International Day of Peace next week

By: Staff Reports, Tri-Valley Dispatch
September 11, 2002

ELOY - Next Tuesday the Bahá'í Community of Pinal County will join people throughout the world in marking United Nations International Day of Peace.

A devotional program will be held at at 7 p.m. at Desert Rose Bahá'í Institute, 5688 Tweedy Road.

The public is invited. Call 466-7961 or e-mail drbi@cgmailbox .com for more information.

In 1981, the U.N. General Assembly proclaimed the third Tuesday in September as International Day of Peace, stating that it should be "devoted to commemorating and strengthening the ideas of peace both within and among all nations and peoples."

World peace is a cardinal objective of the Bahá'í faith. It has occupied a central position in the activities of the Bahá'í community since its inception. Bahá'u'lláh, the prophet-founder of the Bahá'í faith, called for the establishment of a world federalist system of government and collective security safeguarded by an international police force.

In 1985 the Universal House of Justice, the international governing body of the Bahá'í Faith, issued a document titled "The Promise of World Peace," which expresses the Bahá'í conviction that peace is not only possible, but is the next and inevitable step in world development. The statement describes the spiritual and social ills that are barriers to world peace and indicates, from a Bahá'í perspective, how they may be eliminated. A copy of "The Promise of World Peace" may be obtained at no charge from the Web site www.us.bahai.org.