Bahá’í World/Volume 27/The Year in Review

Bahá’í World/Volume 27 The Year in Review

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[Page 67]

THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Bahá’ís around the world, operating within the administrative framework outlined by Bahá’u’lláh, are working to initiate social and economic development projects; advance the status of women; promote the cause of peace and intergovernmental cooperation; implement programs of moral education; develop human resources through training institutes; increase racial, ethnic, and tribal harmony through dialogue and cooperation; support human rights; foster use of the arts in all their endeavors; promote scholarship; and propagate the ideals of the Bahá’í world community. The "Year in Review" explores how these activities are being carried out across the world, details some of the ways Bahá’ís are being recognized by the world at large, and highlights landmark achievements in the development of Bahá’í communities. The sheer volume of Bahá’í activities prevents the "Year in Review" from being a comprehensive record; it instead aims to provide a general survey of their evolving range and sophistication, and perhaps some insight into the challenges of building a global community. [Page 68]During the year between Riḍván 1998 and Ridván 1999, local Bahá’í communities took more responsibility for initiating development projects and adapting national plans to their own skills and capacities; many national communities saw greater participation by indigenous peoples in administrative affairs; the relationship between the media and the Bahá’í community in many parts of the world saw significant signs of evolution; and greater attention was paid to the proposals and ideas of the Bahá’í International Community by other non-governmental organizations.

Social and Economic Development

In the Bahá’í view, social and economic development is a collaborative process designed to empower individuals, families, and communities to support themselves materially, progress spiritually, and create new patterns of social interaction. Through consultation, action, and reflection, Bahá’í development strives to inspire communities to discover and capitalize on their own potential. By sharing knowledge and experience, establishing schools, literacy, and health projects—some small, some large; some permanent, others designed to last only a short time—Bahá’ís engage in social and economic development. Seminars, conferences, and workshops focusing on development are also part of the process of learning through consultation.

The Azemikhah Institute has its permanent quarters near Bangui in the Central African Republic. In 1996, a national training program was established for the institute. The courses of study follow two main tracks. The first series helps the participants develop their capacities to combine study of the Bahá’í writings with scientific research in order to stimulate the spiritual and material development of the community. Particular attention is given to the education of children, youth, and women. In 1996 and 1997, eighteen communities organized literacy classes for five hundred participants; classes have continued throughout 1998. Another focus of the Azemikhah Institute is to encourage and assist rural communities to plan and implement their own social and economic development projects. During the program’s first year, thirty communities and over four hundred individuals took part in grassroots development efforts. Of these communities, thirteen operate literacy [Page 69]

YEAR IN REVIEW

classes with three hundred adults and one hundred youth attending. In addition, more than two hundred and fifty people have been involved at the local level in formal education programs for children as a result of their participation in the institute's courses.

In Kenya, approximately twenty Bahá’í women have been chosen to travel to Expo 2000 in Hanover, Germany. Two of these participants will report on how their villages have achieved economic independence through Bahá’í-inspired development projects, which for twelve years have promoted literacy and children's classes, the construction of a health center and bakery, and businesses based on fruit drying and candle making.

Women of Matinyani, Kenya, have achieved economic independence in part through the use of devices such as these mango driers, which have increased their income as much as four hundred percent.

The Unity Center, which has its headquarters in Los Angeles, California, United States, and functions under the aegis of the Local Spiritual Assembly of Los Angeles, is now home for two ambitious projects. The Multicultural Organization for Neighborhood Arts is a non-profit organization which, since 1996, has sought to provide a safe harbor for youth to develop skills and become involved in community service. The Children's Enrichment Program is another non-profit organization which has been offering tutorial classes to children since 1992 and has just moved its operations to the Unity Center.

Mel Chester, a former resident of Los Angeles, moved to Namibia several years ago as a Bahá’í pioneer. He has for some time been collecting leftover food from restaurants and grocery stores every week and bringing it to the homeless children of Swakopmund. Mr. Chester now feeds five hundred children a [Page 70]week and has recently begun to feed the elderly. Several African dignitaries, in Namibia for the Southern African International Development conference, visited the Mondesa Clinic, now the center of his efforts, during their stay.

The training offered by "On the Wings of Words" makes use of the arts, such as songs, skits, and dance, to convey ideas. Here a singing group prepares to demonstrate songs at a training session for facilitators.

Guyana's "On the Wings of Words" literacy project began in 1994 as a cooperative effort on the part of nine Local Spiritual Assemblies, committed to eradicating illiteracy from their communities. It has since expanded to include the entire country, attracted significant media attention, and enlisted over nine hundred volunteer facilitators to help train Guyanese youth aged ten to sixteen to develop literacy skills. An editorial in the Guyana Chronicle noted that the Bahá’í initiative was exceptional because "along with teaching the mechanics of reading, facilitators help their charges to develop a spiritual and moral consciousness." 1

The Civilization Advancement Center, or CAC, in Sabah, Malaysia, coordinates several schools for rural students—those without access to any other form of formal education and teaches standard elementary school subjects within a moral framework. The organizers of the Center envision a future in which every rural child will have easy access to education and view the three tutorial schools they operate as part of that future. They plan to operate tutorials schools soon in six other villages. The State Advisory Council for Religious Affairs invited the CAC to conduct

1. See The Bahá’í World 1996-97, pp. 236-39, for more information on the "Wings of Words" project. [Page 71]courses in four major towns of Sabah on "Women and Savings," the training module for which was developed by a group of Bahá’ís commissioned by the Central Bank of Malaysia and the Ministry for National Unity and Social Development.

In a short-term effort, more than two hundred people were given dental treatment in Bangladesh for two weeks in November by volunteer Bahá’í dentists. The project was aided by Bangladesh's National Bahá’í Development Institute.

International conferences on social and economic development were held in Bolivia, where Bahá’ís from twelve countries gathered, and in Malaysia, where representatives from fourteen countries reported on the progress and aims of different development projects, participated in workshops, consulted on the role of native peoples in development, and gave talks on related subjects. On the occasion of the first UNESCO Business Forum on Enterprise, Human Development and Culture, held in Stockholm, Sweden, the European Bahá’í Business Forum (EBBF) brought together nearly one hundred leading practitioners, specialists, donors, NGOs, financial institutions, and business people from some twenty-five countries for a three-day "Global Dialogue on Microfinance and Human Development." Microfinance is the burgeoning science of granting small loans to individuals in developing areas, with the aim of stimulating sustainable, flexible, grassroots development. This strategy of empowering families, individuals, and small businesses is meeting with success in areas such as Bangladesh. Although the EBBF is not a development organization, the Forum saw an opportunity to expand the horizons of microfinance by emphasizing cultural and social development as goals that are equally as important as the alleviation of poverty.

Bahá’í radio stations, like this one in Caracollo, Bolivia, are one way of strengthening social and economic development at the regional level. [Page 72]

Scholarship

Scholarship, as described in the Bahá’í writings, is an integral part of humanity's attempt to arrive at an understanding of the nature of God, human beings, and the natural world, and gains its greatest vitality, creativity, and relevance when directed towards the service of humanity. According to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh "are not merely theoretical and intended to remain in books. They are the principles of action... When practical activity has been manifested, the teachings of God have borne fruit." Animated by the belief that social and spiritual advancement flows from the generation and application of knowledge, a goal of the Bahá’í community is to foster new patterns of scholarship devoted to a holistic approach to scholarly investigation.

Publications

For many years, one of the only accepted sources on the history and teachings of the Bahá’í religion extant in German was the book Der Baha’ismus—Weltreligion der Zukunft? Geschichte, Lehre und Organisation in Kritischer Anfrage (Baha’ism—World Religion of the Future? History, Teachings, and Administration in Critical Terms). Written by a self-described "embittered enemy" of the Faith and replete with inaccuracies and distortion, Der Baha’ismus was authored by Francesco Ficicchia, who in 1978 chose to leave the Bahá’í community and devote his life to "fight[ing]" the Bahá’í administration "by all means whenever possible." In 1995, three German Bahá’í scholars—Udo Schaefer, Nicola Towfigh, and Ulrich Gollmer—wrote Desinformation als Methode: die Baha’ismus-Monographie des F. Ficicchia (Disinformation as Method: The Monograph on the Bahá’ís by F. Ficicchia). Published by Georg Olms Verlag as volume six of its "Religionswissenschaftliche Texte und Studien" ("Theological Texts and Studies") series, the book is a systematic response to not only Ficicchia's book, but also to several other points of contention raised by writers opposed to the Bahá’í Faith. Desinformation

2. Promulgation of Universal Peace: Talks Delivered by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá During His Visit to the United States and Canada in 1912 (Wilmette: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1982), p. 155. [Page 73]has recently been reviewed positively in several publications, including the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society and the Journal of Contemporary Religion, welcomed not only for its correction of the untruths propagated by Ficicchia's book, but also for addressing such topics as the role of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas in Bahá’í literature, the reliability of certain early chronicles of Bahá’í history, the relationship of E.G. Browne to the Bahá’í Faith, and Bahá’í conceptions of possible systems of world governance. The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society says the book "authentically and in the best scholastic tradition responds to the largest accumulation of issues raised in polemical writings against the Bahá’ís...during the last one hundred years," and the Journal of Contemporary Religion marks the book as "an important contribution to the critical study of the Bahá’í religion in the history of religions." An English edition of the book is in translation.

