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IN MEMORIAM
JOHN ALDHAM ROBARTS Knight of Bahá’u’lláh 1901—1991
John Aldham Robarts was born on 2 November 1901 in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, to Aldham Wilson Robarts and Rachel Mary Montgomery Campbell Robarts.
An extraordinary thread of dedication to the service of God seems to have been woven into the very fabric of John Robarts’ life. Looking back to his great—grandmother, we find a woman giving bilth to a son during a hurricane in Barbados, in the only safe place available to her in that raging tempest, an old bake-oven, half underground. At the height of the storm, she made a vow that if she and her baby were spared, she would dedicate its life to the service of God.
As if in fulfilment of that promise, that son grew up to become the Reverend Thomas Tempest Robaits, a Canon in the Anglican Church, in Thorold, Ontario. Thomas Tempest had three sons and two daughters. The third son, Aldham Wilson Robarts, J ohn’s father, remained an Anglican. The two daughters, Ella and Grace Robarts, became Bahá’ís in 1906, when J ohn was five years old.
Like his mother before him, Thomas Tempest dedicated the life of his last-bom, Grace Robarts, to the service of God. Little did he know that Grace would fulfil his vow by becoming the servant of the Servant, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, nor that she would be uniquely honoured by Him. Part of her story is in The Bahá’í World, VOLVIII, p.658:
...During the months of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s stay in America in 1912 Mrs. Ober (Grace Robarts) had the honor of being indeed the “servant” in His home in whatever city (on the East Coast) He wwas staying. He chose her to go ahead and secure an apartment for Him and have it in readiness upon His arrival. Then she would care for His home as a housekeeper and hostess while He and His Secretaries and those Persians who had the privilege of serving Him in various
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capacities, remained there. She kept the home immaculate, and always ready for the constant stream of guests from morning to night, Bahá’ís and inquirers and souls in difficulty to whom ‘Abdu’l-Bahá was always a loving Father. It was during one of the New York City visits of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá that He suggested her marriage to Harlan Ober. Gaining the consent of these two devoted believers, who in His consummate wisdom He had drawn together, He, on the following day, July 17, 1912, married them in the morning according to the Bahá’í marriage.
This infinite bounty of being chosen for each other and joined in marriage by the Center of the Covenant Himself was a unique favor bestowed upon these two souls alone, out of all America.
After they had been joined in a divine and eternal relationship by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá He requested Howard Colby Ives, a Unitarian minister, deeply attracted to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá but not, as yet, a confirmed Bahá’í, to perform the legal ceremony. . ..
It was this Grace Robarts Ober, his beloved aunt, who first told John about the Bahá’í Faith; it was she who first inflamed his heart with her contagious love for this Cause. Little did she know that John would dedicate his life joyfully to its service, that he and his wife would take its Message to remote Africa and be named Knights of Baha’u’llah, nor that Shoghi Effendi would honour him by appointing him a Hand of the Cause of God.
John’s father was manager of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in Port Arthur (now Thunder Bay), on the north shore of Lake Superior in Ontario, and it was here that J ohn and his two older sisters completed their elementary schooling. He attended Ridley College in St. Catharines, Ontario, leaving at age 17 to accept a position as secretary to a Canadian National Railways superintendent. With a concentration and dedication that became characteristic of all his work, he quickly acquired proficiency in
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secretarial skills that proved invaluable to him in the years to come.
In 1926 John became a partner in the firm Graham Robarts and Company (domestic heating business) in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and in 1927 he and his partner, James D. Graham, established The Overhead Door Company of Canada, with John as president and general manager, 1927—1934, in Toronto.
John Aldham Robarts married Audrey FitZGerald (born 20 December 1904 in Montreal), daughter of Edward FitzGerald and Kate Bulrner, on 3 March 1928 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They had four children: Aldham Edward, 1929; J ohn F itzGerald, 1930; Patrick Tempest, 1934; Nina Grace, 1940.
In 1934, when John sold the Overhead Door Company, the economy was depressed and jobs were at a premium, but he found employment for each of his approximately 20 workers before accepting the invitation urged upon him to join the Manufacturers’ Life Insurance Company. He completed the Alexander Hamilton Business Courses, and qualified as a Chartered Life Underwriter (C.L.U.). In 1938 he joined the London Life Insurance Company as district manager of their Toronto King Street Agency which, under his direction, became their most productive agency in Canada.
