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While initially checking out the website for this course, I found PowerPoint study aids including the extra one covering the Baha’i faith. The presentation sparked my interest in Baha’i. I had never heard of the religion but I liked that it seemed to accept many of the teachings of other religions. I’ve long felt that all revelations have been given to the prophets, messengers or leaders by the same God. I always thought that the differences between the religions came as a result of how God’s message was interpreted by the receiver and then passed on to his followers (I always think of the telephone game). Baha’i teaches that the differences result because of the time and place when the messages were delivered. For example, the current messenger, Baha’u’llah has taught that clergy are not needed because in this day and age nearly everyone can read and therefore, everyone should study and learn on their own rather than have a priest tell them what things mean. After learning a little bit about the Baha’i faith, I decided that I would like to attend a Baha'i service for my encounter. However, I soon learned that it wasn’t as easy as just showing up on a Sunday morning. The Baha’i faith follows its own calendar, 19 months of 19 days (plus a few extra days to match up to the common calendar). They have a meeting or Feast, once every 19 days but except in special cases (called Unity Feasts) those meetings are not open to non-members or even members of other Baha’i communities because community business is handled in addition to worship. However, I learned that there are a number of meetings that are open to all: Firesides, Devotions and Study Circles. I started by calling the number of the Baha’i community closest to me. I got a machine so I left my contact information and the reason for calling but I never heard back from them. While searching a Baha’i website for meeting times, I found a section where I could request more information. I completed the form and submitted it electronically. The website said I would be contacted soon and they provided me with a number to call as well. I called the number provided and I reached a very nice lady by the name of Burma. She explained that Baha’i communities are established by geographic region and that I was in the Mount Vernon region while she was in the Fairfax County East region. This seemed reasonable as I am rather familiar with geographic boundaries because my church (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints [LDS]) also sets its congregations by geographic regions. We talked for about 15-20 minutes during which time Burma told me about the Baha’i faith and her conversion from Judaism. She was very excited and it was a pleasure to talk with her. She told me that Baha’u’llah was a messenger of God for our time and that he had established the Baha’i church to bring about world unity. She told me about some of Baha’u’llah’s teachings: women and men are equal; science and religion are harmonious; and all people are the same human race. Burma also explained about the monthly feast and the local spiritual assembly that is elected to govern each community. In addition to the local spiritual assembly, there is an elected national spiritual assembly for each country and an elected universal spiritual assembly over the entire church. A few days later, I received a call from Bill. Bill had received my request for more information from the Baha’i website and was calling to talk to me. He invited me to a Devotional that was being held at his home on the evening of August 12th. He was enjoyable to talk with and seemed very sincere about the invitation. I told him that my husband and I would plan on attending the Devotional. Friday 8/11: The Fairfax County East community holds a Fireside every week at the home of Jan and Kian. A member of the Baha’i community is invited to speak on a different topic each week. The topic for the Fireside I attended was Acquiring Divine Virtues taught by a member of the Arlington Baha’i community (Nazaneen). Lessons and talks are given by members of the community because there are no paid clergy in the Baha’i faith. (I’m familiar with this concept, the LDS church doesn’t have paid clergy either and members are chosen to both lead the wards and to give talks on designated topics.) We arrived right on time but most of the other people didn’t get there until later. (Proof that people everywhere are always late.) I had a chance to chat with Jan and Nazaneen while waiting for the others to arrive. To help us feel more welcome, Jan offered to provide a brief overview of the faith before Nazaneen started her lesson. While we were waiting for everyone to arrive, I took in the surroundings. The room that we were meeting in was nice (it was the basement of their home) but was, for the most part, not decorated. On one wall there was a painting of a man hanging over the piano. (We later learned that it was a painting of Baha’u’llah’s son and successor Abdu’l-Baha.) On the piano were some framed photos of family and of the House of Worship located in Illinois. Nazaneen explained that the Baha’i faith has seven Houses of Worship around the world. The Houses of Worship are open to everyone and have visitor’s centers so that non-Baha’i can learn more about the faith. Each of the Houses of Worship have nine doors all leading to the center dome - symbolic of the different paths (religions) all leading to the same God. Burma arrived around 8:15 and she was excited to see me. She brought a small gift for my husband and me - a prayer book for each of us. She explained that the Baha’i have ritual prayers that they say everyday or on certain occasions (in addition to personal prayers). She shared one of her favorites with us. It is a prayer that is to be said once every afternoon between noon and 6:00 pm: I bear witness, O my God, that Thou hast created me to know Thee and to worship
Thee. The prayer book contains about 100 or so prayers for different purposes - guidance, healing, protection, wisdom and so on. According to the introduction, it is intended to introduce seekers to the Baha’i prayers. It was interesting to learn about ritual prayers. Growing up Christian, I only knew of one ritual prayer (The Lord’s Prayer) and I was taught that it was given to us to show us the proper form of prayer. In the LDS church, we have a few set prayers (for example, the blessing over of the sacrament or communion) but most of our prayers are free form. I get very nervous speaking or praying in front of other people so I have to admit, there are times when it would be nice to have a set prayer to rely on. The group was quite large for the setting - about 25-30 people. As people arrived, I noticed that we were slightly over-dressed. We both wore an outfit similar to what we would wear to our church - a skirt and blouse for me and my husband wore slacks, and a dress shirt and tie. Most of the group dressed casually but modestly (jeans and nice shirts). Even though we were over-dressed, I didn’t feel uncomfortable. Everyone was very friendly and happy to meet us. Everyone had arrived by around 8:30 and Jan