arthra

Shifra was providing us with a site for Australian Baha'is and I noted the following news:

The Sydney Baha’i Temple, a beacon for the North Shore and the city of Sydney, is to celebrate its 50th anniversary from 18-25 September 2011.

And that's very soon!

I wonder if someone could share what sort of plans are "afoot" to celebrate?

arthra

Alright and here are some details about what's happening around the fiftieth anniversary of the Sydney Baha'i Temple from the Australian Baha'i site

http://www.bahai.org.au/NewsMedia/Ne...-a-beacon.aspx



Birthday for a beacon
Sydney, 09 Aug 2011
Birthday for a beacon


The Sydney Baha’i Temple, a beacon for the North Shore and the city of Sydney, is to celebrate its 50th anniversary from 18-25 September 2011.



A week-long public celebration will include special mini-services every week day and three services per day on the weekend of 24 and 25 September, guided tours and children’s events. (For more information, click here)

Since it opened in September 1961, the Baha’i House of Worship at 173 Mona Vale Road,Ingleside, has been a spectacular beacon from land, sea and air, its shining white dome rising above the surrounding bushland.

The Temple has also been a welcoming and inclusive spiritual beacon, open to all and encouraging a diversity of people to attend regardless of their spiritual beliefs or national and ethnic background.

The Temple’s nine sides symbolise the underlying unity of the world religions, and since its opening it has hosted interfaith services, a national pioneer in the field.

For the local community it has been a special spiritual haven to privately reflect, pray and meditate.

Many locals have also attended the regular 11am public services on Sunday.

Thousands from throughout Sydney, Australia and the world have also attended those services and special events focusing on such themes as peace, the equality of women and men, refugees, UN Day, and community harmony.

More than 10,000 attended a peace expo held in the Temple grounds, and other events over the years have also attracted big numbers. Two Governors-General of Australia have attended services.

Opened by a woman

The Temple is one of the few major religious buildings in Australia to be opened by a woman, appropriate for a faith which has gender equality as a key principle.

Madame Ruhiyyih Rabbani (1910-2000), a high official of the Faith, who opened the Temple, was given a special mayoral reception in her honour, hosted by Sydney Lord Mayor, Harry Jensen.

Even before its opening, the Temple attracted wide media attention when a helicopter was used to place the crown of the dome in place – there were no cranes tall enough in Sydney at the time.

Built before the Sydney Opera House was constructed, the Temple project was a challenge because builders were used to rectangular structures, not a nine-sided building with a 34 metre dome.

At the public inaugural service on Sunday, 17 September 1961, more than 2000 people were accommodated in two devotional services in the packed Temple auditorium.

Around the time of its opening, the Temple was the subject of stories in the Sydney Sun, the Daily Telegraph, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Australian Woman’s Weekly, Woman’s Day, the Readers Digest and cinema newsreels, including Movietone News. Since then it has been the subject of countless media reports, features and footage.

In 2003 its image was seen around the world as bushfires reached, but did not cross, its boundaries.

As thousands converged for its opening a half century ago, a busy policeman was interviewed by a news reporter and received fleeting fame when he described the Temple as “the angel of Sydney”.

arthra

The actual program and logo!

Australian Baha'is > Take Part > Temple > 50th Anniversary

Rani

'In 2003 its image was seen around the world as bushfires reached, but did not cross, its boundaries.'

While I don't live in the Sydney area, the bushfires at that time were naturally prominent in the news. I do remember a Catholic friend of mine commenting, words to the effect, that he saw the hand of God in the protection of the House of Worship and its grounds. He was impressed!

But we can not ever be complacent or take things for granted. The House of Worship in Russia (?) was destroyed by earthquake. Abdu'l-Baha says if it is God's wish to protect, it will be, - for some reason the one in Russia was allowed to be lost.

It was somewhere in Russia -right?

arthra

Well it would be interesting to visit Ishqabad these days but we know the first House of Worship was seized by the Soviet authorities and leased back to the Baha'is for awhile..then the Baha'is were sent to either Siberia or deported to Iran and later the House of Worship was used as a art gallery of sorts and after all this the earthquake made the building useless..

