Bahá’í News/Issue 129/Text

Bahá’í News
Issue 129

FOR BAHÁ’ÍS ONLY

BAHA’I NEWS

Published by
The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís
of the United States and Canada
General Office: 130 Evergreen Place, West Englewood, New Jersey

No. 129

SEPTEMBER, 1939

“THIS, THE MOST FATEFUL HOUR IN THEIR HISTORY”[edit]

LETTER FROM SHOGHI EFFENDI[edit]

Dearly-beloved co-workers:

A triple call, clear-voiced, insistent and inescapable, summons to the challenge all members of the American Bahá’í community, at this, the most fateful hour in their history. The first is the voice, distant and piteous, of those sister communities which now, alas, are fettered by the falling chains of religious orthodoxy and isolated through the cruel barriers set up by a rampant nationalism. The second is the plea, no less vehement and equally urgent, of those peoples and nations of the New World, whose vast and unexplored territories await to be warmed by the light and swept into the orbit of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. The third, more universal and stirring than either of the others, is the call of humanity itself crying out for deliverance at a time when the tide of mounting evils has destroyed its equilibrium and is now strangling its very life.

These imperative calls of Bahá’í duty the American believers can immediately if only partially answer. Their present status, their circumscribed resources, debar them, however great their eagerness, from responding completely and decisively to the full implications of this threefold obligation. They can neither, individually nor through their concerted efforts, impose directly their will upon those into whose hands the immediate destinies of their persecuted brethren are placed. Nor are they as yet capable of launching a campaign of such magnitude as could capture the imagination and arouse the conscience of mankind, and thereby insure the immediate and full redress of those grievances from which their helpless coreligionists in both the East and the West are suffering. They cannot moreover hope to wield at the present time in the councils of nations an influence commensurate with the stupendous claims advanced, or adequate to the greatness of the Cause proclaimed, by the Author of their Faith. Nor can they assume a position or exercise such responsibilities as would enable them by their acts and decisions to reverse the process which is urging so tragically the decline of human society and its institutions.

And yet, though their influence be at the present hour indecisive and their divinely-conferred authority unrecognized, the role they can play in both alleviating the hardships that afflict their brethren and in attenuating the ills that torment mankind is none the less considerable and far-reaching. By the range and liberality of their contributions to mitigate the distress of the bereaved, the exiled and the imprisoned; by the persistent, the wise and judicious intervention of their elected representatives through the authorities concerned; by a clear and convincing exposition, whenever circumstances are propitious, of the issues involved; by a vigorous defence of the rights and liberties denied; by an accurate and dignified presentation of the events that have transpired; by every manner of encouragement which their sympathies may suggest, or their means permit, or their consciences dictate, to succor the outcast and the impoverished; and above all by their tenacious adherence to, and wide proclamation of, those principles, laws, ideals, and institutions which their disabled fellow-believers are unable to affirm or publicly espouse; and lastly, by the energetic prosecution of those tasks which their oppressed fellow-workers are forbidden to initiate or conduct, the privileged community of the American Bahá’ís can play a conspicuous part in the great drama involving so large a company of their unemancipated brethren in the Asiatic, the European and African continents.

Their duties towards mankind in general are no less distinct and vital. Their impotence to stem the tide of onrushing ‎calamaties calamities‎, their seeming helplessness in face of those cataclysmic forces that are to convulse human society, do not in the least detract from the urgency of their unique mission, nor exonorate them from those weighty responsibilities which they alone can and must assume. Humanity, heedless and impenitent, is admittedly hovering on

