Teaching conferences this past fall in two regions brought into focus the challenges and opportunities for Bahá’ís as they prepared to invite friends, neighbors and co-workers to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of Bahá’u’lláh on the weekend of Oct. 21–22 and, going forward, to join in building community where they live.

“What we knew from the start was that with the bicentenary fast approaching and knowing the effort that the friends were being called upon to arise to share the Person of Bahá’u’lláh with everyone, we wanted the teaching conferences to be an assistance to the believers by helping them to prepare spiritually for the endeavor at hand,” explains Marie McNair, secretary of the Northeast Regional Bahá’í Council.

“We approached the planning … with the thought that the conferences would not be instructional, not for the purpose of asking the friends to do anything, but rather of bringing people together to share an experience created to infuse within their hearts those deeply felt connections with the Beloved such that they felt uplifted, reinvigorated, and recharged.”

The Northeast Regional Council hosted nine conferences in September, held in Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania. Venues included Bahá’í centers, universities, Green Acre Bahá’í School and assorted other locations, says McNair. About 1,400 people attended, in some cases far exceeding the numbers originally expected.

In each location a single Council member facilitated the gathering, sometimes in collaboration with Auxiliary Board members as available, and worked with a small committee of local friends who assisted with the logistical aspects of the conferences such as music, setup of a spiritually pleasing environment, and refreshments. Readers were selected in advance and helped to create an uplifting experience for all as the day proceeded in an atmosphere of reverence and joy.

The Atlantic States Regional Council hosted 14 conferences, each “designed to draw our hearts individually and collectively closer to Bahá’u’lláh; to explore creative ways to have meaningful conversations; and to make individual and family plans for seizing the opportunities provided us during this precious time.” From late August through early October, the conferences were held at various localities across Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia — two of them in Persian.

Attendees studied excerpts from the Feb. 25, 2017, letter from the National Spiritual Assembly on “America and the Five Year Plan” and, in the conferences held after it came out, the Universal House of Justice’s bicentenary letter; viewed portions of House of Justice member David Hofman’s address to the second Bahá’í World Congress in 1992 and portions of the National Assembly secretary’s report to the 109th U.S. Bahá’í National Convention; and discussed quotations from Bahá’í writings pertaining to “Who Is Bahá’u’lláh” and “Exploring the Conversation between Two Souls.”

Take-home materials included a personal and family planning guide and ideas for growth around the bicentenary.

The Universal House of Justice and the National Assembly have been “calling us to increasingly find a language of openness and inclusion as we engage in meaningful conversations about the light that Bahá’u’lláh has brought to the world,” the Atlantic States Council noted in a Nov. 2 letter of reflection.

“The film Light to the World, as well as the October letter of the Universal House of Justice to the world, are wonderful examples of this language, which we can all study and model as we further refine our capacity to converse. This capacity was the focus of the nearly one thousand souls attending the 14 teaching conferences held in the weeks prior to the bicentenary.

“Clearly, the conversations that were initiated in advance of the bicentenary and the invitations that were offered to attend the celebrations now need to be extended and deepened in the coming weeks and months,” the Council wrote.

“As much as we want to take a ‘breather’ from the exertions of the past few months, we cannot ignore the fact that hearts have truly been opened to the Revelation and that we continue to have an unprecedented opportunity to teach the Cause of God.”