The Hon BarnABUS Leith

Ending religious conflict – God’s purpose

Barnabas (Barney) Leith declared his faith as a Bahá’í in February 1966. He has been a member of the National Spiritual Assembly, the UK Bahá’í community’s elected national governing council, since 1993 and has served successively as its Secretary and its Secretary for External Affairs.

“That the divers communions of the earth, and the manifold systems of religious belief, should never be allowed to foster the feelings of animosity among men, is, in this Day, of the essence of the Faith of God and His Religion.” Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh, CXXXII

This brief extract from the sacred writings of Bahá’u’lláh, founder of the Bahá’í faith, outlines one of Bahá’u’lláh’s central principles – the essential unity of the faiths. Bahá’u’lláh calls on people of all faiths to quench the fires of conflict and hatred and to recognize that they all worship one God. To understand this and to begin to embrace the richness of Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings, one must immerse oneself in the ocean of His words, using one’s rational and spiritual faculties to arrive at ever deeper understandings of what God is calling us to do in the 21st century. It seems to me that St Ethelburga’s is setting out to do just this.