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CENTENARY AND CONVENTION ISSUE
September, 1944
Bahá’í Era
| BAHÁ'Í |  |
NEWS |
Bahá’í House of Worship, Illuminated for the Centenary
THE HISTORIC THIRTY-SIXTH CONVENTION[edit]
The thirty-sixth Annual Convention, covering the week of May 19 to 25, 1944, was indeed unique in both the number and greatness of the significances of the Faith included within its span. All Bahá’í Conventions have inestimable value. They provide ways and means of wide consultation and more closely relate to each other the various activities and institutions of the Cause. They engage eager interest with news of progress. They pool spiritual values and increase harmony. They enable friends scattered over wide areas to know each other. They concentrate minds, hearts, means and labors over ever widening field of service marked out by the Guardian. They delight the eye, brighten the mind and gladden the heart by the inspiring beauty of the Temple of God and the shining forth of the reality of great souls. They inculcate veneration for the Light and guidance of God as appearing in His Greatest Manifestation, Baha’u’llah, Who brings to earth the Kingdom of God. They are definite periods in the evolution of the Faith and furnish the most attractive means of teaching.
But this Convention synchronized with the Centenary anniversary of the Faith and the Declaration of that wondrous Being, the Glorious Báb, and the First Point of Revelation in the Day of God. With the solemn memorial to His Highness, most impressively observed; with the hundredth anniversary of the birth of the Mystery of God, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and its joyous festival; with the dedication of the Temple, the beautiful structure which symbolizes the Body of the Manifestation, and also the half century celebration of the appearance and establishment of the Faith on American soil.
It would have been amazing indeed had so potent a call not have brought wonderful results. No less than one-third of all the registered Bahá’ís in the United States, its outlying possessions and Canada, came. Of one hundred and seventy-one chosen delegates, but twelve were absent.
These were augmented by honorary delegates chosen by twenty-one South and Central American countries, thirteen of whom overcame unusual obstacles to come. The area of the earth, officially or unofficially represented, included the five continents. The vastness that is China, the great expanse of the British Empire, Persia, birthplace of the Faith, the Holy Land, world center of the Faith, Egypt, the Land of Mystery, Alaska, the Land of the Midnight Sun, the Land of the Rising Sun — through a Nipponese youth, probably American born — ‘Iráq, Australia, the Western Hemisphere, are suggestive of the power of Divine Love to link races and nations together.
It would have been difficult to imagine how such moving and powerful events and their fitting celebration could have been condensed in so brief a period of time. But such is the record now passed into history and reverberating through the coming ages as marking the advancement of a time.
The friends upon arrival found the spirit of welcome in the very atmosphere. Trains were met. Bulletins of information were distributed, wholesome advice was given for the Bahá’ís so to conduct themselves as to be a means of attraction to strangers, especially those who had opened their homes for entertainment. The respect which people in near-by cities have for the Bahá’ís is a pleasing sign of attraction and growth. Nothing appeared to be unthought of among the local members of the Centenary Committee in their arduous and devoted efforts to make everyone comfortable and happy.
The Convention opened with readings and prayers, an inspiring feature of the sessions throughout. One prayer service was conducted by children.
George O. Latimer, as Chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly, voiced genial and loving welcome and felicitations upon the triumph of the Seven Year Plan. He reviewed the successive steps, praising the foundation laid by the Master’s Charter of the Divine Plan and the wonderful initiative and guidance of the Guardian.
Edna M. True, Chairman of the Centenary Committee, announced the general program and expressed the conviction, to which eager hearts responded, “We are the most fortunate people in the world!” She also told about” the Bahá’í Centenary Registration Book. This was a very large, artistically designed and beautiful volume, specially prepared for this occasion and a gift from Charles Mason Remey, one of the apostles of ‘Abdu’l-Baha. Over sixteen hundred friends registered during the week.
“By the righteousness of Mine own Self! Great, immeasurably great is this Cause! Mighty, inconceivably mighty is this Day! Blessed indeed is the man that hath forsaken all things and fastened his eyes upon Him whose Face hath shed illumination upon all who are in the heavens and all who are on the earth.” (Gleanings P. 245.)
After roll call, the temporary officers of the Convention, George O. Latimer, Chairman, and Horace Holley, Secretary, were made permanent.
Messages from Haifa
The following Convention messages from the Guardian were read, with printed copies circulated among the delegates and friends: “I advise you to share the following facts with the believers at Convention celebrating the hundredth anniversary of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.
“Bahá’ís have established residence
in seventy-eight countries,
fifty-six of which are sovereign
states. Bahá’í literature has been
translated and published in forty-one
languages. Translations have
been undertaken in twelve additional
languages. Thirty-one races are
represented in the Bahá’í world
community. Five National Assemblies
belonging to ten countries are
incorporated and legally empowered
to hold property. The Bahá’í
international endowments held in
the Holy Land are estimated
[Page 2]
at a half million pounds sterling.
National Bahá’í endowments in the
United States are estimated at one
million, seven hundred thousand dollars.
“The area of land in the Jordan Valley dedicated to the Bahá’í Shrines is over five hundred acres. The site purchased for future Bahá’í Temple of Persia comprises three and a half million square meters. The cost of the structure of the first Bahá’í Temple in the West has been one million, three hundred thousand dollars.”
“In every state and province of North America Bahá’í Assemblies are functioning. In thirteen hundred localities of the United States and Canada Bahá’ís reside. Bahá’í Centers have been established in every republic of Latin America, fifteen of which possess Spiritual Assemblies. The Faith in the Western Hemisphere now stretches from Anchorage, Alaska, to Magellanes, the world’s southernmost city. Sixty-two Centers have been established in India, twenty-seven with Spiritual Assemblies.”
“Among the historic sites purin Persia are the Ṭihrán home of Bahá’u’lláh, the Báb’s shop in Bushihr, the burial place of Quddús, part of the village of Chihríq, three gardens in Badasht, and the place where Táhirih was confined.”
“Bahá’í administrative headquarters has been founded in Ṭihrán, Delhi, Cairo, Baghdád, Wilmette and Sydney. Bahá’í endowments in the Holy Land and the United States have been exempted from taxes by the civil authorities. Civil recognition has been extended to Bahá’í Assemblies in five states of the United States to solemnize Bahá’í marriages.”
“I suggest you utilize the above information for publicity purposes wherever advisable.”
“Hail with glad, grateful heart the historic Assembly of the elected representatives of the followers of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh throughout the Western Hemisphere participating in the first All-America Convention gathered in the vicinity of the first Bahá’í Center of the Western World beneath the dome of the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the West to commemorate alike the Anniversary of the founding of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh and the Birth of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the Anniversary of its establishment in the Occident and to celebrate the completion of the exterior ornamentation of the most hallowed House of Worship in the entire Bahá’í world. I recall with profound emotion of this solemn, auspicious occasion the milestones in the progress of the community whose rise constitutes one of the noblest episodes in the history of the First Bahá’í Century. Called into being through the operation of the will of the Center of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant, energized at the hour of its birth by dynamic spirit communicated to it by the band of first returning pilgrims, purged in its infancy by fiery tests involving the defection of its acknowledged founder, nursed through the dispatch of unnumbered Tablets by the vigilant Master, as well as by the successive messengers designed to support its infant strength, launched upon its rapid career through series of institutional acts and missionary journeys signalizing the first stirrings of its community life, infinitely enriched by priceless benefits conferred upon its members in the course of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s sojourn in their midst, invested with a unique mission through the revelation of the Tablets of the Divine Plan, firmly knit through processes proclaiming the emergence of the Divinely appointed Administrative Order, immortalized through the signal acts of its illustrious member who succeeded in winning the allegiance of royalty to its cause, consummating its record of achievements through total victory of the Seven Year Plan, thereby sealing the triumph of the first stage in the Mission bestowed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, this repeatedly blessed, much envied community deserves to be acclaimed the Torchbearer of the civilization, the foundations of which the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh is destined unassailable to establish in the course of the Second Bahá’í Century. I am moved to pay a well deserved tribute at this great turningpoint in the career of so privileged a community to the gallant band of its apostolic founders whose deeds heralded the dawn of the Day of the Covenant in the West, to its intrepid pioneers who labored to enlarge the bounds of the Faith in the five continents, to its indefatigable administrators whose hands reared the fabric of the Administrative Order, to its heroic martyrs who followed in the footsteps of the Dawn-Breakers of the heroic age, to its itinerant teachers who with written and spoken word pleaded its cause and repulsed the attacks of its adversaries, to its munificent supporters whose liberality accelerated the expansion of its manifold activities, and last but not least to the mass of its stout-hearted, self-denying members whose strenuous, ceaseless, concerted efforts so decisively contributed to the consolidation and broadening of its foundations. I desire to direct a particular appeal to the Latin American representatives participating in the Centennial Convention to deliberate on measures to reinforce the ties binding them to their Sister Community, unitedly devise means for the inauguration of teaching campaigns in their respective Republics, the dissemination of Bahá’í literature, the multiplication of Bahá’í administrative centers as preliminary steps in the formation of Bahá’í National Assemblies, and lend impetus to the prosecution of any enterprise launched to carry still further the Plan conceived by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá for the American Bahá’í Community.”
Received May 15, 1944.
On the last day of the Convention came this message from the Guardian, received by the National Secretary:
“I am overjoyed by the auspicious opening of the Centennial Convention. The dearly-beloved American Bahá’í community was remembered during the historic night of the glorious Declaration at the Báb’s Holy Shrine. Announce to the friends the joyful tidings that the hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of the Mission of the martyred Herald of the Faith was signalized by the historic decision to complete the structure of His sepulcher erected by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on the site chosen by Bahá’u’lláh. The recently designed model of the dome has been unveiled in the presence of assembled believers. Praying for early removal of obstacles to the consummation of the stupendous Plan conceived by the Founder of the Faith and the hopes cherished by the Center of His Covenant.” (Signed) SHOGHI RABBANI
Received May 25, 1944.
Convention Message to the Guardian
“Bahá’ís of all the Americas represented by the largest number of delegates in person from United States, Canada, Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto
Session of Thirty-Sixth Annual Bahá’í Convention, May 19 to 25, 1944
Rico, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, gathered in this glorious centennial convention, humbly send heartfelt appreciation for your epoch-making message.
“Express loving gratitude for continuous guidance making us humble instruments in completing Seven Year Plan culminating in this unique assemblage whose celebration is being broadcast throughout North America and whose historic and momentous events will be disseminated throughout this hemisphere.
“Beg for further confirmation to become worthy Torchbearers of the new civilization, the foundations of which are destined to be established in the Second Bahá’í Century.
“Plans already are formulated by Latin American delegates for further cementing bonds between two Americas, for strengthening the structural basis of the administrative order, and for extending Bahá’í teaching activities by all available means in their respective countries.”
Sent May 20, 1944.
The report of the National Secretary told, among various items, the remarkable story of the Hair of the Báb in its journey to America as related by W. Sutherland Maxwell in a letter. This sacred relic was shipped upon an airplane which enroute went down in flames. Later the envelope, partially burned, but with the hair within intact, was returned to Haifa, where the postal authorities identified its owner by the serial registration number, returning it to the sender, with both the locket and envelope. It was joyfully received. Later it was again posted to America, arriving safe, and is now in the Temple Archives.
A review of the Guardian’s latest book, “God Passes By,” was also given, and the story of its arrival in triplicate copies and installments over a considerable period. As soon as enough copies arrived to make a connected whole it was turned over to the printer. The laborious task of typing the manuscript was done by the Guardian himself, despite the tremendous pressure of other calls upon his time. By the wish of the Guardian, the introduction is written by Dr. George Townshend and signed by him in his capacity and identity as a member of the Church of England. The book is divided into four periods covering in turn the ministries of the Báb, Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the Guardianship. It is both a retrospect and prospect with fundamental consideration of present and future values. The author has reviewed every movement from the Declaration of the Báb to the present, recreating and restating it. The spirit of the Guardian brings the incidents vividly to us and every movement is significant. There is shown the recurrence of acceptance and denial, the people of truth and those of error. The episodes bring to mind what the Holy Ones of the past experienced. Also, it clarifies the vision and makes resolute the heart for the task that is now before us. Passages were quoted. If we wonder why we have not been given the Báb’s writings, perhaps it is because the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh includes the Báb’s and all other previous revelations.