In the spring of 1999, two graduates of the Order of St. Augustine in Spain published La Fe Bahá’í: Una Nueva Religión Mundial? (The Bahá’í Faith: A New World Religion?). Aldo Marcelo Caceres and Luis Javier Reyes wrote the book as their thesis for their Bachelor of Arts degree in Theology, as part of their studies to become Catholic priests. The three hundred and twenty pages of the book explore in detail the history and teachings of the Bahá’í religion, including the Faith's perspective on several theological topics significant to Catholics. The authors' seminary advisor, Father José Demetrio Jiménez, writes in the book's introduction, "What the authors of this book offer us is the possibility of an enriching dialogue which invites us to listen before making controversy, to make the effort to understand what the other person wants to tell us about his beliefs, and to let us be known by him. The book focuses mainly on similarities between the two Faiths, reserving only the last chapter for a discussion of the differences between Christianity and the Bahá’í Faith. La Fe Bahá’í is available for ordering directly from the Augustine Fathers.3

3. Augustine Fathers, Ediciones Religion y Cultura, C/ Columela 12, 28001 Madrid, Spain. E-mail: olandia@hotmail.com. [Page 74]

Establishment of Chair in Bahá’í Studies

A milestone in the institutionalized study of the Bahá’í Faith was reached on 29 March 1999 when the first academic Chair devoted to the study of the writings and history of the Bahá’í Faith was created by The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. A ceremony to mark the occasion was held at the Bahá’í World Centre and was attended by Bahá’í representatives, University President Menachem Magidor and other senior officers, including the University's Rector and Vice-President, and Professor Moshe Sharon, the first incumbent of the Bahá’í Chair. At the ceremony, President Magidor spoke of the significance of the Chair's establishment to The Hebrew University, which fulfilled the University's aim of promoting interreligious dialogue and reconciliation. The Secretary-General of the Bahá’í International Community, Mr. Albert Lincoln, delivered a few remarks on behalf of the Bahá’í World Centre, briefly outlining the history behind the creation of the Bahá’í Chair and noting the potential for scholarly advancement inherent in such a cooperative institution.

Bahá’í Chair for World Peace

The Bahá’í Chair for World Peace was established at the University of Maryland, in the United States, in 1993 and operates under the aegis of the University's Center for International Development and Conflict Management. The purpose of the Bahá’í Chair is "to promote alternatives to the violent resolution of conflict through conflict management, global education, international development, spiritual awareness, and world trade; to share the experience of the Bahá’í world community in building a global society; and to offer that community as a model for study."

4. Professor Sharon, who earned his Doctorate from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in 1971, now teaches in the University's Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies department, and has published extensively in Arabic, Hebrew, and English. His research interests include the early Bahá’í Faith, Islamic history with an emphasis on the birth of Islam, the origins and development of Shi’ih Islam, the history of the Holy Land under Islam, messianic thought in Islam, Arabic epigraphy and papyrology, desert rock drawings and architecture, and the interaction between Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. [Page 75]The fifth annual Lecture of the Bahá’í Chair took place on 7 May 1998 at the University of Maryland, College Park, when more than three hundred and fifty attendees gathered to listen to H.E. Amine Gemayel, former President of Lebanon, for whom the Chair's incumbent, Dr. Soheil Bushrui, was the principal Cultural Advisor during the President's tenure. During his address, President Gemayel expounded upon the goals of the Bahá’í Chair by speaking of the need for a "synthesis of religious tenets" as "an essential prerequisite for conflict resolution on a global scale" and stating decisively that "it is the spiritual dimension that governs humanity's conduct and behavior."

The Bahá’í Chair recently inaugurated the Spiritual Heritage series, which is devoted to interfaith studies. The first book published in the series is Essays on Hinduism by H.E. Dr. Karan Singh, a prominent Indian intellectual and political leader.

In other university news, Canada's network of Campus Associations for Bahá’í Studies played a key role in mobilizing Canadian university faculty and staff to take action in support of the Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education in Iran and in organizing the three-month-long cross-Canada university speaking tour of Bahá’í author Dr. William Hatcher in the fall of 1998. Dr. Hatcher spoke on "authentic morality," the necessity of determining whether one's moral standard is reckoned according to a higher authority or merely self-conceived.

Schools

"The greatest means," wrote Bahá’u’lláh, "to the advancement of the world of being and the uplift of souls," is the "education of the child." Bahá’ís around the world are affirming the cardinal position of the principle of education by establishing and organizing permanent universities, primary and secondary schools, seasonal schools, children's classes, training institutes, and programs of religious and moral education.

5. See pp. 151-54, 279-84, and 287-93 of this volume for more on the attempted closure of the Bahá’í Institute for Higher Education. 6. Cited in Education: A Compilation (Thornhill, Ontario: Bahá’í Community of Canada, 1977), p. 4 [Page 76]Students at the New Dawn Model Nursery and Primary School in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria. The school is operated by the Local Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Benin.

Permanent Schools

Several Bahá’í or Bahá’í-inspired permanent schools underwent notable points of development, including expansion in enrollment and courses offered and the passing of significant anniversaries.

In April 1998, the Ridván School in Colón, El Salvador, celebrated nine years of recognition by the El Salvadoran Ministry of Education as one of the country's official schools. The surrounding rural population has reacted positively to the school's diversity of curriculum, and enrollment has grown to include one hundred pupils from kindergarten through grade six. Ethiopia's Bahá’í-inspired Unity College, which until late 1998 was the only private college in the country, saw its enrollment swell to five thousand students during the year. Courses offered include accounting, business administration, marketing, personnel management, hotel management and hospitality, and language training in Amharic, English, and Arabic. The Bahá’í Study Center in Papua New Guinea graduated thirty-five grade ten students in December, the highest number since the school's establishment fourteen years ago. The [Page 77]Secretary for Agriculture and the Provincial Minister of Education both spoke at the graduation ceremony. The Center is registered with the College of Distance Education in Papua New Guinea and is financially self-sufficient.

The Bahá’í-run Santitham school in Yasathon, Thailand, was recently declared by the Ministry of Education to be the second best medium-sized school in northeast Thailand.

The Bahá’í-inspired Landegg Academy in Switzerland, which began granting academic degrees in 1988, expanded its course catalog this year. Landegg offers undergraduate and graduate programs of study in consultation and conflict resolution, the integrative study of religion, economics, ethics and development, and "applied spirituality," and has affiliations with universities in the United States and China. Its status as an institution of higher learning was affirmed in November 1998 by the Ministry of Education of the Swiss Canton of Appenzell Ausserhoden. More than one hundred students from all around the world have attended Landegg since 1996, when it began offering master of arts degrees through a combination of distance-learning and in-residence study.

Seasonal Schools

Held usually during the summer or winter, the seasonal school offers Bahá’í individuals and families the opportunity to gather in fellowship and study for several days or more. Many Bahá’í communities held seasonal schools during the past year, some for the first time. The Bahá’ís of the Czech Republic, for example, held their first Bahá’í summer school in the village of Trojanovice from 5 to 9 August 1998. The eighty-three attendees studied ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s book Some Answered Questions, practiced their public speaking skills, and engaged in recreational activities in the surrounding [Page 78]mountains. In July, the Bahá’í community of the Western Caroline Islands held its first Bahá’í summer school, in Yap. The first Macedonian Bahá’í winter school was attended by fifty-three people in Bitola, and the Bahá’ís of Slovenia and Croatia held their winter school in December, near Cerknica, Slovenia. Most of the forty-three participants were attending for the first time. The twenty-five participants of Denmark’s winter school, held from 24 December 1998 to 1 January 1999, gathered at the Bahá’í center in Hellerup and studied the balance between the physical and spiritual aspects of life.

Timed to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the passing of Queen Marie of Romania, who had acclaimed Bahá’u’lláh in her published writings, the Bahá’í summer school in the Romanian town of Sinaia was attended by eighty-five people. Also in July, 150 Bahá’ís from several parts of the world gathered in Riga, Latvia, for the regional summer school of the Baltic States. The school was preceded by a training institute course and was notable for its evening music and the warm fellowship of the participants. The arts were emphasized in the series of three summer schools held in August in the Guyanan towns of Berbice, Demerara, and Essequibo, where between fifty and one-hundred youth and children attended. Thirty Bahá’ís gathered at the Bahá’í winter school in Hisarya, Bulgaria, in January 1999, which featured dramatic performances, artistic workshops, and a panel discussion concerning the goals of the Four Year Plan with members of the Bulgarian National Spiritual Assembly.

Participants in the Romanian summer school, held July 1998 in Sinaia.

Four hundred Bahá’ís composed Zimbabwe’s International Summer School in Harare. Lectures, study sessions, artistic [Page 79]workshops and performances left the participants feeling inspired and invigorated. Bahá’í author Adib Taherzadeh, a member of the Universal House of Justice, attended and shared his perspective on the Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh and the Bahá’í World Centre. A successful summer school was held in the war-torn African nation of Angola, where thirty-six Bahá’ís were able to gather. In Uruguay, 109 people from eight countries came together at the regional winter school in February, where twelve youth accepted the Bahá’í teachings. The Bahá’í community of Myanmar held a small, focused summer school for three days in April, and one hundred Bahá’ís in Japan attended their own summer school.

Moral Education

Governments and school systems around the world are increasingly awakening to the society-building power of moral education. Throughout March and April 1999, two Bahá’ís, Dr. Farzin Davachi and his wife Nancy, toured Botswana, Kenya, and Swaziland and consulted with officials there about ways of improving their AIDS prevention programs through moral education. In Botswana, they met with President Fetes Mogae, Government ministers, the Bishop of the Catholic Church, educators, and addressed a session of the Parliament; in Kenya, they met with the Ministers of Health and Education, university professors, and the Council of Bishops of the Anglican Church; in Swaziland, the Bahá’ís met with the Queen Mother, several Government ministers, UN officials, and educators. The Davachis spoke of AIDS as a public health issue intimately bound up with society's

Farzin and Nancy Davachi met with the Queen Mother of Swaziland and other African leaders in the spring of 1999 to consult about the relationship between moral education and Africa's AIDS crisis. [Page 80]moral health. Moral education, they said, particularly when directed at children, is the most effective way a society can be convinced of the benefits of refraining from promiscuity, adultery, and drug abuse. Many influential officials, including President Mogae and the Queen Mother, reacted enthusiastically to these ideas and expressed a desire to shift the emphasis of their activities to spiritual, rather than exclusively material, values.

In September and October, Sandra Rowden-Rich, an Australian Bahá’í, traveled to five cities in Russia conducting moral education workshops based on the popular book The Virtues Guide. Students, business and civic leaders, and educators deepened their understanding of the role that strong morals play in a healthy society through role-playing, study, and consultation. Later in the year, Linda Kavelin Popov, the author of the The Virtues Guide, and her husband Dan Popov traveled to the Cook Islands to conduct a three-day intensive training session on the topic "Awakening the Gifts Within," in which thirty people participated. Dr. Hoda Mahmoudi, a Bahá’í sociologist from the United States, traveled throughout Belize to speak about moral education in November. She facilitated workshops on moral education for teachers and school principals, visited organizations such as the Belize National Teachers Union, the National Organization for the Prevention of Child Abuse, the National Department for Women, and various United Nations offices.

