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| No. 512 | BAHA’I YEAR 130 | NOVEMBER, 1973 |
| Auxiliary | Being | You |
| Boards | different | have been |
| amplified | in Caldera | chosen |
| page 1 | page 2 | page 10 |
[Page 0]
Page 3
Page 6
Page 10
| CONTENTS |
Auxiliary Boards services amplified | 1 |
Being different in Caldera | 2 |
From Nairobi to Kabimba | 5 |
You have been chosen | 10 |
Around the World | 16 |
A social conscience came with time | 19 |
| COVER PHOTO |
Queen Marie of Roumania (second from left) and her royal family with U.S. Secretary of State Frank Kellog (with cane) and other government officials during the Queen’s visit to America in 1926.
| PHOTO AND DRAWING CREDITS |
COVER: UPI; 1 (left to right) Courtesy Organization of American States, Violette Nakhjavani; 2 Courtesy Luis Mitrovich; 3 (top) Reed Chandler, (bottom) Courtesy Organization of American States; 5-9 Violette Nakhjavani; 17 Jelve Photo; 18 (top left) Courtesy Bureau of Public Affairs Department of State, Courtesy National Bahá’í Proclamation Committee of Argentina. BACK COVER: “The Bettman Archives.” DRAWINGS: 4, 14, 15, 21 Dr. David Ruhe; 13 Bill Smith.
| CORRECTIONS |
On page 15 of the October 1973 issue of Bahá’í News it was incorrectly reported that the 90th anniversary of the first mention of the Bahá’í Faith in the U.S. was celebrated on September 23. It was, in fact, the 80th anniversary that was celebrated.
Bahá’í News is published for circulation among Bahá’ís only by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, as a news organ reporting current activities of the Bahá’í world community.
Bahá’í News is edited by an annually appointed Editorial Committee.
Material must be received by the twenty-fifth of the second month preceding date of issue. Address: Bahá’í News Editorial Office, 112 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois 60091, U.S.A.
Change of address should be reported directly to Membership and Records, National Bahá’í Center. 112 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois. U.S.A. 60091.
Auxiliary Boards’services amplified[edit]
To The Bahá’ís Of The World
Dear Bahá’í Friends,
In order to meet the growing needs of an ever-expanding Bahá’í World Community we have taken two decisions designed to reinforce and extend the services of the Auxiliary Boards.
First, the number of Auxiliary Board members throughout the world is to be raised to two hundred and seventy, of whom eighty-one will serve on the Auxiliary Boards for the Protection of the Faith and one hundred and eighty-nine will serve on the Auxiliary Boards for the Propagation of the Faith. In all there will be fifty-four Auxiliary Board members in Africa, eighty-one in the Western Hemisphere, eighty-one in Asia, eighteen in Australasia and thirty-six in Europe.
Secondly, we have decided to take a further step in the development of the institution by giving to each Continental Board of Counsellors the discretion to authorize individual Auxiliary Board members to appoint assistants. Such authorization does not have to be given to all the Auxiliary Board members in a zone nor does the number assigned have to be the same for all Board members; indeed certain Boards of Counsellors may decide that the present circumstances in their zones do not require them to take advantage of this possibility. Such matters are left entirely to the discretion of each Continental Board of Counsellors.
The exact nature of the duties and the duration of the appointment of the assistants is also left to each Continental Board to decide for itself. Their aims should be to activate and encourage Local Spiritual Assemblies, to call the attention of Local Spiritual Assembly members to the importance of holding regular meetings, to encourage local communities to meet for the Nineteen Day Feasts and Holy Days, to help deepen their fellow-believers’ understanding of the Teachings, and generally to assist the Auxiliary Board members in the discharge of their duties. Appointments may be made for a limited period, such as a year or two, with the possibility of re-appointment. Believers can serve at the same time both as assistants to Auxiliary Board members and on administrative institutions.
It is our prayer at the Sacred Threshold that this new development in the institution of the Auxiliary Boards will lead to an unprecedented strengthening of the Local Spiritual Assemblies throughout the world.
7 October, 1973
| NUMBERS OF AUXILIARY BOARD MEMBERS BY ZONES OCTOBER 1973 | ||||
| Auxiliary Board for Protection |
Auxiliary Board for Propagation | |||
| AFRICA | ||||
| North-western | 3| | 9| | ||
| Central and East | 13| | —18 | 19| | —36 |
| Southern | 2| | 8| | ||
| WESTERN HEMISPHERE | ||||
| North America | 9| | 18| | ||
| Central America | 9| | —27 | 9| | —54 |
| South America | 9| | 27| | ||
| ASIA | ||||
| Western | 9| | 18| | ||
| South Central | 3| | __ | 15| | __ |
| South-eastern | 3| | 18 | 15| | 63 |
| North-eastern | 3| | 15| | ||
| AUSTRALASIA | 9 | 9 | ||
| EUROPE | 9 | 27 | ||
| 81 | 189 | |||
Being different in Caldera[edit]
The port of Caldera, Chile.
[Page 3]
Nearby to the once opulent, now declined city of Copiapo, capital of the
desert province of Atacama, is the
coastal mining and fishing town of Caldera. It was between these two cities that
the first railway in the hemisphere was
built in 1851, during the days when
silver mining made this area the heart
and soul of Chile. Now the main activity
here is the loading of minerals dug from
the great and angry desert, one of the
most absolute and barren on the earth.
During the year Caldera’s population is
a meager 3,000 people. But during the
summer season as many as 15,000 people take up residence in this forlorn
white and ocher bit of landscape, intruding upon the vast precipitous, Pacific coastline. From July
25 until August 2 Chilean Bahá’ís from
the South sojourned here to conduct a
teaching and deepening institute.
With the financial support of the National Spiritual Assembly of Chile and the cooperative efforts of the Area Teaching Committee of Atacama and the National Teaching Committee, twenty-seven Bahá’ís mostly youth, from as far as 1,200 miles away, participated in the nine-day deepening/teaching “torneo”, called “Dare to be Different”. Ten of the youth were sponsored by the National Teaching Committee, as a means of assuring representation from different parts of the country. Two of the ten were Mapuche youth from the southern province of Cautin.
Planning was done months in advance and travel arrangements were made with as much anticipation as possible. The shortage of transportation is one of the many problems facing Chile at this time, especially during the two-week period when schools close for winter vacations.
The first afternoon we broadcast a series of programs over a city-wide loud-speaker system, proclaiming the Faith through word and song. Being a very small town, Caldera has no radio station of its own. Instead, it has a well-planned network of strategically located loudspeakers, which cover all news and other programs broadcast at different times of the day. The two programs that day were meant to invite the public to the outdoor Municipal Stadium that night to hear more about
Bahá’ís teaching in the streets of Caldera.
Shade trees in the Atacama: rare thing in the desert.
[Page 4]
the Bahá’í Faith. About 150 came to the
Stadium and much literature was taken.
After the public proclamation at the stadium the Bahá’ís gathered at the institute grounds for a three-day deepening institute.
This deepening program was developed with two main goals in mind: 1. to launch a fullscale teaching program in the north of Chile, and 2. to give the participants an example of Bahá’í fellowship.
More teaching followed the Deepening Institute. Teams of Bahá’ís set out to cover different parts of town. Some had musical instruments and teaching “carpetas”, folders or notebooks which tell about the Faith through pictures, simple designs and some writing, everyone had pamphlets, declaration cards, and abundant zeal. Again, we used the loudspeaker system, and for the first time the Message of the Blessed Beauty was given in the Mapuche language. A public meeting was held at night and, as a consequence, twelve persons were enrolled.
The next day was equally successful. Six people accepted the Bahá’í Faith. The showing of slides of the 1968 Inter-Oceanic Conference in Palermo, Sicily, gave new believers a glimpse of the international character of the Faith.
The third day of teaching took us to Copiapo to test the receptivity there to God’s Message. Most of the teaching here took place in the beautiful Central Plaza, and the nearby streets. The four National Spiritual Assembly members present set up an interview with the Alcalde, the mayor, of Copiapo. They received a kind reception. The mayor was presented a copy of Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era. The mayor explained his belief that social change should be accompanied by individual transformation. A similar presentation was made to the Mayor of Caldera the following day.
