After months of media attention, controversy and scepticism, the Millennium Dome actually opened on the night of New Year’s Eve! Secretary of the National Assembly Barney Leith and his wife Erica, were in attendance at the Dome to enjoy the biggest party on earth! You will be glad to know that having started the evening at a reception at the House of Lords the Leiths (along with the other guest from the reception) were given VIP treatment and were able to escape the queues that plagued the majority of guests.

Inside the Dome’s much talked-about Faith Zone the Bahá’í community takes its rightful place as one of the nine major faiths of the United Kingdom, (see photo). In the multi-faith area nine triangular perspex "life point" pillars depict aspects of life common to people of faith and to those without a belief system. The Bahá’í Community is represented primarily on a pillar about the family; it also features on all the other pillars and throughout the Faith Zone. Introductory Bahá’ í books are available to buy at the Dome book shops and the voices of One World Rhythm Choir can be heard surrounding the Family Pillar with the words of Bahá’u’lláh.

The presence of the Bahá’í community in the centre-piece of the British Millennium celebrations establishes the Bahá’í Faith as a major feature of the religious landscape of the United Kingdom.

In what has been called a unique gathering in human history, the Bahá’í community joined the eight other major UK religions to celebrate the New Millennium in the Royal Gallery of the Palace of Westminster in the presence of Their Royal Highnesses The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester (welcomed by a fanfare played by trumpeters from the Blues and Royals), the Most Revd and Rt Hon Dr George Carey, Archbishop of Canterbury, the Rt Hon Tony Blair MP, Prime Minister, and Mrs Blair.

In his welcoming remarks, the Rt Hon Chris Smith, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, referred to the event as a gathering of the nine major religions of the UK. The Prime Minister spoke reflectively and enthusiastically about the unique importance of the event, showing as it did the importance of faith and religion and emphasizing the government’s commitment to a tolerant, multi-faith future for the United Kingdom.

The event was hosted by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport and the Inter Faith Network, who had planned it in consultation with The Lambeth Group and members of the faith communities. Representatives of all the major religions gave presentations on shared values such as community, care and compassion, justice, and respect to an audience of members of Parliament, faith leaders and faith community members from across the UK.

Carmel Momen, Public Information Representative from the Office of External Affairs, was involved in the planning of the event and regularly attended meetings at the Department of Culture, Media and Sport for this purpose.

Joan Bowers of the Chester Bahá’í community read from the writings of Bahá’u’lláh on the issue "Justice as a Foundational Value", and gave some personal insights into the importance of justice to her life as a Bahá’í. Wendi Momen and Barney Leith attended as senior representatives of the Bahá’í community, and a number of other Bahá’ís represented the nations of the UK.

After the readings, presentations and music, senior representatives of the Faith communities were invited to go forward (in alphabetical order) to take part in the recitation of an Act of Commitment to mark the year 2000. The recitation was led by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

BBC 2 TV showed 30 minutes of highlights of the event immediately afterwards and there was national newspaper coverage the following day.

This event sent a highly significant public signal about the acceptance of the multi-faith nature of UK society. It also marked an important stage in the emergence from obscurity of the Faith. The Bahá’í Faith is one of nine faith communities represented on the Inter Faith Network of the UK, the body that has played a most important role in opening the door of dialogue between the government and the faith communities. Because of this the Bahá’í community of the UK is now clearly in the public arena and is recognised by three pillars of the Establishment (the Royal Family, the Government and the Church of England) as one of the nine major faith communities in the UK. This has important implications for external affairs work at national and local level and can certainly be used to help official bodies to understand the part the Bahá’í community is playing in public life now.

The text of the Act of Commitment was this -

"In a world scarred by the evils of war, racism, injustice and poverty, we offer this joint Act of Commitment as we look to our shared future.

We commit ourselves, as people of many faiths, to work together for the common good, uniting to build a better society, grounded in values and ideals we share: community, personal integrity, a sense of right and wrong,

learning, wisdom and love of truth, care and compassion, justice and peace, respect for one another, for the earth and its creatures. We commit ourselves, in a spirit of friendship and co-operation, to work together alongside all who share our values and ideals, to help bring about a better world now and for generations to come."

The Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly represented the Bahá’í community at the Millennium Service for England in St Paul’s Cathedral on Sunday 2nd January. The service, which was attended by the Queen and Prince Philip as well as the Prime Minister and Mrs Blair, was broadcast live on BBC TV and was a very grand occasion. The representatives of the non-Christian faiths were honoured with their own procession to their seats under the dome just before the service began.

A number of the friends heard Lembit Opik MP, the Chair of the All Party Friends of the Bahá’ís, speak very positively about the Bahá’í Faith as a faith for the new millennium recently on BBC Radio 4. Mr Opik is playing a very important role in helping the Office of External Affairs achieve the goals of defending the Faith and of influencing leaders of thought and decision makers.

During a recent visit to the United Kingdom, brother and sister duo, Martha and Vahid Khadem-Missagh of the Austrian Bahá’í community, gave an afternoon violin recital at the National Bahá’í centre. The event was a great teaching success with a number of Bahá’ís in the London area being able to bring their contacts at the last minute.

