It has deep roots

Recently, my brother Steve told me that he had become Chair of the Trustees of the International Tree Foundation. This was a complete surprise to me, as I know some of the things to which my brother gives his time, but I was unaware of this one! The origins of the International Tree Foundation are interesting, but more of that later.

People love trees. They provide us with so much – such as fruit, shade and timber -  and they are fascinating to watch through the changing seasons. There are tens of thousands of species of tree, and the exact number of species has still not been established! Trees, the largest plants above ground, form a crucial part of many different ecosystems. We often read, for example, that the “English” oak tree supports around 800 different species of living creature, many of which are insects. These insects, in turn, are part of the food chain for many species of bird. Another important function of trees is that they take in carbon dioxide, and give out oxygen. This makes it essential that we ensure that there are always a large number of trees on the planet, because animals and people have the opposite effect: we breathe in oxygen, but breathe out carbon dioxide. So trees provide us with what we need to breathe and at the same time they reduce the amounts of one of the most important greenhouse gases, thereby helping to reduce the threat of climate change!

Trees are also a factor in the natural water cycle. When clouds pass over the forests, the trees below cause a drop in the air temperature, reducing the temperature in the clouds, and thereby encouraging the clouds to drop rain. Take away those forests, as in coastal California, and you get drier conditions and the likelihood of wildfires. Furthermore, a tree root system is huge, so during periods of rainfall, it helps to hold the soil together. These underground systems therefore take a good proportion of the rain which falls, and help to hold the water in the ground. Removing the trees from upland areas can create the conditions for flooding downstream. This happens in many parts of the world, and a particularly striking example is Bangladesh. Most of the country is a floodplain, and deforestation of the lower slopes of the Himalayas means that during the monsoon, vast quantities of water run straight off the mountains and onto the plains of Bangladesh, causing flooding and immense suffering.

Our souls – or something basic inside us – respond with pleasure to the colour green, which means we have a positive emotional response to woodland. This is presumably because during our development as a species, wandering across the land and sailing across the sea, the sight of an expanse of green meant the possibility of food to us. An expanse of sand, rock or ice does not provoke the same kind of feeling. People can settle, finding or growing food, where the soil is fertile. So we depend on the plant world – the world of nature. According to Bahá’u’lláh: “Nature is God’s Will and is its expression in and through the contingent world.” Man, who consumes plants and animals, cannot destroy nature completely, as he would die in the process: “All praise be to God Who hath adorned the world with an ornament, and arrayed it with a vesture, of which it can be despoiled by no earthly power, however mighty its battalions, however vast its wealth, however profound its influence.” Nature will always grow back eventually.

As previously mentioned, the origins of the International Tree Foundation are interesting. An Englishman called Richard St Barbe Baker worked as a logger in Canada just before the First World War. He became convinced that European settlers were causing soil loss through the way that they stripped the countryside of the diverse vegetation to create farms, by cutting down the forest trees without planting replacements. He came back to England to study biology and botany, and then went to Kenya, where he worked with the Kikuyu people to begin reforestation in that country. Together with Chief Njonjo, he founded an organisation called “Watu wa Miti”, meaning “People of the Trees”.

Whilst back in England, where he gave a talk at a “Congress of Living Religions” in 1924, he was told about the Bahá’í Faith, and became a Bahá’í. The Bahá’í ideals of uniting the planet and seeing all human beings as one family chimed in completely with what he was trying to do for the world. Later, while working on reforestation in Palestine, with the help of people from all the main religions there, he met Shoghi Effendi, who was the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith. Shoghi Effendi became one of the first life members of the “Men of the Trees”.  “Men of the Trees” was international in its scope, and eventually became known as the “International Tree Foundation”. Chapters (they could hardly call them branches!) were established in over a hundred countries, and it has been estimated that this organisation and others assisted by Richard St Barbe Baker have been responsible for planting around 26 billion trees! Richard St Barbe Baker himself died in Saskatoon, Canada, in 1982.