A few minutes after the meeting with Copiapo’s mayor, the Bahá’í concepts of social change and justice upset a group of boys surrounding two Bahá’í youth teaching in the plaza. These youth expressed their views on the existence of social injustice very energetically. They could not agree with the non-political nature of the Bahá’í Faith. They spoke heatedly to the Bahá’í teachers, but soon left to join other comrades.
The rest of the day was pleasant. Twelve more souls accepted the Faith, including two passengers on the bus ride from Copiapo back to Caldera. One passenger could not read or write. This woman and her two young children lived in great poverty in the deserted lands between the two cities. One Bahá’í youth taught her the short obligatory prayer; another gave her a photograph of the young ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, a precious gift, as photographs are not abundant in Chile.
That night, during the last public meeting, five more people joined the Bahá’í Faith. One was a youth whose entire family had been Bahá’ís, but who had himself thus far withheld his allegiance. He had been extremely active throughout the project and participated in the street teaching work.
The day was not over. After arriving back in Copiapo, ready to catch our bus to Santiago, the capital, we heard a half-hour program about the Bahá’í Faith broadcast on radio. The personnel at the station had asked if they could tape one of the songs, “Bring Us Together in Unity”, to play during other programs. In return they promised us another program anytime we came again to the city!
With only minutes to catch our bus we dashed into the newspaper office. We found the editor extremely busy. He motioned to a typewriter and said, “Go ahead and write the article,” then left the room.
From Nairobi to Kabimba[edit]
part twenty-two
By Violette Nakhjavani
The last part of this long African Safari started on December 12th when once again Amatu’l-Bahá and I left Nairobi in the now quite famous “Rabbani African Safari” Land Rover. She invited a young Canadian student who was going to travel and teach in Zaire during his vacation to drive there with us. We arrived in Rwanda—our thirty-first African country—where we stopped two days in the capital, Kigali, so that Amatu’l-Bahá could consult with the National Spiritual Assembly about the program for her official visit, which would follow after a month in Zaire.
During this short stop in Kigali Amatu’l-Bahá met with the believers at their Centre. She was shown two buildings that were possible choices for the National Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds, one of which had to be quickly purchased to fulfill one of the important remaining goals of the Nine Year Plan. She gave the National Assembly her views; the building she favored was later purchased.
Mr. Oloro Epyeru, one of the members of the Continental Board of Counsellors for Central and East Africa, who had been visiting the friends in Zaire,
Amatu’l-Bahá with Mr. N’Debo A Kanda Di Ne Nkeza, a provincial Governor of Zaire.
came to Kigali specially to welcome
Amatu’l-Bahá and accompany her on
her tour of Kivu Province, in the eastern part of Zaire. Mr. Epyeru, who is a
very old and dear friend of ours, and the
adopted brother of Amatu’l-Bahá,
traveled with us in January 1970 when
we started across the continent from
Kampala, Uganda, to Fort Lamy in
Tchad, so to have him with us once
again in Zaire was a great joy.
Zaire, one of the largest countries of Africa, is also one of the dearest to our hearts. During her tour of Africa Amatu’l-Bahá visited Zaire four times in all; first in January 1970, when we crossed the northern part, motoring almost 1,500 miles over some of the roughest roads in the entire continent. The second visit was in January 1972. We entered from the east coast and visited the capital, Kinshasa, and motored almost 3,000 miles through central and southern Zaire, traveling by river boat and over unspeakable roads. On our third visit we motored to the province of Kivu, one of the most beautiful regions of the country, where the of the people to this Faith is very great. The largest concentration of believers—about 30,000—are scattered throughout this region.
I would like to think that the seed for this abundant harvest was planted during the first year of the Ten Year Crusade; the direct consequence of the
| She stressed the importance of preserving the African identity and culture |
devoted labors of Rex and Mary Collison and their much-loved interpreter and co-worker Dunduzu Chiziza. All three were Knights of Bahá’u’lláh for the former Belgian colony of Ruanda-Urundi. Heroically, in the face of many handicaps and adversities, they taught the Faith to a handful of Congolese, who later carried the Message to their native villages across the border, spreading it far and wide with depth and understanding. Despite many years of cruel civil war, tribal bloodshed and opposition from Christian missionaries, these devoted and exemplary believers not only remained firm, but spread the Faith deeper into the heart of their country.
On the road to Kabimba in the famous “Rabbani African Safari” vehicle.
In this region alone there are now
more than 600 Local Spiritual Assemblies and thousands of centers. The
deepening and teaching task is gigantic
and there is a constant need for more
teachers and pioneers. We have not
been able to fathom why the people of
Zaire are so spiritually outstanding. It is
not a tribal characteristic, because their
superior spiritual receptivity to the
Cause of Bahá’u’lláh is evidenced
throughout the entire country, among
different tribes, and this innate receptivity has evidently drawn to them the
repeated mercy and blessings of
Bahá’u’lláh. Although the country did
experience the bounty of having Shoghi
Effendi travel through the land in 1940,
and of having Amatu’l-Bahá visit there
on four different occasions.
On December 19, 1972 we arrived in the beautiful city of Bukavu, the capital of Kivu Province, located at the south end of Lake Kivu, and surrounded by mountains. Bukavu has a cool and lovely climate, which makes it an ideal resort town. One very dear friend, Mrs. Ola Pawlowska, a Board member who traveled with us last year through the central and southern parts of Zaire, lives in Bukavu. She recently moved into a nice one-room apartment, which she most lovingly and thoughtfully vacated so that Amatu’l-Bahá could have more rest and quiet during her stay. She herself moved back into the overcrowded Bahá’í Centre.
The love and harmony among the pioneers, the three Persian traveling teachers living and conducting study courses in the Bahá’í Centre, and the African believers, created an atmosphere of such joy in the whole area that our hearts were uplifted, and we wondered why the friends so often deny themselves, through backbiting, criticism, inharmony and bickering, the blessings of Bahá’u’lláh. The sensitive African feels these spiritual deficiencies even more acutely than other people, and when he sees this true and sincere love and unity, he is drawn into, and becomes a natural part of the Faith. After consultation between Amatu’l-Bahá and Mr. Epyeru, Mrs. Pawlowska, and the Teaching Committee, a tour was planned which took her to the southern area as far as Fizi, and to the north as far as Goma. Unfortunately, because of heavy rains, the only bridge to the south of the Fizi region was down, and to our great disappointment, we were not able to visit the majority of the Bahá’ís who lived in that area and whom we had hoped for so long to meet.
In Bukavu, at the time Amatu’l-Bahá had her radio interview, a very fruitful press conference was also held, at which there was a long and open discussion on the Faith; this was broadcast later that evening, and a beautiful article appeared in the regional newspaper, JUA. In this interview, Rúḥíyyih Khánum stressed two points very strongly, which captured the attention of many people. A week later we heard through a friend that President Mobutu had commented to him on it and said he wished to meet Amatu’l-Bahá, as he felt the same way she did. One point was the importance of preserving the African identity and culture, fostering it and being proud of it; the second, the cardinal teaching of Bahá’u’lláh on obedience to government. She pointed out that although the Message of Bahá’u’lláh is the message of love and peace and we abhor war, there is one thing we hate even more than war and that is anarchy and civil war.
On the 21st of December Rúḥíyyih Khánum was received by the Mayor of Bukavu, a most handsome, cultivated, well-dressed and charming young man. During the last days of her stay she was received by the governor of the region, N’Debo A Kanda Di Ne Nkeza; he knew of the Faith from Kinshasa, where he had met one of the pioneers, and he spoke very warmly about it. Because it was the Christmas season, most of our tour was delayed until these festivities were over. In Zaire, as in most parts of the world, these celebrations
[Page 7]
are characterized by an excess of
drinking and brawling.
The day before Christmas we were able to visit the Bahá’ís and their friends in the town of Kabare. The Faith had been recently introduced there, and the believers were all very new. About 70 people gathered in the town’s social center to welcome Amatu’l-Bahá.