The Properties Representative set forth briefly, in connection with Temple ornamentation, the long, devoted gift of service which Allen B. McDaniel, Supervising Engineer, made to the Temple over a long period of years; so fruitful and so well remembered, the renovation of Foundation Hall; the acquisition of two lots which separated the Wilhelm property from the Grove of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at West Englewood, due to the efforts of William de Forge; and the large expansion of the Bahá’í properties which had their beginning with two lots, costing $2,000.00, bought by Bahá’í Temple Unity in 1909, were mentioned as matters indicating unmistakable growth.
North America Teaching
Leroy Ioas and Charlotte M. Linfoot, Chairman and Secretary of the National Teaching Committee, that virile arm of service, set forth in picturesque and eloquent form the far-flung activities of the Seven Year Plan, resulting in victory. How the Guardian inspires us to live in the flow of Bahá’í history; how heavenly armies subdue the denisons of earth with the brightness of divine love; how barren wastes were first visited by itinerant teachers, attracting souls who afterwards became contacts for pioneer settlers; how effective are labors that follow God’s own Plan; how great the collective capacity of the friends and how effective in action; and no matter how great the success now apparent, there must be no suspension of effort to consolidate the work and to build new centers. The entire plan was made vivid by charts, by mention of the names of itinerant workers, some still working, others promoted to the realms above, and by the presentation of these workers and settlers — as many as were present — to the Convention, which showed signs of great admiration for the extraordinary sacrifices mentioned. Leaving home, friends, business, comforts and congenial surroundings augment the hosts of God in other cities, sets in motion influences that are powerful. The inspiration of the Dawn-Breakers and present concentration upon thirteen hundred new cities is now the absorbing task.
Cynthia Powell told an interesting story of how Wilmington, Delaware, which at the eleventh hour lost its Assembly status, retrieved it by inviting inquirers, long with them, to join, which they readily did. Teachers more and more are promised.
There lay concealed within the Holy Veil and prepared for the service of God a company of His chosen ones, who shall be manifested unto men; who shall aid His Cause; who shall be afraid of no one, though the entire human race rise up and war against them. These are the ones who, before the gaze of the dwellers on earth and the denisons of heaven, shall arise and, shouting aloud, acclaim the name of the Almighty, and summon the children of men to the path of God, the All-Glorious, the All-Praised. Walk thou in their way, and let no one dismay thee. Be of them whom the tumult of the world, however much it may agitate them in the path of their Creator, can never sadden, whose purpose the blame of the blamer will never defeat. Gleanings, P. 280.
Inter-America and the Far South
The Inter-America Committee reported to the Convention through its Chairman, Sr. Octavio Illescas, and its Secretary, Mrs. Stewart W. French, the former joyously greeting and the latter relating and beaming, a spiritual victory long fought, full of trials, but now gloriously won. With the aid of a large map, there was a thrilling recital of an epic which moved to laughter and tears, with all hailing the Divine Fire ablaze over the Western Hemisphere and affecting the remotest parts. Special acknowledgments were made to Edna M. True for her invaluable aid and advice regarding transportation and the settlement of pioneers. A detailed account of these itineraries and settlements appears in the Annual Report. The presentation of this Committee was at once followed by
The Latin-American Session
As a graceful courtesy extended the Latin-American honorary delegates, of whom there were thirteen present, they were invited to elect one of their number to preside as Co-Chairman of the Convention. This selection was Dr. Edelberto Torres of Guatemala. Whereupon they held a Latin-American session before the Convention, conducted in Spanish but translated into English. This proved to be one of the most interesting and engaging features of the week. In reply to an expression of thanks for their presence, Dr. Torres replied: “We thank you for your expression of thanks. But we would remind you that our appearance here is due to your munificence. Therefore, we can prove our gratitude only by expressing our conviction that the coming of the Cause of Hispaniola-America is comparable to no event in history or in time; but only is it to be compared to that cosmic event which occurs when the returning sun touches a new sign of the zodiac.” (Expressions of great approval)
Brazil sent greetings through its delegate, Dr. Fernando Nova, who paid feeling tribute to itinerant and pioneer teachers from the United States who had come to them over the years.
Alfred Osborne of Panama was eloquent in a similar vein, eulogizing the many teachers and asking prayers and encouragement for the strategically located zone and country in which conflicting stocks meet. He especially expressed the hope for a Bahá’í school.
Blanca Victoria Mejia, delegate from Nicaragua, reported thirty-two Bahá’ís sending their greetings. She was fulsome in praise of the itinerant teachers, etc.
Josephine Rodriquez brought loving greetings from Colombia and reported twenty-five Bahá’ís and twenty-three students.
Jamaica reported through William Mitchell, its first Bahá’í and delegate, who told a fascinating story of how the Message reached himself, apparently by accident, but through the devotion of Dr. Malcolm King. He reported eleven Bahá’ís, and teaching activities by which the Message was reaching all classes.
Eugenio Gines of Cuba, praised the past and present pioneers and reported seventeen believers. He stressed the value of teaching. “Let us not delay! Start today! Leave nothing for tomorrow!” he averred. From fifty to sixty are now studying, the teachings.
Carlos Vergara, Mexico City, was joyful over a presence and atmosphere where religion is the cause of unity, science and religion agree, prejudices are removed and the speech of love is uttered. Heroic deeds of the past, among his countrymen, will be excelled in this Day when the Light of Reality is penetrating all hearts.
Raul Contreras of Costa Rica, reported the growth of the Cause during four years, since two pioneer settlers came to them. There are now two Spiritual Assemblies. He brought a message from grateful hearts and was grateful to be its bearer. A prayer in Portuguese closed this session, impressed by the fine bearing of its delegates, their sincerity, grasp of spiritual values, joyousness and zeal in spreading the Message. The Cause is winning people of capacity.
A considerable time was given by them to the consultation over Latin–American problems which vary in the different countries. There was also a prayer for the late May Maxwell, who was reported as the Mother of teaching service among the Latins, from her work in Paris and Canada, crowned by her martyrdom in South America.
Thirty-sixth Annual Bahá’í Convention, All America Bahá’í Centenary, May 19 to 25, 1944
A committee consisting of Mrs.
Ella G. Cooper, Rowland Estall, Honor
Kempton, Rafi Mottahedeh, Alfred
Osborne and Ali Kuli Khan,
appointed to send on behalf of the
Convention, a message to the Guardian,
reported the following, which
was sent:
“Fifteen hundred Bahá’ís, thronging auditorium of consecrated House of Worship, exalted to heaven of reverence at privilege of beholding the likeness of His Holiness the Báb and approaching the relic of His Sacred Person, gratefully testify, we owe to you our sublime opportunity to participate in glorious consummation First Bahá’í Century, achieved by unity created through Guardianship, the Master’s final blessing to the Bahá’í world.”
The Election
Election of the National Spiritual Assembly, set by the agenda for the middle of the convention, proceeded, following the instructions of readings and prayers from Bahá’í Administration. Those reported by the tellers, who did their work quite expeditiously, were later reported organized as follows:
- George O. Latimer, Chairman
- Allen B. McDaniel, Vice Chairman
- Horace Holley, Secretary
- Louis G. Gregory, Recording
- Secretary.
- Roy C. Wilhelm, Treasurer
- Dorothy Baker
- Amelia E. Collins
- Philip G. Sprague
- Leroy Ioas
The delegates from Chili and Ecuador, delayed in arriving, were introduced.
The chairman stated that one of the oldest churches in the United States, First Church of Salem, Massachusetts, 1629, recently included in its schedule a sermon by its pastor which bore the title: “A Venture in True Catholicity,” with the explanation “This sermon will be a tribute to our friends, the members of the Bahá’í Faith, which celebrates its Centenary May 23.” Salem is to be felicitated upon showing such wonderful advancement during the centuries.
The Meeting of Two Signs
Variable weather followed the week. At one time rain, poetically called “the angel of the sea” and a sign of bounty, descended in abundance. On one such occasion a beautiful rainbow followed its wake. The legend of the rainbow is that one who reaches its end will discover the boundless treasure. But as one advances the rainbow recedes, making this attainment impossible. But to one moving lakeward along Linden Avenue, at the rainbow’s end appeared the Temple of God! Following the unvarying law of nature, the rainbow receded as one advanced, but in this case it left its precious treasure behind!
Yes, there stood the Temple of God, surpassing in wonder, sublimity and beauty all other structures; a solace to the eyes and illumination to hearts; a sanctuary for meditation and prayer; a sign of the sacrifices of devotees in many lands; an object lesson to seekers after truth, impressing its lesson by day, floodlighted by night as illustrative of its continuity of service, filled to overflowing with the temples of souls who reflect the varied beauty of the new creation; a channel for the flow of mysterious powers which transform the earth with the new creation, and like the welcoming Hand of Providence to all who seek release from the deepening shadows of the earth. All hail its dedication.
Was the meeting of these two heavenly signs, the rainbow symbolizing promise and hope and the Temple expresses assurance and fulfillment, but an accident? May we not reflect that both these wondrous phenomena are divine creations? Perhaps their meeting was but another of the wondrous signs of Divine Favor.
The weather was favorable to the battery of cameras and Kodaks which took many pictures of the assembled friends and those seen all turned out well, faces showing happiness, contentment and peace.
Assembly Development
This important phase of Bahá’í
administration brought an interesting
discussion to which members of the
Committee and a number of delegates
made contributions. This work
has a growing interest and value
with the rapid expansion of the
Faith. The Chairman of this Committee,
Dorothy Baker, brought out
that Assemblies must consider their
relationships to each other, to the[Page 6]
National, to the Guardian, to its
own community and to the various
committees appointed by the National
Assembly and by themselves. As
miniature Houses of Justice, they
should uphold the right of the individual
member of the Assembly and
community to free expression. The
local Assembly gives impetus and
intelligent direction. Each member
should realize his responsibility to the
the whole. Be warned against reflecting
local and sectional jealousies
and try to think in terms of
world values and economies. Other
contributions were the impressive
reading from Page 133 of “Bahá’í
Administration”; the duty of sustained
effort in teaching; striving
for a unity, not of inaction or indifference,
but one of principle
and activity. Differences of detail
may not be harmful. As Bahá’ís
are chosen instruments of God, they
cannot rid themselves of each other.
To do so will only be postponing a
test which later must be met. As
far as possible, put everybody to
work. Attract new people with advanced
ideas. Keep out of ruts.
Youth
Robert L. Gulick, Jr., reported the Youth Banquet to the Convention. Those attending were from thirty–eight states, five provinces, Persia and a number of Latin American countries. A Nipponese youth was also among them. Eloquent pleas were made for their encouragement. Out of a bevy of the Persian youth recently come to this country for education, five attended the Convention. They were introduced by Ali Kuli Khan as scions of some of the noblest families, some of their ancestors having been martyrs in the Faith. They were most cordially received and Hushang Javid, their spokesman said: “Alláh-u-Abhá! It gives us great happiness to be here among our sisters and brothers of all this hemisphere. When we left Ṭihrán we were asked to be bearers of loving greeting from the Bahá’ís of our home city, and felicitations on the completion of the Seven Year Plan and the historic Temple. You have worked long and hard for this and we hope from now on to join hands with the Bahá’ís the world over in completion of the next step in the progress of the Cause of God.”
Radio
Mrs. Mildred Mottahedeh spoke for the Radio Committee, perhaps referred to the in prophecies as “the angel pouring his spirit upon the air.” This work is proving a very effective way both of advertising the Cause and attracting attendance at meetings in various cities. Advice against the controversial was given and a wise and dignified approach recommended. Also the advice of the Guardian to use the word “Bahá’í” as often as possible so that the public will get used to it and know that the Faith exists.
Do not follow the hours and times used by the churches, a custom now growing very unpopular. Many stations have cut them off entirely. Impress with something new and different. It is encouraging to know that two radio stations have recently asked for Bahá’í scripts. New York stations are becoming increasingly cooperative. It is estimated that millions of people have listened to the Centenary broadcasts. About seventy-five broadcasts have been reported to-date in forty-four states. All scripts should be sent for approval to the National Radio Committee. Illustrative charts showed the vast ramifications of this service, the most universal way of presenting the Teachings. There were two broadcasts during the Convention week, one of which, on the oneness of humanity, was from the Temple and the other from the Hotel Stevens at the final banquet, when several very interesting speakers joined in.
