The United Nations recently held its landmark Summit of the Future to address pressing global challenges and to chart a course toward a more peaceful and sustainable world. I find this particularly fascinating as aren’t we all having, on some level, conversations about the future? About our hopes and dreams? About the world we want the next generation to inherit? The Baha’i International Community’s Office at the UN released a short film, made specifically for the summit, of youth from around the world who share their thoughts on our global interdependence at this time of transition for the whole of humanity.
The Baha’i World News Service shared many more details of the event and how the Baha’i International Community participated and contributed to its discourses in a news piece called “Summit of the Future: Charting a Path Towards Peace Grounded in a Shared Identity.”
This month we went from the global to the local as we highlighted a short film made by the Baha’is in Mount Druitt that explores the experiences of youth in the institute process. Several radiant and pure-hearted youth share how the institute has transformed their lives and how it has affected their community.
The unique abilities and power of youth to transform not only the human inhabitants of their community but their ecological environments too was evident in a short film we featured (from the official YouTube channel for the Baha’i Faith) that tells of a group of youth in Tanna, Vanuatu who paved the way for a social action initiative to revitalize and protect a coral reef ecosystem.
When it comes to mentioning youth, it would be silly of me to neglect to mention our most recent Studio Sessions which feature youth: “O Son of the Wondrous Vision!” by Delia, Hero and Charli of Adelaide and “أتوسل إليك (I Beg Thee)” by Rafie and Sarah of Canberra.
I’ve also been reflecting on how building a future we wish to see for subsequent generations relies upon love and mutual respect between followers of various faiths as we advance community building efforts hand in hand. The animation Abu & Mo: Two Orphans, created by 1844 Studios, tells the poignant true story of a visually impaired Muslim and a Jew who suffers from dwarfism and how their friendship saves their lives, and profoundly affects their community. It’s a gem of a story and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!
Peter Gyulay’s article, “What Buddhism Has Taught Me About the Baha’i Faith”, similarly offers some personal thoughts on ways we are more similar than different.
The future, the role of youth, working together with like-minded friends–all these themes are explored in a recent letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to participants of the Institute for Studies in Global Prosperity. This letter about the Baha’i response to conflicts and related humanitarian crisis in the world is dated 26 May 2024 but it was added to the Baha’i Reference Library weeks ago and it is worthy of being studied again and again.
Thank you for joining me as we begin the month of Ilm!
Sonjel Vreeland
In her innermost heart, Sonjel is a stay-at-home parent and a bookworm with a maxed out library card but professionally she is a museologist with a background in English Literature. She currently lives on Prince Edward Island, an isle in the shape of a smile on the eastern Canadian coast. Sonjel is a writer who loves to listen to jazz when she’s driving at night.
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