Bahá’í World/Volume 11/International Survey of Current Bahá’í Activities in the East and West
II
INTERNATIONAL SURVEY OF CURRENT BAHÁ’Í ACTIVITIES IN THE EAST AND WEST
BY HORACE HOLLEY
ALL human affairs are subject to continuous change. Only when change results from the operation of a higher will can the beholder find in it the directive movement and dynamic momentum containing assurance of fulfilment. Here lies the difference between an organic society and an artificial society formed from a temporary and incomplete grouping of human interests which dissolves when a more promising combination is offered. Organic societies evolve, unfolding what is latent within them from their origin. An organic society has a spiritual origin. It is a birth, a vital expression of what creates life itself, and meaning, and the rewards and punishments fixed for a responsible human will.
The Bahá’í Faith, as Revelation, possesses eternality in the realm of truth as it is possessed by the Revelations of the Prophets of former times. Revelation is the first knowable expression of the will of God. The Bahá’í community, men’s response to Revelation, expresses not merely a high degree of fidelity and sacrifice corresponding to the heroic response of Jew, Christian and Muslim in their dispensations, but likewise applies to human affairs the working of principles, authorities and institutions which in themselves are revealed realities and not human inventions. That is, the Bahá’í community is more than a community of Bahá’ís. It is an organic society instituted by the Prophet to be the channel of His spirit and the Kingdom of His grace. The power and the purpose, the aim and the end, the principle and the method, all harmonize and coexist because now prophetic Revelation has become complete. The day for an organic world society has dawned.
To follow this evolution, the description of Bahá’í history in terms of successive stages made by Shoghi Effendi, the Guardian, is illuminating. Thus we have the Heroic Age, the Formative Age, and a Golden Age still to come. Though these stages are separate and distinct, they signify one reality in successive states of evolution.
The Heroic Age of the Faith ended with the Ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in 1921. The Formative Age proceeded from His Testament through the creation of the Guardianship and the definition of Bahá’í institutions which together produce a society capable of living under divine law for divine ends. The first epoch within the Formative Age embraced the twenty-five years from 1921 to 1946, when the local and national elements of the new pattern for society had been outlined.
The second epoch which began in 1946 is characterized by the initiation of national Bahá’í plans or projects by the several national Bahá’í communities then and since existing in East and West.
Two great streams of influence met to
make these unified undertakings significant
and effective. The Bahá’í turns
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back to ponder again the mighty
vision of a world-embracing and world-redeeming
crusade bequeathed by
‘Abdu’l-Bahá in His Tablets known as
the Divine Plan. The Bahá’í also meditates
on passages in the Master’s
Testament assuring the ultimate triumph
of justice and order throughout the world.
While the execution of large undertakings demonstrates an increasing power on the part of the national communities, it also reveals the existence of an international authority and influence acting throughout the entire Bahá’í body. The strength and stability of the Bahá’í World Center in Haifa has been the ultimate cause of the ability of local and national Bahá’í communities to concentrate their energies and develop their latent gifts.
THE SHRINE OF THE BÁB
The spiritual symbols identifying Haifa as the religious as well as the administrative center of the Faith are the Shrines of Bahá’u’lláh and of the Báb, His Predecessor and Herald.
The remains of the Báb, saved at night by followers when thrown outside the walls of Tabríz after His execution, concealed and reverently preserved from despoilment by priest-inflamed mobs, were transported to Haifa under direction of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and given their destined resting-place on the slopes of Mount Carmel in 1909. The precious remains were interred in a mausoleum preserved by a Shrine constructed under ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s loving care. He foresaw and foretold the later construction of a more suitable Shrine. This mission became a spiritual legacy bequeathed to the Guardian as an element of his world aims.
The structure built by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had six rooms, to which three more were added by Shoghi Effendi in accordance with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s desire. The remains of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá are interred within the Shrine of the Báb.
In the spring of 1948, despite (or perhaps because of) the difficult conditions prevailing in Palestine, Shoghi Effendi decided that the moment had arrived for the construction of the superstructure to serve as the beautiful shell preserving the kernel of the Shrine which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had left. The design for the superstructure had been completed by William Sutherland Maxwell (as illustrated in The Bahá’í World, Vol. IX) and the working drawings produced.
Mr. Maxwell, as Shoghi Effendi’s architect, went to Italy to execute contracts for the cutting and carving of the stone needed for the arcade. At Carrara the architect made arrangements for twenty-four columns and eight pilasters, with bases, cut from Baveno granite, and for their capitals, twenty-eight graceful arches, star panels and corner panels to be carved from Chiampo granite. In Italy Mr. Maxwell was assisted by Mr. Ugo Giachery who became the Guardian's representative in Italy for the execution of the contracts and shipment of the completed units to Haifa.
The original intention of employing native Palestinian stone for thresholds, corners, walls and cornices could not be carried out. Mr. Giachery made arrangements with the Italian contractor, Guido M. Fabbricotti, Successori, for the remainder of the stone required to build the arcade.
While awaiting delivery of the stone, Shoghi Effendi prepared the ground around the Shrine for the superstructure. On November 28, 1948, the first shipment of completed units arrived at the port of Haifa. On March 14, 1949, a week before the anniversary of the date when ‘Abdu’l-Bahá placed the sacred remains of the Báb in the sarcophagus presented by the Bahá’ís of Burma, the first threshold stone, weighing 1,000 pounds, was set in place upon its foundation.
The work proceeded rapidly during 1949 and the spring of 1950, revealing the exquisite beauty of the ornamental and symbolic designs prepared by the architect, the quality of the Rose Baveno and Chiampo granite employed, and the impressive character of the architectural concept.
There could be no more suitable and dramatic site for the Shrine of the Báb
Shrine of the Báb before the Arcade was built.
than the heights of Mount Carmel, in the Holy Land of four faiths, looking out over the bay to the historic Mediterranean Sea washing the shores of three continents and associated with the meetings of great cultures throughout thousands of years. The Shrine itself stands among peerless gardens which have become a notable feature of Haifa and a mecca for residents of the country and visitors from many lands.
Mr. Benjamin Weeden has described the work: “The three magnificent carved corners took on more height and grandeur. Twelve of the huge Rose Baveno granite columns were set upon their bases, each with its beautifully carved Chiampo granite capital. A momentous occasion truly! Then followed the placing of the finely cut graceful arches, seven on the east side and seven on the north. This led to the building up of the walls to the height of the architrave, including the star panels and half star panels, those gems which relieve the austerity of the walls and balance the fine, ornate curved corners.”
A fourth contract was signed in Italy
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on September 7, 1949, for fabrication
of the intricate stone work, “calling
for nearly two hundred tons of fine
carving and delicate mosaic. Mr. W. S.
Maxwell has created a masterpiece of
beauty and design.”
The Shrine of the Báb testifies to the dawning Light of Revelation, the fierce and fanatic resistance of men, the Martyrdom of the Prophet, and the destined victory of a new world Faith over its most determined oppressors, which means the victory of the spiritual nature of man. It signalizes the religious bond uniting Bahá’ís of East and West, and creates a new place of pilgrimage for those who revere a living Revelation and recognize in it the consummation of the hopes of all true religions. The Shrine of the Báb exemplifies a heavenly peace established in a society struggling to save itself from self-destruction.
COMPLETING THE HOUSE OF WORSHIP IN WILMETTE
Months in advance of the date set for the Centenary of the Birth of the Bahá’í Revelation observed in May, 1944, the exterior ornamentation of the House of Worship in Wilmette had been brought to completion. The monumental structure, rising from its circular platform approached by eighteen circular steps, exhibited its full majesty of architectural form and all its impressive beauty of ornamental design to the host of Bahá’ís who gathered to celebrate the Báb’s announcement of His prophetic Mission. Here for others to witness was not only the spirit of faith but a great product of unity.
Two further stages of construction remained to be undertaken before this Temple, blessed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Presence on the grounds in 1912, could be dedicated and used for public worship. The first stage was the completion of the interior ornamentation in accordance with the scheme prepared by Louis J. Bourgeois, Temple architect, and the installation of equipment for lighting, heating and ventilation; the second and final stage in the progress of the building itself was the landscaping of the Temple grounds. Concerning this a general description had been given by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
Between 1944 and 1946 the North American Bahá’í community, having carried out the great objectives established by the Guardian in the seven year Plan initiated in 1937, undertook projects aimed at further proclamation and consolidation of the Faith at home. In 1946 a second seven year Plan formulated by the Guardian for the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada called for the completion of the Temple by 1953, Centenary of Bahá’u’lláh’s assumption of His prophetic Mission.
Preliminary studies of the Bourgeois drawings were made for the Temple trustees by Allen B. McDaniel in response to Shoghi Effendi’s request for an estimate of cost based upon a modification of the elaborate interior design Mr. Bourgeois had conceived.
A letter from the Guardian written in April, 1946, advised the elimination of the eight rooms surrounding the main auditorium (a staircase occupying the space of the ninth room), to make of the entire main floor an auditorium providing the largest possible number of seats.
After two independent studies of a modified design had been made and the nature of the interior needed for the purpose of Bahá’í worship had been more clearly visualized, technical studies were undertaken, and a final report submitted to the Guardian for approval in March, 1947.
Among the illuminating statements made by Shoghi Effendi concerning the nature of Bahá’í worship, the following are cited: that no forms, no rituals, no set customs be introduced over and above the minimum outlined in the Bahá’í teachings; the nature of these gatherings is for prayer, meditation and the reading of writings from the Sacred Scriptures of the Bahá’í Faith and other Faiths; that there can be one or a number of readers, including non-Bahá’ís invited for this purpose; the use of pulpits is forbidden by Bahá’u’lláh; and only vocal music can be used.
In arriving at a concept of the interior before preparation of final drawings and specifications, the trustees received valuable help from Allen B. McDaniel and his associates Messrs. Kennedy and Pompilio, and from Earl H. Reed. Their designs were submitted to the Guardian, whose views were set forth in a letter dated April 11, 1947.
Alfred P. Shaw, of Shaw, Metz and Dolio, Chicago, was selected as architect for the interior ornamentation, and his design has been developed in the spirit of the original concept left by Mr. Bourgeois. Under a contract awarded to the John J. Earley Studio for the fabrication of the units composing the interior ornamentation, and an agreement entered into with the George A. Fuller Company as general contractors, the work at the Temple began on July 11, 1949. The scheme has been carried out by the same technical process employed for the exterior ornamentation: units are cast from molds made from hand-carved models, and the completed units when set in place convey the effect of a sculptured pattern.
The cost of $650,000 estimated in January, 1947 increased to $780,000 by November, 1948. Payment of these costs by the American Bahá’ís has created an impressive record of sustained devotion. Here stood their Temple, object of their care, sacrifice and hope since the early days of the Faith in the West, monumental to behold but for its function of worship still only an empty shell. No appeal, at that period, could be more intimate and compelling.
By November, 1949, about 800 square feet of ornamentation had been set in place. Meanwhile the ventilation ducts, piping for heat, electrical conduits, wiring and equipment for the utilities had been installed. The magnitude of the project can be seen from the figures covering the number of tracery units or sections needed: 137 for the narrow panels of the auditorium, 196 for the wide panels, and 387 for the dome above the springing line.
The castings have been made of a mixture of clear white quartz and of crystalline quartz. The interior tracery below the dome, all of which is perforated, was fabricated with a background composed of rose quartz, to provide a warm rose tint to the interior scheme.
The technical expert will appreciate the amount of study made by the architect of the lighting of the Temple auditorium and alcoves. From Allen B. McDaniel’s historical narrative of the Temple project we learn that the lighting of the domed hall was achieved by the use of nine metal fixtures, specially designed, placed nineteen feet above the main floor. Indirect lighting by a series of lamps located in troughs around the bases of the arched ceilings has been devised for the alcoves. The two galleries are illumined by ceiling lights.
The floor of the auditorium, including the alcoves, has been laid of terrazzo composed of 85% Alpine red and 15% Georgia white marble chips set in a deep red matrix. The floor is patterned by white metal strips conforming to the arrangement of the permanent seats.
The entrances to the Temple (eleven feet wide and twenty-two feet high) contain bronze panels and doors of polished plate glass.
When the chairs are installed, the auditorium and alcoves will provide 1191 seats. Orientation has been provided in this circular structure by making the focal point the direction of ‘Akká, where Bahá’u’lláh was imprisoned and where He ascended in 1892. The seats in the central hall all face ‘Akká-ward, while the seats in the surrounding alcoves face the center of the auditorium.
Since the contracts are not completed at the time of this writing, final evaluation of the Temple interior must be deferred. What now goes forward represents the creation of a House of Prayer and Meditation consecrated to the God of humanity and recognizing one eternal Faith, the Faith revealed and progressively unfolded by His Prophets and Messengers Whose Promised One is Bahá’u’lláh.
Between May, 1946 and November,
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1947, more than 51,000 visitors were
conducted through the building. They
came from fifty-one different countries
to witness for themselves this sign of
the gathering of His people in one fold.
The zeal of the American Bahá’ís, associating this structure with their loftiest concept of a universal Faith, and identifying its beginning and encouragement with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, was further stirred by the high importance attributed by Shoghi Effendi to its completion.