J ohn, and later Audrey, had always been attracted to Aunt Grace and Uncle Harlan. In the 1930s they became attracted to Baha’u’llah. Taught mainly by Grace and Harlan, and by Mabel and Howard Colby Ives, later also by George Spendlove, they together accepted the Faith in Toronto in 1937 and declared their belief in Baha’u’llah in 1938. It was the second year of Shoghi Effendi’s Seven Year Plan for the United States and Canada, and both John and Audrey plunged into the teaching work.
The Robarts’ home in Forest Hill Village,‘ '
a Toronto suburb, attracted a stream of diverse people, from distinguished Visiting Bahá’í teachers to an army of friends of their four children. Often on summer evenings the neighbourhood youngsters converged out THE Bahá’í WORLD
side the Robarts’ home, especially when Mr. Robarts was among them playing ball or skipping rope or teaching them feats of bicycle riding. Even siX-year—old Suzie from down the street felt the pull of that home when she rang the doorbell and implored, ‘Can Mr. Robarts come out now and play?’ The warmth of Audrey and John’s informal hospitality was itself an eloquent teacher. Every Wednesday evening for years they held a lively fireside in their home. When there was not an invited speaker John gave the talk himself, frequently tailoring his words and‘ aiming them, with uncanny perception and utmost love, at one unidentified, sometimes identifiable, individual present. One never knew who might be the next focus of his attention. Far from humiliating anyone, the effect was to electrify the people there by drawing every individual into a kind of loving complicity that at any moment could erupt into waves of laughter or nods of enlightenment. Aeutely conscious of the value of time, John created additional fruitful teaching opportunities during his work week by hiring a private dining room near his office once a week and inviting friends to hear about the Faith over a businessmen’s lunch. In 1940, John was appointed by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada to the first Ontario Regional Teaching Committee and served as secretary, its only officer, until he became chairman in 1944 and 1945. He also chaired the Ontario Summer School Committee for some years, and was instrumental in organizing the first Ontario Bahá’í Summer School at Rice Lake in 1941. When the National T eaching Committee of Canada was formed in 1946 John was elected as its chailman. In accordance with Shoghi Effendi’s plan, this Committee was instrumental in laying the foundation for the establishment of Canada’s own independent National Spiritual Assembly, the ninth in the world. The first National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Canada was elected in
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1948 and John was elected its chairman. He served in this capacity six times, from its inception in 1948 until 1953.
J ohn played a key role in developing the first Bahá’í communities of Hamilton and Ottawa, Ontario, travelling to Hamilton every week for a year, and to Ottawa for a number of whole weekends, teaching intensively in each city. The first Local Spiritual Assemblies of Hamilton and Ottawa were formed in 1940 and 1948 respectively. John and Audrey both served on the Local Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Toronto and in 1950 they raised up an Assembly in their own Forest Hill Village.
Among John’s most endearing qualities were his quick sense of humor and infectious laugh. He was a brilliant story teller. He often recounted real—life stories interspersed with pertinent quotations from Bahá’í scriptures. These stories conveyed a powerful spiritual message, and could move his listeners from tears or helpless laughter to renewed dedication to the Cause of God, and promptly to action, the goal for which they were intended. His calls for pioneers, his appeals on behalf of the Funds, his exhortations to heartfelt prayer, to ‘planning our work and working our plan’, raised innumerable individuals, families and communities to new spiritual levels of daily living, service and happiness.
He continually invited, urged and guided the Bahá’ís to connect with that Source of all light that guided him, that was ever—present to him, that he so clearly saw lovingly surrounding us all, ready to rush to our assistance if we would but take the first step. He never doubted the capacity of the believers to win every goal. John seemed to walk the mystical path with practical feet and a penetrating eye. It was as though his Vision extended beyond this material world and into the spiritual realm, enabling him to see straight to the heart of matters, to answer the unspoken question, to respond quickly and appropriately to the unuttered need.
