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| No. 497 | BAHA’I YEAR 129 | August, 1972 |
Resting Place of the Greatest Holy Leaf[edit]
“... the conjunction of the resting-place of the Greatest Holy Leaf with those of her brother and mother incalculably
reinforces the spiritual potencies of that consecrated Spot which ... is destined to evolve into the focal center of those ... world-directing administrative institutions, ordained by Bahá’u’lláh ...”
Photo by George Frye
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Spiritual Assemblies May Be Formed Whenever Community Membership Reaches Nine
Dear Bahá’í Friends, In order to stimulate the teaching work in every land and encourage the friends during this last year of the Nine Year Plan we have decided that as soon as the number of adult believers in any locality reaches or exceeds nine they are permitted to form their Local Spiritual Assembly immediately, rather than wait until 21 April 1973. We hope moreover that, especially in the areas where the people are entering the Cause in troops, the implementation of this decision will increase the number of those communities which will, without the need for outside assistance, re-elect their Assemblies on the first day of Riḍván in 1973 and in succeeding years. It is our prayer at the Sacred Threshold that during the months ahead the steadily mounting number of these divine institutions will tremendously re-inforce the labors of the valiant servants of the Blessed Beauty in every clime. With loving Bahá’í greetings,
—THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE Bahá’í World Center |
Site Selected for Edifice of Supreme House
Cable from The Universal House of Justice[edit]
JOYFULLY INFORM BAHÁ’Í WORLD RANGE AND ACCELERATION GROWTH CAUSE BAHÁ’U’LLÁH LOCAL NATIONAL LEVELS AND RESULTANT EXPANSION ACTIVITIES WORLD CENTER IMPEL US NOW ANNOUNCE ERE COMPLETION NINE YEAR PLAN DECISION INITIATE PROCEDURE SELECT ARCHITECT DESIGN BUILDING FOR SEAT UNIVERSAL HOUSE JUSTICE ENVISAGED BELOVED GUARDIAN ON FAR FLUNG ARC HEART MOUNT CARMEL CENTERING SPOT CONSECRATED RESTING PLACES SISTER BROTHER MOTHER BELOVED MASTER. CONSTRUCTION THIS CENTER LEGISLATION GOD’S WORLD REDEEMING ORDER WILL CONSTITUTE FIRST MAJOR STEP DEVELOPMENT AREA SURROUNDING HOLY SHRINE SINCE COMPLETION INTERNATIONAL ARCHIVES BUILDING. MOVED PAY TRIBUTE EXPRESS HEARTFELT GRATITUDE OUTSTANDING SERVICES ROBERT McLAUGHLIN IN PREPARATION FOR THIS HISTORIC UNDERTAKING. FERVENTLY PRAYING PROJECT NOW INITIATED MAY DURING YEARS IMMEDIATELY AHEAD PROGRESS UNINTERRUPTEDLY SPEEDILY ATTAIN MAJESTIC CONSUMMATION.
Bahá’í World Center
7 June 1972
New Building Plans Significant in “Sail His Ark” on Carmel[edit]
The inestimable significance of the decision by The Universal House of Justice to erect the building to serve as its legislative seat inheres in the momentous Tablet of Carmel, the charter of the World Administrative Center of the Bahá’í Faith, revealed by Bahá’u’lláh during His exile in the Holy Land.
“Ere long will God sail His Ark upon thee,” Bahá’u’lláh asserts in this Tablet, “and will manifest the people of Bahá who have been mentioned in the Book of Names.” We learn from the interpretations of Shoghi Effendi that the “Ark” refers to the World Administrative Center, and in his statements concerning the construction of the International Bahá’í Archives, the “first of the major edifices destined to constitute the seat of the World Bahá’í Administrative Center to be established on Mt. Carmel,” we find the perspective with which we must view the decision of The Universal House of Justice. Following are related excerpts from the writings of the beloved Guardian:
“Collateral with these first stirrings of the Bahá’í Administrative Order, and synchronizing with the emergence of National Bahá’í communities and with the institution of their administrative, educational, and teaching agencies, the mighty process set in motion in the Holy Land, the heart and nerve-center of that Administrative Order, on the memorable occasions when Bahá’u’lláh revealed the Tablet of Carmel and visited the future site of the Báb’s sepulcher, was irresistibly unfolding. That process had received a tremendous impetus through the purchase of that site, shortly after Bahá’u’lláh’s ascension, through the subsequent transfer of the Báb’s remains from Ṭihrán to Akká, through the construction of that sepulcher during the most distressful years of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s incarceration, and lastly through the permanent interment of those remains in the heart of Mt. Carmel, through the establishment of a pilgrim house in the immediate vicinity of that sepulcher, and the selection of the future site of the first Bahá’í educational institution on that mountain.”
“The design of the international Bahá’í Archives, the
first stately Edifice destined to usher in the establishment of the World Administrative Center of the Faith on
Mt. Carmel—the Ark referred to by Bahá’u’lláh in the
closing passages of His Tablet of Carmel—has been
completed, and plans and drawings forwarded to Italy
for the purpose of securing bids for its construction
immediately after the conclusion of the necessary preliminary steps taken in the Holy Land for its forthcoming erection.”
“In the Holy Land, the center and pivot round which
the divinely appointed, fast multiplying institutions of a
world-encircling, resistlessly marching Faith revolve,
the double process, so noticeable in recent years, involving a rapid decline in the fortunes of the breakers of
Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant and proclaiming the rise of the
institutions of its World Administrative Center, in the
shadow of His Shrine, has been accelerated on the one
hand, through the death, in miserable circumstances, of
the treacherous and malignant Majdi’d-Din, the last
survivor of the principal instigators of the rebellion
against the Will of the Founder of our Faith, and, on the
other, through the laying of the foundation, and the
erection of some of the pillars, of the facade and of the
northern side of the International Bahá’í Archives—the
first of the major edifices destined to constitute the seat
of the World Bahá’í Administrative Center to be established on Mt. Carmel.”
“The remaining twenty-two pillars of the International Bahá’í Archives—the initial edifice heralding the
establishment of the Bahá’í World Administrative Center on Mt. Carmel—have been erected....
“Simultaneous with this striking development, the plan designed to insure the extension and completion of the arc serving as a base for the erection of future edifices constituting the World Bahá’í Administrative Center, has been successfully carried out.”
The Ascension of Bahíyyih Khánum Forty Years Ago[edit]
Daughter of Bahá’u’lláh and Ásíyih Khánum, the sister of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. To the believers she was
known as “The Greatest Holy Leaf.” To those she lived among she was Khánum, that is to say “Lady.”
She passed in July 1932.
BAHÁ’U’LLÁH TO HIS DAUGHTER
“... Verily, We have elevated thee to the rank of one of the most distinguished among thy sex, and granted thee, in My court, a station such as none other woman hath surpassed. Thus have We preferred thee and raised thee above the rest, as a sign of grace from Him Who is the Lord of the throne on high and earth below. We have created thine eyes to behold the light of My countenance, thine ears to hearken unto the melody of My words, thy body to pay homage before My throne. Do thou render thanks unto God, thy Lord, the Lord of all the world.... Through My remembrance of her a fragrance laden with the perfume of musk hath been diffused; well it is with him that hath inhaled it ...”*
SHOGHI EFFENDI, IN TRIBUTE TO THE GREATEST HOLY LEAF
“... A purity of life that reflected itself in ever the minutest details of her daily occupations and activities; a tenderness of heart that obliterated every distinction of creed, class and color; a resignation and serenity that evoked to the mind the calm and heroic fortitude of the Báb ... an unaffected simplicity of manners; an extreme sociability which made her accessible to all; a generosity, a love, at once disinterested and undiscriminating, that reflected so clearly the attributes of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s character; a sweetness of temper; a cheerfulness that no amount of sorrow could becloud; a quiet and unassuming disposition that served to enhance a thousandfold the prestige of her exalted rank; a forgiving nature that instantly disarmed the most unyielding enemy—these rank among the outstanding attributes of a saintly life which history will acknowledge as having been endowed with a celestial potency that few of the heroes of the past possessed.... Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá have paid touching tributes to those things that testify to her exalted position among the members of Their Family, that proclaim her as an example to Their followers, and as an object worthy of the admiration of all mankind.”*
The Passing of Bahíyyih Khánum[edit]
When you think of the traits and ways that made up
her lovely behavior she comes to you at first, perhaps, as
she welcomed you among her guests—gracefully erect
and poised, controlled yet at ease—putting others at
ease, without familiarity—and with the mild dignity,
simplicity and unselfconsciousness of a great lady...
