A quest to make Bahá’í Holy Day celebrations inviting to everyone is heating up in a large area of the Central California coast and fueling a range of community-building activities. Those activities have caught fire from the past year’s efforts to plan celebrations, and to invite people, for the October 2017 bicentenary of the birth of Bahá’u’lláh.

“In just a short time” leading up to the bicentenary, says Kathleen Wright of Salinas, “there was so much growth amongst us all with regards to our willingness and increased confidence to speak to members of the wider community about the Bahá’í Faith.”

Area believers now have vowed to “continue to do deepenings on engaging in meaningful conversations to practice talking with others about the Bahá’í Faith,” she says.

Accordingly, says Wright, a Holy Days Committee appointed to coordinate four joint observances a year across the expanse of Monterey County is “centering all its plans on inviting friends, family, neighbors, etc., to come to the Holy Days celebrations, which is a huge switch from before where they were only planned for Bahá’ís.”

This atmosphere of renewed energy has led to two regular devotional gatherings as well. Also, the community is seeking opportunities to work with local groups to serve the homeless and others in need. A community garden is in the works. And a former “animator,” who had mentored a junior youth group, is returning to the area and will be working with a graduate of the children’s classes and junior youth groups to recruit other youths who wish to serve those of younger ages.

“So, lots of plans in the works,” says Wright. “We are really motivated to keep the momentum going, and that is a huge shift.”

Current efforts continue a process begun a year ago when the Holy Day Committee “pledged that we would do whatever we could to support anyone with a bicentennial project they wished to do,” recalls Wright. Because the committee serves a large geographic area, encompassing two clusters of communities, “we wanted to have as many things going in different areas as possible.”

Wright says consultation with an Auxiliary Board member revealed “the need and desire to encourage individuals to get in touch with friends, family, neighbors and co-workers to start talking to them about the Bahá’í Faith and the 200th anniversary of the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh so it would be natural and organic to invite them to the bicentenary activities. We sent out emails to everyone … expressing our warmest wishes and offer of support.”

To that end, refresher courses on Books 2 (Arising to Serve), 4 (The Twin Manifestations) and 6 (Teaching the Cause) in the Ruhi training sequence served to deepen believers’ knowledge of the life and teachings of Bahá’u’lláh and how they can be shared.

Because a couple expressed interest in starting a devotional gathering, a deepening was held on that topic as well. The devotional began in August.

Preparations for the bicentenary also included:

• Assembling donated Bahá’í books and selecting “ones that would be good to have on hand” for inquirers. Postcards containing details on the celebrations also were made up, and pamphlets on the Faith were ordered.
• Launching a campaign to complete 200 acts of service before the bicentenary. A poster was created depicting the Shrine of the Báb in the Holy Land and the steps leading up to it, and whenever 10 more acts were completed a cypress sticker was added to a step. “At the bottom of the poster, everyone could write in their acts of service if they liked,” says Wright. “The poster was rotated to each community for Feast or other gatherings so everyone could participate.”
• Asking a community member to serve as public information officer for the bicentenary. He contacted all 12 mayors in Monterey County and sent a cover letter, proclamation template, color poster and postcard with activities. Several mayors responded, and two made proclamations.
• Providing stories from Brilliant Star children’s magazine and other sources to children’s classes, so the kids could make binders on the lives of the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh. “We are continuing to incorporate them into the lesson plans,” says Wright.

Screenings of the film Light to the World before and after the bicentenary in community gatherings, devotionals, public meetings and a meeting of the Community Interfaith Council reached dozens of members of the public who had been invited personally or saw event listings on Nextdoor and other social media.

“We had one individual attend” the Interfaith Council meeting “who is Muslim and requested copies of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas [Bahá’u’lláh’s Most Holy Book] and the Kitáb-i-Íqán [Book of Certitude],” says Wright. “A lunch was planned for further discussion between a seeker and one of the Bahá’ís. Someone else asked for the link to watch the film again online.”

The 39 people who attended the main bicentenary event itself included some former junior youth group members from Gonzales who “came out of respect for the Bahá’í Faith.”

And that poster showing the steps to the Shrine? An unveiling showed that the goal of 200 acts of service had been surpassed.