application of citizenship laws, and refugee resettlement can likewise best be addressed in the light of humanity's oneness and, as Baha'u'llah indicated, the concept of world citizenship.\n\nFurther, the principle of the oneness of humanity exposes any attempt to distinguish separate \"races\" or \"peoples\" in the contemporary world as artificial and misleading. While racial, national and/or ethnic heritage can be considered as sources of pride and even a backdrop for positive social development, such distinctions should not become a basis for new forms of separation or superiority, however subtle.\n\nOver the years, in statements to the United Nations, the Baha'i International Community has supported or called for specific actions in support of human oneness and the fight against racism, including:\n\n-- The widespread promotion of international educational campaigns that would teach the organic oneness of humankind, urging specifically that the United Nations itself facilitate such an effort, involving national and local governments, as well as non-governmental organizations.\n\n-- The widespread ratification of -- and adherence to -- international instruments, which represent humankind's collective conscience, that might contribute to a comprehensive legal regime for combating racism and racial discrimination, especially the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.\n\n-- The worldwide promotion of human rights education, with the aim of creating a \"culture of human rights.\"\n\nThe Baha'i International Community has also sponsored or participated extensively in activities aimed at the eradication of racism and racial discrimination. Working largely through its national affiliates, which currently number 182, the Community has for example sponsored numerous public meetings, conferences, educational programs, newspaper articles, radio programs and exhibits that specifically seek to combat racism.\n\nFurther, drawing on the creative spirit of grassroots participation, Baha'is in a number of countries have established race unity committees, with multiracial membership, which have developed programs to combat racial prejudice and to create bonds of mutual respect among peoples of different races in their local communities. These committees have attempted to assist Baha'is to free themselves of their own racial prejudices and, beyond that, to contribute to the elimination of racial prejudice in society at large through extensive collaboration with leaders in government, education and religion. More specifically, Baha'i communities around the world have sponsored numerous youth workshops that promote racial unity, held thousands of public \"race unity day\" observances, launched television and video campaigns to promote race harmony, sponsored neighborhood race unity dialogues, and participated in various national commissions to combat racism.\n\nThose seeking to understand more fully how the oneness of humanity can be brought into practice might find it useful to examine the experience of the Baha'i International Community itself, which offers a continuously advancing model for how diverse individuals can live together in harmony and unity. With a membership of more than 5 million, the worldwide Baha'i community is composed of individuals from virtually every background. More than 2,100 different racial and tribal groups are represented, as are individuals from virtually every nationality, religious background and social class.\n\nDespite this great diversity, which is reflective of the world's population at large, the worldwide Baha'i community is among the most unified bodies of people on earth. This sense of unity goes beyond a shared theology. Individuals from many of these backgrounds have intermarried, for example, something which is promoted in the teachings of the Baha'i Faith, and/or they work together closely in local Baha'i communities, serving together on its local- and national-level governing institutions. A careful examination of the worldwide Baha'i community will reveal a surprisingly widespread and yet singularly committed body of people who are consciously creating a global culture, one that emphasizes peace, justice and sustainable development, and puts no group in a position of superiority.\n\nBaha'is believe that their own success at building a unified community stems solely from its inspiration by the spiritual teachings of Baha'u'llah, who wrote extensively about the importance of unity, the reality of oneness, and the imperative need for creating a peaceful world civilization. More than 100 years ago, He wrote the following, which stands as a cornerstone of Baha'i belief:\n\n\"O Children of Men! Know ye not why We created you all from the same dust? That no one should exalt himself over the other. Ponder at all times in your hearts how ye were created. Since We have created you all from one same substance it is incumbent on you to be even as one soul, to walk with the same feet, eat with the same mouth and dwell in the same land, that from your inmost being, by your deeds and actions, the signs of oneness and the essence of detachment may be made manifest.\""}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":132,"evergreenUrl":"bahai-international-community-issues-statement-united-nations-general-assembly-special-session-on-hivaids","title":"Baha'i International Community issues statement to the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS","description":"The Baha'i International Community has issued the following statement, entitled \"HIV/AIDS and Gender Equality: Transforming Attitudes and Behaviors,\"...","date":"2001-06-25","customDateline":null,"city":"UNITED NATIONS","country":"","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1687959778-bwns-default-missing-image-endslate-still-8-1-1.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"The Baha'i International Community has issued the following statement, entitled \"HIV/AIDS and Gender Equality: Transforming Attitudes and Behaviors,\" for the United Nations General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS, which took place at the United Nations in New York 25-27 June 2001:\n\nThe relationship between the AIDS pandemic and gender inequality is gaining recognition globally. New HIV/AIDS infections are now increasing faster among women and girls than among males; therefore, last year half of all new cases occurred in females. At the recent 45th session of the Commission on the Status of Women, where HIV/AIDS was one of the main thematic issues, the complexity of the challenges in addressing the issue were underscored by the undeniable association of AIDS with such an intractable problem as sexism. There is no denying the importance of research, education and cooperation among governments and civil society. However, awareness is growing that a profound change of attitude -- personal, political, and social -- will be necessary to stop the spread of the disease and ensure assistance to those already infected and affected. This statement will focus on two of the more significant populations who need to be represented in these global discussions: men, because of the control they have traditionally exercised over women's lives; and faith communities, because of the power they have to influence the hearts and minds of their adherents.\n\nIn order to curtail the spread of HIV/AIDS among women, concrete changes need to occur in the sexual attitudes and behavior of both men and women, but especially men. Fallacious notions about the naturally voracious sexual appetites of men must be addressed. The real consequences to women -- and men -- of the practice of satisfying one's sexual desires outside of marriage must be fully understood. Educating women and girls is critically important, but the current power imbalance between men and women can prevent a woman from acting in her own interest. Indeed, experience has shown that educating women without educating the men in their lives may put the women at greater risk of violence. Efforts are needed, therefore, to educate both boys and girls to respect themselves and one another. A culture of mutual respect will improve not only the self-esteem of women and girls, but the self-esteem of men and boys as well, which will lead toward more responsible sexual behavior.\n\nThe denial of equality to women not only promotes in men harmful attitudes and habits that affect their families, the workplace, political decisions and international relations; it also contributes substantially to the spread of HIV/AIDS and retards the progress of society. Notice how culturally accepted social inequalities conspire with economic vulnerability to leave women and girls with little or no power to reject unwanted or unsafe sex. Yet, once infected with HIV/AIDS, women are often stigmatized as the source of the disease and persecuted, sometimes violently. Meanwhile, the burden of caring for people living with HIV/AIDS and for children orphaned by the disease falls predominantly on women. Traditional gender roles that have gone unquestioned for generations must now be re-examined in the light of justice and compassion. Ultimately, nothing short of a spiritual transformation will move men -- and women -- to forego the behaviors that contribute to the spread of AIDS. Such a transformation is as important for men as it is for women, because \"As long as women are prevented from attaining their highest possibilities, so long will men be unable to achieve the greatness which might be theirs.\"\n\nBecause the cultivation of humanity's noble, spiritual core has always been the province of religion, religious communities can play an important role in bringing about the change of heart and the consequent change in behaviors that will make possible an effective response to the AIDS crisis.\n\nThe leaders of faith communities are especially equipped to address the moral dimension of the AIDS crisis both in terms of its prevention and its treatment. The spread of HIV/AIDS would be significantly reduced if individuals were taught to respect the sanctity of the family by practicing abstinence before marriage and fidelity to one's spouse while married, as underscored in most faith traditions.\n\nReligious leaders and people of faith are also called to respond with love and compassion to the intense personal suffering of those either directly or indirectly affected by the AIDS crisis. However, a tendency on the part of society as a whole to judge and blame those afflicted has, since the onset of this disease, stifled compassion for its victims. The subsequent stigmatization of individuals thus afflicted with HIV/AIDS has fostered a profound reluctance on the part of infected individuals to seek treatment and of societies to change cultural attitudes and practices necessary for the prevention and treatment of the disease. Such judgments can be particularly pronounced in religious communities struggling to uphold a high standard of personal conduct. One of the seeming paradoxes of faith is the individual obligation of believers to adhere to a high standard of personal conduct while loving and caring for those who fall short -- for whatever reason -- of that same standard. What is often forgotten is that \"moral conduct\" includes not only personal restraint but compassion and humility as well. Faith communities will need to strive continually to rid themselves of judgmental attitudes so that they can exert the kind of moral leadership that encourages personal responsibility, love for one another, and the courage to protect vulnerable groups in society.\n\nWe see signs of hope in increased interfaith dialogue and cooperation. Among faith communities there is a growing recognition that, as Baha'u'llah states, \"the peoples of the world, of whatever race or religion, derive their inspiration from one heavenly Source, and are the subjects of one God\". It is, indeed, the transcendent nature of the human spirit, as it reaches toward that invisible, unknowable Essence called God, which galvanizes and refines mankind's capacity to achieve the spiritual progress that translates into social progress. As dialogue, cooperation and respect among religious communities increase, cultural and religious practices and traditions that discriminate against women, no matter how entrenched, will gradually give way. This will be an essential step toward retarding the spread of HIV/AIDS.\n\nIndeed, it is in the recognition of the oneness of the human family that hearts will soften, minds will open, and the attitudes of men and women will be transformed. It is out of that transformation that a coherent, compassionate and rational response to the worldwide HIV/AIDS crisis will be made possible."