The 2011-2012 Faith Acts Fellows

from The Tony Blair Faith Foundation

Those who seek to cause religious conflict are small in number but highly motivated, organized and funded. While there are billions of people who are engaged in their own faith tradition, many have not yet learned how to live or work together well with those of different traditions.

The Tony Blair Faith Foundation decided to tackle this challenge through organising a year-long Fellowship that brought together young people of different faiths to work toward better interfaith action. The Foundation selected 33 outstanding future leaders, who between July 2011 and June 2012, worked in interfaith pairs around the world.  They built understanding between different religious communities by mobilising them around the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), in particular around malaria prevention.

The Fellows represented a diverse cross section of the faith traditions: 11 were Christian, 10 Muslim, 5 Jewish, 3 Hindu, 2 Buddhist, 1 Baha’i, 1 Sikh and 1 Quaker. Thirty of the Fellows were placed in multi-faith pairs in Canada, India, the United Kingdom and the USA.

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The elected governing body of the U.S. Baha'i community is the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States, a nine-member council with headquarters in Evanston, Illinois, near the Baha'i House of Worship in neighboring Wilmette. The members of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States, elected in April 2011, are (seated, left to right): Valerie Dana, Juana C. Conrad, Jacqueline Left Hand Bull, Fariba Aghdasi, and Erica Toussaint, (standing, left to right): David F. Young, Robert C. Henderson, Kenneth E. Bowers, and Muin Afnani.

from bahai.us

The National Spiritual Assembly oversees the administrative affairs of the Baha’is of the United States and provides guidance for their spiritual and moral development. The Assembly oversees a publishing trust and several periodicals, including The American Baha’i newspaper; Brilliant Star, a magazine for children; and World Order, a quarterly journal of opinion and ideas. The Assembly also operates retreat and conference centers in California, Michigan, Maine and South Carolina.

Whether at the local, regional, national, or international level, Baha’i elections follow a similar process that seeks to choose spiritually minded leaders from the entire body of believers in the area.  The electoral process at the national level is different in one respect. While the local Assembly is elected by all adult community members, the National Spiritual Assembly is elected by delegates, who, in turn, are chosen in “district” conventions. All adult Baha’is are eligible to vote in district conventions, and so the connection between the individual and his or her national-level governing body remains quite close. In choosing members of the National Spiritual Assembly, delegates may vote for any adult Baha’i residing in the country – once again preserving the freedom of choice that is fundamental to the Baha’i electoral system.

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In 1912, Abdu'l Baha spent from April to December touring North America. Here he is shown at center with Baha'is in Lincoln Park, Chicago, IL, USA. Photo from Voice of America

by Jerome Socolovsky
from Voice of America

The Baha’i faith was founded in Iran in the 19th century, but its adherents believe the United States has a special spiritual destiny. Baha’is are celebrating the 100-year anniversary of a visit to the United States by Abdu’l Baha, whom they call “The Master.”
Abdu’l Baha arrived in the United States in April 1912 and traveled across the country by train. During the journey, he declared that America had the potential to “lead all nations spiritually.”

Abdu’l Baha, who was 68 at the time, was the son of the founder of the Baha’i faith, Baha’u'llah.

“For Baha’is, it marked the first time in religious human history, that a holy member of a prophet of God’s family had come to Western shores,” says Layli Miller-Muro, a member of the Baha’i leadership assembly in Washington. “Most religions begin in the East, and we don’t often have a direct descendent able to come to the West.”

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by Phillipe Copeland

According to the Abrahamic traditions, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the Baha’i Faith, the universe itself was spoken into being. This offers a fitting metaphor for the promise of interreligious dialogue, the promise of a new creation. Like the speaking into being of the universe, for interreligious dialogue to fulfill this promise requires attention to detail. We must be attentive not only to what we are dialoguing about but who is engaged in the dialogue.

In my experience, interreligious dialogue is too often limited to issues of religious identity. The exception tends to be gender. Given that women represent at least half of the human race, talking about the intersection of faith and gender is time well spent. However, historical forces and contemporary social, political and social realities have conspired to make each of us not only gendered beings but also highly racialized beings. Race is always in the room when interreligious dialogue is going on whether we acknowledge it or not.

