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Featured in: Devotional Gatherings

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Devotional Gatherings

in Explore > Community Life

Baha’is believe in the power of prayer and you’ll find Baha’is and their friends, throughout the world, getting together to pray. This is often referred to as a ‘devotional gathering’ or ‘devotional meeting’, and they happen in diverse settings, whether in cities or villages. These gatherings are open to all and are intended to embrace that attitude of prayer and practice of devotion that is universal to all religions.

Celebrating 400 Baha’i Blog Studio Sessions

March 16, 2022, in Articles > Baha'i Blog, by

Baha’i Blog’s Studio Sessions series just reached the massive milestone of having published 400 Studio Sessions!

For those of you unfamiliar with our Studio Sessions, it’s a musical initiative where we invite Baha’is and their friends in different parts of the world, to come into a studio to sing an original song based on the Baha’i Writings or letters of Shoghi Effendi or the Universal House of Justice (though we’ve made some rare exceptions to this rule such as this tribute to Mona Mahmudnizhad by Tom Francis where he sings a cover of Doug Cameron’s “Mona With the Children”). We then make these videos and audio recordings available on our YouTube Channel and SoundCloud page for everyone to listen to!

Studio Sessions started around five years ago and we were partly inspired by a letter from the Universal House of Justice which stated:

“We long to see, for instance, the emergence of captivating songs from every part of the world, in every language, that will impress upon the consciousness of the young the profound concepts enshrined in the Baha’i teachings.”

Letter from the Universal House of Justice to all National Spiritual Assemblies, 12 December, 2011

We’ve recorded songs in 44 locations in 33 different languages, and we could not have done this without the help of so many wonderful friends! We encourage you to check out the Studio Sessions playlist, and in the meantime, we’ve listed one example from each of the 44 locations, followed by one example of each of the languages represented.

We’d love to hear about any of your favourite songs and how our Studio Sessions have touched your life, so please let us know in the Comments section at the bottom of this article.

Now on with the music!

Here’s one example from each of the 44 locations listed in alphabetical order based on where they were filmed and recorded:

01. Arequipa, Peru

02. Auckland, New Zealand

03. Belgrade, Serbia

04. Brisbane, Australia

05. Bristol, United Kingdom

06. Chicago, USA

07. Durban, South Africa

08. Essen, Germany

09. Frankfurt, Germany

10. Genoa, Italy

11. Gold Coast, Australia

12. Hamilton, New Zealand

13. Helsinki, Finland

14. Hluboka nad Vltavou, the Czech Republic

15. Johannesburg, South Africa

16. Key West, USA

17. Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

18. Lisbon, Portugal

19. London, the United Kingdom

20. Los Angeles, USA

21. Madrid, Spain

22. Mahikeng, South Africa

23. Manzini, Eswatini

24. Melbourne, Australia

25. Nashville, USA

26. New York, USA

27. Paget, Bermuda

28. Paita, New Caledonia

29. Paris, France

30. Perth, Australia

31. Phoenix, USA

32. Port Vila, Vanuatu

33. Prince Edward Island, Canada

34. San Francisco, USA

35. Santiago, Chile

36. Seattle, USA

37. Stockholm, Sweden

38. Sydney, Australia

39. Tilburg, the Netherlands

40. Toowoomba, Australia

41. Toronto, Canada

42. Vancouver, Canada

43. Washington DC, USA

44. Willikies, Antigua and Barbuda


Now here are examples of the 31 languages featured on Baha’i Blog Studio Sessions:

01. Albanian

02. Arabic

03. Bislama

04. Chinese (Mandarin)

05. Dutch

06. English

07. Finnish

08. French

09. German

10. Greek

11. Hindi

12. Iban

13. Italian

14. Japanese

15. Mongolian

16. Persian

17. Portuguese

18. Romanian

19. Russian

20. Samoan

21. Serbian

22. Sotho

23. Spanish

24. Swahili

25. Swahili (Congolese)

26. Swati

27. Swedish

28. Urdu

29. Welsh

30. Xhosa

31. Zulu


We hope you’ve enjoyed the Baha’i Blog Studio Sessions series and that you’ve have found them useful as well!

Watch the entire Baha’i Blog’s Studio Sessions series here on our YouTube channel.

Thanks again to everyone for your support, and don’t forget to let us know how you’ve been using Studio Sessions in your own home or community and if you have any favourites in the Comments section below.


Posted by

Naysan Naraqi

Naysan is passionate about using the arts and media to explore the teachings of the Baha’i Faith. Back in 2011, Naysan started up the Baha’i Blog project, channeling his experiences in both media and technology companies to help create a hub for Baha’i-inspired content online.
Naysan Naraqi

Discussion 1 Comment

They’re in my playlist and have used them in my devotionals. So uplifting songs. Wondering how from Singapore can add to the list though? :).

Jes

Jes (March 3, 2022 at 10:41 PM)

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