“The completion of the Mother Temple of the West, the sacredness of which neither the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the Bahá’í World (i.e., in Ishqábád), nor any future House of Worship to be erected by the followers of Bahá’u’lláh, in any country, at any future date, can rival—in time for the celebration of its Jubilee, is the one remaining objective that now hangs precariously in the balance. Owing to a combination of circumstances wholly beyond the control of its builders, this task has assumed a critical importance, and is of such vital urgency, that no prosecutor of the Plan, eager to witness its consummation, can afford to ignore it for a moment.
“The sacrifice demanded is such as to have no parallel whatsoever in the history of that community. The manifold issues inextricably interwoven with the campaign laboriously launched for the achievement of this high objective, are of such weighty character as to overshadow every enterprise embarked upon through the organized efforts of its members, in either the concluding years of the Heroic Age of the Faith or the first Epoch of the Age which succeeded it. The two years during which this emergency will be most keenly felt coincide on the one hand with a period of increasing distraction occasioned by the uncertainties, the perils and fears of a steadily worsening international situation, and on the other with the centenary of one of the most turbulent, afflictive and glorious stages of Bahá’í history—a stage immortalized by an effusion of blood, a self-abnegation, a heroism, unsurpassed not only in the annals of the Faith but in the world’s spiritual history. . . . No sacrifice can be deemed too great to insure the completion of such an Edifice—the most holy House of Worship ever to be associated with the Faith of the Most Great Name.”
“ ‘A most wonderful and thrilling motion will appear in the world of existence,’ are ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s own words, predicting the release of spiritual forces that must accompany the completion of this most hallowed House of Worship. ‘From that point of light,’ He, further glorifying that edifice, has written, ‘the spirit of teaching . . . will permeate to all parts of the world.’ ‘It marks the inception of the Kingdom of God on earth.’ ”
CANADIAN BAHÁ’ÍS INAUGURATE FIVE YEAR PLAN
From the early days of the Faith in the West, the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada formed one administrative community, elected one national body, united in support of the successive Temple construction and teaching plans, mingled at conventions, conferences and summer schools, and recognized one constitutional code. Their history made one record, their experience was mutual, their destines interdependent.
When, during the years of the first world war, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá revealed the Tablets of His World Plan, He addressed them to the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. The thoughtful student, however, even then might have discerned a future administrative separation in order that each people could better realize its own particular endowment.
By 1946 the time for this separation
had come. The Guardian sent the
direction that before 1953 the Bahá’ís
of Canada were to form their own National
Spiritual Assembly and constitute a pillar
of the future Bahá’í House
of Justice. This was brought about in
1948. Canada, therefore, as of the
period covered by this survey, became
an independent community two years
after the commencement of the period,
and is the youngest of the nine National
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Spiritual Assemblies now existing,
though in spiritual and administrative
experience the Canadian Bahá’ís have
been active since 1902.
The devotion, energy and resources of a new national Bahá’í community, one spread across a wider expanse of land from Atlantic to Pacific than is embraced by the United States, responded unitedly to the challenge of the program set for them to achieve. This program has been termed a five year plan since it calls for the attainment of certain goals within five years after 1948, culminating in the Bahá’í Jubilee Year, 1953.
The plan enumerated seven different objectives: legal incorporation of the National Spiritual Assembly; establishment of national endowments; increasing to thirty the number of local Spiritual Assemblies; increasing to one hundred the number of localities where Bahá’ís reside; formation of a group in Newfoundland; formation of a group in Greenland; enrollment of Eskimos and native Indians as members of the community and qualified to exercise their administrative rights.
These seven aims involve community effort and executive direction in very contrasted areas of human action. In essence they call for official recognition of the Faith as an independent religion possessing corporate rights, the development of properties for the effective fulfillment of Bahá’í functions, the powerful proclamation of the Bahá’í teachings, the bridging of the racial chasms existing in the population of the country, and the acceptance of responsibility for establishing the Faith in a foreign land. Like every Bahá’í program, it was not scaled to the size and strength of the community adopting it, but to the size and strength that community would attain by carrying the program into effect.
Intensive work by a legal committee headed by Siegfried Schopflocher and including the services of an experienced and accomplished attorney, succeeded within one year in obtaining a Dominion charter for the Bahá’í Assembly. This achievement was made known to the delegates and Bahá’í visitors assembled at the Second Annual Convention in session in the city of Winnipeg. Passed without amendment in both Senate and House of Commons on April 28, 1949, the Bill was entitled “An Act to Incorporate the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Canada” as a body politic and corporate under that name.
This charter possesses the strongest legal authority of any constitution adopted by an existing National Bahá’í Assembly. It sets forth, in eleven clauses, the fundamental objects of the National Assembly and defines its various functions and powers, including the general provision, to “fulfill all and whatsoever the several purposes and objects set forth in the written utterances of Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi.” In 1950 the Act was published accompanied by the national and local By-Laws adopted by the National Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Canada. The favorable result of the petition addressed to Parliament was termed by the Guardian in a cablegram a “magnificent victory unique (in the) annals (of) East and West,”
The first Bahá’í property in Canada to be endowed was acquired in October, 1946, at Beaulac, Quebec, a tract of 187 acres which before 1950 was developed as a summer school. In 1948, sessions held in summer and winter enrolled more than one hundred students. In 1949 the school was opened to the Canadian Youth Hostel Association.
In a summary prepared by the National Spiritual Assembly, emphasis is laid on trans-Canada lecture and teaching schedules carried out by David Hofman, of the British National Assembly, by Marion Hofman, a member of the same body, and on circuit or conference teaching contributed by Bahá’ís from the United States including Mildred Hofman, Harlan and Elizabeth Ober, Dr. Genevieve L. Coy, Margaret Sears, Marjorie McCormick, Helen Bishop, and Hilda Yen Male.
Due to interruption of communication
between Haifa and Canada at that time,
the Guardian’s response to the Convention
was not received until November
4. “I hail with joyous heart and confident
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spirit the truly compelling and
almost simultaneous evidences of the
irresistible power of the Faith of
Bahá’u’lláh as witnessed by the formation of
the first Canadian National
Bahá’í Assembly and the inauguration
of the Five Year Plan, designed to
orient its members toward and canalize
the energies of the entire Canadian
Bahá’í community in support of the
immediate tasks lying before them.
So auspicious a beginning in the processes
set in motion as a result of the
progressive unfoldment of the Divine
Plan, in a territory of such vast dimensions
blessed through both the mighty
utterances and the personal visit of the
One (i.e., ‘Abdu’l-Bahá) who fostered
it from the hour of its birth, and whose
Plan enabled it to reach maturity, may
well be regarded as one of the most
momentous happenings immortalizing
the opening years of the second Bahá’í
Century.”
“Obstacles, however formidable, will have to be determinedly surmounted. Any reverses that sooner or later may be suffered should be met with stoic fortitude and speedily offset by victories in other fields. The glorious vision now unveiled to your eyes must never be dimmed. The illuminating promises enshrined in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Tablets should not be forgotten for a moment. The quality of the success already achieved by so small a number, over so extensive a field, in so brief a period, at so precarious an hour in the destinies of mankind, should spur on the elected representatives of this now fully fledged community to achieve in as short a period, over still more extensive an area, and despite a severer crisis than any as yet encountered, victories more abiding in their merit and more conspicuous in their brilliance than any as yet won in the service and for the glory of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.”
The birth of the administrative body charged with the responsibility and authority needed to serve the interests of a national Bahá’í community, and to represent the Faith in the eyes of the public, is an event of high dramatic character. This quality of intense interest and impressive occasion afforded an unforgettable experience to those present at the first national Convention of the Bahá’ís of Canada held at Montreal in April, 1948.
The setting was the large drawing-room of the Maxwell home—a home visited by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in 1912, and a home devoted to Bahá’í activities over a long period of years. This had been the home of May Maxwell, Bahá’í teacher of surpassing brilliance and charm and crowned with the glory of martyrdom at the sudden close of her life while serving the Faith in South America. This had been the home of William Sutherland Maxwell, architect, whose creative gift was being fulfilled in making the design for the Shrine of the Báb on Mt. Carmel. This had been the home of Mary Maxwell, their daughter, who left its shelter to become the wife of Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Faith.
The Convention sessions took place on April 24 and 25.
Before the delegates and visitors could gather together to take their part in the drama, long preparation had been made by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada, and by committees of Canadian Bahá’ís.
Nineteen delegates were assigned to the Bahá’í community, proportioned among the provinces, and these had been elected by provincial conventions. The Convention call and the agenda had been prepared by the parent body. Its officers opened the Convention, called the roll of delegates and conducted the election of the Convention officers, thereby transferring responsibility to representatives of the Canadian community.
The members elected to the first National Assembly of Canada were Rowland Estall, John Robarts, Emeric Sala, Laura Davis, Lloyd Gardner, Siegfried Schopflocher, Ross Woodman, Doris Richardson, and Rosemary Sala.
After the Convention adjourned, officers
of the parent body met with these
members of the new Assembly, turned
over documents of particular historic
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or administrative interest in Canada,
and summarized the functions, responsibilities
and yearly agenda of a national Bahá’í body.
Formal action was
taken to record the recognition of the
status of the National Spiritual Assembly of
the Bahá’ís of the United States
as the continuing body carrying forward the
records and properties acquired in the past.
That body, in turn,
divested itself of any authority or title
within the area of jurisdiction of the
new Assembly.
Meeting separately a day or two later, the delegates of the Bahá’ís of the United States elected their National Assembly with change of title.
1944-1950—BRITISH BAHÁ’ÍS ESTABLISH FAITH IN NINETEEN CITIES
At their annual Convention in the year 1944, during the week devoted to the celebration of the Centenary of the Birth of the Bahá’í Revelation, the Bahá’ís of the British Isles pledged themselves to undertake a special mission to be fulfilled by July, 1950, the Centenary of the Martyrdom of the Bab. This intention was cabled to the Guardian of the Faith who welcomed the decision and advised adoption of a plan to form nineteen local Spiritual Assemblies in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Eire.
This six year Plan called for an undertaking of great magnitude. In successive communications from Haifa, Shoghi Effendi declared that the Plan “constitutes a landmark in the history of the Faith in the British Isles . . . the first collective enterprise undertaken by them for the spread of the Faith and the consolidation of its divinely appointed institutions.” “The Plan constitutes a direct and grave challenge to the English Bahá’í Community in its entirety. . . . It is, thus far, one of the most significant undertakings embarked upon by the members of the Bahá’í National Assemblies during the opening years of the second Bahá’í Century. . . . To it . . . the immediate destinies of the community of the English believers are linked, and on it must depend the future orientation and evolution of the institutions which the members of that community are laboring to erect for the diffusion of the principles, and the establishment of the Faith, of Bahá’u’lláh in their country.”
Bahá’ís who meditate upon these collective enterprises recall the statement made by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that the spirit latent within the Faith would gradually become apparent. The Master Himself had carried out the first and supreme Mission expressing the power and the purpose of the Revelation after the Ascension of Bahá’u’lláh. Through Him the concentration of faith, understanding, will and energy had been perfect and complete. Now the time had come, as the events prove, for this dynamic spirit to enter into and inspire the institutions of the Bahá’í community and galvanize within every national community of believers the capacity for impressive achievement.
The British undertaking could not be accomplished by a mere arrangement for moving a certain number of Bahá’í families from one city to another. The task called for the raising up of a large number of new Bahá’ís in the nineteen cities selected under the Plan. The goal involved nothing less than doubling the size of the community as it existed in 1944.
Spiritual drama affects the beholder on a deeper level than the dramas written into the public record of events.
In the motherland of empire, where
for generations authority and power
held sway over a large part of the earth,
a handful of resolute souls determined
to found a new order of spiritual and
administrative institution in nineteen
cities. Reduced to a mathematical formula,
the project could be achieved
by one hundred and seventy-one human
beings. What a slight figure in relation
to empire! But spiritually the drama
is momentous and poignant. For success
was not a little gesture of a titanic
body — it could only be weakness itself
allied to a power unseen. What must
take place was the birth of a new creation,
no part of the old order but a
descent from a higher realm. A Spiritual
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Assembly of Bahá’ís represents the
outreaching finger of a hand, which in
turn has movement from an arm, the
arm itself the limb of a body, and the
body penetrated by a spirit more potent
than all the powers of earth.
“This Plan is unifying and consolidating our community as nothing else has in our history,” a report from England states. “There is a great desire among the friends to answer its challenge, and to return the Guardian’s words fulfilled.”
The modern world is accustomed to collective Plans, and looks to the size and force of the organization committed to it as a measure of its importance. Plan has come to denote social organism and the mechanisms of mutiple public influence. The experience of the British Bahá’ís in setting their Plan into operation proves once more that men and women, not mechanism, hold the keys of destiny. Every individual Bahá’í became identified with the enterprise, and its momentum flowed from qualities of devotion, self-sacrifice and heroism, where the individual being is supreme.