[Page 2] the edge of an awful abyss, ready to precipitate itself into that titanic struggle, that crucible whose chastening fires alone can and will weld its antagonistic elements of race, class, religion and nation into one coherent system, one world commonwealth. “The hour is approaching” is Bahá’u’lláh’s own testimony, “when the most great convulsion will have appeared ... I swear by God! The promised day is come, the day when tormenting trials will have surged above your heads, and beneath your feet, saying: ‘Taste ye, what your hands have wrought.’” Not ours to question the almighty wisdom or fathom the inscrutable ways of Him in whose hands the ultimate destiny of an unregenerate yet potentially glorious race must lie. Ours rather is the duty to believe that the world-wide community of the Most Great Name, and in particular, at the present time its vanguard in North America, however buffeted by the powerful currents of these troublous times, and however keen their awareness of the inevitability of the final eruption, can, if they will, rise to the level of their calling and discharge their functions, both in the period which is witnessing the confusion and breakdown of human institutions, and in the ensueing epoch during which the shattered basis of a dismembered society is to be recast, and its forces reshaped, re-directed and unified. With the age that is still unborn, with its herculean tasks and unsuspected glories, we need not concern ourselves at present. It is to the fierce struggle, the imperious duties, the distinctive contributions which the present generation of Bahá’ís are summoned to undertake and render that I feel we should, at this hour, direct our immediate and anxious attention. Though powerless to avert the impending contest the followers of Bahá’u’lláh can, by the spirit they evince and the efforts they exert help to circumscribe its range, shorten its duration, allay its hardships, proclaim its salutary consequences, and demonstrate its necessary and vital role in the shaping of human destiny. Theirs is the duty to hold, aloft and undimmed, the torch of Divine Guidance, as the shades of night descend upon, and ultimately envelop the entire human race. Theirs is the function, amidst its tumults, perils and agonies, to witness to the vision, and proclaim the approach, of that re-created society, that Christ-promised Kingdom, that World Order whose generative impulse is the spirit of none other than Bahá’u’lláh Himself, whose dominion is the entire planet, whose watchword is unity, whose animating power is the force of Justice, whose directive purpose is the reign of righteousness and truth, and whose supreme glory is the complete, the undisturbed, and everlasting felicity of the whole of human kind. By the sublimity and serenity of their faith, by the steadiness and clarity of their vision, the incorruptibility of their character, the rigor of their discipline, the sanctity of their morals, and the unique example of their community life, they can and indeed must in a world polluted with its incurable corruptions, paralyzed by its haunting fears, torn by its devastating hatreds, and languishing under the weight of its appalling miseries demonstrate the validity of their claim to be regarded as the sole repository of that grace upon whose operation must depend the complete deliverance, the fundamental reorganization and the supreme felicity of all mankind.

Though the obstacles confronting the followers of Bahá’u’lláh in the American continent in their efforts to completely emancipate their fellow-Bahá’ís on the one hand, and to speedily rehabilitate the fortunes of their fellowmen on the other, be in the main unsurmountable, such impediments cannot as yet be said to exist that can frustrate their efforts to fully discharge the second duty now incumbent upon them in the inter-continental sphere of Bahá’í teaching. The field, in all its vastness and fertility, is wide open and near at hand. The harvest is ripe. The hour is over-due. The signal has been given. The spiritual forces, mysteriously released, are already operating with increasing momentum, unchallenged and unchecked. Victory, speedy and unquestioned, is assured to whosoever will arise and respond to this second, this urgent and vital call. In this field, as in no other, the American believers can most easily evince the full force of their latent energies, can exercise in their plentitude their conspicuous talents, and can rise to the highest level of their God-given opportunities.

Fired by their zeal, their love for and faith in Bahá’u’lláh; armed with that Holy Charter, wherein ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s mandate investing them with their world mission is inscribed; piloted through the instrumentality of those agencies which a divine, a smoothly functioning administrative Order has providentially placed at their disposal; disciplined and invigorated by those immutable verities, spiritual principles and administrative regulations that distinguish their religious beliefs, govern their individual conduct and regulate their community life; aspiring to emulate the example of those heroes and martyrs, the narrative of whose exploits they have admired and pondered, it behooves all members of the American Bahá’í community to gird themselves as never before to the task of befittingly playing their part in the enactment of the opening scene of the First Act of that superb Drama whose theme is no less than the spiritual conquest of both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres. Their immediate task, under the Seven Year Plan, the object of which is the establishment of a minimum of one Bahá’í center in each of the Republics of Middle and South America, has now been gloriously ushered in through the settlement of one pioneer in most of the Central American Republics, and bids fair to be recognised by posterity as the original impulse imparted to an enterprise that will go round the world. That impulse must, as time goes by, communicate itself to the farthest extremities of Latin America, and must be reinforced in every manner, by as many of the American believers as possible. The broader the basis of this campaign, the deeper its roots, the finer the flower into which it shall eventually blossom. That its call may be heeded, that its implications may be recognized and its potentialities progressively unfold, is my earnest prayer, and the supreme longing of my heart.

