June
1, 2017
“Building
Vibrant Communities”
Ottawa
Bahá'í Conference Explores New Patterns of Community Life
 On May 13, 2017, approximately
250 community members from Ottawa and the surrounding region gathered
together to learn about building vibrant communities. The group,
consisting of Bahá'ís, young and old, their friends, and their family
members, as well as interested individuals from the larger community,
examined ways in which to engage other community members in the
transformation of our neighbourhoods, walking the path of service
together.
The programme opened with a drum
song performed by a First Nations
Bahá'í and was followed by prayers in several different languages,
reflecting the diverse background of the members of the Ottawa Baha’i
community.
The morning was filled with a joyful recollection of the development of
the Bahá'í community in Ottawa from the arrival of the first Bahá'í in
the 1940s to today’s community of 1,200 Bahá'ís plus about 700 members
of the wider community who attend Bahá'í gatherings and participate in
social projects along side of the Bahá'ís. The group was further
inspired by stories of the Prophet-Founder of the Faith, Bahá’u’lláh,
as well as stories of the newest Bahá'í House of worship just completed
in Santiago Chile which highlighted the new patterns of community life
and collective endeavour that this edifice has called into being.
 After lunch, Nancy Lavoie,
secretary of the Bahá'í Council of Ontario,
focussed the group’s attention on the special potency of this 6 month
period which will culminate with the Bicentennial anniversary of the
Birth of Bahá’u’lláh, on October 22, 2017. Reading from a letter
written by the Council to the gathered friends, Ms. Lavoie said “The
Light of Divine Unity is illuminating a path for the people of
every race, religion and culture to walk, in order to learn together
how to promote and uphold the wellbeing of the entire human family.”
She went on to read “ the human family must celebrate and honour its
sacred and wondrous diversity. We can do this by gathering together and
labouring alongside each other, trusting in the unfailing design that
Bahá’u’lláh has drawn, so that unity and justice can finally be allowed
to light this dark and perilous world.”
The conference participants drew inspiration from the words of the
Universal House of Justice which
has stated, we must be “focussed on
drawing people together to build communities that are havens of unity”
and create “a new pattern of how society can be.” Attendees broke into
smaller neighbourhood groups to study further and to create concrete
plans to engage more and more neighbours in community-building
activities.
Inspired by prayers, talks, and consultation and rejuvenated by
artistic presentations and a shared lunch, participants left the
conference ready to take action to engage their neighbours in
community-building activities focussed on the spiritual and material
betterment of all local residents.
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