Here was the ultimate spiritual agent — the morally responsible and believing man and woman, whether old or young, rich or poor, learned or ignorant. Not from government, not from industry, not from traditional education, not from clergy but from the soul itself came this power to serve a new spirit, advance in a new direction, recognize a new goal. Here, indeed, is the turning-point in all the great crises of human history: the capacity of individuals to throw off the fetters of outworn formulas and conventional pronouncements, and return to the realm of moral responsibility and whole-hearted decision. Casting aside the formal doctrines which veil a divine purpose, they restore the life of truth and love.
By 1947, Assemblies had been formed in five towns, two existing communities strengthened, and nucleii formed in Scotland, Ireland and Wales. As was reported to the Convention held that year, the “community is now slowly building up the primary institutions ‘which are destined to act as the chief and most powerful instruments’ for the ‘twofold task of proclaiming the verities of their Faith to their fellowmen at home,’ and for ‘implanting its banner abroad amidst the peoples and races of a far-flung Empire.’ ”
The most important project carried out, not directly connected with the Plan, was the publication and distribution of an open statement written by the scholarly George Townshend wherein he gave his reasons as a Bahá’í why he had resigned his office in the church. His statement, published under the title “The Old Churches and the New Faith,” asserts the Bahá’í principle of the oneness of religion, manifested through progressive Revelation, and cites Bahá’u’lláh’s ringing call to priest and prelate to hear the Voice of their Lord. Copies were sent to some 10,000 leaders of public opinion.
At intervals during this six year period, the National Assembly examined and reexamined an evolving situation, adapting its directives to the imminent needs. By the believers the goal was pursued with unrelenting determination. Symbolic of the spirit aroused during this crusade we have the episode of the English Bahá’í who, in his eighty-fourth year, responded to the call and moved from a nursing home to settle as a pioneer in one of the goal towns.
“Five years of stupendous effort, of magnificent self-sacrifice, of marvelous dedication and of splendid cooperation have marked the progressive evolution of the Plan to its present stage,” Shoghi Effendi wrote at the beginning of the final year. “The Bahá’í World, in its entirety, is struck with amazement at the quality of the work performed, at the extent and number of the victories achieved by this community.”
In a later letter the Guardian wrote:
“Great and overpowering as these
sacrifices now appear, they will, when
viewed in their proper perspective, be
adjudged as inconsiderable, and pale
into insignificance when balanced
against the inestimable advantages
which must accrue to a community that
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has achieved total and complete victory
for a Plan so epoch-making in
character, and so charged with undreamt-of potentialities.”
Within the period covered by this survey the final outcome can not be presented. It suffices to record that fact that by April 21, 1950, the means to fulfilment had been secured.
BAHÁ’Í GOALS IN ‘IRÁQ
‘Iráq is hallowed in the eyes of all Bahá’ís because Bahá’u’lláh was exiled to that country after His imprisonment in Ṭihrán. The House of Bahá’u’lláh (referred to in previous surveys in connection with the case referred to the League of Nations) is to be a Shrine for pilgrimage in future when free travel and communication are established throughout the world. Before leaving ‘Iráq for Constantinople, the next stage in the exile of Bahá’u’lláh, He made His Declaration of Prophetic Mission to the assembled companions, thereby fulfilling their devotion to the Báb in allegiance to the One the Báb had heralded.
In 1947 the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of ‘Iráq adopted a plan for the next three years aimed at increasing the number of Bahá’í centers in the provincial areas, including the district of Shatt-el-Arab.
Extraordinary difficulties were faced. “The financial crisis seemed to be so acute and unprecedented that many Bahá’í projects . . . hung in the balance. Even correspondence between the National Spiritual Assembly and the different national and local assemblies and isolated Bahá’ís was suspended.”
The three year Plan provided for realization of these objectives:—Completion of the construction of the National Bahá’í Hall; raising funds to finance part of the national debt; establishment of ten new local Assemblies and encouragement of Bahá’í communities in the southern part of the country which had been isolated and deprived of contact with the main body of Bahá’ís.
Recognition of the legality of Bahá’í marriage certificates has been a gratifying evidence of the progress of the Faith in that land.
By completing the Hall which joins the administrative offices of the National Bahá’í Headquarters to the Guest House, the last item in the development of the headquarters has been finished. An audience of five hundred can be seated in this spacious Hall.
The Bahá’ís of ‘Iráq have given public exhibition of moving picture films illustrating the Bahá’í Shrines in Haifa and scenes of the Centenary program conducted in 1944 by the American Bahá’ís at the House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois.
Other activities included translation of Bahá’í literature into Arabic, and publication of several pamphlets.
A THREE YEAR PLAN IN EGYPT
In 1948 the National Spiritual Assembly of Egypt defined the aims to be attained by 1953. Their Plan called for action in a number of fields: — increasing to nine the number of local Assemblies, and to thirty-three the number of towns and villages where Bahá’ís reside; establishing the Faith in Tunisia, Algeria and Libya; extending their holdings of land adjacent to he National Administrative Headquarters in Cairo and securing land for the development of a permanent School; establishment of a Bahá’í magazine; and strengthening the Bahá’í community in Abyssinia.
In adopting this five year Plan, the Bahá’ís at the same time were obliged to exert constant effort to overcome disabilities rooted in a hostile religious tradition. These disabilities have been mentioned in previous surveys.
Between 1946 and 1950, the period of this survey, encouraging advances were made in securing for the Faith the status of an independent religion entitled by law to freedom of worship and protection of property and civil rights.
Egypt, it is noted, occupies a leading position in Islám and also in the Arabian world, throughout which the Qur’án and the Islámic code has the force of law. Under the assumption that Muḥammad brought the final Revelation of God, any religious claim contravening this assumption represents heresy. The Bahá’ís, nevertheless, feel that their
Cypress trees marking the spot where Bahá’u’lláh sat and chose site for the Shrine of the Báb.
Faith during this period became more deeply rooted, won many friends and admirers, consolidated its independence, promoted its teachings and extended the activities of its followers beyond the Egyptian frontier. The believers were convinced that the spiritual power of the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh has created in many persons a new outlook, weakened traditional prejudice and afforded glimpses of a united and peaceful human society.
Among the incidents reported one notes that a throng of people attempted to prevent the interment of a Bahá’í in a local Bahá’í cemetery, but under police protection the Bahá’ís proceeded with the burial. Later this cemetery was attacked by rioters and two graves seriously damaged. Again police intervention enabled the Assembly to restore the graves and maintain the cemetery without molestation. A Bahá’í youth meeting in Port Said was attacked, two believers wounded and literature and furnishings stolen. The courts took cognizance of the complaint but the guilty persons were not found. In another town the Sharia Court dissolved a marriage between a Muslim and a Bahá’í, on the grounds that such a marriage is heretical and therefore illegal.
These incidents were local. Of national import was the ban laid on import of Bahá’í books and the confiscation of copies of the news bulletin prepared by the National Spiritual Assembly for the information of members of the Bahá’í community.
The Bahá’ís regarded all these incidents as opportunities to explain their teachings and defend their religious rights. Successive appeals made to local and national authorities were accepted and handled without bias.
After a series of articles appeared in the press which presented the Faith in an unfavorable light, the Publishing Committee refuted their statements in
About forty years separates the dates of the photo at left and the photo above.
a number of published articles. These were so favorably regarded that in one city the clergy of Islám sought to obtain from the head of the Azhar, largest college in Islám, a personal statement condemning the Bahá’ís. The outcome of this effort was that the official stated he had examined many Bahá’í books and found nothing in them which might be considered injurious to Islám.
A pamphlet was published and distributed by an official body of Muslim clergy of Azhar College warning Muslims that the Bahá’í Faith is heretical. To this attack the Bahá’í Teaching Committee prepared and published a detailed refutation. Their document convinced some members of the clerical body that their own attack revealed ignorance of the subject under discussion.
A Bahá’í lecture delivered before a
large audience at the YMCA of Cairo
carried weight in the estimation of
[Page 28]
many non-Muslim attendants. The leading
illustrated weekly about that time
published an article about the Faith
illustrated with photographs of Bahá’ís
celebrating their Feast of Riḍván at the
national Bahá’í headquarters, accompanied
by a brief summary of the
teachings. Such an article would have
been inconceivable even a few years
before.
A national issue arose from action of the Postal Savings Bank in refusing to permit a local Spiritual Assembly to withdraw funds unless it were registered as an institution at the Ministry of Social Affairs. This case, together with the question of the legal validity of a Bahá’í marriage certificate, eventually came before the Council of State, where eventually the whole question of Bahá’í status under civil law must be determined.
In energetic pursuance of its five year Plan the Bahá’ís between 1945 and 1947 formed local Assemblies in Tanta, Suez, Khartum (Sudan) and Addis-Ababa (Abyssinia). New publications issued in Arabic were: “The Unfoldment of Divine Civilization,” “The Promise of All Ages,” and “A Bahá’í Declaration of Human Obligations and Rights,” the statement presented to the Human Rights Commission of United Nations.
The conflict which broke out in Palestine during this period produced a temporary crisis in the life of the Bahá’í community of Egypt. Enemies hailed the situation as a unique opportunity to exterminate the Faith and destroy the body of its believers. In the press many articles appeared in effort to inflame the masses to violence.
The result, however, was to demonstrate the integrity of the Bahá’í community. The accusations were proven false when brought before civil authorities. The non-political character of the Faith and its teaching on obedience to civil government were clearly determined after investigation by a government agency.
Though not formally recognized, the Bahá’í community in Egypt is exercising the rights of a religious body.
A summary of the definite results of the Plan will be reported in the next volume of The Bahá’í World.
SIX YEAR PLAN ADOPTED BAHÁ’ÍS OF AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND
In April, 1947, the National Spiritual Assembly summoned the Bahá’í community to assume responsibility for establishing seven additional local Spiritual Assemblies and thirty-one new groups by 1953 under a six year Plan “destined to coincide with the completion of the interior ornamentation of the Mother Temple of the West.” This Plan was characterized by the Guardian of the Faith a “landmark of unusual significance in the history of the Faith in that far-off continent,” a “prelude to still more glorious chapters in the annals of the Faith in the Antipodes.”
The ultimate destiny of the Bahá’ís of Australia and New Zealand is clearly to establish a strong center of teaching capable of carrying the Bahá’í Message to the Islands of the South Seas. The present Plan aimed to prepare the Bahá’í community for an ever-enlarging future mission. For the present, as Shoghi Effendi pointed out, they “must concentrate every ounce of their energy, and focus their entire attention, on the tasks immediately ahead . . .”
By March, 1949, five of the seven new Assemblies had been formed, and one new group. The members of the National Assembly in their annual report were thoroughly aware of the need for greater effort and sacrifice if the Plan was to come to fruition “in the realization of our expanding responsibility in the Bahá’í world and to humanity at large.”
During the developments of this
period, a statement was received from
the Guardian of basic import, emphasizing the
“vital need of insuring by
every means possible the deepening of
the faith, the understanding and the
spiritual life of the individuals who, as
the privileged members of this community,
are called upon to participate
in this glorious unfoldment and are
lending their assistance to this historic
[Page 29]
evolution, a profound study of the Faith
which they have espoused, its history,
its spiritual as well as administrative
principles; a thorough understanding of
the Covenant of Bahá’u’lláh and of the
Will of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, a deeper realization
of the implication of the claim
advanced by the Founder of the Faith;
strict adherence to the laws and principles
which They have established; a
greater dedication to the fundamentals
and verities enshrined in Their teachings — these
constitute . . . the urgent
need of the members of this rapidly
advancing community.”
In this brief statement we have the requisites of that preparation required before a body of people can become an instrument for the establishment of a new divine order in the world. Let it be compared with the elaborate philosophies and codes devised in order to reduce humanity to a servitude to force miscalled “peace” and a uniformity vaunted as the “new order”.
The Bahá’í resident in another country finds much to admire in the activities conducted by the believers of Australia and New Zealand. They have published a quarterly magazine uninterruptedly for many years. The Educational Department of the State of Victoria has recognized the right of a Bahá’í employee to apply for leave of absence on Bahá’í Holy Days. A number of books have been translated into Braille. The National Spiritual Assembly has developed a substantial national headquarters. The Bahá’í School at Yerrinbool has conducted summer and winter sessions with numerous enrollments. A national news bulletin keeps the community informed of Bahá’í developments at home and abroad. The Legal Committee has studied the body of civil statutes providing for incorporation of religious bodies and concluded that a new statute is needed before a local Bahá’í Assembly can win a legal status conforming to its particular functions, for example, the conduct of a legal marriage ceremony of Bahá’í type without a professional clergy. Above all, the attentive Bahá’í realizes that this wide range of activities is maintained by a small community scattered throughout a tremendous area.
By the end of March, 1950, the National Assembly was able to report very favorable progress in the projects of the six year Plan. On the one hand, the Assembly noted an increased outward expansion in teaching and pioneer settlement, and on the other hand the Assembly was gratified by the degree of inward expansion of institutional and administrative activity.
Traveling teachers had covered every State in the Commonwealth except the Northern Territory. Three more new Assemblies could be repoted, and seven groups had been formed in municipal areas of large cities where conditions favored the formation of permanent communities.