This may appear self evident, but ask yourself how many interreligious dialogues you have participated in where race is not discussed even in societal contexts rife with racial conflict and oppression? The silence can indeed be deafening. Can there truly be a full and rich exchange across faiths if the meanings people are making of race and the spiritual resources they draw on to combat racism aren’t being discussed? For example, when I participate in an interreligious dialogue, I am never only participating as a Baha’i, but as a Black, male, Baha’i living in the United States. Understanding my faith requires understanding how it is embodied in my experience of being a Black man in America.

For example, I have been invited to interreligious dialogue where participants would walk away having learned a great deal about the life and mission of Baha’u’llah (1817-1892) the Founder of the Baha’i Faith. They may have heard about Baha’i laws and spiritual practices. They most certainly would have heard something regarding Baha’i teachings about social justice. What they may not have heard is that Baha’u’llah compared Black people to the pupil of the eye which is “dark in color but a fountain of light and revealer of the…world.” They may not grasp the impact of this metaphor, which subverts centuries of propaganda making darkness an undesirable trait, on my healing from internalized racial inferiority. They might miss the contribution that the multi-racial, international community Baha’u’llah has raised up has had on the salvation of Black men like me. To offer one example, in 2006 I was welcomed along with thirty-one other Black men from the United States to the Baha’i World Center, located in Haifa, Israel. Our recent services, collaborating with Baha’is in Ghana in the process of community-building, were graciously recognized. Men, whom at home were so often the objects of fear and loathing were celebrated like heroes by people from virtually every nation on earth. It was a taste of heaven I will not soon forget. For me to engage in interreligious dialogue and fail to share such intersections of faith and race represent missed opportunities. Others may fail to appreciate an essential aspect of Baha’i teaching and practice. More importantly, they may miss the chance to engage in a dialogue about the role religion can play in freeing humanity from the inevitable consequences of the color line. Surely that is a dialogue worth having.

Thankfully, I’ve had opportunities to bring my racial reality to interreligious dialogues. One of my fondest memories of being a student at Harvard Divinity School was working with a white, male Unitarian Universalist on a series of dialogues about race and culture for students, faculty and staff. As an alumnus, I was able to participate in a panel discussion about faith-based responses to crisis among people of African Descent that included Baha’i, Muslim and Christian perspectives. These conversations deepened the theological reflection of all involved about the intersection of faith and race and were richer for it. In these conversations, I caught glimpses of the promise of interreligious dialogue, of new worlds of racial unity and justice spoken into being.

Phillipe Copeland is author of the award winning blog Baha’i Thought that provides commentary on religion, society, and culture informed by the teachings of the Baha’i Faith. He is a contributing scholar to the multi-author blog State of Formation that is sponsored by the Journal of Interreligious Dialogue. Mr. Copeland is an adjunct faculty member of the Boston University School of Social Work and is a clinical social worker specializing in behavioral health and forensics.

Yael R. Wurmfeld

It is with deep sadness that we note the passing of Yael R. Wurmfeld, longtime member of the Board of Trustees of the Council for a Parliament of the World’s Religions.

Yael served as Director of the international office (Office of Pioneering) of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States for over 20 years. She was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Council for Higher Education and of the North Shore Choral Society. She was a talented singer, and she was passionate, optimistic and deeply committed to the interreligious movement.

Yael was crucial to the hands on organizing efforts for the 1993 Parliament and served for many years on CPWR’s Board of Trustees.

“Yael was one of the inaugural members of the Council, going back nearly to 1988,” said Dirk Ficca, Excecutive Director of CPWR. “She was one of a few Trustees who literally became like staff members in the preparation for the 1993 Parliament in Chicago. For months on end she came down to the office to put in long hours on the program and do outreach to religious and spiritual communities internationally. Yael was a key voice in calling the Council to continue on past the 1993 centennial.”

