Bahá'í Community of Derry / Londonderry, Northern Ireland
THE BAHÁ'ÍS OF
DERRY
The first Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Londonderry was elected
in 1971 and it has remained in existence since then. One member of
that original Assembly is still serving on the body. Members of the
Bahá'í community in the district come not just from Northern Ireland
but from Scotland, England, Iran, and Australia. Their wide range of
backgrounds is in keeping with the "unity in diversity" which is such
a characteristic of the Bahá'í Faith.
Many people in Derry have great difficulty in
even understanding that there is more to the world than Protestants and Roman
Catholics. Indeed these two branches of the Christian religion are often called
"two faiths" - the first misunderstanding which the Bahá'ís try to put right.
The Bahá'ís in Derry are active in
promoting the teachings of Bahá'u'lláh as the healing for the ills of
humanity,
widening people's horizons so that they can see that there is a whole world
out there, with many different people, races, and even problems, and that
the Northern Ireland "troubles" are the local form of what is happening to
the world, and
playing their part in activities that serve the wider community, both in the
Londonderry district and on the Irish scene, North and South.
