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Chronology of the Bahá'í Faith

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Date 1989-11, sorted by firsts, descending

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1989 4 – 6 Nov
198-		 The European Bahá'í Youth Council, comprised of seven youth and appointed by the Universal House of Justice to coordinate those European youth activities that have a continental impact, met for the first time, in London. [BINS213:4; BW93–4:121] European Bahá'í Youth Council; Youth; London, England; United Kingdom; - Europe first meeting European Bahá’í Youth Council
1989 28 Nov - 8 Dec
198-		 In 1988, when 14 young Soviets youth were hosted by the Bahá'ís at a summer camp in Hawaii, they were introduced to the Universal House of Justice's peace statement, found it to be supportive of their mission, and invited the Bahá'ís to come and share it with Soviet youth.
   In return, under the auspices of Youth Ambassadors International (YAI) and Foundation for Social Innovation (FSI), 62 Bahá'ís from eight Pacific Island nations made a return trip to the Soviet Union. The project was called the "Promise of World Peace Tour". They spent five days in Moscow and four in Kazan, capital of the Tatar ASSR.

Their activities were:

  • The group was invited to a youth congress held to launch a Moscow branch of the School for Planetary Thought. During that event the peace statement was briefly examined, and Bahá'u'lláh was named as Author of its fundamental principles. The talk received a standing ovation.
  • The young ambassadors visited the Home for Children of Dysfunctional Families near Moscow, and presented a copy of the peace statement to its director.
  • Copies of the statement were also presented during a visit to the Pushkin estate and new Pushkin Museum outside Moscow. In return, the group was invited to develop a summer work-study program whereby western youth could "earn rubles" working side by side with Soviet youth in crafts, archaeological and restoration projects.

    The group was invited to visit Kazan, at that time a "closed city", where they spent four days touring schools and visiting private homes.

  • They were asked to address the problem of youth gangs in Kazan. At a meeting with gang members a documentary on youth gangs was shown, after which copies of the peace statement were given out.
  • At a forum at Kazan University the Student League arranged for the Bahá'ís to speak to 250-300 students. After the talk, the students spontaneously formed 20 small discussion groups, eager to discuss the ideas they had heard. The students accepted hundreds of copies of the peace statement.
  • Media coverage of the nine-day tour included three television interviews with Bahá'ís who introduced the peace statement and spoke freely about the Faith. One newspaper printed an editorial about the peace statement, and another in Moscow printed a brief article about the meeting with the youth congress.
  • Tour T-shirts, which read "Youth Ambassadors Peace Tour" on the front and "World Peace Is Not Only Possible But Inevitable" on the back, in Russian and English, proved quite popular, and 86 were given away along with many Peace Tour and Bahá'í buttons and the contents of nine boxes of Bahá'í literature which included 3,000 copies of the peace statement. [BN Issue 707 March 1990 p12; BW20p200]
    		•
    1989 4 Nov
    198-    		 Half a million citizens had gathered in East Berlin's public square Alexanderplatz, calling for change. Five days later, the German Democratic Republic, facing mounting public pressure from its people, relented. They thought they could calm the protests by loosening the border controls, making it easier for East Berliners to travel, without opening the border up completely. A spokesperson for the East German government, Günter Schabowski, held a hastily arranged press conference to announce the changes. But in a moment that would alter the course of history, he mistakenly declared that East Germans would be allowed to cross the border freely, effective immediately.

    The announcement stunned the journalists at the press conference, who greeted it with first disbelief and then elation. The news spread like wildfire and within hours, thousands of East Germans began flocking to the checkpoints along the wall.

    They were met by bewildered border guards, struggling to understand what their instructions were regarding this new policy. At around 22:45, overwhelmed by the sheer number of people arriving and lacking any clear orders, the border guards finally opened the gates and overjoyed East Germans flowed over into West Berlin. [BBC]

    		 Berlin Wall, Germany; Berlin, Germany; East Germany
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