Her balance, sense of fineness and fitness and practical judgment she displayed in creating order and grace in the household, and all the elements that make for well-being she blended in an ambience of harmony. ... So quietly did she make her influence felt that you were scarcely conscious of its working.
And she shed her creative sympathy in the form of tender interest in every detail in the lives of those around her, thus entering into their small hours and filling them with happiness. At the moment you did not recognize this sympathy as sympathy, but enjoyed it as pleasure. It is a charming Persian habit to wrap a gift in an embroidered silk or linen cloth, as fine in its way as the thing enclosed. So, always, she gave a gift within a gift. You took the happy warmth of contentment you felt when you were with her and only later came to realize that this was the fine wrapping of a deeper joy, a richer core....
She left spirit and body alike utterly free, demanding nothing of those she loved. And she would, it seemed, have them unaware of any debt of love. So light was her touch that she woke in them no sense of responsibility or conscious gratitude. Even when she comforted, her caress was feather soft: for she knew that those in sore need can be bruised by the least pressure of compassion. She would give the balm itself and add no weight of her own hand; so that healing and comfort came as a magic gift....
She would not use criticism and censure. When you brought her your darkness she lit a taper.... You were sure that if one tried to hurt her she would wish to console him for his own cruelty. For her love was unconditioned, could penetrate disguise and see hunger behind the mask of fury, and she knew that the most brutal self is secretly hoping to find gentleness in another. She had that rarest heart-courage—to uncover the very quick of tenderness to any need. And so deep was her understanding that she plumbed all the miseries of the human heart and read their significance, blessing both the victim and the valid pain itself....
When she made a gift she seemed to be thanking you for it.... When she gave joy she blessed you for it. It was almost as if she did not distinguish giving from receiving....
To serve her was not duty: it was high privilege. But she took nothing for granted in the way of devoted service and even in her last hours she whispered or smiled her thanks for every littlest ministration. Her generosity was instinctive, not considered: you felt no pause between impulse and act. You knew that her openhandedness was the evidence of an unbroken stream of impelling kindness that flowed through her, that never failed. She delighted in making presents—sweetmeats and goodies and coins for the children, and for others, flowers, keepsakes—a vial of attar of roses, a rosary, or some delicate thing that she had used and cared for. Anything that was given her she one day gave to someone else, someone in whom she felt a special need of a special favor. She was a channel rather than cup; open treasury, not locked casket.
And as she would not lock away her small treasures, neither would she store up her wisdom and her riches of experience. In her, experience left no bitter ash. Her flame transmuted all of life, even its crude and base particles, into gold. And this gold she spent.... Just by being what she was she gave us all that she knew....
Her thoughts were kneeling thoughts. She found communion in shared quietude, and privacy in a sunny room where children played.
Her room was the heart of the house.... You left your
In this group The Greatest Holy Leaf is seated with her hands clasped together in her lap.
[Page 6]
shoes at the threshold of that room and you left, too, any
outer covering of pose or manner you might have made
for yourself for protection in a bleak world.... Here
in the light of her shining simplicity you became simple.
All fear went out of you, all shyness, all timidity....
You were free.
Although for so many years she had been the head of that great household, directing every detail of its ordering, she showed no urge to small activity. When there was something to be done she did it straightway, giving it her full attention. When she sat with folded hands she was wholly there: no part of her mind seemed to be busy with the next step, the duty to come. It was in keeping with her harmony with life that she gave herself in her entirety to her hours of companionship and so made them complete. Islands in time....
She was never in conflict nor at variance within herself. In her inclinations you heard no dissident minority of hesitation.... Her personality was so attuned to her spirit that integrity and purity were her natural expression.... She was incorruptible rather than innocent, for she knew the shapes of evil and faced them fearlessly....
She was not learned nor even educated in a worldly sense: she drew her wisdom from hidden springs. Though her intelligence was of the heart, that heart itself was filled from sources deeper than human knowledge....
If she found you troubled she would not discuss your difficulties and try to solve your problems. You forgot them. Confusion and complexity were dissolved in her warm clarity. You reached with her a region of consciousness beyond clamor and doubt and beyond questioning. You were reassured....
She seemed not to separate this plane from the next, nor to long ... to escape to the bright wonder of the future life.... Small things were not small to her: they were fragments of the vast. She gave you, not hope of bliss to come, but realization of present happiness. With her you felt marvel in every tiniest aspect of life around you—a flower, a shadow on the wall, a fold of her veil ... all these were touched with enchantment. You became aware of the mystery of the spirit animating all things, and of the preciousness of every instant. This moment, this now, was tinged with the beauty of the eternal....
She loved beauty. You would say that she lent to her surroundings her sense of order, fragrance and exquisiteness, but you look in vain for words to describe that inner sensibility of which these were the outer gossamer traces. Ever after to those who had known her any lovely thing ... was a reminder of her. She was immortalized in all beauty. In the moth-green and silver of spring you find something of her fragrance and delicacy.... You remember her in the sound of the sea, and in the laughter of children. Wherever happiness is or friendship, she is there.
We of the West knew her only in the latter days of her life. But we could not find it in our hearts to wish that we had known her in her youth or earlier womanhood rather than in the time of her fulfillment. She had none of the habits of mind which we have come to associate with age.... Her now embodied all her yesterdays.
And you would not say that she was still beautiful, for that implies a preserving lacquer of time. Her beauty, too, was fulfillment, not vestige of former loveliness ... She was more than beautiful ... in grace that was long union of gracious thought and act....
Her life could not be called martyrdom, for she did not recognize it as such.... In the face of test and danger she neither hurried nor held back, but entered the perilous way with quiet breath. Her courage was born of her understanding faith ... that carried her serene through years of incessant labor and meticulous service, and through times of waiting empty-handed—and through the bearing of irremediable sorrow and loss.... She was never known to complain or lament. It was not that she made the best of things, but that she found in everything, even in calamity itself, the germs of enduring wisdom.... She was as incapable of impatience as she was of revolt. But this was not so much long-sufferance as it was quiet awareness of the forces that operate in the hours of waiting and inactivity.
Always she moved with the larger rhythm, the wider sweep, toward the ultimate goal. Surely, confidently, she followed the circle of her orbit round the Sun of her existence, in that complete acquiescence, that perfect accord, which underlies faith itself.
From The Bahá’í World, Vol. V.
Annual Convention in Nigeria for 1972. The National Spiritual Assembly members are seated, from left to right: Miss Evelyn C. Spears, D.M.C.H. Ogbonna, Oscar Njang, Foad Seddigh, E. A. Obedeyi, Counsellor William Maxwell, B. O. Udo, A. E. Eno, Mrs. Mary Maxwell, Kingsley J. Umoh.
Martha Root “Herald of the Kingdom”[edit]
Part two of two parts
Presidents and Princes[edit]
Martha Root’s “most momentous service” was performed during her first tour of Europe, in the four years from 1926 through 1929. There she visited at least fifteen countries (by present boundaries) and attended four annual Universal Esperanto Congresses, in Edinburgh, Danzig, Antwerp, and Budapest, as well as seven other international conferences and a session of the League of Nations. She had extensive lecture tours in Great Britain and in Germany, visiting twice every German university but two.
A great part of her time was spent in the Balkans, where she visited every country and where she had the first four of those eight successive interviews with Queen Marie of Rumania which Shoghi Effendi proclaimed as “the most outstanding feature of those memorable journeys.”25
Martha Root presented Esslemont’s Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era to Queen Marie at the palace in Bucharest, only to be recalled the next day for an audience in which she found out that the Queen had stayed up all night reading the book and accepted all.
“Blessed be the king,” proclaims Bahá’u’lláh, “whose sovereignty hath withheld him not from his Sovereign, and who hath turned unto God with his heart....”26 So far, Marie, granddaughter of Queen Victoria, alone among royalty, has had the courage and detachment to give homage to the Sovereign of the Age.
Shoghi Effendi stressed the importance of what Martha Root had done:
Of all the services rendered the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh by this star servant of His Faith, the most superb and by far the most momentous has been the almost instantaneous response evoked in Queen Marie of Rumania to the Message which that ardent and audacious pioneer had carried to her during one of the darkest moments of her life, an hour of bitter need, perplexity and sorrow. “It came,” she herself in a letter had testified, “as all great messages come, at an hour of dire grief and inner conflict and distress, so the seed sank deeply.”27
Queen Marie herself proclaimed the Cause through open letters to Canadian and American newspapers, writing in the Toronto Star:
... It is a wondrous Message that Bahá’u’lláh and his son ‘Abdu’l-Bahá have given us.... Love, the mainspring of every energy, tolerance towards each other, desire of understanding each other, knowing each other, helping each other, forgiving each other.