The International Tree Foundation (I.T.F.) is now based in Oxford (England), and promotes forestry initiatives worldwide. This involves not just re-planting forests, but ensuring that these forests meet the needs of the communities which live in and near them. Forests, if properly managed, can provide sustainable levels of fuel, food and medicine. A great part of the I.T.F.’s work is assisting local organisations which promote forestry, in whichever country they may be. There are over a hundred of these organisations which are helped by I.T.F.

Richard St Barbe Baker’s vision lives on, and the organisation he founded back in 1922 is actively promoting forests which help the planet, the soil, the human communities and the wildlife. One of the most heart-warming parts of this story is that one of Richard St Barbe Baker’s ideas – the planting of a wall of trees across the southern end of the Sahara Desert – is now being put into practice. Under the auspices of the African Union, eleven African countries have begun planting “The Great Green Wall”. Other countries are assisting, and perhaps thirty million trees may have been planted so far. Although a number of problems remain – getting water to the young trees is a big challenge – Richard St Barbe Baker’s vision is alive and guiding us today! Mankind’s love of trees has deep roots.

(If you are interested in, or would like to support, the International Tree Foundation, the website is:
http://www.internationaltreefoundation.org )

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So, what exactly is the Bahá’í Faith?

 

Finding the Bahá’í Faith was the most important thing that ever happened to me. I was 20 years old when I became a Bahá’í – I have now been retired for some years. It has guided my life, given my life a purpose, and given me hope for the future. For the last 5 years I have been writing a blog about current affairs, giving a Bahá’í viewpoint. I have covered dozens of different subjects. However, I have now realised that I have never even attempted to explain to the readers what the Bahá’í Faith actually is, and to give an overview of its teachings. I thought it was time to remedy this!
 
The Bahá’í Faith is a new world religion, although it builds on all its sister religions that have come before it. Like all religions, there is a belief that there is a spiritual purpose to life, and that for our souls to progress in the next world, we need to develop spiritual qualities in this life. The Bahá’í Faith is all about transformation – of one’s self and of society as a whole. Since I became a Bahá’í, the Bahá’í community has grown in so many ways. It now has a more obvious positive impact on the world, especially in countries where numbers are growing more quickly.
 
Bahá’ís believe that there is a purpose to Creation – that there is a First Cause, a creative force, a God. Because it created us, the essence of this First Cause is unknowable to mankind. It cannot be seen, or even understood. However, this doesn’t stop us trying! It is in the nature of humanity to strive. Through this same act of striving, human beings can develop positive attributes, or virtues, which bring us nearer to, and more like, God. The overall development of human beings towards perfection, and at the same time towards building a developing civilisation, is driven by a series of Messengers of God, such as Moses, Krishna, Jesus, the Buddha and Muhammad. Bahá’ís call them “Manifestations of God” because they manifest – or show – the attributes of God. Each One brings a religion suited for a particular time, building on the work of the previous religions, but taking human understanding and development a little further. After some time, however, the purity of the religion gradually becomes obscured by man-made ideas which often cause division. Eventually the time is right for another Messenger to move mankind forward again. This is a process without end.
 
The Bahá’í story actually begins with a young Messenger Who called Himself “The Báb”, meaning the “Door” or “Gate”. He claimed, in 1844, that He was the Gateway to a new age, and to a new Messenger Whom God would send. There is such a World Teacher promised in various ways in all the previous religions. After He had attracted tens of thousands of people to His new teaching, mostly in His native Persia (now Iran), He was executed by firing squad in 1850, for daring to announce a new religion. In 1853, in a dungeon in Tehran, one of the Báb’s followers known as Bahá’u’lláh (“The Glory of God”), had a vision, which revealed to Him that He was the One promised by the Báb. The authorities in Persia did not dare to kill Bahá’u’lláh, who was well-liked by the poor people of Tehran, and also well-respected by the various foreign ambassadors in the city. Therefore, He was exiled rather than killed, and spent the rest of His life in other countries – first in Iraq, then Turkey and finally Palestine. At the point of His departure from Iraq to Turkey, He announced what many people had already realised: that He was the Promised One of all religions.
 
