Nunavut Baha'is attend celebrations in Montreal

Stephen Bedingfield
Special to Nunatsiaq News

IQALUIT - More than a dozen Baha'is from Nunavut joined over 1,200 of their fellow believers attending the Baha'i national convention in Montreal the weekend of May 14-18.

This convention marked the 50th anniversary of the founding of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Canada, the faith's national governing council, and celebrated 100 years of Canadian Baha'i history.

A major highlight of the convention was a moving recording of the translation in Inuinnaqtun of the April 5, 1916 letter of Abdu'l-Baha, the Head of the Baha'i Faith between 1892 - 1921, to the Baha'is of Canada and Greenland.

His letter specifically called attention to the great destiny of the Inuit, which is starting to be realized today in circumpolar affairs. Music for this recording was composed and performed by Paul Carroll of Yellowknife.

Currently, the Baha'i community of Cambridge Bay is working on a CD release of this recording along with other Inuinnaqtun Baha'i prayers and counsels set to music.

Pat Parks of Pond Inlet, official delegate to the convention from Nunavut, was inspired by the "wonderful diversity" at the meeting, the concern shown for the North and the recording of Abdu'l-Baha's letter.

Parks reflected, "to hear that tablet [letter] in Inuinnaqtun, it didn't matter if they didn't understand the words. There was a spiritual power there -- the friends understood that. They were very meditative."