In its report the Assembly also stressed the importance of taking action at a later date to petition the government for the enactment of special legislation to “incorporate all the legal aspects of the Faith.” The initiation of a public relations program during the year was felt to be successful in creating a wider public awareness of the Faith. Local and national endowments had been increased by the acquisition of the Bolton School property at Yerrinbool, the Thelma Oark property as an addition to the School, the Clarge Terrace property in Woodville, and the Hyde Dunn Memorial in Henderson Valley, New Zealand.
The six year Plan arrived at midpoint in March,
1950. Summing up the
results accomplished in the first three
years the National Assembly declared:
“Gradually, in both the teaching sphere
and the administrative sphere, a new
impetus developed. Settlers not only
moved into goal towns and started their
teaching activities, but itinerant teachers
and lecturers gradually began to
move around the country in a highly
coordinated program of national teaching.
As we cast a momentary glance
back from this midway mark, we see
the number of believers doubled, and
the five Assemblies and nine groups
existing prior to the inception of the
Plan, increasing to its present ten
Assemblies and nineteen groups.” By
[Page 30]
that time an Assembly existed in every
capital city of the Commonwealth and
some in other towns. Even more important was
the increased awareness
among the Bahá’ís themselves of the
majesty of the Faith they served.
BAHÁ’ÍS OF GERMANY AND AUSTRIA. UNITE IN A FIVE YEAR PLAN
At the beginning of the period embraced by this survey, the German Bahá’ís were in process of recovering from the losses suffered as result of the persecutions enacted by the former regime. In 1937, for example, their entire stock of publications was confiscated. Their administrative institutions could not function. Nevertheless, from 1946 to 1947 the Faith grew rapidly in Germany. The number of adult believers was more than doubled, and the local Spiritual Assemblies were increased from four to ten.
The National Spiritual Assembly, moreover, succeeded in rearranging its affairs, meeting a total of twenty-one days during the year. The Bahá’í School near Esslingen resumed its sessions after suspension for ten years, and a youth summer session was conducted in Heppenheim in July, 1946. Under license by the Military Government its monthly news letter again appeared.
In its brief annual report the National Spiritual Assembly expressed gratitude for the courage and guidance inspired by Shoghi Effendi in numerous letters and cablegrams, and appreciation of the help received from Bahá’ís from Persia and the United States, particularly the Persian Bahá’ís Manucher Zábih and Aziz Samimi, and the American Bahá’ís John Eichenauer, III, and Bruce Davison.
The National Convention held April 26 and 27, 1947, brought together many delegates and visitors from all parts of Germany. Austrian Bahá’ís, however, were unable to participate. This gathering was infused by a moving sense of the glory of the Faith quickened in the hearts of the believers.
New publications being translated were “Hidden Words,” “Some Answered Questions,” and “Bahá’í Administration.” The representative appointed to study and report on a site for the establishment of the National Bahá’í Headquarters had up to that time found nothing suitable for the purpose. The Convention received reports on youth activities, health measures undertaken for under-nourished children, teaching, and public contacts.
During the meeting of the National Assembly held in October, 1948, the goals of a five year Plan were formulated at the request of the Guardian and announced to the Bahá’í community. The aims defined were: Consolidation and expansion of the understanding and operation of the Bahá’í administration; expansion of Bahá’í activities throughout Germany and Austria and the addition of new centers; deeper study of the teachings; construction of a National Headquarters in Frankfurt A/M.
In connection with this Plan, a schedule of publications was adopted calling for two published works by March, 1949, fifteen by March, 1950, six by March, 1951, and nine by March, 1952. The Plan called for doubling the number of communities, from fourteen to twenty-eight, and increasing the membership in each community. Reflecting the spirit of the Plan, the National Youth Committee announced its own goals: deepening in understanding of the teachings, and attracting other youth to the Faith. The Committee announced five themes for special study and discussion by youth during the period of the Plan.
The annual report prepared by the National Assembly for 1949-1950 constitutes the source of information concerning the status of the Plan at the end of the period covered by this survey.
The most difficult task confronting the Assembly was the construction of the administrative building, the site having been chosen in Frankfurt A/M. Bauer was appointed architect. This project will be treated in a later volume.
German Bahá’ís resumed their international
contacts within the Faith as
[Page 31]
opportunities arose. They participated
in World Religion Day, World Youth
Day, and a representative attended the
European Teaching Conference held in
Brussels.
By revision and republication of the national Bahá’í constitution and the by-laws of local Assemblies, the National Assembly established an administrative foundation for the German Bahá’í community conforming to those in operation in other Bahá’í communities. That an organic unity could be achieved so soon after so long a continuance of abnormal social conditions is a characteristic of the Bahá’í Faith. Its spirit and teaching prevailed when the believers could gather together in fellowship and open their hearts to its light and warmth.
A letter written by Shoghi Effendi to the German Bahá’ís on June 30, 1949 explained the reasons for the condition of the community, outlined directions for future work, and inspired deeper understanding of the meaning of unity. Gratitude for this message was recorded, and to its influence the National Assembly attributed the cause of Bahá’í progress in Germany. The Guardian’s contributions to their building fund were of great benefit.
In a real historic crisis the German Bahá’ís felt themselves raised up to a level where political controversy, social unrest and personal dispute became unreal and lost their force. Their Guardian served them through his statesmanship as well as by his compassion and tenderness. Momentarily plunged into a wilderness of international disturbances, they received guidance informing them how to emerge. “Strict and unchanging adherence to the spiritual laws and administrative principles, which are the foundation of the Faith, steadfast and thorough knowledge of the nature, sanctity, and importance of the successive Covenants of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá; immediate cessation of all quarrels that shake the life of this community in the present critical situation; close cooperation, total harmony and continuous consultation between the various jurisdictions, whether Spiritual Assembly or community, that participate in its development; concentration upon the next tasks that will insure the success of the recently drawn up Five Year Plan; steady watchfulness on the part of each adherent of the Faith to avoid any deed, any word, any association that would violate its purity, undermine its Administrative Order or retard its progress or steadfastness. All of these stand out as the most urgent, holy and unavoidable duty and responsibility that confront each champion of the Faith in this fateful hour of its history.”
Through shaking experience a strong and valiant community attains invincible might and pure integrity. Germany, to all Bahá’ís, has before it a tremendous spiritual mission in the conquest of the world by the powers of righteousness and peace.
BAHÁ’Í PLAN IN INDIA, PAKISTAN AND BURMA
The Bahá’í Faith took root in the great subcontinent of India during the early years of the Ministry of Bahá’u’lláh. In the chronological list of countries opened to the Faith from 1844 to 1950, Burma ranks third among the one hundred reported, India ranks sixth and Pakistan ninth. It was not until after the Ascension of Bahá’u’lláh in 1892 that His teachings penetrated any western land. Thus, Australia is the fourteenth country, Canada the seventeenth, France, Germany and Great Britain the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first, while the United States of America was the thirty-third country opened to the light of Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation.
In each culture the new spirit has expressed its
power in accordance with
the existing degree of development. In
one area it might evoke a new and
direly needed sense of moral obligation to changing
repressive and stagnant customs and forms; in another it
might balance a too radical concern for
[Page 32]
progress with a deeper realization of
what is eternal and not subject to the
manipulation of partisan forces.
For generations the West looked upon India as philosophical, pious, and unchanging. Its religion had crystallized into a social structure inherently conservative as regards tools and equipment, and therefore static in the repetition of ages of village life. The westerner could see little relationship between spiritual ideal and social responsibility. Now, in these last decades, momentous changes have acted upon the ancient civilization, producing more alteration than had been witnessed in centuries. The Bahá’í activities to be summarized here must be understood in relation to the whole trend of events — the end of empire, the rise of nationalism, the division of political sovereignty along religious and racial lines, and the war operations affecting Burma.
The Bahá’í teachings were carried to India by Persian Bahá’ís but representatives of other cultural groups have since entered the Bahá’í community. By 1944 the community had become widespread and capable of sustaining a large schedule of activities. This spiritual development rose to a brilliant climax during the world-wide celebration of the Bahá’í Centenary in that year.
Less than two years later the National Spiritual Assembly, realizing the need for a definite national plan, adopted a set of goals to be undertaken for four and one-half years beginning January 9, 1946 and ending July 9, 1950, the Centenary of the Martyrdom of the Báb.
Its focal point was the increase in the number of local Assemblies from twenty-one to sixty-three — a tripling of the number of administrative bodies within a multi-language area marked by sharp cultural and political divisions. During the process of this Plan the Assembly added more projects: publishing “Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era” in eighteen languages, the establishment of a national Bahá’í headquarters in the capital city, New Delhi, and carrying the Bahá’í message to Ceylon, Indonesia and Siam.
In presenting its Four and One-Half Year Plan to the Bahá’ís, the National Spiritual Assembly addressed a letter to the local Assemblies and groups which explained the methods by which the Plan could best be carried out.
The entire area of operations was divided into nine zones, giving due consideration to the predominant language spoken in each zone. Four steps were suggested as the most effective process for the formation of Bahá’í communities: two pioneer families, one Indian and one Persian, to go forth together and form the nucleus; developing interest through distribution of literature, personal contacts, and publicity; reenforcement of the local group by experienced traveling teachers; and lastly the consolidation of the community by a believer trained in the principles of Bahá’í administration.
The period of the Plan was divided into nine intervals of six months each as convenient stages for checking progress.
On the opening day of the Plan the National Spiritual Assembly received a most encouraging message from the Guardian: “Admire initiative, overjoyed (at) magnificent, spontaneous decision (by) national representatives (of) Indian believers (to) inaugurate Plan designed (to) consolidate (and) extend range (of) splendid achievements associated (with) termination (of) first Bahá’í Century. Fervently supplicating outpourings (of) Bahá’u’lláh’s blessings (on) mighty undertaking.”
“Apart from the glorious mission of creating new Bahá’í centers,” the National Assembly wrote to the local communities after the Plan had been launched, “apart from carrying the message of light and life to our corner of a dark and despairing world, the Plan offers us a challenge to put into actual practice the Bahá’í principle of oneness and solidarity.
“The individual, the backbone of the
whole scheme, will, in taking up pioneering
[Page 33]
work, develop the qualities of
faith in God, in himself and in his fellowmen,
the attributes of renunciation,
of courage and audacity, of initiative
and enterprise.
“The community that enters into this world with zest will act as the power house which will supply the energy needed to keep the wheels moving. They should evince for the welfare and establishment of the pioneer the same interest that they would in a member of their own household.”
In these simple words the Bahá’ís of India, Pakistan and Burma defined for themselves the spiritual meaning of a great crusade — a crusade which found fulfilment for all the virtues cultivated under centuries of Hinduism and Islám, united at last in the community of Bahá’u’lláh, the Promised One.
By April 21, 1947, eight new local Assemblies had been formed.
In the same month a cablegram arrived from the Guardian of the Faith advising the National Spiritual Assembly to set about purchasing in New Delhi a building suitable for use as a National Administrative Headquarters. A few weeks later Shoghi Effendi wrote: “They now stand on the threshold of a new epoch in the history of the evolution of the Administrative Order in their land. The transfer of the central institution of that Order to the capital of India; the wide measure of centralization which this historic step must involve; the purchase of a befitting seat for the ever-expanding activities and the multiplying agencies of that institution in the same capital . . . all these must synchronize with a remarkable and indeed unprecedented intensification of effort in the pioneer field of Bahá’í activity, as well as in the sphere of public teaching designed to arouse the masses and proclaim the verities of the Faith throughout the length and breadth of that subcontinent and its adjoining territory of Burma.”
On June 3, 1947 a building was purchased. Since the property was situated on leasehold land and in an area reserved for the Princes, the government’s sanction was required. This was finally obtained, but at the same time the authorities requisitioned the property for public use. Up to the end of the period covered by this survey the Bahá’ís had not received custody of their building.
By April, 1948, five local Bahá’í communities were arranging for their own local administrative headquarters. In its annual report of that year the National Assembly credited sixteen traveling teachers with public programs and fireside teaching work in eighty-one cities.
Meanwhile energetic effort was carried on to place Bahá’í articles in the press and to distribute literature to a selected list of five thousand prominent persons, many of whom signified their warm interest in the words of Bahá’u’lláh. Two hundred fifty-nine items were carried in the newspapers. About four hundred and fifty books were presented to public libraries.
The language problem in connection with translation and publication of Bahá’í literature was stupendous. In the case of some languages no script had been developed. By 1948 the printed publications included translation in fifteen different tongues. Over 40,000 books and pamphlets were sold and distributed.
In Burma grievous conditions were encountered. In the village of Daidanaw eleven Bahá’ís were slain during 1942, and the headquarters maintained there, in Mandalay and Rangoon were damaged or destroyed. Records, books and documents transferred for safety from Rangoon to Daidanaw were entirely lost when the headquarters was destroyed by fire.
As soon as communication was resumed, two Bahá’ís were appointed by the National Spiritual Assembly to visit Bahá’í centers in Burma and report on the conditions encountered. The result of this was to provide measures for the relief of distressed Bahá’ís, give them work, restore the administrative headquarters, and resume an active teaching schedule.