It is Christ’s Message taken up anew, in the same words almost, but adapted to the thousand years and more difference that lies between the year one and today....
... If ever the name of Bahá’u’lláh or ‘Abdu’l-Bahá comes to your attention, do not put their writings from you. Search out their Books, and let their glorious, peace-bringing, love-creating words and lessons sink into your hearts as they have into mine.
... Seek them, and be the happier.28
The following year, Queen Marie’s husband King Ferdinand died, and when Martha Root called, on her second interview, the queen and her daughter Princess Ileana had been reading Bahá’u’lláh’s words in the Íqán about life after death. In subsequent interviews, Queen Marie gave Martha Root written appreciations, used as frontispieces for the Bahá’í World volumes, and a diamond and pearl brooch, now in the International Archives building in Haifa. Princess Ileana translated a Bahá’í pamphlet into Rumanian and saw to its printing.
Martha Root spoke of Queen Marie as being beautiful—as a queen should be. Indeed, in her articles she had nothing but kind words for everyone she met, writing with love and respect of the heads of state, professors and other notables whom she met in Europe and Asia.
President Masaryk, founder of Czechoslovakia, she described as “a psychologist of peace ... born into this world to be a statesman.”29 Dr. Joseph Kruszynski, president of Lublin University, who had visited ‘Abdu’l-Bahá as a young priest and was the first to write of the Faith in Polish, she found, “a tall, handsome, scholarly, kindly, interesting man with eyes full of light.”30
Their words, and those of others Martha met on this trip—Drs. Auguste Forel, Edmund Privat, and Charles Baudouin of Switzerland; Prince Paul and Princess Olga of Yugoslavia and Professor Bogdon Popovitch of that country; Dr. Rusztem Vámbéry of Hungary; Eduard Benes, foreign minister and later president of Czechoslovakia; King Faisal of ‘Iráq; notables of Turkey, Egypt, India, and Japan; Dr. Sun Yat-Sen, founder of modern China, and Dr. Y. S. Tsao, president of Tsing Hua University—can be found in the Bahá’í World.31
[Page 8]
Small wonder that the noted people she interviewed
with such interest and enthusiasm were able to speak
appreciatively of the Bahá’í Faith; they had her for an
example. Doris McKay, who knew her, wrote that, “Whoever you were, her loving interest was her introduction
to you. There was no one, high or low, who had not felt
that.... There was a quiet stateliness in her manner, an
element of ceremony. ‘Make every meeting an occasion,’ she instructed me. ‘Give something always, if only
a flower, some candy or fruit. Pray that they will accept
from you the Greater Gift.’ ”32
After her years in Europe, Martha Root took the long way home by way of Turkey; Egypt; a month in Haifa as a guest of Shoghi Effendi; Damascus; ‘Iráq; five months in Írán, where she visited the friends and places of Bahá’í martyrdom; two and a half months in India and Burma; Malaya; China; Japan; and Hawaii. The National Spiritual Assembly of Írán wrote with appreciation of the effect of Martha Root’s visit on the believers: “People who, as proved by history, looked down upon foreigners with enmity and bitterness, and considered association with them as contrary to religion, now, thanks to Bahá’u’lláh’s Teachings, shed tears of joy at the sight of their American sister.” That letter also remarked on “the eagerness with which friends rushed to meet her.”33 They took her to the tomb of the Varqás and the home of Ṭáhirih, and she, in turn, recorded for the Western believers the beautiful story of the Varqá family in “White Roses of Persia”34 and began work on her book of the life of Ṭáhirih.
Martha spent a year in the United States, traveling from the Pacific to the Atlantic, lecturing daily as she went.
Europe Again[edit]
Then in January of 1932 Martha Root set sail for her second tour of Europe, staying there another four years. She spent three months in Geneva for the Disarmament Conference and the Extraordinary Session of the League of Nations, meeting personally the statesmen of over fifty nations.
After that she concentrated chiefly on Northern and Eastern Europe, where she placed articles in more than one hundred periodicals. Her efforts extended all the way to Latvia. She arranged for the publication of Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era in Rumanian, Greek, and Finnish and of a booklet, “What Is the Bahá’í Movement?” in Rumanian, Finnish, and Icelandic. She spoke on the radio and once again had interviews with notables and royalty, including an audience with King Haakon of Norway. She attended Esperanto congresses again on this trip, often in the company of Lidja Zamenhof.
For the Bahá’ís of the West she wrote of her pilgrimage to Adrianople, a pilgrimage in which she searched for and found the houses Bahá’u’lláh had lived in and the people who had known Him. The American National Spiritual Assembly wrote:
With what tenderness our hearts follow her on her journey of October, 1933, to Adrianople, where the Blessed Perfection had “planted a seed under every stone.” Through her we are welcomed by the Governor and Mayor. With her we kneel reverently in the Muradiyyih Mosque and sense “how far Bahá’u’lláh had come to meet our Western World!” Through her eyes, many times tear-dimmed in that city, we see the gentle Muṣṭafá Big, who had been in the Presence of the Beloved and was able to tell us of His gardens, His house, His great generosity, and of the reverent esteem of His fellow citizens.35
The history of the Bahá’í Faith in Iceland, like that of so many countries, begins with Martha Root’s lecture tour there (July to August of 1935). Martha told of being introduced on the street to a school principal who had read her article, “What is the Bahá’í Movement?” in the newspaper:
He invited us to come with him to his home to coffee, as is the delightful custom in Iceland. We went, and after a long conversation about the Bahá’í Teachings, just as we were about to go, he asked, “Tell me, do you believe in dreams?” The writer replied, “yes,” that Bahá’u’lláh had said there may be many mysteries and wisdoms in dreams; even there are occasions where it may happen that one witnesses outwardly in the world of time exactly the thing he had seen in his dream.
“Well,” said the host, “last night I dreamed that a bird came into this room, and resting on the sofa sang such a beautiful melody. I was so happy. This morning I said to myself, ‘Who will come?’ Then I met you in the street, you come with your friend Holmfridur to our house and you have taken the seat on the sofa where the bird came and sang the melody!” He was one of the great souls of Iceland.36
Martha Root was sent back to the United States in the middle of the following year by the Guardian. Her health was broken, and he told her to rest. She stayed two months with the Wilhelms, recuperating, then began lecturing across the United States, but with a lighter schedule than on the previous tour.
First, Finest Fruit of the Formative Age[edit]
Martha Root left San Francisco May 20, 1937, on her last earthly journey. She went first to Japan where she taught one month. She next landed in Shanghai, but the Japanese bombardment of that city made it too dangerous to stay. Her next stop was the Philippines, where an earthquake immediately after her arrival destroyed in fire all the clothes she had brought. Three months of teaching in the Philippines were followed by a month in Ceylon.
Then in October, Martha arrived in India for a fifteen-month stay, where she lectured “from Bombay to Mandalay, and from Srinagar to Colombo.”37 Her lecture topics varied: “What Is Culture?” “How We May Work for Universal Peace,” “New Solution of the Economic Problem,” etc. But, she noted, “Every lecture in India has been a Bahá’í lecture whatever the subject, the theme is always one—the teachings of the Bahá’í Faith.”38
She visited Rabindranath Tagore and met the Prime Minister of India. More than 200 newspaper articles appeared during her stay in India and Ceylon. She traveled through southern India in the company of Shirin Fozdar, who sang songs of Qurratu’l-‘Ayn (Ṭáhirih). In Rangoon she met with the Bahá’í children and gave them the first lesson in a Bahá’í class which the Rangoon Spiritual Assembly determined to continue in remembrance of her visit.