Contacts
Marguerite True reported to this committee, which contacts people who are good prospects, by letter and pamphlet literature. Names are suggested to the Committee by its members, the National Spiritual Assembly, College Speakers’ Bureau, the National Teaching Committee, local Assemblies and individuals. A variety of prominent people are thus accosted. People in the armed forces, both men and women, are thus included. Many show a growing interest and express thanks for literature. Dr. Lenore Morris told an interesting story about a contact with the daughter of the late President Wilson who was much interested in a Tablet pertaining to her father.
China
Hilda Yen, aviatrix and lecturer, a distinguished Chinese lady, sought opportunity to join the Faith during the Convention, and in view of her constant travels was given the status of isolated believer. She was by vote invited to address the Convention. She said in part: “Fellow Bahá’ís, this is more than a pleasure. It is a miracle that I am participating with you in discussing such important matters. I contacted two denominations and a parliament of religions before I met Julia Goldman, Bahá’í, who sowed this seed in my heart. While convalescent from a flying crash, my life was given me for service to God. Julia took me under her wing. I saw God vaguely; then more clearly, through the Bahá’í Faith. Then came the battle of Hongkong where all shared in a common danger and hunger—forced to live the oneness of mankind. At length I secured a priority to fly to America and how do I rejoice to be in this free country! Conferring with Americans I have found this country the best to execute the message of peace. I have been blessed in meeting other Bahá’ís. I have been deeply impressed by the love and affection among Bahá’ís. China is well prepared by its sages for the Bahá’í Faith. My country has had seven years of suffering At times we have been so starved as to be forced to eat human flesh. We are more than ready for the greater peace. We struggle to end all tyranny and oppression.” She concluded by reading some wonderful words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá about the Chinese people, their spiritual capacity, their freedom from hypocrisy; also expressed the hope that great souls would rise to convey to them the Great Message. “God speed your work, fellow American Bahá’ís.”
The Convention listened with deepest interest to our Chinese sister, whom perhaps God has raised up to enlighten and save a great harvest of souls.
Out of two hundred peace plans read, she found the Bahá’í Plan the best. She is eager to teach and obtained counsel as to a wise procedure. She also exchanged messages with the Guardian during the Convention period.
Schools
The printed program of Green Acre, outlining an eight weeks’ session beginning July 10, and extending to September 3, was circulated, with invitations to all who can attend.
Louhelen announced its tentative program with its special appeal to youth.
Geyserville plans to put special emphasis upon the study of the Guardian’s latest book, “God Passes By.”
The International School will serve those who wish to enroll for foreign teaching service. It has a well prepared program of teaching and entertainment for ten days in June.
Education will be a part of the Canadian Conference, with Dr. Edris Rice-Wray and Harry Ford as teachers. It is to be held at Rice Lake, Ontario.
The Child Education Committee announced a new book now available on this very important subject.
The Braille Committee gave an interesting account of progress in teaching those physically sightless.
Several young Bahá’ís appeared in uniform, and one of them, T. Lane Skelton of Louisiana, made an earnest plea for teachings to the armed forces.
Publicity
Clarence Niss, for this Committee, mentioned reams for the press; news into rotogravure sections from glossy prints; also many clippings sent the Guardian. Articles have also appeared in the National Geographic Magazine. No statistics are yet available as to the actual number of Bahá’ís in the world. More local work to supplement the National publicity was urged. The “Pattern for Future Society” and similar publications are suggested as most appealing for publicity releases.
Race Unity
The past year has recorded the most progress in race unity since this movement began. It has been growing very perceptibly in the outer world since the great war began, which the Guardian states “is at once a visitation from God and a cleansing process for all mankind. Its fires punish the perversity of the human race, and weld its component parts into one organic, indivisible, world-embracing community.” This affects all human relations as the outward world unconsciously obeys the mandate of God. It is amazing to note what great changes have come in a brief time.
In the Cause itself, where there is conscious knowledge through the attraction of hearts, this has been the banner year. Fifty-seven centers sent reports of race unity meetings in response to the appeal of the National Spiritual Assembly. Work was reported in the colleges, among the American Indians, in the minority press, and in contacts with the Eskimos both in Alaska and Seattle. In the latter, a young Eskimo has recently received a letter from Shoghi Effendi.
Miss Janet Whitenack gave an interesting report of contact with the Eskimos in Alaska. The work of the Chairman, George Washington, Elsie Austin and others in colleges of both races, has been especially outstanding. Of the highest value has been the preparation of the book, “Race and Man,” which is a treasury of scientific and spiritual values, compiled by the research, devotion and spiritual insight of Maye Harvey Gift and Alice Simmons Cox. Its perusal shatters idol worship and its circulation is making many friends for the Cause.
Perhaps more time might have been spent upon a theme so inseparably connected with the nation’s destiny. But in reflection, the Convention itself was the greatest demonstration of race unity that history records, with so many traditionally discordant elements melted into oneness by the attracting power of the love of God. It was also the sign of the unity of religions and none the less, an index of world unity.
Inspiring Messages From Afar
One of the brightest features of the Convention is the spirit of unity which connects those by distance sundered far. The National Secretary sent the following message to the National Spiritual Assemblies of Persia, ‘Iráq, Egypt, Britain, India, and Australia: “American Bahá’ís send joyous felicitations century celebration (of) Declaration (of the) Báb (and) birth (of) ‘Abdu’l-Bahá (and) dedication (of the) House of Worship. Fervently striving (to) assist universal expansion (of) Divine Faith (of) Bahá’u’lláh second century.”
A similar message was sent all Latin American Bahá’í centers, expressing the hope of realizing All American Bahá’í unity.
Responses came from the National Spiritual Assemblies of Australia and New Zealand, Great Britain, Egypt-Sudan, ‘Iráq and India. The longest of these replies was from ‘Iráq, occupying three pages and in eloquent terms, stating admiration for the glorious achievements of the American Bahá’ís with fervent hopes that theirs (the Americans’) would be the means of spreading the Great Message throughout the earth.
The message from Great Britian stated that the British Bahá’ís were the only ones in Europe openly celebrate these joyous days.
Costa Rica, San Salvador, Guatemala, Peru, Brazil, Chile, British Columbia, Seattle, Santa Rosa, California; Boise, Idaho; Honolulu, T. H.; Anchorage, Alaska; Carmel, California; San Francisco, California; Miami, Florida, joined the chorus.
The message from Africa, to wit, Cairo, Egypt, which wonderfully conveys the spirit and even in part the letter of all these happy messages, follows: “In this blessed Centenary, terminating century of Bahá’u’lláh, believers of Egypt-Sudan sends warmest congratulatory greetings. Verily, first Bahá’í century records far-reaching activities in spreading (the) Faith of Bahá’u’lláh (the) world over, enhancing its prestige. Your standard of activities, sacrifices for its consolidation, and institutions crowned by completion of glorious Temple renders America, once blessed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, indeed (the) world hope and (it) will remain (the) guidance to future generations.”
From the Board of Trade, Chicago, came a cordial invitation to delegates and friends to see Chicago from its observation tower.
Convention Closing
The Convention toward its closing
seemed to resolve itself into a greater
appreciation league as joyousness
beamed from the faces of friends
and tongues waxed eloquent in expressions
of heartfelt gratitude to
God and His loved ones who had
been so unsparing of themselves in
efforts to serve. Praise and thanksgiving
were like a mighty chorus.
For a full week where we not uplifted
to the heaven of God given
happiness, the only joy that is real,
with little or no sense of weariness
of our bodies? Then it was necessary
to be let down again to earth
with its stern exactions and duties
and a greater responsibility to
share divine treasures with others.
The Bahá’í World community is like[Page 8]
an oasis, capable of spreading its
verdure and beauty in the vast desert
of human hearts. The plan for
this week was perfect due to the
inspiration and directions from
Haifa. Their brilliant execution by
all who cooperated, may in some
details have been different. But who,
except one knowing all, can say better?
The success of any Bahá’í
is the joy of every Bahá’í, while the
failure of one (perish the thought of
failure!) can be both a cause of
grief to all.
The Convention closed with the prayer written by the Guardian many years ago and by his request to be said for him:
“O God! I pray that from now on, Thou, the Beloved, may bestow upon Shoghi Effendi, all the strength and vigor that will enable him to pursue, over a long and unbroken period of strenuous labor, the supreme task of achieving in collaboration with the friends in every land, the speedy triumph of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh.”
The Convention resolutions will appear in Bahá’í News, supplemented with the actions of the National body. The public addresses will be published and the public meetings covered by a far abler pen. In bringing this sketchy narrative to a close, we are humbly apologetic for its sheer inadequacy—at best a feeble and flickering reflection only, of the great Light of Unity whose vibrations made hearts rejoice. All who spoke did so wisely, as each expression was related to some ideal or activity of the Faith. There are, however, degrees in wisdom; yet for loyalty, to all be praise. No less to the majority of the delegates, numbered amongst whom were not wanting many with rare gifts and graces, both of speech and action, who yet chose silence save expressions by vote. Some awoke early to pray. Two at least spent the entire night of the Báb’s memorial in prayer. A tribute must go also to the still greater number of loyal friends who followed with eager interest all that passed. A thought too for those held by enforced absence and who at a distance observed in reverance the wonders of the week. And last but not least, an homage to that ethereal host of invisible heroes, the Dawn-Breakers of the East and the Trail-Blazers of the West, whose deeds and traces laid an imperishable foundation for this monumental triumph. The Manifestation says: “Your names are more famous in the supreme Kingdom than are well-known to your own selves.”
In His Tablet to Ra’is, Minister to the Sultán, Bahá’u’lláh also says: “The beloved of God are those in whom the Word of God taketh effect and who tasteth the sweetness of commemoration, and upon whom the fragrance of unity hath taken hold in such wise that they separate themselves from whosoever is upon the earth and advance to the Face with brilliant countenances; and though they have committed that which God never permitted, yet God pardoneth them as a favor on His part. Verily He is the Pardoner, the Merciful. The attraction of the Most Powerful hath overpowered them in such wise that it seized from their hands the reins of option, until they ascended into the station of presence and disclosure before God, the Precious, the Wise.”
Community of the Greatest Name
Three meetings were planned on the Centenary program for the Community of the Greatest Name. The first bore the above caption and its idea was to bring the intimate matters of the Faith close to the hearts of the friends.
Roy C. Wilhelm was chairman and in his happy vein introduced this historic occasion. Readings were the Will and Testament of Bahá’u’lláh, the Will and Testament of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and writings of the Guardian. Those who read were Mrs. Ella G. Cooper, Mrs. Emogene Hoagg, Alfred Osborne, Siegfried Schopflocher, Eli Powlas, Ali Kuli Khan, N. D., and Esteban C. Leyton.
An inspiring address was made by Mme. Laura Dreyfus-Barney, one of the very early Bahá’ís, who spent two years, 1902 to 1904, in ‘Akká at the time that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was still a prisoner under the despotic Turkish government and received from Him, and translated into English, the Teachings in the volume called “Some Answered Questions.” She expressed pleasure over the signs of progress.
Edwin W. Mattoon, Chairman of the National Archives Committee, made and described exhibits of photographs of the Wills and Testaments of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá with Tablets and records from the Archives, beautifully displayed and very attractive. The moving picture film of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and another of Holy places in Palestine were presented by Albert Windust, whose historical address, dealing with the evolution of the Faith from the time it first reached America, was one of most absorbing interest and great value. It is hoped that this address will be published for general circulation. It was given by one of very, very few people who could have given such information. It dealt with Chicago, Kenosha, Wisconsin, in the very early days, and later New York and Washington, D. C., which the Cause reached; paid a tribute to the early Bahá’ís who won imperishable renown for their sacrificial work of translating the Tablets, teaching, publication of literature, etc., and who bore bravely the tests and were victorious through the mighty confirmations of pioneer days.
Edna M. True in fitting words paid a tribute to those who were believers prior to 1912 and presented all who were present with a Centenary souvenir containing a photograph of the Master and a picture of the Temple.
This meeting was extended to the Sunday evening following, when a number of the relics in the National Archives were shown. These included a piece of tile from the pillar on which the Báb was suspended in Tabríz at the time of His martyrdom; the Locks of Hair of Bahá’u’lláh presented to the American believers by Shoghi Effendi, a coat of Bahá’u’lláh and a piece of wood from the frame of the window of His room in the prison of ‘Akká, and an ‘abá and fez of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, rosary and a scarf used by the Greatest Holy Leaf.