By April, 1950, the termination of this survey, the Plan had reached this stage of attainment. Twenty-six Assemblies had been formed, Bahá’í centers established in Ceylon, Indonesia and Siam, the publishing schedule practically completed, and the National Administrative Headquarters purchased even though legal obstacles prevented its use by the Bahá’í owners. During this final year, 1949—1950, a Bahá’í of Kamshatti, near Calcutta, was martyred by a religious fanatic. Forty-seven of the sixty-three local goals contemplated in the Plan were assured.
The story of Bahá’í activity in India, Pakistan and Burma from 1946 to 1950 is enriched by the deep devotion of the many pioneer families who left their homes to establish the Faith in some other town, and by the indefatiguable work of the volunteer teachers who carried the message of Bahá’u’lláh far and wide. The Plan, moreover, matured the Bahá’í community, steeled its will and opened its insight into the many social, humanitarian, cultural and spiritual teachings of the Faith.
SIX OBJECTIVES ATTAINED BY PERSIAN BAHÁ’ÍS
A Bahá’í of the West could only undertake a survey of activities among the Bahá’ís of Persia with extreme modesty. With its majestic spiritual background of more than a century of continuous persecution, the Persian Bahá’í community stands apart crowned with a distinction which other Bahá’í communities admire, and hope, if called upon, to deserve in their turn. Persia, too, as a land and a culture, preserves a mystery of isolation which in almost all other parts of the world has been penetrated and destroyed. Therefore, while the meeting of East and West has become not only possible but inevitable within the universal gospel of Bahá’u’lláh, and there is complete understanding between western and Persian believers in matters of faith and doctrine, the Bahá’í of the West has no sense of real intimacy with the particular type of culture in which Persian Bahá’ís live their lives and serve their Faith.
This survey is not the occasion to catalog the long list of outrages, cruelties, slaughters, repressions and lootings to which Persian Bahá’ís are still subjected despite the representations and appeals directed by Bahá’í administrative bodies to the responsible local, provincial and national authorities. The reason for this extension of primitive, priest-instigated feeling into modern times has been thus defined by a competent observer: “. . . Long standing political rivalries combined with a steady decline in the authority and influence exercised by the central government are contributing to the re-emergence of reactionary forces represented by an as-yet influential and fanatical priesthood, to a recrudescence of the persecution and a multiplication of the disabilities to which a still unemancipated Faith has been so cruelly subjected for more than a century.”
From the records and reports made available for this survey, a factual summary can be pieced together, but the factual record is incomplete without that sense of fatality which endows each incident with the quality of spiritual drama. Old Testament days, New Testament days, the days of Muḥammad in savage Arabia, are lived again in Persia today. The time will come when, through some keen-witted western journalist, or through some humane professional man visiting the country on some routine mission, the story of the Persian Bahá’ís will be spread in headlines of newspapers throughout the world; and the people will learn by what sacrifice and suffering is Revelation returned in our time.
A national Bahá’í Plan for the Persian community came into effect on October 11, 1946, to be fulfilled on July 9, 1950, the Centenary of the Martyrdom of the Báb. Its objectives included four aims to be achieved within Persia, and three in adjoining lands.
- 1. Consolidation of all local Bahá’í communities.
- 2. Reestablishment of sixty-two dissolved Assemblies.
- 3. Formation of twenty-two new groups.
- 4. Creation of thirteen new centers.
- 5. Development of Assemblies from groups located in Kabul, Afghanistan, Mecca, Arabia, and Bahrein Island, Persian Gulf.
- 6. Formation of groups in four localities on the Arabian Peninsula.
- 7. Sending pioneers to India and ‘Iráq to assist in the formation of new groups.
To each of the twenty Provinces a proportionate number of the four goals was assigned. The Bahá’ís of Ṭihrán were called upon to send out fifty families into the pioneer field.
Every individual Bahá’í was included in the operation of the Plan — as a volunteer, by deputizing a pioneer, by contributing funds, by circuit teaching, or by providing hospitality to students whose parents had become pioneers.
The National Spiritual Assembly wrote: “Soon after the Plan was published we received the beloved Guardian’s soul-stirring message. . . . It revealed the momentous character of this campaign and disclosed to our eyes the profoundly significant effect its fulfilment will have upon the immediate destiny of the Faith in Persia. . . . This dynamic call was brought to the friends in Ṭihrán in the course of five special meetings which were held in the National Bahá’í Headquarters Auditorium. . . . Similar organized measures are being taken by Spiritual Assemblies in provincial centers and by Regional Emigration Committees to bring the . . . Guardian’s appeal to the attention of all the friends in Persia, stressing the immensity of the task that lies before us.”
The cabled message from Shoghi Effendi which was communicated in this manner throughout the land was received on February 21, 1947.
“(I) rejoice (at the) magnificent Plan conceived (by the) National representatives (of the) dearly beloved community (of) Bahá’u’lláh’s native land. This far-reaching project well befits (a) community which in age, numbers, richness (of) history leads (the) entire Bahá’í world. Friends (and) foes, within and without, and fellow-believers (in) North, South, East (and) West (are) intently watching (the) manner (in which they) discharge (the) greatest task ever undertaken by (the) Persian followers (of the) Faith (of) Bahá’u’lláh. (The) glorious company (of the) holy Founders (of the) Faith, the Letters (of the) Living,* Hands (of the) Cause,** saints, heroes, martyrs, all (are) gazing expectantly from (the) Abhá Kingdom upon (the) privileged custodians (of the) priceless legacy bequeathed to (the) present generation laboring (in the) cradle (of the) Faith. . . . Upon its success (at the) appointed time chiefly depends (the) release (of the) spiritual forces designed (to) emancipate (and) hasten (the) recognition (of the) Faith (in) Írán.”
Bahá’í pioneering in Persia, as the National Assembly pointed out, has passed through three stages since 1943: a great exodus of pioneers, their retreat under insuperable difficulties, and a resurgence of the expansive movement. In 1943 an immediate and widespread response was inspired by letters from the Guardian of the Faith. “No sooner —had his call been echoed . . . than volunteers came forth in scores and hundreds. They came forth from every walk of life, men and women, rich and poor, learned and untutored, young and old, to share in the glorious task of promoting the interests of their beloved Faith.
“In those dark days of 1943-1944 living conditions in Persia were at their worst. Insecurity, bitterness, economic chaos were widespread . . . many people were in the throes of starvation.”
Soon the National Spiritual Assembly became aware of outbursts of fanaticism and hostility, hatred and overt acts. A wave of bitter persecution arose against the Bahá’í pioneers in practically every locality where they had settled. On August 8, 1944, in Sháhrúd, a revolting crime took place
————————
*The Báb’s chosen disciples. See ”God Passes By.”
**Disciples chosen by Bahá’u’lláh. Hands of the Cause have also been appointed by the Guardian in accordance with a provision of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Testament.
resulting in the slaughter of three Bahá’ís and the mutilation of their bodies. Bahá’í women were beaten, seventeen Bahá’í homes plundered and consigned to the flames.
Despite this recent experience, the new Plan adopted in 1946 evoked a great response. While fifty families had been requested from Ṭihrán, one hundred sixty Bahá’í families arose between 1946 and 1950 to pioneer. By 1950 ninety-three Assemblies had been formed, thirty-seven groups established and twenty-four localities with at least one Bahá’í. Outside Persia, four Assemblies were formed, and six localities settled with groups or individual Bahá’ís. The Plan came to more than hoped-for realization in advance of the final date.
In this vast process the observer studying the records finds several features which possess distinctive interest.
He notes, for example, the powerful effort and extensive arrangements made to remove from Bahá’í women the traditional shackles of lack of education and inability to participate in public affairs. The National Spiritual Assembly determined to create educational opportunities available to Bahá’í women. Women’s conferences were called for discussion of these problems. It became a fixed aim to attain for Bahá’í women that station of equality with men — equality of opportunity, right and privilege — which the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh declare to be an essential to a spiritual society and a condition of true civilization. Since in the Bahá’í community every local and national elective or appointive office is open to men and women on the same terms, the effort put forth by the Persian Bahá’ís represented a complete repudiation of the past tradition and a bold assertion of new principles and truths.
Noteworthy also as a collective action of the Persian Bahá’ís during the period under survey was their warm and generous response to the needs of their religious brothers and sisters in war-stricken lands of Europe and the East. Thousands of relief packages were shipped, and large sums sent to America to be devoted to this purpose. Such an assertion of the humanitarian spirit among an Oriental people is one more sign and evidence that a new spirit has been released by the Revelation by Bahá’u’lláh of the oneness of mankind.
A touching glimpse into the hearts of the Persian Bahá’ís is unconsciously given in an account of the arrival in Ṭihrán of the news that United Nations, accepting its status as an international nongovernmental organization, accredited delegates and observers appointed by the Bahá’í International Community to cultural conferences. The Bahá’í International Community is an association of the existing National Spiritual Assemblies, including that of Persia. The sudden realization that this contact with a responsible international body had been conferred upon them produced extraordinary joy. It was as though the sun itself had suddenly appeared through a rift in the darkest of clouds.
Visits of western Bahá’ís to Persia have been relatively few, though Americans sustained the cost of Tarbíyat School for girls during a certain period, and American teachers served in the School. Dr. Robert L. Gulick, visiting Persia while on a mission for the Carnegie Foundation, was received with enthusiasm and conducted to many of the holy places and Bahá’í shrines in Persia. The account of his visit to Persia also affords a tender glimpse into the heart of the Bahá’í community.
Lead vases, gilded peacocks, crushed red tile paths, lights, marble stairs and cypress trees all play a part in beautifying the gardens around the Tomb of the Báb on Mt. Carmel, Haifa, Israel.
SECOND SEVEN YEAR PLAN OF BAHÁ’ÍS OF NORTH AMERICA
During the years of the first World War, 1916 and 1917, while communication was interrupted between ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the Bahá’ís of the West, He revealed a series of Tablets addressed to the Bahá’ís in four areas of the United States and to the Bahá’ís in Canada, including three addressed to the entire Bahá’í community in both countries. These Tablets became known as Tablets of the Divine Plan. In them ‘Abdu’l-Bahá laid down the broad principles of a teaching mission the American Bahá’ís were to undertake in all parts of the world, beginning with the establishment of Bahá’í communities throughout North America. The Plan also formulated the spiritual conditions under which alone it could be successfully prosecuted. The effect of this series of Tablets was to constitute the Bahá’ís of North America the Master’s trustees in carrying out the provisions of these Tablets.
The physical life of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was drawing to a close. His own unique teaching mission publicly executed during His journey in Europe and North America, could not be resumed after the war. From His creative spirit the Master considered the spiritual needs and capacities of the peoples of the world. In His Plan He bound the peoples of East and West together in one spirit, one brotherhood, one social order, finding in North America the necessary elements of freedom, initiative and unified executive capacity to sustain the greater responsibilities of a world mission.
From 1922, the beginning of the administrative development of the Bahá’í community by the Guardian in conformity with the provisions of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Will, until 1946, response to the Divine Plan was made by heroic individual Bahá’ís who carried the Message to other lands, and collectively in efforts to strengthen the Faith within North America itself. In 1937 a Seven Year Plan was formulated by Shoghi Effendi under which North American Bahá’ís were given their first international goals. The Plan called for the formation of a Spiritual Assembly in each State of the United States and each Province of Canada, the completion of the exterior ornamentation of the House of Worship, and the establishment of Bahá’í groups in each country of Central and South America, by 1944, the Centenary of the Declaration of the Báb.
This Plan was successfully carried out. It represented one stage in the execution of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine Plan.
In 1946, after a respite of two years, a Second Seven Year Plan was given by the Guardian to North America, the focal point being 1953, the Centenary of the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh’s Mission. This stage in the consummation of the Divine Plan set up four separate goals: consolidation and bolder proclamation of the Faith in the United States and Canada; completion of the interior ornamentation of the House of Worship; the establishment of National Spiritual Assemblies in Canada, Central America, and South America; and a new teaching mission in Western Europe involving the formation of at least one Spiritual Assembly in each of ten countries — Belgium, Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, Sweden, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Italy, Portugal, and Spain. Supplementary to this Plan was the resolve to bring to one hundred seventy-five the number of local Assemblies in North America by April 21, 1948. This was accomplished.
The Plan was outlined in a cablegram which the Guardian addressed to the Thirty-Eighth Annual Convention, April 25, 1946. “The prosecutors of the Plan who in the course of six war-ridden years achieved such prodigies of service in the Western Hemisphere from Alaska to Magallanes are now collectively summoned to assume in the course of the peaceful years ahead still weightier responsibilities for the opening decade of the Second (Bahá’í) Century. The time is ripe, events are pressing.”
Concerning the results attained
[Page 39]
between 1937 and 1944, Shoghi Effendi in
this same cable summarized them as
follows: “The campaign culminating
the Centenary of the inauguration of the
Bahá’í Era completed sixteen months
ere the appointed time the exterior
ornamentation of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár,
laid the basis of the administrative order
in every virgin State and Province
of the North American continent, almost
doubled the Assemblies established since
the inception of the Faith,
established Assemblies in fourteen Republics
of Latin America, constituted
active groups in remaining Republics,
swelled to sixty the Sovereign States
within the pale of the Faith.”
