Information sessions highlight service opportunities at the Bahá’í World Centre

A representative from the Office of Personnel visited cities across Canada to encourage those interested in offering a period of service at the Bahá’í World Centre.

There were 32 participants at the youth session in Montreal, Que. Here, a few friends expressed a readiness to serve within a few months’ time while others expressed a desire to serve after completing their studies.

From mid-September to early October, Mr. Riaz Rafat from the Office of Personnel at the Bahá’í World Centre in Haifa, Israel, visited several communities to deliver a series of information sessions about current staffing needs. Events were held in Toronto, Hamilton, Kitchener and Waterloo, London and Ottawa, Ont., as well as Montreal, Que. and Vancouver, B.C.

In Vancouver, B.C., 135 individuals participated in the community-wide session and 55 participated in the youth session. During his time there, Mr. Rafat held another 15 individual one-on-one meetings.

Canadian Bahá’ís have a legacy of service at the Bahá’í World Centre, bringing experience from the field of service in their communities to the spiritual and administrative heart of the Faith and returning home with new capacities and an expanded vision of the unfoldment of the Divine Plan at an international level.

The meetings were inspiring with a promising response from the participants. In some localities, two gatherings were held—one with the general Bahá’í community and another with youth in their final high school years, entering post-secondary education and newly in the workforce. Across Canada, nearly 750 friends attended the information sessions.

Everywhere he visited, Mr. Rafat was met with enthusiasm and readiness, such as in Ottawa where more than half the youth in attendance expressed interest to offer a period of service at the Bahá’í World Centre in the coming years. During the meetings, Mr. Rafat also provided time for individuals to approach him with questions.

Around 40 youth participated in the Ottawa youth session, and almost half of them expressed an intention to offer service at the Bahá’í World Centre within the next three years.

As service positions at the World Centre are vast and broad ranging, everyone—from youth graduating high school, to friends with years of professional experience, to those approaching retirement—is encouraged to become conscious of these needs and offer service as their personal circumstances permit.

If you would like to learn more about service at the Bahá’í World Centre, please visit https://service.bwc.org/, or contact Mrs. Carolina Baker, the representative of the Office of Personnel in Canada, at carolinabwc@gmail.com. Friends living in the Atlantic provinces, Alberta, Manitoba, or Saskatchewan may also attend one of the online sessions with Mr. Rafat on service at the World Centre, which are planned to take place in November or December this year.