In her talk she said, “Yesterday I watched a very small bird sitting on the water. As it started moving, even though it was an extremely small bird, it left in its wake a deep impression and for a long time I could see this wide mark it had left on the water. The Word of God is very much like that. We who carry it are like that small and insignificant bird, but the Word uttered by us has such power that it will leave a deep and everlasting impression in the hearts of our hearers.” A new Bahá’í asked, “How can I protect myself from sinning? I love this Faith, I have just accepted it, but I want to know how I can live without sin?” Amatu’l-Bahá replied, “The nature of man is such that we always commit sin, different degrees of sin, but always we are sinners. Only the Manifestations of God in this world are free from sin. However, the purpose of the appearance of these Divine Beings is to teach us how to improve ourselves and under Their guidance we learn to polish our characters and our hearts and thus to sin less.”
In the afternoon the dear Bahá’ís in Walungu were very disappointed and unhappy because we had to cancel our meeting. It was to be held in a room next to the public and the people were already too inebriated to keep quiet. There was nowhere else we could meet. However, a few days later these dear friends came to the Bahá’í Centre in Bukavu, about 30 kilometers away, to hear and meet Amatu’l-Bahá. Although one meeting with the Bahá’ís of Bukavu had already been held on our arrival, a second official welcome was held at the Bahá’í Centre after the holidays were over, which over 50 believers attended. The formal letter of welcome, read aloud by the Chairman of the Local Spiritual Assembly, who was also a member of the National Spiritual Assembly and one of the oldest believers in Bukavu, is so touching that I would like to quote it in full: Very dear Mother Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum, Hand of the Cause. In the name of the Local Spiritual Assembly and the groups about Bukavu I express our intense joy at welcoming you. You are now in the Kivu area which has embraced with no reservations the Bahá’í Faith as a result of the organization so firmly laid down by our deeply regretted and much loved Guardian Shoghi Effendi who called upon pioneers to voluntarily leave their own countries and go sow the seeds of the teachings of this Holy Cause in the hearts of the human race. The community once more thanks the pioneers for responding to this appeal. They left their families, their possessions, their jobs in order to propagate the Faith, and the House of Justice is following the same road laid down by our Guardian.
Amatu’l-Bahá then spoke on the love of God, quoting the Words of Bahá’u’lláh: “I loved thy creation, hence I created thee. Wherefore, do thou love Me, that I may name thy name and fill thy soul with the spirit of life.” She spoke of the answer of our beloved Guardian to a Bahá’í who was unhappy in his local community and did not particularly like his fellow Bahá’ís. Shoghi Effendi said that in families often the children were very different and two brothers might not love each other at all. But if they loved their father, for his sake, they would make an effort to love each other, because they would know that it was His wish. Our love for Bahá’u’lláh should help us to love our fellow Bahá’ís, because it is His wish. She said capacity attracts; it is the spiritual capacity of the people of this country which has attracted the grace and the mercy of God and the blessing of the visit of Shoghi Effendi.
| The nature of man is such that we always commit sin. |
A young man asked, “As we live in age when material needs make such demands on us, how can we combine the spiritual values with these material demands?” Amatu’l-Bahá said that in the Teachings of Bahá’u’lláh we read that God has created all things for man and permitted us to partake of all the joy and pleasures of life; the only thing which God has reserved for Himself are the hearts of men. As long as we preserve our hearts for God and do not lose them to this world and its needs, we are safe and protected and can enjoy every benefit and comfort that this world gives us, she said. But we must be watchful and alert so that the love of this
Some of the audience at the Ngovi meeting, Fizi, Zaire.
| It takes courage to be among the first to accept the Bahá’í Faith. |
world and its comforts does not surpass our love of God. If we are able to keep a balance, then we are safe and protected.
Amatu’l-Bahá being greeted by the residents of the village of Sanga, Kivu
Province, Zaire.
On the 28th of December we left
Bukavu and went to south of Kivu for
four days. The first meeting was in the
village of Luvungi. On the main road,
where the village road began, several
arches were erected, decorated with
leaves and flowers. A man stood holding a long stick decorated with flowers,
on the end of which a beautiful copy of
the Greatest Name was mounted.
With singing and dancing, Amatu’l-Bahá was accompanied through the village to the largest building, the village court and community center, which had been reserved for the meeting. As this was the cotton harvesting season, one side of this hall was piled high with cotton balls which made very comfortable seats. Some non-Bahá’ís, and more than 550 Bahá’ís attended this meeting. We were told the people of this area were among the singers in Zaire, a country full of good singers.
Amatu’l-Bahá quoted the words of Saint Paul, “When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” She said this applies to mankind today. Bahá’u’lláh tells us that man has entered the stage of maturity. Modern inventions and science have changed our lives. The world we live in today is different from the world of our grandfathers. We must now learn to live like mature men and put away childish ideas.
On the afternoon of the same day, in another village called Sanga, more than 500 Bahá’ís received and welcomed Amatu’l-Bahá. She spoke on the importance of living a Bahá’í life, and showing in our deeds and characters that we are truly the spiritual descendants of the early heroes and martyrs of our Faith. To be amongst the first ones to recognize and accept the Faith of God is a great bounty and privilege because it requires courage, she said. It was dark by the time we left this village and drove to the little township of Kavimvira, where we spent the night.
The following day in Kavimvira, more than 800 believers from many villages gathered to welcome Amatu’l-Bahá. Nineteen believers had walked long distances from the mountain villages to present at this meeting. The friends had decorated the area under huge mango trees with flowers tied to strings and stretched from branch to branch. Unfortunately, very strong winds began to blow in from Lake Tanganyika and we were obliged to move the meeting to a small unfinished building nearby. To our surprise we saw that the dear friends had foreseen such an emergency and had also decorated this building and its entrance to make sure that their beloved guest would sit under flowers wherever the meeting might be held.
The courtesy and sincere love of these believers moved Amatu’l-Bahá very deeply. She spoke of the life of Bahá’u’lláh. She said, “When I look at your shining, smiling faces gazing at me with so much love, I cannot help but remember the Words of Bahá’u’lláh, uttered with such joy when He was in Baghdad, when He announced to the believers that the Cause of God had now reached Karkuk. Karkuk was about 30 kilometres from Baghdád, yet the fact that the Message of God had reached there rejoiced His heart. How happy then He must be now to see all of you in this meeting.”
The believers in this area, and in Fizi to the south, have suffered a great deal since 1965, when a civil war began. Many entirely innocent people suffered in the tribal wars, despite their lack of involvement in the contested issues. For years, many of them were hidden in the forest. Even now they suffer from time to time at the hands of rebels who attack villages in search of food and kill whoever gets in their way. A dear Bahá’í had just lost his eight year old son. The boy was shot dead when a band of rebels attacked the village during the father’s absence. In addition, both the man’s wife and his old mother were injured.
Amatu’l-Bahá’s interpreter during this whole period in Kivu was a young man, consecrated to the service of the Faith; a deep, well-informed Bahá’í, and the secretary of the Regional Teaching Committee. When a man asked why Bahá’u’lláh had appeared in the world, and had He come to supplant Jesus Christ, Amatu’l-Bahá told this young man, her interpreter, to answer the question himself, in his own language, as he knew the answer just as well as she did. His reply was short, logical, and absolutely convincing.
He said, “Do you have a brother?”
“Yes,”the man said.
[Page 9]
“Is he younger or older than you?”
“Younger.”
“When your brother was born did he make you any less than you are; did he take your place in life; did he reduce you in any way?”
“No,” the man said.
“It is the same way with Jesus and Bahá’u’lláh,” our young Bahá’í said. “They came to this world at different times, each has His own place and position, neither takes anything away from the other.”
Because our little hotel was very noisy we spent the next three nights in a Catholic mission school in the town of Uvira, where the nuns very kindly took us in. It was one of the more interesting places we slept in during our years of traveling in Africa. As it was the Christmas holidays, the girls were all away and we were given a huge dormitory with 68 beds all to ourselves. It was very eerie at night with bats flying in and out. What was interesting to us was the fact that on New Year’s Eve 1972, we dined with the Catholic Bishop in Mweka, in Kasai, central Zaire. On New Year’s Eve 1973 we dined with the Italian Catholic Sisters in Uvira, in the eastern province of Zaire. In many parts of the country, the missions, particularly the Catholic missions, are the only place one can spend the night. There are no hotels and usually the homes of the believers are too small and overcrowded to enable them to take in guests. We were surprised to find so many of these Catholic missionaries friendly towards the Faith and very tolerant as a whole.
