OK, I?ve got the ?can?t do?s? off my chest. Time to turn around and see what I can do, what I am already doing.
I am a Bah?’? and I have the great privilege of working full time for the Bah?’? community, as its Secretary for External Affairs. I am actually a member and officer of the community?s elected national governing council, the National Spiritual Assembly. It?s a great thing to be able to work full-time for what I passionately believe in.

My office is in the National Bah?’? Centre in London?s leafy Knightsbridge. I live in Oxfordshire. So I commute to London two or three days per week. Today was one of my commute days. Train from Radley at 7.32am, arrived in London around 8.30am and then a walk across Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park to the Baha?i Centre in Rutland Gate. I like this walk. It gives me a chance to get some exercise and to have a think.

I did three key things today that were my ?little contributions? to peace.

Firstly, I met with a Bah?’? who has recently moved to the UK from Canada to consult about how she might contribute to the external affairs work. Amongst other things we discussed the work that the Bah?’? community does to advance the status of women and promote gender equality.

Secondly, I had a preliminary discussion with Dan, our Government Relations Officer, about the work our office is planning to do on moral development.

Thirdly, I invited those members of the National Assembly’s staff who were in the office today to join me after lunch for prayers for peace to mark World Peace Day.

Back in 1985, the Universal House of Justice, the Bah?’? community?s global governing council, published a seminal document called The Promise of World Peace. The document clearly explains the nature of peace and the conditions under which sustainable peace can be established in the world. As the document points out, Bah?’u'll?h (the Prophet-Founder of the Bah?’? Faith) taught that religion is the greatest means for the establishment of order in the world. Whatever else we do for peace, we cannot ignore the power that religion has to motivate people at the deepest level to build a peaceful and just world.

Of course, we can?t ignore the propensity of religious people to get into conflicts. Hans K?ng, German theologian, believes there can be no peace in the world without peace between the religions. Bah?’u'll?h gave unequivocal warnings in the nineteenth century about the dangers of religious extremism and fanaticism, referring to fanaticism as ?a world devouring fire?, a warning that the Universal House of Justice restated in 2002 in a message addressed to religious leaders.

I?m deeply involved in inter-faith and multi-faith work at national level in the UK. Bah?’u'll?h commanded His followers to associate with the people of all faiths in a spirit of ?friendliness and fellowship?. It seems to me that this building of friendliness and fellowship amongst the followers of the world?s diverse faith traditions is essential for peace-building. And I don?t just mean that we sit round the table and arrive at compromises that keep all parties happy - that?s just inter-faith work as a form of politics. No, I mean that we have to understand that all the great faiths come from one Divine Source - the fact that that Source is labelled and understood differently in different faiths does not undermine Its/His/Her utter transcendence. Bah?’u'll?h is very clear that the Godhead is utterly beyond human comprehension.

It seems to me that we cannot achieve lasting peace in the world without also establishing justice. Injustices such as racism, gender inequality, extremes of wealth and poverty, religious intolerance and so on. If, for example, women as half the world?s population suffer (as they do) vast inequalities of education, wealth and freedom, there can never be a deep-seated peace for the whole world, and men cannot flourish fully until women are also free to flourish. So my discussion with the Canadian Bah?’? about the work the Bah?’? community does to promote gender equality was, I believe, a small contribution to peace in the long term.

Furthermore, peace cannot be achieved merely by legislation. There has also to be a vast and globally encompassing effort to provide spiritual, moral, intellectual, emotional and physical education for all children and young people. Only when humans understand their true nobility as spiritual beings who are part of God?s creation, only when they become conscious spiritual and moral agents, will we see a global culture in which peace is a given and not a miraculous achievement. And it is only through education (widely understood) that people can become, in this way, fully developed human beings. Hence my discussion with Dan about our projected work on moral development.

It is never sufficient as a justification for any kind behaviour or custom to say that ?it is part of our culture?. In the 21st century there are certain inescapable universal values. These include the equality of women and men and the central importance of human unity. It is to these and other values and principles that Bah?’u'll?h calls us as the foundation for a peaceful global civilization.