A few weeks after the 1946 Convention the American Bahá’ís received a letter from the Guardian presenting the second Seven Year Plan against a background emphasizing its historic and spiritual import. This communication, dated June 15, 1946, was published under the title ”A God-Given Mandate.”
“The opening years of the second century of the Bahá’í Era are witnessing the launching of yet another stage of an enterprise the range of whose unfolding processes we can, at the present time, but dimly visualize. However familiar we may be with its origin, however conscious of its magnitude and bold character, however cognizant of the signal success that has attended its initial operation, in the Western Hemisphere, we find ourselves nevertheless incapable of either grasping the import of its tremendous potentialities, or of correctly appraising the significance of the present phase of its development. Nor can we assess its reaction, as the momentum of the mysterious forces driving it onward augments, on the fortunes of the divers communities whose members are consciously laboring for the achievement of purposes akin to the high aims that animate its promoters, or estimate its impact, as its scope is further enlarged and its fruition is accelerated, on the immediate destinies of mankind in general.
“The impulse from which this historic world-embracing crusade, which, alike in the character of its Founder and the nature of the tasks committed to its participants, is unprecedented in religious history, derives its creative power may be said to have in a sense originated with the mandate issued by the Báb in His Qayyúm’l-Asmá’, one of His earliest and greatest works, as far back as the opening years of the first Bahá’í century, and directed specifically to the ‘peoples of the West,’ to ‘issue forth’ from their ‘cities’ and aid His Cause.
“To this initial impulse given by the
Herald of our Faith, whilst confined in
the heart of far-away Asia, a still
greater force was communicated, and
a more specific direction given, when
the Author of our Faith Himself, having
already set foot on the fringes of the
continent of Europe, addressed, in His
Kitáb-i-Aqdas, from behind the walls of
the prison-city of ‘Akká, some of the
most celebrated passages of that Book
to the Chief Magistrates of the entire
American continent, bidding them ‘bind
with the hands of justice the broken,’
and ‘crush the oppressor’ with the ‘rod
of the commandments’ of their Lord.
Unlike the kings of the earth whom He
had so boldly condemned in that same
Book, unlike the European Sovereigns
whom He had either rebuked, warned
or denounced, such as the French Emperor,
the most powerful monarch of
His time, the Conqueror of that monarch,
the Heir of the Holy Roman Empire, and
the Caliph of Islám, the Rulers
of America were not only spared the
ominous and emphatic warnings which
He uttered against the crowned heads
of the world, but were called upon to
bring their corrective and healing influence
to bear upon the injustices perpetrated
by the tyrannical and the ungodly. To
this remarkable pronouncement, conferring
such distinction upon
the sovereign rulers of the Western
Hemisphere, must be added not only
the passages in which the Author of our
Faith clearly foreshadows the revelation
of the ‘signs of His dominion’ in
the West, but also the no less significant
verbal affirmations which, according to
reliable eye-witnesses, He more
[Page 40]
than once made in regard to the glorious
destiny which America was to
attain in the days to come.”
The mission in Europe was presented in these words: “In conjunction with these afore-mentioned objectives, and in a sense, more far-reaching in its repercussions and of greater urgency, is the task of extending the ramifications of the Divine Plan to a continent which not only stands in dire need of the ennobling, the reinvigorating, and spiritualizing influence of a world-redeeming Faith, but must serve as a stepping-stone to the spiritual conquest of the vast and numerous territories, lying as yet beyond the scope of the plan, in both the Asiatic and African continents, and which must, in the course of successive epochs, be warmed and illuminated by the rays of Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation as prescribed in the Tablets revealed by the Center of His Covenant and the Authorized Interpreter of His teachings.
“In the western extremity of that continent, in the Iberian Peninsula, the parent land and fountain-head of the culture of those Republics which have already been quickened by the first stirrings of the Plan conceived by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá; in the extreme North, among the Scandinavian peoples, and further south, amidst their Flemish and French neighbors, whose conversion will considerably enrich the diversity of the races to be included within the orbit of its operation; in the extreme South, in the Italian Peninsula, the cradle of a far-famed civilization and the seat and stronghold of the most powerful Church in Christendom; in the very heart of that continent, amidst a freedom-loving, peace-pursuing, high-minded people, the prosecutors of the Second Seven Year Plan must, preferably in the capitals of these countries, arise to establish, on an unassailable foundation, the structural basis of the nascent institutions of their Faith, which future promoters of the Divine Plan must, in the course of succeeding epochs, enlarge, and thereon erect the mightiest edifices of that Faith.”
The spiritual blessing conveyed through participation in this Plan was also described: “To be privileged to render, in His stead, on so colossal a scale, at such a challenging hour, and in the service of so sublime a Plan, so great and enduring a service, is a bounty which we can never adequately appraise. We stand too close to the noble edifice our hands are rearing, the din and tumult into which a war-devastated world is now plunged are too distracting, our own share in the furtherance of those global aims, tasks and problems that are increasingly absorbing the attention of mankind and its leaders is as yet too circumscribed, for us to be in a position to evaluate the contribution which we, as the executors of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Mandate, as the champion-builders of Bahá’u’lláh’s Order, as the torch-bearers of a civilization of which that Order is the mainspring and precursor, are now being led, through the inscrutable dispensations of an almighty Providence to make to the world triumph of our Faith, as well as to the ultimate redemption of all mankind.”
It was with such challenging assurance, appeal and guidance that the Bahá’í community, in 1946, bent its energy to prosecution of the task.
For the consolidation of the American Bahá’í community and a more determined proclamation of the Faith to the leaders and masses, far-reaching teaching plans were adopted and put in motion. On the one hand a series of nationwide public meetings were initiated through the local communities in which a number of challenging themes were successively presented. In connection with these public gatherings the work of providing study classes for interested inquirers was intensified. In homes, in local Bahá’í meeting places, using every possible facility for teaching, a powerful movement penetrated the entire Bahá’í community.
Paralleling these public meetings and study groups the National Spiritual Assembly inaugurated a public relations program which publicized the
Gilded, wrought iron gates, and stately paths, surround the Shrine of the Báb on Mt. Carmel, Haifa, Israel.
Faith through press and radio, through advertisements in magazines, and through mailings of literature to large selected lists of influential and key persons. Bahá’í releases were distributed to more than five hundred newspapers, and in the case of announcements accompanied by photographs of the completed exterior ornamentation of the Temple, or views of the interior design when contracts were placed, the results were most gratifying. In one instance a Temple illustration was reproduced in more than five hundred weekly papers published in smaller towns. The metropolitan press provided more space for Bahá’í articles than had been given since the memorable days of 1912, when ‘Abdu’l-Bahá addressed large audiences in universities, synagogues, churches and cultural gatherings throughout North America.
Space is not available to record in detail the activities reported by the National Assembly and its committees year by year from 1946 to 1950.
In addition to the activities directly related to the prosecution of the Seven Year Plan, some of the major events included the transfer of the Louhelen School property in Davison, Michigan by its owners, Mr. and Mrs. L. W. Eggleston, to Bahá’í trustees as a permanent endowment of the American Bahá’í community. The Eggleston residence, located on the school property, was purchased in order to complete the holding. Bahá’í endowments were also augmented through gifts of properties in Geyserville, California, by Mrs. Louise Bosch and Mrs. Amelia E. Collins, and in Eliot, Maine, by Mrs. Villa Vaughn, and by Mrs. Amelia E. Collins in Wilmette, Illinois.
During this period was developed a relationship of the Bahá’í body to the United Nations.
On April 16, 1948, Shoghi Effendi cabled the American National Convention a message containing this reference to the United Nations: “Recognition extended to the Faith by United Nations as an international non-governmental body enabling appointment of accredited representatives to United Nations conferences is heralding world recognition for a universal proclamation of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.” A few days later, in his cablegram beginning “Joyfully acclaim brilliant achievements,” dated April 26, the Guardian included recognition by United Nations as one of the achievements of the American community: “. . . whose spokesmen are securing recognition of the institutions of Bahá’u’lláh’s rising world order in the United Nations.”
On May 18, 1948, writing through his secretary, Shoghi Effendi advised the National Spiritual Assembly as follows: “The recognition given your Assembly (as representative of the other National Spiritual Assemblies) by UN as a non-governmental body entitled to send representatives to various UN conferences marks an important step forward in the struggle of our beloved Faith to receive in the eyes of the world its just due, and be recognized as an independent World Religion. Indeed, this step should have a favorable reaction on the program of the Cause everywhere, especially in those parts of the world where it is still persecuted, belittled, or scorned, particularly in the East.”
These passages give us a good background for a review of the development of Bahá’í relations with the United Nations.
The first stage was application for recognition of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada as a national non-governmental organization. This was obtained in the spring of 1947, bringing with it the status of an accredited observer. Under this status the NSA submitted two formal statements: A Bahá’í Declaration of Human Obligations and Rights, and A Bahá’í Statement on the Rights of Women. A Bahá’í United Nations Committee was appointed; a Bahá’í observer attended UN sessions, and effective contacts made.
The second stage was application for
recognition of the Faith as an international
non-governmental body — a
much more important status. A form
was suggested for each National Assembly
[Page 43]
to fill out, authorizing the
American Assembly to act for them in
relation to UN matters. This form was
executed by the seven other National
Assemblies then existing (winter 1947-1948)
and in the name of “The Bahá’í
International Community” the eight
Assemblies were given recognition as
an international organization. When
the Canadian Bahá’ís formed their own
National Assembly, it executed the
same form, and this has been filed with
UN. The Bahá’í International Community
is thus a union of nine National
Spiritual Assemblies for the purpose of
maintaining a relationship to UN. “The
Bahá’í International Community” has
no other function or authority.
The first Bahá’í representation at an international UN conference took place in May, 1948, at Geneva, when Mrs. Mildred Mottahedeh, Mr. Ugo Giachery and Mr. C. Mason Remey, under appointment as representatives of the “Bahá’í International Community,” took part in a gathering of many representatives of international non-governmental organizations under UN auspices to confer on Human Rights. Five delegates were appointed, but Mr. Leroy Ioas and Mrs. Marion Holley Hofman could not serve.
A request was received prior to the conference for a brief statement on what Bahá’ís are doing to promote human rights, and this statement has been published in World Order Magazine and also issued by the Public Relations Committee.
The Bahá’í delegates introduced two resolutions which were approved and accepted by the Geneva conference.
“RESOLVED: That the Non-Governmental Organizations endeavor through their local branches and with the permission of the governing authorities to educate and prepare the peoples of non-member nations for their eventual entry into the United Nations.”
“RESOLVED: That the Non-Governmental Organizations who here represent a good portion of the world’s population can go far in the implementation of Article No. 1 of the Declaration of Human Rights by themselves setting the example within their own organization by eliminating within these organizations all sorts of prejudice whether it be that of race, creed or color. They would thus present a living example of the implementation of Article No. 1.”
Other United Nations Conferences in which Bahá’í representatives participated were held in San Francisco, 1948, Paris, 1948, University of Kansas, 1949 and 1950, Geneva, June, 1949, Lake Success, 1949 and Santiago, Chile, 1950.
The foundation for this relationship had been established at the Bahá’í World Center by the Guardian in 1947. On July 9 of that year he received a letter from the chairman of United Nations Special Committee on Palestine requesting a statement on the relationship which the Bahá’í Faith has to Palestine and the Bahá’í attitude towards any future changes in the status of the country.
From Shoghi Effendi’s reply, dated July 14, 1947, the following paragraphs are quoted: “The position of the Bahá’ís in this country is in a certain measure unique: Whereas Jerusalem is the spiritual center of Christendom it is not the administrative center of either the Church of Rome or any other Christian denomination. Likewise although it is regarded as the second most sacred shrine of Islám, the most Holy site of the Muḥammadan Faith, and the center of its pilgrimages, are to be found in Arabia, not in Palestine. The Jews alone offer somewhat of a parallel to the attachment which the Bahá’ís have for this country, inasmuch as Jerusalem holds the remains of their Holy Temple and was the seat of both the religious and political institutions associated with their past history. But even their case differs in one respect from that of the Bahá’ís for it is in the soil of Palestine that the three central Figures of our Religion are buried and it is not only the center of Bahá’í pilgrimages from all over the world but also the permanent seat of our Administrative Order, of which I have the honor to be the Head.
“The Bahá’í Faith is entirely non-political and we neither take sides in the present tragic dispute going on over the future of the Holy Land and its people nor have we any statement to make or advice to give as to what the nature of the political future of this country should be. Our aim is the establishment of universal peace in this world and our desire to see justice prevail in every domain of human society, including the domain of politics. As many of the adherents of our Faith are of both Jewish and Moslem extraction, we have no prejudice towards either of these groups and are most anxious to reconcile them for their mutual good and for the good of the country.
“What does concern us, however, in any decisions made affecting the future of Palestine, is that the fact be recognized by whoever exercises sovereignty over Haifa and Acre, that within this area exists the spiritual and administrative world center of a world Faith, and that the independence of that Faith, its right to manage its affairs from this source, the right of Bahá’ís from any and every country of the globe to visit it as pilgrims (enjoying the same privilege in this respect as Jews, Moslems and Christians do in regard to visiting Jerusalem), be acknowledged and permanently safeguarded.”