In the village of Kabimba, where the friends had recently built a fine new Centre and had decorated it with beautiful arches of flowers to welcome Amatu’l-Bahá, more then 400 believers listened to her word of encouragement. She praised their building and told them a mud building is a practical, cool and economic building; it is not a sign of poverty or ignorance, as you sometimes think it is. Nor are these buildings confined to Africa; in the whole of Asia and South America, she said, almost all buildings are entirely built with mud. Mud is an ancient, convenient and universal building material. Many Persian Bahá’í villagers live in mud houses too, she said. She told them that mud is an excellent material for hot climates because it is always cool; and the thatched roofs are the best ones, because they do not make any noise during the torrential rains, the way tin roofs do. As she spoke these words the beautiful faces of her listeners broke into smiles of selfesteem and confidence.
Rúḥíyyih Khánum said that if we look at our lives we see that our health, our children, the food we eat, the air we breathe, are all bounties of Almighty God. Without His bounty, His mercy and His grace we would not exist even for a moment. With all His continuous bounties, what do we do for God? Whatever we do in service to Him and love for Him is like a small grain brought to the feet of the King by a lowly ant, she said. Yet He not only accepts our humble offering, but abundantly blesses us. The beautiful building built in the name of Bahá’u’lláh was part of their lives spent in His service. If we look at our daily lives, we realize how little of such hours we give Him. She said hours, days, weeks, months and years of our lives are spent in eating and sleeping and attending to the trivial things of life. She said they must be happy that they had given this service to Bahá’u’lláh, should continuously use this Centre to attract more souls to His Cause and serve Him in teaching His Faith.
The spirit of service is a God-given gift, she said. You can see this in a family. One child may be endowed with this gift; without being asked he searches for ways to serve his parents, his sisters and brothers. He is always ready to give a hand to others. We must be like that; vie with one another in the service of the Cause of God. This Bahá’í Centre, Rúḥíyyih Khánum said, can become the focal point of your activities. If you come here daily for prayers you can attract the help and guidance of Bahá’u’lláh. Through these prayers you can connect your souls to the source of power and energy, which is there to help us, if only we know how to reach it. By accepting Bahá’u’lláh we have made the fundamental connection. Through prayer we shall witness great miracles. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said, “As ye have faith so shall your powers and blessings be. This is the balance, this is the balance, this is the balance.”
One of their most recent songs has words such as these: “Oh Bahá’u’lláh, we were blind, You opened our eyes; we were deaf, You gave us hearing; hold our hands to the end of our lives.” When they sing these exquisite songs their faces become radiant with their joy at being Bahá’ís. What precious jewels Bahá’u’lláh has created in these remote villages of Zaire.
In front of the Bahá’í Centre in Kabimba. From left to right, Mr. Agustin Amungali, Mrs. Violette Nakhjavani, Mr. Esube Vin Shahami, and Amatu’l-Bahá.
[Page 10]
Mrs. Carrie Kinney and Mr. Edward Kinney.
You Have Been Chosen[edit]
by O.Z. Whitehead
[Page 11]
On the morning of December 16th,
of 1950, during the final trip I made to
New York City from Los Angeles after
I joined the Bahá’í community, I telephoned Mr. and Mrs. Edward Kinney.
The clerk at the Hotel Woodward
promptly put me through to their
apartment. Mrs. Kinney spoke to me
calmly and with gentleness.
“May I see you?” I asked.
“Yes, but not today,” she said. “Ned died yesterday.”
“I did not know. Please forgive me for telephoning you.”
“Oh no, I am glad that you did. Maybe you can come to the service for him on Sunday evening at the Bahá’í Center.”
“I will certainly be there.”
The clerk interrupted us to say that other people were waiting to speak with Mrs. Kinney.
At that time the Bahá’í Center consisted of two rooms in a dreary building of offices on West Fifty-seventh Street, east of Seventh Avenue. One small room was for the Spiritual Assembly and committee meetings and a larger one for Feasts, celebrations and other public meetings.
As I entered the small room, a thickly set, fine looking young man was standing in front of me. We shook hands.
“I am Donald Kinney,” he said. A young girl with an unhappy expression walked up to him.
“I feel just terribly about your father,” she said.
“Why should you or any of us?” said Donald brightly.
“Have you read what Shoghi Effendi wrote in his cable about him?” Donald took a copy of it out of his pocket and showed it to us both. The message said: “Grieve passing dearly loved, highly admired, trusted, staunch, indefatigable, self-sacrificing teacher, pillar (of) Faith, Saffa Kinney. His leonine spirit, exemplary steadfastness, notable record (of) closing period Heroic Age (and) opening phase Formative Age (of) Bahá’í Dispensation. Bountiful reward assured (in) Abhá Kingdom beneath shadow (of) Master he loved so dearly, served so nobly, defended so heroically until last breath. Shoghi. Cablegram dated December 16, 1950 (1). Mrs. Kinney sat among about two hundred believers gathered in the large room for the service. Her warm appealing face showed deep self-controlled feeling. She looked like a lady in the real sense of this often loosely used word. Despite the occasion, when she stood up to speak to someone, she became entirely erect. She showed no sign of defeat.
The simple moving service began with records playing some of the music that Edward Kinney wrote for the Bahá’í Holy Writings. Afterwards, older believers who had known the Kinneys for more than fifty years, read with fine feeling and becoming restraint selections from “Prayers and Meditations” by Bahá’u’lláh.
Sometime before the service was over, a few believers who lived a long distance away walked near to Mrs. Kinney.
“We have to leave now,” they said.
With love for them in her tone, she said quietly, “I understand.”
On the following Sunday evening I went to Mrs. Kinney’s fireside at her apartment in an annex of the Hotel Woodward, on the corner of Broadway and Fifty-seventh Street.
The door of her apartment was not locked. She apparently had no fear of a dangerous intruder. I walked through a narrow hall until I entered a large living room. About forty people were sitting there. Mrs. Kinney was in an adjoining bedroom looking after a sick child.
An almost life-sized color photograph of the Master hung in the middle of a side wall. Interesting photographs of early believers, and Persian tapestries, hung from all the walls. At one side of the room stood a grand piano with a small photograph of Mr. Kinney on top. He had a warm, kind, and fatherly face. Worn Victorian furniture added to the charm and character of the room.
I sat down on a comfortable sofa placed against the wall. With much dignity Mrs. Kinney walked into the room, welcomed her guests to the fireside, and introduced the speaker, Mr. Edward Slessinger.
He gave a sincere, direct, and persuasive talk. When he finished Mrs. Kinney stood up beside him.
| Edward Kinney: dearly loved, highly admired, trusted, staunch, indefatigable self-sacrificing teacher. |
“Are there any questions?” she asked.
No one answered.
“We will have tea then,” she said.
“You get better every time,” she added softly to Mr. Slessinger.
After most of the guests left she sat down beside me. She spoke to me about her husband as if I had always known them both.
“He lay sick in this apartment for many months. Sometimes I was up most of the night taking care of him. I often prayed to the Master asking Him to keep Ned with me for a little while longer.”
I felt close to the Kinneys. I wanted to know more about them.
Edward Beadle Kinney was born on March 9, 1863, in New York City. While still a child he showed talent for music and began to study both organ and composition. At the age of fourteen he secured his first professional job as organist at St. Luke’s Church in New York City. A year before that he became a protege of the distinguished Polish conductor Dr. Leopold Damrosch, and studied composition with him for eight years. Mr. Kinney attended Richmond College, Richmond, Virginia. At the same time he served as choirmaster and organist in The Monumental Episcopal Church there. On his return to New York he studied composition under Edward MacDowell an American composer and professor of music at Columbia University. In a competition sponsored by the American National Conservatory of Music in which several thousand people took part he and three others won scholarships to study composition with the great Czech composer Anton Dvorak.
Mr. Kinney held many positions as organist and choirmaster in churches
| “If perchance you are overtaken by poverty, let it not make you sad. At best you will
then become companions of Christ.” |
that maintained high musical standards. He wrote fine religious music. He developed his own method of voice production and became a remarkable teacher of singing.