With increased governmental recognition and approval of Bahá’í-inspired curricula, Bahá’ís and Bahá’í ideas are increasingly becoming involved in the creation of curricula for use in state school systems. In January 1999 the Finnish National Board of Education approved the official Bahá’í curriculum for religious education at the secondary school level. By promoting universal values and a spiritual understanding of reality, Finnish Bahá’ís hope to prepare students for life in an evolving global society. Upon completion of a sixteen-hour training program, 550 facilitators were asked on 6 August 1998 to conduct training sessions in the 415 municipalities of Bahia, Brazil, using a manual entitled "Colegiado Escolar na Bahia-Gestão Participativa" (School Board in Bahia-Participatory Management). The aim of the one-day training session, held 27 August 1998, was to reach [Page 81]twenty-thousand school board members in the state of Bahia, who represent teachers, parents, students, and staff members of all the state's schools. The textbook used was published by the Secretary of Education of the Government of the State of Bahia and contains selections from the writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá regarding the art of consultation. Nearly twenty-five thousand copies of the manual were distributed. Teachers in the Nicaraguan Department of Carazo completed eight Bahá’í-sponsored seminars on such subjects as "the teacher as an agent of change," "global prosperity," "laws for a new world order," "environmental challenges and solutions," and "family life." Other governments also have expressed interest in Bahá’í perspectives on moral education. In Liberia, the Education Ministry has invited Bahá’í representatives to join Christians and Muslims in generating moral and religious curricula for the country's schools. In November, Bahá’ís in India were asked to train school teachers in moral education in five hundred schools in the state of Maharashtra. The following month Chile's Ministry of Education approved a Bahá’í religious education curriculum for use in public schools, and extensive contacts with the Ministry of Education have been made in Jamaica, where the Governor General is interested in establishing a nation-wide teacher training program under the stewardship of the Bahá’ís and modeled on Bahá’í moral education programs already functioning in Ecuador.

Training Institutes

Training institutes are the tool through which the Bahá’í community systematically promotes the development of its own human resources. Through carefully designed curricula and activities, believers are trained in how to contribute effectively to the spiritual and administrative development of their local communities, participate in interfaith activities, express their faith through the arts and music, and teach their faith. Training institutes also focus on promoting such vital goals as literacy, primary health care, and the equality of men and women. Three hundred and forty-four national and regional Bahá’í training institutes are now in operation throughout the world and have trained over one hundred thousand Bahá’ís in the past three years alone. [Page 82]Songs enlivened the atmosphere of a training institute course held from 24 to 30 July 1998 at the Laos National Bahá’í center.

An example of a well-functioning permanent training institute can be seen in the Dominican Republic, where for ten years the Olinga Institute has been conducting courses on the Bahá’í teachings. Last year the Institute refined its administrative structure and expanded its course offerings. In Africa, the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Eritrea decided that all Bahá’ís in that country should complete at least one institute course by Riḍván 2000. Attendance has increased over the past year, with ten courses organized in towns where many Bahá’ís live. In Chad, several graduates of a training institute were able to use their increased faith in and knowledge of the Bahá’í teachings to welcome over one thousand of their fellow citizens to membership in the Bahá’í community. After years of financial sacrifice, the Bahá’ís of Sarawak were finally able to open the building housing their permanent “Apau Institute.” More than four hundred Bahá’ís gathered in September for a conference to dedicate the building. The Bahá’ís of Guatemala, Cape Verde, the East Leeward Islands, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Tonga also exerted special efforts to develop their permanent institutes. [Page 83]The first training course at the national Auki Bahá’í institute in the Solomon Islands was held in January, using curriculum developed at the Yerinbool Bahá’í Center of Learning in Australia. Twenty-four Bahá’ís, including several facilitators of regional institutes from around the islands, gathered to spend a week studying a course on the Bahá’í teachings before administering the same curriculum in their local communities. Similar courses were held for four days in September in Sri Lanka and throughout the year in the Mariana Islands. The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Papua New Guinea expanded its network of training institutes by appointing boards of directors for three more permanent institutes to augment the four already in operation. Counsellor George Allen convened similar weekend conferences in Gabon and the Republic of Congo in September and November, respectively. Members of the National Spiritual Assemblies, members of the Auxiliary Board, and other Bahá’ís consulted on how to improve their country's institute process.

Participants in an institute course held at the Bahá’í center of Funafuti, Tuvalu, in April 1999.

Advancement of Women

To the degree that women are empowered to take their rightful place in the organization and enrichment of society, humankind will achieve its long-awaited unity, stability, and prosperity. Although the role that women must play in the establishment of world peace has as yet been only dimly realized, it is possible to find women and men working together to promote equality all around the world. From informal study circles and home visits among women in Senegal to a formal round table discussion on the role of women in a global civilization for leaders in Brazil, Bahá’ís [Page 84]around the world are promoting the advancement of women, well aware of the gender gap but confident of the reality of equality.

A five-day workshop in Kenya in April 1998 called "Traditional Media as Change Agent" trained Bahá’ís to use folk theater, songs, storytelling, and dance to promote the equality of men and women. The conference was part of a long-term project, initially sponsored by the United Nations Development Fund for Women and now led by the African Bahá’í community, designed to empower women through the use of traditional media. An identical conference was held later in the summer in Zimbabwe, and a similar one on the role of women in social and economic development was held in Chad near the end of 1998.

The first South American Bahá’í conference devoted to the advancement of women, called "Men and Women United for the Development of the World of Women" was held in Rosario, Argentina, for three days in November. More than 230 men, women, youth, and children from seven countries, both Bahá’ís and non-Bahá’ís, consulted on past and future contributions of women to society and the creation of a program of social and economic development for South American women. Bahá’ís in the Andoman and Nicobar Islands sponsored a conference entitled "The Role of Women in Imparting Moral Education to Children" in October, in which eighty people took part.

Another important conference was held for women in the Sahel, the southern fringe of the Sahara desert, in August. Forty Bahá’í women from Benin,

• • Must vraiment un homme celui qui aujourd’hui, secon sacre auservice dela race humaine toute entière.

FOI BAHA’IE LA FOI MONDIALE BAHATE

The Bahá’í women’s group of the Local Spiritual Assembly of Lumumbashi, Katanga, Republic of Congo.

7. See The Bahá’í World 1996-97, pp. 294-97, for more information on this project. [Page 85]Burkina, Côte d'Ivoire, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo gathered for a week in Bamako, Mali, to discuss their role in promoting the Bahá’í teachings in the region. Organized by the Women of the Sahel Regional Committee, the conference was notable for the spirit of empowerment and animation present among the participants, and the continued, coordinated action it inspired. Twelve women met in the Bahá’í center of Latrikunda-Sabiji, Gambia, in March to consult on similar topics. They studied the curriculum "Learning at Home and at School, a Bahá’í Program for Mothers," which addresses parenting and moral education issues.

Several activities took place in March to commemorate International Women's Day, including conferences, public discussions, seminars, and workshops. In India, the Bahá’í Office for the Advancement of Women played a critical role in sponsoring and organizing some of these activities, which were designed to be accessible to both the public and leaders of thought and government. Bahá’ís in Cameroon celebrated International Women's Day with a parade, special T-shirts and brochures, an exhibition stand, and a public meeting, which included an interfaith prayer gathering, public talks, and a dance exhibition. The Bahá’í communities of Uganda and Trinidad and Tobago marked the occasion with similar activities. Bahá’í representatives from the latter country appeared on national television and radio to offer their perspective on gender relations.

On 21 December 1998, the India Bahá’í Office for the Advancement of Women held a full day seminar on the theme of the Girl Child.

Bahá’ís are also involved in the activities of like-minded peace organizations. Bahá’ís have provided input to the Turkish- [Page 86]Greek Women’s Peace Initiative (WINPEACE), for instance, since its inception. Founded by Margarita Papandreou, former First Lady of Greece, and several prominent Turkish journalists, the Initiative is designed to bring together Greek and Turkish women in dialogue about their role in promoting peace between their countries. Fifteen Greek and fifteen Turkish delegates, including several Bahá’ís, attended the spring meetings in Greece and Turkey.

Bahá’í National Committee for Advancement at unnen Morld Food Day 1998 women feed the world

A 16 October 1998 observance of World Food Day in eastern Uganda, with the theme of “Women Feed the World,” was organized by the Ugandan Bahá’í National Committee for the Advancement of Women.

To learn how to support and enforce legislation designed to prevent domestic violence, a delegation from the Modern Women’s Foundation of Taiwan visited other women’s organizations in the United States in February. Jan Huang of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Taiwan was the only religious representative invited to be part of the delegation, which included parliamentarians, judges, other representatives from the judiciary, and officers from the Ministries of Justice, the Interior, and Foreign Affairs. The Bahá’ís of Taiwan have long supported the Foundation’s activities.

The Bahá’í community of Mauritius was among ten non-governmental organizations invited as observers to the third Conference of African Women Ministers and Parliamentarians, a follow-up meeting to the 1994 UN International Conference on Population and Development. Bahá’ís found the meeting a good opportunity to establish cordial relations and acquaint government representatives with the work that African Bahá’ís are performing to promote gender equality. Thirty-eight countries were represented at the conference, the purpose of which was to assess the role of [Page 87]female Ministers and parliamentarians in influencing policy development in the fields of population, sustainable development, women's empowerment, and legislative reform. Bahá’ís contributed three statements to the proceedings. Similar Bahá’í representation occurred at the Thai Women's Forum, attended by more than one thousand women leaders from all parts of the country in October; and in the spring of 1999, three Bahá’í women in the East Leeward Islands submitted a statement to a Parliamentary Committee responsible for drafting a bill on domestic violence.

