{"id":18637,"date":"2017-10-11T16:00:39","date_gmt":"2017-10-11T20:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=18637"},"modified":"2017-10-11T16:00:39","modified_gmt":"2017-10-11T20:00:39","slug":"bahai-community-marks-milestone-anniversary-with-celebration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/bahai-community-marks-milestone-anniversary-with-celebration\/","title":{"rendered":"Baha\u2019i community marks milestone anniversary with celebration"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

Aurora\u2019s Baha\u2019i community will mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of its founder this month with a series of commemorative events to highlight the faith\u2019s \u201ctransformative impact on the lives of families, neighbourhoods, and communities around the country and around the world.\u201d
\nThe events \u2013 including an open house at the Aurora Public Library this Saturday, October 14 and a larger celebration the following Saturday evening at the Aurora Cultural Centre \u2013 are part of a wider range of programs that have been going on throughout the year to mark the bicentennial of the faith\u2019s founder Baha\u2019 u\u2019llah.
\nThis past summer, the Baha\u2019i community held a 3K walk to bring Aurorans together in what they describe as a \u201cwalk of unity.\u201d
\nEveryone in Aurora and surrounding municipalities were invited to take part.
\n\u201cAs one of the main principles of the Baha\u2019i faith is the oneness of humanity and the unity of all religions and the walk served to unify the community and create bonds of friendships,\u201d said organizers.
\nThe upcoming events will serve as a way to reach even more members of the community on the tenets of the faith.
\n\u201cAll around the world, wherever Baha\u2019i reside, celebrations are being planned [for the actual day] on October 21 and we are celebrating not only Baha\u2019 u\u2019llah\u2019s birth, but that the teachings he has provided are, to this day and age, still being disseminated,\u201d says Kamran Nejati of the Aurora community. \u201cHe talked about the progress of revelation, which is the belief that God will never leave us without guidance and will send us teachers and messengers and prophets to bring us new teaching for a period of time. He says this dispensation will last for about 1,000 or so years and God will send us another messenger. This continuation of teachings from God is going to be there forever. In this day and age, he brings teachings that are very relevant to our period of time.
\n\u201cOur pivot al teaching is the oneness of mankind. We believe strongly in that and the unity, as well as other teachings such as the oneness of religions, equality of men and women, education for all and a number of other teachings that he has brought that are very relevant to our age today.\u201d
\nThese cornerstones of the Baha\u2019i are manifested in several ways through the work they do in the community, says Mr. Nejati, including classes for kids \u2013 and indeed everyone as a whole \u2013 which focus on moral ethics and how to be a part of society together. There are also youth programs emphasizing community service and giving back.
\n\u201cWith this type of thinking, it takes away the thinking that \u2018everything is for me\u2019 and replaces it with \u2018what can I do to better the environment, better society and help others\u2019 so our service can be of some meaning to the community,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cOur main aim is unity of mankind and service to the community, not just Aurora but anywhere Baha\u2019i reside.
\n\u201cWe want the Baha\u2019i faith and Baha\u2019 u\u2019llah\u2019s name to be known to people, so everybody comes to learn about Baha\u2019 u\u2019llah and what message he has brought to the world. It is for the whole world because we believe when God sends a message the world will change accordingly because that is God\u2019s plan to bring those teachings and messages to people. If they join the faith or don\u2019t, it doesn\u2019t matter; it is how we align with those teachings from God. One of the things this type of activity will do is, perhaps, introduce or make Baha\u2019 u\u2019llah more well-known to the community at large, along with what he stands for.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Baha\u2019i Community of Aurora will hold their open house this Saturday, October 14, from 1 \u2013 4 p.m. at the Aurora Public Library. The celebration marking the Bicentennial of the Birth of Baha\u2019 u\u2019llah will take place Saturday, October 21, starting at 6.30 p.m. at the Aurora Cultural Centre. All are welcome and refreshments will be served. For more information, visit www.bahaisofaurora.org.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aurora\u2019s Baha\u2019i community will mark the 200th anniversary of the birth of its founder this month with a series of commemorative events to highlight the faith\u2019s \u201ctransformative impact on the lives of families, neighbourhoods, and communities around the country and around the world.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":18602,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/2017-10-12-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-4QB","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-16 10:56:54","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18602"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}