The framed Tablets of the Divine Plan and the illuminated Tablet to the House of Justice in Chicago were hanging on the walls of the Foundation Hall during this meeting.
The film of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in New
York and the color films of the
Shrines and gardens at Bahjí and
on Mount Carmel were shown again
for the benefit of many who had
been unable to see them on the previous
evening.[Page 9]
Mrs. Amelia Collins, who was entrusted
with bringing the Locks of
Hair of Bahá’u’lláh from the Holy
Land to Wilmette, spoke upon the
significance of this gift.
Mr. Charles Mason Remey presented a silver reliquary to the Archives, containing hair and some particles of dried blood of Bahá’u’lláh.
Temple Dedication
This meeting was held on the main floor of the Temple on Monday, May 22, at 9:40 P.M. It consisted entirely of prayers and readings from words of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. This program follows:
“All praise, O my God, be to Thee . . .”—Baha’u’llah.
Reading: Anthony Seto
“O concourse of creation! O people! Construct
- edifices. . . in every city. . .
- in the Name of the Lord of Religion
- . . .”—Bahá’u’lláh.
“The century is great and the age belongeth to His Majesty, the Merciful . . .”‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
Reading: Edvard Lindstrom
- “O friends of ‘Abdu’l-Baha and His
- co-sharers and partners . . .—‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
Reading: Harlan F. Ober.
“It is the power of God, the Divine Favor
- of Bahá’u’lláh which has drawn you
- together. . .”—‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
Reading: Paul E. Haney.
- “Many a chilled heart, O my God, hath
- been set ablaze. . .”—Bahá’u’lláh.
Reading: Charlotte Linfoot.
Commemoration of the Declaration of the Báb
This most holy service, the most impressive of the whole Convention period, was set for two hours and eleven minutes after sunset, May 22, 1944, exactly a century after the Bab’s Declaration. The program follows:
- “Say: God sufficeth all things above all
- things. . .”—The Báb.
- “The heavens declare the glory of God;
- and the firmament sheweth His handiwork
- . . .”—Psalm of David.
“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
- is the kingdom of heaven. . .”—Jesus.
Readings: Olivia Kelsey.
- “God is the Light of the heavens and of
- the earth. . .”—Muhammad.
Reading: Louis G. Gregory
- “This night, this very hour will, in the
- days to come.” The Báb.
- “I am the Mystic Fane which the Hand
- of Omnipotence hath reared. . .”—The
- Báb.
- “I am the Primal Point from which have
- been generated all created things
- . . .”—The Báb.
Readings: Albert R. Windust.
- “This is . . . the anniversary of the
- Message and Declaration of His Holiness
- the Báb. . .”—‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
Reading: Honor Kempton.
- “Praise be to Thee, O my God, that
- Thou has revealed Thy favors and Thy
- bounties. . .”—Bahá’u’lláh.
Reading: Mary A. McClennen.
This night, this very hour, will, in the days to come, be celebrated as one of the greatest and most significant of all festivals. Render thanks to God for having graciously assisted you to attain your heart’s desire, and for having quaffed from the sealed wine of His utterance. —The Bab LOUIS G. GREGORY
Flood-Lighting The Temple[edit]
The Bahá’í House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois, has frequently been referred to as the Temple of Light. This descriptive appellation may have been inspired by the lacy stone ornamental surfaces which reflect the sun rays in an ever changing pattern, or the effect of the light within the structure, which is unique because the perforations in the outer envelope of stone permit the infiltration of the sunlight.
The unique beauty of the structure itself, standing above its surroundings, the inspiring sweep of the lines that delineate its majestic form, the general theme of its graceful forms that conceal its size, but which stagger up to massive proportions, call forth from all who see it, expressions of awe and wonder. It is so utterly unlike the common concept of a building as to, at first, seem almost unreal, yet it exerts a singular power of attraction that draws to its portals a steady stream of visitors who seek almost involuntarily to enter and to learn its meaning.
The simile of light and truth has always been a part of the human expression of religious concepts. The Teachings of the Prophets, the great Founders of the world religions, were commonly called the Light of God. The use of light combined with the structural elements of the Bahá’í House of Worship was a basic concept of its designer, hence the ornamental form which, because of the deep carving of the surface, reveals the ornament in deep relief, so that the ever changing play of light and shadow creates a form poem of singular charm and impressive beauty.
As the sunlight moves over its surfaces from dawn to sunset, and as it stands silhouetted against the ever changing sky and the cloud pattern, it inspires ever new feelings of wonderment and awe. Not, however, until at the time of the celebration of the one hundredth anniversary of the foundation of the Faith, when the trustees undertook to make the first experiment with artificial lighting of the exterior of the building, was the truly exquisite ethereal character of the whole structure revealed. The lighting installations were only temporary and therefore in no sense perfect. The equipment used was only roughly adapted to the purpose, yet the effect was simply astounding. A feeling of unreality, of a building that was not of the earth, but which seemed to be a vision, overpowered everyone. It arrested the step of every person, no one could walk past without stopping again and again to gaze at it. The entire form glowed as though made of luminous material and there was a feeling of vibration that seemed to make it alive.
The very fact that this effect could be obtained from the equipment so inadequate gives promise of a future development that may in itself become more significant. In this experiment, it was found impossible to actually illuminate the dome of the structure. This was due partly to the nature of the equipment found available in this war period and to the curve of the surfaces of the dome. There is every reason to believe that this will not prove to be an unsolvable problem and one may be assured that in the not too far distant future the fully illumined House of Worship will stand in the night as well as in the day time, a powerful beacon to guide mankind toward the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.
IMPRESSIONS OF THE CENTENARY[edit]
May 19
We went out early to the Temple, to register and then pray upstairs under the Dome. The Bahá’ís in the Temple area were handling the Convention crowds with the greatest of ease — an ease which meant that months of planning lay behind the Centenary week. The first thing we did was fill out printed cards with our names, our home addresses, our addresses during the Convention.
The cards of Centenary Committee members sported long red badges with gold lettering, and those of delegates long blue badges. (It was a pleasure always to know whom you were addressing—an old friend, or a pioneer you had often read about but never visualized, or a cherished fellow committee member you had met only by mail. As one who has lived in forced hypocrisy all through life, because of an inability to remember names, I found the Convention a great relief in this respect.)
When we had registered, a friend and I climbed upstairs under the Dome. It was like walking up into the next life. Whatever may be going on downstairs in Foundation Hall, or out along the highways, or in Chicago, or the world, it is always the same up under the Dome. The interior of the Dome section is not finished. I felt suddenly glad to live in a time when it is not finished; to see it this way—perhaps to work with others around the planet to finish it. There it was over us, all in bare, dove-grays; the perfect curve and arch of lines, the bone structure, all the more visible for being unembellished. We leaned our heads back and looked, seemingly a mile up, to the center of the Dome. I was glad there would never be any preaching here, to drown out what the Temple is saying. Light sunlight drifted in, mitigated by the tracery outside the glass. Bird shadows flickered. The gold Greatest Name, above the archway that points across Lake Michigan to ‘Akká, gleamed in the gray light.
We saw where sound experts had rigged up loudspeakers and strung wires across, to bring the voices up from Foundation Hall. A thousand chairs had been set out, looking like a small, intimate circle in the vastness. I opened my Arabic prayer book and chanted the Anta’l-Káfí, the virtually untranslatable prayer with the refrain: Thou art the Sufficer, Thou art the Healer, Thou art the Abider, O Thou Abiding One. Afterward, thinking of the time and the moment, I wondered whether this particular prayer had ever been chanted in the Temple before.
We went downstairs and what struck me in the setting here was the blending of East and West: there were many light Persian rugs around, in floral patterns; I saw three covering the speakers’ table, and another under it. A great rug hung from the wall to either side of the platform, others covered the subsidiary tables flanking the central one. Across the Hall, against an antique Persian cotton print, the Master’s profile portrait gleamed like ivory.
Foundation Hall had been completely renovated for the Convention, the rugs mothproofed, the walls and arched ceiling painted a light cream. Sunlight moves down from the glass opening in the ceiling; the carpeting is gray; the long drapes back of the speakers’ table are a mauve-beige, very soothing. I saw a microphone on the speakers’ reading stand, and another placed before the platform, for the delegates to use. To either side of the platform were potted palms and ferns, reaching perhaps ten feet high.
There we all were—Persia with her dreaming flower weaves and America with her microphones, everything there, sheltered below the Dome together. And very easily and naturally, like a ship traveling down the ways, the Convention began.
Something which I associate with that first day is the great Convention Register, the gift of Mr. Charles Mason Remey. The Register, bound by W. E. Jackson of Providence, R. I., is made in rag ledger paper. Opening the book I was dazzled by Mr. Remey’s rich illuminations: the gold and lavender borders of the pages, the pale rose crosses in circles, the pale rose stars, the gold and lavender nines. No wonder that our hands shook, later on during the Convention, when we went to the table where the Register was watched over by one of the Bahá’ís, and wrote our names and addresses in it with the black indelible ink Mr. Remey had provided. The feeling was general that we signed gratefully, but wondering why our names happened to be included there instead of other names—those of our fellows who had not been able to come.
Mr. Remey also told me, that first day, of another gift he was presenting to the National Archives, to be theirs until a future time, when a Mashriqu’l-Adhkár will be built in Washington, D.C.: he was bringing them relics of Bahá’u’lláh, given him twenty-two years ago in Haifa by the Guardian. These are now, he said, in a temporary silver reliquary, but another is being designed to hold them — a little engraved chasse, made of gold from his departed wife’s jewels and accessories, from her purses and necklaces.
This evening, when the first public meeting of the Convention was held, I was not able to be present; the National Radio Committee had arranged a broadcast involving Mr. George Latimer, Sr. Octavio Illescas and myself, over Chicago’s local NBC outlet. I managed, however, to stay with Foundation Hall long enough to hear the address of welcome given by Mr. Harry C. Kinne, President of the Wilmette Village Board. Mr. Kinne said among other things: I wouldn’t like to be a public official in a city where churches were non–existent ....When people ask me Where’s Wilmette? I tell them: if you want to locate Wilmette, just locate the Bahá’í Temple. There’s where Wilmette is....
Mr. Kinne added: You good people are welcome. Please feel welcome. And if you violate any little regulations or ordinances, please see Mr. Wolff (The Village Manager) or myself (laughter) and we’ll pardon you
Bahá’í Anniversary Banquet, Hotel Stevens, Chicago, Illinois, May 25, 1944 50th Anniversary of Founding of Bahá’í Faith in Western World
Banquet Hall East View
—because we know you wouldn’t do anything but what you’d think would be all right.
The President was much applauded and naturally we all resolved to live on our best behavior, at least during Convention week in Wilmette.
Robert Gulick was good enough to give me the notes he made of this session, as follows: The familiar melodies and harmonies of the Cesar Franck Symphony in D Minor recalled the words of Bahá’u’lláh that music is a ladder which the soul may ascend to heaven. The theme of the evening was “The Universal House of Worship.” “Achieved Is the Glorious Work” from Haydn’s “Creation” served as a fitting prelude to this time of jubilee.
Allen B. McDaniel, a member of the National Spiritual Assembly, was one of the engineers closely associated with the construction of the Temple and it was evident that he was technically as well as this spiritually qualified to preside at this Centennial gathering. As ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s supplication for blessings upon the builders of this unique structure were reverently read, the thoughts of hundreds of Bahá’ís went back to the patient and sacrificial endeavors of the architect, Louis Bourgeois, and to the thousands of friends throughout the world who gladly gave up their goods that the Temple might arise.
Foundation Hall was occupied largely by guests and older Bahá’ís while the rest ascended the stairs to the first floor. It was an impressive sight to view the world at twilight from this sacred spot. Each door and window opened on tree tops painted in the pale green of spring. The Temple impressed itself on the souls present as a sanctuary from the turmoil of a troubled world walking in darkness because it has lost touch with God, and as the best promise of a united world. God’s Holy Ark, gracing the shore of Lake Michigan, resting on a firm foundation that no tempest can shake, immune to the whisperings of the followers of the false gods of racialism and nationalism.
Harry C. Kinne, President of the Wilmette Village Board, acclaimed the greatness of the Temple and mentioned the esteem in which the Bahá’ís are held locally. Later the chairman remarked on the significance of the change from the time when the Temple was called “that thing” until the present when, in the phraseology of the Village Board, it has become “our Temple”.