“We will all miss Yael,” said Rev. William Lesher, Board Chair Emeritus. “She was truly a interreligious pioneer who embodied the kind of passion that gave the Parliament movement its rebirth in our time, and for that we are exceedingly grateful. May perpetual light shine upon her.”

from Baha’i World News Service

The Luxembourg Baha’i community’s involvement in society has been praised by a high-ranking government minister on a special visit to the national Baha’i centre.

Minister of Finance Luc Frieden made his remarks at a celebration marking National Day, the official birthday of His Royal Highness Henri, Grand-Duke of Luxembourg.

Citing the importance of the values of tolerance and unity, the minister expressed the government’s gratitude to the Baha’is for their commitment to the life of the country.

“The value of a religious community, or any other organization, should be a reflection of the contribution it makes towards the development of society,” said Mr. Frieden.

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From Asian American Press

By David N. Sterling

For those who understand the sacredness of humanity as one universal and united family, or even of just basic human rights, it is not a burden to be aware of the numerous injustices and atrocities abounding in the world today but it is rather an opportunity to pray and speak out for peace and justice throughout the world for all people no matter what their ethnic or national origin, no matter what their cultural, racial or religious background.

Of both long past and recent concern is the plight of the Baha’is in Iran, the historic birthplace of their faith in 1844. From that time forward the persecution of Baha’is has been both severe and wide spread with some 20,000 martyred during its earliest years. More recently seven Baha’is have each been given 20 year prison sentences.

These seven have been falsely charged by the Islamic Republic of Iran of “espionage for Israel, insulting religious sanctities and of propaganda against the Islamic republic.” Their only offense to the Iranian government is of their being members of the Baha’i Faith which contradicts Iran’s agreement to abide by the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights and Religious Freedom. Considering the present ages of these seven the 20 year terms amount to life sentences.

…

Thanks to the Imax film, “Arabia” currently showing at the Science Museum of Minnesota we can learn a few things about true Islam and by doing computer word searches on interfaith efforts like the Pluralism Project, the Parliament of the World’s Religions, United Religions Initiative and Religion & Ethics Newsweekly, to name only a few, we can learn the truths of both Islam and the Baha’i Faith as well as any and all other world religions.

In today’s world this has become extremely important to avoid any of us or our neighbors becoming extremists ourselves. Understanding, respect and cooperation between peoples of all faiths is the only way peace, justice, unity and the well being of us all will ever come about.

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Left: Member of Parliament Steven Fletcher; Right: Faith Acts Fellow Nicholas Pang

The 2010 World Religions Summit drafted a statement urging leaders to curb poverty, end violent conflict, and protect the environment. Over 80 representatives from the world’s major faiths convened in Winnipeg, Canada from June 21-24 including, for the first time, representatives of the Baha’i faith. The summit convened in the days leading up to the G8 and G20 summits in Toronto with the conviction that the leaders of the G8 nations have the ability to enact these changes.

The conference was attended by both senior faith leaders and youth delegates, including former Faith Acts Fellows from the Tony Blair Foundation. Over 20 countries were in attendance representing Aboriginal, Buddhist, Baha’i, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and Shinto religious traditions.

The statement called on leaders to take “inspired leadership and action”:

Acknowledging our common humanity and embracing the imperative to treat all persons with dignity, we affirm that no one person is more or less valuable than another. We urge the political leaders to consider first the vulnerable among us, particularly our children, and to work together to address the dehumanizing scourge of poverty and injustice, and practice and promote care for our common environment, the Earth.

In our diverse faith traditions we have rich histories and powerful dreams for ending poverty, caring for the Earth and being peace-builders. We acknowledge our own shortcomings and inadequacies, we commit to continuing these life-giving actions in the service of the common good. While recognizing efforts already made to address many of these challenges, we expect government representatives to set aside short-term agendas and work together for a future that allows all people on this planet to thrive.

Click here to read more about the 2010 World Religions Summit.

Click here to read more about the Summit and a copy of the report.

This video is part of the series of interviews conducted by Patheos during the 2009 Parliament of the World’s Religions, Melbourne, featuring people of many different religious and spiritual traditions.

In this interview, Parliament participant Natalie Mobini discusses her own understanding of her tradition and her experience at the Parliament.