February 10, 2009

FRANKFURT, Germany – A historic Baha'i conference in Frankfurt last weekend brought to mind an earlier gathering in the same city a half century earlier – one that was also a milestone in Baha'i history.

Last weekend's event in Frankfurt was one of the current series of 41 conferences around the globe marking the half-way point of a five-year effort involving establishment of community-building activities in tens of thousands of neighborhoods and villages. So far some 75,000 people have participated in the gatherings.

By comparison, the five Intercontinental Conferences of 1958 came half-way through a 10-year program to establish the Baha'i Faith in every country and major territory in the world. Total attendance 50 years ago was about 5,400 people.

The announcement of the 1958 gatherings – in addition to Frankfurt they were to be held in Kampala, Uganda; Sydney, Australia; Jakarta, Indonesia; and Chicago in the United States – was one of the final acts of Shoghi Effendi, head of the Baha'i Faith from 1921 until his passing in November 1957.

Although he died unexpectedly two months before the conferences began, Shoghi Effendi himself planned many of the details, including naming his personal representative to each of the gatherings and announcing the special gifts he would send, among which were provisions for a photograph of Baha'u'llah to be viewed by all of those in attendance.

For links to reports of the current series of conferences, go to: http://news.bahai.org/community-news/regional-conferences/.

Baha'i World News Service