Mrs. Corinne True, who during the uphill struggles of the early years never allowed despondency to interfere with her resolve to expedite work on the House of Worship, gave an address based on the words of the Master, “The most important matter is to found a Temple.”
The flood lights enhance the beauty of the ornamentation. When the lights come on in the Dome, the interior changes to a fascinating, intricate pattern of glass and steel. Surely this Temple of Light, this lacy shelter covering the heart of the continent, will have an increasingly ennobling effect on American civilization. “The real Temple is the Word of God.” This holy House of Worship is the point of radiation of the unifying light of God’s Word. The Gothic tracery with its stars and crosses and symbols of many faiths, glistening in almost incandescent
Bahá’í Anniversary Banquet, Hotel Stevens, Chicago, Illinois, May 25, 1944 50th Anniversary of Founding of Bahá’í Faith in Western World
Banquet Hall West View
splendor, bears luminous testimony that “This is the changeless Faith of God, eternal in the past, eternal in the future.”
The drama of the Temple, described by one of its leading actors, seemed too great for any human being to unfold: the humble, unheralded efforts of a numerically insignificant group to erect a truly universal house of prayer. Profound emotion underlined the words of the speaker, Mrs. True, who was from the beginning in the vanguard of the struggle to establish a sanctified place where sincere souls of all races, classes, and creeds might worship in complete freedom the one God.
The guest speaker, Earl Reed, explained some of the technical features of the building, indicating that new methods and materials had to be discovered in order to carry out the ideas of the inspired architect. As an example of attention to detail, he mentioned the excellence of concrete casting to be noted in the steps which are placed a half inch apart for drainage purposes and to allow for expansion. We heard of the humble shopkeeper of India who gave his sleeping-mat for the Temple fund, a Bahá’í successor of that widow who sacrificed her mite for the spread of Christianity.
In this structure, functionalism supplements the organic unification of past architectural styles. The sky has disappeared from view and the stone lace has become snowy-white and fairy-like. The intertwined forms portray cosmic unity. Those unfamiliar with the world’s religious history are startled to find the Cross, the Star of David, and the Swastika in harmonious association.
The fine, shining wires of the sound amplifying system looked like harp strings waiting to hum with the music of the spheres.
I would like to add here that we experienced the greatest cordiality from the citizens of Wilmette, the surrounding area and even in Chicago. They were friendly to us simply because we were Bahá’ís. Many homes were opened to Convention visitors, stores displayed Bahá’í books and Centenary placards and worked long hours taking care of the crowds. The press was generous.
May 20
Today I noticed that the Greatest Name, framed in black, had been suspended against the drapes behind the speakers’ platform. The flowers had been changed, and this happened all through the sessions; today there were two great bowls of them on the main table: yellow daisies, purple lilacs, pink and orange snapdragons. The atmosphere of ease, of something preordained and running almost by magic, continued today and throughout the entire Convention. So far as I could discover, no serious mishaps or hardships were experienced by any of those who attended. That one week will always be something set apart in memory; it will be a time when for once life was out of our hands and ran smoothly.
This evening the prize seats—the
section immediately facing the center
table—were roped off. Gradually
they filled with Bahá’ís who had been
in the Faith prior to 1912. (I noticed,
however, that some of the younger
ones who were Bahá’ís at that early
date felt the urge to sit elsewhere).
We knew these early believers were
to receive a special surprise and
that a moving picture would be
made of them. This session was primarily
for Bahá’ís, and Foundation
Hall was jammed; it was a case of
Standing Room Only, with the[Page 13]
Bahá’í ushers polite but firm. At 8:00
o’clock there was already an overflow
of some hundred and twenty–five
persons up under the Dome, who
could hear, but unfortunately not
see, the proceedings. I might say in
passing that the Convention sessions
started promptly, and the traditional
American Bahá’í practice of arriving
late had to be abandoned throughout.
This was the session, which the Committee members referred to among themselves as “Old Home Evening”. There was something special about those people in the front section; those heads grown white in the Faith. Those who, however the current generation, pushing on this second century to the rims of the planet, may overshadow them—reared the Faith in America; visited the Master in His prison; gathered to serve Him when He came to the West; built this Dome above us.
Like all Bahá’í audiences, this one was in constant motion, and far from silent. The recorded musical program—selections from Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony, followed by Richard Crooks singing “The Holy City”—was coming over beautifully.
Mr. Roy Wilhelm was in the chair this evening and his first words were the Master’s: “Are you happy? You must be so happy that your face will shine.”
Mr. George Latimer welcomed everyone on behalf of the Convention. He said; This is truly a gathering of the Community of the Most Great Name, and I am sure that the reinforcing spirit of our beloved Master is here with us tonight.
Miss Edna True, chairman of the Centenary Committee, spoke to us about the changes that have taken place since the Faith first came to this hemisphere. She said: In the beginning only those souls with the keenest perception could discern the very slight glimmerings of the dawn of the sun of Bahá’u’lláh. They, a mere handful of consecrated souls, initiated most of those things which we count today as our greatest Bahá’í blessings. Many here can remember when Mary Lesch literally carried the Publishing Society around in her ample handbag... Miss True then announced that a Centennial remembrance would be presented to every Bahá’í who had been in the Faith before 1912. Quietly, girl ushers began to distribute the large brown paper, envelopes, and everyone not in the roped-off section craned to see what they were—two handsomely mounted photographs, the one on the right a camera portrait of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, that on the left a study of the Temple, the two set in a gray folder bearing the inscription: “Bahá’í Centenary, 1844-1944,” in blue.
Mr. Wilhelm, again in the chair, drew laughter, especially from the reserved section, with his reference to a newly-fledged preacher who had delivered a sermon on “the old ancient relics of antiquity”. He went on to describe the progress of the Faith around the world, and paid a tribute to the historic services of M. and Mme. Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney: Hippolyte has now crossed the big river...‘Abdu’l-Bahá said, could we have even a glimpse of even the next step we could scarcely be kept in this world...I now present you all to Laura Dreyfus-Barney.
Mme Barney spoke with her usual concentrated calm. Completely bilingual, she has a slight trace of French accent. She said: Two months ago I was hesitating whether or not to attend the Convention. I felt this to be a moment of rejoicing, and I so attuned to the war-torn world, because I have been so much in Europe and the Far East, that I would bring a note of sadness which should not appear here. But Shoghi Effendi wrote me that he wished me to come to this Centenary gathering. So here I am, in full appreciation of what has been done. I felt I should pay tribute here to the strength that is growing from the Americas. Though not an accredited delegate, I feel I can speak for France and Switzerland and the other countries, and greet you, and say they are expecting much from this part of the world.
We don’t know what has happened to many of our friends—Lydia Zamenhof and many others—or how much Bahá’í literature remains in Europe—but we do know we can prepare to serve them. The second century opens up a vast field—the field that has been trampled in all directions by this war...
Of the book Some Answered Questions, Mme. Barney told us: Some Answered Questions, I feel, is everybody’s book. When I saw the Master—a Prisoner in ‘Akká, cut away from much of -the world—and saw how He dictated to His scribes, I asked Him, whether it would be feasible to have some talks written down when He honored us by coming to take a meal with us, or sometimes in the early morning when we were having tea...We never knew when we were going to have these talks. It was after a heavy day of visiting the poor or attending to some very difficult and complicated business that He would come, and sit, and rest; and it was the thought of you all, and the thought that perhaps it would save Him the cost of many Tablets, that gave me the courage-to ask, when I wanted to remain silent.
The people that wrote it down were the sons–in–law or the secretaries, Munír or Núr-i-Dín. It would be written very rapidly and copied out. Again, I had to watch for opportunities when He wasn’t too tired or going away for something else— for when He was rested, away He went; and then He would complete them—sometimes three lines—sometimes one word. And when they were as He wished them to be, He would put on His seal—Ayn–Ayn—so that Some Answered Questions is the same as a Tablet.
They say women are marvelous smugglers; to get the book out of ‘Akká, I asked the secretaries to copy the set twice; they did; I smuggled it out and brought it to Paris. Hippolyte Dreyfus was so very helpful; it was in translating Some Answered Questions that we came to understand how well we worked together . . . Whenever I went back to ‘Akká I would ask a little more, add a new subject. The Master had that wonderful patience in trying to get a few words over; He would use the Persian words that we understood, over and over. A Persian scholar helped with the English translation. Hippolyte Dreyfus did the French.
I never felt quite at ease while
the original manuscript remained in
Paris, but I didn’t do much about it
because my logic didn’t tell me
which way I was to go. Then a
Persian woman was returning to see
her family in the East; I said: Will
you take these to Shoghi Effendi?
I included, with the manuscript, all
my Tablets and Mrs. Tewkesbury
Jackson’s too, so that all these documents
are in Shoghi Effendi’s hands.
I wonder if it isn’t that deeper sense
of Guardianship that makes us turn[Page 14]
to him when we don’t know quite
what to do. . .
In Paris the Master liked to walk in the gardens of the Trocadero. When in 1937 there was a magnificent exhibition there—with all the flags of the world floating in the wind—I couldn’t help seeing Him as He had walked three years before...
He wanted us to go to Persia. We went—a little group. I was most anxious to visit Máh-Kú, that slab of rock; it seemed absolutely cut away from the rest of the world. . .
We are faced with a magnificent future. . . We, the American hemisphere, are preparing ourselves to aid this rest of the world—that we will find ill—poverty–stricken—but hopeful.
Mrs. Ella Goodall Cooper now came to the platform. She said: Dear friends, this is almost too much happiness—to come here and find an old–fashioned meeting. . . The old–timers knew what Mrs. Cooper meant; for once, instead of the dust and heat of labor, of nonstop effort to establish the Faith, of distance stretching thousands of miles between friends, the Bahá’ís could pause and be together in the old time way.
Everything was very easy and natural, as if we were already together in the world to come. I looked across the many-colored audience, and saw all the strains: Negro—American Indian—Semitic—Persian —Far Eastern—Nordic—all tossed together, and beyond them, across the Hall, the Master’s profile portrait, cameo–white.
Mrs. Emogene Hoagg, California’s first Bahá’í, now read from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s words on the power of the Covenant; Emogene Hoagg, not at all bowed down by her years of endless services—among the most notable being her typing of the Dawn Breakers at the Guardian’s direction. Ali-Kuli Khan, sent here by the Master in 1901 as the interpreter to Mírzá Abu’l-Fadl, read next; Mr. Siegfried Schopflocher, the distinguished Canadian Bahá’í, Mr. Alfred Osborne, Panama’s envoy to the Convention, Mr. Eli Powlas, the much applauded young American Indian, and Cuba’s popular delegate, Sr. Eugenio Gines, where the other readers tonight.
Mr. Edwin Mattoon spoke briefly of the precious Tablets and relics belonging to the National Archives and now on exhibit in Foundation Hall. Then the lights were dimmed, and all at once in the darkness, very close at hand, we heard the voice of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. As we listened to the recording, the moving picture film of the Master was projected on a screen run up by technicians in front of the speakers’ platform, and Mr. Albert Windust guided us through the scenes with a few words of explanation.
The “Old Home” session ended with a showing of the new films sent by the Guardian especially for this event: technicolor views of Bahá’í holy places in Palestine, so lovely that one showing was not enough and they were presented again the next evening.
May 21
Arriving at the Sunday afternoon meeting I found that as usual, seating priorities had been accorded to non-Bahá’ís—this being standard Bahá’í practice—and the Bahá’ís were being requested to go upstairs and take seats under the Dome. The great Hall was already jammed. The ushers; members of many different races, were doing an efficient job of being firm with their fellow-believers, who are rapidly learning that it’s no use trying to sneak past them.
Glancing over the audience, I thought it was the sort of gathering that would please ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, because so Many varieties of the human race were represented. The atmosphere was extraordinarily happy and the Bach recordings were coming over well. I was there only on sufferance, having used the plea that I had to take notes on the meeting.
Then the speakers mounted the platform: Mr. Kenneth Christian, and Mrs. Charles Bishop. Mr. Philip Sprague was in the chair. Welcoming the audience, he told them: This is a particularly happy time for those of us who call ourselves Bahá’ís, because we are celebrating the one hundredth anniversary of our Faith and the completion of what the Guardian of our Faith called the Seven Year Plan—a goal which had to be reached by the close of the first century.