Your true brother,

SHOGHI

July 28, 1939.

“FULFIL UNFLINCHINGLY THE REQUIREMENTS”[edit]

Letter from Shoghi Effendi[edit]

Dear and valued co-workers:

The readiness of your Assembly, as expressed in your recently cabled message, to transfer the National Bahá’í Secretariat to the vicinity of the Temple in Wilmette has evoked within me the deepest feelings of thankfulness and joy. Your historic decision, so wise and timely, so surprising in its suddenness, so far-reaching in its consequences, is one that I cannot but heartily and unreservedly applaud. To each one of your brethren in the Faith, throughout the United States and Canada, who are witnessing, from day to day and at an ever-hastening speed, the approaching completion of their National House of Worship, the great

[Page 3] Mother Temple of the West, your resolution to establish within its hallowed precincts and in the heart of the North American continent the Administrative Seat of their beloved Faith cannot but denote henceforward a closer association, a more constant communion, and a higher degree of co-ordination between the two primary agencies providentially ordained for the enrichment of their spiritual life and for the conduct and regulation of their administrative affairs. To the far-flung Bahá’í communities of East and West, most of which are being increasingly proscribed and ill-treated, and none of which can claim to have had a share of the dual blessings which a specially designed and constructed House of Worship and a fully and efficiently functioning Administrative Order invariably confer, the concentration in a single locality of what will come to be regarded as the fountain-head of the community’s spiritual life and what is already recognized as the mainspring of the administrative activities, signalizes the launching of yet another phase in the slow and imperceptible emergence, in these declining times, of the model Bahá’í community—a community divinely ordained, organically united, clear-visioned, vibrant with life, and whose very purpose is regulated by the twin directing principles of the worship of God and of service to one’s fellow-men.

The decision you have arrived at is an act that befittingly marks the commencement of your allotted term of stewardship in service to the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh. Moreover, it significantly coincides with the inauguration of that world mission of which the settlement of Bahá’í pioneers in the virgin territories of the North American continent has been but a prelude. That such a decision may speedily and without the slightest hitch be carried into effect is the deepest longing of my heart. That those who have boldly carried so weighty a resolution may without pause or respite continue to labor and build up, as circumstance permit, around this administrative nucleus such accessories as the machinery of a fast evolving administrative order, functioning under the shadow of, and in such close proximity to, the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, must demand, is the object of my incessant and fervent prayer. That such a step, momentous as it is, may prove the starting point for acts of still greater renown and richer possibilities that will leave their distinct mark on the third year of the Seven Year Plan is a hope which I, together with all those who are eagerly following its progress, fondly and confidently cherish.

Gallery Section, Bahá’í House of Worship, Exterior Decoration Completed July 31, 1939

The American believers, while straining to accomplish befittingly this particular task, must simultaneously brace themselves for another sublime effort to discharge, ere the present year draws to a close, their manifold responsibilities allotted to them under the Seven Year Plan. The placing of yet another contract for the casting of the ornamentation of the First Story of the Temple, the permanent settlement of the six remaining Republics of Central America, and the extension of continual support, both material and moral, to those weaker States, Provinces and Republics that have been recently incorporated in the body of the Faith, combine to offer, at this hour when the fate of civilization trembles in the balance, the boldest and gravest challenge that has ever faced the community of the American believers both in the propagative and administrative spheres of Bahá’í activity. In the field of pioneer teaching, and particularly in connection with the opening of the Republics of Haiti, Salvador, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Dominica and Guatamala, the utmost encouragement should at all times be vouchsafed by the elected representatives of the community to those who, out of the abundance of their hearts, and in direct response to the call of their Faith and the dictates of their conscience, have renounced their comforts, fled their homes, and hazarded their fortunes for the sake of bringing into operation the majestic Plan of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, while special support should be extended to those who appear

[Page 4] CLOSER VIEW OF COMPLETED GALLERY SECTION

to be best qualified for the strenuous labors which pioneering under such exacting circumstances demands. Care should be exercised lest any hindrance, should, for any reason be placed in the way of those who have, whether young or old, rich or poor, so spontaneously dedicated themselves to so urgent and holy a mission.

