The Bahá'í Faith of Greater Richmond, Virginia
Promoting the Oneness of God, the Oneness of Man,
and the Oneness of Religion
"The earth is but one country and mankind its citizens." - Bahá'u'lláh
The "official website" for the Bahá'í Faith for Greater Metropolitan Richmond, Virginia, serving the Bahá'í communities of Chesterfield, Hanover, Henrico, City of Richmond, and Town of West Point; and the Heart of Central Virginia.
The crucial need facing the human race in the twenty-first century is to find a unifying vision of the nature of man and society. Such a vision unfolds in the writings of Bahá'u'lláh, the Prophet-Founder of the Bahá'í Faith.
The driving force behind the civilizing of human nature, Bahá’u’lláh teaches, has been the successive interventions of the Divine in history. It has been through this influence that the innate moral and spiritual faculties of humanity have been gradually developed and the advancement of civilization made possible. Associated with the missions of such major transcendent figures as Abraham, Krishna, Zoroaster, Moses, Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad, the phenomenon is an ever-recurring one; it is without beginning or end because it is fundamental to the evolutionary order itself.
Although nurtured by the process, humanity has only dimly understood it. Instead, people have constructed around each episode in their spiritual experience a separate religious system. Throughout history the religious impulse has been hobbled by the resulting contradictions and bitter conflicts.
Bahá’u’lláh (pronounced Ba-HAH-o-LA) compares the maturation of the human race as a whole to the experience of its individual members who struggle, successively, through the stages of infancy, childhood, and adolescence. Today, humanity has entered on its collective “coming of age” or adulthood, endowed with the capacity to see the entire panorama of its development as a single process. The challenge of maturity is to accept that we are one people, to free ourselves of the limited identities of the past, and to build together the foundations of a world civilization.
The power that is awakening this consciousness throughout the world is the universal Revelation of God promised in all the scriptures of humankind’s past. It’s spokesman is Bahá’u’lláh, whose teachings provide a blueprint for the spiritual organization of the planet.
His growing influence is the great untold story of our time.
IN JUST OVER 150 YEARS, the Bahá’í Faith has grown from an obscure movement in the Middle East to the second-most widespread of the world’s independent religions. Embracing people from more than 2,100 ethnic, racial, and tribal groups, it is quite likely the most diverse organized body of people on the planet. Its unity challenges prevailing theories and notions about human nature and the prospects for our common future.
“The well-being of mankind, its peace and security, are unattainable unless and until its unity is firmly established.” - Bahá’u’lláh
This narrative is from the magazine “The Bahá’ís - A Profile of the Bahá’í Faith and Its Worldwide Community”.