She spent three months in Karachi arranging for the publishing and printing of her book, Ṭáhirih the Pure, Írán’s Greatest Woman. Martha Root was inspired by the “heroic selflessness” of Ṭáhirih, whom she described as “the first woman suffrage martyr” and as “to this day our living, thrilling teacher.”39
“ ‘Sometimes I have asked myself,’ Martha Root had said, musing upon the life of Ṭáhirih, ‘was Ṭáhirih great enough instantly to say, “O God, I give my life to establish this Faith among mankind!” or did she, too, need to be trained by the infinite God to long to give her life as a martyr to serve this new religion.’ ”40
[Page 9]
At the end of Martha’s journey through those areas
which are now separated as India, Pakistan, and
Burma, the National Spiritual Assembly secretary
wrote: “Miss Martha Root has opened the whole of India
to us, and it now devolves upon us to utilize these
openings and produce the best of results.”41
Her last lecture tour was through Australia and New Zealand. She was in poor health and weakened as she went along, but she continued determinedly, giving her last ounce of strength. Her report to the American Bahá’ís describes her teaching method. She said that she had had a few firesides, but:
... I could not do as much as I wished, because the program was so full; and when one is going to give a lecture it is important to study, concentrate, meditate. For example, the day I was to speak in the big Theater I kept with my subject all day; I read, I thought, and I sent my “mind” once through a lecture of 45 minutes; at 5 p.m. I jotted down an outline of five points. When I spoke that night, I did not look at the outline, and I did not say exactly what I had thought out in the day—we have to see our audience before we know what we are going to say! ... We as Bahá’ís should prepare and be ready. Sometimes, I know, we cannot, because we are so interrupted, and then Bahá’u’lláh helps us just the same; but we should study and know well all the teachings.42
She wrote her report when very ill, just the day before leaving Auckland. She recalled in her letter the lecture she gave on “Scientific Proofs of Life After Death.” “Perhaps I could never give it like that again,” she wrote, “but it thrilled me. The Teachings, the proofs, are such a spiritual security. I think I love that lecture most of all. The hall was crowded, many stood, some even standing in the outer hall where they could hear but could not see. Many of them had lost loved ones, and they came to find truth and comfort.”43
Despite her illness, she had loved being with the friends and ended her report: “And now that I am leaving, May 29th on the ‘Mariposa,’ it will be very difficult to say farewell, but, if not in New Zealand, we shall again do ‘spiritual sky-larking’ together in the Heavenly Realms.”44 As the Guardian testified:
... Neither age nor ill-health, neither the paucity of literature which hampered her early efforts, nor the meager resources which imposed an added burden on her labors, neither the extremities of the climates to which she was exposed, nor the political disturbances which she encountered in the course of her journeys, could damp the zeal or deflect the purpose of this spiritually dynamic and saintly woman. Single-handed and, on more than one occasion, in extremely perilous circumstances, she continued to call in clarion tones, men of diverse creeds, color and classes to the Message of Bahá’u’lláh, until, while in spite of a deadly and painful disease, the onslaught of which she endured with heroic fortitude, she hastened homeward to help in the recently launched Seven Year Plan, she was stricken down on her way, in far-off Honolulu.45
Two Bahá’ís on board the “Mariposa” took care of her and, when the ship reached Honolulu, took her to the home of a Bahá’í, where she spent her last months, passing away on September 28, 1939, at age 67, in that “symbolic spot, meeting place of East and West.”46 The Guardian wrote to the American believers, “The passing of dearest Martha and the circumstances of her severe and painful illness have brought profound sorrow, but I rejoice at the glory and joy that must be hers and which she fully deserves in the Abhá paradise.”47
In a cable, he announced: “Posterity will establish her as the foremost Hand which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s will has raised up in first Bahá’í century. Present generation of her fellow-believers recognize her to be the first, finest fruit which the Formative Age of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh has as yet produced.”48
And in God Passes By, the Guardian’s history of the first Bahá’í century, he describes the American Bahá’í community as “crowned with imperishable glory by these signal international services of Martha Root.”49 She had, he said, “outshone the feats accomplished” by any of the propagators of the Faith “in the course of an entire century”—thus his tribute:
To Martha Root, that archetype of Bahá’í itinerant teachers and the foremost Hand raised by Bahá’u’lláh since ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s passing, must be awarded, if her manifold services and the supreme act of her life are to be correctly appraised, the title of Leading Ambassadress of His Faith and Pride of Bahá’í teachers, whether men or women, in both the East and the West.50
She was our sister Martha.
- NOTES:
- 25God Passes By, p. 387
- 26The Promised Day Is Come, pp. 32-33.
- 27God Passes By, p. 389.
- 28Bahá’í World, vol. II, p. 174.
- 29Star of the West, vol. XIX, p. 198.
- 30Bahá’í World, vol. V, p. 565.
- 31Ibid., vol. IV, pp. 429-34; vol. V, articles beginning on pp. 322, 541, 563, and 609; and subsequent volumes.
- 32Ibid., vol. VIII, p. 645.
- 33Ibid., vol. III, p. 45.
- 34Star of the West, vol. XXIII, pp. 71, 179, 226, and 255.
- 35-44, 47Bahá’í World, vol. VIII, pp. 60-72, 643-648, 809-818, and 918-921
- 45God Passes By, p. 388.
- 46Messages to America, p. 30.
- 48Star of the West, p. 374.
- 49God Passes By, p. 396.
- 50Ibid, p. 386.
Presentation to Officials in Curaçao[edit]
The Governor of The Netherlands Antilles, His Excellency Dr. B. M. Leito, is shown receiving The Proclamation of Bahá’u’lláh from the hand of Dr. Nosrat Rabbani, pioneer. Accompanying her are Mrs. Englehardt, right, and Mrs. Lenderink, left. The Governor was most interested and kept the Bahá’ís talking for over half-an-hour. This event took place on March 7 and on March 10 a similar presentation was made to the Lieutenant-Governor of Curaçao, His Excellency Mr. A. E. Kibbelaar. On March 13 a third copy of the same book was presented to the Prime Minister of the Netherlands Antilles, His Excellency Mr. O.R.A. Beaujon.
First National Spiritual Assembly in Afghanistan[edit]
Members of the first National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Afghanistan. Standing, left to right:
Khalil Akhavan, Houshang Rashidi, Mohamad Aslam Omary, Golagha Ahmadi, Mohamad Aslam
Amiry, Hooshang Mohebee, Bazmohamad Noorzei. In front: Mohamad Ibrahimzadeh, Ziaoulah Mahboobipoor.
A New All-Chinese Community in Sarawak[edit]
By the light of a borrowed gas lamp in a community hall in Siburan, on December 3rd 1971, about seventy Chinese residents of a fenced-in village in a restricted area in Sarawak heard the Bahá’í message for the first time. In order to arrange this a police permit and curfew pass had to be first obtained as Siburan is a village created under the Resettlement Project.
It all started during a “feeler” trip a few days earlier, when Koh Ai Leen of Malacca on a visit to Sarawak, went with Grace Choo to Siburan to investigate the possibility of teaching there.
In a coffee-shop, they were served by a friendly lady who turned out to be a teacher by profession. They very soon got acquainted (Ai Leen being a teacher herself) and Miss Ang kindly agreed to arrange a fireside at her home at some future date. The very next day a phone call brought the happy news that Miss Ang had contacted more than thirty friends who were interested so it was decided that a public meeting be arranged at the community hall instead of her home. Bahá’ís from Kuching went over to clean up the hall and distribute pamphlets and invitations to as many as possible.
Auxiliary Board member Grete Fozdar spoke on the Faith and Yang Kouk Chung translated into Mandarin. At that meeting, when the seeds were sown in this first all-Chinese community, one man became a Bahá’í. Vera Kho’s report says “The car that zoomed away in the blackness of the night as we returned to Kuching seemed to be traveling on air for the occupants had just soared to new heights in Sarawak after the first organised talk to the Chinese masses in East Malaysia.”
Another report from Vera about two weeks later had this interesting piece.
“It was night time in a classroom in Siburan and the attendants at the Bahá’í meeting were having the greatest lesson. It was the second public talk to be held in Siburan and this time there were ten declarants after the Message was given in Mandarin by Chua and Mrs. Choo.”
Then a still later report included the following paragraph:
“There we were in that familiar classroom in Siburan and the great lesson went even deeper. There were no talks, but there were prayers—prayers read by the new believers and readings from the holy Writings.... The Nineteen Day Feast was being celebrated in Siburan—the Feast of Sovereignty. We now have a Bahá’í community in a Chinese bazaar. Mr. and Mrs. Choo were the hosts to about thirty new believers.”
[Page 11]
Sixteenth Annual Convention of the Bahá’ís, Anchorage, April 28-30, 1972. Mrs. Florence Mayberry, Counsellor, and Auxiliary Board member Howard Brown are in the front row center.
ALASKA—CONVENTION REPORT[edit]
Last year’s Convention was a banner-waving one, at which the delegates dared to challenge the believers to “Spiritually Conquer Alaska.” This year’s Convention was one of quieter strength and self confidence as the twenty-nine delegates and 200 friends gathered to rejoice over the gains and to plan for the future.
