Sydney Bahá'í Temple

About

The Sydney Bahá'í House of Worship rises upon a wooded hilltop at Ingleside in the northern suburbs of Sydney, Australia, and is one of the principal continental Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of the Bahá'í Faith. Completed in 1961, it was the fourth Bahá'í House of Worship to be built and the first to serve the entire Pacific region, designated by Shoghi Effendi as the Mother Temple of the whole Pacific area and the Mother Temple of the Antipodes.

Like every Bahá'í House of Worship, the Sydney temple is a nine-sided building open to people of every faith. Nine entrances symbolise the universality of the divine call, and a central dome rises above a serene prayer hall in which only the reading and chanting of sacred scriptures from the Bahá'í, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, Zoroastrian and other traditions is offered.

The building's slender white form, set within twenty-two hectares of gardens overlooking the bushland of Sydney's northern reaches, has been recognised by Australian historians as among the most significant religious structures raised in the country during the twentieth century.

More than twenty thousand visitors come each year to the temple, drawn by its architecture, by its open hospitality across faith communities and by its role as the principal House of Worship for the Bahá'í communities of the Pacific basin. Regular devotional gatherings welcome people of every background.

Significance

The Sydney Bahá'í House of Worship is the spiritual heart of the Bahá'í community across the Pacific. Its design, openness to people of all faiths and quiet hilltop setting embody the Bahá'í vision of unity, drawing visitors and devotees into a shared experience of prayer that crosses the boundaries of language and tradition.