Let your vision be world embracing
Bahá'u'lláh

After we left Bahji, we traveled back through the industrial area that lies between Haifa and Akka. We had approached Bahji from the country, the green side and this was quite a contrast.

We got lunch in one of the shops in Haifa and went back to the pilgrim house. from there we walked across Hatzionut Street and wound through the monument gardens, up up up to the Seat of the Universal House of Justice, the elected body that administers the affairs of the world wide Baha'i community. The body itself has much authority with us, but the members, though highly respected, have none unless they are all together as the House of Justice. It is an institution that exists outside its members who elected every five years.

The building stands most of the way up Mt Carmel. It is faced with white marble. The Corinthian columns were hewn from the marble fields in Carrara and carved by master artists from there. The carvers 'signed' them with a honey bee carved on one of the capitals, the honey bee is their signature. We went into a huge reception room lined with various Persian carpets. Most of the gorgeous things in the buildings are gifts from various Baha'is around the world. The carpets all come from Baha'is in Iran.

We were seated and served tea. The people who serve the tea have worked in the World Center and are getting ready to go home. They are given the honor of serving the pilgrims. The china was designed for the House by Mildred Mottahedeh, a renowned designer of fine china. After we had our tea and cookies, the 9 members of the House came in. One of them welcomed us and then they walked around and introduced themselves. Later, on the last day, we got a tour of the building and got to go out on the roof.

But meeting the House members was cool, since they themselves are not important, most of us never know who they all are. I mean the information is there for anyone, but it isn't very interesting. Still it was nice to re-meet the three of them I had met before in other places.