In the cable from The Universal House of Justice, Alaska was praised for fulfilling all goals and called a “shining light.”
These goals fulfilled were the formation of thirty-two Assemblies, including one in the Aleutians, two on Kodiac Island and three in the Baranofs. Twelve Assemblies are incorporated. Prayers have been translated into Athabascan and Tlingit and Bahá’í literature also translated into Aleut and Yukpik as well as tapes made in the leading languages of Alaska.
One goal was to extend teaching activity among minority groups. Now a large proportion of the believers of Alaska represent minorities and they are very much involved in teaching activities.
In addition the foreign goals have been accomplished. The Stettler family of three pioneered to Swaziland. Don and Marie Van Brunt pioneered to Iceland. Kathryn Alio settled in Lesotho. Alaska assisted in the acquisition of Temple sites in West Africa and Luxembourg.
A youth conference with sixty to seventy participants was held during Convention. All youth recommendations were accepted by the delegates. By various activities they raised some $400 for the Fund during Convention.
In response to the urgent plea of The Universal House of Justice in their Riḍván Message for pioneers to complete the worldwide goals, by the end of Convention forty-four persons had volunteered to pioneer or travel-teach, over twenty percent, or one person out of five.
Howard Brown, Auxiliary Board member, reminded the friends that during the disintegration of the old world, people will come to the Bahá’ís as patients come to their doctor.
Counsellor Florence Mayberry spoke on “Alaska in the Eyes of the World,” reminding them that at the Singapore Conference they were asked about the “prayer watch” and how the “Army of Light” was formed in Alaska. She told of interest in Central and South America in the techniques developed in Alaska. She repeated a portion of the 1964 Message from The Universal House of Justice to Alaska to “play your part in the awakening of the entire North American continent.” In conclusion she stated that the power and dynamism of the believers have been tapped and described it as a wonderful example of universal participation.
National Spiritual Assembly members of Alaska for 1972-1973 with Mrs. Florence Mayberry and Howard
Brown at center. Members: Arthur Jess; Blaine Reed; Georgia Haisler, Recording Secretary; George
Wang; John Kolstoe, Chairman; Donald A. Anderson, Treasurer; Mary Brown; Robin Fowler, Vice-Chairman; Janet Smith, Secretary.
[Page 12]
Group Photograph of International Conference Panama, May, 1, 2, 1972
PANAMA LIONS’ CLUB CAMP[edit]
The first day of the Conference. Some of the sixteen
tribes represented. Note the Eskimo in the back with her
fur hood.
Looking back on those five days which flowed with
activity from dawn till midnight and often long after,
we recall the faces of the Bahá’ís, not so much what was
said, but the faces of the 4,000 subjects in the Kingdom
of Bahá’u’lláh, submerged in the sea of grace, rayed
through and through by that mysterious quickening
power of God.
Nowhere was this so evident as in the group at the Lions’ Club, where about 400 Indian and campesino Bahá’ís lived in camping style with the overflow from the crowded hotels. The facility is a summer camp for underprivileged children, and stands on a hilltop near to and slightly lower than the Temple. Here for a number of years the National Assembly of Panama has held its National Conventions since the summer school at Villa Virginia has become too small. It seemed most fitting that our Indians and campesinos should find a resting place within sight of the Queen of Sonsonate. At night the glowing Temple on the nearby hilltop blessed the camp; and by day, facing the white dome and ‘Akká, many of the friends said their morning prayers. Its influence was strongly felt, and it became the focal point for the teeming love and adoration of Bahá’u’lláh and God Himself that swirled through the camp. As one man said, “We felt strongly the presence of Bahá’u’lláh. He was there.”
The beautiful Guaymi Indians of Panama forgot their reputed “stolidity”, and, as the friends arrived the first night, ran out with glad cries to kiss and embrace companions of schools and teaching trips. The face of a non-Bahá’í bus driver who saw this was a real picture of amazement, shock and pleasure as he gasped and laughed when the Indians and “Blancos” embraced. (Incidentally, he asked for a Bahá’í book.) The Lions’ Club was, as usual, living the life.
The cooks and assistants in the kitchen, many of them Cuna Indians, all became Bahá’ís after two days of this happy fellowship, for they felt the brimming over of love.
On the night of arrival for the National Conference, one of the Indian babies, after three days travel with his parents on foot through the wilderness and in the bus, was rushed to St. Tomas Hospital at midnight, suffering from severe diarrhea and dehydration from the days without food or liquid. The doctor gave him an injection and wrote out the prescriptions, telling us to get as much liquid into him as possible as he was badly dehydrated and in danger of death. There was a mad jeep ride hunting for an all-night drug store and then a restaurant for cans of apple juice. By two in the morning he was greedily sucking apple juice from the can as there was no time to sterilize bottles. In two days he was a smiling happy baby, eating voraciously. His name was Karbila. There was another Guaymi baby named Abhá.
The Temple’s very nearness set the atmosphere, for with so many people living in the rough accommodations—bunk beds, child size, five feet long, dormitories, cafeteria dining—the warmth and radiance was almost universal. It was amazing how little complaining went on. How well the mixed crowd of indigenous, sometimes primitive, people and “rich North Americans and Latin Americans” with cameras, radios, moving picture cameras, with bags and bags of clothing and cosmetics (which made the humbler shopping bag of the Indian or bundle of a change of clean clothing look poor indeed), met and truly lived together, forgetting self and jumping eagerly to help one another. As one of the workers there said, “Here is your answer to the people who say that this Faith is a beautiful dream, but it will never work.” “Yes,” said another, “in these Conferences we are living for a time in the world’s future!”
As in all of the Bahá’í activities, there was a committee that worked day and night. The physical arrangements were under the direction of the devoted
A new Panamanian believer, photographed on the day of her declaration.
[Page 15]
pioneers, Ken and Marty Rutan, who worked sixteen to
eighteen hours a day to make things as happy and comfortable as possible. Others on and off the committee
worked long hours to help. One American believer got to
only one session of the Conference and missed the Dedication so that others might be free to go.
“We are soldiers of God’s Army” was the theme song of the Camp; it was whistled, hummed, sung and strummed on guitars day and night. Groups got together and sang spontaneously, and there was always a guitar handy. One night, while waiting for the buses to take us to the Gymnasium, the delegates of Trinidad-Tobago, Ecuador and Panama came together in the center of the dining hall and “sang up a storm!” A few youth from the United States joined in and with Alberto Carbo, the little dynamo of Ecuador, leading they sang songs in Spanish and English. Mr. Carbo is noted for the Bahá’í songs he writes. One beautiful song from Hawaii was taught by Tod Fletcher from the United States. Mr. Leo Frazier, National Secretary of Trinidad, a handsome and most dignified gentleman, stood on the outskirts of the singing group, surprised, perhaps even a little shocked at the whole-hearted abandon of young and old, performing so uninhibitedly together; but in a few minutes, the joy was so irresistible that he was singing merrily with the rest.
The Trinidad delegation was one of the joys of the Dedication and Conference. The vivid Edna Caverly, North American pioneer to Trinidad-Tobago, sang the “Remover of Difficulties” with solo and chorus as it is sung in her locality.
Everywhere, on lines outdoors and in the bathrooms, was the laundry of the Indians as they strove to keep themselves shining clean. The Cuna Señoras washed their clothes on the rocks of the hillside in the rain. One day the Cuna ladies did one of their beautiful dances with pan pipes and maraccas.
There was no age barrier. The youth leaped to help older or crippled friends, saving them seats on the buses and gladly carrying packages or bundles too heavy for them. For three nights in succession the guests made sandwiches for the lunch boxes to be taken to the Gymnasium, and for the Indians to carry with them on their return journey, as many of them would have to go on foot for one or two days after the bus ride was completed. In the mountains there are no roads as yet, and no stores in the wilderness where food can be bought. The Lions’ Club guests gladly did this to relieve the cooks and their helpers, who worked sixteen hours a day. All efforts were received with loving gratitude. It was amusing to see the slight wariness shown on arrival melting away and joyous companionship taking over.
There were so many beautiful people that it is impossible to name them all. Mrs. Bobby Savage, who with her muy simpatico husband has a Bahá’í Institute in Mexico, although confined to wheel chair or crutches, lives an active and ardent Bahá’í life teaching and traveling; and, by her radiant example, teaching more than by her words. She is an Osage Indian. Our dear and tireless Dr. Sherrill Kelly worked almost round the clock. Mornings, after breakfast and about 11:00 at night were the scheduled “sick call” in the little infirmary at the Lions’ Club; and during the hours between, two former U.S. Army medics acted as nurses. Dr. Kelly spent his days guarding the health of the beloved Hands, and holding a small clinic at the Gymnasium.