}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":131,"evergreenUrl":"gathering-holy-land-marks-milestone-development-bahai-faith","title":"Gathering in Holy Land marks milestone in the development of the Baha'i Faith","description":"As one of nearly 1000 regional community advisors in the worldwide Baha'i community, Iwassa Bolinga's duties normally entail consulting with...","date":"2001-01-16","customDateline":null,"city":"HAIFA","country":"ISRAEL","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418604-bwns4711-0.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ImageRecord","image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418604-bwns4711-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Participants in the conference to inaugurate the International Teaching Centre Building tour the new building on 14 January 2001.","imageStyle":"body-right","imageLink":""}],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"As one of nearly 1000 regional community advisors in the worldwide Baha'i community, Iwassa Bolinga's duties normally entail consulting with local Baha'i institutions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo about the application of Baha'i teachings to the needs of their communities and encouraging individuals in the region to acquire a greater knowledge of their Faith and a greater capacity for social action.\n\nHowever, in order to attend an historic gathering of his colleagues from around the world, held here 14-16 January 2001, his position required him to travel some 560 kilometers by outboard motorboat, dugout canoe, and on foot from the remote Equateur region of his native land. And that was just to catch the plane to Israel -- a land to which he had never traveled before.\n\nMr. Bolinga, who serves on an entirely voluntary basis as an Auxiliary Board member, as Baha'i community advisors in his category are known, began his journey by hiring an outboard motor boat to take him 560 kilometers down river from Boende to the provincial capital of Mbandaka, where one flight leaves every two weeks for Kinshasa.\n\nWhen the motor boat ran out of fuel some 40 kilometers out of Boende, Mr. Bolinga conviced a local fisherman to take him to Mbandaka. That meant paddling for ten days and ten nights in a dugout canoe.  When they arrived in Mbandaka, Mr. Bolinga immediately set out again, this time on foot, to cover the last 5 kilometres to the airport. He arrived just minutes before the plane left.\n\nIn Kinshasa he joined 12 of his colleagues from around the Congo for a flight to Adis Ababa, where Board members from throughout central, west and east Africa met for the final leg of the journey to Tel Aviv. The meeting in the Adis Ababa airport was a dramatic moment for Mr. Bolinga and his colleagues, since the on-going civil war in the Democratic Republic Congo had kept them from meeting with other Auxiliary Board members in recent years.\n\n\"Once we got checked in and went through to the departure lounge, the reality of this extraordinary event started to become clear,\" said Susan Sheper, a Board member serving in Kinshasa. \"We saw the five Board members from the east and north of the Democratic Republic of Congo -- people who we had had no contact with for the last three years because of the war, and who we didn't know were dead or alive.  What a reunion!  We were laughing, crying and hugging all at once.\"\n\nThe purpose of all that effort was to attend an historic conference to inaugurate the International Teaching Centre Building, the headquarters of an international institution of appointed officers charged with stimulating and nurturing the development of the Baha'i community."},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_InlineImageRecord","slideshowImageNumber":2},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"The conference marked the first gathering of the entire membership of this institution, known as the Institution of the Counsellors, which operates parallel to the system of elected assemblies that govern the Baha'i Faith at the local, national and international levels.  Nine International Counsellors serve on the International Teaching Centre at the Baha'i World Centre in Haifa. Eighty-one additional Continental Counsellors serve around the world, and they in turn appoint 990 grassroots advisors known as Auxiliary Board members.\n\nCulmination of a century-long effort\n\nThe Board members arriving from 172 countries were coming to witness, first and foremost, the consummation of a century-long effort to build the Baha'i Faith's world spiritual and administrative center on Mount Carmel, in Haifa.\n\nIn the 1890's the Faith's Founder, Baha'u'llah, had declared from the crest of Mount Carmel that the barren mountainside would be transformed and become the focal center of His Faith. In 1909 the remains of Baha'u'llah's martyred Forerunner were laid to rest in a simple mausoleum on a spot Baha'u'llah had selected mid-way up the slope.  The colonnade and golden dome added later make the Shrine of the Bab one of Haifa's best-known landmarks.\n\nDuring the 1930s and 40s, a broad arc-shaped path and gardens were laid out adjacent to the Shrine, along which the headquarters of the Faith's senior institutions were to be built.  An International Archives Building was completed in 1957 in the classic Greek style, setting the tone and scale for the remaining buildings.  In 1983, the governing body of the Faith, the Universal House of Justice, occupied its permanent seat in an imposing marble building faced with 57 Corinthian columns at the top of the arc-shaped path.  The final two buildings, built on either side of the Seat of the House of Justice, were completed in 2000: the Centre for the Study of the Texts and the International Teaching Centre Building.\n\nConstruction of the International Teaching Centre Building began in 1987 and was completed in October 2000.  The edifice has 9 floors with a total floor space of more than 19,000 square meters.  Only three floors, surrounded by an elegant semi-circular marble colonnade, show above ground, fulfilling architect Hossein Amanat's intention that the building blend into the mountain landscape \"like a pavilion in a garden.\"\n\nThe conference began on 14 January with a devotional program commemorating the completion of the buildings on the Arc.  In addition to the two new buildings, work was nearly completed on 19 majestic garden terraces extending above and below the Shrine of the Bab from the foot to the crest of the mountain.  The buildings and terraces had taken more than a decade of intensive effort to build, at a cost of $250 million drawn entirely from the voluntary contributions of the 5 million Baha'is around the world.\n\nIn the morning, in a profoundly reverent act, the Counsellors and Board members were the first to ascend the terraces leading from the base of Mount Carmel to the Shrine of the Bab mid-way up the mountain.  They circumambulated the Shrine in a prayerful attitude and continued across the Arc Path for a tour of the International Teaching Centre Building.\n\nA Board member from Taiwan, Dana Hudson, recalled, \"When each of us started to ascend we had no choice but bow our heads in utmost humility.  It was a feeling which most of us had to express in the form of tears.\"\n\nIn the afternoon a member of the International Teaching Centre opened the conference by reminding the participants of the deep historical and spiritual significance of the completion of the structures on Mount Carmel.\n\nThe scriptures of the Faith foreshadowed this achievement and prophesied that it would coincide at the end of the 20th century with two other significant developments, one within the community of believers and the other in the world at large.  The first would be the emergence of vibrant, self-governing Baha'i communities in all parts of the world, and the second would be the laying of the foundations of international peace through agreements among the nations of the world.\n\nIn a message addressed to the conference, the Universal House of Justice stated that \"the occupation of the International Teaching Centre of its permanent seat on the Mountain of the Lord marks the beginning of what future generations will regard as a splendid chapter in the annals of our Faith.\"\n\nThe House of Justice also addressed the unique role that the Institution of the Counsellors can play in shepherding humanity through a dark, transitional phase of history toward the emergence of a global, just civilization.\n\n\"You hail from far-flung geographic regions and cultural backgrounds that make you truly representative of a cross-section of the human family,\" the House of Justice stated.  \"The world's crying need for the divine prescriptions is made plain by the ills afflicting society at every level in all parts of the planet.  We must be swift in ministering to this need.\"\n\nA new level of unity\n\nFor the previous four years the Institution of the Counsellors had been engaged in a vast project of systematising the training of large numbers of believers in the spiritual, moral and social teachings of their Faith.  The goal was to raise up the human resources needed to establish a distinctive Baha'i way of life and contribute to social advancement.\n\nOver the course of the four years, Board members had helped establish more than 300 of these training institutes around the world, reaching into the very fabric of Baha'i community life through a decentralised system of tutors, study circles, and sequences of courses based on the sacred writings of the Faith.\n\nMuch of the remaining two days of the conference were dedicated to consultations on the successes and challenges of this task, and many participants were struck by the remarkable unity of thought they achieved almost spontaneously among themselves.\n\n\"What I found most wonderful about these consultations was that everyone had had different experiences, but we all spoke the same language,\" said Mrs. Sheper, a Board member from the Congo.  \"In other words, since we were all Board members, every one of us was somehow involved in the institute process, many of us intimately, we all encouraged individual initiative in teaching and were working to systematise our teaching efforts.  So even though we came from the farthest reaches of the earth and our individual experiences differed, our overall experience and understanding was united.\"\n\nJust prior to the inaugural conference, the Counsellors had held a series of meetings to consider the next phase of this training effort, which was projected to last five years.  In a message to the gathering of the Counsellors, the Universal House of Justice called for building on the strength of the training institutes by focusing on specific geographic areas -- for example a cluster of towns -- where conditions were ripe for creating a rich and vibrant Baha'i community life.\n\n\"Among the initial goals for every community should be the establishment of study circles, children's classes, and devotional meetings,\" the House of Justice stated.  Further, these efforts should be \"open to all the inhabitants of the locality\" with the goal of producing a positive impact on the well-being and cohesiveness of society at large.  Once these basic elements of community life are in place, the House of Justice suggested that \"small projects of social and economic development -- for example a literacy project, a project for the advancement of women or environmental protection, or even a village school\" could be introduced.\n\nFirst in plenary sessions with participants from around the world, and later in continental meetings that focused on regional challenges and collaboration, the Board members shared their experiences and plans for the future.\n\n\"What were the consultations like?  They were full of joy and excitement because they reflected a new culture in the Baha'i community,\" recalled Martina Donovalova, a Board member from Slovakia, \"and the joy of having the blessings of the training institutes and their priceless value for us.  The friends from the whole world rose to say what their experiences were, how the work of the Faith was rapidly progressing, how they were learning many new things, and how they were able to support and extend the growing number of Baha'u'llah's followers.\n\n\"At the European continental meeting we had much discussion on the directive from the House of Justice that study circles, devotional meetings and children's classes should be open to all the inhabitants in the area,\" said Ms. Donovalova.  \"We had several wonderful examples of this happening in Germany, Russia, Ireland, Ukraine, Belarus, and England and of the impact it has had on the growth and development of the Faith.\"\n\nAt the Asian continental conference Counsellor Jabbar Eidelkhani shared the experience from Bangladesh, where 11,000 people recently entered the Faith and 8,000 of them had been introduced to the Faith by tutors active in the institute process.\n\nA great deal of emphasis was placed on the moral and spiritual education of children and their full integration into the life of the community.\n\n\"There were two main things I got out of the meetings,\" said Dana Hudson from Taiwan, \"and that was the importance of the institute process in educating our community in Taiwan and the immediate and demanding urgency for our children.  There must be classes for our children to learn from and become the spiritual giants that we read about in our rich history.  Our children are blessed with such capacity if it is only mined and nurtured.\"\n\nMany areas of the globe were first opened to the Faith during the 1950s and 60s by \"pioneers\", or Baha'is who left their home countries to settle in regions where the Faith had not yet been established.  The fact that most countries were represented by indigenous believers rather than pioneers was seen by many as a sign of the coming of age of the global Baha'i community. Also significant was the participation of approximately equal numbers of women and men.  In fact women exceeded men among the representatives from the Americas and Europe.\n\nP.G. Chandrarathna, a Board member from Sri Lanka, was deeply impressed by the significance of this diversity.\n\n\"I sighted people from almost all races, all colors and all religious backgrounds, but the wonder of it was that all of them were united in their thoughts and united in their goals, that is, to work for the unity of humankind,\" he said.  \"They did not gather to find solutions to their differences, but to see how they could work in cooperation.\"\n\nA moving climax\n\nThe Baha'i sacred writings explain that the Faith's development would fall into three evolutionary stages: a heroic, a formative and a golden age.  The first, lasting from the birth of the Faith in 1844 until 1921, was a period of extreme trial and persecution when thousands of early believers were martyred because of their efforts to establish the new religion.  The second age now unfolding is expected to lead through a series of epochs marking the achievement of significant milestones.  Much later, possibly hundreds of years from now, the Faith would reach its golden age, coinciding with the emergence of a just and peaceful global civilisation.  Since 1921 the Faith has progressed through four epochs of its formative age.\n\nIn the closing session of the conference, the Universal House of Justice referred to \"signs that the Faith had arrived at a point in its development beyond which new horizons open before us.\"  Among the indicators of this new level of maturity the House of Justice cited the change of culture in the Baha'i community as training institutes emerged, the completion of the construction projects on Mount Carmel, and the synchronisation of these developments with the accelerating trend toward world peace.\n\nThese indicators had been \"crystallised into a recognisable reality,\" the Universal House of Justice stated, by the \"extraordinary dynamics at work throughout the conference.\"\n\nThen came a dramatic declaration. \"With a spirit of exultation we are moved to announce to you: the Faith of Baha'u'llah now enters the fifth epoch of its formative age.\"\n\n\"The realisation that we were all there at that moment of history - making history - was truly overwhelming.  After devotions, everyone filed out of the Seat, congratulating each other on the new epoch.  There was such a celebratory air,\" said one participant.\n\nFor many, the announcement sparked questions about the significance of an epoch in the unfoldment of the Baha'i Cause, and about the new perspectives and possibilities opened up in their individual and collective lives.\n\n\"This new milestone is so near to us that we can grasp its significance only in the future,\" said Ms. Donovalova from Slovakia.  \"But what is happening to us?  What is the change?  What is new?\"\n\nMs. Donovalova answered her own questions by citing a favorite passage from a letter of the Universal House of Justice describing the new \"culture of growth\" characterizing the Baha'i community:\n\n\"So enkindled do their hearts become with the fire of the love of God that whoever approaches them feels its warmth.  They strive to be channels of the spirit, pure of heart, selfless and humble, possessing the certitude and the courage that stems from reliance on God.\""}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418603-bwns4709-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Participants in the conference to inaugurate the International Teaching Centre building on their historic first ascent of the Terraces of the Shrine of the Bab on Mount Carmel on 14 January 2001."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418603-bwns4697-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Participants in the conference to inaugurate the International Teaching Centre Building tour the new building on 14 January 2001."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418603-bwns4696-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"The International Teaching Centre Building at night."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418603-bwns4695-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Participants in the conference to inaugurate the International Teaching Centre building on their historic first ascent of the Terraces of the Shrine of the Bab on Mount Carmel on 14 January 2001."}],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":130,"evergreenUrl":"president-botswana-praises-publication-bahai-books-native-setswana-language","title":"President of Botswana praises publication of Baha'i books in native Setswana language","description":"In a book launch ceremony, President Festus Mogae of Botswana hailed the publication of two Baha'i books in the native Setswana language, saying...","date":"2001-02-27","customDateline":null,"city":"GABORONE","country":"BOTSWANA","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418586-bwns4694-0.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ImageRecord","image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418586-bwns4694-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"President Mogae of Botswana with two of the translators who produced selections from the Baha'i scriptures in the native Setswana language.| Left to right: President Mogae, Lally Warren, and her mother, Stella Moncho. Mrs Moncho is nearly 92 years old; she and her late husband were the first Baha'is of Botswana.","imageStyle":"body-right","imageLink":""}],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"In a book launch ceremony, President Festus Mogae of Botswana hailed the publication of two Baha'i books in the native Setswana language, saying it would help encourage the country's people to maintain their native language.\n\nSpeaking at a reception held on 27 February to introduce the two books, which are collections of Baha'i prayers and scriptures, President Mogae said the volumes \"are a welcome contribution to the development of Setswana literature\".\n\n\"Many young people struggle to read Setswana fluently and would rather read English,\" said President Mogae. \"Unfortunately, the situation is exacerbated by the fact that there is only a handful of Setswana literature available in book shops.\"\n\nTitled \"Dithapelo tsa Baha'i\" and \"Mafoko a a Subilweng,\" which mean respectively \"Baha'i Prayers\" and \"The Hidden Words,\" the books are published by the Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Botswana. The prayers and sacred verses they contain are intended to provide inspiration to the followers of all religions and to be a contribution to Setswana literature.\n\nThe translators spent many years of work to ensure that the Setswana of these translations is beautiful and fluent. This was a difficult task because the prayers and scriptures in English are written in an elegant literary style using very poetic language.\n\nThe Setswana translation had to reflect the beauty of the original without changing its meaning. With the help of a computer, the translators produced seven draft versions of Dithapelo tsa Baha'i before they were satisfied with their work.\n\nPresident Mogae also said the translation and publication of the two books was an important reflection of the country's commitment to religious freedom."},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_InlineImageRecord","slideshowImageNumber":2},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"\"They are being published in an atmosphere in which there is respect for fundamental human rights and freedoms of the individual including the right to worship,\" said President Mogae. \"Freedom of religion is one of the rights entrenched in the Constitution of Botswana.\"\n\n\"The publication of Dithapelo tsa Baha'i and Mafoko a a Subilweng constitutes a significant milestone in the history of the Baha'i Faith in Botswana,\" added President Mogae. \"The two books are a manifestation of the steady growth of Baha'i in this country and underline the importance of the universal character of spirituality. God speaks to all humanity in the languages that they understand.\"\n\nBoth books use Setswana idioms and figures of speech. They are written in a style that readers find appropriate for holy scriptures. As an assistance to readers, each book contains a glossary of difficult Setswana words.\n\nThe book of prayers, which has the full title of \"Dithapelo tsa Baha'i tse di Senotsweng ke Baha'u'llah, Bab le 'Abdu'l-Baha,\" (\"Baha'i Prayers revealed by Baha'u'llah, the Bab and 'Abdu'l-Baha\") brings together a selection of Baha'i prayers revealed by the Central Figures of the Baha'i Faith. Although a few of the prayers are specifically for Baha'is, the majority are inspirational for all readers. For the life of the spirit there are prayers for spiritual growth, detachment, forgiveness, assistance, protection, praise and gratitude; for special times of the day there are dawn prayers, morning prayers, evening prayers and prayers for those about to set out on a journey.\n\nThere are also prayers for children, youth, families, marriage and a section of prayers specially for women; there are prayers for the departed, for healing and for tests and difficulties. At the end of the book an attempt has been made to translate one short prayer into fifteen of the other languages spoken in Botswana.\n\n\"Mafoko a a Subilweng a ga Baha'u'llah,\" known as \"The Hidden Words of Baha'u'llah\" in English, is a collection of short, inspirational verses written by the Founder of the Baha'i Faith, Baha'u'llah. The title is taken from a tradition in Islam that the Angel Gabriel uttered these beautiful verses for the grieving daughter of the Prophet Muhammad to comfort her upon the passing of her illustrious Father. The tradition states that these words of spiritual comfort would remain as a \"hidden book\" until the coming of the Promised One. Amongst the signs that would identify the Promised One is that He would reveal this hidden book to mankind. Each verse in the book reveals spiritual truths and offers guidance by which we should live our lives.\n\nThree translators worked together to produce the two books: Stella \"Mumsie\" Moncho, Lally Warren and Gerald Warren. All are members of the Baha'i Faith and residents of Botswana.\n\nMs. Moncho was born into the royal family of the Barolong ba ga Tshidi. Her late husband was a school inspector, first for the Bechuanaland Administration and then, later, for Government of Botswana. At the age of 92, Ms. Moncho has absorbed a Setswana vocabulary that can only be described as encyclopaedic, as well as developing a refined sense of what elegant Setswana should sound like.\n\nLally Warren was born in Serowe, Botswana, and is the daughter of Ms. Moncho. She has inherited much of her parents' knowledge and love for Setswana. Although a nurse by profession, for the past fifteen years she has traveled widely in her role as a Continental Counsellor of the Baha'i Faith. Her motivation to get involved in translation work was her desire to see the beauty of the Baha'i prayers and scriptures in English rendered befittingly into Setswana. She is currently co- authoring with Desmond Cole, former Professor of African Languages at Wits University in South Africa, a comprehensive Setswana-English dictionary, which is set for publication in 2002.