With this communication, moreover, Shoghi Effendi enclosed a brief sketch of the history, aims and significance of the Bahá’í Faith which the National Spiritual Assembly has printed and widely distributed in pamphlet form.
Since 1947 a United Nations Committee has been annually appointed to maintain Bahá’í relations through participation in the successive conferences. Five documents have been submitted to the United Nations: the Guardian’s letter and enclosure, referred to above, A Bahá’í Declaration of Human Obligations and Rights, A Bahá’í Statement on the Rights of Women, Work of Bahá’ís In Relation to Human Rights, and an explanation of the nature of Bahá’í public worship, offered in connection with the development by the United Nations of a prayer building or center.
During this period the first all-Indian Bahá’í community in America was formed through the work of Mrs. Mary Stevison and Mrs. Amelia Collins.
In 1946-1947, as the result of a special appeal for pioneers to settle in towns where local Assemblies were needed, one hundred thirty-five American Bahá’ís responded and made their homes in new cities and towns.
A tally made by the National Radio Committee for a period of nine months in 1946 showed that a total of 587 Bahá’í broadcasts were made. About fourteen local Assemblies sustained a weekly program for thirteen weeks or more. The National Radio Committee produced a series of ten dramatic transcriptions which were extensively used.
Temple visitors listed in 1946 and 1947 numbered about 60,000. The reception of Temple visitors was made more effective by the production of an audiovisual presentation of Temple pictures, other Bahá’í scenes, and the basic teachings of the Faith.
On January 6, 1947 the American Bahá’í community in local gatherings celebrated the twenty-fifth anniverasry of the Guardianship. The occasion was deeply felt and memorable, as the Bahá’ís, and particularly the older members, realized the miraculous manner in which a world-wide and diversified community had been guided and inspired to develop organic institutions and maintain a unity unassailable by any force operating from without or within. It was the privilege of the National Spiritual Assembly to publish a noble statement on the Guardianship and the achievements since the ascension of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá prepared by Rúḥíyyih Khánum.
A new method of community education, combining
spiritual devotion, discussion and study, was
developed in the
form of a “Bahá’í Institute.” This
method consisted in holding of special
community and inter-community study
conferences for reading and discussion
of a text prepared for this purpose.
The first text, devoted to the Bahá’í
[Page 45]
Covenant and Administration, compiled
Bahá’í passages of basic importance
and the Institute sessions conducted
throughout the United States were acclaimed.
The Institute method has for
its aim the self-education of a Bahá’í
community by mutual participation,
since the era of the proficient teacher
able to travel from community to community
appears to have closed. This
new educational system was the more
opportune in that for two successive
years, as a measure of austerity during
Temple construction, the four Bahá’í
Schools were suspended.
LATIN AMERICAN MISSION
To assure the formation of a National Spiritual Assembly by the Bahá’ís in both Central and South America before 1953, the Inter-America Committee appointed by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of North America formulated an energetic schedule of activities.
Since the delegates to be chosen for the Conventions qualified to elect these National Spiritual Assemblies would be representative of the local Bahá’í communities in existence at that future time, the essential aim of the Committee plan was to establish the broadest possible basis of representation. Any country of these two areas not possessing a properly constituted local Assembly at the time the delegates were chosen would not be represented at the Convention. The minimum requisite, then, was the development of at least one Assembly in each country.
By 1946 some countries already had more than one Assembly. The Committee also proposed to assist the local Assemblies to obtain corporate status as religious bodies in accordance with the regulations prevailing in each country.
The next requisite was the development of an active sense of community among all the Bahá’ís of each international area, and afford them practice in the conduct of projects common to all, involving a steady transfer of responsibility from the representatives of the North American Bahá’ís to representatives of the Bahá’ís of Latin America. This was accomplished by the appointment of regional committees and committees acting for the Bahá’í communities of Central and South America as a whole, and by the conduct of annual conferences with school sessions attended by one or more believers from each country. Thus the social and spiritual equivalent of annual conventions was created, and a spirit of fellowship and mutual Bahá’í aim developed throughout both these international areas.
Other aims set up at the very beginning of the Second Seven Year Plan included the carrying of the Faith to the masses and also to leaders, provision of literature for study in Spanish, Portuguese and French, and securing the service of additional pioneer teachers, both Latin American and North American, to maintain intensive work with Assemblies and groups in all parts of the two areas.
Gratifying progress could be reported at the end of the first year, 1947. Eight original teaching committees had become active. Teaching by correspondence, a method which proved unexpectedly effective, increased from an initial distribution of four hundred copies of each successive lesson to nineteen hundred. Forty new groups were formed that year, six attaining Assembly status by April, 1947. A total of eleven new local Assemblies was formed that year. The number of enrolled Bahá’ís nearly doubled.
The core of the entire intercontinental campaign was the pioneer teachers who had volunteered to serve for an indefinite period in a foreign land, learn a new language, adjust to a new culture and civilization, and steadfastly uphold the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh. Tribute was paid to the work of twenty pioneers from North America and of three North American Bahá’ís permanently resident in Latin America.
Bahá’í schools established in Latin
America in 1946-1947 were located in
Ezeiza, Argentina; Santiago, Chile; and
[Page 46]
Vera Cruz, Mexico. The Bahá’í International
School at Pine Valley, Colorado, conducted
a workshop course in Latin American pioneering.
A final contribution to the work was that of North American Bahá’ís who traveled in Latin America and visited Bahá’í communities en route.
By April, 1947, the Committee could report five Assemblies in Colombia, four in Chile, three in Mexico and three in Brazil. By that time the goal cities needed for complete representation could be selected and arrangements made for concentrated teaching work.
A conference held in Buenos Aires was attended by twenty-five representatives from ten South American countries, and a conference held in Panama City was attended by representatives from nine countries of Central America. The agendas provided at these conferences called for discussion and action on Bahá’í matters of direct concern to the participants.
Bahá’í radio broadcasts were delivered during 1946-1947 in Panama, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile, Bolivia, Brazil, Cuba and the Dominican Republic.
The date assigned for the formation of the two Latin American National Spiritual Assemblies was 1951. By April, 1950, the final date of this survey, the process of consolidating two national (in reality, international) Bahá’í Communities, had been carried to a point where success was assured.
By 1950, the transfer of responsibility for planning and direction was nearly complete. Two national committees were functioning in the preparation of translation, publication and distribution of Bahá’í literature, the preparation of study courses, radio scripts and publicity, the editing and distribution of Bahá’í news bulletins, and the organization and conduct of an International Bahá’í Congress in Central and South America. Regional Conferences during 1949-1950 were conducted in Bogotá, Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo, Valparaiso, La Paz, Havana, Mexico, D. F., Tegucigalpa, and San José, with wide representation, including a member of the National Teaching Committees of the area. Surveys were prepared pointing to the critical needs still to be met by 1951.
The Inter-America Committee reported that the initiative and energy shown by the Latin American Bahá’ís on the eve of their administrative independence from North American authority was most gratifying.
A landmark in the evolution of the Latin American Bahá’í communities was the statement written by the Guardian in 1947, in his second epochal letter on the Seven Year Plan (published as The Challenging Requirements of the Present Hour) describing them as the “co-workers and associates” of the North American Bahá’ís, in carrying out the provisions of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine Plan. That same letter presented a detailed schedule of activities and accomplishments for Latin America as well as for North America during the remaining years of the Seven Year Plan.
The first Latin American local Assembly to incorporate was San José, followed by Bogotá, Asuncion, La Paz, Panama City and Caracas. Later incorporations before 1950 included Santiago, Rio de Janeiro, and Lima. The remaining Assemblies were in process of preparing their applications.
Twenty-three Latin American Bahá’ís by 1948 had qualified as teachers enrolled for pioneer enterprises or special missions.
In reporting on the events between 1946 and 1948, the Inter-America Committee emphasized the importance of the transfer of responsibility to the Latin American Bahá’ís.
“The most dramatic development in
the evolution of the Cause during these
twenty-one months has been the gradual
setting up and final complete functioning
of Latin America’s own teaching administration.
The first National
Teaching Committees were appointed
in June, 1947, one for South America
and one for the Caribbean countries.
All of the members were native believers
with the exception of one secretary on each
committee. To Artemus
[Page 47]
Lamb in the south and to Mrs. Marcia
Steward in Central America, was assigned the
delicate and exacting task
of helping these new committees to
begin to truly function through complete
consultation, and to take over
one by one, as the committees became
able to do so, the responsibilities and
the direction of comprehensive,
continental teaching programs.
“The historic names of the first Latin
American National Teaching Committees are:
“For South America — Sr. Esteban Canales Leyton, chairman; Artemus Lamb, secretary; Srta. Rosy Vodanovic, treasurer; Srta. Betty Rowe, assistant secretary, and Walter Hammond.
“For the Caribbean countries — Sr. Jose Antonio Bonilla, chairman; Marcia Steward, executive secretary; Sra. Natalia de Chavez, general secretary and treasurer; Oscar Casto, Antonio Mora and Carlos Vergara.
“At first each committee, one centered in Santiago, Chile, and the other in San José, Costa Rica, influenced only the single eountry in which each was established, working through the Regional Teaching Committee of that country. Through a slow and often unreliable mail service, covering many thousands of miles and passing through the delays of many border censorships, it was necessary for each national committee to reach out and try to make contact with its spiritual arms, the Regional Committees, to consult with them regarding the conditions and needs prevailing in their individual countries, to try to plan the type of activities adapted to these conditions. Practically all members of the Regional Committees were native believers. Such teaching committees in each country constituted new projects, and it required a little time for them to learn how to plan campaigns in cooperation with the existing Assemblies, groups and teachers.
“It was a turning point in the history of the Faith in Latin America when the North American pioneers ceased, in cooperation with the Inter-America Committee, to direct and do everything, when the reins of administration were placed with confidence in the hands of Latin Americans, and the Inter-America Committee together with the pioneers began to cooperate with them in their efforts. In the north the influence of Latin American administration spread gradually from Costa Rica down to Panama, then up through the Central Americas, until finally it flowered in the great Congress just closed in Mexico City, all of which was planned and directed by the National Teaching Committee. In South America the influence spread first through the countries of the south and then gradually northward until, with the coming of the historic Congress in Santiago, firm bonds and unity of action were established with the great countries of the north — Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador.”
The Committee also stressed the beginnings of large public meetings:
“Impressive public meetings with full
cooperation of press and radio are being
held in the great hall of the University
of Santiago in connection with
the South American Congress and International
School sessions at this time.
Public meetings in nine of the cities of
Venezuela, attended by governors of
states, artists, writers, educators,
prominent business men, Lions, Masons and
Rotarians, as well as members of other
organizations, accompanied by magnificent
newspaper and radio publicity,
marked the recent trip of Gayle Woolson
through that country. Similar
meetings were held in six cities of
Colombia and a large public meeting
is being planned by the Regional Teaching
Committee of Colombia in connection with
the Regional Conference to be
celebrated in Bogotá, March 25 to 28.
This will immediately precede the
meeting of the Pan-American Union in
that city. The Committee has planned
a complimentary pamphlet for delegates
and visitors to the Pan-American
Conference, including a map of Bogotá
and the words of Bahá’u’lláh. A special
information service will be conducted
by the Bahá’ís, which it is hoped will
help to orient the visitors from many
countries both practically and spiritually,
[Page 48]
A corner of the gardens surrounding the Shrine of the Báb, Mt. Carmel, Haifa, Israel.
[Page 49]
and greatly spread the knowledge of the Faith.
“A splendid public meeting has just been held in Rio de Janeiro, sponsored by the Spiritual Assembly of that city. Other public meetings have been held in Callao, Peru, under the auspices of the Assembly of Lima. Much fine publicity has been received in Brazil, Cuba, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Venezuela, Colombia, Chile, Argentina, Paraguay, and favorable publicity has been granted in practically all of the twenty-two countries.”
In May, 1949, anticipating the probable location of the National Administrative Headquarters to be established after the Convention sessions of 1951, the National Teaching Committee for South America was transferred to Lima, Peru, and the National Teaching Committee for Central America was moved to Panama City. The National records and correspondence were thus organized in relation to the future administrative development.
A letter written by the Guardian on August 18, 1950, released final inspiration for the unfinished tasks.
