Alexandria Bahá'í Center

Here follows an excerpt from the center's website:

The Bahá'í Faith has a long history in Alexandria.
The Bahá'í Faith first came to the DC area through the efforts of a woman who grew up in Princess Anne on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, studied the Bahá'í teachings, and settled in Washington DC in 1898. In 1902, the Bahá'í leader, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (son of Bahá’u’lláh, Founder of the Bahá'í Faith), sent the outstanding Persian scholar, Mirza Abu'l-Fazl to Washington to guide and teach the Bahá'ís.

Among the new adherents was Howard University lawyer, Louis Gregory, who rose to be a Hand of the Cause, the highest spiritual rank in the Faith, who devoted his life to traveling throughout the Southern states and served on the first established Bahá'í leadership body founded in 1911. In 1912, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá visited and spoke widely in Washington and traveled to Alexandria to visit the gravesite of a prominent Alexandria resident interred in St. Paul’s Cemetery in Old Town Alexandria. (A Bahá'í symbol is still visible on the gravestone.)

The Bahá'í community spread through the region and the US., and in 1943, the first Baha’i leadership body was established in Alexandria. The Bahá'í community of Alexandria Virginia strives to put the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith into practice through active community building. It welcomes people of all backgrounds to devotional gatherings, study groups, children’s classes, service activities and junior youth empowerment programs. Bahais are also active in a variety of community interfaith, anti-racism, and community service programs. Through these local endeavors, the Alexandria Bahá’í community creates environments where diversity is celebrated and young people are inspired to practice virtues and render service to others.

We live in a time of rapid, often unsettling change, inspiring mixed feelings of dread, anxiety, anticipation, and hope. In the midst of this turbulence, the Bahá’í Faith can be a haven. The optimistic teachings of the Bahá’í Faith answer essential questions about the human condition and the relationships that bind us together.

Introduction to the Bahá’í Faith
Bahá’ís view the world’s major religions as a part of a single, progressive process through which God reveals His will to humanity. Bahá’u’lláh (1817-1892), the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith, is recognized as the most recent in a line of Divine Messengers that stretches back beyond recorded time and includes Abraham, Moses, Buddha, Zoroaster, Christ and Muhammad. The central theme of Bahá’u’lláh’s message is that humanity is one single race and that the day has come for humanity’s unification into one global society. While reaffirming the core ethical principles common to all religions, Bahá’u’lláh also revealed new laws and teachings to lay the foundations of a global civilization.

“A new life is, in this age, stirring within all the peoples of the earth.”
— Bahá’u’lláh

The worldwide Bahá’í community, composed of people from virtually every racial, ethnic and religious background, is working to give practical expression to Bahá’u’lláh’s vision of world unity. We invite you to learn more about the Bahá’í Faith and benefit from the spiritual and practical insights found in the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, God’s message for humanity in this day.