\n\nGerald Warren is a primary-school teacher who came to Botswana in 1979. Married to Ms. Warren, he collaborated in the translation work and was largely responsible for checking the spelling, proofreading and typesetting the final work."}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418588-bwns4693-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Mrs. Lally Warren (left) introducing President Mogae of Botswana to Mr. Gerald Warren (right).| Mr. and Mrs. Warren worked on translations of Baha'i scripture into the native Setswana language. In the background is Enos Makhele, a member of the Continental Board of Counsellors in Africa."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418587-bwns4692-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"President Mogae of Botswana chats with Mrs. Stella Moncho, one of the translators who produced selections from the Baha'i scriptures in the native Setswana language. Mrs Moncho is nearly 92 years old; she and her late husband were the first Baha'is of Botswana."}],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":129,"evergreenUrl":"firuz-kazemzadeh-reappointed-us-commission-on-international-religious-freedom","title":"Firuz Kazemzadeh reappointed to US Commission on International Religious Freedom","description":"Firuz Kazemzadeh, former Secretary for External Affairs of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States, has been appointed...","date":"2001-06-16","customDateline":null,"city":"WASHINGTON","country":"","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1687959778-bwns-default-missing-image-endslate-still-8-1-1.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"Firuz Kazemzadeh, former Secretary for External Affairs of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States, has been appointed to a second term on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom.\n\nDr. Kazemzadeh, a Professor Emeritus of History at Yale University, was appointed by US Senate Majority Leader Thomas Daschle. His term lasts until 14 May 2003. Dr. Kazemzadeh previously served on the Commission from 15 May 1999 to 14 May 2001, acting as its vice chairman from 15 May 2000 to 14 May 2001. His first appointment was made by US President Bill Clinton.\n\nCreated by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, the nine-member Commission exists to monitor religious freedom in other countries and to advise the President, the Secretary of State, and Congress on how best to promote such freedom.\n\n\"I am pleased to have been appointed to a second term on the US Commission for International Religious Freedom that defends an essential human right that is only too frequently violated,\" said Dr. Kazemzadeh. \"The Commission's mandate to monitor the status of religious freedom throughout the world and to advise the President and the Congress raises the level of concern with religious freedom.\n\n\"The struggle for religious freedom, like the struggle for the abolition of slavery or the exploitation of child labor will be a long and difficult one, but the principles embodied in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights will triumph and the Commission will contribute to their eventual triumph,\" Dr. Kazemzadeh said.\n\nDr. Kazemzadeh currently serves as a senior advisor to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States, the national governing body for the U.S. Baha'i community, an institution on which Dr. Kazemzadeh served for more than 35 years until his retirement last year.\n\nDuring his tenure at Yale, which lasted from 1956 to 1992, Dr. Kazemzadeh also served variously as Director of Graduate Studies in Russian and Eastern European Studies; Chair of the Committee on Middle Eastern Studies; Director of Graduate Studies in History; and Master of Davenport College.\n\nHe is the author of \"The Struggle for Transcaucasia, 1917-1921,\" and \"Russia and Britain in Persia, 1864-1914,\" as well as the co-author of several other books relating to Russia and Central Asia. Since 1966 he has served as editor of World Order Magazine.\n\nDr. Kazemzadeh was born in the Iranian Embassy in Moscow, where his father served for many years, came to the United States in 1944, and received his academic training at Stanford University and Harvard University.\n\nThe US Congress passed the International Religious Freedom Act to promote religious freedom as a U.S. foreign policy goal and to combat religious persecution in other countries, according to the Commission's website.\n\nThe law created an Office of International Religious Freedom in the State Department, headed by an Ambassador-at-Large. That office is responsible for issuing a report on religious freedom and persecution in all foreign countries by 1 September of each year. On the basis of that report, the State Department designates \"countries of particular concern\" on the basis of their \"systematic, ongoing, and egregious\" violations of religious liberty.\n\nThe law identifies the wide range of diplomatic and economic tools that the President can apply to those countries. To assist the President, the law recommended creation of a special advisor on international religious freedom as part of the National Security Council staff. The law also created the Commission on International Religious Freedom and required it to issue an annual report each 1 May. The Commission expires in May 2003.\n\nOther Commissioners include prominent leaders of the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim communities. More information about the Commission can be found at its website at http://www.uscirf.gov."}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":124,"evergreenUrl":"london-tribute-amatul-baha-ruhiyyih-khanum-rabbani-honors-her-contributions-conservation-arts","title":"London tribute to Amatu'l-Baha Ruhiyyih Khanum Rabbani honors her contributions to conservation and the arts","description":"The late Madame Ruhiyyih Rabbani, the preeminent international dignitary of the Baha'i Faith, was honored at a tribute here on 15 May 2001. In...","date":"2001-06-15","customDateline":null,"city":"LONDON","country":"","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418531-bwns4691-0.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ImageRecord","image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418531-bwns4691-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"At a 15 May 2001 Arts for Nature event honoring Madame Ruhiyyih Rabbani in London, HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, left, talks with Ms. Violette Nahkjavani, center, in the presence of Ms. Guilda Navidi-Walker, right. Ms. Nakhjavani accompanied Madame Rabbani on her world travels and has recently written a book about her life. Ms. Navidi-Walker was convenor of the event.","imageStyle":"body-right","imageLink":""}],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"The late Madame Ruhiyyih Rabbani, the preeminent international dignitary of the Baha'i Faith, was honored at a tribute here on 15 May 2001. In attendance were some 150 prominent people, including HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.\n\nOrganized by the Arts for Nature, a 13-year-old organization that seeks to draw leading artists and performers into the environmental vanguard, the tribute was held at Canada House in Trafalgar Square. It featured an evening of music and drama, much of it produced especially for the occasion and using the writings of Madame Rabbani.\n\n\"We can be convinced academically and intellectually that conservation is important, but what's also important is that we are involved in this issue emotionally,\" said Prince Philip in extemporaneous remarks at the end of the evening. \"Madame Rabbani made a huge contribution to raising awareness in this field, and this has been a marvelous experience and a splendid evening.\"\n\nAn author, filmmaker and lecturer who cared deeply for the environment and indigenous peoples, Ruhiyyih Rabbani passed away on 19 January 2000. She was, further, a Hand of the Cause, the highest position occupied by individuals in the Baha'i Faith, and she played an important role in promoting the unity and integration of the Baha'i community over the years.\n\nThe evening tribute was organized largely by the Duchess of Abercorn, the chair of the Arts for Nature. The event began with dinner and a viewing of some of Prince Philip's private collection of nature paintings, in particular the work of Canadian wildlife artists. In addition, architectural drawings by the distinguished Canadian architect, William Sutherland Maxwell, Madame Rabbani's father, were displayed.\n\nThe main focus of the evening was a theatrical performance entitled \"A Life So Noble,\" which had been inspired by Ruhiyyih Khanum's life. Written by Canadian-born actress/writer Beverley Evans and directed by Annabel Knight, the show took four major aspects of Khanum's life and character and personified them in four women actresses, who told her story using words taken from Ruhiyyih Khanum's own lectures and writings.\n\nThe actresses -- Maria Friedman, Beverley Evans, Sarah Clive and Kerry-Ann Smith -- conveyed with extraordinary power and emotion the breadth of Madame Rabbani's achievements. There were deeply moving moments, including a scene depicting the funeral of Shoghi Effendi when thousands of flower petals rained down upon the stage from above. In direct contrast, Ruhiyyih Rabbani's great world travels were portrayed with wit and verve, while a list of her pets and favourite animals caused great amusement."},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_InlineImageRecord","slideshowImageNumber":2},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"The actresses were supported by four other women - from Botswana, Macau, Bolivia and Iran -- who wove a floral tapestry as the story unfolded, a metaphor for the rich and varied tapestry that was Madame Rabbani's life.\n\nOther high points included a musical performance of a composition by William Lovelady, set to the words of a poem by Ruhiyyih Khanum, \"This is Faith.\" The evening ended with Ruhiyyih Khanum's own recorded voice, speaking at a meeting in Belfast, where she had told the audience how much she disliked saying goodbye.\n\nThe Duchess of Abercorn told the audience that Madame Rabbani had left the world a better place than it was when she had come into it, urging them, like Madame Rabbani, to contribute their \"special thread\" to the tapestry of life. \"I hope that everyone here will pick up their own thread of creativity and quality of spirit and heart, and bring it into every aspect of our lives, because that's what the world is desperately in need of,\" she said.\n\nAmong the guests was Violette Nakhjavani, who accompanied Ruhiyyih Khanum when she traveled and has recently written a book about her life. \"I thought it was beautifully done,\" Mrs. Nakhjavani said of the dramatic narrative. \"I was very surprised at the warm response of the audience to the personal details of Ruhiyyih Khanum's life but I felt that she would have approved of presenting Baha'i ideas in such an audacious way.\"\n\nBorn Mary Maxwell in New York City in 1910, Madame Rabbani was the widow of Shoghi Effendi, who headed the Baha'i Faith from 1921 to 1957. As such, she was for Baha'is the last remaining link to the family of 'Abdu'l-Baha, who headed the Faith from 1892 to 1921 and was the eldest son of the Faith's Founder, Baha'u'llah.\n\nIn her role as a Hand of the Cause, Madame Rabbani traveled extensively, visiting some 185 countries and territories to encourage the spiritual and moral development of Baha'i communities. She also sought throughout her life to promote environmental conservation. She was, for example, a founding member of the Alliance of Religions and Conservation, a major interfaith organization that promotes the involvement of religious groups in the conservation efforts.\n\nMadame Rabbani also gave support to the first Arts for Nature event, which was held 26 October 1988 at Syon House in London. Madame Rabbani gave the keynote address, alongside Prince Philip, at the Syon House event, which was organized by the World Wide Fund for Nature-UK and the Baha'i International Community.\n\nDiana Jervis-Read, the Canadian cultural attache, said the commission had been delighted to host the event at Canada House, especially given that Madame Rabbani was raised in Canada.\n\nEvery guest received a brochure produced for the event by Peter Maguire and George Ballentyne of UK Baha'i Publishing, as well as a specially compiled illustrated anthology called \"Sacred Earth,\" and a copy of Madame Rabbani's book, \"Prescription for Living.