Towards this newly-appointed enterprise a more definite reorientation is needed. To its purposes a more complete dedication is demanded. In its fortunes a more widespread concern is required. For its further consolidation and speedy fulfilment a larger number and a greater variety of participants are indispensable. For its success a more abundant flow of material resources should be assured.

Let the privileged few, the ambassadors of the Message of Bahá’u’lláh, bear in mind His words as they go forth on their errands of service to His Cause. “It behoveth whosoever willeth to journey for the sake of God, and whose intention is to proclaim His Word and quicken the dead, to bathe himself with the waters of detachment, and to adorn his temple with the ornaments of resignation and submission. Let trust in God be his shield, and reliance on God his provision, and the fear of God his raiment. Let patience be his helper, and praise-worthy conduct his succourer, and goodly deeds his army. Then will the concourse on high sustain him. Then will the denizens of the Kingdom of Names march forth with him, and the banners of Divine guidance and inspiration be unfurled on his right hand and before him.”

Faced with such a challenge, a community that has scaled thus far such peaks of enduring achievements can neither falter nor recoil. Confident in its destiny, reliant on its God-given power, fortified by the consciousness of its past victories, galvanized into action at the sight of a slowly disrupting civilization, it will—I can have no doubt—continue to fulfil unflinchingly the immediate requirements of its task, assured that with every step it takes and with each stage it traverses, a fresh revelation of Divine light and strength will guide and propel it forward until it consummates, in the fulness of time and in the plentitude of its power, the Plan inseparably bound up with its shining destiny.

Your true and grateful brother,

SHOGHI

July 4, 1939.

LETTERS FROM THE GUARDIAN[edit]

The Guardian wishes me to express his approval of the budget of $150,000 fixed by the N. S. A. for teaching work and Temple construction during the current Bahá’í Year, and trusts that the individual believers as well as all the local Assemblies will cooperate in raising that sum, and thus make it possible for your Assembly to carry on, regularly and uninterruptedly, its twofold national tasks in this third year of the Seven Year Plan.

The Guardian also welcomes your Assembly’s decision to maintain the plan of holding public meetings and regional conferences in various parts of the country, and also views with approval your decision to include the city of Toronto in the schedule of the N. S. A. meetings for this year.

In closing I wish to express the Guardian’s unbounded satisfaction at the most gratifying news of the opening up of the three Central American Republics of Cuba, Panama and Honduras to the light of the Cause, and to urge your Assembly, on his behalf, to make a special, and indeed supreme effort for the settlement, in the course of this year, of the six remaining Republics of Central America. Whatever the cost and sacrifices which such admittedly difficult campaign would entail, and however tentative the efforts of those pioneers who offer themselves for service in these religiously conservative, politically unsettled, and climatically inhospitable countries, the one supreme and immediate objective is to insure laying down, ere the termination of the current year, and in each one of these Republics such foundations, rudimentary though they may be, as would provide future Bahá’í teachers working in these regions such means and openings as would considerably facilitate their task of further extending the scope and consolidating the foundations of the Cause in Central America.

Whoever feels the urge to volunteer for pioneer work in either one of these

[Page 5] Central American States should be encouraged to do so and while the N. S. A. is conscientiously bound to facilitate his settlement it has also the right of exercising its own discretion whenever there are a number of similar applicants, through extending special financial support to all those pioneers whom it considers to be best qualified for the task.

