This paper places the development of Baha’i collective worship in the context of what is known about Christian and Moslem worship when those Faiths were in their early centuries. Using interviews and ethnographic observation as well as historical sources, it traces Bahá’í efforts to shape collective worship in a way that upholds values of inclusivity, avoidance of hierarchy and ritual, and a connection of worship and service, looking especially at how collective worship is changing now in communities that are growing rapidly and are establishing local houses of worship. The paper then compares observable change in Bahá’í collective worship to what is known about what happened as numbers of worshippers increased and diverse cultures were incorporated into Christian and Moslem collective worship at a similar stage of development. The presentation is based on a paper being prepared for a volume to be published by the Chair of Bahá’í Studies at Hebrew University arising from an international workshop hosted by the Chair in 2025, “Between Self and Community: Prayer in Monotheistic Religions.”
Holly Hanson has an M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Florida and is Professor Emeritus of History at Mount Holyoke University. She has a variety of research interests, including agrarian change in Africa, social history of the Buganda kingdom, pre-colonial African political culture, and globalization as a historical process. These interests recently culminated in her new book, Landed Obligation: The Practice of Power in Buganda, which is part of the Heinemann Social History of Africa series. Hanson has also published numerous articles on a variety of topics, from Bugandan women to global inequality. Currently she is Director of the research Department at the Bahá’í World Center.
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