You will be able to read elsewhere the things that they said from the platform today. Mr. Christian showed how, at a time when the world was concerned with local problems, local needs, local aspirations, Bahá’u’lláh, an Exile and Prisoner, raised the banner of world unity and world justice, restated the spiritual obligations of man to God, inseparably joined the spiritual and the practical aspects of life. “God moves in human history. His hand is above all things. A new order founded on the oneness of humanity is taking shape under the guidance and protection of God.” Mr. Christian closed with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s words, twice repeated: “Behold the portals which Bahá’u’lláh hath opened unto you!”
Mrs. Bishop told the audience that if they were convinced all knowledge belongs to the past, and that God is unable to speak today, then it would be impossible for them to understand what Bahá’ís mean by the oneness of religions. She said that Bahá’u’lláh had been received among all peoples with that devotion accorded only a Prophet of God. She told of the Tree of Revelation, sprung out of Abraham’s posterity and including both Jesus and Muhammad; and of “God’s two languages”, the Semitic group and the Aryan; and of how these elements were joined today in the respective manifestations of the Bab and Bahá’u’lláh.
Mrs. Bishop went on to speak of the swans she had seen in the moat around an English cathedral; whenever a bell was rung, the swans would flock together to be fed. In the same way, she said, the masses react to the repetition of certain words, certain stimuli. This has happened in religion as well as elsewhere: through constant repetition of certain words a mass action is brought about; such words inflame but do not enlighten; it is the words of the Prophet that enlighten.
The audience listened with complete attention and at the close there was prolonged applause.
This evening a meeting was held at the Foundation Hall for the Bahá’ís, at which time Mr. Remey presented the relics already referred to, and Mrs. Amelia Collins told of the Guardian’s gift to the American Archives —the Locks of Bahá’u’lláh’s Hair—reading from the words of Bahá’u’lláh as transcribed around the Locks. Members of the Archives Committee described relics of the Báb, Bahá’u’lláh, the Master and Bahíyyih khánum, these sacred objects being on view in three display cases.
May 22
Last night when we came out of the Tent after the Youth Banquet, we stepped into mist. The Temple seemed to be floating away, the lights from it streaming away in the wind and the mist. Street lamps blurring, wet branches shifting and glistening, and the Temple is floating up there above us in the mist.
The Bahá’í House of Worship does not look like the pictures taken of it, or like the models that have been widely exhibited. They are heavy and static, while the Temple itself is fragile and light; it almost drifts; it seems only to have settled, the way a butterfly will settle. It symbolizes a religion utterly unlike anything humanity had in the past. For centuries, the West has worshipped in a vault–like places, crowded with statues and pictures; and while the mosques, in my view, have been less obstructive to the searching mind, because they run with fountains and sunlight and are empty of images—still they are excluded, and shut the non–believer out.
Now here is the Temple, welcoming you with its nine portals, no matter who you are, atheist or faithful, sinner or saint; no matter which way you turn. You cannot help entering —there is no wall to keep you away.
The National Assembly conceived the plan of having the Temple flood lighted throughout the Centennial. They were fortunate in discovering, in these days of shortage, a man who had bought equipment used for this purpose at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1934. The problem of lighting the Dome proved hard to solve, but in the end the very difficulties resulted in new light effects. I had expected long Klieg lights on the order of a Hollywood opening; instead, there was a white glowing, an unfolding of radiance, a great white–rose, white–petaled light against the soft darkness.
You cannot write about the Temple in static adjectives, or still verbs; you have to use adjectives that suggest color and motion, verbs preferably in the active participle; because the Temple always swings and moves, and that is why the models and photographs do not resemble it.
This was the night when we entered the second century of our Faith.
A public evening meeting was held first, and followed at 9:40 by the great Bahá’í gathering up under the Dome, when we dedicated the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár and commemorated the Declaration of the Báb.
Mr. George Latimer, chairman of the public meeting, first introduced Mrs. Dorothy Baker, who spoke on “Religion returns to Mankind”. She told of the Prophets, who restore that contact with God that is the supreme passion of humanity; of the Prophet, who is a Man alone against the world. She emphasized the stream of progressive revelation, speaking of Judaism, Christianity, Islám and the other Faiths, and ended: The words of the Báb are dedicated to all who are gathered in this commemorative place: “Enter therein in peace, secure.”
Dr. Harry Allen Overstreet, guest speaker of the evening, then addressed us on “Getting Ready for World Peace”. He told us: You celebrate a great event—the founding of a new kind of Faith...The urge to peace is upon us all...the difficulty lies in the curious confusion of our minds—we also want other things. We’ve got to get our minds ready for peace. . . . No peace can come save out of the utter unity of the world.... The world civil war is being waged between two kinds of ideas; between those who want special privileges and those who want the privileges for everyone.... The new world will be one of cultural generosity . . .we shall pass from cultural monism which is our occidental provincialism, to cultural pluralism. . . .
Mr. Horace Holley then spoke on “The World in Transformation”. This address, like the rest, will be available in print, and my notes will do it no more justice than they have the others. Among the things Mr. Holley told us were: For hundreds of thousands of years, man’s daily routine required only a little thought; man worked in nature and nature gave man his daily bread. Then came the great erupting force of scientific thought; by the impact of science and technological industries the simplicity of life was completely transformed. This change involves every human being. . . . We have seen the rise of education as a duty of the state. We have seen great dynasties and civilizations destroyed. We have seen submerged peoples arise and clamor for their rights. . . . Our economic structure has been imperiled until a sense of worry and foreboding has descended upon the average family. . . . It is too late to retire into some beautiful dream. . . . The past has been destroyed, the present is in turmoil, the future is hidden behind a cloud. Description of a problem, if it leaves the problem, is a luxury we cannot afford. If you are sick, you don’t want a microbe by a microbe description of the sickness; you want a diagnosis, but only to produce healing. (The speaker quoted here from the words of Bahá’u’lláh: “The All–Knowing Physician hath His finger on the pulse of mankind. . . .”) The abyss into which we have fallen spiritually is individualism. People do not unite in their personalities, but they unite when they agree on certain fundamental truths....Religion is the society–building power— the release of a spirit which enters into the minds and souls of human beings and evokes from them their latent and undeveloped powers. When these powers are evoked from human beings, they possess the basis of a civilization. Civilization perishes by the misuse of the human powers. We cannot of ourselves return into the spiritual light....Those who accept the Báb accept all the Manifestations of God. Entering into the common experience of sharing one God is the basis of all civilizations. . . . The Báb created the foundation of a world consciousness. The great proof of a religion is its power to create a community....Peace is not a human theory; peace is not even a desperate human need; peace is a divine command....The victory has already been won.
After the public meeting, we walked up the white path in the darkness, up the steps and through one of the nine great portals. The vast space beneath the Dome was packed with Bahá’ís. I wished the Guardian could have been here to see them; to see all these souls across the earth, who have grown out of the words that the Báb spoke in Shíráz a hundred years ago tonight.
We had been carefully instructed in what we were to do: if downstairs, we were to hurry upstairs and join the others under the Dome; we were to make no sound while the readings were going on, for they were to be recorded. And no children under twelve were to be present. (It was wonderful to see how quickly the tiniest youngsters became twelve.)
Then a great silence and a voice coming out of it: Anthony Seto reading “All praise, O my God, be to Thee...” The program of dedication had begun. I looked behind me and saw faces pressed against the glass—people on the steps outside, peering in and wondering. I can’t explain how happy the people inside were; I had never felt an audience like this.
A voice, reading: “O friends of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá...” Paul Haney, reading “It is the power of God... which has drawn you together.” Charlotte Linfoot, reading “Many a chilled heart, O my God, hath been set ablaze. . .”
We heard a Psalm of David, and the Beatitudes, read for us by Olivia Kelsey; and the John Charles Thomas recording of the Lord’s Prayer. Now Louis Gregory was repeating from the Qur’án: “God is the light of the heavens and of the earth . . .” The colors around us were dove colors—light grays and dull grays and tans. The segment of the Dome that I could see was a spidery web of gray geometric filaments and black panes. Mr. Gregory closed with: “and unto God the final return.”
This must have been the moment when we passed into the second century of the Bahá’í era, for a new voice, Albert Windust’s, began: “This night, this very hour will, in the days to come, be celebrated as one of the greatest and most significant of all festivals . . .” And then the voice of Honor Kempton: “This is the anniversary of the Message and Declaration of His Holiness the Bab.” Light ran along the sound wires that had been strung across under the Dome.
Mary McClennen was reading “I yield Thee such thanks...” A little Negro boy-friend of mine slipped by in a red leather jacket; his name is Noel Grant, he can recite long passages from the Guardian’s writings by heart, and he has frequently confides to me that he is five. On this evening of evenings, he was making no tiniest sound.
Very gradually, through the strains of “Parsifal”, the people were rising and forming lines to look at the holy relics of the Báb.
Then all of a sudden, standing above the heads of the people, I saw a lighted niche, arched like a miḥráb in a mosque. I did not know that a curtain had been suddenly drawn aside. I saw only that there was an arch of golden light where there had been shadows before, and that in its center was the Portrait, sharply defined in its frame.
The lines formed slowly; after each one had looked at the Face of the Báb, he left by a portal of the Temple; I could see the shadows of the people moving in the great Temple windows as they went.
At last we reached the palms that stood on our side of the lighted alcove; its inner surfaces were covered with a hand–embroidered Persian weave—a pale gold cloth with green–and–crimson velvet flowers across it. I looked ahead, past Sabet, in order to see the Portrait longer, because there could be only a glimpse. There would be no time to watch for details. I only knew that I was to look upon His Face, as the people in Persian streets had crowded and pushed against their fellows to look upon it long ago .. . A man stood on either side of the Portrait, at a little distance, keeping watch.
And then I was looking into the Face of the Báb. He seemed weary and hard-pressed somehow, a Youth made too old for His years by suffering. It was an expression I have seen now and then, on the faces of His toiling followers. He seemed to permit me to look at Him and I loved Him at once, and kissed the green velvet sill under the Portrait, and passed by without wanting to, having spent my allotted time in looking at His Face, and thus missing the smaller frame above the Portrait, which I now know held the Lock of His Hair.
People were talking unobtrusively as they streamed away in the darkness. Over the dark bridge, on the Canal, I stopped and looked back. Dark shapes went quietly by. There was the lit Temple, rising above us. And I felt, thinking of the Portrait of the Báb being there—in this, His setting—as if He had come home somehow. And I felt relieved, as if at last the peoples of the western hemisphere could hear Him say, as the first believer heard Him, long ago in Shíráz: “Enter therein in peace, secure.”
May 23
The velvet weave, used as a background for the Portrait of the Báb, was made in the 16th century by order of Sháh ‘Abbás of Persia. He gave it as a gift to the Sulṭán of Turkey. Later, the Austrians captured it, and it eventually came into the possession of the King of Saxony, where it remained two hundred years. The weave, from the Rafi Mottahedeh collection, is one of a pair; its mate belongs to the Metropolitan Museum in New York.
This afternoon we were allowed to view the Portrait once more, this time in Foundation Hall, where it stood against a strip of soft green velvet (something the color of a Siyyid’s belt faded by the Persian sun), itself laid across the rugs covering the central table; to either side of the Portrait was a vase of white lilacs, and beside each of these, a smaller one of white roses; a loose sprig of lilac lay casually before it, as I have seen flowers lie on the Shrine thresholds in Haifa.
The Portrait is set in a narrow, oval of gold-tone; the lighter green mat has delicate gold rays radiating from the center. This time I looked above the Portrait and saw the smaller frame, illuminated blue–and–gold mat, and central glass–covered section in which lies the delicate, shining Lock of hair. I learned from Mr. Mattoon that the illuminated designs surrounding the Portrait and Lock, as well as the specifications for carving the two frames, were prepared in Haifa by Mr. Sutherland Maxwell.
And I thought that the Báb must have seen us today, when He was there alone in the prison, awaiting His death, with His face swollen by the stick of the farrásh.
He looked at each one of us as we passed. One of the young Persian students had given me this poem of His, which He seemed to be saying:
- You, the free birds of the garden,
- Know the delights of the cypress
- and rose—
- For I have a tryst with the Fowler
- And the pangs of the snare await
- Me.
I do not remember very much about what happened this evening. It was dedicated to “North America, Citadel of Universal Peace.” I sat on the platform beside Mr. Rowland Estall of Canada, and could see bits of the audience between the ferns on one hand and the speakers’ reading stand on the other.