Helen Morrette, the future Mrs. Carrie Kinney, was born in New York City in 1878. She wanted to become a doctor, but her socially prominent family would not permit her. She had opportunities to marry several men of worldly importance. They did not interest her. In 1893 she met Edward Kinney. Two years later against the wishes of her parents she married him.
At her fireside late one evening I asked Mrs. Kinney who first spoke to her about the Bahá’í Faith?
Others present besides myself listened with great interest to her answer:
One morning during the winter of 1895 Howard MacNutt, an old friend of Ned’s, sent word that he wanted us to come to his house in the Bronx that evening to hear some glorious news. A prophet like Jesus had been on this earth.
I said to Ned, “Your friend must be crazy to write you this. Why don’t you go without me?”
He said “No. I am sure that Howard wants to meet you.”
“My family never knew anyone from the Bronx,” I said. “I have never been there in my life.”
“I am taking you there tonight,” he said firmly.
We drove a long distance to the MacNutt’s house in a horsecab. It took us an hour and a half to get there. Their house was attractive and fairly large. A few others came to the meeting besides ourselves.
Howard read us a few prayers by Bahá’u’lláh and then some Tablets that the Master had written to the Bahá’ís. I became very frightened to hear that Bahá’u’lláh claimed to be the Spirit of Truth Whose coming Jesus had promised.
On the way home in the carriage I said to Ned, “The MacNutts are very nice, but I don’t want to go back there to see them again.”
Ned said, “I believe that what we heard tonight is true.”
I was very much disturbed at what he had said. After the long drive home I went immediately to bed.
Ned stayed up very late. He wrote the Master a letter asking for confirmation of His Father’s station. I did not think that Ned would ever hear from the person he now called the Master. More than once every day Ned read aloud prayers by Bahá’u’lláh that Howard had copied on sheets of paper. In a month’s time Ned received a tablet from the Master written in red ink. It included the words, “You have been chosen.”
The first time the Bahá’ís came to the house they looked very strange to me. I tried to be polite, but I couldn’t. They frightened me. Instead, I ran upstairs to the bedroom and locked the door. They came back every week on Sunday nights. Gradually I was moved to come downstairs and meet them. Soon I started to listen. One night after everyone had left Ned and I sat down in the living room and talked together. He explained to me all over again who Bahá’u’lláh was. He had come to fulfill all that Jesus had brought. Suddenly I realized that I believed what Ned was saying.
From that moment forward she shared with her husband a passionate desire to serve the Cause of God. They were anxious to visit the Holy Land and meet the Master, and in 1907 they received an invitation from Him to come with their young sons, Sanford and Howard. They arrived at the end of that year, shortly before the Master’s release from prison.
Donald, the Kinneys’ youngest son, not born at the time of their pilgrimage, has described in a letter some experiences his parents had in the Holy Land.
While in Haifa Mrs. Kinney became very ill. The doctor told her husband she was going to die. He went to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá for advice. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told him that his wife would wake up shortly before midnight to ask for a bowl of soup. Mr. Kinney followed the Master’s recipe in preparing this special soup. Mrs. Kinney woke up at just the hour that the Master said that she would and asked for soup. Mr. Kinney gave it to her, and shortly afterwards she began to recover.
The Kinneys planned to go to India after their visit to Haifa, but ‘Abdu’l-Bahá warned them that if they went there Mrs. Kinney would die. They did not go to India. Instead, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá asked Mrs. Kinney and Dr. Zia Bagdadi to establish the first tuberculosis hospital in Alexandria, Egypt. “At that time male doctors in that country were not allowed to examine female patients,” Donald has written. “They were left in a room and given food until they finally died. Dr. Bagdadi told mother what symptoms to look for. She went into their rooms, examined the patients, and called out the symptoms to Dr. Bagdadi, who called back the diagnosis.” (2)
After they had spent a year in the East, the Kinneys returned to New York City. He worked hard as a musician. She worked without salary in hospitals. Possessing considerable wealth, they lived in a large house at 780 West End Avenue. Their home increasingly became a meeting place for the Bahá’ís. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá arranged to have His Tablets to the American believers sent to their home. Mrs. Kinney had them translated into English and distributed them.
In the summer of 1909, the Kinney family, accompanied by Juliet Thompson and Alice Beede, again visited the Holy Land. According to Juliet, the Master described to Edward the hardship that Bahá’u’lláh experienced after He had lost His wealth. He ended with the words: “May God give you the treasures of the Kingdom, the breath of the Holy Spirit. If, perchance you are overtaken by poverty, let it not make you sad. At best you will then become companions of Christ.” (3)
On the morning of April 11, 1912, the Master arrived in New York City on the S.S. Cedric to begin His eagerly anticipated journey of eight months throughout the United States. Although a large group of Bahá’ís gathered at the dock to meet Him, the Master sent word from the ship that He wanted them to leave and join Him that
[Page 13]
afternoon at the home of the Kinneys.
In her precious diary of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
in America Juliet Thompson has movingly described this occasion:
When I arrived ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was sitting in the center of the dining room near the flower strewn table—At his knees stood Sanford and Howard Kinney and His arms were around them—No words could describe the ineffable peace of Him. The people stood around Him in rows and circles—several hundred in the rooms; many were sitting in the dining room. We made a dark background for His effulgence. (4)
In the talk that He gave that afternoon, His first in the United States of America, the Master said that He had longed to meet the friends and that the spiritual happiness that he felt at doing so had made him forget His weariness from travel. Greatly pleased with New York as a city, and its material progress, He said:
“I hope that it may also advance spiritually in the Kingdom and Covenant of God so that the friends here may become the cause of the illumination of America, that this city may become a city of love and that the fragrances of God may be spread from this place to all parts of the world.”(5)
The Master spent many weeks in New York City. He would leave from there to visit other cities, and then return after His visits elsewhere.
On June 19, before a gathering of Bahá’ís in New York City, following the public reading of the recently translated Tablet of the Branch, revealed by Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá forcefully explained the meaning of the Covenant, and of His own Station as “Center of the Covenant”. Since that day New York has been called “The City of the Covenant.”
During one of His visits to New York, the Master stayed with the Kinneys. Inviting them to be His guests, He paid all expenses of the household, including the wages of the servants. Upon His recommendation Mrs. Kinney arranged to have a photograph taken of her family with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. The believers gathered there night and day to see the Master when He was in New York.
Many years later Mírzá Valí’u’lláh Varqá, who served as one of the Master’s secretaries during His sojourn in America, said to Donald Kinney, “While ‘Abdu’l-Bahá stayed in your family’s home, He would go up to His room around three or four in the afternoon to rest. During this time of rest He would dictate to His secretaries, ten or twelve of them, simultaneously.”(6)
In his fascinating richly informative spiritual autobiography, “Portals to Freedom”, Howard Colby Ives has described in moving terms the Kinneys and their home, where he had his second meeting with the Master.
| “This time you will not deny your Lord,” the Master told Edward, whom He had renamed Saffa, or Peter. |
“It was in the beautiful home of Mr. and Mrs. Kinney, a family of the friends who seemed to feel that the gift of all which they possessed was too little to express their adoring love. Entering their home the roar of the city, the elegance and luxury of Riverside Drive, the poverty and wealth of our modern civilization all seemed to
[Page 14]
merge into a unity of nothingness and
one entered an atmosphere of Reality.
Those heavenly souls who thus demonstrated beyond any words their self-dedication had a direct influence upon
my hesitating feet of which they could
have had no suspicion. My heart
throughout all worlds shall be filled
with thankfulness to them.” (7).
The Master gave Edward Kinney the name Saffa, which means Peter, and assured him that “this time you will not deny your Lord.”(8). He named Carrie Kinney, Vaffa, which means certitude and fidelity. Sanford was renamed for one of the Martyrs, ‘Abdu’l-‘Alí; and Howard, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, after the Master. Donald, the youngest son was not yet born.