Meanwhile, whenever there was free time, the friends young and old staying at the Lions’ Club went out with the Panama believers to help in the great mass conversion push that brought in almost three thousand new believers. Tired and hungry they would come straggling into the dining room, rejoicing in their, to them, incomprehensible success, with hands laden with signed declaration
A group ready to say prayers, each in his or her native language.
cards and literature, and faces radiant with
happiness. What beautiful Bahá’ís we had at the Lions’
Club! Youth, middleaged, old, members of other National Assemblies, friends from as far away as Australia, Hawaii and England. The bright colors of the
Indian costumes were like a flower garden as they clustered around the Hands in the Temple and at the Gymnasium. The love of the Hands drew them into a completely unselfconscious demonstration of the warmth
and sweetness so inherent in our Indian brothers and
sisters.
The other friends in return expressed such concern and love for the Indians that sometimes, when in the rush of the vast responsibility assumed by the Panamanian Bahá’ís, something would be overlooked, the guests pitched in and took care of it. Specifically, there was the case of the infected toe of one of the delegation from Bolivia. He seemed too retiring to bring it to the Doctor’s attention, even when urged; so, one of the North American women who had had first aid training dressed it, and later got him to go to the Doctor. Another time, when the plan to have a room for Indian family groups became impossible because of the continually arriving crowd, Ken and Marty Rutan gave up their own room to the Cuna family groups, and slept in a storeroom.
The farewells the last day were filled with loving warmth, with embraces and exchange of gifts, both Indian and visiting women taking off bits of jewelry to give them to friends new or old; with promises to meet again here or in the world to come, with messages to friends who could not come. The Guaymi kept to their custom of riding away in the buses chanting “Alláh’u’Abhá!”
Those of us who have had experience at the Lions’ Club in other years know how strong is the spirit there, and we wouldn’t be bribed to spend our time in the most luxurious hotel. We know that the real essence of those five wonderful days was there. We were “Soldiers of God’s Army” bivouacking together there in the love and service of Bahá’u’lláh.
Even the very shy Chocos smiling and offering their hands in farewell were a small miracle of love. One Guaymi said to a Choco, “How are you going home?” The Choco chuckled and replied, “I’m going home in my car with two wheels!” All carried away the blessed memory of the glowing Temple, and the joyful, noisy life of the Camp—brothers and sisters, loving, helping, praying together, always in spirit together.
More About the Cunas[edit]
The Cuna Indians who reside on the San Blas Islands, off the Atlantic coast of Panama, have a prophetic heritage which includes a promise that God will send people to them from the outside world with a new Book, a new Message and a new Name and that the Message will teach them to live in harmony with all the people of the world. The Cuna word for God is Baha.
Nine years ago the Bahá’ís from Panama traveled throughout the islands and, at that time, over 2,000 Cunas accepted the Cause. They have, since that time, had little opportunity to deepen in their knowledge of the Faith.
Recently a teaching team visited the island of Ustupo, spending four days with the Cunas. During this time the Sahilas (chiefs) of the island accepted the Cause, as did the Voceros (spokesmen). That the Sahilas embraced the Faith is highly significant, as they have previously treated any visitors who spoke of religion with courtesy but have refused to align themselves with any religion. Plans are now being made to deepen the Cunas systematically.
The “mola” shown is a sample of the Pre-Colombian
native art form of the Cunas of the San Blas Islands. It is
made of layers of colored cloth with a reverse applique
process, cutting through layers to expose the desired
design. The women use them on the waist of their gowns.
It is said that a “mola” must be used at least once
before it can be sold. They are used for wall decorations
and are collected in prominent museums. Many were
for sale at the Gymnasium where the Conference was
held, and were popular with visitors.
Cuna Bahá’ís. Note the “mola” worn on the woman’s blouse.
National Convention of Bolivia[edit]
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Bolivia,
Riḍván 1972-73. Left to right: standing: Prudencio Peña,
Sabino Ortega, Hugo Soria, Reginald Baskin, Auxiliary
Board member Marilyn Dunbar, Fatinih Ouladi, Continental Counsellor Athos Costas; seated: Auxiliary
Board member Andres Jachakollo, Dr. Eshraghollah
Ouladi, Juan Mamani, Isidro Jachakollo, Dorothy Baskin, Auxiliary Board member Touba Maani.
Martha Root’s Preparation for Her Journeys[edit]
Before starting on her world tours to promote the Bahá’í Faith, Martha Root performed a symbolic deed. She made a trip to Austin, Texas and visited Miss Anna Reinke, a believer who was a seamstress, working by the day in various homes. One morning Martha asked Anna for a small box and with this in hand they went to the backyard, dug a hole and buried the box. Martha exclaimed to the effect: “Now I am ready. I have left my self behind.”
As for Anna, she continued to work and serve the Cause. She set herself to place a copy of Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era in every library in Texas and carried on extensive correspondence to this end. She bought an old streetcar, had it moved to some distance from the city and converted it into her home which became a rallying-point for the Bahá’ís for some years. She passed on May 23, 1971. (As told by Anna Reinke to Evelyn Hardin, Managing Editor, BAHÁ’Í NEWS)
Belize Holds Unity Month[edit]
A Bahá’í month—“Unity” month! Hand of the Cause of God Dr. Muhájir suggested it when visiting Belize, British Honduras at the beginning of February. “India”, he said, “was concentrating on the cities, discovering many waiting souls of capacity to become teachers of the masses. Why not concentrate our next effort on Belize City?” he asked. We agreed. But a month! Could we cope with that? Had we the personnel? The Universal House of Justice had advised us to make audacious plans, then rely on the Supreme Concourse to help carry them out.
So we set February 19 for the opening. Our Minister of Internal Affairs, always a friend of the Faith, when meeting Dr. Muhájir had agreed to open the month by radio and in person but unfortunately when the time came he had to be out of the country. We went to work, many people cooperating. Five thousand leaflets were printed, announcing the month and subjects to be presented, based on ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s “Seven Candles of Unity” and additional Bahá’í principles. Attractive posters with drawings and quotations, a book display, picture displays showing Bahá’í unity in action, all these made the Center a place to fill the eye and the mind.
Then, wonderful news came! Hand of the Cause of God Dr. Ugo Giachery and Mrs. Giachery would arrive on February 14 and leave on February 20, just in time to open Unity Month on his last night. We would make this a reception for him as well, but hold it at our best hotel to accommodate more people and facilitate serving a nice supper. Three hundred invitations were sent out in the hope that ten percent would accept. Newspaper and radio publicity was released and we began to distribute the leaflets all over the city. We were ready.
Dr. and Mrs. Giachery arrived, met with the National Assembly, with the Bahá’ís, visited and spoke at the new Capital, Belmopan, and while there had a forty minute interview with our Premier and recorded a talk for radio. At the reception he gave a beautiful discourse on “Unity” to an audience of fifty-six, twenty of them learning of the Faith for the first time.
We were off to a fine start and we knew that prayers and the power released during the Fast period would sustain and aid us to make the Month one that Would bear good fruit. A happy Naw-Rúz Feast had thirty-five guests, ten of them not Bahá’ís, and all enjoyed a delicious supper and true Bahá’í fellowship.
Daily radio announcements gave the topic for the program for each night. As our radio station reaches into neighboring countries, many thousands heard of the Faith daily. Auxiliary Board member Mrs. Ruth Pringle was Chairman for one of the meetings, and sixteen other Bahá’ís presided at one time or another, giving short talks and answering questions. The Center was kept open during the day but, as it was not a business street, few people came in.
Bahá’í youth participated at almost every meeting. A young Carab who had been studying the Faith in other countries came in especially to enroll. Dewart McLean from Canada was an effective teacher. Bahá’ís from Burrel Boom and Belmopan participated as well as those in Belize City. There were twenty-six non-Bahá’ís who attended the series, with from twelve to twenty-five persons at each meeting. Music and slides added to the enjoyment.
Twice during the month a team went to outlying sections of the city, showed slides, gave the Message and distributed leaflets. The first group numbered thirty, the second two hundred adults and children. The monthly fifteen-minute radio program fell during this period. The words of Bahá’u’lláh were read by two voices to a musical background and told of the Unity of God and His Messengers.
