Two representatives of the Baha’i International Community addressed a High-Level Roundtable on “Financing for Gender Equality” at the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women on 25 February 2008. Reproduced courtesy of the Bahá’í International Community at http://media.bahai.org.

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The All-Knowing Physician hath His finger on the pulse of mankind. He perceiveth the disease, and prescribeth, in His unerring wisdom, the remedy. Every age hath its own problem, and every soul its particular aspiration. The remedy the world needeth in its present-day afflictions can never be the same as that which a subsequent age may require. Be anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in, and center your deliberations on its exigencies and requirements.

We can well perceive how the whole human race is encompassed with great, with incalculable afflictions. We see it languishing on its bed of sickness, sore-tried and disillusioned. They that are intoxicated by self-conceit have interposed themselves between it and the Divine and infallible Physician. Witness how they have entangled all men, themselves included, in the mesh of their devices. They can neither discover the cause of the disease, nor have they any knowledge of the remedy. They have conceived the straight to be crooked, and have imagined their friend an enemy.

Incline your ears to the sweet melody of this Prisoner. Arise, and lift up your voices, that haply they that are fast asleep may be awakened. Say: O ye who are as dead! The Hand of Divine bounty proffereth unto you the Water of Life. Hasten and drink your fill. Whoso hath been re-born in this Day, shall never die; whoso remaineth dead, shall never live.  

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 Bahá’u’lláh

Take heed that ye dispute not idly concerning the Almighty and His Cause, for lo! He hath appeared amongst you invested with a Revelation so great as to encompass all things, whether of the past or of the future. Were We to address Our theme by speaking in the language of the inmates of the Kingdom, We would say: “In truth, God created that School ere He created heaven and earth, and We entered it before the letters B and E were joined and knit together.” Such is the language of Our servants in Our Kingdom; consider what the tongue of the dwellers of Our exalted Dominion would utter, for We have taught them Our knowledge and have revealed to them whatever had lain hidden in God’s wisdom. Imagine then what the Tongue of Might and Grandeur would utter in His All-Glorious Abode!

This is not a Cause which may be made a plaything for your idle fancies, nor is it a field for the foolish and faint of heart. By God, this is the arena of insight and detachment, of vision and upliftment, where none may spur on their chargers save the valiant horsemen of the Merciful, who have severed all attachment to the world of being. These, truly, are they that render God victorious on earth, and are the dawning-places of His sovereign might amidst mankind.

 Bahá’u’lláh, The Kitab-i-Aqdas

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Be thou assured in thyself that verily, he who turns away from this Beauty hath also turned away from the Messengers of the past and showeth pride towards God from all eternity to all eternity.

 From The Tablet of Ahmad by Bahá’u’lláh

Photo by John K. Slone of Lipizzaners performing in Fairbanks, Alaska.

The children of Mom village in Papua New Guinea, photographed here, will be among the main beneficiaries of the establishment of the medical aid post they are standing in front of.  Reproduced with permission of the Bahá’í International Community at http://media.bahai.org/.

The Bahá’ís of the United States, through their National Spiritual Assembly, have for many years supported the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, and our support continues this year. The Trick-or Treat for UNICEF initiative, along with others, contributes to the realization of UNICEF’s mission to ensure that all children lead a healthy, humane, and dignified life.

Each day, over 24,000 children die in the developing world of preventable causes. We believe that number could, and should, be zero. With your support, we are confident that this day will become a reality.

UNICEF has different tools available to help save a child:

Online Volunteer Center. Find activities, training sessions and materials for UNICEF education, advocacy and fundraising. http://volunteers.unicefusa.org.

TeachUNICEF helps educators engage students as active global citizens in learning about UNICEF’s efforts worldwide.Visit www.teachunicef.org.

UNICEF’s Tap Project is an advocacy and engagement program that needs volunteers to secure the support of restaurants to help raise funds for providing safe drinking water. Restaurants invite their customers to contribute $1 or more. Visit www.tapproject.org.

Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF raises funds during Halloween. Materials can be ordered online in advance and participants will receive stickers, posters, and other resources including orange collection boxes. Visit www.unicefusa.org/trickortreat.

The goal of the U.S. Fund for UNICEF is to work for that day when zero lives of children are lost due to preventable causes.

Tuesday, November 24th, 7 p.m.

Urban Grace Downtown Church

South 9th and St. Helens, Tacoma

The annual interfaith service this year will be quite extraordinary! 

