After days of spiritual preparation visiting Bahá’í Holy Places, some 1,250 delegates representing 176 countries around the world assembled today in a momentous gathering to reverently cast their ballots for the election of the Universal House of Justice. The total number of ballots cast, including absentee ballots, surpassed 1590.
In her opening remarks, Holly Woodard, a Member of the International Teaching Centre who chaired the proceedings, highlighted the significance of this gathering, stating that it marked “the highest number of Assemblies ever represented and the largest gathering of participants at an International Convention.”
Dr. Woodard pointed to the evolution of the global Bahá’í community over the decades since “288 members of 51 National and Regional Spiritual Assemblies gathered in the main hall of the House of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Haifa” for the first election of the Universal House of Justice in 1963.
At the start of the Convention, the Bahá’ís in Iran, who for several decades have been prevented from forming Bahá’í institutions and therefore electing representatives, were remembered by the participants, and their absence was poignantly marked by a beautiful arrangement of 95 red roses.
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7 сен 2024