John awakened strengths in people. Once,
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urgently requiring a chairman for a meeting, he threaded his way through the crowd looking for a willing soul. Several experienced Bahá’ís declined, pleading unworthiness. A brand new young Bahá’í hesitantly agreed, but warned that she had no idea how to proceed. ‘Don’t worry,’ he reassured, ‘I’ll tell you.’ At the appointed moment he whispered, ‘Ask them to sit down, then read a prayer.’ She followed instructions. ‘Now, introduce me,’ he breathed behind his hand. Graciously she introduced him. John began his address by introducing his radiant chairman, to a burst of delighted applause. After his talk he whispered his last discreet cue, ‘Now thank me!’ Another long Bahá’í career of service was launched!
John was not easily deflected from his purpose. Apparent reverses he counted not as failures but as divine promptings to higher Victories. One evening when not one soul came to his advertised meeting, he sirnply delivered his talk anyway. A passerby strolling past the open door of the rented conference room was nonplussed to see a man vigorously addressing an empty room! That person later became a Bahá’í, pioneered overseas and raised a dedicated Bahá’í family.
John, in his professional work, inspired his insurance agents to go out and pursue the goals he set for them. Perhaps for this reason he could identify with Shoghi Effendi’s vastly greater spiritual undertakings devising plans and sending pioneers out all over the world to accomplish them. In any case, he arose with heart and soul to fulfill Shoghi Effendi’s wishes with obedience and speed.
In 1949 he attended the Second European Teaching Conference, in Brussels, Belgium, then Visited seven of North America’s ten goal countries in Europe—the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Denrhark—as well as France and England. Shoghi Effendi had given Canada the seemingly impossible goal of opening Greenland, a closed country which no one could enter without complicated permission
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from the Danish government. Mr. Robarts met with officials for Greenland and won goodwill and the promise of cooperation. He met with the Copenhagen Local Spiritual Assembly, addressed a meeting of Danish Bahá’ís, and returned to Canada with new leads and two pioneer offers. Mr. Pa11e Bisohoff, a Danish Bahá’í, was able to finally open Greenland to the Faith in 1951. In 1950, John offered to Visit England, Ireland and Scotland where a sense of despair had descended upon the Bahá’ís who, in the last weeks of their Six Year Plan, were lagging behind their goals. Shoghi Effendi approved of Mr. Robarts’ trip, and the National Teaching Committee arranged a concentrated tour and rallied the British Bahá’ís. John arrived on 26 March and Visited 10 cities in 13 days, carrying the Message on his lips, love in his heart, and declaration cards in his pocket. Some seekers, already deepened, came into the Faith with little more than John’s warm invitation. On 17 April the British National Spiritual Assembly cabled Shoghi Effendi: TOTAL VICTORY ASSURED. . .! and the Guardian replied on 19 April: OVERJOYED DEEPLY GRATEFUL IMMENSELY PROUD SIGNAL VICTORY ACHIEVED Bahá’í COMMUNITY BRITISH ISLES. . .. SHOGHI.
In 1953, the Hand of the Cause of God Siegfried Schopflocher was to represent Canada at the New Delhi Conference, one of the four intercontinental conferences at which Shoghi Effendi’s global Ten Year Crusade was launched. Unfortunately Mr. Schopflocher died and it seemed no one else in Canada was able to go in his stead. J ohn’s communications with Shoghi Effendi at the time reveal this spirited exchange:
16 September 1953: [F IMPERATIVE HAVE CANADIAN REPRESENTA TIVE NEW DELHI I WILL ATTEND AT PROBABLE SACRIFICE CORDIAL EMPLOYER RELATIONS. DEEPEST DEVOTION, JOHN ROBARTS.
19 September 1953: PRESENCE CANADIAN REPRESENTATIVE IMPERATIVE. LOVE, SHOGHI.
THE BAHA’t WORLD
22 September 1953: ATTENDING CONFERENCE. EMPLOYERS HAPPY. LOVE, JOHN ROBARTS.
26 September 1953: LOVING APPRECIATION. SHOGHI.
As soon as J ohn and Audrey heard about the Ten Year Crusade during the New Delhi Conference they sent a cable to Shoghi Effendi dated 19 October 1953 offering to pioneer. On 22 October they received his reply:
BECHUANALAND HIGHLY MERITORIOUS. LOVE, SHOGHI.
