Common endeavour cultivated through devotional spaces in Ballina

The regional community of Ballina is learning how spaces for devotion can act as an ideal space to initiate conversations and advance the educational process in a locality. 

Located in northern New South Wales, Ballina is a small community with less than 20 registered Baha’is. Yet fewness in numbers does not deter the friends from engaging in an educational process that addresses the spiritual, material and social needs of the locality. The community recently hosted its monthly devotional gathering, celebrating unity and renewal while also acknowledging the commonality that exists across cultures and traditions. 

Participant Parvin Mansouri said the gathering inspired a discussion related to moral and spiritual education. “One family was particularly moved, and they have enrolled their children in the [children’s moral educational] classes, so that these values of unity, respect, and learning can continue to grow,” she said. 

Bringing together friends from a range of cultural backgrounds, Parvin said the devotional gathering marked the Baha’i New Year, Persian Naw Ruz as well as Harmony Day. 

She said it focused on the “cultural diversity and the shared humanity of all people” and the “convergence” of these significant occasions. The energy in the room, she said, paved the way for conversations about spirituality and the building of community. 

“In our circle, we were five or six different nationalities, united in a room, sharing stories, symbols, and traditions. We reflected on the Baha’i teachings of unity and the equality of all humankind.”

Devotional meetings spring up naturally in a community where a conversation about the spiritual dimension of human existence is growing. In diverse settings, Baha’is and their friends and families unite with one another in prayer. There are no rituals and no one individual has any special role. Meetings consist largely of reading prayers and passages from the sacred texts in an informal yet respectful atmosphere. A spirit of communal worship is generated by these simple gatherings, and this spirit begins to permeate the community’s collective endeavours.