\"\n\nFunds raised at the evening event went towards the Mendelssohn on Mull festival and the Canada House Arts Trust. \"There are lots of charity evenings that can be very glitzy, but this was completely different,\" said Marita Crawley, co-chair of the event, who also wrote a song honoring Madame Rabbani for the event. \"Some of the people here knew Madame Rabbani personally, while others were aware of her extraordinary work, but there were people in the audience who were hearing about her for the very first time this evening.\n\n\"The play was genuinely thought-provoking and caught the personality of Madame Rabbani, who was truly somebody whose work made the world a better place -- and I think everyone who came tonight left with something very special.\"\n\n-- Reported by Corinne Podger and Rob Weinberg"}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418532-bwns4690-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"The cast of performers at an Arts for Nature tribute honoring Madame Ruhiyyih Rabbani, held 15 May 2001 in London at Canada House. The event featured not only a dramatic narrative produced especially for the occasion but also several musical numbers."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418532-bwns4689-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"HRH The Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, chats with Barney Leith, secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United Kingdom, at an Arts for Nature tribute honoring Madame Ruhiyyih Rabbani, held 15 May 2001 in London."}],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":123,"evergreenUrl":"amidst-much-anticipation-bahai-world-centre-prepares-public-opening-garden-terraces-on-mount-carmel","title":"Amidst much anticipation, the Baha'i World Centre prepares for public opening of garden terraces on Mount Carmel","description":"After a week in which Israeli and world news media gave extensive coverage to the inauguration of a series of majestic garden terraces on Mount...","date":"2001-05-31","customDateline":null,"city":"HAIFA","country":"ISRAEL","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1687959778-bwns-default-missing-image-endslate-still-8-1-1.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"After a week in which Israeli and world news media gave extensive coverage to the inauguration of a series of majestic garden terraces on Mount Carmel here, the Baha'i World Centre is preparing for an expected onslaught of tourists and local residents who wish to visit them.\n\nMore specifically, the Centre has established a reservations system in collaboration with the Haifa Tourist Board and worked with other organizations in Haifa to train extra tour guides for the terraces, which will open officially to the public on Monday, 4 June. Set to start up slowly with 400 slots per day, the guided tour program could be expanded to handle more than a million visitors a year.\n\n\"We know that there is a lot of built-up anticipation on the part of Israelis and foreign tourists to visit the new terraces,\" said Douglas Samimi-Moore, director of the Baha'i International Community's Office of Public Information here, which will oversee the guided tour program.\n\n\"We have been getting many, many calls already from people asking, 'When can we visit the gardens, when can we walk on the terraces,' \" said Mr. Samimi-Moore. \"And our goal is to accommodate this overwhelming public desire as quickly as possible, while at the same time ensuring their experience matches the kind of care and dignity that went into creating the site.\"\n\nIn ceremonies on Tuesday, 22 May, before more than 3,000 Baha'is from 180 countries, some 650 Israeli dignitaries, and an estimated 100 members of the world's news media, the terraces were formally inaugurated. Featuring the world premiere of two orchestral works commissioned especially for the occasion, the inauguration ceremonies were seen around the world by satellite and webcast.\n\nAlong with two major new administrative buildings, the terraces were built over the last decade at a cost of some US$250 million, all from voluntary donations that came exclusively from the five million member worldwide Baha'i community, who see the completion of the project as the fulfillment of religious prophesy.\n\nYet while the terraces and associated gardens are sacred in character, Baha'is have always intended that they be shared with the world at large. Accordingly, like other Baha'i Shrines and holy places in the Haifa-Acre region, the terraces will be open to the public with no admission fee.\n\nBecause of the great interest in the project, however, it was decided to establish a program of pre-reserved guided tours, said Mr. Samimi-Moore. These free tours will be the only way that visitors can actually walk through the terraces from end to end.  Drop-in visitors will, however, be able to enjoy three special viewing areas located at the base, the peak and roughly in the middle of the terraces, which extend nearly a kilometer up Mount Carmel.\n\n\"We know that one reason people are so attracted to our terraces is because of their beauty, their orderliness and their cleanliness,\" said Mr. Samimi-Moore. \"And so we felt a guided tour program would be the best way to preserve that atmosphere.\"\n\nIn the face of the anticipated demand for visits, the Centre reached out to the Haifa Tourist Board and to the Beit Hagefen Arab-Jewish Cultural Center for assistance with the logistics of organizing the tour program.\n\nThe Haifa Tourist Board will manage the reservations system, which will begin as a telephone-only system and then expand later to an on-line system. The Beit Hagefen Center, which already sponsors a wide range of cross-cultural tours and events in Haifa, has been given the task of recruiting and training tour guides.\n\n\"What's happened is we realized we were facing a potential deluge of visitors,\" said Albert Lincoln, Secretary General of the Baha'i International Community, whose office has also been heavily involved in setting up the guided tour program. \"And as we came to grips with the scale of the program needed, we realized we didn't have the manpower or the know-how to do the whole job, so we reached out to these two local organizations.\"\n\nDr. Lincoln said a public opinion survey done in February and March indicated that some 95 percent of Haifa residents intend to visit the new terraces \"in the near future\" -- and that an astounding 75 percent of those surveyed throughout Israel had similar plans.\n\nThe city of Haifa, indeed, has made the project a centerpiece of its efforts to promote tourism in the region. The city has worked closely with the project's architect and his staff throughout the construction phase and it has linked to the project the renovation of the historic German Templer Colony district, which runs along Ben Gurion Avenue from the base of Mount Carmel to the sea.\n\n\"We consider the gardens a gift to us,\" said Moshe Tzur, managing director of the Haifa Tourist Board. \"We hope it will become one of the main tourist attractions in the world.\"\n\nFor its part, Beit Hagefen is bringing in both Jewish and Arab guides, mostly drawn from the students of Haifa University. The first batch of guides, for example, is composed of about 30 Jewish students and 25 Arab students, said Hani El Far, Beit Hagefen's deputy general director.\n\n\"Our aim as an organization is to convey the importance of the coming together of every community in Haifa, Jewish, Arab, Baha'i and others,\" said Mr. El Far, explaining why Beit Hagefen has taken on this project. \"And these aims are parallel to the aims of the Baha'i community.\"\n\nPeople wishing to reserve a place on a guided tour of the terraces should call, in Israel, 04-831-3131."}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":122,"evergreenUrl":"focusing-on-future-bahais-head-home-after-week-celebration-reflection-on-mount-carmel","title":"Focusing on the future, Baha'is head home after a week of celebration and reflection on Mount Carmel","description":"Inspired and invigorated after a week celebrating the completion of essential elements of their world center, Baha'is gathered here from some...","date":"2001-05-25","customDateline":null,"city":"HAIFA","country":"ISRAEL","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1687959778-bwns-default-missing-image-endslate-still-8-1-1.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"Inspired and invigorated after a week celebrating the completion of essential elements of their world center, Baha'is gathered here from some 180 countries prepared today to head out to the four corners of the globe.\n\nThey go with their gaze set firmly towards the future.\n\n\"Everything has been really wonderful, a source of encouragement and inspiration,\" said Mandu Assam, a 25-year-old business school graduate from Nigeria, about the program that inaugurated a kilometer-long series of 19 garden terraces and two new administrative buildings on Mount Carmel.\n\n\"It has been a driving force to move ahead,\" Ms. Assam added, saying she will now throw herself ever more eagerly into her Baha'i work at home, which has involved leading moral and spiritual education classes for children and involvement in campaigns to spread the Baha'i teachings.\n\nMs. Assam's feelings were echoed by others, especially by the younger generation gathered here, who were the focus of a message from the Universal House of Justice on Thursday night.\n\nDelivered to 3,000 participants, the message from the Baha'i Faith's international governing council noted that the great majority of humanity remains engulfed in heartbreaking \"suffering and deprivation.\"\n\n\"Humanity's crying need will not be met by a struggle among competing ambitions or by protest against one or another of the countless wrongs afflicting a desperate age,\" said the message. \"It calls, rather, for a fundamental change of consciousness, for a wholehearted embrace of Baha'u'llah's teaching that the time has come when each human being on earth must learn to accept responsibility for the welfare of the entire human family.\n\n\"Commitment to this revolutionizing principle will increasingly empower individual believers and Baha'i institutions alike in awakening others to the Day of God and to the latent spiritual and moral capacities that can change this world into another world,\" the statement said. \"We demonstrate this commitment by our rectitude of conduct towards others, by the discipline of our own natures, and by our complete freedom from the prejudices that cripple collective action in the society around us and frustrate positive impulses towards change.\"\n\nThe Universal House of Justice said these standards hold \"particular implications\" for youth, inasmuch as they are blessed with \"the enviable advantages of high energy, flexibility of mind and, to a great extent, freedom of movement.\"\n\n\"Their challenge is to understand the real condition of humanity and to forge among themselves enduring spiritual bonds that free them not only from racial and national divisions but also from those created by social and material conditions, and that will fit them to carry forward the great trust reposed in them,\" said the statement.\n\nMany youth were among the 3,000 participants. All delegates gathered Friday morning along a semi-circular path in the gardens that link two recently completed administrative buildings and the majestic Seat of the Universal House of Justice. And young participants said the message -- and the entire week of activities -- had indeed taken them to a deeper level of faith and commitment.\n\n\"There is a great responsibility on our shoulders to change this generation,\" said Jude Dogley, 23, of the Seychelles. \"Going back, I will try to live the Baha'i life and to set a good example and to explain to others how the Baha'i principles can solve the problems of our age.\"\n\nHe said the gathering together of Baha'is from virtually every race and nationality had proved to him that peace and unity among all humanity is possible.\n\n\"There are a lot of divisions in the world out there,\" said Mr. Dogley, who has been a Baha'i since 1996. \"But we can show people that even if you are from different backgrounds and different cultures, you can still live like brothers and sisters.\"\n\nVirginie Montiel, a 25-year-old medical student from Belgium, said the week's activities had also proved to her that it was indeed possible for everyone to treat each other -- and to be treated by each other -- equally.