Within two months—having discovered in the encyclopedia that Bechuanaland was situated in southern Africa, a landlocked country the size of France, without tarred roads, mostly Kalahari Desert——they had, with absolute faith in Shoghi Effendi, parted With two beloved sons (Aldham, who shortly thereafter pioneered to Nigeria, and later to Ghana, and Gerald Who pioneered on the homefront first to Kingston and later to Windsor, Ontario), and left behind J ohn’s successful career and their comfortable Toronto home to sail, with Patrick (aged 19) and Nina (aged 13), on the very first ship to South Africa, a small Norwegian cargo liner carrying just one other passenger on a 21-day voyage, some of those days in very rough waters.
Within three or four days of arrival in Mafeking, the capital of Bechuanaland, they purchased a house. This total transplant, from inspiration to realization, was executed within 16 weeks. For opening Bechuanaland to the Faith, John, Audrey and Patrick earned the title ‘Knight of Baha’u’llah’.
‘To John A. Robarts. . . Whose Faith Comes First...’ Perhaps these words, engraved on the gold watch presented to him with affection and awe by the agents of his life insurance branch upon his sudden departure for Africa, epitomize J ohn Robarts’ life. Like a beacon of light shining within him and guiding his steps, John’s love for and steadfast faith in Baha’u’llah, in the promised
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assistance of God, in the power of daily prayer were, to many, almost palpable. That love and that faith centred in the divine kingdom were the source of his warmth of heart in this earthly one, his passionate drive, his clear Vision and above all his spirit of certitude so well remembered by those who knew him.
His success as a businessman, and the respect of his business associates, were so widely known that representatives of two South African life insurance companies met the Robarts family upon their arrival in Cape Town in 1954 with job offers for Mr. Robarts, before he even stepped off the boat! He accepted a position as district manager With the Prudential Assurance Company in South Africa, 1954—1957, and in Southern Rhodesia, 1957 until 1959, When he gave up his business in order to devote his full time to the African Bahá’í work.
The Hand of the Cause of God for Africa, Mr. Musa Banani, appointed John Robarts as one of nine members of the first Auxiliary Board for the continent of Africa in 1954. As if guided by some inner compass, John was able to find ‘true north,’ to identify the basic principle involved in situations and to act upon it without compromise. His integrity tolerated no deviation from spiritual principles. He was able to create a sense of unity among the friends through his love for them, to renew their confidence by recognizing and utilizing their strengths, and, through astute use of his executive acumen, to carve a path through unnecessary detail straight to the point.
In 1955, John, Audrey, Patrick and Nina had the privilege of going on pilgrimage to Haifa and Bahjí. It was a highlight in John’s life. In the film Retrospective, John is asked about his impression of the Guardian when finally they met. His reply is movingly captured as the camera zooms in on J ohn’s face suffused with joy at the memory. He pauses for a moment, and replies: ‘He made an impression upon me that seized my heart. I loved him so much..." After two of the seven
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dinners at which Shoghi Effendi placed J ohn directly across the table from him, and Audrey between them at the head of the table, John was twice privileged to be alone briefly With the Guardian When Amatu’l—Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khanum asked him to accompany Shoghi Effendi back to their home nearby. He cherished always his memories of those moments and those nine days and nights, including two nights spent at the Mansion of Baha’u’llah, praying in the Shrines and in the bedroom of the Blessed Beauty.
J ohn was elected to the Regional National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of South and West Africa in 1956. By February 1957, there were enough deepened African Bahá’ís to form the first Local Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Mafeking, Bechuanaland, so the Robarts moved to Bulawayo, Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) to serve their Bechuanaland goal from the north.
In Bulawayo, J ohn and Audrey, together with Noura Faridian, a valiant young nurse and the only other pioneer, supported by Patrick and Nina when they were home from their studies, raised up the first Local Spiritual Assembly of Bulawayo, in 1958, and opened other localities. As John’s international travels increased, Audrey, often fearlessly driving hundreds of miles on corrugated unpaved roads alone or With the beloved African friends, sometimes with Patrick or Nina, carried on the teaching work in both Southern Rhodesia and in Bechuanaland.