The International Council of Women (ICW), the oldest international mainstream women's non-governmental organization, convened its International Seminar on Women's Leadership from 18 to 23 October in Haifa, Israel. Held at the Golda Meir Mount Carmel International Training Center, the seminar was attended by two Bahá’ís, Mrs. Lee Lee Ludher, a member of the Continental Board of Counsellors for Asia, and Mrs. Janak McGilligan from India. The Secretary-General of the Bahá’í International Community, Mr. Albert Lincoln, attended the opening ceremony, along with other representatives of the Bahá’í World Centre.

Institutional Commitment

As part of their commitment to advancing the station of women, several national Bahá’í communities operate full-time Offices for the Advancement of Women. New offices were established last year in Malawi, South Africa, Taiwan, and Trinidad and Tobago, and three local task forces were formed in Mexico to coordinate their communities' responses to International Women's Day. The recently created National Association of Bahá’í Women in Ireland, an initiative of the Irish National Spiritual Assembly, was formed to foster a sense of identity among Irish Bahá’í women and to provide a platform for the sharing of Bahá’í principles regarding the relationship of women to society at large. On the regional level, the European Task Force for Women was created in 1992 with the aim of encouraging cooperation and consultation among European Bahá’í women. Since its inception, the Task Force has annually sponsored international seminars for female representatives from each European country. The Task Force's third International Women's Training Seminar was held in June in Acuto, Italy, and, [Page 88]like the other seminars and workshops sponsored by the Task Force, has inspired a number of activities throughout Europe. Seminar participants afterwards held similar gatherings for their compatriots in Cyprus, the Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Iceland, Italy, Portugal, several regions in Russia, and Switzerland.

Human Rights

The Bahá’í International Community has been involved in the human rights work of the United Nations since its inception, and as a non-governmental organization since 1948. The fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was especially significant to the Bahá’í community; it represented an important landmark in the quest to create a universal moral ethic and a structure of governance appropriate for such an ethic. Bahá’í communities the world over promote human rights by working in collaboration with United Nations agencies and affiliates, organizing campaigns of public education, and contributing to conferences, public events, and other consultative forums.

In collaboration with the United Nations and the Ministry of Education and Culture, Bahá’ís in Paraguay initiated a human rights education project among Asunción's thirty thousand secondary school students. The project is the first of a four-stage program that will eventually encompass all two hundred thousand secondary school students in the country. UN representatives have said this may be the first project of its kind in the world and are giving it their enthusiastic support. Another notable instance of Bahá’í/governmental collaboration occurred in Australia, where the Bahá’í Office of External Affairs wrote to the Australian Local Government Association to suggest ways that local governments could celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Seventeen local councils in Australia are known to have followed the suggestions, which included adopting resolutions, mounting public displays, and publicizing the anniversary through local media.

Public celebrations of the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights were organized or supported by a number of national Bahá’í communities, including Belgium, Cameroon, Costa Rica, Hawaii, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the [Page 89]Philippines, Turkey, and Zambia. In December the Bahá’í community of Zambia issued a special statement, "The Spiritual Foundations of Human Rights," to all of Zambia's major media outlets. The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Burkina wrote a similar public declaration in March.

In Norway, two hundred delegates from a number of religions, including a Bahá’í delegation, attended the Oslo Conference on Freedom of Religion or Belief in August. Sponsors of the conference included the Norwegian government and the Church of Norway. The Norwegian Minister of International Development and Human Rights opened the conference with a plea for greater respect for human rights by saying, "Every government needs to examine the status of human rights within its own jurisdiction. In fact, the call to start with yourself, by critically examining your own behavior from a moral perspective, is a central tenet of all of history's great religious teachers, such as Confucius, Buddha, Moses, Jesus and Muhammad." The Bahá’í presentation, which focused on justice, unity, and equality as the basis for conflict resolution, was made particularly poignant by the religiously-motivated execution of Mr. Ruhu’llah Rawhani, a Bahá’í in Iran, only a few days before.

Race Unity and Indigenous Peoples

The past century has seen a sea change in humanity's understanding of itself: definitions of concepts such as race, ethnicity, and culture have evolved in the face of the global melding of civilizations, and barriers to unity have been torn down by the recognition of the material and spiritual oneness of humanity. As community after community steadily awakens to the possibility of unity in diversity, the pain caused by centuries of racial and ethnic violence is being openly acknowledged and addressed, and the first glimmerings of healing can be discerned.

Two important steps towards racial reconciliation and unity were taken in the Pacific region last year. In Australia, two thousand people attended the "Healing Humanity Festival" in the Canberra Convention Center at the end of 1998. Billed as a celebration of Australian cultural diversity, the festival was an opportunity to explore the challenges facing the individual, the community, and the nation, especially concerning racial harmony. At one point [Page 90]a Maori Bahá’í from New Zealand spoke to the assembly, calling for dispassionate reflection and collective atonement on the part of Australian society. "Each one of us here," she said, "has an interest in the process of healing. There are many problems plaguing our society but the biggest is the recognition and accomplishment of the oneness of humanity." Bahá’ís also participated in the second "World Indigenous People's Pathways Conference" in Queensland during the same period. In New Zealand, the National Spiritual Assembly took a leading role in the process of racial reconciliation by authoring a paper entitled Indigenous Peoples and Minorities in the Bahá’í Faith and distributing it to all of New Zealand's Bahá’ís. The document frankly acknowledged the struggle facing the Bahá’ís of New Zealand in promoting racial unity within their community, lovingly called for new patterns of behavior based on an understanding of the oneness of humanity, and addressed from a Bahá’í perspective attempts to promote the advancement of indigenous peoples through political activism.

Four Bloomington, Indiana, Bahá’í children at a race unity event in the United States wearing T-shirts reading "No room in my heart for prejudice."

A nationally coordinated campaign to raise awareness of issues related to race unity in the United States, sponsored by the Bahá’í community, has been underway since March 1998. A specially produced television program, "The Power of Race Unity," has aired on several national and many local and regional stations; the document "Race Unity: The Most Challenging Issue," written by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, has been mailed, along with an information packet, to several thousand households; and calls to the toll-free information hotline [Page 91]

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On 25 November 1998, Ruth Rydstedt presented American civil rights hero Rosa Parks with a copy of "Race Unity: the Most Challenging Issue," a statement authored by the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States. and visits to the American Bahá’í website have been steadily increasing. Some eighty percent of local Bahá’í communities in the United States have sponsored activities in support of the campaign, including private viewings of the video, workshops, and public discussions about race unity.

Twelve years ago, several black Bahá’í men, concerned about the state of race relations in the United States and unity among black Bahá’ís, met for a weekend to consult, reflect, and pray. Empowered and inspired by that first meeting, they met again the following year and invited others to join them. Since then, the Black Men's Gathering, as it became known, has been held annually at various locations, including the Louis Gregory Institute in Hemingway, South Carolina, and the Green Acre Bahá’í School in Eliot, Maine.

Through focused consultation, augmented by music and prayer, the men have become unified in their desire to support one another in the work of achieving race unity and the equality of men and

8. 1-800-22-UNITE and <www.us.bahai.org>, respectively. [Page 92]women, both within the Bahá’í community and in society at large.

In its Ridván 1996 message to the Bahá’ís of North America, the Universal House of Justice exhorted Bahá’ís of African descent to travel to Africa, where they could be a "unique source of encouragement and inspiration to their African brothers and sisters." In obedience to the House of Justice, groups of Bahá’í men from the Black Men's Gathering have gone on teaching trips to Africa every year for the past three years. In the summer of 1998, a group of twenty began their trip by visiting the Bahá’í House of Worship in Kampala, Uganda, and journeyed elsewhere by foot, bus, and truck to capital cities and small villages alike, visiting the local Bahá’ís and telling others about Bahá’u’lláh.

The first national meeting of the Rom and Sint Gypsy groups, an "extraordinary event in the history of the Gypsy peoples" that has been awaited "for six hundred years," in the words of one Gypsy leader, was held for two days in Lanciano Terme, Italy, in June 1998. Bahá’í representation was specially requested by the participants, who consider the European Bahá’í community to be the "standard bearer and an example to follow for the unity principle it pursues" and who were inspired by the Bahá’í teachings on unity to form their own "Transnational Federation" of the Gypsy peoples. Spanish Bahá’ís have long been aware of the vital role that music plays in preserving Romani culture. In collaboration with Miguel Hernández University, Bahá’ís gathered top musicians to help organize a course entitled "Music as a Cultural Feature of the Gypsy People," designed to build a bridge between Gypsy musicians and the academic world. The course took place for ten days in July and was the first time the University had sponsored an activity for the exclusive benefit of the Gypsy peoples.

Bahá’ís in Canada's Northwest Territories released a compact disc of the Bahá’í sacred writings in the Innuinaqtun language, the translation of which was two and a half years in the making. Designed to make the Bahá’í teachings available to the Cambridge Bay community, the CD was presented by Bahá’í representatives to an Inuit elder at a special ceremony in July, who accepted it on behalf of all Inuit elders in the area. Later, 360 copies were distributed among the community's 1,200 residents. Bahá’ís in Peru [Page 93]translated a book of prayers, institute materials, and biographies of the central figures of the Bahá’í Faith into the indigenous languages of Aymará and Quechua.

The Arts

Poetry, calligraphy and music all played vital roles in early Bahá’í history, and different forms of arts and crafts continue to be cultivated in Bahá’í communities. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá is reported to have said, "It is natural for the heart and spirit to take pleasure and enjoyment in all things that show forth symmetry, harmony, and perfection... all things that have in them grace or beauty are pleasing to the heart and spirit."

Two volunteer choir groups undertook major tours last year: the "Voices of Bahá" choir continued its annual practice of travel with a March–April concert tour through several countries in Europe. The sixty-eight member group, with singers from seventeen countries, sang to large audiences in England, Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, and Greece with a repertoire of spirited devotional songs from all over the world. Many of the show's proceeds went to local charities.

The summer concert tour undertaken by the "Lights of Unity" group brought together more than fifty Bahá’ís from sixteen countries, most from the former Soviet Union. The performers gathered in Almaty, Kazakhstan, to perform the first concert and continued on to tour Russia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Uzbekistan. The program combined fourteen choral pieces, a slide show documenting the history of the Central Asian Bahá’í community,

A marimba band played on the opening night of a Bahá’í-sponsored "Unity in Diversity" arts festival in Capetown, South Africa.