The family of Hand of the Cause Ali Akbar Furutan was from Ishqabad..

`Alí-Akbar Furútan - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ishqabad provided a temporary haven for Baha'is fleeing the oppression of Iran. The then Russian Imperial authorities recognized the Faith and provided some order for awhile...

From wikipedia:

After serving the community for two decades, the House of Worship was expropriated by the Soviet authorities in 1928 and leased back to the Bahá'ís. This lasted until 1938, when it was fully secularized by the communist government and turned into an art gallery. The 1948 Ashgabat earthquake seriously damaged the building and rendered it unsafe; the heavy rains of the following years weakened the structure, and it was demolished in 1963 and the site converted into a public park.[3]

Source:

Bahá'í House of Worship - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Baha'i Historical Facts: The Mashriqu'l-Adhkar in 'Ishqabad, extensively damaged by violent earthquakes in 1948, was demolished in 1963 by the Russian authorities for safety reasons

Ishqabad Mashriqu'l-Adkhar, 1902 Postcards from Zazzle.com

BruceDLimber

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rani [F]or some reason the one in Russia was allowed to be lost. It was somewhere in Russia -right?

It was in Ashkabad, Turkmenistan if memory holds.

And the earthquake destroyed it after it had already been confiscated by Stalin's government.

Bruce

Rani

Thank you Arthra and Bruce, I had not been aware of the history of its use before the earthquake. The damage that was allowed to occur, and the building's subsequent demolition seems more understandable now. Unfortunate though.!

arthra

Australian society "enriched and ennobled" by Baha'i temple

Civic dignitaries and guests gather in front of the Baha'i House of Worship in Sydney, Australia, ahead of a reception and service on 18 September 2011, marking the temple's fiftieth anniversary.

arthra

50th Anniversary Australian Baha'i Temple on Vimeo

arthra

I found the following of interest:

Known affectionately among Bahá'ís as "Mother" and "Father" Dunn, they carried the Message of Bahá'u'lláh from New South Wales to Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania, across the desert to Perth and to tropical Queensland and became the spiritual parents of Australia. After "Mother" Dunn returned from a lone pilgrimage to the Holy Land, "Father" was elected a member of the first National Spiritual Assembly of 1945 95 the Bahá'ís of Australia and New Zealand in 1934. After his passing on February 17th, 1941, "Mother" Dunn's dedication to the Bahá'í Faith continued unabated and in 1952 she was elevated to the station of Hand of the Cause of God by Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith: "Father" Dunn was subsequently elevated to the same station posthumously.

Despite her advanced years, "Mother" Dunn returned to New Zealand in 1957 as representative of the Guardian at the formation of the first National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of New Zealand. In March, 1958, at the request of the Guardian, she placed plaster from the Castle of Mah-Ku in the foundations of the Australasian Bahá'í House of Worship in Sydney during the Australian Inter-Continental Conference. Until her passing to the Abha Kingdom in 1960 at the age of 91 years, "Mother" Dunn retained her memory of many Bahá'í prayers and was reciting these at the time of her death."

(Shoghi Effendi, Arohanui - Letters to New Zealand, p. 94)

excerpted from above:

"....In March, 1958, at the request of the Guardian, she placed plaster from the Castle of Mah-Ku in the foundations of the Australasian Bahá'í House of Worship in Sydney during the Australian Inter-Continental Conference."

What was the significance of Mah-ku?

'Abdu'l-Bahá states that the Báb's incarceration in the castle of Mah-Ku lasted nine months. According to Nabil-i-A'zam, on the twentieth day after Naw-Ruz (April 9th 1848), He left that mountain fastness on the Russian and Turkish frontiers.(11)

At Mah-Ku the Báb revealed the Dala'il-i-Sab'ih (The Seven Proofs) and began the composition of the Persian Bayan[1] (Exposition or Utterance).

[1 A copy of the Persian Bayan, in the handwriting of Siyyid Husayn-i-Yazdi, to whom He dictated it, exists in the International Archives of the Bahá'í Faith.]

(H.M. Balyuzi, The Bab - The Herald of the Day of Days, p. 132)