On 2 October 1957, Shoghi Effendi appointed John Robarts a Hand of the Cause of God. On 4 November 1957, Shoghi Effendi died, depriving the Bahá’í world of his infallible guidance. The Hands of the Cause, upon whom responsibility for leadership now fell until such time as infallibility could be restored, realized that the goals of the Ten Year World Crusade were of paramount importance: they had to be achieved by 1963 as planned. Sufficient local and national Bahá’í communities had to be established in order to elect that first
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John Robarts
Universal House of Justice, called for by Shoghi Effendi, which, as promised by Bahá’u’lláh, would be infallible.
Those dear and precious Hands, those intrepid ‘Chief Stewards of the Embryonic World Commonwealth of Bahá’u’lláh’, assembled in Haifa and Bahjí (except Corinne True, 96 years old) immediately following Shoghi Effendi’s funeral. At that time there were 27 Hands living, widely scattered on five continents, 22 men and 5 women, ranging in age from 31 to 96, never before having come together as a body. It was the first of six annual Conclaves of the Hands, and began their historic five—and—a-half—year custodianship of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh, piloting it through that most perilous period in its history, until the glorious moment when they could deliver it intact to the first Universal House of Justice. Y
The role, unique in history, of the Hands '
of the Cause, engaged day and night in the protection and propagation of the Cause of God, in constant worldwide travels assisting and inspiring the believers to attain every goal lest opportunity be irretrievably lost,
THE BAHA’l WORLD
and the responsibilities of the Custodians, those Hands residing in the Holy Land, at the nerve-centre of the Bahá’í world, coordinating this stupendous global enterprise, fixing the eyes of the Bahá’í world community on its one overarching goal, the election of the first Universal House of Justice, are perhaps but dimly understood today. In its first message to the Bahá’ís of the world, 30 April 1963, the Universal House of Justice paid tribute to the Hands of the Cause of God:
We do not Wish to dwell on the appalling dangers which faced the infant Cause when it was suddenly deprived of our beloved Shoghi Effendi, but rather to acknowledge with all the love and gratitude of our hearts the reality of the sacrifice, the labour, the self—discipline, the superb stewardship of the Hands of the Cause of God. We can think of no more fitting words to express our tribute to these dearly loved and valiant souls than to recall the words of Baha’u’llah Himself: ‘Light and glory, greeting and praise be upon the Hands osz'S Cause, through whom the light of long—suflering hath shone forth, and the declaration of authority is proven of God, the Powerful, the Mighty, the Independent; and through whom the sea of bestowal hath moved, and the breeze Of the favour of God, the Lord of mankind, hath wafied.’ The entire history of religion shows no comparable record of such strict self-discipline, such absolute loyalty, and such complete self—abnegation by the leaders of a religion finding themselves suddenly deprived of their divinely inspired guide. The debt of gratitude which mankind for generations, nay, ages to come, owes to this handful of grief—stricken, steadfast, heroic souls is beyond estimation.1
John Robarts attended all six Conclaves of the Hands of the Cause of God held at
1 The Ministry of the Custodians 1957—1963 ( Haifa: Bahá’í World Centre 1992), p. 2.
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Bahjí from 1957 to 1963, Visiting Bahá’í communities Via the west coast of Africa on his way to Haifa, and returning home to Bulawayo through communities of the east.
On 7 October 1957, Shoghi Effendi—in the last month of his life—had asked that J ohn Robarts go to Canada after attending the J anuary 1958 Intercontinental Conference in Kampala, Uganda. Though stunned, like the rest of the Bahá’í world at the loss of the beloved Guardian, Mr. Robarts, ever prompt to fulfil Shoghi Effendi’s Wishes, travelled in several countries for five months. He attended the Intercontinental Conferences held in Wilmette and Frankfurt in 1958, and traversed Canada, his homeland, from February to April 1958, and again, January to July 1960 at the request of the Hands in the Holy Land, spurring the Canadians on to splendid advances in their Ten Year Crusade goals. From 1961 to 1966, he also served as Trustee of the Continental Fund for Africa.
The ultimate Victory of the Ten Year Plan was the election of the first Universal House of Justice in Haifa, Israel, on 21 April 1963. This took place in the House of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, With John Robarts and the other Hands of the Cause of God present. Mr. Robarts also attended the first Bahá’í World Congress, held in London, England, immediately after the election. On his way back to Southern Rhodesia, he went to Morocco to Visit the Bahá’ís imprisoned for their Faith in Kenitra Prison, three condemned to death, five to life imprisonment.
