Early one morning in Pendleton, Oregon, I went out with my camera and sketchbook and serendipitiously came across the Baha'i Center. It was the first local center I had ever seen, and I wondered what curious people thought went on inside, and what Baha'is believe.*
It's a habit of mine to to look at the built environment and think of ways I would visually and practically improve it. To make the center more inviting, I would articulate the entrance, and shade it from what I would imagine to be a very hot Eastern Oregon afternoon sun.
* 'God, the Creator of the universe, is all-knowing, all-loving and all-merciful. Just as the physical sun shines on the world, so the light of God is shed upon all Creation. Through the teachings of the Manifestations of God—among them Abraham, Krishna, Zoroaster, Moses, Buddha, Jesus Christ, Muhammad, and, in more recent times, the Báb and Bahá’u’lláh—humanity’s spiritual, intellectual and moral capacities have been cultivated.
Humanity, having passed through the ages of infancy and childhood, now stands at the threshold of its collective maturity, the hallmark of which will be the unification of the human race in a global civilization. The emergence of this civilization, prosperous in both its spiritual and material dimensions, implies that the spiritual and practical aspects of life are to advance harmoniously together'.
Humanity, having passed through the ages of infancy and childhood, now stands at the threshold of its collective maturity, the hallmark of which will be the unification of the human race in a global civilization. The emergence of this civilization, prosperous in both its spiritual and material dimensions, implies that the spiritual and practical aspects of life are to advance harmoniously together'.
