I’m going to take this opportunity to speak again about the Baha’i community, since it is such a central part to the Baha’i faith, and has really been the focus for me for the last few days.

Let us begin with the Baha’i Bookstore and Information Centre here in Vancouver.  It isn’t much, to be honest.  From the outside it looks like a modest community center crossed with a Jehovah’s Witnesses church.  It is plain and nondescript, it is humbleness incarnate.  Inside are the basics- the largish gymnasium that could comfortably hold a hundred or so people, rows of stacked chairs along the walls, and some adjacent meeting rooms.  If not for the small but abundant Baha’i bookstore in front you would probably pass it by with nary a glance.  In this store there are books on almost every Baha’i topic, from sex to interfaith studies to children’s books.  There are multiple editions and translations galore- a little something for anyone who might walk in.

This selection of materials hints at their zeal for newcomers to the faith.  Baha’is do not proselytize, instead they look out for people who are interested in the Baha’i faith, spirituality in general, or who are just curious.  They assess the person’s interests and then facilitate their studies, letting them learn for themselves, in their own way, about the faith.  In the Baha’i understanding an individual’s search for truth is to be valued, and therefore there is a lot of respect for everyone’s spiritual autonomy.  There is no pushing, just encouragement.

Anyway, back to the Baha’i Centre.  The whole thing is a real far cry from the grand examples of Baha’i architecture in the Middle East.  The Shrine of Baha’u'llah in Acre, the Universal House of Justice and the Shrine of the Bab in Haifa are just a few examples.  They are magnificently designed, and are surrounded by beautiful and immaculate gardens.  They are everything one imagines the Middle East to be- large, impressive, almost foreboding in their scale and grandeur, and borne of the faith and belief in that which is always greater.  The Baha’i Centre is none of these things, but it doesn’t need to be, because the people that inhabit this small place, the ones who make up this Baha’i community, more than make up for any of the grandeur that may have been lost in translation.

I am probably going to disagree with these people ideologically on a few things, but in the long run I don’t know if that matters, given the quality of the human beings I have been interacting with.  These are people who genuinely want to help the world, to be better people, to raise better people, to make better communities- full stop.  I can maybe question the finer points of their philosophy- the ability to maintain religious unity and still lay claim to the latest manifestation of God, their case for the unity of humanity but strangely conservative stance on same-sex unions- but I cannot question their motives.

God’s purpose in sending His Prophets unto men is twofold.  The first is to liberate the children of men from the darkness of ignorance, and guide them to the light of true understanding.  The second is to ensure the peace and tranquility of mankind, and provide all the means by which they can be established.

-Gleanings from the Writings of Baha’u'llah, p. 79

I have only been to the Baha’i Centre once this month.  I will be going there tomorrow to celebrate Naw Ruz, the Baha’i new year, and then perhaps later in the month to observe one of their more bureaucratic meetings.  On my first visit I was just looking to pick up some books, but ended up staying for over an hour, talking to some Baha’is who really wanted nothing more than to ensure I had everything I needed to properly study the faith.  I told them about my website, and from then on I was being contacted by different Baha’is from all over the city, all eager to invite me into their homes to teach me about the faith.  It was actually kind of creepy.

Without a clergy or church, it falls to the members of the faith to volunteer their time and their homes to teach the religion to newcomers and hold gatherings for Baha’is or people of any spiritual persuasion.  Community is not just an integral part to the faith as it may be for other monotheisms, Baha’i is community.

Tomorrow I will be going to the Baha’i Bookstore and Information Centre, but the centre of the faith is not that building, it is not the ground that it sits upon, nor the space that fills it.  It is in the people that inhabit it.