\n\n\"In the Baha'i Faith we always say that we are one,\" she said, describing how encounters with so many people from so many different cultures had changed her. \"We saw this in practice here, with all these different people from different backgrounds working for the same thing. We saw that it is possible for everyone to be equal.\"\n\nThe gathering today outside the two new buildings, the International Teaching Centre and the Centre for the Study of the Texts, marked another historic moment for Baha'is here and around the world inasmuch as it celebrated the completion of the administrative headquarters of the Baha'i World Centre.\n\nAlong with the two other buildings set high on Mount Carmel, the Seat of the Universal House of Justice and the International Archives Building, these edifices house essential institutions and artifacts -- and their completion is for Baha'is the realization of a century-long dream to create a spiritual and administrative center that will fully and fittingly represent the Faith's position as an independent world religion, now the second-most widespread geographically after Christianity.\n\nThe Center for the Study of the Texts houses scholars and researchers whose role is to study the vast body of the Baha'i sacred writings, translate them, prepare compilations, and draft commentaries on their relationship to current world problems.\n\nThe International Teaching Center building houses a body of appointed individuals who assist the Universal House of Justice and provide guidance and encouragement to the worldwide Baha'i community on its growth and development.\n\nAltogether, the terraces -- which were inaugurated with a world premiere concert on Tuesday, 22 May, before 4,000 people in Haifa and a worldwide audience by satellite and webcast -- and the two new buildings cost some US$250 million to complete. The money was raised entirely from within the worldwide Baha'i community through voluntary donations.\n\nThe architect who designed the new buildings, Hossein Amanat, along with the architect who designed the garden terraces, Fariborz Sahba, were given warm appreciation in an evening program Wednesday, 23 May, the highlight of which was the showing of a new 38-minute video documentary on the roughly 15-year-long construction process for the new structures.\n\nTitled \"Not even a lamp,\" the documentary detailed the immense challenges faced in working on the slope of Mount Carmel. The architects had to work carefully so as not to disturb neighbors, the surrounding gardens and buildings, or the precious golden-domed Shrine of the Bab.\n\n\"This was not an ordinary project,\" Mr. Amanat told the gathering. \"This was a kind of sacred task for us. We really looked on it as a prayer.\"\n\nMr. Amanat said the buildings were designed to last for 500 years: \"Every detail, when implemented, was done with a great amount of research as to what kinds of materials we should use, what technology we should use, so that these buildings will last as long as possible.\"\n\nThroughout the week, music was a crucial element in the celebration. Tuesday evening saw the world premiere of two orchestral works written especially for the occasion of the inauguration of the terraces on Mount Carmel.\n\nOn Wednesday and Thursday, a wide range of Baha'i artists from around the world took to the stage to inspire and uplift. Among those performing were the Congo Youth Choir from the Democratic Republic of the Congo; The Tabarsi Group, a group of Roma musicians from Spain; Vivek Nair, a singer from India; Kevin Locke, a Lakota flutist from the United States; and Atef Sedkouai, a Tunisian vocalist from Paris.\n\nCollectively, these performances showcased a tremendous depth of talent and creative expression, giving new meaning to the term of \"world music.\"\n\n\"We wanted the performers to represent a wide diversity,\" said Alex Frame, who produced the week's program. \"And we brought together people who didn't know each other, and people who in some cases didn't even speak the same language.\n\n\"Yet within minutes of coming together, even in their dressing rooms, they started jamming together,\" said Mr. Frame. \"It was natural and spontaneous and, without impediment, they began to create new kinds of music.\"\n\nOn Thursday evening, the program used a dramatic narrative to explore the growth and development of the Faith over the last century, exploring how events and trends in the world at large converged or coincided with the evolution of the Baha'i community.\n\nDrawing on \"Century of Light,\" a new book published by the Baha'i World Centre, the narrative chronicled such events as the visit of Abdu'l-Baha to America, the crusade to spread the Faith around the world in the 1950s, and the persecution of the Baha'is in Iran in the 1980s. The drama brought to life with colorful characterizations how people's lives have been transformed by the Faith.\n\n\"Our idea was to juxtapose news events happening in the world at large with dramatic episodes from the Faith's history, and how the Faith offers hope to the world,\" said Ann Boyles of Canada, author of the drama. \"For example, in the opening section, we talked about the atrocities committed in the Congo at the turn of the century under King Leopold, when more than a million Congolese were killed, starved or worked to death.\n\n\"On the other hand,\" she added, \"we had here this week this vibrant youth choir coming from the Congo, with great hope and optimism about the future.\""}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":121,"evergreenUrl":"thousands-bahais-climb-mount-carmel-new-terraces-are-inaugurated","title":"Thousands of Baha'is climb Mount Carmel as new terraces are inaugurated","description":"Thousands of Baha'is from every race, nation and religious background today streamed up the face of Mount Carmel in a prayerful ascent toward...","date":"2001-05-23","customDateline":null,"city":"HAIFA","country":"ISRAEL","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418476-bwns4688-0.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ImageRecord","image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418476-bwns4688-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Thousands of Baha'is from around the world attended a devotional program on 23 May 2001 as part of the inauguration of the Terraces on Mount Carmel.","imageStyle":"body-right","imageLink":""}],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"Thousands of Baha'is from every race, nation and religious background today streamed up the face of Mount Carmel in a prayerful ascent toward the Shrine of the Bab, the second-most holy place in the Baha'i world.\n\nThe climb, made up a stately stone stairway that runs through the heart of a series of recently completed garden terraces, was an act of deep spiritual significance to the participants here.\n\nComing this week from some 180 nations to celebrate the inauguration of the terraces, which extend nearly a kilometer up the mountainside, those who made the climb said they were moved and uplifted by the experience. They will count it as one of the most meaningful of their lives.\n\n\"It was really soul-stirring,\" said Samuel Benjamin Obura, a 65-year-old sugarcane farmer from Kenya. \"First of all, there was the beauty of the gardens and the Shrine. It gave one to think of many things.\n\n\"I thought of the suffering of the Bab,\" Mr. Obura continued. \"He was put in prison and He was mocked and He was martyred and everyone thought that was the end.\n\n\"But now we see the glory that surrounds His Shrine and the adoration people feel when they visit it,\" he added.\n\nThe event today was part of a week-long program to celebrate the completion of a $250 million complex of buildings, gardens and terraces at the Baha'i World Centre. The terraces were built over the last 10 years with voluntary donations from the five million member worldwide Baha'i community. Baha'is view completion of the project as marking a major stage in the emergence of the Baha'i Faith on the world scene."},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_InlineImageRecord","slideshowImageNumber":2},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"\"The significance of this event is that it represents a kind of culmination of the development of the Baha'i World Centre on this mountain,\" said Penny Walker, a member of the International Teaching Centre here, a key Baha'i institution that focuses on advising national Baha'i communities on their growth and development.\n\n\"At the same time, we see that the Baha'i Faith is established in every country and territory of the world, bringing together an incredible cross-section of the human race, who are all committed to bringing people everywhere into one human family,\" said Dr. Walker.\n\nThe diversity of the worldwide Baha'i community was evident today as delegates made their way up Mount Carmel in a spirit of devotion. Many wore traditional native costumes and the procession was a showcase of the human garden, resplendent in all its races and colors.\n\nThe climb led Galina Iefremova, a 23-year-old teacher from Belarus, to think about the human race at large and its desire for peace.\n\n\"The idea that more than 3,000 people can come together to do this, it is an example that can show the way the world can be, without any problems or prejudice,\" said Ms. Iefremova, who became a Baha'i in 1993.  \"All over the world, people are waiting for this.\"\n\nMaria Pancham, a 41-year-old airline personnel officer from Suriname, thought of how she will rededicate her life to seeing the positive side of life in all things, and to serving humanity when she returns home.\n\n\"How to you put it in words?\" she said when asked about her experience. \"It is a feeling of peace and relief and joy. It makes you want to serve humanity.\n\n\"I can't say I'm transformed, because right now I feel I am in a different world,\" she added. \"So all I can do is pray that I will be able to take these feelings back home and not fall into the routine.\"\n\nLeslie Serrano, a 20-year-old student from Mexico, said she also thought about the need to serve humanity and to make sacrifices in life to do so.\n\n\"I felt climbing those stairs was a reflection of what life represents when you begin at the bottom and you gradually have to take steps upward,\" Ms. Serrano said. \"Sometimes it is hard and it takes sacrifice to get you where you are going.\"\n\nHer dominant thought, however, was about the Biblical prophesy of Isaiah.\n\n\"I thought of where it says, 'And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it,' \" she said, reciting the passage from memory.\n\n\"And when I saw all those people from all these nations, climbing up Mount Carmel, I felt that was the fulfillment of that prophesy,\" said Ms. Serrano. \"It is a privilege without words to be part of that.\""}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418485-bwns4687-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"The Congo Baha'i Youth Choir singing at a devotional program at the base of the Terraces on Mount Carmel prior to the ascent of the Terraces by thousands of Baha'is from around the world."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418477-bwns4686-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Baha'is from around the world walk up the central staircase of the Terraces on Mount Carmel as part of inaugural ceremonies held on 23 May 2001."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418476-bwns4685-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Thousands of Baha'is representing nearly every race, culture and nation stream up the central staircase of the Terraces of the Shrine of the Bab on Mount Carmel during an inaugural ceremony on 23 May 2001."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418476-bwns4684-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"The Congo Baha'i Youth Choir and the Baha'i World Centre Choir sang devotions together prior to the ascent of the Terraces on Mount Carmel by thousands of Baha'is from around the world."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418481-bwns4683-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Thousands of Baha'is representing some 180 countries attended a devotional program on 23 May 2001 as part of the inauguration of the Terraces on Mount Carmel."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418476-bwns4682-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"A representative of the Baha'i community of Thailand in her national dress at a devotional program on 23 May 2001 at the entrance plaza of the Terraces on Mount Carmel."