wfn.org | May 23 -Thousands of Baha'is ascend new terraces on Mount Carmel

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@wfn.org>]

Thousands of Baha'is climb Mount Carmel as new terraces are inaugurated

FOR MORE INFORMATION, visit the Baha'i World News Service (BWNS) website at:
http://www.bahaiworldnews.org
or email its editors at:
editor@bahaiworldnews.org

HAIFA, Israel, 23 May 2001 (BWNS) -- Thousands of Baha'is from every race, 
nation and religious background today streamed up the face of Mount Carmel 
in a prayerful ascent toward the Shrine of the Bab, the second-most holy 
place in the Baha'i world.

The climb, made up a stately stone stairway that runs through the heart of 
a series of recently completed garden terraces, was an act of deep 
spiritual significance to the participants here.

Coming this week from some 180 nations to celebrate the inauguration of the 
terraces, which extend nearly a kilometer up the mountainside, those who 
made the climb said they were moved and uplifted by the experience. They 
will count it as one of the most meaningful of their lives.

"It was really soul-stirring," said Samuel Benjamin Obura, a 65-year-old 
sugarcane farmer from Kenya. "First of all, there was the beauty of the 
gardens and the Shrine. It gave one to think of many things.

"I thought of the suffering of the Bab," Mr. Obura continued. "He was put 
in prison and He was mocked and He was martyred and everyone thought that 
was the end.

"But now we see the glory that surrounds His Shrine and the adoration 
people feel when they visit it," he added.

The event today was part of a week-long program to celebrate the completion 
of a $250 million complex of buildings, gardens and terraces at the Baha'i 
World Centre. The terraces were built over the last 10 years with voluntary 
donations from the five million member worldwide Baha'i community. Baha'is 
view completion of the project as marking a major stage in the emergence of 
the Baha'i Faith on the world scene.

"The significance of this event is that it represents a kind of culmination 
of the development of the Baha'i World Centre on this mountain," said Penny 
Walker, a member of the International Teaching Centre here, a key Baha'i 
institution that focuses on advising national Baha'i communities on their 
growth and development.

"At the same time, we see that the Baha'i Faith is established in every 
country and territory of the world, bringing together an incredible 
cross-section of the human race, who are all committed to bringing people 
everywhere into one human family," said Dr. Walker.

The diversity of the worldwide Baha'i community was evident today as 
delegates made their way up Mount Carmel in a spirit of devotion. Many wore 
traditional native costumes and the procession was a showcase of the human 
garden, resplendent in all its races and colors.

The climb led Galina Iefremova, a 23-year-old teacher from Belarus, to 
think about the human race at large and its desire for peace.

"The idea that more than 3,000 people can come together to do this, it is 
an example that can show the way the world can be, without any problems or 
prejudice," said Ms. Iefremova, who became a Baha'i in 1993. "All over the 
world, people are waiting for this."

Maria Pancham, a 41-year-old airline personnel officer from Suriname, 
thought of how she will rededicate her life to seeing the positive side of 
life in all things, and to serving humanity when she returns home.

"How to you put it in words?" she said when asked about her experience. "It 
is a feeling of peace and relief and joy. It makes you want to serve humanity.

"I can't say I'm transformed, because right now I feel I am in a different 
world," she added. "So all I can do is pray that I will be able to take 
these feelings back home and not fall into the routine."

Leslie Serrano, a 20-year-old student from Mexico, said she also thought 
about the need to serve humanity and to make sacrifices in life to do so.

"I felt climbing those stairs was a reflection of what life represents when 
you begin at the bottom and you gradually have to take steps upward," Ms. 
Serrano said. "Sometimes it is hard and it takes sacrifice to get you where 
you are going."

Her dominant thought, however, was about the Biblical prophesy of Isaiah.

"I thought of where it says, 'And it shall come to pass in the last days, 
that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of 
the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall 
flow unto it,' " she said, reciting the passage from memory.

"And when I saw all those people from all these nations, climbing up Mount 
Carmel, I felt that was the fulfillment of that prophesy," said Ms. 
Serrano. "It is a privilege without words to be part of that."

BWC-BP-010523-1-ASCENT-121-S