Mr. Leroy Ioas, as chairman,
opened the session, and Mr. Windust
described the progress of the Faith
in America up to 1912. Then my turn
came, and in spite of the difficulty
it was a bounty to speak His Name
in this Temple He Himself had[Page 17]
founded, and to recall some of the
things that took place during His
days in the western world.
Marion Holley described the growth of the American Bahá’í community up to 1944, and Rowland Estall has closed with his address, now published in the World Order Magazine: “America and the Most Great Peace.”
May 24
Mrs. Stuart French was chairman of the Inter-America program, dedicated to the meeting of the Americas, and the recorded musical program featured South American festival music and the compositions of Heitor Villa-Lobos.
Three of the talks, which were given this evening have since been published, but the composite flavor of the evening, the fusion of the Americas, which we all felt tonight, are delicate matters which will not go easily into print.
Sr. Octavio Illescas of Peru told us: “The religious heritage, the known fervor and devotion of the masses, in the Latin American nations will be the fertile soil on which the seeds of the Bahá’í Faith, a religion of action, a religion in which service to humanity is worship of God—will grow and bear rich fruits.”
The guest speaker, Mr. Philip Leonard Green, pleased us with this opening: “My first contact with the ideals promoted by this world–wide community of devoted men and women came almost two decades ago through the late Mary Hanford Ford, who presented me with a booklet entitled ‘The World of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.’ Expecting to find in it little more than an interesting explanation of Oriental mysticism, I was overcome with surprise to read not only the exposition of a philosophy which exalted international cooperation to the status of a religion, but which even made prophecies with regard to inter-American developments, which have since become largely transformed into reality . . . . They came from the lips of a Persian mystic who could have had no special interest in singling out the Pan-American movement for preferential mention. He made them in 1912, during a period when relations among the American republics were rapidly deteriorating. The interview during which these prophecies were promulgated was reported in these words: ‘So he said there would be in the end a United States of the World, as compact as the present United States of America.’ When asked if this change would appear suddenly, he said, no, that it would arise first in the western continent. The bond between North and South America would be greatly strengthened, he declared, and later, the entire two continents, including Mexico and Canada, would grow so harmoniously that they would act upon all important questions like one country.
These words . . . “point out in crystal–clear terms to Americans of the South, Center and North, the cosmic mission, which has been reserved for them if they can but grasp its meaning and meet its requirements.”
Students of Inter-American relationships should not fail to study Mr. Green’s talk, published in the June issue of World Order.
Mrs. French called on Mrs. Edward Roscoe Mathews—who spoke on the “Spirit of Inter-American Fellowship.” Mrs. Mathews visited Central and South America in the interests of the Faith as early as 1934. At that time there were no Bahá’ís in Latin America. Today, only ten years later, Bahá’í centers have been established in every Latin American republic.
Mrs. Mathews told us of her experiences in the countries of the South, and of the new friendship springing up across the Americas, where before, “love for a long time had lain like pressed flowers in our prayer books.”
May 25
The average person hates banquets, and I believe, rightly so. However, this one, celebrating the coming of the Faith to Chicago in 1894, was different. This was not the sort of banquet where you are imprisoned at a long table, with a plate of cold food in front of you which it is never the correct moment to eat—and for no reasonable motive. This banquet was pleasurable and it made history.
I came in late and found the enormous hall jammed with people; they were distributed at round tables, each seating ten. The banquet photograph had already been made. In the distance, under seven great United States flags and against a background of shimmering silver drapes, stretched the speakers’ table.
The Hotel Stevens had said they would take as many of our delegates and visitors as we sent them and that race was not an issue.
Dr. Raymond Piper’s address on “The Religious Foundations of World Unity” will be available in print, but not the spirit with which he gave it. As one who attended four colleges, in which every professor was either atheistic or watered–down agnostic, I could hardly believe I was hearing a public advocacy of religious faith from the head of a Philosophy Department. This address would make me a Bahá’í, I thought to myself, were I not one already; because, whatever the proponents of intellect versus heart, or of heart versus intellect, may say, it is certain that the combination is unbeatable.
Everybody was happy. The Banquet seemed of importance to Chicago, to the Americas, to humanity; and we each took on a momentary significance, reflected from it.
Miss Elsie Austin, the noted Negro attorney, was the featured woman speaker. Miss Austin spoke on “The Social Basis of World Unity”. She said to us: “There is no more realistic force in the world today than the Bahá’í Faith . . . . There is a great difference between folk who have the means of unity, and folk who have the heart for unity . . . . Legislation and pressures alone have never been able to get at the inward fears, the jealousies and animosities of men . . . .The unity of mankind, in the Bahá’í Faith, is not only a spiritual principle—it is also the basis of a new social pattern . . . .
Miss Austin’s talk received tremendous applause. Then suddenly radio people appeared with their sound equipment, and we understood from their haste that the timing was very close; we were requested to be silent; the experts went through their usual unintelligible pantomime; then we were on the air, and the announcer was saying: “Ballroom of the Stevens Hotel. . . Bahá’í House of Worship, acclaimed the world’s most beautiful building . . . delegates from all over the United States, Alaska, Hawaii, Central and South America. . . .”
The Bahá’í opera star, Mr. Walter
Olitzki, baritone of the Metropolitan
Opera Co., sang “Where’er You
Walk”, after which Mr. Osborne of
Panama, who is a University of Chicago
graduate and supervisor of[Page 18]
schools in the Canal Zone, spoke for
all the Americas along these lines:
A pattern of life based on unity and
fellowship has actually been set up
and is being practiced today by hundreds
of thousands of believers. . . .
The new world order is already in
existence in the Bahá’í World Faith
. . . . For the past week, I have been
living in the world of God . . . seeing
people of various races and backgrounds
demonstrating that religion
is man’s attitude toward God as reflected
in his attitude toward his fellow
man. . . . In the Bahá’í House
of Worship there is no difference of
race, no difference of creed, no difference
of class. . . . The highest
type of democracy was in evidence;
every delegate had the right to speak
out . . . the delegates working for
the welfare of the whole world community . . .
and willing to alter
preconceived ideas in the light of
consultation. . . . I was thrilled to
see the spirit of true fellowship;
around the dining tables in the huge
tent, various groups—various languages . . .
but complete understanding
of the language of the
heart, under the banner of the Bahá’í
Faith . . . . The photographs
show all the human varieties that
were present. They came not as
strangers, but as members of one
loving Bahá’í family, and that is
what it is to be a Bahá’í. The Bahá’í
is already a citizen of the world.
Our loud applause was quickly cut off by more pantomime, and the chairman, Mr. Windust, introduced others to the radio audience. Miss Austin said: “The Bahá’í Centenary has had a profound effect upon all of us. The Bahá’í Faith is that force which is powerful enough to make a man turn from old resentments . . . Sr. López, delegate from Ecuador, spoke in Spanish and said of the Faith in the West: “This seed was sown on good soil; it is now bearing fruit. To the North American Bahá’ís is the glory of the first harvest, but in the future, it will be for all the Americas, both North and South . . .” Dr. Fernando Nova, delegate from Bahia where he is the City physician, said: “I have seen a demonstration of the Faith which has been an inspiration to me, and which will be an inspiration to the people of Brazil” . . . . Mr. Olitzki closed the broadcast with the song “Our Father”.
We were off the air. The radio people had vanished. Mr. Fírúz Kaẓim-Zádih of Persia called to the platform, told us: “In my travels I have noted a great difference between Bahá’í communities and the others; it is this, that Bahá’í communities are free of racial and other prejudices. This is the only pattern that can work. We have seen all these delegates working in unity, as part of one organism, destined to change the Americas, and eventually the world.”
Miss Hilda Yen, niece of Dr. Y.S. Tsao of Shanghai, and widely known speaker on world peace, who became a declared Bahá’í during the Centennial, said: “This is the Faith that all the oppressed and war weary peoples of the world are seeking . . . . The Bahá’ís really practice what they preach: the oneness of mankind, the true brotherhood of man . . . . We have seen the colored delegates, the white delegates, the Oriental delegates, the South American delegates, all in unity. I was inspired. Here is real democracy. This Centennial has been like a breath of fresh air . . . .”
Here are memories, then, of our first Centenary Convention, written from the notes I made there. They are only my selections. They omit a great deal. They include details which may be trivial, but which seemed important to me.
I hope that many who attended the Centennial will set down their record of it. I hope posterity will accumulate the thousands of letters which must have been written about the whole episode. Those of us who were present will never be quite the same people again. But we cannot tell much about it. We can only offer a few symbols and tokens; here are such symbols and tokens.
Youth Banquet[edit]
The Youth had announced that twenty-one would be the top age limit for those attending, but raised this to thirty when it was discovered that even some members of the Banquet Committee were above twenty–one. We found the tent, spacious and well–lighted; we had gold chairs to sit on and our long tables were decorated with red geraniums in pots, purple lilacs, yellow candles.
There were prayers, Johnnie Eichenauer reading in Spanish and then in English, and Pari Zia Walrath repeating the one for “unity in the love of God. . .throughout the world.” Johnnie called the seemingly endless roll by countries, states, territories and provinces; this was punctuated with applause, laughter, and also whistles when occasion demanded.
It developed that nine Latin–American countries, six provinces of Canada, and thirty–two North American states were represented, in addition to which eight young men were present from Persia.
As Master of Ceremonies, Johnnie began to address the crowd bilingually, in Spanish and English. He said: “We all, I know, are grateful to Bahá’u’lláh for having united us under the banner of His world Faith. We are going to show our gratefulness even more than we have in the past, by spreading His teachings far and wide. . . and by our actions and deeds. . .(He then emphasized the Guardian’s instruction to the Youth; to become thoroughly steeped in the Teachings, in order to be ready for the tasks ahead). We’re used to saying: I don’t have time; but let’s remember the purpose for which we were created: to know and love God; and that the Intermediary in this day is Bahá’u’lláh; and that our very first duty is to have a knowledge of His Cause, and to render Him instant, exact, and complete obedience. Do you agree with me?” (Loud applause)
Various people were then called on to describe youth activities at the summer schools; Paul Pettit, chairman of the National Youth Committee, aroused special interest with his account of the work being done on Louhelen Ranch, including the Dorothy Graf School (a kindergarten project at Louhelen), the Winter Session, and the Louhelen Choir. Paul emphasized the Guardian’s instructions to the National Youth Committee—that they study the Teachings, in order to be able to “heal the sick souls and confused minds” of humanity.
Johnnie asked who in the audience planned to attend a summer school this year and practically everyone rose.
Other youth, then reported on their
pioneering activities — for many, I[Page 19]
found, are already seasoned pioneers.
Regina, Little Rock, Alberta,
Reno (this last reported by the
young Japanese secretary of the
Reno Assembly, Robert Imagire)
Laramie, Greensboro. I was especially
moved by this last, since the
pioneers there are young Negro girls
who gave up a relatively uncomplicated
life out West to settle in this
southern area. They spoke modestly
of what is an outstanding achievement:
their establishment of a Local
Spiritual Assembly. Eva told
how, although she herself had interrupted
her college career to go pioneering,
she found no difficulty in
addressing college audiences because
of her study of the Teachings.
She closed with: “If you want adventure
and a lot of fun and everything
that youth desire, you have
that opportunity in pioneering. There
is no greater teaching opportunity
than in the South. Come and help
us out.”
The young girl from Venezuela, who first heard of the Faith four months ago through Dorothy Baker, said: “I decided to become a Bahá’í because I realized that a religion which can make such wonderful people as you are must be a good religion.” Johnnie told the audience: “She has my help without even asking for it.”
The youngest woman pioneer in Latin America, “Winnie Lou” Baker of Colombia, spoke of the community in Bogotá; she said a knowledge of Spanish was vital for pioneers there; that secretarial knowledge for women and engineering for men were desirable. She told also of the many translations of Bahá’í literature which are beginning to appear in Spanish.
The wind was blowing a gale under the tent flaps. We had been sitting there a long time—the Banquet developed eventually into a four–hour session. I complained to Robert Gulick, my neighbor, of a pain in my back. He replied that the discomforts would teach us older ones not to come to Youth meetings.
Sr. Eugenio Gines told of the work in Cuba and praised Miss Josephine Kruka and the other pioneers there. Dr. Fernando Nova of Bahia paid a tribute to Miss Leonara Holsapple; he was called back to the platform, and asked to say a few words in Portuguese, and also something on Brazil. In the end he said, “I want to thank you for the long time you have spent with me.”