9. Quoted in A Brief Account of My Visit to Acca (Chicago: Bahá’í Publishing Society, 1905), pp. 11–14. [Page 94]and dance. Audience responses to both tours were enthusiastic and often deeply emotional, with many people witnessing their own hopes expressed in the artists' message of beauty, unity, and spiritual transcendence.

Noted Bahá’í artist and development specialist Geraldine Robarts stands with some of her art in an exhibition in Nairobi, Kenya.

Several smaller performing arts groups also toured: in May, the Turkish "Sound of Unity" group gave four performances in Ankara to nearly eight thousand people and later that summer took its dance and music to audiences in Romania and Moldova; the "Patchwork" choir from Belgium spent two weeks in July touring several towns in Hungary; the "Generation of Hope" choir performed in several Russian cities for the sixth year running; and the first Portuguese dance workshop was formed and toured the entire country during July and August. In response to the performances of the "Light of Unity" musical group in Ghana, thirty-six people declared their faith in Bahá’u’lláh in two regions of the country in August. An estimated twenty thousand people saw Réunion's newly launched "Unity Power" dance group perform in a parade held in December to celebrate the anniversary of the abolition of slavery.

Native American Bahá’í performing artist Kevin Locke toured Suriname and French Guiana for two weeks in January. He visited several Bahá’í communities, met with religious and governmental leaders, granted interviews to the media, and facilitated arts workshops in Bahá’í centers.

An institute course designed to train Bahá’ís capable of creating and performing music in the service of their Bahá’í communities was held for three days at the end of May in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo. Held at the Bahá’í national center, the twenty-six participants spent the conference studying musical theory and the Bahá’í writings on music and gained skills concerning [Page 95]the organization and successful performance of choirs. The weekend ended with a public concert at the national center with music composed and performed by the participants. The first arts, music and drama workshop took place at the national Bahá’í center in Nairobi, Kenya, on 24-25 January. Twenty-two people participated, including eight members of the Auxiliary Board and Bahá’ís from other countries.

In May, Bahá’ís took part in a religious musical competition organized by the Association for Peace between Religions in Romania. One of the prizes went to a former Bahá’í pioneer to Romania, Arsham Evoghli. Prizewinners were invited to perform their music at a gala concert, and several European National Spiritual Assemblies were also invited to participate. The writings of Bahá’u’lláh featured prominently in the concert, which was broadcast on Romanian television. The work of Bijan Khadem-Missagh, an Austrian Bahá’í author and musician, led to his involvement in Allegro Vivo, a prestigious annual chamber music festival in Austria. The 19 August opening concert was dedicated to the theme of "Unity in Diversity" and featured excerpts

One of Norway's top classical composers, Lasse Thoresen is known for writing music with spiritual themes. During a visit to the home of Edvard Grieg, Norway's most famous composer, Dr. Thoresen was invited to play Grieg's piano. [Page 96]from the Bahá’í writings and an award ceremony, during which Mr. Khadem-Missagh received the Austrian Cross for Sciences and Arts from Thomas Klestil, President of the Austrian Republic. The Queen of Sweden opened "Warsaw Autumn," an annual Polish music festival held in September, which included in its program Fire and Light, an opera/ballet inspired by the Bahá’í martyrs in Iran that was written by Norwegian Bahá’í composer Lasse Thoresen. American Bahá’í jazz pianist Bob Bellows spent most of September and part of October making new jazz fans in the heart of Mongolia. He visited three cities, performed at universities, cultural centers, an orphanage, and schools, and conducted a workshop at a music college. The visit culminated in a collaborative concert with the State Philharmonic Orchestra and other Mongolian musicians in Ulaan Baatar. An estimated three hundred thousand television viewers in Panama watched a documentary on Jamboree '98, a Panamanian arts festival. The show included segments profiling the Bahá’í community, including footage of dances from Panama's Bahá’í art workshop.

Youth

The Bahá’í community counts as one of its special responsibilities that of nurturing the spiritual life of its youth, whose energy and enterprising spirit enables them to make special contributions to the establishment of world peace. Bahá’í youth are often called upon to organize workshops, conferences, and other development projects. Many youth are suited to express the ideals of their Faith through the arts, prompting some to participate in dance or music workshops. Several travels and performances of such workshops took place over the course of the year. A Hawaiian dance workshop toured the Mariana Islands in June, sixty members of the Sarawak Bahá’í youth workshop traveled throughout southeast Asia in December after completing a training course, and the Irish Diversity Dance Workshop performed for several summer days in the city of Cork. On 6 February 1999, the Anchorage, Alaska, Bahá’í youth workshop was one of several recipients of the "Spirit of Youth" award. Presented by the city of Anchorage to youth who had made outstanding contributions to the community [Page 97]The Third World Youth Forum of the United Nations System, held in Braga, Portugal, from 2 to 7 August 1998, included Bahá’í International Community representatives from Canada, Sudan/Sweden, and the United States.

during the previous year, the award was given in the category of Dance Theater. The Bahá’í youth group in the Eastern Caroline Islands garnered an arts award in November, winning the Pohnpei Youth Talent Show with its performance of drama, dance, and music. The Badi Youth Group of Macau won a similar Youth Service Award, and three Canadian Bahá’í youth living for a year in the Bahamas formed the first youth dance workshop there, which performed in two schools on the island of North Andros. Youth from Haiti, Guadeloupe, and Martinique also formed a performing arts group and, after completing a training course on the arts in December, performed at a youth club and arts center in Abymes, Guadeloupe, in March 1999 to an enthusiastic audience.

An example of the power of the spirit of Bahá’í youth occurred in Mexico, where six Mayan youth, all under the age of sixteen, on their own initiative, organized and carried out a local community development project. The youth systematically chose the methods through which they intended to achieve their goals, which were to witness an increase in the number of Bahá’ís, study circles, children’s classes, and activities on the part of the Bahá’í Local Spiritual Assembly. Through their efforts, which lasted thirteen days, all these goals were achieved. In Sri Lanka, ten Tamil youth created and performed dramatic skits that depicted the harmful effects of alcohol and explored family issues for audiences in two neighboring towns. Following a visit of the Scottish Diversity Dance Theater to Alford Academy in Aberdeenshire, two Bahá’í youth returned to the school for two weeks in October to lead dance theater workshops. At the end of the [Page 98]AITH ANKIND ESTIGATION ELIMINATION OF REI PREJUDICES AND SUPERSTITIONS TPROGRESSIVE PAREVELATION PEACE TE UNIVERSAL COME -EDUCATION WORLD ANUNIVERSAL DENLANGUAGE RELIGION A SPIRITUAL SOLUTION TO THE RELTOTO IEP ONENESS OF GOD ECONOMIC PROBLEM E ONENESS OF EN AND OF ALL MANKIND EQUALITY OF E MEN AND WOMEN EACE DUCATION UTION OF ROBLEM

Children in Pakistan hold up signs with Bahá’í principles written on them during a Bahá’í event.

process, while watching a performance by the newly trained stu- dents, the Academy's headmaster reportedly exclaimed, "This is what I call education!"

The first national youth conferences of Cuba, Mexico, and Zambia were held during the spring and summer of 1998. Using workshops, collective study, consultation, dance, and drama, attendees explored the role that youth can play in the development of their Bahá’í communities. Thirty-five Bahá’í youth attended the first youth training institute course in American Samoa in March, where they studied the Bahá’í writings and created artwork, songs, and short plays. Other international youth conferences were held in Cameroon, India, Luxembourg, the Mariana Islands, Sweden, and Venezuela. Some focused on the arts, others on community development. Through these conferences, youth have been able to identify four key areas in which they have gained wide experi- ence: teaching children's classes, using the arts in service to their Bahá’í communities, facilitating institute courses and local study circles, and spreading the Bahá’í teachings in areas populated by indigenous peoples. [Page 99]

Involvement in the Life of Society

Bahá’ís strive to contribute to the discourse of society by participating in activities and dialogue of governments, other religions, progressive organizations, and leaders of thought.

Bahá’í youth of Iringa, Tanzania, with several Bahá’í youth from other parts of the world, after six months of teaching in the summer of 1998.

As part of a governmental symposium on "Poverty and Consumerism—Rallying for Change," the non-Bahá’í author of a report entitled "Our Future Prosperity" included in her report to the government of Trinidad and Tobago an appendix containing the full text of a relevant statement prepared by the Bahá’ís of that country and included suggestions for further reading in Bahá’í literature. The document was sent to all government ministries, UN and NGOs, and the University of the West Indies. In South America, Bahá’ís provided input and organizational support to the formation of El Salvador's "Plan for the Nation," a long-term social and cultural development plan for the country. The Bahá’í view on the theme "The Earth, One Village" was solicited by the Office of the President of Senegal for its December panel presentation on the subject. The Bahá’í member was the panel's only religious representative.

Throughout the spring of 1999, the government of Sierra Leone invited all civic groups, including religious organizations, to provide concrete recommendations on how to further the peace process aimed at ending the political unrest that has raged in the region for years. The Bahá’í community was given a unique opportunity to provide input when two of its representatives were invited to participate in a thirty-minute interview on state television, during which they spoke about Bahá’í strategies of conflict resolution, recounted what the Bahá’ís had been doing to support peace in the region, and outlined the history of the [Page 100]

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On 1 May 1998, the Bahá’ís of Bamenda, Cameroon, were invited, along with other groups who have radio programs on the provincial radio station, to participate in a Labor Day parade through the center of town. The banner mentions the Bahá’ís’ broadcasts: "Mothers, Fathers and Children" and "Living the Life."

Bahá’í community in Sierra Leone. North, in Guinea-Bissau, the newly sworn-in Prime Minister sought the views of the Bahá’í community when the country's transitional government was formed in February.