“One day, in the autumn, He took Saffa for a long walk in the strip of park along Riverside Drive, New York City,” Juliet Thompson has written. “Suddenly He stood still on the path and looking deep into Saffa’s eyes asked in heart-piercing tones: ‘Do you love me? Do you love me?’ words very much like those that Jesus spoke to Peter.” (9)
On December 2nd, in one of the last recorded talks He gave at the Kinneys, the Master again stressed His appointment by Bahá’u’lláh as Center of the Covenant, to ensure unity and agreement among all the peoples of the world, and to protect the cause from the conflicting interpretations of individuals.
A few years after the Master left America, the Kinneys, who until that time had lived in relative comfort, free from financial worries, began to lose their wealth. “At one time Ned and I had a great deal of money,” Mrs. Kinney explained to me, “all invested in New York property. It went steadily down in value. We could not sell the property because it was entailed.” Forced by their circumstances to practice strict economy, they first moved from their large house in New York City to a small cabin in Eliot, Maine, near Green Acre, the Bahá’í Summer School.
In 1919, while they were living in a modest house in Wallaston, a suburb of Boston, their son, Sanford, became seriously ill. Although everything possible was done for him, his condition became steadily worse. Realizing that he was critically ill, the sick boy wished only that the Will of God be accomplished.
The third day after Sanford’s passing the Kinneys held a service for him in their home, which many Bahá’ís attended. Nineteen years before, a bit of candle brought by a believer from the most Holy Tomb of Bahá’u’lláh burned in the room where Sanford was born. His parents lit the candle again, when he died. “At the close of the prayers, when the burial ring had been placed upon the boy’s finger, the candle burned up high, then flickered and went out,” an eye-witness later wrote.(10)
On November 23, 1919, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá revealed a Tablet for Sanford, which Mrs. William H. Randall brought to the Kinneys from Haifa.
“Sanford was a child of the Kingdom,” ‘Abdu’l-Baha wrote, “and, like unto a tender shrub, is in the utmost freshness and grace in the Abha paradise. He has ascended to the world of the Kingdom, that in the everlasting rose-garden he may grow and thrive on the banks of the river of Everlasting Life and may blossom and attain fruition.
“O Thou divine Providence! Rear him by the outpouring of the cloud of mercy and nourish him through the heat of the sun of pardon and of forgiveness. Stir him by the breeze of bounty and bestow patience and forbearance upon his kind father and mother, that they may not deplore his separation, and may rest assured in meeting their son in the everlasting Kingdom. Thou art the Forgiver and the Compassionate!” (11)
After the Kinneys had lived for several years in Wallaston, they moved back to New York City and settled in the apartment at the Woodward Hotel that I have mentioned. Saffa continued to work hard at his profession. In this most difficult, uncertain field, he successfully supported his family.
Although the passing of the Master on November 28, 1921, naturally caused Saffa and Vaffa intense grief, they did not relax in their constant efforts to serve the Faith. In one of His many letters of encouragement to them, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá designated Saffa and Vaffa, “Pillars of the Faith in the City of the Covenant.”
In 1938 their son, Howard, died at the age of thirty-three. Only their youngest son, Donald, whom ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had named Vahíd, after one of the martyrs, was left to them.
On Christmas eve, nine days after her husband’s passing, I went to a fireside at Mrs. Kinney’s. Only a small group, all of them Bahá’ís, was there.
Someone asked, “May we sing Christmas carols?” Mrs. Kinney replied, “Of course. Bahá’ís recognize the Station of Jesus. We may certainly sing carols in honor of Him.” Everyone in the room sang them with the joyful realization that the Spirit of Jesus had returned in the Station of the Father.
At Mrs. Kinney’s apartment I met Maude Goodreau. Trained by Mr. Kinney, she became a prima donna of The Chicago Opera Company. In retirement from the stage, since the beginning of Mr. Kinney’s illness, she had been teaching his pupils. The money from these lessons had provided the main support for the Kinney family, and now, it was doing the same for the two ladies.
Brought up in a constrained social circle, Vaffa Kinney had nonetheless learned to mingle with people of all classes, religions and nationalities. No
[Page 15]
matter what motives brought people to
her apartment, she tried to help them.
She became like a mother to a great
many people who turned to her in their
hour of need. One evening at her
fireside, referring to a heavy man seated in the back row, she said to me, “He
is a communist. We must try to teach
him the Faith.”
On another occasion, after Edward Slessinger had spoken eloquently about the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, a Jewish gentleman said, “When I was in the Holy Land, I too had a revelation.” Rather then speak to him impatiently, Mrs. Kinney said, “Before you decide that is true, why don’t you listen a little more to what Bahá’u’lláh has revealed?” With apparent sincerity the man later said, “I will come here again.”
Once she was teaching two young sisters the Cause. The girls soon admitted their motives for attending firesides. “What we are really trying to do is to find husbands,” they said. With a smile of understanding, Mrs. Kinney replied, “We must pray that you will find them.” The sisters asked, “Why should we study the Bahá’í Faith?” She firmly replied, “So that you will recognize your Lord.”
At the end of April 1953, once the Guardian inaugurated the World Crusade, Mrs. Kinney wrote him, “I will go anywhere that you ask me to go.” He answered, “Stay in the City of the Covenant.”
At the Feast of Unity, in West Englewood, on June 29, 1953, she stood on the same spot where the Master stood during the first Feast of Unity in 1912, and she read the beautiful talk the Master gave on that moving, historic occasion; a talk recorded in “The Promulgation of Universal Peace”. When she finished reading it, she spoke to those of us still gathered around her. “When Ned and I first came into the Faith there were only a few believers in “The City of the Covenant” and in the surrounding towns and villages, but look now at the wonderful change that has taken place,” she said.
During the first year of the Crusade, in obedience to the Guardian, Vaffa stayed in New York City. Sincere young Bahá’ís in difficulties boarded with her. If they became discouraged she tried to convince them that their situation was not hopeless. She advised them to deepen in the Faith. Surely, they knew that if they turned their hearts wholly to Bahá’u’lláh that He would help them.
After the Feast of Riḍván, 1954, Vaffa and her household asked for and received the Guardian’s permission to pioneer to River Edge, a small town in New Jersey, not far from New York City. A few months later, although by this time not physically strong, she moved with her household to a small house in River Edge. In her new home she taught the Cause as before, and with the firm assistance of her dear friend Maude Goodreau, held regular weekly firesides.
During my pilgrimage in January 1955, I was privileged to speak of her to Shoghi Effendi. He said with much enthusiasm; “She is climaxing a long and distinguished Bahá’í career by pioneering from the City of the Covenant to a neighboring town.”
In 1956 she had a serious operation from which she never fully recovered. Because of illness she left River Edge and moved to her son Donald’s home in West Englewood, New Jersey. News of the Guardian’s passing on November 4, 1957, was a great shock to her. She never expected to outlive him.
Donald has written that although his mother was ill during much of the last three years of her life, she taught the Cause as forcefully as ever. “A few days before her death she went into a coma. At times she would appear to be having detailed conversations with the old believers who had already passed on. It seemed as if she was making the transition from this Kingdom to the next.”
On the morning of August 16, 1959, Donald came into her room to see how she was and found that her passing had quietly taken place.
Her warm, gentle, loving, and distinguished personality remains with me, as I feel sure it remains with countless others. She spoke the language of the heart.
- “Citadel of Faith”. Messages to America 1947-1957. Bahá’í Publishing Trust. Wilmette, Illinois, Page 166.
- Letter from Donald Kinney to O. Z. Whitehead, April 24, 1973.
- Bahá’í World, Volume XII. Bahá’í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, Illinois, 1956.
- “ ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in America”,Page 5.
- “The Promulgation of Universal Peace.” Discourses by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá during His visit to the United States in 1912, Volume I, Page 1.
- Letter from Donald Kinney, April 24, 1973.
- “Portals to Freedom” by Howard Colby Ives. George Ronald, 1969, Page 36.
- Letter from Donald Kinney, April 24, 1973.
- Bahá’í World, Volume XII. Bahá’í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, Illinois, 1956, Page 678-679.
- “Star of the West”, Volume 10, Number 19, Page 350.
- Promulgation of Universal Peace, Volume I, Pages 208-210.
- Letter from Donald Kinney, April 24, 1973.
[Page 16]
Leaving Fairbanks bound for Nenana. Rúḥíyyih Khánum with Sharon Faverty, an Athabascan Indian believer, her daughter Lua, and Fletcher Bennet.
