Throughout the United States Baha’is are inviting spiritual seekers to enrich their spiritual and community life through such activities as prayer gatherings, weekly study of the Baha'i scriptures and classes for the spiritual education and training of children.

Two Baha'i friends and neighbors in Columbia, S.C., have been throwing a weekly "spiritual party" whose success surprises even them.

Carolyn Paik wanted to get to know her neighbors and to tell them about the Baha'i Faith – no easy task, as “neighbors” in her rural southeastern Wisconsin community live miles apart.

The Green family of Indianapolis took the saying “the family that prays together stays together,” one step further. Baha’is Andrea and Eric, and their daughters, Ashton, 15, and Asia, 12, invited two families of other faiths to join a study circle they were coordinating.

Residents in a section of Sterling, Va., have a new neighbor: the Northern Virginia Baha'i Center, at the corner of Route 7 and Cardinal Glen Circle.

What if they held an election without candidates? Without the requisite hand-shaking and baby-kissing, debates or campaign promises. Without even a personal discussion of whom to vote for.

When "staying connected" means nothing more than being able to get on the Internet, personal relationships suffer. Depression, anxiety and other problems take hold, studies show, especially in kids and teens who don't have healthy, face-to-face relationships.

Michael Penn, a Baha'i and an associate professor of psychology at Franklin and Marshall College in Pennsylvania, was headed for the 31st Annual Conference of the ABS (Association for Baha'i Studies-North America) in Ontario, Canada, and found himself seated next to another scholar on the plane.

Priscilla Banks wasn't planning to move. Her apartment in Paradise, Nev., suited her fine; her rent wasn't about to go up. In December, however, she relocated three blocks northeast to the adjacent town of Winchester to help fellow members of her faith form a Local Spiritual Assembly, the administrative body that serves Baha'is in their communities.