London, Abidjan host landmark conferences
6 January 2009LONDON — London hosted its largest Baha’i gathering in 45 years with a regional conference last weekend that brought together 3,200 people from the United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Iceland, and Greenland.
A World Congress held in Royal Albert Hall in 1963 was the only bigger Baha’i gathering in the city. More than 6,000 people attended that.
This time the conference was at the Business Design Centre in the central London Borough of Islington. The gathering was one of 41 Baha’i conferences being held over a four-month period in cities around the world, all convened by the Universal House of Justice, the head of the Baha’i Faith.
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In Abidjan, 1,200 people came together for the eighth of nine conferences to be held in Africa in a four-month span.
Each of the 41 conferences in the current series provides opportunity for consultation and celebration. This young drummer performed in Abidjan.
The London conference was held in the Business Design Centre, a facility remodeled from the former Royal Agricultural Hall.
Conference attendance since the series began on 1 November totals 45,000 people. The gatherings continue through 1 March.
At one point, the London participants divided into 74 workshop sessions for consultation.
Young people have been prominent participants at all the gatherings, including this duo in London. Next weekend the host cities will be Guadalajara and Toronto.
The conferences began on 1 November in Lusaka, Zambia, and will wind up on 1 March in Kiev, Ukraine.
This past weekend there were two conferences, the one in London and another in Abidjan with 1,200 participants from Cote d’Ivoire, Gambia, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Senegal, and Sierra Leone.
For a list of all the conferences, with links to articles and photographs, go to:
http://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/