Around the World[edit]
Rúḥíyyih Khánum with editor of the Nome newspaper.
Amatu’l-Bahá with the Hand of the Cause Jalál Kházeh at the summer school in Juneau on the night of her adoption into the Eagle Tribe of the Tlingit Indians. Pictured with her are members of the tribe.
Rúḥíyyih Khánum visits Alaska[edit]
After only a very brief respite following her almost four-year journey through Africa, the Hand of the Cause Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum left Haifa on July 25th, accompanied by Miss Nell Golden, for a one-month trip of 18,800 air miles to the vast State of Alaska. The magnet that had attracted her half-way round the world was the love of the friends in Alaska, evidenced by the many loving invitations from the National Spiritual Assembly, a letter signed by hundreds of the friends in Alaska in different towns asking her to come, and many individual letters with the same request.
Added to this was her own long-standing wish to visit Alaska, and her admiration and love for this community which had achieved its goals early in the Ten Year Crusade and had an exemplary record of service during the Nine Year Plan as well.
The itinerary of Amatu’l-Bahá included trips to 15 different localities. The city of Anchorage had the good fortune of 6 visits during the 30-day period. At the Summer School in Juneau on August 17th and 18th, in three lengthy sessions Rúḥíyyih Khánum spoke to the approximately 215 eager, enthusiastic and attentive friends, many of them youth and young adults, on a variety of subjects, tirelessly answering their questions after each session. She spoke often and strongly on the importance of the Eskimos and Indians retaining their roots and not forgetting their past, and urged them to remember and preserve their great heritage, of which they should be so justly proud. A highlight of the Summer School was the almost miraculous achievement of the goal to raise $20,000 for the National Fund, thereby liquidating the indebtedness incurred by the National Spiritual Assembly to cover the recent teaching efforts of the “Army of Light” for its “massive encounter” program.
(Based on a report by Miss Nell Golden)
Four Hands of the Cause of God, seven Continental Counsellors, fourteen Auxiliary Board members, and National Spiritual Assembly members from thirteen countries, attended an Inter-Assembly conference held in Teheran, Iran, June 21-23, 1973. 1. Counsellors and Auxiliary Board members from South Central Asia and Western Asia. 2. Counsellors in Western Asia, left to right: Dr. Iraj Ayman, Dr. Masih Farhangi, Mr. Hadi Rahmati, Dr. Manuchehr Salmanpur. 3. Hands of the Cause, Counsellors, Auxiliary Board members and National Spiritual Assembly representatives.
[edit]
The Inter-Scandinavian Conference held at Lillehammer, Norway Sept. 21-23, with 70 participants from Norway, Sweden, Denmark and U.S.A. Short talks were given by three Auxiliary Board members on deepening in the Faith. Further conferences, arranged by the Norwegian Youth Committee, are planned for Bergen, Jan. 25-27, 1974; Tromso, Feb. 22-24 and Bodo, March 29-31. A Winter School will be held during the Christmas holidays.
INTER-SCANDINAVIAN CONFERENCE held at Lillehammer, Norway, September 21-23. Seventy participants attended from Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the United States.
Argentina[edit]
The Mayor of Tartagal presents Counsellor Hooper Dunbar with a native herb tea Container.
Group attending deepening course in Rosario
Deepening course for teachers[edit]
A deepening course for traveling teachers was held in Rosario, Argentina, one of the country’s larger cities, on the weekend of September 1-2. The program was coordinated by Continental Counsellor Mr. Athos Costas.
Rosario has always been considered a difficult town in which to proclaim the Bahá’í Faith. However, the teaching that accompanied the weekend course was found to be very fruitful.
A long article was published in the city’s largest daily, La Capital. The editor of the paper’s cultural section promised to write follow-up articles in the future.
A delegation led by Mr. Costas presented a book to the Governor of the Province of Santa Fe, of which Rosario is part. A similar presentation was made to the city’s mayor, and to the resident Bolivian consul, who attended a public meeting.
Miss Lelis Gimenez, a well-known television interviewer, dedicated her weekly program to a round-table discussion on religion with several Bahá’ís, including Mr. Costas.
Winter School[edit]
A highly successful International Winter School was held in Tartagal, Argentina, near the Bolivian border, from July 26-29. Seventy friends from Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, Paraguay, and pioneers from the United States, Iran, and Germany attended. Bahá’ís from the Mataco and Tuba Indian tribes also attended.
Tartagal is a new, thriving Bahá’í community, whose Local Spiritual Assembly was formed this Ridvan due to the devoted efforts of the resident American pioneers, Deane and Barbara Genge.
The prevailing spirit of love and unity was greatly stimulated by the presence of Counsellor Hooper Dunbar, Auxiliary Board members Maralynn Dunbar and Dolores de Caballero of Argentina; Ramon Moreira of Uruguay; Eloy Anello of Bolivia, and Natalia de Caballero of Paraguay.
An attractive exposition was held in the city plaza, including songs by a talented Uruguayan Bahá’í group. A cordial meeting was held with the Mayor of Tartagal, to whom a book was given. He showed such interest that he, his secretary, and his wife, came to one of the meetings. Ten souls enrolled in the Faith during the Winter School.
A social conscience came with time[edit]
“Marie of Romania.” The Intimate Life of a Twentieth Century Queen, by Terence Elsberry, St. Martin’s Press, New York. $12.95.
A gifted writer, Queen Marie of
Romania wrote an autobiography in
1927 entitled “The Story of My Life”.
In considerable detail it describes her
experiences from early childhood until
her personal triumph following the defeat of Germany in the First World
War, almost eight years before her
spontaneous acceptance of the Bahá’í
Teachings.
Although long and sometimes repetitious, her book gives a clear impression of her character, and contains many moving chapters. The Queen has endowed her book with a noble spirit that is hard to analyze.
Fascinated by Queen Marie’s book ever since he read it in high school, Terence Elsberry has written a biography that covers her entire life.
Although most of the Queen’s correspondence, and diaries that she kept from the time of Romania’s entry into World War I until shortly before her death in 1938, are now in the hands of the communist government there, Elsberry has found enough authentic source material with which to write his book. The author has relied primarily on the recollections and personal papers of the Queen’s youngest daughter, Princess Ileana, and those of George I Duca, son of a former Prime Minister of Romania. He has also included material from “The Story of My Life”.
Mr. Elsberry has written an honest, absorbing biography that brings the Queen, the strong personalities around her, and the tragic events in which they played a major part, to fascinating life. While not hesitating to describe her human faults, he has convincingly demonstrated how her rare generosity, radiant intelligence, unusual compassion, and deep love for others, helped her rise to great heights of selfless service to her country and to all humanity.
In the first paragraph of Chapter One the author explains that “Marie Alexandra Victoria, Princess of Great Britain and Ireland, was born on October 29, 1875 at her parents’ country house, Eastwell Park, in Kent. Her father was Queen Victoria’s second son Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, her mother, the former Grand Duchess, Maria Alexandrovna, was the only daughter of Russian Tzar-Liberator Alexander II.”
In vivid passages about her childhood, the author has quoted Marie’s amusing account of her visit, at the age of seven, to Queen Victoria, who turned out to be not in the least as frightening as expected; and has described the tragic moment when Marie heard the horrifying news from her mother, of Alexander II’s assassination by a nihilist’s bomb, while the Tzar was trying to help a wounded man.
Not approving of marriages between first cousins, the Duchess did not allow her daughter, Marie, to marry the future George V. Instead the Duchess encouraged Prince Ferdinand to propose to Marie. As a result of her acceptance, at the age of eighteen, this English princess, who had always been sheltered from the harsh realities of life, became the wife of the heir to the throne of Romania.
Mr. Elsberry has well described the widespread graft, the immorality of the aristocracy and the corrupt political life in that country. He has written with understanding of Marie’s loneliness and deep unhappiness during the early years of her marriage; of the birth of her first son, Carol, followed by the birth of four other children; and of her unceasing efforts to live as she thought right, though often in conflict with the wishes of her husband, Ferdinand, his uncle King Carol, and the Queen, Elizabeth.