The United Nations has proclaimed the year 2000 as the International Year for the Culture of Peace. Bahá’ís are well aware of both the achievements and the disasters of the 20th century, which has seen the tearing down of the institutions and values of the old world order and the gradual and at times uncertain building of the institutions and values of what will eventually be a peaceful, just and united society.

The Bahá’í community world-wide is helping to build a culture of peace. It is entirely appropriate that we should support the United Nations Organisation in its visionary programme to call all nations and the international community to turn away from violence towards peace. It is entirely appropriate that we should support the United Nations Association in its call for widespread individual commitment to end violence and support the Culture of Peace.

As the UNA’s information leaflet says,

"The Culture of Peace is a means of thought and social interaction rooted in the values, attitudes and forms of behaviour that encourage peace. It is a culture created through respect for life and human dignity; the rejection of violence in all its forms and a deep commitment to the principles of freedom, justice, solidarity, tolerance and understanding among all peoples."

The International Year for the Culture of Peace aims to launch a world movement for the Culture of Peace that will draw into a coherent whole the many groups, organisations and institutions that are working for peace. The movement focuses on the connections between local and global concerns. Local and global education is a pillar in the success of the movement, which aims to intensify the establishment of an integrated educational system concerning the issues of peace, human rights, cultural pluralism and democracy at all levels of the community.

UNESCO has invited the United Nations Association (UNA-UK) to act as their leading partner for the Culture of Peace programme in the United Kingdom. UNA-UK are pursuing a number of objectives, including the development (in partnership with the Council for Education in World Citizenship) of effective educational programmes and materials on global citizenship that will slot in with the new emphasis on Citizenship education in the National Curriculum and Manifesto 2000.

Manifesto 2000 is a pledge drafted by the Nobel Peace Prize Laureates that aims to foster individual awareness of and commitment to the Culture of Peace. It is a key initiative within the Culture of Peace programme and has already been endorsed by a diverse group of world figures such as Desmond Tutu, Mikhail Gorbachev, Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama. In the UK, the Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly was one of 80 leading religious and civic figures who signed Manifesto 2000 publicly outside Westminster Abbey on 14th September. Those who signed were asked to provide a reflection on the importance of the Culture of Peace;

the National Secretary wrote:

"Bahá’ís in the United Kingdom and all around the world support the UN in its vital work to develop a global culture of peace and non-violence. This is the birthright of every human being on the planet."

With the print version of the January Bahá’í Journal UK you will have found a copy of Manifesto 2000. The National Spiritual Assembly warmly encourages all the friends to sign the pledge and to return it to UNA-UK as quickly as possible (3 Whitehall Court, London SW1A 2EL). We can help the UNA to meet the challenge of collecting one million signatures in the UK to contribute to UNESCO’s goal of one hundred million signatures world-wide. These signatures will portray our support for the Culture of Peace.

The quarterly mailout that will reach your community’s secretary in March will contain a form for community and group signatures. There is no reason why your community should not encourage non-Bahá’í friends to sign the pledge and to join with you in working for the Culture of Peace.

Indeed, your community may wish to consider mounting some programmes for the Culture of Peace, perhaps in partnership with your local UNA branch (if there is one) or with other appropriate organisations. There will be plenty of opportunities in schools and elsewhere to promote relevant Bahá’í principles. Please note that these would be external affairs and service projects and should not be regarded as an opportunity to directly teach the Faith. Please contact the UNA (Tel: 020 7930 2931, Fax: 020 7930 5893) for further ideas and suggestions of what you might do.

All of this will feed into the People’s Millennium Forum that is to take place at UN Headquarters in May 2000. The Forum is the idea of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and will bring together thousands of representatives of civil society organisations from across the world to engage in debate about how to realise the vision of a Culture of Peace. The results of the Forum will be placed before the UN General Assembly "Millennium Summit" in September 2000. The Bahá’í International Community UN Office in New York has been closely engaged in the planning of the Forum and will be co-ordinating the Bahá’í input.

The National Spiritual Assembly is confident that the friends in the United Kingdom will want to contribute in a solid way to the UNA’s programme as well as continuing to build the Culture of Peace in their everyday lives by living according to the Teachings of Bahá’u’lláh.

The National Spiritual Assembly was very happy to receive positive reports of the Asian Teaching Project that took place in October. Three musicians from India, including Dr Ali Merchant, Director of the Bahá’í Office of External Affairs of the National Spiritual Assembly of India, gave performances of traditional Indian music and Bahá’í songs to Asian audiences in a number of places in the UK.

Dr Merchant’s letter to our National Spiritual Assembly -

"I regret the delay in sending my expression of humble gratitude for the wonderful hospitality and many tokens of kindness we received from so many friends at all the places we travelled to in your country. Soon after returning from the marvellous and excitement filled programme of music and discourses, I was immediately plunged into a series of activities in Delhi.