Through all of these triumphs and trials of the Faith, John Robarts never lost his sense of humor. A newly appointed Auxiliary Board Member found herself seated at a banquet between another Hand of the Cause on her left, and John Robarts on her fight. ‘Oh, Mr. Robarts, I am so nervous sitting between two Hands of the Cause! I am afraid I will spill my dinner! ’ she whispered into his ear. ‘Spill to the left!’ came his instant reply!
In 1964, John Robarts represented the Universal House of Justice at the Inaugural
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Conventions of the Regional Spiritual Assemblies of the Bahá’ís of West Africa, with its seat in Monrovia, Liberia, and West Central Africa, with its seat in Victoria, Cameroon. In 1966, the Robarts moved back to Canada to strengthen that community. In 1968, he attended the second International Convention in Haifa, convened the inaugural meeting of the Continental Board of Counsellors for Northeast Asia, and Visited Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Philippines, and Hawaii.
In 1971, he travelled from Canada to the Oceanic Conference in Jamaica, and represented the Universal House of Justice at the Oceanic Conference in Iceland. A teaching trip to Australasia undertaken during 1971-72 took him to Australia, New Zealand, Tahiti, Fiji, Tonga, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, New Hebrides, Western Samoa and Hawaii. In 1973, he attended the third International Convention in Haifa, and in 1976 he took part in the International Teaching Conferenees held in Anchorage, Paris, and Nairobi. In 1978 he attended the fourth International Convention in Haifa.
The j oy of both John and Audrey Robaits was unbounded when, in 1981, they returned to Mmabatho for the inaugural convention of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Bophuthatswana, John representing the Universal House of Justice. He also represented the Supreme Body at the International Teaching Conference held in 1982 in Lagos, Nigeria, and attended the International Conferences in Dublin and Montreal. In 1983 he attended the fifth International Convention in Haifa.
In 1983, Mr. Robarts also travelled to Visit Native American friends, and attended the dedication of the land for Bahá’í House at‘ the Yukon Bahá’í Teaching Institute. Then, in 1984, he attended the dedication of the Yukon Bahá’í House. On that occasion he was adopted as an elder into the Johns clan of the Tlingit people of the Yukon and honoured with the powerful name ‘Gooeh Ooxfi’ meaning ‘Wolf Teeth’.
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In 1984, at the age of 82 years, Mr. Robarts graciously accepted one last administrative post. He served as a valuable and much loved member of the Local Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Rawdon, Quebec, the Village in which he lived, in order to save that incorporated Assembly until a newly declared Bahá’í was able to replace him the following year.
That same year, he represented the Bahá’í Faith in a series of ecumenical activities organized by the Anglican Church of Rawdon and delighted priest and congregation by giving the sermon one Sunday morning on the subject of life after death. The Vitality of his message, its hopeful new Vision of the world to come, is fondly remembered years later, as well as his humour: ‘1 don’t mind if you look at your watches during my sermon. lt’s when you take off your watch and shake it (removing his own watch and shaking it near his ear) I know my time’s up!’
John Robarts made his last international teaching trip, to eleven cities in Ireland, in 1986.
Mr. Robarts rarely thought in terms of writing anything for publication. He was totally involved in actively seeking the heart of each situation, intuitively and wisely dealing with it at once. These qualities are reflected in his reports to and correspondence with the institutions of the Faith, and in his letters to the many individuals who wrote to him and benefitted from his inspiring and encouraging guidance. He did, however, write the Introduction to Messages to Canada, the collected communications of Shoghi Effendi to the Bahá’ís of Canada, 1923 to 1957. His only other published work was his 1960 letter to the Bahá’ís of Canada, published as a lS—page booklet of inspiring and amusing reports from Canadians about their (some times first) experiences with fervent prayer '
in response to John’s urgings, amazed that it really worked for them, at least as well as he (and the Writings) had promised!
J ohn Robarts’ reminiscences about Shoghi Effendi are movingly recorded in the
THE BAHA’t WORLD
55-minute film Retrospective, produced by Elizabeth Martin in 1978 for the National Spiritual Assembly of Canada. Led by Douglas Martin’s perceptive questions and comments, Mr. Robarts looks back over his 40 years in the Faith, brings to life some early Bahá’í history and sheds light on the unprecedented role of the Hands of the Cause of God.
