Baha’i conferences circle the globe
2 December 2008ANTOFAGASTA, Chile — Baha’i conferences last weekend circled the globe – from Chile to Cameroon to the Philippines.
It was the fifth of 18 consecutive weekends that will see conferences in a total of 41 cities, all having been convened by the Universal House of Justice, the elected body that is the head of the Baha’i Faith.
In Antofagasta, 600 people from Chile, Bolivia, Argentina, and southern Peru gathered, many of them representing indigenous groups who, as one participant put it, offered “a defiant response to prejudice and raised a flag for unity in diversity.”
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In Manila, some 700 Baha’is from the Philippines were joined for a Baha’i conference by 300 people from at least seven other countries or territories.
This group from Chad traveled to Yaounde, the capital of Cameroon, for the Baha’i conference there.
In northern Chile, people gathered from the rest of that country as well as from Argentina, Bolivia, and southern Peru.
A representative of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Cameroon welcomes participants to the conference in her country.
Indigenous musicians perform at the conference in Antofagasta, Chile.
The three conferences on 29-30 November were part of a series of 41 major Baha’i gatherings being held around the world over a four-month period. This photo is… »
The event in Manila was one of 10 Baha’i gatherings scheduled for Asia in the series of 41 conferences.
In Yaounde, Cameroon, nearly 1,200 participants came from across that country as well as from Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Sao Tome and Principe. Manila hosted more than 1,000 people from the Philippines, Japan, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Macau, Caroline Islands, Mariana Islands, and Marshall Islands.
For reports of the conferences, go to: http://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/