}],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":120,"evergreenUrl":"with-dramatic-flourish-bahais-unveil-majestic-garden-terraces-on-mount-carmel","title":"With a dramatic flourish, Baha'is unveil majestic garden terraces on Mount Carmel","description":"In an expressive and emotionally powerful ceremony featuring a symphony orchestra, a 70-voice choir, a specially built 4,000-seat amphitheater,...","date":"2001-05-22","customDateline":null,"city":"HAIFA","country":"ISRAEL","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418434-bwns7594-0.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ImageRecord","image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418434-bwns7594-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Violinist Bijan Khadem-Missagh was one of the soloists for the \"Terraces of Light\" oratorio.","imageStyle":"body-right","imageLink":""}],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"In an expressive and emotionally powerful ceremony featuring a symphony orchestra, a 70-voice choir, a specially built 4,000-seat amphitheater, and the setting sun, Baha'is from more than 180 countries and their guests celebrated today the inauguration of a majestic series of garden terraces on the face of Mount Carmel.\n\nFor Baha'is here, and for co-religionists around the world who watched via satellite and internet webcast, it was a momentous event, marking the completion of a complex of buildings and gardens on what throughout history has been called \"the Mountain of the Lord.\"\n\nThe Universal House of Justice, in a statement read during the ceremony, offered the project, the celebration surrounding it, and the golden-domed Shrine it glorifies, as sources of hope against the \"turmoil and crises of our time.\"\n\n\"That our Earth has contracted into a neighborhood, no one can seriously deny,\" said the statement of the Faith's international governing body, which oversaw the construction of the project. \"The world is being made new. Death pangs are yielding to birth pangs. The pain shall pass when members of the human race act upon the common recognition of their essential oneness.\n\n\"There is a light at the end of this tunnel of change, beckoning humanity to the goal destined for it according to the testimonies recorded in all the Holy Books. The Shrine of the Bab stands as a symbol of the efficacy of that age-old promise, a sign of its urgency.\n\n\"It is, as well, a monument to the triumph of love over hate,\" continued the statement. \"The gardens that surround that structure, in their rich variety of colors and plants, are a reminder that the human race can live harmoniously in all its diversity.\"\n\nThe temporary amphitheater here, erected over the last week at the base of Mount Carmel, was packed with more than 3,000 Baha'is, more than 650 dignitaries from Israel and international embassies, and at least 100 representatives of the news media from around the world."},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_InlineImageRecord","slideshowImageNumber":2},{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"The dignitaries present for the ceremony included several Israeli Government ministers and deputy ministers, three Israeli Supreme Court justices, and more than 30 ambassadors to Israel from around the world. Members of the Israeli Knesset and local officials, including the Mayors of Haifa and Acre, were also present, as were local and regional religious leaders.\n\nThe ceremony featured two orchestral works composed especially for the occasion.  Towards the end of the second composition, and just as dusk was falling, the lights on the 19 newly constructed terraces, which extend nearly a kilometer up the north face of Mount Carmel, were gradually turned on, illuminating the mountainside in a dramatic climax.\n\n\"For the Baha'is gathered here, this was a profound act, an inauguration ceremony for a set of sacred gardens and new administrative buildings that mark the completion of our world center, an event we have worked towards for years,\" said Douglas Samimi-Moore, Director of the Office of Public Information of the Baha'i International Community.\n\n\"This in a sense represents the coming of age of the Baha'i world community, which is emerging around the planet with the aim of helping to reshape and revitalize the social and spiritual life of humanity,\" said Mr. Samimi-Moore.\n\nThe focus of the terraces, and today's celebration, is the Shrine of the Bab, a golden-domed, white marble structure that is the second-most holy place to Baha'is in the world. It is the final resting place of the Bab, the Herald of the Baha'i Faith, who was born in Iran in 1819 and executed in 1850 at the order of religious authorities, who were challenged by His claim to prophethood and the rapid growth of His followers.\n\nMuch of the program today celebrated the ultimate triumph of the Bab and His message, in that there are now some five million Baha'is around the world, forming a community capable of financing and constructing the US$250 million complex of terraces, gardens and two major new buildings that have virtually reshaped the north face of Mount Carmel.\n\n\"Today we commemorate a sacred history of unexampled love, supreme sacrifice and divine vision,\" said Matthew Weinberg, Director of Research for the Baha'i International Community's Office of Public Information, in a speech to participants before the ceremony. \"It is a narrative prefigured in the pronouncements of the great Seers of the past.\n\n\"As we stand awestruck at the majestic structures and the 'tapestry of beauty' now defining the face of God's Holy Mountain, and ponder the mysterious processes responsible for the remarkable transformation of this once barren domain, the words of Isaiah echo on all sides:  '...Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the splendor of our God,' \" said Mr. Weinberg.\n\nBoth of the orchestral works composed for today's inauguration are deeply connected to this theme. The first piece of music in the program was \"O Queen of Carmel!,\" a cantata in three movements, written by Tolib Shahidi, a composer from Tajikistan. The second piece, \"Terraces of Light,\" was composed by Lasse Thoresen, who is one of Norway's best known classical composers.\n\nMr. Shahidi's piece is based on a eulogy by Shoghi Effendi, who led the Baha'i Faith from 1921 to 1957,  to \"the Queen of Carmel,\" as Baha'is sometimes refer to the Shrine of the Bab. Lyrical and melodic, it made for a serene opening work.\n\nMr. Thoresen's composition is an oratorio in five movements, corresponding to the five paragraphs and essential themes found in the stirring Tablet of Carmel, a key piece of Baha'i scripture, which was written by Baha'u'llah about the role that Mount Carmel plays in religious history and as the world center of His Cause. Its modern rhythms and complex intensity were stirring.\n\nBoth pieces were performed by the Israel Northern  Symphony Haifa, under the direction of Stanley Sperber, with support from three Canadian soloists -- mezzo-soprano Patricia Green, tenor Stuart Howe and baritone Brett Polegato. Also featured were Austrian violinists Bijan Khadem-Missagh, his son Vahid and daughter Martha, and the Transylvania State Philharmonic Choir of Cluj, Romania.\n\nThe interplay of human voices and the orchestra, in an outdoor setting at the foot of Mount Carmel, with the audience facing upward toward the beautifully illuminated Shrine of the Bab, was a moving experience for many of the participants, most of whom had been selected by their national Baha'i governing bodies to represent their country at this event.\n\nThe musical climax of \"Terraces of Light\" was timed to occur just after the sun had set, and as the music reached its crescendo. The 19 terraces were lit up one-by-one in a brilliant flourish that will be remembered by participants for a lifetime.\n\n\"It was stunning,\" said Nancy Oloro, a delegate from Zambia. \"I felt myself in a different world. In the Baha'i writings, it is said that music gives wings to the soul. And I felt that.\"\n\nThe terraces themselves were also designed to glorify the Shrine of the Bab, said architect Fariborz Sahba, who designed them and oversaw their construction.\n\n\"In principle, whatever we have done on this mountain aims to provide an approach to the Shrine, to complement it and pay tribute to it,\" said Mr. Sabha, who also designed the world renowned Baha'i House of Worship in New Delhi, India. \"Our intention has not been merely to build just a beautiful garden. Beautiful gardens are everywhere. But these gardens are spiritual gardens.\"\n\nHe explained that they were designed principally with Baha'i pilgrims in mind, so that as they walked up the terraces towards the Shrine, believers could detach themselves from the outside world and focus on their own relationship with the Creator.\n\n\"Baha'is have made a tremendous sacrifice to build these monuments,\" Mr. Sahba said, explaining that donations for their construction came entirely from Baha'is, \"dollar by dollar.\"\n\nOn 4 June, the terraces will be opened to the public. Because of the overwhelming interest in the terraces, a computer reservation system is being set up to take requests for guided tours, which will be offered at no cost.\n\n\"This extraordinary work of art that we are seeing on the mountain is a visible expression of inspiration that comes only from the Creator,\" said Albert Lincoln, Secretary General of the Baha'i International Community. \"It is the same spirit of faith that built the great cathedrals of Europe and the great mosques, monasteries and religious monuments of the East.\n\n\"We think the world should consider the great vitality of this force and consider setting aside some of the negative stereotypes which have in this modern era come to characterize religion,\" said Dr. Lincoln. \"In other words, we see these terraces and this event as an opportunity to see the positive force of faith at work.\""}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418438-bwns4708-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"The Terraces of the Shrine of the Bab illuminated at the climax of the “Terraces of Light” oratorio."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418435-bwns4707-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Albert Lincoln, Secretary General of the Baha'i International Community, reads the statement of the Universal House of Justice for the opening of the Terraces on Mount Carmel."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418435-bwns4681-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Maestro Stanley Sperber and soloists Patricia Green, Stuart Howe and Brett Polegato at the premier performance of \"Terraces of Light\"."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418435-bwns4680-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"The Israel Northern Symphony Haifa with the Transylvania State Choir on the entrance plaza of the Terraces of the Shrine of the Bab on Mount Carmel."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418434-bwns4679-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Fariborz Sahba, architect of the Mount Carmel Terraces (left) and Lasse Thoresen, composer of the \"Terraces of Light\" oratorio (right), at the inauguration ceremony."},{"image":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1543418435-bwns4678-0.jpg"},"imageDescription":"Violinist Bijan Khadem-Missagh was one of the soloists for the \"Terraces of Light\" oratorio."}],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":119,"evergreenUrl":"statement-universal-house-justice-opening-terraces-on-mount-carmel","title":"Statement of the Universal House of Justice for the opening of the Terraces on Mount Carmel","description":"Statement of the Universal House Justice on the occasion of the official opening of the Terraces of the Shrine of the Bab, 22 May 2001 As delivered...","date":"2001-05-22","customDateline":null,"city":"HAIFA","country":"ISRAEL","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1687959778-bwns-default-missing-image-endslate-still-8-1-1.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"Statement of the Universal House Justice on the occasion of the official opening of the Terraces of the Shrine of the Bab, 22 May 2001\n\nAs delivered by Dr. Albert Lincoln, Secretary General of the Baha'i International Community:\n\nWith joyful and thankful hearts, we welcome all who have come from near and far to join us on this auspicious occasion for the Baha'is of the world.  We acknowledge with deep appreciation the presence of so many distinguished guests.