Counsellor Taraz Nadarajah shares stories from Sydney where families and young people are contributing to new patterns of community life.
BAHÁ’Í WORLD CENTRE — In the latest episode of “Insights from the Field,” Taraz Nadarajah, member of the Board of Counsellors in Australasia, describes how in diverse settings across Sydney, Australia, new patterns of community life are gradually emerging through engagement in Bahá’í moral and spiritual educational programs as well as social action initiatives, contributing to more resilient neighborhoods.
Mr. Nadajarah describes how in Sydney, as in many other urban settings around the world, many populations share a common aspiration: “a desire for people to be connected to one another in a more meaningful way … and to have connections beyond just material and human connections, maybe even of a spiritual nature.”
The Bahá’í community, together with others engaged in community building efforts, he explains, is learning how “to take more practical steps to build society, to advance it, to build on these principles of trust, of fellowship, of love.”
A common thread across these neighborhoods, he notes, is growing recognition of the importance of the spiritual education of children. In a neighborhood in northern Sydney, this process began with the friendship of two mothers who met while walking their children to school. “They were talking a lot about the education of their children and the concerns that they have as mothers for their development,” explains Mr. Nadarajah.
Together, the mothers reflected on how they could address these concerns and decided to bring together families within their locality to hold a festival for children, which over time widened to include a growing circle of households engaged in the process.
These festivals, which invite families to come together for a few days to reflect and consult as a community, have “really allowed bonds of friendship to grow,” reflects Mr. Nadarajah.
In western Sydney, the process has taken another form. In a part of the city where Mr. Nadarajah says many young people face significant challenges, a group of youth involved in Bahá’í moral and spiritual educational programs responded to the culture of violence in their school by producing a short film. Drawing on ideas such as friendship and seeing the best in others, they recreated scenes from their school environment in which conflict was the norm, alongside alternatives that pointed to more constructive responses.
Teachers, Mr. Nadarajah says, “started to see a distinct change in many of their students” as a result of the young people’s involvement in building a moral and spiritual foundation in their locality. In a setting where education had not previously been widely valued, participation in these programs has contributed to a shift in aspirations within the community, with many young people becoming the first in their families to pursue university education.
In south Sydney, efforts have been taking place among a population, many of whom recently arrived in Australia, who are navigating a different culture, language, and way of life. A group of six mothers came together to establish an organization focused on supporting health and mental wellbeing within their community.
As these efforts deepened, a desire grew to address not only material needs but the spiritual life of the community as well, leading to children’s festivals and community gatherings in which individuals could collectively explore concepts such as prayer as a “conversation with God.” What is striking within this particular population, Mr. Nadarajah observes, is that these processes are drawing children, youth, and parents into a shared journey in “an environment of empowerment.”
Over the past decade, efforts to engage young people in a handful of settings have spread to hundreds of neighborhoods across Sydney. “The Bahá’í community in recent years and recent decades has been taking significant, but also small, profound, and consistent steps,” Mr. Nadarajah reflects, “to really put into practice the vision of Bahá’u’lláh, which is to be all-embracing.”
“This openness for many people to actually contribute is welcomed by the Bahá'í community and is something which is now becoming part of the fabric of many local societies around Sydney.”
The podcast episode is part of the “Insights from the Field” series, which provides firsthand accounts that narrate specific Bahá’í efforts in the field of action.