“No less attention, while this emergency period taxes, to an unprecedented degree, the combined resources of the envied trustees of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine Plan, should be directed to the vast network of Bahá’í enterprises initiated throughout Latin America, where the work so nobly conceived, so diligently prosecuted, so conspicuously blessed, is rapidly nearing the first stage of its fruition. The flow of pioneers, so vital in all its aspects, and which has yielded such inestimable benefits at the early stages of this widely ramified enterprise, must, however urgent the other tasks already shouldered by an overburdened yet unfailingly protected community, be neither arrested nor slackened. The outposts of the newly-born communities, established in the Strait of Magallanes in the South, must be held with undiminished vigor and determination. The major task of insuring the breadth and solidity of the foundations laid for the establishment of two National Bahá’í Assemblies, through the preservation of the present Assemblies, groups and isolated centers, must be scrupulously watched and constantly encouraged. The process of the dissemination of Bahá’í literature, of Bahá’í publication and translation, must continue unabated, however much the sacrifice involved. The newly-fledged institutions of Teaching and Regional committees, of summer schools and of Congresses, must be continually encouraged and increasingly supported by teachers as well as administrators, by pioneers from abroad, as well as by by the native believers themselves. The highly salutary and spiritually beneficent experiment of encouraging a more active participation by these newly won supporters of the Faith in Latin America, and a greater assumption of administrative responsibility on their part, in the ever expanding activities to be entrusted wholly to their care in the years to come, should be, in particular, developed, systematized and placed on a sure and unassailable foundation. Above all, the paramount duty of deepening the spiritual life of these newly fledged, these precious and highly esteemed co-workers, and of enlightening their minds regarding the essential verities enshrined in their Faith, its fundamental institutions, its history and genesis—the twin Covenants of Bahá’u’lláh and of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the present Administrative Order, the future World Order, the Laws of the Most Holy Book, the inseparable institutions of the Guardianship and the Universal House of Justice, the salient events of the Heroic and Formative Ages of the Faith, and its relationship with the Dispensations that have preceded it, its attitude toward the social and political organizations by which it is surrounded—must continue to constitute the most vital aspect of the great spiritual Crusade launched by the Champions of the Faith from among the peoples of their sister Republics of the South.”
MISSION IN EUROPE
In making the formation of Bahá’í
[Page 50]
Committees in Western Europe a part
of the Seven Year Plan, Shoghi Effendi
aroused the American Bahá’ís for the
first time to an actual realization of the
formidable scope of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Tablets.
They had as it were grown up with
the Temple project, and the settlement
of Latin America could be visualized
as a natural extension of teaching in
and by North America. Though basically different
in culture and language,
Latin America represented a project
which still permitted a spirit of Americanism
to co-exist with the spirit of
zeal for the Faith.
Western Europe, however, represented a different continent. The project could not be visualized as an extension of any existing unified aim. It came as a challenge and an ordeal until, by enlargement of consciousness, its blessing could be known and felt.
Special emphasis was given to the European mission by the Guardian of the Faith. One June 10, 1946 he cabled to advise the National Assembly to devote its next meeting to the “urgent, vital requirements” of the Plan.
“Opening phase spiritual conquest old world under divinely conceived Plan must be speedily, befittingly inaugurated.” He urged the prompt despatch of nine competent pioneers to as many of the ten countries as possible to “initiate systematic teaching work, commence settlement, promote dissemination (of) literature.” The same cable called for the establishment of an auxiliary office in Geneva, Switzerland, with facilities to foster Assembly development within the ten countries embraced within the scope of the Plan.
By the appointment of a European Teaching Committee the necessary factor of concentrated attention and continuous effort was supplied. The committee realized that as far as possible the pioneers established in Western Europe should be natives of the country in which they were to serve.
The first pioneer, Mrs. Solveig Corbit, departed on September 3, 1946, for her mission in Norway. In order to survey the Bahá’í activities, and the supply of literature in the several native languages, Mrs. Etty Graeffe was dispatched on the same boat. During 1946-1947, two pioneers departed for Holland, Miss Rita Van Sombeek and Mrs. Jetty Straub, two pioneers for Denmark, Mr. and Mrs. Anders Nielsen, Miss Honor Kempton went to Luxembourg, Miss Virginia Orbison proceeded to Spain, Mrs. Madeline Humbert settled in Belgium, Mr. and Mrs. Ugo Giachery in Italy, Mrs. Alice Dudley in Sweden, Mr. and Mrs. John Shurcliff in Belgium, Miss Sally Sanor and Miss Anita Ioas in Luxembourg, John Carre in Netherlands, Mrs. Jennie Anderson in Sweden, Miss Elsa Steinmetz and Miss Fritzi Shaver in Switzerland, Miss Charlotte Stirratt in Netherlands, Mr. and Mrs. Philip Marangella in Italy, Miss Dagmar Dole in Denmark and Mrs. Elinore Gregory in Norway. Twenty-five Bahá’í pioneers were in active service throughout Western Europe before the end of the first year.
The Committee chairman, Miss Edna True, with Mrs. Graeffe made surveys in Netherlands, Belgium and Italy, and arranged for a suitable European office in Geneva. Miss True also consulted with the Bahá’ís of Paris and the British Publishing Trust in London.
As was pointed out in its first annual report, the Committee had to provide Bahá’í literature in nine different languages. Ten additional pioneers were felt to be necessary before the end of 1947.
The organic plan developed for the
successful prosecution of this vast
project rested upon the pioneers who
gradually developed the nucleus of a Bahá’í
community, visits from traveling teachers,
the distribution of teaching and
news bulletins, the publication of
literature in the language of the country,
contact and correspondence maintained
through the Geneva office, and an annual
Conference and School bringing
together representatives from every
local group. For this organism of
spiritual influence an efficient and
devoted committee supplied energy, plans
and materials, the American Bahá’í
community supplied funds exceeding
those provided for teaching in America
[Page 51]
itself, and over all the Guardian of the
Faith maintained vigilant watch and
released inspiration and guidance for
each stage of the momentous task.
An important landmark in the history of the work in Western Europe was the first Bahá’í European Teaching Conference, held in Geneva, Switzerland, May 22-26, 1948. Ninety-two Bahá’ís attended from nineteen countries. Besides the ten countries of Western Europe, Bahá’ís came from Australia, Germany, Austria, France, North America, Írán, ‘Iráq, England and Scotland.
One of those attending the Conference wrote:
“The Conference was opened at two o’clock in the afternoon of Saturday, May twenty-second. The large room on the ground floor of the International Center where the European Teaching Committee Bureau has its offices, was an ideal setting for the Conference. It is a very long and a very beautiful room running straight through the building with separate consulting rooms at either end, the front consulting room overlooking Lake Geneva. The room was set up in accepted conference fashion. There was a platform with a long table where the four members of the Committee sat. On the table was a picture of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to whom the Conference was dedicated and we arranged flowers and plants both on and around the table very effectively. The groups that needed French translation were seated at the right headed by Madame Dreyfus-Barney, who added greatly by her capacity as translator. On the left were the tables that needed German translation and this was handled by Doris Lohse and Hubert Matthias. At the center table, facing the committee, were the English speaking groups and at a table below the committee table the two secretaries sat.
“The Conference was opened with the Prayer for all Nations, which was read by Solveig Corbitt, who was the first pioneer to land in Europe under the European project. Then Mrs. Mary Sprague said the Prayer for the Guardian.
“Miss True gave the opening talk on the Divine Plan and explained the relationship of the European Teaching Project to it. She noted that May Maxwell had been responsible for the first Assembly in Paris, that Hippolyte Dreyfus-Barney had been the first French believer and that Thomas Breakwell had been the first English believer. And then she gave a broad picture of the First Seven Year Plan and how the Faith had spread in the Western Hemisphere from Anchorage, Alaska to Puenta Arenas, Chile. And then the Second Seven Year Plan with its four objectives and the brief vista of the Third Seven Year Plan. And then she brought it down to the present requirements and ended with the Báb’s address to the Letters of the Living. It was a beautiful talk and a perfect opening for the Conference. Then the programs which the committee had had made for the Conference were distributed. The program contained a picture of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the dates and hours of the sessions and public meetings, copy of the Guardian’s cable to the Conference, The Divine Plan, the First Seven Year Plan, the Second Seven Year Plan and the European Teaching Project.”
It was the message cabled to the Conference by Shoghi Effendi which created the spiritual reality of this historic occasion.
“Share the joy and elation of the
attendants at the first historic Bahá’í
Teaching Conference on the European
Continent, regarded as the fairest fruit
of the momentous enterprise signalizing
the second stage in the evolution of the
Divine Plan. Overjoyed at the manifold signs
of the rapid progress evidenced by the
formation of eight Assemblies in seven goal
countries, in the
notable increase in the number of new
believers, in the remarkable activity
displayed by itinerant teachers and the
meritorious endeavor systematically
exerted by the organizers and participators
of the newly launched European
campaign in the opening years of the
Second Seven Year Plan. Appeal to
the newly constituted Assemblies to
preserve, at whatever cost, the integrity
[Page 52]
of the prizes gloriously won, to
consolidate the institutions recently
established, to simultaneously initiate
extension work designed to form nuclei
destined to reinforce the administrative
structure of the Faith in the respective
countries. Urge the groups in the three
remaining goal countries to insure
Assembly status ere the termination of
the current year. Entreat every individual
and all agencies associated in
the conduct of the divinely sustained,
majestically unfolding, tremendously
challenging crusade, whether administrators
at home or abroad, visitors or
settlers, itinerant teachers, newly enrolled
believers to intensify their concerted efforts
to win wider fields, to
give added momentum to still more
conspicuous victories. Undaunted by
the aggravation of the crisis in the
tragically disturbed continent, undeterred
by the obstacles and pitfalls encountered
in a thorny path, sensible to
the growing hunger of disillusioned,
fear-stricken, spiritually famished multitudes,
constantly aware of the sublimity of the mission
entrusted, in this
critical propitious hour, to their care,
inspired by the example of the Author
of the Divine Plan, Who in no less a
critical hour in the fortunes of the European
Continent, notwithstanding His
age and illness, twice visited its shores
and labored tirelessly for the illumination
of its peoples. Let them hold aloft,
amidst the tumult of the disorders of a
tottering civilization, the torch of divine
guidance, tramp resolutely ahead to the
appointed goals until the initial stage
of so colossal an enterprise has been
gloriously consummated.”
During the first two of the four years covered by this survey, eight Spiritual Assemblies were established in seven of the ten goal countries. As a member of the European Teaching Committee reported:
“What was accomplished in these two years can be stated in the brief factual report given here, but how it was accomplished would furnish material for an entire volume. Unchartered seas for the Committee, strange and unknown lands for many of our pioneers, new languages to learn, new customs to become adjusted to, alone and often lonely, armed at first with perhaps one book and one pamphlet; these were the outward circumstances of their lives. But within the pioneers burned that deep conviction, inspired by the Guardian’s assurance that Europe was ready to receive the redeeming Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, and that they, the pioneers, must be the pure channels through which these suffering and disillusioned peoples must receive God’s Message. Their abiding help came from the certain knowledge that they were accompanied by the Hosts of the Supreme Concourse and were sustained by the Author of the Divine Plan Himself. Future generations will remember these souls who have arisen and have, through their abundance of loving sacrifice, conquered these countries through the love of God, and have brought ever closer to fruition that Bahá’í World Community which it is our destiny to establish. The North American Bahá’í Community is grateful to them and they are grateful to God to have had such an historic opportunity.”
With augmenting power, as testified by the successive annual European Conferences, the small spiritual army made its conquest of the cities of men’s hearts.
The second European Teaching Conference was held in Brussels on August 5, 6 and 7, 1949, attended by one hundred thirty representatives from nineteen countries. The Bahá’ís met in a large Convention hall of the University of Brussels. The number of Bahá’ís, it was reported, had doubled in the ten countries within the year. A public meeting, conducted in the principal hall in the city, attracted a considerable audience and added much to the prestige of the Faith.
The Committee’s report for the year 1949—1950 listed twelve local spiritual Assemblies as the fruit of this campaign begun in 1946. The aim had been restricted to the formation of groups, but three years before the consummation of the Seven Year Plan this aim
Summer view of the cactus garden near the Shrine of the Báb on Mt. Carmel, Haifa, Israel.
Heaviest snow in many years falls on the cactus garden near the Shrine of the Báb.
had been greatly surpassed.
By 1950 it was possible to see in perspective the steady and irresistible rise of a new Faith in the old, war-torn and discouraged civilization which for centuries had ruled the world. The new hope, the steadfast conviction, the spiritual order created by the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh had proved their regenerative power throughout the area west of the closed door separating Europe and the world into two irreconcilable systems.
The deeper implications of the national Bahá’í undertakings described in this survey were uncovered by the Guardian of the Faith in this passage of his letter dated June 15, 1946 already cited:
“The first century of the Bahá’í Era witnessed in darkest Persia the birth of the Faith, as well as the establishment of the Administrative Order — the Child of that Faith — an Order which, cradled in the heart of the North American continent, has already succeeded, in less than a decade and in direct consequence of the initial operation of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Plan, and through the concerted, the sustained, and richly blessed efforts of the champion builders of that Order, in spreading out its roots and in rearing its institutions in no less than twenty republics throughout the length and breadth of the Western Hemisphere. The second century is destined to witness a tremendous deployment and a notable consolidation of the forces working towards the worldwide development of that Order, as well as the first stirrings of that World Order, of which the present Administrative System is at once the precursor, the nucleus and pattern — an Order which, as it slowly crystallizes and radiates its benign influence over the entire planet, will proclaim at once the coming of age of the whole human race, as well as the maturity of the Faith itself, the progenitor of that Order. As the Plan bequeathed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá unfolds, through successive decades of the present century, its measureless potentialities, and gathers within the field of its operations nation after nation in successive continents of the globe, it will be increasingly recognized not only as the most potent agency for the development of the world Administrative System, but also as a primary factor in the birth and efflorescence of the World Order itself in both the East and the West.”