Fall Winter 2024/2025 issue of Bahá’í Canada

The title of this issue, Rays of Light, is shared with a recently-released junior youth text. An article on this text is included here and was previously published on the Bahá’í Canada website.[i] The text focuses on the fundamental principles of the Bahá’í Faith, which are like rays of light from the Sun of Truth that illuminate reality. On the cover is a drawing by Kiana Rezvani Baghae titled Roots on a Mission, which also includes an image of the sun as a source of life and strength.

Rays of light can also symbolize hope. In its 26 May 2024 message to the Institute for Studies in Global Prosperity, published in this issue, the Universal House of Justice addressed the “suffering and bloodshed that are the outcome of conflicts” and discussed how young people can respond to the deteriorating situation of the world.

This calls to mind the 29 October 2024 message from the National Spiritual Assembly, who wrote “With admiration and gratitude, we reflected on the ways you are living your lives, as well-wishers of humanity, builders and growers, practitioners of peace, sources of light and hope amidst growing forces of disintegration…”

The articles in this issue also point to these sources of light and hope. The feature article, “Mothers arise as social actors, promoting the education of children,” details the sustained collective effort of a group of families, united in their concern for the well-being of their children. Through the impetus of the training institute, their vision expanded. Now they are beginning to see signs of transformation at the level of the family, and the community has emerged as a protagonist.

The “From the History” section of this issue includes the article “Siegfried Schopflocher: Chief Temple builder,” by Vahid Spencer. This engaging article details how a Canadian Hand of the Cause of God made a decisive contribution to completing the Mother Temple of the West. This legacy is instructive as we endeavour to raise up the Mother Temple of Canada.

A prayer from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the entirety of which is included in the “From the Writings” section of this issue, reads: “Make them to be…piercing rays of the mind shedding forth their light in this, the ‘first life.’” These rays of the mind were at work in the article “Insights from the discourse on technology and society,” which is the first of its kind. Contributed by a working group of the Association for Bahá’í Studies, the article outlines how an in-depth understanding of technology, and its ubiquitous influence, is a requirement of moral empowerment.

During the Ten Year Crusade (1953-1963), a largescale effort to pioneer to every corner of the globe was carried out, which is where the story “Pioneering from one generation to the next” begins. Based on an interview with Knight of Bahá’u’lláh to Morrocco Nosrat Ardekani, who now resides in Montreal, Que., as well as the memoirs of her late husband Husayn Ardekani, this piece examines lives reshaped by the summons of the Guardian and later guided and sustained by the House of Justice.

Finally, Gloria Brown from Hamilton, Ont. wrote about how her participation in the Bahá’í International Community’s events leading up to the United Nations’ Summit of the Future gave her hope. She shares, “… the BIC emphasized…the need to cultivate a spirit of optimism in the face of global difficulties.” She carried this spirit of optimism home, commenting, “The Action Days reaffirmed for me that local initiatives—no matter their scale—are integral to global progress.”

[i] bahaicanada.bahai.ca

Fall/Winter 2024/2025 issue