January 20. On this date in 2019, the third Sunday in January, Bahá'ís worldwide celebrate World Religion Day ("a celebration of the need for and the coming of a world religion for mankind, the Bahá'í Faith itself") to promote the Bahá'í Faith in an ostensibly interfaith setting.

On the third Sunday in January, Bahá'ís worldwide celebrate World Religion Day ("a celebration of the need for and the coming of a world religion for mankind, the Bahá'í Faith itself") to promote the Bahá'í Faith in an ostensibly interfaith setting.

On January 15, 1950, the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States instituted the first celebration of World Religion Day to promote the Bahá'í Faith in an ostensibly interfaith setting. World Religion Day is observed annually on the third Sunday in January.

On October 22, 1968, a letter of the Universal House of Justice to the Local Spiritual Assembly of Chicago stated, "Your letter of September 30, with the suggestion that 'there should be one day in the year in which all of the religions should agree' is a happy thought, and one which persons of good will throughout the world might well hail. However, this is not the underlying concept of World Religion Day, which is a celebration of the need for and the coming of a world religion for mankind, the Bahá'í Faith itself. Although there have been many ways of expressing the meaning of this celebration in Bahá'í communities in the United States, the Day was not meant primarily to provide a platform for all religions and their emergent ecumenical ideas."

1710. World Religion Day, Purpose of
Your letter of September 30, with the suggestion that 'there should be one day in the year in which all of the religions should agree' is a happy thought, and one which persons of good will throughout the world might well hail. However, this is not the underlying concept of World Religion Day, which is a celebration of the need for and the coming of a world religion for mankind, the Bahá'í Faith itself. Although there have been many ways of expressing the meaning of this celebration in Bahá'í communities in the United States, the Day was not meant primarily to provide a platform for all religions and their emergent ecumenical ideas. In practice, there is no harm in the Bahá'í communities' inviting the persons of other religions to share their platforms on this Day, providing the universality of the Bahá'í Faith as the fulfillment of the hopes of mankind for a universal religion are clearly brought forth."
(From a letter of the Universal House of Justice to the Local Spiritual Assembly of Chicago, October 22, 1968)

On April 11, 1947, Shoghi Effendi wrote the NSA of the U.S. about some of the restrictions on worship in a Bahá'í Temple, including prohibitions on congregational prayer, the presence of images, giving sermons, or the use of instruments.

2061. Worship in Temple
"As regard the whole question of the Temple and services held in it: He wishes to emphasize that he is very anxious, now that this first and greatest Temple of the West has been built, and will, within a few years, be used for worship and regular services by the Bahá'ís, that no forms, no rituals, no set customs be introduced over and above the bare minimum outlined in the teachings. The nature of these gatherings is for prayer, meditation and the reading of writings from the Sacred Scriptures of our Faith and other Faiths; there can be one or a number of readers; any Bahá'í chosen, or even, non-Bahá'í, may read. The gatherings should be simple, dignified, and designed to uplift the soul and educate it through hearing the Creative Word. No speeches may be made, no extraneous matter introduced.
"The use of pulpits is forbidden by Bahá'u'lláh: if, in order to be more clearly heard, the person stands on a low platform, there is no objection, but this should not be incorporated as an architectural feature of the building....
"Vocal music alone may be used and the position of the singers or singer is also a matter for your Assembly to decide; but again, there should be no fixed point, no architectural details marking a special spot. Acoustics should certainly be the main consideration in placing the singers."
(From a letter written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, April 11, 1947: Insert with Bahá'í News, No. 232, June 1950)

These prohibitions have often led to confusion and misunderstanding because the Temples are often represented as being "open to all religions," when in fact they are open to members of all religions, but certainly not to all religions.

For example, one Unitarian minister was prevented from reading the writings of Martin Luther King, Jr., leading him to "express his feelings of frustration and offense. First he had been invited to read at a World Religion Day service at the Bahá’í House of Worship. Later he was told that his reading selection was not acceptable and that, as he put it in his letter to the Assembly, he must read from “a world scripture such as the Holy Bible, or Koran, etc., or not at all.”

“How would you like,” he wrote, “to be asked to participate in a world religion day and then be told that the host required you to read what he defined to be your scriptures, rather than you being able to read from what you felt represented your holy writings?”"

You cannot have a Catholic mass, contemporary Christian worship, congregational Muslim salaat, or Hindu puja in the Bahá'í Temple.

The article concerning the Unitarian minister's experience is as follows...