Hurricane Mitch, the worst Atlantic storm in the last two hundred years, swept through Honduras in October 1998. Honduran Bahá’ís assisted in directing aid to those areas most badly hit by the storm and accurately informed aid organizations and the government of the rapidly changing situation. One aid worker commented, "The Bahá’ís have been instrumental in helping us clarify where the help was needed most and how to distribute it well." The national Bahá’í center, because of its proximity to an airport, served as a focal point for the distribution of food and vital medical supplies to the region's citizens, as did Bahá’í buildings elsewhere in the country. Following the storm, Bahá’ís around the world initiated an informal fund-raising campaign on the internet, sending more than sixty thousand dollars and eight thousand kilograms of food and supplies to the country's peoples.

Interfaith Activities

"Consort with the followers of all religions," is Bahá’u’lláh's exhortation, "in a spirit of friendliness and fellowship."10 Interfaith activities are critical to the creation of a world defined by justice, unity, and understanding. In what may be a world first, one

10. Tablets of Bahá’u’lláh Revealed after the Kitáb-i-Aqdas (Wilmette, Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1997), p. 22. [Page 101]

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nation's religious leaders gathered to discuss ways of combating the decline perceived in their country's morality. Traditional African leaders and representatives from the Bahá’í, Buddhist, Christian, Islamic, and Jewish Faiths in South Africa met in October at a Moral Summit to prepare and sign a collective "code of conduct" aimed at preventing violence, corruption, and other signs of moral decay in their country. President Nelson Mandela attended the signing. A similarly diverse panel discussion, broadcast on Austrian radio, was held over the Easter holidays to discuss the words "It is done," the purported last utterance of Christ.

The organization of the May conference in Kenya of the All African Council of Churches was aided by the participation of Bahá’ís, who were asked to coordinate the components that dealt with unity, peace, and justice. Representatives of the Bahá’í community of Germany were invited to take part in two important interfaith events: the "Mainz Dialogue," at which high-ranking religious officials met to discuss interreligious cooperation and the creation of a joint statement, and the "Inter-Cultural Council of Germany," an initiative of the Lutheran Church with similar aims. Bahá’í artists participated in the 25 May ecumenical concert organized by the Association for Peace Between Religions in Romania.

On the three-hundredth anniversary of an important Sikh holiday, five million Sikhs gathered in Punjab, India, for a major

At a 6 March 1999 UN celebration of International Women's Day, several Cypriot Bahá’ís distributed carnations with "a message of peace and hope" attached to them, and were able to meet with Dame Ann Hercus (2nd left), Chief of Mission of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus. [Page 102]Refugee children listen to a concert organized by the Bahá’ís of Manukau City, New Zealand, for residents of the Government’s Mangere Refugee Hostel. Left to right: Jerome from Rwanda, Mustafa from Somalia, and Saiid from Ethiopia. Two Bahá’ís from Tonga sit behind them.

celebration. Mrs. Lee Lee Ludher, a member of the Continental Board of Counsellors in Asia, Dr. I. S. Ludher from the National Spiritual Assembly of Malaysia, and Dr. Ali Merchant from the National Spiritual Assembly of India represented the Bahá’í International Community at the gathering’s Conclave of Spiritual Leaders. The Bahá’í delegation was given the opportunity to speak during the closing ceremony, which was attended by nearly one million people. Mrs. Ludher and Dr. Merchant chose to address the assemblage together, he in Hindi, she in English.

Other Activities

Administrators of the Bahá’í-run Montessori school program in Western Samoa were invited by the government to contribute ideas to the National Seminar on Early Childhood Education in November. Some of the more than one hundred and fifty high-ranking participants in the seminar were clearly enthused by the Bahá’í presentation and by their visits to the Montessori schools [Page 103]

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operated by the Bahá’ís. The Government of Samoa also asked the Bahá’í educators to help create a standard curriculum for all Samoan pre-schoolers. Two government-owned radio stations in Liberia have contacted the Liberian Bahá’í information center requesting Bahá’í participation in their religious programs. In January the Bahá’ís of Antigua/Barbuda were asked by a committee of the Antigua/Barbuda Parliament for their feedback on a proposed domestic violence bill. The Bahá’ís were the only religious group to make a presentation in support of the bill, thus contributing a spiritually grounded perspective to the debate.

A Bahá’í-sponsored "Peace and Unity Rally" attracted more than three thousand of Fiji's residents. After the march, talks were given by the local Mayor, representatives from Government ministries, and a Bahá’í. During the 6 February 1999 Proclamation for Justice in Equatorial Guinea, Bahá’ís recited selections from the Bahá’í writings on peace. A Bahá’í in the village of Slabodka, Belarus, organized a well-received celebration of International Children's Day in June, which included sports, games, exhibitions of children's art work, contests, and a concert. As a result, several other villages have invited the Bahá’ís to organize similar events in their areas.

The ceremony granting the fourth annual World Citizenship Awards, sponsored by the Bahá’í community of Brazil, was held 15 December 1998 in Brasília. The winners, from 3rd left to 2nd right, were Rabbi Henry Sobel, Mrs. Raimunda of the Women's Education Network, Dr. Silvestre da Silva of the Brazilian Bar Association of São Paulo, and Mr. Marcio Gontijo of Amnesty International. [Page 104]The European Bahá’í Business Forum (EBBF) and the Bahá’í community of Bulgaria participated in the Sixth International Conference on Moral and Ethical Principles in a Social Market Economy in Sofia, Bulgaria, in October 1998. Sponsored by the EBBF, the Bulgarian National Spiritual Assembly, and eight other organizations, the conference brought together more than one hundred business leaders, academics, NGOs, journalists, and students to discuss business ethics, corruption, organized crime, microfinance, and corporate social responsibility.

Following the tragic 15 August bombing in Omagh, Bahá’ís in Northern Ireland organized a memorial evening for the victims and their families in October. As each victim's name was read aloud, a rose was placed in a vase, followed by a minute of silence. The program ended with prayers and readings from the Bahá’í writings.

Bahá’ís in Canada organized a conference for the deaf and hard-of-hearing in St. John's, Newfoundland, in October. The "Points of Contact" conference hosted 153 people and featured not only keynote talks, but also an original dramatic work and extensive consultation among the participants on social issues facing the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities. Throughout last year, Korean Bahá’ís were very much involved in the preparations for the first global NGO forum in South Korea, to be held in 1999 in Seoul. Representatives from NGOs, universities, and the media were expected from all over the world to consult on ways of achieving social peace.

Parade float made by the Bahá’í communities of Port Coquitlam and Langley, Canada, on the theme 'A Violence-Free Family' in the spring of 1998. [Page 105]

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As part of commemorations honoring the seventy-fifth anniversary of the founding of the Turkish Republic, the Bahá’í Women's Community of Adana, Turkey, in cooperation with the local government and the Adana Women's Union, organized a day-long festival. The Bahá’ís also participated in the main parade in Adana, bringing the largest number of participants. On 24 January President Cassam Uteem of Mauritius gave the keynote address at the World Religion Day observance sponsored by the country's Bahá’í community. Talks by representatives of several world Faiths, centering around the theme "Towards a Caring and Prosperous Community," followed the address.

Community Development

The work of creating distinctive Bahá’í communities involves a wide variety of activities, such as establishing local and national Bahá’í centers, gaining legal recognition for Bahá’í institutions, strengthening relationships with other religions and leaders of thought, translating and disseminating the Bahá’í writings, gathering in regional and national Bahá’í conferences to consult and build wider bonds of unity, training Bahá’í administrators, and sharing the Bahá’í message with society through public exhibitions, meetings, and other activities. Bahá’í community development is designed to stimulate creativity and capacity at the grassroots level and is intimately bound up with the work of developing new patterns of society.

Throughout the year under review, Bahá’ís in Cambodia saw their community grow noticeably in strength and maturity. In cities

Participants in a 30 August 1998 consultative conference in Kampot province, Cambodia, drew up plans for the development of their Bahá’í community. Such gatherings help promote unity and a sense of shared responsibility. [Page 106]such as Seam Reap, Kampot, Battamban, and Sihanoukville, where special efforts at community development have been made since summer 1998, Bahá’ís are now hosting training institute courses using standardized Bahá’í curricula, holding regular Nineteen Day Feast gatherings, enjoying stronger relationships with local government, witnessing an increase in the attendance of children’s classes, and an expansion in the number of Bahá’ís. Poverty, ethnic and political strife, and environmental degradation are just a few of the challenges that have inspired daily occasions of sacrifice and dedication by Bahá’ís in different parts of the world. Unrest in the Congo Republic has upset traditional patterns of life, but the Bahá’ís of Dolisie report rapid progress in the functioning of their community. Strong interest in the Bahá’í teachings is being shown by the local population, fueled by frequent public meetings, a series of training courses, public showings of Bahá’í films, and an exhibition in a youth cultural center of Bahá’í writings concerning education and the role of women. In a nearby village, the government has banned all gatherings except Bahá’í ones. In spite of the unrest that has racked Rwanda in recent years, Bahá’ís there have made great strides in continuing their activities. On 19 April 1999 the Bahá’í Radio program in Rwanda resumed its regular broadcast schedule after a five-year hiatus. In Costa Rica, the Regional Conference of Talamanca was scheduled to be held on a piece of forested land recently cleared by the community. As the Bahá’í center planned for the space had not yet been built and no other suitable meeting place existed, the local Bahá’ís spent the day before the conference building benches, a simple kitchen, and a meeting room from the felled trees.

In 1995, Hurricane Marilyn devastated parts of the Virgin Islands, causing many to lose their jobs and homes. Many Bahá’ís were forced to leave the islands, and the national Bahá’í center was destroyed. Three years later, in August, the community held the first teaching conference since the 1995 storm. Held at the reconstructed national Bahá’í center, the conference marked a turning point in the process of reconstruction. Attendees studied the most recent Riḍván message from the Universal House of [Page 107]Justice, consulted on ways of meeting the needs of their community, and shared their love of music and the arts.