announced that we would start the meeting with a prayer. Then a recorded version of a prayer being chanted/sung was played. Once the prayer was over, Jan provided a brief overview of the Baha’i faith. She explained that in 1844 the Bab (a John the Baptist figure) came and taught that a new messenger was coming. Years later, in 1863, Baha’u’llah, a follower of the Bab, revealed that he was God’s Messenger. (Previous Messengers included: Abraham, Krishna, Moses, Buddha, Zoroaster, Jesus and Muhammad.) Baha’u’llah taught unity - one God, one faith, one people. A unique thing that Baha’u’llah did was that prior to his death, he left a last will and testament that named his son, Abdu’l-Baha as his successor. (Abdu’l-Baha also left a will naming his grandson as his successor.) This prevented the breaks that commonly occur in a faith tradition when the leader dies. I can’t say if leaving a will and naming a successor was inspired by God but it was a very wise thing to do for the health of the faith. The splits that occur can range from messy to violent. When Joseph Smith, the founder and prophet of the LDS church, was killed the church split into a number of different sects. I believe that some traditions have even died out because it was unclear who the next leader should be after the death of the founder. Naming a successor is just brilliant! After the overview, the Fireside lesson started. Although Nazaneen was the speaker, this wasn’t a lesson where everyone sat and listened. There was a great deal of discussion. The topic was Acquiring Divine Virtues. There was discussion on why we are here on earth - to learn, to grow and to acquire divine virtues. We also discussed how there is a constant struggle within each of us between our human nature and our spiritual nature. These concepts were very easy to understand and I agree. During the lesson, it was mentioned that the virtues that are acquired in this life are taken with us to the next life. I asked what Baha’is believe about the afterlife. The group explained that they do not believe in bodily resurrection - where the body and soul will be reunited. Rather, the soul will go on to a spirit world where it will continue to progress and draw closer to God. My church teaches that there will be a reuniting of the body and soul. However, we do share the belief in eternal progression. After the lesson, there was a closing prayer of sorts. We listened to a song based on a scripture about unity. Following the song, there was apple pie and we mingled and chatted with everyone. I noted to one of the group that there seemed to be converts from Christian, Jewish and Muslim traditions at the meeting. I wondered if there were converts from Hindu and Buddhist traditions as well, since Krishna and Buddha are named as previous messengers. She explained that yes there were, in fact one of the largest groups of Baha’is is in India. Everyone we spoke with was familiar with the LDS church. Jan and Kian mentioned that the Elders (LDS missionaries) often attend the Firesides (there is an LDS church right next door to their home.)
Saturday 08/12: On Saturday, my husband and I attended a Devotional at the home of Bill and Rachael. This was a much smaller group (only 9, including us). The home of Bill and Rachael was decorated differently so it seems that there isn’t a Baha’i way to decorate the meeting rooms. We gathered in the living room. The style of dress was a bit less casual than it had been at the Fireside. A Devotional meeting differs from a Fireside. At the Fireside, there was a speaker and a topic. At the Devotional, there were prayers and readings from the Baha’i tradition and other traditions. Bill explained that he is very organized and the Devotional meetings that he runs are very structured. (He provided everyone with a handout covering what we would be reading). He said that other Devotional meetings are more free flow where everyone sits quietly and reads or prays as the spirit moves them. I appreciated the structure. It was nice to know what was happening and when. We opened with a prayer of unity and then Bill played a song/chant. Next, we went around the room reading prayers and scripture from the sheet provided. These included The Lord’s Prayer, Surat al-Fatiha (Muslim), and readings from the Baha’i scriptures, the Bhagavad Gita, Buddhist, Jewish and Christian texts. There was a musical break - a song sung by a Polynesian Baha’i of a Baha’i prayer. Then the reading resumed. There were more readings from the Baha’i scriptures, from the Bible, the Qur’an and the Book of Mormon. Then we listened to another song/prayer - this one in Spanish. We ended by singing a closing prayer and then having a moment of silence. After the meeting, we had a snack of fruit and we talked. One of the main things we talked about was the commonalities between LDS and Baha’i traditions. Bill is very knowledgeable about the LDS church because he has LDS family and he investigated the LDS church when he was younger. One example is the judgment of other faiths. Christians claim that the Book of Mormon cannot be true because of the passage in Revelations about not adding to the book - taken to mean the Bible. Similarly, Muslims don’t accept Baha’u’llah because Mohammad was the seal - taken to mean that he was the last prophet. I noted that both meetings had made use of music, specifically chants/songs of Baha’i prayers. I asked if this was a common element of Baha’i worship. Bill and the others explained that it was becoming more and more common. Rachael explained that it comes from the Persian influence. She told us that in Iran, in the practice of Islam, the men will often chant in public. However, in the home and also for private graveside services, the women chant prayers. In Baha’i tradition, they are starting to see (or hear) more and more women chanting. There was one man that attended both the Fireside on Friday and the Devotional on Saturday. Rodney must have been aware that we would be attending the Devotional because he brought us a few gifts - several books - a book entitled “God Speaks Again, An Introduction to the Baha’i Faith” and two books of scripture, “Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u’llah” and “The Book of Certitude”. I got the impression that this kindness is quite common. People invited us into their homes, spent time with answering our questions and presented us with gifts. Both my husband and I enjoyed the time we spent at the Baha’i meetings. We met some really nice people and learned a lot. We plan to read the books that were given to us. At the end of the second meeting, I explained that I would be writing a report of my experiences and that my classmates would be reading it. I asked what one thing they would like me to make clear about the Baha’i faith. Everyone said Unity - Baha’i teaches unity: one race, one world, one God. Another interesting variation on that message was that Baha’u’llah brought the healing medicine that the world needs. I don't know if it is all the world needs but a bit of unity sure couldn't hurt. |
| Created by Laura Ellen Shulman |
Last updated: January 28, 2007
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