Along with representatives of the Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Sufi, Unitarian, several denominations of the Christian, and Native American spiritual traditions, this years program will feature several spiritual themes of Thanksgiving including “Forgiveness and Come-Unity.”  The Bahá’í Children’s Choir of Gig Harbor, Leaves of One Tree, will be featured in the service, along with the traditional lighting of the Faith candles, presentation of Faith Symbols, and Russ Salton and Chris Gilbert of “Salton C” will provide 30 minutes of opening music starting at 6:30 along with a featured  instrumental for the closing offering.  This is a wonderful opportunity for the Bahá’ís to demonstrate their passion for building the spiritual community for which Bahá’u’lláh has charged us.  Could there be a better place or time to share peace and unity and Thanksgiving with peoples of so many of the Great Faith’s gathered in a truly interfaith event?

Image courtesy of Médiathèque Baha’ie at at www.bahai-biblio.org.

‘Artworks’, Bahá’í Youth Dance/Theatre Performing Arts Group in Perth, Australia 2002. Reproduced with permission of the Bahá’í International Community at http://media.bahai.org.

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Any person desiring to be surrounded by the confirmation of the Blessed Perfection, must arise and teach the Cause. 

             ‘Abdu’l-Bahá

Thou beholdest, O my God, the Day-Star of Thy Word shining above the horizon of Thy prison-city, inasmuch as within its walls He who is the Manifestation of Thy Self and the Day-Spring of the light of Thy unity hath raised His voice and uttered Thy praise. The fragrances of Thy love have thereby been wafted over Thy cities and have encompassed all the dwellers of Thy realm.

 Since Thou hast revealed Thy grace, O my God, deter not Thy servants from directing their eyes towards it. Consider not, O my God, their estate, and their concerns and their works. Consider the greatness of Thy glory, and the plenteousness of Thy gifts, and the power of Thy might, and the excellence of Thy favors. I swear by Thy glory! Wert Thou to look upon them with the eye of justice, all would deserve Thy wrath and the rod of Thine anger. Hold Thou Thy creatures, O my God, with the hands of Thy grace, and make Thou known unto them what is best for them of all the things that have been created in the kingdom of Thine invention.

 We testify, O my God, that Thou art God, and that there is no God besides Thee. From eternity Thou hast existed with none to equal or rival Thee, and wilt abide for ever the same. I beseech Thee, by the eyes which see Thee stablished upon the throne of unity and the seat of oneness, to aid all them that love Thee by Thy Most Great Name, and to lift them up into such heights that they will testify with their own beings and with their tongues that Thou art God alone, the Incomparable, the One, the Ever-Abiding. Thou hast had at no time any peer or partner. Thou, in truth, art the All-Glorious, the Almighty, Whose help is implored by all men.

             Bahá’u’lláh

   A view of the construction at the Bahá’í World Centre in June 1993. Courtesy of Carl & Tim Horn.

The very act of teaching the Cause will help them to realize their own worth and enable them to fulfil their individual spiritual responsibilities.” 

Universal House of Justice

Lauded be Thy name, O my God! I testify that no thought of Thee, howsoever wondrous, can ever ascend into the heaven of Thy knowledge, and no praise of Thee, no matter how transcendent, can soar up to the atmosphere of Thy wisdom. From eternity Thou hast been removed far above the reach and the ken of the comprehension of Thy servants, and immeasurably exalted above the strivings of Thy bondslaves to express Thy mystery. What power can the shadowy creature claim to possess when face to face with Him Who is the Uncreated?

I bear witness that the highest thoughts of all such as adore Thy unity, and the profoundest contemplations of all them that have recognized Thee, are but the product of what hath been generated through the movement of the Pen of Thy behest, and hath been begotten by Thy will. I swear by Thy glory, O Thou Who art the Beloved of my soul and the Fountain of my life! I am persuaded of my powerlessness to describe and extol Thee in a manner that becometh the greatness of Thy glory and the excellence of Thy majesty. Aware as I am of this, I beseech Thee, by Thy mercy that hath surpassed all created things, and Thy grace that hath embraced the entire creation, to accept from Thy servants what they are capable of showing forth in Thy path. Aid them, then, by Thy strengthening grace, to exalt Thy word and to blazon Thy praise.

Powerful art Thou to do what pleaseth Thee. Thou, truly, art the All-Glorious, the All-Wise.

Bahá’u’lláh