"Meanwhile our National Spiritual Assembly also received your communication appreciating our travelling teaching endeavours. Your words of encouragement have greatly cheered us and inspired us to render still greater service to our beloved Cause. The maximum credit should go to the Asian Task Force you had appointed and to all the communities who participated in this project by hosting and arranging the programmes. We are indeed grateful to Bahá’u’lláh for His loving confirmations....

"Through your National Assembly, we wish to sincerely convey our profound thanks to all those friends who offered us hospitality and organised suitable programmes. We shall always cherish their friendship and look forward to the opportunity when we can reciprocate the love and generosity they offered us."

The National Spiritual Assembly considers that there is an over-riding need to reach out to the Asian populations in the United Kingdom and has decided that the Asian Teaching Project should continue. In place of the Task Force the National Assembly has now appointed the Asian Committee to continue this work throughout the UK.

At its recent meeting, the National Spiritual Assembly considered some queries it had received from local Spiritual Assemblies on the subject of the witnesses to Bahá’í weddings and whether they need to be personally known to the members of the Local Spiritual Assembly.

The National Assembly took the following policy decision which it wishes to share with the friends, and which will be appended to the Notes for Guidance on Marriage in future editions.

"The guidance is clear that witnesses must be acceptable to the Local Assembly. It is within the remit of the Local Assembly to decide what is meant by this.

"However, it has been suggested that the witnesses must be personally known to the Assembly. The National Assembly reminds the Local Assembly that a wedding is a spiritual event and a day of family bonding, and feels that this is not a necessary requirement and in many cases this would be impossible (for example if the couple wish to honour family members or friends from other parts of the world)."

The Bahá’í Information Office wishes to share with the Friends some thoughts on the "Web of Faith" project and our "Show-on-the-Go" training programme.

Since February 10th 1999 when the "Web of Faith" was launched the number of Bahá’í Websites in this country has increased more than five-fold. Sites are still being created. Councils, Training Institutes, committees, Thomas Breakwell Schools, Spiritual Assemblies, and groups all have sites on the World Wide Web. Even some dance groups and youth magazines have them. But we want more.

Some people who want to create Websites for various institutions of the Faith seem to feel inadequate to the task. Some haven’t started. One of the reasons for not starting is that they feel that they have to write a lengthy statement about the Faith. Another is "Why would anyone be interested in our community?"

The local site should be short and simple with links to the Bahá’í World Centre and to the National Spiritual Assembly Websites. By linking your site to these sites, you will not have to write a lengthy statement about the Faith. The uniqueness of your local community is what local people are interested in. Who are you? What are you doing?

Some communities have used their sites to tell about the first Bahá’ís in the locality, others expain about the different people that make up their community and show something of its diversity. Something about the locality is helpful and local councils or tourist offices may be able to provide pictures and information to help.

Even if you are not developing a Website, it is very enjoyable to see what other communities are doing. If you don’t have a computer, visit a friend who has one. Ask to see the various sites. For those who remember the first television sets, neighbours would come together to watch a 7-inch screen in a darkened room. Maybe this is a way to meet your neighbours.

Mention of home computers brings us to "Show-on-the-Go". When this programme was introduced to the community in May, some communities thought, "More work!" In one sense, this could be the case, because we want local communities to work with their local media and organisations of like-minded people. Many of you are doing this already. This programme is there to help you with that work. For those of you who aren’t, it will help you learn how to work with the media.

What is this programme? It is very like the programme that was used in the past to train local Information Officers. In addition to having meetings in various parts of the UK to train the Information Officers, we are sending out the information in a staged process. First there was Show One that comes with a disk to use in your computer along with sheets of pages giving one part of the Information Officers manual. The second Show again has a disk and another part of the manual, which deals with media queries. In the future, we are planning to make things more multi-media using CD-ROM. The advantage with this programme is that it goes directly into the home of the Information Officer, who can learn at his or her, own pace. It is livelier than just the printed word, and it can be shared with other members of the community. Our hope is that many members of the community, Assembly members or not, will have a chance to see this material.

We are entering a new phase of our work in the information field. We not only want you to work with newspapers, and to reach out to radio and local television stations, but also to work with organisations and groups that are like-minded.

"Show-on-the-Go" will help build that confidence to go out into the larger community and speak about our Faith.

What do "Web of Faith" and "Show-on-the-Go" have in common? Both of them are ways to reach out into the community. What a great opportunity they are. Don’t you want to be part of one or both? If your community is not taking part, please ask them to do so. Even if you are part of a small group or are the only person in your area, you too can take part in these activities. Just let us know and we will be very happy to send you the information. Many wonderful opportunities are out there, if you take the first step.

We look forward to hearing from you.

The work of the National Assembly’s Offices of External Affairs and Office for the Advancement of Women mean a likely increase in the number of stance papers being produced to give to interested parties and organisations a Bahá’í view on matters of concern to them. These papers will normally be shared, as has been the case up to now, with the Friends for their own use. The Bahá’í Information Office continues to have the task of maintaining the resource bank and of making the papers available.