\n\nA century and a half have passed since that unspeakable tragedy in the northwest of Persia when the Bab faced the volley fired at Him from the rifles of 750 soldiers.  The soldiers had followed the orders of the highest authorities in the land.  The Bab's mangled body was then thrown on the side of a moat outside the city, abandoned to what His cold-blooded persecutors thought would be a dishonourable fate.  They had hoped thus to put an end to the growing influence of His teachings on masses of people throughout the country.  These masses had accepted, in the face of intense persecution, the Bab's claim to prophethood, and their lives were being transformed spiritually and morally as He prepared them for what He said was the dawn of a new age in which a world civilization would be born and flourish.  The expectations that stirred countless hearts were heightened even more sublimely by the Bab's announcement that One greater than He would soon arise, One who would reveal the unparalleled character of the promised world civilization that would signify the coming of age of the entire human race.\n\nWe are met not to lament the tragedy of the Bab's martyrdom and the persecutions that followed; rather have we come to celebrate the culmination and acknowledge the meaning of an unprecedented project that had its beginning over a century ago.  It was then that Baha'u'llah, Whom the Ottoman authorities had banished to Acre to serve out His days in confinement, visited Mount Carmel and selected the spot where the remains of His Herald would be interred.  We humbly trust that the wondrous result achieved by the completion of the nineteen terraced gardens, at the heart of which rises the Shrine of the Bab, is a fitting fulfilment of the vision initiated by Baha'u'llah.\n\nThe sufferings sustained by the Bab so as to arouse humanity to the responsibilities of its coming age of maturity were themselves indications of the intensity of the struggle necessary for the world's people to pass through the age of humanity's collective adolescence.  Paradoxical as it may seem, this is a source of hope.  The turmoil and crises of our time underlie a momentous transition in human affairs.  Simultaneous processes of disintegration and integration have clearly been accelerating throughout the planet since the Bab appeared in Persia.  That our Earth has contracted into a neighbourhood, no one can seriously deny.  The world is being made new.  Death pangs are yielding to birth pangs.  The pain shall pass when members of the human race act upon the common recognition of their essential oneness.  There is a light at the end of this tunnel of change beckoning humanity to the goal destined for it according to the testimonies recorded in all the Holy Books.\n\nThe Shrine of the Bab stands as a symbol of the efficacy of that age-old promise, a sign of its urgency.  It is, as well, a monument to the triumph of love over hate.  The gardens which surround that structure, in their rich variety of colours and plants, are a reminder that the human race can live harmoniously in all its diversity.  The light that shines from the central edifice is as a beacon of hope to the countless multitudes who yearn for a life that satisfies the soul as well as the body.\n\nThis inextinguishable hope stems from words such as these from the Pen of Baha'u'llah: \"This is the Day in which God's most excellent favours have been poured out upon men, the Day in which His most mighty grace has been infused into all created things.\"  May all who strive, often against great odds, to uphold principles of justice and concord be encouraged by these assurances.\n\nIn reflecting on the years of effort invested in this daunting project, we are moved to express to the people of Haifa the warmth of the feeling in our hearts.  Their city will for all time be extolled by the Baha'is everywhere as the place in which the mortal remains of the youthful Prophet-Herald of their Faith finally found refuge, and this after half a century of having to be secretly moved for protection from one place to another in His native land.  The patience and cordiality shown towards the Baha'is throughout the most difficult years of the construction work exemplify the spirit of goodwill in which so much of the world stands so greatly in need.  Haifa is providentially situated on Mount Carmel, with its immortal associations with saintly visionaries, whose concern throughout the ages was largely focused on the promise of peace.  May Haifa achieve wide renown not just as a place of natural beauty but more especially as the city of peace.\n\nLet the word go forth, then, from this sacred spot, from this Mountain of the Lord, that the unity and peace of the world are not only possible but inevitable.  Their time has come."}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null},{"storyNumber":118,"evergreenUrl":"complex-challenges-bahais-putting-on-an-outdoor-celebration-thousands","title":"Complex challenges for Baha'is in putting on an outdoor celebration for thousands","description":"Gry Kvalheim worked behind the scenes on logistical arrangements for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and also the 1992 Baha'i World Congress, which...","date":"2001-05-21","customDateline":null,"city":"HAIFA","country":"ISRAEL","thumbnail":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/6348/1687959778-bwns-default-missing-image-endslate-still-8-1-1.jpg"},"featureAudio":null,"feature":[],"storyContent":[{"__typename":"DatoCMS_ParagraphRecord","paragraphText":"Gry Kvalheim worked behind the scenes on logistical arrangements for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics and also the 1992 Baha'i World Congress, which brought some 30,000 Baha'is from around the world to New York.\n\nShe nevertheless counts the inauguration of a series of majestic garden terraces tomorrow on Mount Carmel as one of the most complex undertakings she's ever been involved with.\n\nAmong other things, the celebration this week entailed making travel and hotel arrangements for 3,000 Baha'is from more than 180 countries, the construction of a 4,000-seat temporary amphitheater, and the coordination of a musical program that brings together a symphony orchestra from Israel, a choir from Romania, and soloists from around the world. More than 60 buses have been hired just to shuttle participants around.\n\n\"This is one of the biggest events in Israel this year, and certainly one of the biggest in Haifa ever,\" said Ms. Kvalheim, who is Managing Director of the Inaugural Events Office, which has organized the celebration. \"We've essentially had to book every hotel room in Haifa and in surrounding cities, from Nahariyya on the other side of Acre to Zichron Ya'acov in the south.\"\n\nMs. Kvalheim, who has been a Baha'i since 1959, also feels the assignment is the most significant she has ever undertaken.\n\n\"As a Baha'i, I don't think you can even fathom the importance of this event,\" she said, noting that the scriptures of the Baha'i Faith promise that such structures would one day grace the slope of Mount Carmel. \"For us, it is prophecy fulfilled.\"\n\nBuilt at a cost of some $250 million, the 19 garden terraces and two nearby administrative buildings are being offered up to the world this week as a demonstration of how diverse peoples can come together in peace and harmony.\n\nThe worldwide Baha'i community of some five million people from virtually every background and nation have sacrificed and labored in a spirit of love and unity over the last decade to fund and complete the project.\n\nToday, in celebration of the project's completion, the 3,000 Baha'is gathered here visited the Shrine of Baha'u'llah, the Founder of the Baha'i Faith. Located in the city of Acre, across the bay from Haifa, the Shrine of Baha'u'llah is the most holy place in the world for Baha'is. The program featured prayers and devotional elements designed to spiritually prepare them for the week ahead.\n\nOn Tuesday, the terraces will be formally inaugurated with a world premiere concert of two orchestral works composed specifically for the occasion and the reading of a message from the Universal House of Justice, the international governing body of the Baha'i Faith. The concert and ceremonies will be available worldwide by satellite and webcast. Dozens of representatives of the international media have expressed a desire to attend and cover the event.\n\nMaking logistical arrangements for the concert and inaugural ceremonies, which will continue until Friday, has been a huge undertaking, made more complex because the concert will be held outside, at the base of Mount Carmel.\n\nThe Inaugural Events Office has arranged for the construction of a massive 4,000-seat temporary amphitheater around the plaza that forms the first terrace on the mountainside, at the top of Ben Gurion Avenue. This has necessitated closing the intersection of Ben Gurion Avenue and Hagefen Street, one of the city busiest locations, to automobile traffic for two weeks. The Inaugural Events Office has collaborated closely with the City of Haifa throughout the project.\n\n\"We consider the gardens a gift to us,\" said Moshe Tzur, managing director of the Haifa Tourist Board. \"We hope it will become one of the main tourist attractions in the world. And the people of Haifa, they understand and are more than happy about it.\"\n\nJack Lenz, music director for the event, said the holding of such a concert outside, in a temporary amphitheater, entailed numerous special musical concerns.\n\n\"We're not doing this with the natural acoustics of a hall, and the challenge is how do you make it sound good outside,\" said Mr. Lenz, who is himself a well-known composer, artist and producer in Canada.\n\nOne potential problem is excess wind, which could create unwanted noise. To counter that, wind socks will be put on all microphones.\n\n\"You plan and do what you can do and then you leave the rest up to God,\" said Mr. Lenz. \"I'm assuming the weather will be great and the wind will be low.\"\n\nAs well, said Mr. Lenz, concerts held outside often lack the fullness of sound that is heard in a concert hall, where the sound waves are reflected off the walls and ceiling. To compensate, they will put individual microphones on each instrument in the orchestra, instead of at just a few locations, and then add reverberation or other effects at the mixing console.\n\nLike Ms. Kvalheim, Mr. Lenz feels that an extraordinary sense of history and importance surrounding the inauguration.\n\n\"This is a unique event in the Baha'i dispensation,\" said Mr. Lenz. \"The terraces will be here for hundreds of years. The mountain itself has been celebrated in the Judeo-Christian religious tradition for thousands of years. In the Bible, for example, Isaiah talks about songs of \"everlasting joy\" on Mount Carmel.\n\n\"More than 75 percent of the program on Tuesday night is music,\" added Mr. Lenz. \"So that fits in with the whole prophetic vision of the mountain.\"\n\nIn addition to the participation of more than 3,000 Baha'is from around the world, several hundred dignitaries are expected to attend the concert tomorrow. The list of confirmed attendees includes a number of government ministers, several Israeli Supreme Court justices, ambassadors and members of the Israeli Knesset.\n\n\"The project and its completion has provoked an unexpectedly enthusiastic response within Israel,\" said Albert Lincoln, secretary general of the Baha'i International Community.\n\nDr. Lincoln said during Passover, for example, the number of Israeli visitors to the gardens that immediately surround the Shrine of the Bab, which have long been open to the public, exceeded 12,000 visitors on one day.  Previously, he said, visits to those gardens ran from 1,000 to 2,000 on Jewish holy days.\n\n\"Likewise, the response to the invitations sent out for the opening ceremonies has been far beyond anything anticipated by professional events organizers or any previous experience we've had,\" said Dr. Lincoln.\n\nIn anticipation of the thousands more who will want to visit the terraces, which will be opened to the public on 4 June, a special computerized reservation system has been set up and a new group of tour guides have been trained. Ultimately, it is expected that more than a million people a year will visit the terraces. The tours will be offered at no charge."}],"disableInlineCaptions":false,"slideshow":[],"pushRelatedContentDown":null,"relatedContent":[],"updatedContent":false,"excludeFromHomepage":false,"category":[],"highlightClip":null}],"lang":"en","language":"en","location":"/archive/78/"}},"staticQueryHashes":["2762707590"]}