Message from the National Spiritual Assembly regarding the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
27 September 2021 / 2 Will 178
All Local Spiritual Assemblies
All Regional Bahá’í Councils
All Registered Groups
Dear Bahá’í Friends,
On 30 September, the newly declared federal holiday named the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation will be observed for the first time in Canada. The website concerning this day[1] describes its purpose: to honour the lost children and survivors of residential schools, their families and communities.
As you know, the National Assembly has called the community to respond with whole heart through prayers and self-education to the awakening of so many of our fellow-Canadians to the continuing effects of this tragic history. We recently conducted a brief survey to review the efforts that have been made thus far and were deeply moved by your response. Prayers have been and are being offered across the country and ongoing devotional gatherings were launched, children’s classes were initiated in the name of the children whose unmarked graves have been discovered, vigils were conducted, connections with Friendship Centres were made and educational programs are being undertaken. In ways too numerous to share here, the community has joined the wider community’s effort to better understand the experience of Canada’s Indigenous peoples.
It is our hope that the friends will continue to build on these efforts. On the particular occasion of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, many of you will have an opportunity to join public commemorations, and others may join friends or family. Among the resources available to you for your private reflection or with friends are a number of thought pieces and submissions on the Bahá’í Community of Canada’s Office of Public Affairs website, as well as the video “The Path Home” commissioned by the National Spiritual Assembly in 2015. We are appending a list of these resources and their URLs.
Dear friends, the National Assembly prays that this new public commemoration, this special day of remembrance, will deepen the commitment of all those who are building community to the much longer, necessary process our country has begun. It is work which is entirely coherent with the global Plan, with special meaning for the chosen recipients of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Tablets of the Divine Plan in a year of profound reflection on His life. In its 22 July 2020 letter to the Bahá’ís of the United States, the Universal House of Justice wrote a passage that speaks equally to us in Canada:
“Ultimately, the power to transform the world is effected by love, love originating from the relationship with the divine, love ablaze among members of a community, love extended without restriction to every human being. This divine love, ignited by the Word of God, is disseminated by enkindled souls through intimate conversations that create new susceptibilities in human hearts, open minds to moral persuasion, and loosen the hold of biased norms and social systems so that they can gradually take on a new form in keeping with the requirements of humanity’s age of maturity. You are channels for this divine love; let it flow through you to all who cross your path. Infuse it into every neighborhood and social space in which you move to build capacity to canalize the society-building power of Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation. There can be no rest until the destined outcome is achieved.”
With loving Bahá’í greetings,
NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY
OF THE BAHÁ’ÍS OF CANADA
Karen McKye, Secretary
List of some resources and websites:
1. “The Path Home” video:
2. Conversation at the Association for Bahá’í Studies conference – Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond and Jordan Bighorn: Honouring the Children: Social action for truth, reconciliation and justice:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNeX4UqA_e4
3. Reflections on Reconciliation (1) – Our Whole Society (St. Paul University, Ottawa): https://youtu.be/hecP138UwNs
4. Reflections on Reconciliation (2) – Our Whole Society (St. Paul University, Ottawa): https://youtu.be/JQjzg33sYhw
5. Submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission:
6. Thought Piece on Advancing the Conversation on Reconciliation in Canada:
https://opa.bahai.ca/en_documents/advancing-the-conversation-on-reconciliation-in-canada/
7. Podcast on “Resilience and Relationships”:
https://opa.bahai.ca/en_podcasts/episode-7-resilience-and-relationships/
More content is available at this website: https://opa.bahai.ca/areas-focus/reconciliation/