The Bahá’ís of Canada marked the ten-year anniversary of Bahá’í programming on the Vision TV network, a nationally broadcast channel that reaches more than seventy percent of Canadian homes. Bahá’í program highlights include the four-hour broadcast of the Second Bahá’í World Congress in New York in November 1992, which attracted an audience of more than three hundred thousand viewers; a documentary about the construction of the Bahá’í House of Worship in New Delhi, India; and the first Bahá’í video image broadcast via satellite, of Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum walking through the gardens surrounding the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh for the program Bahá’u’lláh: A Glimpse of His Life and Teachings. One hundred and twenty-two broadcasts of sixty-seven Bahá’í programs have aired on Vision TV since 1988.

Conferences

Local, national, and regional Bahá’í conferences are designed to raise participants' awareness of shared goals and to foster consultation, fellowship, and bonds of unity among people who live far apart. Inspired by the long-running Black Men's Gatherings organized by Bahá’ís in the United States, Botswanan Bahá’ís held their first similar gathering in May. Participants explored their role as black men from a Bahá’í perspective by studying the Bahá’í writings to and about the black race, and afterwards spoke of regaining their "sense of nobility." They also consulted about ways of better supporting their Bahá’í sisters and plan to incorporate the gatherings into the larger process of community transformation. The Malaysian Bahá’í community's "Mid-Point Congress," so named because it fell during the mid-point of the Four Year Plan, was held in August 1998. The conference brought together some thirteen hundred Bahá’ís, a member of the Continental Board of Counsellors, five Auxiliary Board Members, and all members of the Malaysian Spiritual Assembly. The Spiritual Assembly prepared for the congress by organizing a nine-day prayer vigil among all ninety-seven of the country's Local Spiritual Assemblies. [Page 108]Training conferences for Bahá’ís serving in administrative positions are used to systematize and streamline the day-to-day functioning of Bahá’í administrative bodies and build a unified vision among their members. In the fall of 1998, such a conference was held in Taraz, Kazakhstan, and was attended by forty Kazakh Bahá’ís from eleven communities. In Kiribati, for eleven days in mid-summer, nearly eighty members of the Auxiliary Board, their assistants, and other Bahá’ís studied the principles that govern the Bahá’í administrative system. Ten assistants to Auxiliary Board members in Laos met for a one-day training session in September to learn how to facilitate local, informal study groups on the Bahá’í teachings. In Lesotho, Counsellors Garth Pollock and Daniel Ramoroesi led a conference for two days in December, where they explored ways of inspiring growth, action, and reflection in Bahá’í communities and also outlined budgeting methods and other organizational concerns. Twenty-five Bahá’ís attended, including Auxiliary Board members, members of National and Local Spiritual Assemblies and members of the Lesotho Institute Board. Twenty-five Bahá’ís in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, including six members of the National Spiritual Assembly, attended a conference to learn more about the law of Huqúqu’lláh in March.

Bahá’í Writings

The writings of Bahá’u’lláh, the Báb, and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá form the sacred textual basis not only for the existence of the worldwide Bahá’í community, but for its continued development and spiritual vitality. Study of the Bahá’í writings is an integral part of community life and access to them is promoted through translations into local languages. Several communities have underscored the importance of increased availability of the Bahá’í writings through formal ceremonies honoring the launch of new publications. One hundred and forty Bahá’ís attended a two-day devotional meeting in Reykjavik, Iceland, in November, at which Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, recently translated into Icelandic, was formally presented to the Icelandic community. A public presentation to a Russian audience of the Russian translation of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the most important book of the Bahá’í [Page 109]

YEAR IN REVIEW

The thirty-fifth National Convention of the Bahá’ís of Malaysia, held 29-31 May 1998, witnessed the presentation of the newly completed Tamil translation of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas to Counsellor Rosalie Tran, who accepted it on behalf of the Universal House of Justice.

revelation, took place in November. More than three hundred prominent guests filled the hall at the House of Friendship in Moscow to listen to a presentation by Dr. Firuz Kazemzadeh, a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, Professor Emeritus of Yale University, and an expert in Russian history, as he described the content, significance, and history of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas. Other segments of the program included the formal presentation of the book to the Director of the Library of the Duma, the President's Human Rights Commission, and the Parliamentary Committee on Religious Affairs; performances of classical music; readings from the Kitáb-i-Aqdas; the performance of a scene from a play written by an early Bahá’í; and a choral quintet set to a selection from the writings of Bahá’u’lláh. A similar ceremony was held in September in Pakistan to introduce the Kitáb-i-Aqdas to the residents of Azad Kashmir, Muzaffarab, with the respected Muslim scholar Allama Siyyid Kifayat Hussain Naqvi presenting the keynote speech. [Page 110]

Bahá’í Centers

National, regional, and local Bahá’í centers fulfill several important functions and are designed to serve the communities in which they are established through a diverse array of activities, including devotional and religious gatherings, classes, public service projects, art and music exhibitions, and public health and literacy initiatives. Several new local and national Bahá’í centers were established this year.

The Bahá’í community of Thailand was honored by the presence of Her Royal Highness Princess Soamsawali at the official opening of the Thai national Bahá’í center in Bangkok on 26 November, 1999. Upon her arrival, the Princess was welcomed by members of the Thai National Assembly and then opened the curtain covering the center’s front door to mark the center’s inauguration. This was the first royal visit to a Bahá’í event in Thailand, which was also attended by representatives of the Japanese, Malaysian, and Singapore National Spiritual Assemblies and by Zena Sorabjee, a member of the Continental Board of Counsellors in Asia.

Dr. Utairat Chaumrattanakul of the Spiritual Assembly of Thailand presented the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the Peace Statement, and a copy of The Hidden Words to HRH Princess Soamsawali at the inauguration of the new Thai national Bahá’í center.

The Bahá’í communities of Albania, Bermuda, Sicily, St. Helena, and the West Leeward Islands all opened the doors of their new national Bahá’í centers last year as well. The Albanian Bahá’í center is located in downtown Tirana near the Tirana International Hotel, the most prominent of the city’s landmarks; the ceremony marking the expansion of Bermuda’s Bahá’í center, which occurred on the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the [Page 111]The role that Bahá’í centers play in the development of the local community is considered to be very important. On 9 April 1998 in Talamanca, Costa Rica, a group of Bri Bri Indians held a prayer gathering at the site on which they plan to build their Bahá’í center.

AT CENTRE

Members of the St. Helena Bahá’í community, along with several youth volunteers from abroad, held a special celebration on 20 June 1998 to commemorate the opening of St. Helena's new Bahá’í center.

Bermudan Bahá’í community, was attended by several high-ranking officials, including the Premier, the Governor, and the Roman Catholic Bishop of Bermuda; Sicily's inauguration coincided with the occasion of the community's first Bahá’í summer school; and St. Helena's building had been constructed the previous summer largely by the volunteer labor of Bahá’í youth, several of whom came from overseas to help. The inauguration of the national Bahá’í center for the West Leeward Islands occurred during the National Convention in April 1998. Ground was also broken for the construction of a new national center in Trinidad. Other local Bahá’í centers were established last year in places as far flung as Lubaini, Malawi; Arto Atoll, in the Marshall Islands; Patangata, Tonga; and Keningau, Sabah. [Page 112]

Legal Recognition

The Bahá’í communities of Austria, Georgia, and Russia all achieved long-sought goals of legal recognition during the year. In January 1999, the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Russia received formal recognition as a "centralized religious organization" under a new law passed in the fall of 1997 governing religions in Russia. This legal recognition enables the Russian Bahá’í community to rent and own property, and to publish, import, and distribute Bahá’í literature. Similar privileges were granted to the Austrian and Georgian Bahá’í communities through their registrations.

After a long period of trying to acquire land for a Bahá’í cemetery, the Bahá’ís of Colombo, Sri Lanka, received a letter in November from their local government, allocating a plot of land to be set aside as "Bahá’í Burial Ground."

Contact with Prominent People

Several meetings took place between representatives of the Bahá’í community and royalty, heads of state, traditional chiefs and leaders of thought last year. During a special campaign in April, each of Fiji's Paramount Chiefs received a copy of The Prosperity of Humankind, a statement of the Bahá’í International Community, to inaugurate the next stage in the Bahá’í community’s efforts to raise the Chiefs' awareness of the Bahá’í teachings. More than twenty-five Chiefs of American Samoa attended the dedication ceremony in honor of the newly reconstructed national Bahá’í center in December and, during one part, led a traditional ceremony in honor of the center and the gathering. In August, two Chiefs on the Ni-Vanuatu island of Tanna wrote strongly-worded letters to Vanuatu's National Spiritual Assembly regarding the July execution of a Bahá’í in Iran. ¹¹ Governor Roy Schneider of the Virgin Islands met with a Bahá’í delegation on 15 April. During the meeting, after reading Bahá’í literature and speaking with the Bahá’í representatives, he instructed his aide to ensure that Bahá’í information sheets would be distributed to all government agencies, schools, and libraries for posting and suggested

11. See pp. 151-54, 279-86, and 312 for more on the Bahá’ís in Iran. [Page 113]to members of the delegation that they coordinate a public information campaign throughout the islands to raise people's awareness of the Bahá’í teachings.

Meetings with heads of state in various countries have served to strengthen relationships between Bahá’í communities and their governments and as a way of acquainting leaders with the goals of the Bahá’í community. The first instance of Bahá’í representation at a meeting with a Malaysian head of state occurred on 27 November in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, when Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, along with several chief ministers, met with religious leaders from around the country. Mr. Young Syh Fwu, Secretary of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Sabah, represented the Bahá’í community. During the meeting the Prime Minister stressed the importance of religious tolerance, and Mr. Young Syh Fwu spoke of the Bahá’í principle of obedience to government, afterwards presenting the Prime Minister with Bahá’í literature.

On 23 March 1999, Bahá’í representatives met with Mr. Cassam Uteem, President of the Republic of Mauritius.

