Whitman County Baha’i assembly

In front, from the left, are Jolie Haug; Charlotte Hoffman, Darcy Malberg and Katie Malberg. In back, from the left, are Peter Haug, Linda Cook, ViviAnne Fischer, Justin Fischer and Brad Cook. Peter Haug is chair; Hoffman, secretary and Justin Fischer, treasurer.

The Baha’i community of Whitman County formed its first spiritual assembly April 21 at the home of Brad and Linda Cook, Almota Road, Colfax. It joins thousands of other communities, including Pullman and Moscow, in forming their local spiritual assemblies. A spiritual assembly is the Baha’i administrative body for a locality, since there are no clergy in the Baha’i Faith. This first Whitman County Assembly was formed by a joint declaration of nine adults in the community. If a community has more than nine, each voter writes down the names of the nine people he or she considers most qualified, and those with the highest number of votes constitute the new assembly.