The final fruitage of this effort is unknown; however 5,000 people took the leaflets. For the last two weeks there was a book display in the lobby of the largest store in town where 3,000 leaflets were distributed, a number of Bahá’í books were sold and many opportunities were used to tell of the Faith.
The immediate results were four enrollments but who knows how much fruit is ripening? Ask anyone in Belize City if they have heard of the Bahá’í Faith and the answer will be “Yes.” So we pray for the harvest.
In the Falkland Islands a Wedding—a Proclamation[edit]
The first inter-racial marriage recorded in Falklands Islands took place on Saturday February 19, 1972. The wedding of Sally Tan Lin Nio, formerly of Sao Paulo, Brazil and Bernard Steer of the United Kingdom attracted much attention.
After a civil ceremony in the Registrar’s office the couple went to the Port Stanley Town Hall where about 120 guests awaited the Bahá’í ceremony. As they entered to music, they went to the front and seated themselves at a small table where the Greatest Name was displayed. Floral arrangements made a backdrop to the scene. There were readings from the Hindu, Buddhist, Jewish, Christian and Muslim Holy Books, interspersed with music. The theme of all the readings was “Love and Unity.” The Bahá’í readings and the marriage vow were concluded with the “Prayer for All Mankind.”
At a reception later there were representatives of many beliefs, including an Anglican minister and his wife. Notable was the complete lack of intoxicating drink, usual for such occasions in this island. Comments about this serene and beautiful wedding are still being heard and the occasion brought favorable attention to the Faith.
A Condensation of the Annual Report of the National Spiritual Assembly of Vietnam[edit]
Vietnam Convention photograph. Attendance was over 200 with 61 delegates.
Assisted by the guidance of The Universal House of
Justice, the National Bahá’í community of Vietnam has
completed a year of trials and victories.
The two largest difficulties of the Bahá’í community are the war situation and the economic collapse of the country. Because of serious fighting, the National Spiritual Assembly has lost contact with a number of localities. The contributions of the Bahá’ís were too small to meet the needs of the Faith, which prevented training sufficient teachers to consolidate hundreds of Bahá’í villages in the Highlands.
In the country there are 659 Local Spiritual Assemblies, 136 of them incorporated, and 1631 localities with a total of 121,839 believers. Because of inability to get in touch with many localities, the National Spiritual Assembly asked The Universal House of Justice to allow the acceptance of all the old localities until a detailed report can be made.
A goal of the Nine Year Plan not yet completed is securing a Temple site. One has been selected on the highway opposite the National Military Graveyard, and it is in the process of being acquired. Supplementary goals were to send a pioneer each to New Caledonia, where Mr. Nguyen Huu has volunteered to go in June, and also a pioneer is needed for Madagascar.
The Proclamation Committee and the Committee for Observance of Holy Days have made progress. More people are getting to know and to respect the Faith. The Proclamation Committee sent out a questionnaire which received a good response. Recently a group of over fifty University students have voluntarily written the National Spiritual Assembly asking for Bahá’í literature for their study.
Teaching and consolidation activities have been carried out by National, Zone and Provincial Teaching Committees and Local Assemblies, though hindered by lack of funds. Deepening classes are organized every month for each Zone and every week at some localities. The Bahá’í Bulletin contains all the important instructions from The Universal House of Justice, as well as instructions from the Vietnam National Assembly, and news inside and outside the country.
Individually, many women have actively taught the Faith in various Zones and gained significant results. Youth activities were fruitful because of a correspondence course entitled “Towards Bahá’u’lláh and the New World Order”, the establishment of a Youth Library, the formation of a Student Club in Van Hahn University, the organization of teaching classes for youth and of a National Youth Conference. The youth have proved their trustworthiness in the midst of a world of confusion and decay. Their enthusiasm, steadfastness and sacrifices are a source of comfort upholding the Faith in time of trial.
The Language Committee has translated teaching material from English. The Chinese Language Committee has started a Teaching and Proclamation Plan by distributing literature in Chinese and publishing Bahá’í articles in Chinese newspapers.
Bahá’í properties increased during the year with the purchase and building of the Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds of Ta Duong. Others are in the process of being acquired in QueSon, Dientruong, and Phutho while land has been donated by believers in Phong-Phu (Phong Dinh Province), and in Dientruong (An-Zuyen Province).
Hand of the Cause Collis Featherstone made a welcome visit which inspired the Bahá’ís, especially the youth. A few days before Convention, Counsellors Mr. Payman and Mr. Yan Kee Leong met with the National Spiritual Assembly.
A weakness this past year is that many localities lost contact with the National Spiritual Assembly and did not send in reports while the National Spiritual Assembly did not have the means to send out enough people to these localities, and loss of contact means weakening. Therefore to maintain all cherished goals and to continue consolidation, liaison must be improved.
The Universal House of Justice in its Riḍván 1972 Message called on us to “consider the world picture” and “upon all believers everywhere to prayerfully consider their personal circumstances, and to arise while there is yet time, to fill the international pioneer goals”. Those who have means without having capacity should contribute the means; those who have capacity without having means should contribute their capacity.
Let all of us pray together to show our gratitude to Bahá’u’lláh for all His bestowals during the year and also to supplicate Him to continue to protect our Bahá’í brothers and sisters in the areas of serious fighting such as Binh-Long, Binh-Dinh, Kontum, Pleiku, Quang-Tri, Thua Thien and Chuong-Thien.
The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Vietnam. Right to left: Mr. Le Loc, Chairman; Mr. Le Can,
Vice-Chairman; Mr. Le Cho, Secretary; Mr. Tran Thang,
Treasurer; Mr. Nguyen Hoang Loc, Assistant Secretary;
Mr. Le Due Huan, Assistant Treasurer; Mrs. Tranthi
Giang Chau; Mr. Le Duy Thinh; Mr. Truong Lien Dong.
IN INDIA[edit]
Hand of the Cause Mr. A. Q. Faizí addressing a seminar
of the newly enrolled university students of Delhi at the
Bahá’í House. Counsellor S. Vasudevan conducted the
seminar which was attended by over a hundred students, on February 9, 1972.
Students listening to the talk of Hand of the Cause Mr.
A. Q. Faizí at the New Delhi Bahá’í Students Seminar on
Feb. 9, 1972.
Forty-third Annual Convention of the Bahá’ís of India, held at Poona from April 30 to May 2, 1972. Present in the Convention were Hand of the Cause Mr. A. A. Furútan, Counsellors Shirin Boman and S. Vasudevan as well as most of the Auxiliary Board members in India.
Bahá’í Participation in Brussels International Book Fair[edit]
Left to right, Mrs. Elizabeth Olinga, Hand of the Cause Enoch Olinga, Miss Emma Pauwels and visitor.
This year for the first time, the Brussels Bahá’í
French Language Publishing Trust has participated in
the International Book Fair which takes place in Brussels every year in March. Among those of 1,100 publishers, the booth of the Bahá’í Publishing Trust presented
the whole range of Bahá’í literature in French and
samples of Bahá’í literature in some forty languages.
Twenty-four National Spiritual Assemblies had cooperated in sending samples of literature in their languages,
among them Lao, Amharic, Chinese, Bengali, Urdu,
Panjabi, Pushtu, and Samoan.
Of the 125,000 visitors of the Fair, several thousand persons passed the Bahá’í booth and were offered pamphlets and invitations to Bahá’í evenings.
Highlights of the exhibition were the visit by the Hand of the Cause, Mr. Enoch Olinga and Mrs. Olinga who, on their European tour, passed through Brussels, and the visit by His Majesty King Baudouin. The King who was accompanied by M. De Raeymackers, inquired about the purpose of the Bahá’í Publishing Trust and Mrs. Lea Nys had the privilege of giving him, though very briefly, the Message and offering him a book.
King Baudouin of Belgium visiting the Bahá’í booth at
International Book Fair, Brussels. Left to right: Mrs.
Elsa De Koninck; Auxiliary Board member Mrs. Lea
Nys; Mrs. Nanny Rizzardi, Manager of the French Language Publishing Trust; H. M. King Baudouin of Belgium; M. De Raeymackers.
Roy Wilkins Presented Louis G. Gregory Award[edit]
Roy Wilkins, Executive Secretary of the NAACP, was the recipient of the Louis G. Gregory Award for Service to Humanity on Saturday, June 24, 1972 at the Bahá’í House of Worship Foundation Hall, Wilmette, Illinois.
Given by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the North American Bahá’í Office for Human Rights (NABOHR), this award honors persons or organizations whose humanitarian services have contributed significantly to the rights and unity of man. Louis G. Gregory was a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States eleven times over a period of years and worked to advance the cause of racial unity and human rights.
