Location
The Sumer 2014 Indianapolis Youth Gathering comprised several groups of youth from communities all across Indiana and Southern Ohio who came together for the explicit purpose of considering the contribution that can be made by any young person who wishes to help release the society-building power of the teachings of Baha'u'llah. There, over Labor Day weekend, 30 youth engaged in earnest discussion about the concepts of a two-fold moral purpose, the negative and positive forces operating on young people in various environments, the importance of a group of youth mutually supporting each other, how a process of community building can in time change a culture to reflect spiritual principles such as the oneness of humanity, along with many more. In addition to the study and discussion of such concepts, the friends present also engaged in joyous exploration of the arts, mainly through singing devotional songs and sharing inspiring stories. There was serious consultation too about plans to extend this conversation of how youth can make a tangible contribution to the fortunes of humanity when they return to their home communities.
Now, barely a month since that gathering, the impetus it has lent to acts of service in various communities, in the words of the Universal House of Justice, is "evidence that those present were touched by spiritual forces more enduring, more deeply rooted than anything that could be elicited by the thrill of fellowship and large numbers alone." This was the first, of potentially many more gatherings destined to take place in this region as the conversation and pattern of action of "how to live a coherent life and be an agent of spiritual and social transformation" is extended to more young people in various social spaces and neighborhoods.