For the Baha’is in St. Albert, Alberta, the annual Unity in Diversity concert in November has become an important opportunity to contribute to a stronger sense of unity in their increasingly diverse city.
“Our 16th annual concert was a very successful event with a lot of positive feedback,” according to Renie Zeitz, one of the organizers of the event. This year the concert was held on November 7th and attracted more than 300 people.
The City of St. Albert provided a small grant to support the event and Mayor Nolan Crouse proclaimed Unity in Diversity Week. Deputy Mayor James Burrows brought greeting from the City to the concert, thanking the Baha’is for their contributions to St. Albert, which also includes sponsorship of an annual International Women’s Day event.
Brent Rathgeber, the Member of Parliament for the area, also spoke at the concert, noting it is important to focus on what brings people together and not on what divides them. Quoting the Universal House of Justice, the international governing council of the Baha’i Faith, he stressed the importance of unity and harmony in building communities.
The principle of “unity in diversity” was first mentioned in the 1840s by The Báb, the forerunner of Bahá’u’lláh, who founded the Baha’i Faith. According to Baha’i teachings, the unity of the human race is strengthened by its diversity in much the same way that biodiversity strengthens natural ecosystem. Differences in race, ethnicity, nationality, culture, gender, and even temperament become strengths when a community learns to appreciate the synergies that come from sharing a variety of perspectives.
Even in smaller Canadian cities such as St. Albert, the population has become remarkably diverse. Consequently, the concert was able to attract performers who have moved to the area from virtually every continent.
Isokan Afrika (United Africa in the Yoruba language) included black and white musicians from various African countries. The 37-member Barangay dance group did the intricate Tinikling, the National dance of the Philippines, as well as an energetic series of hip-hop dances. North America was represented by French Canadian singer Roland Majeau’s trio and by traditional Métis Red River jiggers, while Latin America featured salsa dancers. The Takht ensemble played traditional North African and Middle Eastern instruments, such as the oud, drums and flute. Anna Beaumont, originally from Europe, presented songs inspired by the poetry of Rumi and Hafiz.
The Baha’i community is following up the concert with a series of four seminars that explore various aspects of unity in diversity, from a Baha’i perspective. The first seminar, held on November 20, examined global economic prosperity through unity. On December 4, the theme was women’s economic development through micro-lending. Two additional seminars are planned in the coming weeks.
Unity in Diversity Week was initiated by the Canadian Baha’i Community in the 1990s and continues to be promoted at the local level by a number of Baha’i communities across Canada. In addition to core community activities such as devotional gatherings, religious education for children, and study of the sacred writings of the Baha’i Faith, where human resources permit Baha’i groups around the world engage in activities that contribute to the social and economic development of their communities.