Bahá’ís
celebrate 200th anniversary
by admin • March 19, 2017
by Stephen Thirlwall
The year 2017 is an important one for all Canadians, being the year of
Canada’s 150th anniversary. For the Bahá’ís of Ottawa and the worldwide
Bahá’í community, it is also a special bicentennial celebration of the
birth of the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith.
Bahá’u’lláh was born in Persia in 1817. He revealed himself to the
world as a manifestation (messenger or prophet) of God for a new
spiritual age that would steadily unfold, leading to unity among all
peoples of the Earth and a vast period of world peace and global
civilization.
The Bahá’í community of Ottawa itself has existed for over 70 years,
beginning during the 1940s when Winnifred Harvey settled in Ottawa in
1940, taking on a job with Statistics Canada. She was soon joined by
others, most living in Centretown.
The first formal Bahá’í community formed in 1949 with the election of
the Local Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Ottawa.
Over the next few decades, other Bahá’í communities formed in the
separate municipalities around Ottawa: Vanier, Gloucester, Nepean,
Cumberland, Kanata, Stittsville, etc.
With the amalgamation of the City of Ottawa, all Bahá’í communities
inside the new municipal boundaries also amalgamated. Since then, the
Bahá’í population has grown to well over a thousand in number.
Some of the fundamental principles of the Bahá’í Faith are as follows.
World peace is not just possible, but inevitable.
Equality between the sexes is essential to world order, as is equality
between people of all backgrounds. Much work has to be done to rid the
world of deeply held prejudices of all kinds that hold back humanity.
This will require immense effort and maturation of all peoples, but is
possible to achieve. Science and religion, the two main human processes
of understanding, must come together in harmony and assist one another.
Likewise, the arts and sciences are equally important in the creative
advancement of humanity.
Humanity has made great strides in material advancement, but without an
accompanying understanding and development our full intellectual and
spiritual capacities, humanity will stay in a state of immaturity.
Material advancement alone leads ultimately to limited benefits and
much suffering. Unity of all peoples, the underlying principle of the
Bahá’í faith, means not unity in conformity but rather unity in
diversity.
While the peoples of the world need to gather around certain common
spiritual and social laws, principles, and values, they also need to
continue to develop the richness of their various positive cultural
expressions, while shedding those outdated traditions that lead to
conflict and separation.
 The local Ottawa Bahá’í
community, along with those around the world, has gone through many
stages in its development. When smaller, a lot of time was spent on
developing their own community activities (holy days, regular community
“feast” gatherings) and building up their administration, as well as
holding some public meetings and small “fireside” gatherings to which
others were invited.
Increasingly, the Bahá’ís have become more involved, both as
individuals and collectively as a community, with the wider population.
For example, they have been part of the citywide and regional
interfaith activities of Ottawa and Ontario for over 30 years.
Currently, they are focused on a few important endeavours: improving
the devotional and social life of the community, providing spiritual
and moral education at all ages, and building up the character and
capacity of individuals toward service in the community, for both the
Bahá’ís and others in the general community of Ottawa. In the process,
organizational capabilities continue to be developed by a growing
number of people.
The Bahá’í community is not congregational. There is no clergy.
Everyone must play their part in the advancement and activities of the
community. Administration of the Bahá’í community is based on the
election of individuals from the generality of the adult Bahá’í
population without nominations or campaigning. The elected assemblies
and appointed committees make decisions based on a system of spiritual
consultation guided by the Bahá’í teachings. The Bahá’í community
functions on voluntary service of its members. All funding of community
activities is based on donations from only the believers themselves.
Throughout 2017, the Bahá’í community will hold various special
celebrations. March 20-21 marks their New Year’s (Nawruz) celebration.
In 2019, the Bahá’ís will again hold special commemorations for the
birth of The Báb, an intimately related Manifestation of God, who
prepared the way for Bahá’u’lláh’s revelation.
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