Saturday, August 18, 2007
Unity - As We See It
On January 9, 1985, the Rev. Tom Hansen, a Unitarian Universalist minister—I do not use his real name—wrote to the spiritual assembly of the Bahá’ís of Wilmette, Illinois, to express his feelings of frustration and offense. First he had been invited to read at a World Religion Day service at the Bahá’í House of Worship. Later he was told that his reading selection was not acceptable and that, as he put it in his letter to the Assembly, he must read from “a world scripture such as the Holy Bible, or Koran, etc., or not at all.”
“How would you like,” he wrote, “to be asked to participate in a world religion day and then be told that the host required you to read what he defined to be your scriptures, rather than you being able to read from what you felt represented your holy writings?”
The letter is a page-and-a-half of single-spaced type. It is pointed, challenging, and painful.
I wonder if in clinging to decisions of Bahá’í leadership of decades ago you realize that you are denigrating other faiths in holding a world religious [sic] day and then not permitting your guest faiths to designate their readings to be what they call holy scriptures rather than going by your outmoded past? You are denying our beliefs, heritage, and scriptures, in saying, “We Bahá’ís have decided what is scriptural for you. We deny you the right, in our setting, to call scripture what you say is holy. You cannot read what is a true representation of your thinking in our world religious [sic] day. You are limited to what we Bahá’ís, or other authorities of the past century, call holy scripture. If you don’t agree that we are right about what is scriptural for you, and read from those books we limit you to, then you are excluded from our service.”
The letter passed from the Wilmette spiritual assembly to Bruce Whitmore at the Bahá’í House of Worship. Whitmore contacted Rev. Hansen by phone and sent a follow-up letter of apology with a copy of his own book on the building of the House of Worship as a gift. Whitmore wrote in his letter, “Although it may not be possible for us to change the directives which govern our devotional services, be assured that we will make certain that neither we nor Bahá’í communities planning programs at the House of Worship offend any other religious community, even inadvertently.”
Rev. Hansen read the book and delivered a sermon entitled “How the Bahá’ís Built their Temple.” Then he wrote back to Mr. Whitmore on February 7. He quoted ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Rúhíyyih Khánum from Mr. Whitmore’s book to “suggest that your whole movement reexamine their position about limiting the readings allowed in the main room of the temple.” He added his own emphasis to the quotes by underlining words and phrases such as unity, every, agreement, unfettered, all creeds, Unity of His Prophets, and Unity of Mankind. “Are you willing to hear from a Unitarian Universalist prophet,” he challenged, “or are we for some reason not included in that unity. And are we a part of the unity of mankind, or not?” He closed the letter with a minor factual correction to Mr. Whitmore’s book and thanks for Whitmore’s “big spirited attitude.”
I found this correspondence while doing research at the U.S. Bahá’í National archives in Wilmette. It originally interested me because it illustrates, I believe, the dissonance between the public image of the Bahá’í Faith and the more insular, restrictive, and conservative practice of the Faith. The former understandably led Rev. Hansen to believe that “in truth there is no faith in this community closer to yours than the Unitarian-Universalist religion” (first letter, to Assembly); the latter leads me to think that beneath the surface the two are more opposite than alike.
The dissonance I want to look at now, though, is that between the feeling of accepting all faiths that the doctrine of progressive revelation gives so many Bahá’ís and the meaning which that doctrine has when expressed or acted on in an interfaith context.
In his book Music, Devotions, and Mashriqu’l-Adhkár (1987), R. Jackson Armstrong-Ingram documents the transformation in American Bahá’í consciousness of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár from a place for Bahá’ís to worship locally, as envisioned originally in the writings of Bahá’u’lláh, to its role as “silent teacher.” Armstrong-Ingram does not discuss the early American Bahá’ís’ understanding of progressive revelation and how it influenced that process. But I suspect it did, because the House of Worship has come to be understood primarily as a physical and public means of relating to non-Bahá’ís religiously—naively so, I would say. In the last chapter of his book, Armstrong-Ingram quotes Hatcher and Martin:
At the present time, the houses of worship are not principally used for Bahá’í community services. Rather, they are opened as places where individuals of all religious backgrounds (or those professing no particular faith) meet in the worship of the one God. Services are nondenominational and consist of readings and prayers from the scriptures of the world’s faiths, with no sermons or other attempts to cast these teachings in a mold of a specifically Bahá’í interpretation.
This passage deserves its own essay to unpack its multi-dimensional naiveté and self-deception; I quote it here simply as an example of the disappearance of the doctrinal assumptions underlying devotional practices at the House of Worship behind a claim of non-denominationality.
Progressive revelation is not just a belief in the shared divine origin of the world’s religions, which is the aspect of the teaching that is built into the temple. The general scheme of architecture that all Bahá’í houses of worship share—nine doors and nine sides—symbolizes unity. And the Wilmette House of Worship, in particular, sports the symbols of other major world religions cast into its decorative concrete exterior. The doctrine also includes the conception that God communicates episodically with humanity through perfect teachers. Their revelations have become the scriptures which are now the only accepted readings in the auditoriums of Bahá’í houses of worship. There is nothing neutral or nondenominational about this point of view; it is particularly Bahá’í, though some other faiths have related doctrines. How could Rev. Hansen and his rejected twentieth-century Unitarian writings fit into this scheme? As part of the human corruption and decline of the revelation of Christ and its disintegration into schism?
So we find Mr. Whitmore caught between the directives for worship in the auditorium, which have their roots in this specifically Bahá’í concept of progressive revelation, and the desire to experience fellowship and unity with people of other faiths. How, I wonder, did he think they would avoid offending “any other religious community, even inadvertently”? By not holding interfaith services in the Auditorium? By not inviting Unitarians? Making the rules clear up front might have helped. But the offense seems almost bound to have been repeated in some form, so long as the building continued to be seen by Bahá’ís as a place for all to worship—on Bahá’í terms.
I imagine the Bahá’ís involved were startled by Rev. Hansen’s response. But the invitation they had issued was not really one to come together as equals and peers—it couldn’t be, because the rules governing the use of the auditorium had, and still have, a specific bias. It was an invitation to participate in a Bahá’í conception of the oneness of religion. The Bahá’ís involved stumbled into this awkward situation because they believed they were doing one thing when in fact they were doing another. Progressive revelation is not a bright, universally obvious umbrella under which all religions can happily gather; it is a doctrine of one particular religion. Bahá’ís need to recognize its limitations as a basis for interfaith relationships.
Seven years ago I moved away from the vicinity of the House of Worship, so I can’t speak for any recent developments, except to praise the presence of Van Gilmer as music director. I do know, though, that there has been a long history of frustration and dissatisfaction with devotional activity at the House of Worship. I think that both Bahá’ís and people of other faiths will find more pleasure in worship there when the understanding of the place reverts to that originally intended by Bahá’u’lláh—a place for Bahá’ís to worship, though one with open doors.
Also, judging at least from Armstrong-Ingram’s book, a fresh engagement with Bahá’u’lláh’s and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s writings on the subject might yield a devotional practice more various and engaging than the one which has dominated the House of Worship’s history.
It would also be more distinctively Bahá’í than the historical one. I think that would be a good thing.