Miss Jeanne Bolles spoke of Bahá’í youth, she had met in various Latin American countries, including Uruguay, where Mr. Wilfrid Barton is the pioneer, and shared with us excerpts from the letters of Rúhíyyih Khánum, wife of the Guardian.
Robert Gulick was called on and began: “Saludos amigos y amigas; salamun alaykum; fellow-youth of all ages.—” He spoke on the importance of youth activities and won applause with: “Very often the youth knows a whole lot more than most of their elders are willing to concede. . I admire your enthusiasm; I like the way you demonstrate the Bahá’í principles, such as this very meeting, which demonstrates the oneness of the world of humanity...You have the most important place in the Faith of God today.”
Joel Marangella presented greetings from the Bahá’í youth in Puerto Rico, his sister and brother–in–law, Ayned and Lucien McComb, and told of his life in the Army, where he has served three years. Clement Perry, also in the Service, agreed with Joel that separation from fellow-believers is one of the great difficulties of Army life. Other service men, Ansel Shurgast, Willis Sprattling and John Shurcliff told briefly of their experiences.
A letter to the Guardian, to be signed by all the youth, rejoicing with him on this occasion and acknowledging their responsibility to the Faith, was now read by Jessie Perry. The session closed with Bahá’u’lláh Zargarpúr chanting in Persian one of the Master’s Tablets to the Youth: “O youth of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: How long will ye be still! How long will ye be mute!” Then they all joined in singing the “Benediction.”
Greetings From Bahá’ís of Other Lands[edit]
Australian and New Zealand Bahá’ís send affectionate greetings. Happy anniversary celebration centenary Bahá’í faith. Sincerest love and best wishes dawn of second century.
{{right|May 12, 1944}
British Bahá’ís send warmest greetings at the dawn of the second Bahá’í century.
British Bahá’ís only ones Europe openly celebrating. Reaffirm solidarity Bahá’í world community. Rejoice signs emergence world order heralded Báb 1844.
Deeply appreciate cable, fervently praying centenary celebration give unprecedented impetus consummation America’s spiritual mission, loving greetings.
Bahá’ís India sends heartiest centenary greetings. Congratulate achievements past century, supplicate greater services second century, jubilate witnessing increasing evidences permanency principles Bahá’u’lláh’s world order, heralded by Báb, May 1844.
Bahá’ís ‘Iráq behalf all believers, present
your blessed assembly warmest
heartiest greetings occasion centenary
celebration, faith Bahá’u’lláh, which historical
blessed occasion Bahá’ís throughout
the world, celebrate solemnly. Friends
this country avails themselves this glorious
opportunity approaching whole–heartedly
towards exalted threshold,
Bahá’u’lláh, humbly implore for loyal
brother believers dear and beloved of
the master, sincere co-workers of the
Guardian, in the United States, Canada,
confirmation in service of cherished
cause. Wishing them unprecedented
soaring triumphs, beginning another
glorious century. They also pray fervently[Page 20]
their success accomplishing realizing
hopes, our Master entrusted their capable
hands and profoundly sincere faith.
All eastern friends glorify your increasingly
progressive activities this past
century, which will be remembered by
future generations with extreme gratitude.
Structure temple of light beautifying
Lake Michigan, outstanding evidence
sacrifice your community, combined
with perseverance and fortitude.
Centers established USA and Canada
through your consistent endeavors, exemplary
submission ordinances, guidance
beloved Guardian—enhance proof
of deeds constituting unqualified record
in wisdom rapidity establishing cause
throughout America. Your pioneering
emigration, establishing faith Bahá’u’lláh,
farthest regions globe, including
your prominent international services,
are beyond our praise. Appreciation
could only be adequately eulogized by
peerless pen our beloved Guardian. We
herald news expansion scope your increasing
international services faith
Bahá’u’lláh, beseech most enthusiastically
nearness complete fulfillment prophecies
‘Abdu’l-Bahá, your favor culminating
in crowning your previous
work by grand victories for the cause of
God throughout whole east, similarly
as you succeeded in the remote parts west.
May Bahá’u’lláh bless your efforts,
sustain your steps under the providence our
beloved Guardian.
In this blessed centenary terminating century in Bahá’u’lláh, believers Egypt, Sudan sends warmest congratulatory greetings. Verily, first century records far-reaching activities in spreading faith of Bahá’u’lláh world over, enhancing its prestige. Your standard activities, sacrifices for its consolidation and institutions crowned by completion of glorious temple, render America, once blessed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, indeed world hope, and will remain guidance to future generations.
Sharing a joy, sacred birthday and momentous declaration of a new era with you and Bolivian friends.
Joyous greetings Bahá’ís today with you in spirit.
Bahá’í appreciation and greetings. Pray guidance deliberations. We celebrate with you, four vital incidents realization unity.
Primer centenario gloriosa fe Bahá’í saludamos a hermanos congregados rogando prosperidad logro unidad Bahá’í.
Agradecemos profundamente vuestro saludo.
Guatemala Bahá’ís return thanks your message. Hearty greetings their brethren house of worship centenary celebration, praying unity all Americas. Bahá’u’lláh’s blessings.
{{right|Guatemala City, Guatemala}
Loving centenary greetings.
Fervent loving felicitations to all gathered sacred occasion of fulfillment which promises realization Bahá’í unity Americas.
A Group of Bahá’í Students from Persia Who Have Come to America to Continue Their Studies.
National Bahá’í Assembly and Latin-American Representatives, July 9, 1944.
Special Session Held for Latin-American Representatives From July 9 to 15, 1944[edit]
The Latin American delegates who could not get their transportation matters arranged in time to get here for the Centenary Convention were extended an invitation by the National Spiritual Assembly to attend a special centenary session held for them from July 9th to the 16th, 1944. It was an echo of the convention, which vibrated that same intense spirit of unity, love and brotherhood expressed amongst all the friends, and that same profound reverence and awe felt upon seeing the majesty and beauty of the Temple and the portrait of the Báb. Through the careful and excellent planning of the Centenary Committee and the kindness and hospitality of the friends in the Temple area, this special session was a great success.
- The honored guests were:
- Sr. Salvador Tormo, Argentina
- Srta. Clara Luz Montalvo, El Salvador
- Sr. Eduardo Gonzalez Lopez, Ecuador
- Sr. Esteban Canales Leyton, Chile
- Sra. Isabel Tirado de Barreda, Peru
- Dr. Manuel D. Bergés Ch., Dominican
Republic
- Sra. Angela Ochoa Velasquez, Handuras
- Sr. Roque Centurion Miranda, Paraguay
- Sr. Raymond I. Betts, Peru
- Dr. Fernando Nova, Brazil
- The Sunday July 9th session was
opened with musical selections at 12:45 p.m. in Foundation Hall in the Temple, after which there were the readings of prayers and writings in commemoration of the Martyrdom of the Báb. Then followed the showing of the portrait of the Báb, this also in Foundation Hall. After the friends were seated, the recording of the readings of the Centenary Commemoration meeting was played.
At 3:30 p.m. the public meeting was held in Foundation Hall. The speaker was Mrs. Dorothy Baker, on the subject “A Message for the Americas”. Mr. Philip Sprague acted as chairman.
Immediately after the public meeting, the delegates met with the National Spiritual Assembly at the Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds.
At 6 p.m. there was a buffet supper and a reception in the Temple, with an invitation to the Bahá’í friends in the Temple area. At 7:45 an evening program was held in Foundation Hall. Mr. Allen B. McDaniel acted as chairman. The Latin American representatives were extended a formal greeting and presented with the Centenary souvenir pictures of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and of the Temple. The speakers were Mrs. Corinne True, subject: “History of the Temple”; Mr. Carl Scheffler, subject: “History of the North American Community”; Mrs. Margery McCormick, subject: “The Second Bahá’í Century”. Following this was the playing of the record of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s voice, the showing of the film of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in America in 1912, and the colored films of the Holy Shrines and the gardens of Mt. Carmel. Explanatory comments about the Holy Shrines and the gardens were made by Miss Jeanne Bolles while the film was being shown. All addresses of the evening were translated into Spanish. After the evening meeting, the Latin American representatives and pioneers were again permitted to see the portrait of the Báb and a display of the sacred documents in the archives room.
Monday, July 10, 1944—Pictures of
the delegates were taken to the
National Spiritual Assembly. In the
afternoon, a meeting of the delegates
with Miss Edna True, Miss Gwenn
Sholtis and Mrs. Gayle Woolson was
held to review the votes made by
the National Spiritual Assembly in
regard to the Latin American teaching
work, based on the consultation
held by the Latin American delegates[Page 22]
and the National Spiritual Assembly
at convention. This meeting was
held in preparation for the meeting
to be held with the National Spiritual
Assembly the following day so
as to avoid repetition and to give
these delegates an idea of what was
already taken up with the National
Spiritual Assembly by the delegates
who attended at the convention.
At 6 p.m., the delegates were guests of the Wilmette Community at a picnic supper held on the beach. After the supper the friends gathered together on the Lake Michigan beach sands and the Latin American friends gave informal talks about their countries and their joy and gratitude felt upon being here.
Tuesday, July 11 — Consultation and luncheon with the National Spiritual Assembly at the Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds.
Dinner guests of the Chicago Spiritual Assembly, then attended evening meeting at the Chicago Center with the Community. The delegates were each invited to speak.
Wednesday, July 12 — Consultation was continued with the National Spiritual Assembly in the afternoon.
In the evening, the Nineteen Day Feast was attended by the Wilmette Community in the Temple. Some Persian friends who had recently arrived in the United States also attended. These friends had celebrated the Centenary Commemoration in India, and Dr. F. Asgharzadeh who had brought with him nine Centenary badges used at the Convention in India, gave one to each of the nine Latin American representatives present. He also told of his recent visit with the Guardian.
Thursday, July 13 — Trip to Milwaukee as guests of the Milwaukee, Wauwatosa, Whitefish Bay and Shorewood Communities. The friends were met by Mrs. Devah Ingold, Mr. Clarence Niss and son, Hamilton, at the station and taken on a sight-seeing tour on their way to the lake home of Mr. and Mrs. Niss where the friends spent a large part of the day. Later in the afternoon, all went to the home of Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Hautz, after which the supper given at the Milwaukee Center, in collaboration of the four neighbor communities, was attended. After the supper, the Nineteen Day Feast program was held, then the Latin American friends were asked to speak. About one hundred persons were present.
Friday, July 14 — This day was spent in taking care of transportation matters and getting passports ready for the return trip of the delegates. In spite of the many transportation obstacles, the efficient handling of these problems by Edna True resulted in excellent arrangements to get the delegates comfortably off on their way to their respective countries without any delay, even to the expressed amazement of the Pan American Airways Office. The kind and helpful assistance of Mr. Mattoon was indispensable.
In the evening the delegates were dinner guests of the Evanston Community and then an informal meeting was held at the home of Miss Virginia Russell. Mr. Carl Scheffler was requested to speak to the friends about the early days of the establishment of the Cause in North America.
Saturday, July 15 — Latin American friends and pioneers with the Persian friends were luncheon guests of Miss Jeanne Bolles. In the afternoon, the Pan American Union meeting was attended. The important contact made at this meeting was their Washington representative who asked for a report of the Bahá’í activities in Latin America and of the Centenary Convention. His comment was that he did not know that the Bahá’í Faith was carrying on its activities on such a large scale.
At 6 p.m. the friends were dinner guests of Mrs. Enos Barton.
Sunday, July 16, Latin American, North American and Persian friends were luncheon guests of Dr. Edris Rice-Wray.
The Public meeting at the Temple was attended in the afternoon. After the meeting the friends were shown the Sacred Relics in the archives room.
Dinner guests of Mr. and Mrs. Hassan, who gave a Persian dinner for Latin American, North American and Persian Bahá’ís. Afterwards, the moving pictures taken at the Convention were shown. This beautiful oriental dinner and the seeing of the Centenary Convention films, and the union of the three Americas and Persia represented by the attending friends was a befitting close of this historic occasion.
The Latin American delegates were deeply touched and expressed their profound gratitude and appreciation for the kindness, hospitality and generosity demonstrated by the North American friends. They felt that this experience has brought about a greater spirit of unity cementing the three Americas and that they’re carrying back this new fire and wider vision will exert great influence in their countries.
Mrs. Gayle Woolson served as interpreter and hostess representing the National Spiritual Assembly for this session.