Reminiscences of both Audrey and John Robarts about Shoghi Effendi during their nine-day family pilgrimage in 1955 appear in the chapters contributed by each of them in The Vision of Shoghi Eflendz‘, published by the Association for Bahá’í Studies in 1993.
The vigour of John Robarts’l half century of sustained services to the Bahá’í Faith stands as awesome testimony to the power, when we do but tap it, of the promised assistance of God. F ew people realized that asthma and chronic bronchitis, later emphysema, were, for much of John’s life, his constant companions which he was able to subdue to an extraordinary degree, thanks not only to his and to Audrey’s reliance on prayer, but to Audrey’s resourcefialness and lifetime of utter devotion to his care. Increasingly Audrey accompanied him on his travels, thereby extending by years his strenuous and precious teaching activities.
Few others ever saw him rise determinedly from a sleepless night in extreme climatic conditions, struggling for breath, to maintain his unwavering focus on the love of Bahá’u’lláh, never doubting that His assistance would flow through him at just the right moment, to stride forward to the podium and address his conference audience with ease and joy. The humour and dignity with which John wore the physical frailty that finally overtook his body touched all those around him in an unforgettable example of radiant submission to the will of God, to his very last breath. And then his luminous soul took its flight.
Hundreds of tributes flooded in from around the world after John’s peaceful passing
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on 18 June 1991 in Rawdon, Quebec. Among the most precious were the words of Amatu’l—Baha Rúḥíyyih Khánum:
...HIS UNI-DIRECTIONAL, CONSECRATED, UNREMITTING SERVICES FAITH HE HAD EMBRACED WITH SO MUCH CONVICTION AND ENTHUSIASM, . . HIS WARMTH OF HEART, FRIENDLINESS, THE CONSTANT ENCOURAGEMBNT HE INVARIABLY SHOWERED ON ALL THE BELIEVERS HIS WISDOM AND CONSECRATION, WHICH WERE AN INVALUABLE SUPPORT AND INSPIRATION IN THE DELIBERATIONS OF HIS FELLOW HANDS DURING THE CRITICAL PERIOD AFTER THE ASCENSION OF THE BELOVED GUARDIAN. ..
And also from the International Teaching Centre:
...HIS RADIANT SPIRIT, THE WARMTH OF HIS LOVE, HIS STEADFAST ADHERENCE TO Bahá’í PRLNCIPLES. . .
The Universal House of Justice announced J ohn’s passing to the Bahá’í World with the fol1owing:
WITH SADDENED HEARTS ANNOUNCE PASSING MUCH-LOVED STAUNCH PROMOTER FAITH, KNIGHT BAHA’U’LLAH, HAND CAUSE GOD JOHN ROBARTS. HIS DISTINGUISHED ADMINISTRATIVE TEACHING PIONEERING ACTIVITIES IN HIS NATIVE CANADA, IN AFRICA AND EUROPE, DURING MINISTRY BELOVED GUARDIAN AND SUBSEQUENTLY ON WORLD SCALE THROUGH HIS INTERNATIONAL TRAVELS WERE SOURCE ABUNDANT INSPIRATION COUNTLESS FRIENDS MANY LANDS. HIS RELIANCE AND EMPHASIS ON PRAYER IN ALL EFFORTS PROMOTION CAUSE AND HIS SUSTAINED SERVICES PATH LOVE FOR BLESSED BEAUTY WERE CHARACTERIZED BY SPIRIT CERTITUDE, SELF—EFFACEMENT AND VIgOUR WHICH SET A STANDARD OF STEWARDSHIP THAT HAS ENRICHED ANNALS FAITH. HE HAS ASSUREDLY EARNED BOUNTIFUL REWARD ABHA KINGDOM. PRAYING HOLY SHRINES PROGRESS HIS RADIANT SOUL. ADVISE HOLD BEFITTING MEMORIAL GATHERINGS 1N HIS HONOUR THROUGHOUT WORLD INCLUDING
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ALL HOUSES WORSHIP. CONVEY DEAR AUDREY, BELOVED CHILDREN AND THEIR FAMILIES MOST LOVING SYMPATHY. UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE.
NINA GRACE ROBARTS TINNION
