Reporting bicentenary activities

In a message dated October 25, the National Spiritual Assembly shared the following information:

As we have previously shared with Local Spiritual Assemblies, though the number of celebrations will indeed be countless, the National Spiritual Assembly wishes to capture, however inadequately, the inspiring ways in which the Canadian community has marked this momentous period in our history. As one way of doing this, we have created a simple online reporting tool and are happy to now share with you the link: https://portal.bahai.ca/forms/bicentenary.jsp.

We wish to capture the commemoration of the Twin Holy Days as well as events over the months of October and November that are in the nature of group celebrations, small or large. The fields “date” and “address/venue” will assist us to avoid double-counting, so although we ask groups of friends to identify one person to submit a report, the most important thing is that we capture as complete a picture as possible. Thus, the friends should not be worried about duplicating something that may have already been reported: we encourage individuals and institutions alike to report. The link is designed to be used on a mobile phone as well as on a computer.

In the field “total participation” we hope for an estimate of the numbers of friends who attended. The second field would indicate how many out of the total were friends of the Faith. The description of the nature of the event can be brief: “our junior youth group invited their parents for a special devotional gathering in honour of the bicentenary”, “our Feast group gathered at dawn on the Holy Day, said prayers and went for a hike”, “we had a dinner and showed the film Dawn of the Light to our neighbours”, “we had a showing of artistic works inspired by the bicentenary”.

We ask you to disseminate this letter as widely and quickly as possible, warmly inviting the friends to participate in taking this snapshot of Canada’s commemorations.

Additionally, the National Spiritual Assembly shared the following message on 28 October: 

In the few days since we sent you the link to report the way in which Canada is commemorating the bicentenary of the Birth of the Báb and the Twin Holy Days, 64 events have already been reported that welcomed 949 souls in celebration of this season of joy.  A thrilling collective portrait of activity is beginning to take shape, with events in 22 communities reported thus far.

Some of the friends advised of challenges in submitting their reports.  An adjustment has been made to the form to avoid these difficulties.  We are thus re-sending the link to the report form in the hope that every group of friends, large or small, who gather to celebrate will share the news with us at https://portal.bahai.ca/forms/bicentenary.jsp.

On this eve of the Twin Holy Days, all the friends in Canada are remembered with deepest love in our prayers, that in every setting, these days will be filled with pure joy.