Completely frank and without guile, she sometimes trusted people who did not deserve her confidence. She had several close friendships with brilliant, interesting men. Enemies of the Queen and unfair people often attacked her for these friendships. No sincere person who knew her well could ever question her high standard of morality.
An expert rider, she loved to be out-of-doors. As the author has written, “For Marie, a social conscience would come with time. On the sweet mornings of 1897 she preferred searching out the
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first flowers to charity work.”
In 1913 King Carol took her with him to inspect the Red Cross hospitals along the Danube. She was appalled by the suffering that she saw in many of the hospitals where large numbers of men were dying of cholera. Marie immediately began an effort to set up an emergency camp to treat cholera. From that time onward, whenever she had the opportunity, no personal inconvenience or danger to herself kept Marie from giving selfless service to her country.
Her close friend, Barbu Stirbey, an economist of genius, helped Marie to realize her great potential. On the morning of October 10, 1914, although shocked to hear of King Carol’s death, she felt ready to be Queen.
The author has clearly explained that from the outbreak of hostilities in 1914, Marie was keenly opposed to the aggressive policies of the German government, and despite sharp criticism from many prominent people in Romania, she made her views absolutely clear. Owing largely to her influence, King Ferdinand on August 27, 1916, a most critical moment, signed a declaration of war against Austria, which soon led to war with Germany as well.
Mr. Elsberry has written a moving description of the death of the Queen’s youngest son, Mircea, not yet four years old, on November 2, 1916, and the effect this had of tying Queen Marie more closely to Romania. Sincerely grateful when King George V offered safe residence in England for the duration of the War to herself, King Ferdinand, and their children, she did accept, because she was determined to remain in her homeland.
Despite conditions in Romania, which grew steadily more desperate as the war continued, Queen Marie, as head of the Red Cross, leader of the Refugee Workers, president of the War Invalids Society, and voluntary inspector of all hospitals and camps, fought battles against disease, death and starvation, as well as against political antagonists. In 1919 King Ferdinand, and Prime Minister Ion Bratianu, who was representing Romania at Versailles, believing that the Queen’s energy and feminine intuition might do more than all the politicians put together to improve the country’s bargaining position, sent her to Paris and London to plead for fair treatment of Romania. The evening after her interview with French Premier Georges Clemenceau, the Romanian Ambassador told her that Clemenceau had said, “We can only receive a queen like yours with full military honors, Marshal Foch in tow.” She not only greatly changed Clemenceau’s attitudes toward Romania, she also helped to instill in Lloyd George a more amenable opinion than before. She failed, however, to get along well with President Woodrow Wilson.
On her return to Romania Queen Marie and her American helpers traveled throughout the rural sections of the country, battling poverty, hunger, and disease. “The name of the American Red Cross will forever be blessed in my country,” King Ferdinand wrote the Red Cross headquarters in Washington.
After twenty-nine years the marriage of Queen Marie and King Ferdinand had become a success. They now worked well together for the good of their country. “Nando, you are like good wine,” she told him. “You sweeten with age.”
The unstable, irresponsible conduct of their son, Prince Carol, became a source of great anxiety to the king and queen. Carol abandoned his wife, Princess Helen, in Romania, to live with his mistress, Magda Lupescu, first in Paris, then in Milan. On December 28, 1925, he wrote a letter to Queen Marie in which he renounced all rights to the throne. His parents agreed that they must accept Carol’s decision. Not aware of his previous indiscretions, or of the details of his obvious defection, many people criticized Queen Marie for not fighting for her son.
Here is perhaps the place to remark that four weeks after she heard of Carol’s defection, on the afternoon of January 30, 1926, during the first moments of her historic meeting with Martha Root at Contracenti Palace near Bucharest, Queen Marie spontaneously accepted the Bahá’í teachings. It is deeply disappointing that the author failed to mention this most important event, which undoubtedly gave her renewed strength to face an agonizing future. Elsberry, however, does quote from a letter that she wrote to four loyal friends in February of that year, concerning her double tragedy of losing both Carol, and her people’s confidence almost simultaneously. The letter ends: “It is the spirit that counts, not the word. There may be more hate in the world than love. But love is strongest, and one day, even if I am not to live to see it, it must conquer.”
Although the author has referred in passing to a column that the Queen began to write in May 1926, he has not informed the reader that in this syndicated series, entitled “Queen’s Counsel”, published in newspapers throughout the United States and Canada, appeared her first public testimonies in support of the Bahá’í Revelation.
In September she accepted an invitation from thousands of Americans to visit the United States. “Americans play a part in my life,” she wrote. “Their trusting simplicity fits in with my guilelessness.” This trip turned out to be a mixture of triumph and misfortune. It caused people both to admire and ridicule Marie. News that Ferdinand was dying of cancer brought her trip, which lasted seven weeks and two days, to an abrupt end.
Almost eight months after her return, on July 18, 1927, King Ferdinand died. Mr. Elsberry has written, “Ferdinand died as unassumingly as he had lived.” Wrote Marie, “I am sure that he must have been glad to strip off his suffering body. ‘I am so tired,’ were his last words, and when he lay so quiet in my arms about an hour later, I knew that I must thank God for him at least. This was rest indeed.” Closer to her husband during his last months than at any time in their thirty-four years together, Marie was unprepared for the overwhelming loss she felt upon his death.
Only fifty-two, and at the height of her powers, the Queen now found herself ignored and cast aside. Barbu Stirbey still remained her friend. She became close to her youngest daughter, Princess Ileana. She worked every day on her fairy tales. Before the end of 1927 she began to write “The Story of My Life”.
Mr. Elsberry does not mention any of the memorable meetings that Martha Root had with the Queen and Princess Ileana, their unsuccessful efforts to visit Shoghi Effendi in the Holy Land or the beautiful statements that Marie wrote about the Bahá’í Faith.
On June 6, 1930, Prince Carol returned to Romania. The next day Parliament proclaimed him King. At first
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Marie “saw new hope for Romania led
by a full-blooded king, a monarch who,
though tainted, must justify the confidence that twenty million people had
placed in him.” She also felt that he
would allow her to help him. Her optimism was entirely unfounded. Although he worked hard at his job, he
became an irresponsible, unjust king.
Extremely jealous of his mother’s
popularity, he used every means to
humiliate her. He also tried to destroy
his former wife, Princess Helen. He
arranged for Elena Lupescu to come to
Romania, and took up residence with
her again.
Deeply grieved at the tyrannical, destructive manner in which her son ruled his country, and helpless to change his course, Marie sought refuge in her writing. She also made several happy visits to the home of her daughter, the Queen of Yugoslavia in Belgrade, and to the home of the former Princess Ileana, now Arch-Duchess Anton of Austria at Modling, near Vienna. The serious political problems prevailing in the adoptive countries of her daughters caused Queen Marie great concern. The assassination of King Alexander of Yugoslavia, while on an official visit to France, brought her “annihilating sorrow”. But the actions of King Carol, her son, remained “her source of greatest anguish”, according to her own testimony.
In his book the author has movingly described the long, painful illness which began in March 1937, and ended with her death on July 18, 1938, 16 months later. Although “he had broken the heart of his mother whom he had once loved so deeply”, King Carol, strangely enough, gave her a magnificent funeral. Neither he nor any other malicious person could destroy the love that the people of Romania, and her sincere friends and admirers all over the world, felt for this great and noble queen.
Terence Elsberry certainly deserves much praise for writing this excellent, informative book. Bahá’ís can only regret that he did not record what are by far the most important events of the Queen’s remarkable life: her spontaneous acceptance of the Bahá’í Teachings and her public support of the Bahá’í Revelation in widely read testimonies. Without a doubt this worthwhile book will encourage gifted Bahá’í historians of the future to write fine biographies of the Queen which will include the thrilling events missing from Elsberry’s book. Certainly this most distinguished Queen, who, in the words of the Beloved Guardian, “apart from the imperishable renown, achieved by her in the Kingdom of Bahá’u’lláh, had earned in this earthly life, the esteem and love of many a soul living beyond the confines of her own country,” deserves the kind of biography we must wait for time and the liberating growth of the Bahá’í community to produce.
-O.Z. Whitehead
| Kaiser Wilhelm I | Napolean III | Násrid-Dín Shah |
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The Kings who said no
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