Bahá’u’lláh proclaimed that all the major world religions were divine in origin. He declared that all human beings are one people, and should be in complete unity. He declared that men and women should have equal opportunities; that we should abandon all forms of prejudice; and that fairness and justice should be the guiding principles of human society. He called for a conference of the world’s rulers, in order to create a permanent peace treaty, and to prepare for the creation of a united world. He said that one language and one alphabet should be chosen, and then taught in all the schools of the world, so that everyone would be able to keep their own language but also have a common means of world communication. Bahá’u’lláh urged us to develop a form of world government, and laid down guidance for the formation of a body called the Universal House of Justice. Importantly, Bahá’u’lláh’s call for unity does not mean uniformity. In other words, oneness does not mean sameness. For example, encouraging the local indigenous culture is an important part of Bahá’í activity in many parts of the world.
 
Bahá’u’lláh passed to the next world in 1892, whilst in exile in Palestine. In His will, He asked all His followers to turn to His eldest son as a point of unity. This son, known as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (“Servant of the Glory”), was an example of how a Bahá’í should live, and was the sole interpreter of His Father’s writings. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was eventually released by the authorities in 1908, and, although now elderly, was then able to travel to Egypt, Europe and North America, announcing His Father’s Message. His two major tours were widely covered in newspapers at the time, and attracted a lot of attention from intellectuals, from other people of prominence, and from the ordinary people, who flocked to hear Him speak. However, because of the First World War He was unable to travel overseas again, and was actually under threat of crucifixion from the Turkish general based in Haifa. He was rescued by the British army, which sent a force of Indian cavalry on ahead to ensure His safety. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá received a knighthood from the British crown for His wartime work in providing food for the poor people of the area. 

Photo of Abdu'l-Bahá:
 

‘Abdu’l-Bahá, in turn, also left a clear Will and Testament, and asked the Bahá’ís to support His grandson, Shoghi Effendi, as Guardian of the Faith. Shoghi Effendi oversaw a huge expansion of the Bahá’í Faith, translated many of Bahá’u’lláh’s Writings into English, and generally guided the new religious community, until he died during a visit to London in 1957. Following the detailed guidance left in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Will, the Bahá’ís elected the Universal House of Justice which Bahá’u’lláh had ordained, and it is this body which is now leading the Bahá’í community into the future. There are no priests in the Bahá’í Faith, so local and national bodies are all elected without any nominations or canvassing, as is also the case with the Universal House of Justice. It is this clear transfer of responsibility which has kept the Faith united and will continue to do so in the future.
 
The Bahá’í community consists of several million people, found in virtually every single country and island group in the world. This community works to overcome prejudice, to promote the equality of the sexes, for the unity of all mankind, for the betterment of the world, and to spread the Bahá’í message amongst mankind. As a major thrust towards the rebuilding of a community spirit, the Universal House of Justice has encouraged the Bahá’ís in each area around the world to undertake a number of locally-based initiatives. These include classes promoting moral behaviour in children, junior youth groups where younger teenagers can find their place in life, and activities designed to bring spiritual enrichment for older youth and adults.
 
Obviously, I have missed out a huge amount of detail, and cannot even attempt to convey any sense of the spirit which animates Bahá’í meetings throughout the world, but perhaps the purpose of the Bahá’í Faith can best be summed up in Bahá’u’lláh’s own statement that, “The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.”
 
Bahá’ís have a positive outlook for the future. It may well be that on the way, mankind will have to go through severe trials, but in the end we will survive to build a civilisation where everyone will be treated justly and with respect, and will be able to reach their full potential. As Bahá’u’lláh said: “So powerful is the light of unity that it can illumine the whole world.”
 
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For further information, see www.bahai.org