Here is a sample of what a Google News search of "World Religion Day" yielded...
World Religion Day to be celebrated from the Maryville Daily Times...

The Blount County Bahá’í community will host an observance of World Religion Day at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 24, in the Dorothy Herron Room at the Blount County Public Library. “The Impulse to Serve” will be explored by participants in this gathering. Discussion will center around how individuals can be inspired to be of service to the community and contribute to the betterment of the world.
World Religion Day, observed in January each year, was established to promote inter-faith understanding and harmony. A variety of annual events held around the globe encourage followers of every religion to recognize the similarities in the various faiths of the world.
The event is free and open to the public. For more information call 503-894-0187.

World Religion Day event will honor 'sense of community among faith traditions' from the Saint Cloud Times...

The golden rule is one of the first things you learn as a child. And it doesn't matter what religion you're raised in.
Each has its own version:

• "Choose thou for thy neighbor that which thou choosest for thyself." — Baha'i faith.
• "Make thine own self the measure of the others, and so abstain from causing hurt to them." — Buddhism.
• "Love thy neighbor as thyself." — Judiasm.
• "As ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise." — Christianity.
• "Do not to others what ye do not wish done to yourself; and wish for others too what ye desire and long for yourself." — Hinduism.
• "None of you truly believes until he wishes for his brother what he wishes for himself." — Islam.
• "With all beings and all things we shall be as relations." — Dakota and Lakota.
• "Bear not enmity to anyone — God is contained in every heart." — Sikhism.