Several other meetings took place in Europe, Africa and Asia: During the "Women and Work" exhibition of the Dutch Women's Council on 27 November, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands visited several booths, including that of the Bahá’ís. The Queen spoke with the Bahá’ís there for several minutes about world peace, education, and human rights and accepted a copy of the latest edition of The Bahá’í World. President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda likewise accepted Bahá’í literature during his visit to [Page 114]the Bahá’í booth at the International Women's Day commemoration in Kampala on 8 March. Several members of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Hong Kong met with the Honorable Secretary for Home Affairs David Lan on 2 September. The Secretary was interested in learning about the Bahá’í teachings and requested more Bahá’í literature to augment his office's research library. On 13 December, a Bahá’í delegation made a courtesy call to the Honorable Hilarion Davide, newly appointed Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. In the course of the forty-five minute conversation, the Chief Justice made several references to possible word-plays between the word "Bahá’í" and similar words in the Philippine language, likening the Bahá’í Faith to a dwelling ("bahay" in Filipino) which houses all the religions under one roof, and the first two syllables of Bahá’u’lláh (baha) to the Visayan term of the same pronunciation, which means "flood," saying the Bahá’í teachings could be considered a "flood of love, justice, and grace."

Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands visited the Bahá’í stand at an exhibition in Amsterdam in November 1998. The Queen was presented with the latest copy of The Bahá’í World.

As a representative of the Universal House of Justice, Mr. Giovanni Ballerio toured the southern Pacific, meeting with Kings and Heads of State, including His Majesty King Tofa'ahau Tupou IV of Tonga. [Page 115]

Public Recognition

Several notable instances of an increasing respect accorded to the Bahá’í community and its teachings by the media occurred in Europe last year. To commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of the founding of the Bahá’í community in France, the Bahá’ís organized several events, including a gala concert, an interfaith colloquium entitled "France, a Land of Faith," and a public celebration of France's Bahá’í centenary. French media coverage of the celebrations was substantial. National publications such as Le Monde, Libération, L'Express, Panorama, Notre Histoire, Phosphore, and La Vie all took advantage of the occasions to write about the Bahá’í community; national radio stations broadcast interviews and news reports about centenary activities, and several television stations repeatedly aired similar segments. The British Broadcasting Corporation aired a twenty-five minute interview with Olya Roohizadegan, a Bahá’í from Iran, four times in July and August. Mrs. Roohizadegan spoke of her experiences as a Bahá’í living under the post-revolution Iranian government, the Bahá’í women martyrs of her home town, and the Bahá’í teachings. A milestone was reached in Greece when the best-selling newspaper To Vima positively portrayed the Bahá’í Faith in an interfaith article, "Five gods in the same city: People begin from different starting points and end up with common values."

Two multidenominational schools in Limerick and Cork City, Ireland, both now close each year for a Bahá’í holy day. One of the schools' calendars marks 12 November, the anniversary of the birth of Bahá’u’lláh, as "Bahá’í Day," and suspends operations on that day. The other school closes for a different Bahá’í holy day each year. In both schools, prior to the closure, Bahá’í parents are invited by the school to speak to students about the Faith.

In April, the national television station in Barbados and the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation contacted the Bahá’ís of Barbados to tape readings of the Bahá’í writings for regular broadcast on radio and television, under the titles "Thoughts for Today" and "Evening Meditations." For ten to fifteen minutes every Sunday morning, Namibia's Radio Ovambo airs a presentation on some aspect of the Bahá’í teachings. Each program is first translated into the local language by the National Broadcasting [Page 116]Corporation. On 15 May Norwegian Radio broadcast a new composition by Bahá’í composer Lasse Thoresen of selections from the writings of Bahá’u’lláh set to music.

In commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of Singapore’s Inter-Religious Organization, a body formed to promote peace, understanding and goodwill among people of different faiths, three specially-designed stamps were issued in January 1999, depicting nine of the major religions in Singapore. The Bahá’í Faith was honored through its inclusion. Elsewhere, the post office of Hungary issued a one-day franking stamp on 21 November 1998 to celebrate the eighty-fifth anniversary of the establishment of the Bahá’í Faith in that country.

Three stamps which feature Singapore’s main religions were issued by the Inter-Religious Organization of Singapore in honor of its fiftieth anniversary.

Slovenia’s national TV 1 network aired a half-hour program about the Bahá’í Faith in February. The program was commissioned by the Office of Religious Affairs and contained three interviews with Bahá’ís, a Bahá’í dance workshop performance, excerpts from a moral education initiative, and photographs of Bahá’í holy places in Israel. In September, Evangelische Kommentare, a Protestant publication in Germany, published an article profiling Germany’s religious minorities. Members of the Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, and Bahá’í communities had the opportunity to write about their experiences with Germany’s Christian majority. The article was a product of the increasing dialogue between the Bahá’í community and established churches in Germany, attained after a long period of misunderstanding. In the words of the magazine’s editor, after the German Bahá’í community “succeeded in correcting incorrect representations that had been circulated about it among the general public, the Bahá’ís have more recently been appreciated as religious partners, by the churches as well.” [Page 117]

YEAR IN REVIEW

The Yad Vashem ("Righteous among the Nations") award is the most prestigious award given to a gentile, honoring those who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. The award for 1998 was given on 17 December in San Francisco, California, to Martha Forgeur-Henkart, a Bahá’í living in Sacramento. Mrs. Forgeur-Henkart provided shelter for a number of Jews in Belgium fleeing from the Nazi regime by establishing safe houses and distributing false identity papers. Her name is to be engraved on a special Wall of Honor at the Yad Vashem memorial center in Jerusalem.

Sharing the Bahá’í Message

Over the course of the year in review, many communities have developed their educational and cultural lives and the functioning of their administrative institutions; other Bahá’í communities have broken through barriers in the way of dialogue and understanding between them and their governments and countrymen. Still others have initiated large increases in the size of their communities, and other smaller communities, like the Bahá’ís in Greenland, have seen an exponential rise in Bahá’í activity this year in the form of traveling teachers and regular public talks. An integral part of Bahá’í life is teaching the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, both in organized campaigns and on an individual basis.

Among the countries that have witnessed a substantial expansion of their Bahá’í communities during the course of the year is Ethiopia, where more than one thousand new believers were enrolled during the month of March. Many were members of two tribes, the Agnwak and Gniwar, which had spent years fighting each other. Their newfound adherence to the Bahá’í teachings, however, enabled them to set aside their traditional animosity and begin living in peace. The government noted the change in the tribes' attitude and has now granted permission for them to live in the same area. Tribal members are now bringing the Bahá’í message to other warring factions, as far south as the Sudan. Colombia is another country in which large-scale expansion took place; more than fourteen hundred people accepted the Bahá’í teachings in thirty-two of the country's departments during the summer.

A teaching campaign in Madagascar during two weeks in August succeeded in reaching more than seventy-two thousand [Page 118]Udaga Narayan Singh, left, Knight of Bahá’u’lláh for Tibet, who is now pioneering in Biratnagar, Nepal, with Kalsang Ranzun, a new Tibetan Bahá’í who traveled from Lhasa to Kathmandu to visit Udaga.

people, including three thousand prominent people and leaders of thought. Nearly five hundred of those contacted became Bahá’ís.

The Bahá’í community of Bangladesh welcomed 620 new members in a campaign lasting from July to September. The Bahá’í teachings were first introduced to the local government, which then assented to the Bahá’ís’ activities. A Bahá’í from the United States spent twelve days touring the southeast and north-central areas of Guinea in November. He met with the many Bahá’ís there, gave public talks, and facilitated the establishment of children’s classes.

Mozambique is home to more than six hundred new Bahá’ís, thanks to the efforts of ten Bahá’ís who traveled throughout twelve provinces in March, informing people of the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh. Two new Local Spiritual Assemblies were formed, one of which has already built a Bahá’í center. Projects to strengthen the new believers’ understanding of the Bahá’í teachings are underway.

Members of a traveling group of local Bahá’ís in Haiti slept on woven mats, endured extremely hot temperatures, daily torrential rains, mosquitos, and illness with patience and good humor. They succeeded in attracting sixty-four people to the Haitian Bahá’í community during July and August. [Page 119]

YEAR IN REVIEW

Following the success of the Bahá’í booth at the first International Book Fair held last year in Puerto Rico, the Bahá’ís were invited by the Puerto Rico Museum of Religious Anthropology to organize a booth in its exhibition at the largest shopping mall in the area. The Bahá’ís have been invited to participate in several subsequent exhibitions sponsored by the Museum. This has proven to be an unprecedented opportunity for the Puerto Rican Bahá’í community to proclaim the Bahá’í message and has resulted in several opportunities to raise the public's awareness of the Bahá’í teachings. The Bahá’ís of the Canary Islands used the occasion of a book fair in Los Cristianos, Arona, to make Bahá’í literature available to the public for the first time.

After twenty-six Bahá’ís completed a one-month training course at the Enoch Olinga Institute in Esmeraldas, Ecuador, two groups were formed to undertake a two-week-long public awareness campaign in February. One group traveled to the west and the other to the north of the country, where they organized children's classes, public classes on the life of Bahá’u’lláh, interviews with several radio stations and newspapers, and youth workshop presentations in public and on television. Thirty-seven people declared their belief in Bahá’u’lláh during the course of the campaign. Audiences in Mbozi, Tanzania, were treated to several performances of the Ruaha Secondary School Dance Workshop for eight days in June and July. Seventy-one people felt inspired to join the Bahá’í Faith during the workshop's tour, which was augmented by public talks and children's classes. There was near-constant teaching activity in the Central Asian country of Moldova, where one hundred people became Bahá’ís over the course of the year. Thirteen travel teachers from within the country and twenty-nine from elsewhere contributed to the growth.

Some of the smaller campaigns and teaching conferences that took place around the world are indicative of the type of activities that thousands of local Bahá’í communities undertook during the year. Among these were the efforts made for three days in April by ten Bahá’ís from five communities in Nepal. They traveled to the southern Chitwan district, a region without any Bahá’ís, where they set up a Bahá’í book stall, distributed literature, and held public meetings as part of a public information campaign. [Page 120]Seven people became Bahá’ís, thus establishing the district's first Bahá’í community. In the Seychelles, twenty people joined the Bahá’í community during a nine-day September campaign, and in New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands, fifty new Bahá’ís were welcomed between August and September. Bahá’ís in Iquique, Chile, proclaimed their community's allegiance to achieving the goal of world peace through an organized proclamation campaign in the fall, and a Bahá’í from Barbados spent two and one-half weeks in July in Dominica traveling and telling people about Bahá’u’lláh.