In presenting the award to Mr. Wilkins, Dr. Firuz Kazemzadeh, Chairman of the Bahá’í National Spiritual Assembly and Professor of History at Yale University, stressed the part the Bahá’í Faith has played in race relations in America. He said that when ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was in this country in 1912, he addressed the fourth Annual Convention of the NAACP and pointed out that “racial differences were ephemeral and insignificant and that man’s essence lay in his being the reflection of divine qualities, virtues and perfections. The spirit and the intelligence of man is the essential ... therefore color or race are of no importance.”
Mr. Wilkins, in accepting the award which was presented to him for his part in the observance of the United Nations International Year for Action to Combat Racism and Racial Discrimination and in particular for his contributions to the cause of human rights in America over many years said, “The followers of the doctrine of love and amity between people are at times a lonely lot. Yet they have much about which to be thankful
Franklin Kahn, well-known Navaho artist and member
of the National Spiritual Assembly is presenting the
award to Mr. Wilkins while Mr. Glenford E. Mitchell
and Dr. Kazemzadeh, Secretary and Chairman of the
National Spiritual Assembly, look on.
because as great as the odds seem, they are not as
great as they once were.... The history of this country
in its slow combating of racism is that this hard task
requires the enlistment for the duration, not for the faint
hearted or weak ... but those who enjoy morsels of
victory adding them to other morsels and watching
things change, watching attitudes change, not from this
year to the next, but from this year to ten years from
now and twenty years from now. It is worthwhile to be a
member of that small band of believers whose faith
never waivers and whose deeds never cease.”
The program was chaired by Glenford E. Mitchell, former Assistant Editor of Africa Report and now Secretary of the National Bahá’í Assembly. He spoke on the life of Louis G. Gregory. Dr. Kazemzadeh spoke on “Human Rights are God-Given Rights.” Donna Kime, recording artist for radio and television commercials, provided a musical interlude accompanied by Tom Pautz on the guitar.
The award was designed by Vernon Voelz, noted American sculptor from Sarasota, Florida and conveys the concept that human rights are God-given rights. Previous recipients of the award are Xerox Corporation for its sponsorship of the television series “Of Black America”; Clark Eichelberg, Chairman of the Commission to Study the Organization of Peace; the television series “Sesame Street”; and Dr. James L. Olivero, Executive Director of the Southwestern Cooperative Educational Laboratory.
Roy Wilkins has been Executive Director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) since 1955. He joined the staff of NAACP in 1931. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he graduated from the University of Minnesota and for eight years worked on the staff of The Kansas City Call, a weekly newspaper. He is Chairman of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and served on the President’s National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (1967-68). He is Chairman of the Call Committee of the American Negro Leadership Conference on Africa and is a member of a number of boards and governing bodies of agencies serving the field of human rights.
Victory Conference at Bangui[edit]
Auxiliary Board member Mr. Jawad Mughrabi and his
daughter with a group of Bahá’ís and their children in
Central African Republic. Many new Bahá’ís are in the
group.
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the Central African Republic elected at Riḍván 1972. From left
to right, standing: M. Michel Toleque-Koy, Recording
Secretary; M. Sebastien Tchientson; M. Raymond Ousmann; M. Albert Lincoln, Corresponding Secretary; M.
René Jean-Baptiste, Chairman; M. Hubert Katossi-Simani, Vice-Chairman. Seated: Mme. Agnes Katossi-Simani, Treasurer; Mme. Janet Mughrabi and Mme.
Turlia Jean-Baptiste.
Bahá’ís from nine different localities were gathered in
Bangui, Central African Republic, in October 1971 for a
Victory Conference, one of a series called by the Continental Board of Counsellors for the zone of Central and
East Africa and held in different countries of the zone.
The Conference was a great success and gathered together for the first time over fifty Bahá’ís from different
parts of the country to discuss the outstanding goals of
the Nine Year Plan.
For many, it was the first time they had been able to meet with Bahá’ís from other communities and to visit the newly acquired National Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds where the Conference was held.
Under the able leadership of the representative of the Continental Board of Counsellors, Mrs. Isobel Sabri, the Conference gave new awareness and fired the enthusiasm of all those who were able to participate.
First Pygmy believer in the Central African Republic,
(February 1972) with Auxiliary Board member Mr.
Jawad Mughrabi, pioneer to Bangui.
Dr. and Mrs. Giachery Visit Trinidad and Tobago[edit]
Dr. Ugo Giachery, representative of The Universal House of Justice and Mrs. Angelina Giachery, made a three-day visit to Trinidad and Tobago April 12-15. A press conference held on April 13 included the editor and reporters of two leading newspapers, and representatives of the two radio stations.
After the press conference, lunch was served to all present, including a very good friend of the Bahá’í Faith, Senator Nickolas Simonette and his wife, Irma. Wide publicity was given to the occasion in both press and radio. Later that day, a meeting was held at the Bahá’í Center for the friends who enjoyed hearing about Dr. Giachery’s wide experiences, especially his memories of the very many years spent in association and collaboration with the beloved Guardian Shoghi Effendi.
On Friday Morning, Dr. and Mrs. Giachery, accompanied by several Bahá’ís, paid a courtesy call on His Excellency The Governor General Sir Solomon Hochoy at Governor General’s Residence, St. Ann’s. The visit lasted for an hour in a friendly atmosphere, during which His Excellency expressed his sympathy towards the Faith.
Second National Convention of Trinidad and Tobago[edit]
The second National Convention of the Bahá’ís of Trinidad and Tobago was held at the Bahá’í Center, Woodbrook, April 22-23, 1972. Auxiliary Board member for South America, Mr. Leonard Ericks, seventeen delegates (mostly new believers) and a large number of Bahá’í friends were present.
The Message of The Universal House of Justice to the Bahá’ís of the world was read by Auxiliary Board member Mr. Leonard Ericks. Consultation and discussions on teaching and consolidation of the Faith, and the election of the second National Spiritual Assembly took place in a spirit of love and unity.
The reports of victories won were very exciting. The number of Local Spiritual Assemblies raised was from 27 to 68; localities from 77 to 160, and believers from 940 to 2,400 since last Riḍván.
The purchase of the endowment property and Temple site are progressing satisfactorily, and the incorporation of the National Spiritual Assembly is near completion. The enthusiasm of the friends to double their activities is indescribable.
New Center in Micronesia[edit]
Partial group of the friends attending the dedication of the first Bahá’í Center in Mwalok Village, Sokehs, Ponape, Micronesia. Hand of the Cause Featherstone is in the back row.
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National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Thailand
for 1972-73. Standing, left to right: Yoga Chandra, Treasurer; Jai Gopal, Chairman; Nasser Jafri; Noi’ M. K.
Chandran. Seated, left to right: Aldham Robarts, Vice-Chairman; Avril Robarts; Auxiliary Board member
Mrs. Betty Fernandez; Mrs. Savita Jand, Secretary;
Prasad.
The Magetan community of East Java at Riḍván 1972.
There is a Local Spiritual Assembly in Magetan. Sixth
from right, standing, is Mr. Salijanto, Auxiliary Board
member for South East Asia. Many travel/teachers are
present.
Proclamation in Arusha, Tanzania[edit]
“Bahá’u’lláh, the Promised One of All Religions” was the theme of the Bahá’í proclamation meeting held on April 23, 1972 by the Arusha, Tanzania community at Tanu Hall. The meeting attracted at least 250 people.
Approximately forty posters in which the name “Bahá’u’lláh” appeared were distributed in the city along with 2,000 printed invitations in both Swahili and English. Over 1,000 pamphlets, Imani ya Bahá’í and a few Bahá’í Faith: An Introduction by Gloria Faizi, were given with the invitations at all stores and offices. The Regional Police Commander had visited the Shrine of the Báb and was especially pleased to receive his invitation. He introduced the Bahá’ís to his subordinates and urged that they be given invitations also. Just prior to the meeting, a loudspeaker was used to invite people.
Dr. Belcher from Dar-es-Salaam graciously consented to be the guest speaker. Sally Quazi enthusiastically translated. This was followed by a question and answer program in which typical questions were asked. In addition to prayers in two languages, there were readings from Hidden Words and music by the Kijenge Bahá’í Choir.
At the close of the meeting, printed forms were distributed in which those who attended could indicate their desire for more information or their intention to be a Bahá’í. There were forty-seven inquiries and twenty-nine desired to become believers.
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