It's those and other commonalities the Baha’is of Central Minnesota hope to highlight at its annual World Religion Day event Saturday, Jan. 19, at the St. Cloud Public Library.
The day was established in 1950 — 69 years ago — by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the U.S. and is celebrated world-wide.
The local event will include prayers from various religions, music, discussion about commonalities in scripture and light refreshments, explained Ron Marotte of St. Cloud. He's been a member of the Baha'i faith for about four decades.
"The primary goal is just to have fellowship ... to visit with people from other faith traditions, talk about our commonality, about love and friendship and how we should be living in unity," Marotte said.
The day is not about conversion or debate, he said.
"We're not here to promote any one religion. We're here to promote the sense of community among the faith traditions that can be encompassed by our common purpose," Marotte said.
In today's political climate, events like this are needed, he said.
"I think it's more important now than ever in our society," Marotte said. "We seem to be more focused on what divides us rather than what unites us."
Marotte said it's sad to see religion being used as a means to turn people against each other.
"Religion has always been a great force for good ... and has continued to advance civilization," Marotte said. "The fundamental concepts of all religions are to unify mankind and to bring us together in love and fellowship."
It's not difficult to find the commonalities across religious scripture, he said.
"The event ... is meant to focus again on common roots and our common purpose," Marotte said.
As Baha'is see the world, each new religion and religious prophet builds on what was created before. So they encompass the words of Jesus, Muhammad and Buddha.
"They all talk about love and fellowship, the nature of the soul and God's fellowship," Marotte said.
Marotte said the golden rule is salient because it's something we learn as young children.
"It's been universal," Marotte said. "What the golden rule dos is it puts you in the perspective of another."
It's a first step to developing compassion and empathy for others.
"That shift is exactly what we need now," Marotte said. "We need to start looking at the world from points of others."
Follow Stephanie Dickrell on Twitter @SctimesSteph, like her on Facebook, call her at 255-8749, or find more stories at sctimes.com/sdickrell.
If you go ..
World Religion Day, which includes prayers from various religions, a game to identify short scriptures from various world religions, music about unity and light refreshments.
When: 2-4 p.m., Saturday.
Where: Mississippi room, St. Cloud Public Library, 1300 West St. Germain St.
Details: The event is free. People of all faiths are welcome.

Baha’is Celebrate World Religion Day on January 20, 2019 from World Religion News...

But the observance has come to change from an event that was created and observed by the Baha’is of the United States to a day that is observed internationally. The main objective of the day is to highlight the philosophies that the spiritual concepts underlying religions of the world are in unity, and that religions play a vital role in unifying humanity.
What initially began as a celebration of the need for and the coming of a world religion for humankind, meaning the Baha’i Faith itself, it has since evolved to a state where different congregations make their proclamations about the observance all over the world.
World Religion Day events are still sponsored by local members of the Baha’i Faith worldwide. They are a contingent of the main group. Presently, an increasing aspect of World Religion Day events are being organized independently. Interfaith and multi-faith coalitions are gradually adopting the organization of the World Religion Day while making different declarations.
Furthermore, local and national governments are showing that World Religion Day is of positive social value therefore allowing and supporting it.
Read more at World Religion News: "Baha’is Celebrate World Religion Day on January 20, 2019" https://www.worldreligionnews.com/?p=58486

World Religion Day happens this weekend from SooToday.com...

Join members of many faith communities to to promote the idea that the spiritual principles underlying the world’s religions are harmonious and could play a role in unifying humanity.
The Volunteer Inter-Faith Committee of Sault Ste. Marie will host World Religion Day at Central United Church, (160 Spring St.), on Sunday, Jan. 20 at 2 p.m.
The theme of this year’s event is 'Embracing Our Diversity.'
World Religion Day, initiated in 1950 by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of the United States, is an interfaith observance celebrated on the third Sunday in January each year.
Though initiated in the United States, World Religion Day has come to be a globally celebrated event. Its purpose is to promote the idea that the spiritual principles underlying the world’s religions are harmonious, and to suggest that religions can play a role in unifying humanity.
In 1991, Roya Mogharrabi, the late Tony Cooper, and the local Baha’i community joined together with friends from other faith groups to celebrate World Religion Day in Sault Ste. Marie.
Over all those years, members of many faith communities met together to celebrate the event, sharing their religious traditions in a spirit of fellowship.
In 2015, the Volunteer Interfaith Committee of Sault Ste. Marie was created to continue facilitating World Religion Day activities. The Committee believes that when representatives of different religions and cultures meet for fellowship and an exchange of ideas, they develop increasing respect for each other and are strengthened in their efforts to encourage this respect in the local community and the world at large.
The Committee’s outreach activities have now expanded beyond this one-day celebration. The public is welcome to join in a program of prayers, music and stories followed by light refreshments.

Invitation to World Religion Day from The Trinity Journal...

World Religion Day, held on the third Sunday in January every year, seeks to promote interfaith understanding and harmony. Through a variety of events worldwide, followers of every religion and spiritual path are encouraged to acknowledge and celebrate the similarities that different faiths have.