This present phase of the inter-continental teaching campaign, coinciding as it does with the steadily rising tide of uncertainty and gloom throughout the world, acquires a special significance, and offers indeed a unique challenge to the community of the American believers, who, as the undisputed “vanguards of the Faith in the West” are now called upon to demonstrate, in fields hitherto unexplored and through exploits as yet unrivalled by any of their sister-communities throughout the West, the efficacy of this new saving grace of God revealed in this age through the person of Bahá’u’lláh.

The Guardian will continue to pray that the members of the American Bahá’í community may arise and meet the challenge of the present hour with such audacity, such self-sacrifice and such unflinching determination as truly befits their incontestably high spiritual position, and in a manner that would evoke the admiration and excite the envy not only of the entire body of their co-religionists, but of the whole unbelieving world outside.

July 4, 1939.

He wishes you now to ask all the newly-incorporated local Assemblies to have a photograph of their Assembly taken and sent through your Assembly to Haifa. These Assembly pictures are needed to accompany the certificates of incorporation when published in the next issue of The Bahá’í World.

In closing he wishes me to stress once again the vital importance of the present stage in the collective teaching undertaking of the American believers represented in the opening up and definite settlement of the Central American Republics—which, as emphasized only recently in his cabled message to the N. S. A., constitute the chief and immediate teaching objective of the American believers throughout the present Bahá’í year. No effort, he feels, should be spared to open up, however tentatively, each of the remaining Central American Republics in the course of the remaining eight months, and every facility and encouragement extended by the N. S. A. to all those who volunteer to settle and work in these territories. Only through such systematic teaching effort, guided by the N. S. A., and collectively supported by the entire body of the friends, can the Inter-American teaching campaign, which ushers in the period of the world spiritual mission of the American believers, forge ahead, be steadily extended in its southward penetration, and the high teaching goal set up by the Seven Year Plan completely attained at the appointed time. Let us take courage, and consecrate our all to the furtherance of this divinely-appointed task.

July 29, 1939.

WORK BEGUN ON TEMPLE MAIN STORY[edit]

New Contract Approved By the Guardian[edit]

Gallery Section Completed[edit]

A mighty achievement has been accomplished by the American Bahá’í Community in the completion, by August, 1939, of the external decoration of the gallery section of the House of Worship. Despite rising costs of labor and freight rates during the work, the contract has been completed at a total cost of $126,250, the original estimate having been $125,000. Had these additional costs not been offset by rigorous economy, the final figure would have been about $130,000.

The believers can rejoice that so great a step toward the final goal has been taken. We enter now the final stage in the vast undertaking which, as the Guardian has emphasized, has been before us for not less than thirty years. Undoubtedly spiritual blessings will descend even more abundantly to inspire all our activities for the Faith with the completion of such a large part of the external decoration.

Continuous Construction Imperative[edit]

The fundamental meaning of the Seven Year Plan is that it requires, and makes possible a continuous, even accelerating, march toward its two objectives of Teaching and Temple completion. There can be no spiritual depression to interfere with this rapid march, no matter what conditions exist in the social world.

Therefore the plan had been adopted, submitted to the Guardian and approved by him, of continuing Temple construction without interruption throughout the calendar year of 1939. Under a new contract amounting to $10,000, the Earley Studios will complete, by December 31, the ornamentation of the lower one-third of all nine pylons of the main floor of the House of Worship. Other contracts made from time to time thereafter will no doubt bring the external decoration to entire completion well before the end of the First Bahá’í Century.

Considerable Saving In Contracts For Models and Molds[edit]

The final estimated cost of these two contracts for making the models and molds called for by the external design of the first, or main, story, is $40,000, or $10,000 less than the original estimate, due in large measure to the fact that the Temple Trustees found it financially possible to place both these contracts at practically the same time.

These two contracts apply directly to the external decoration of the first story and bring the work to the point where the units can be cast and applied to the surface of the structure. From now on, beginning with the modest contract for $10,000 already reported, the results of this expenditure of $40,000 will produce results visible to the world.

Donations of $13,000 Required[edit]

To meet the terms of the new contract, and at the same time carry out necessary filling and leveling of grounds, an amount estimated at $13,357.94 is required through contributions to the National Fund between now and December 31. That sum is much less than was set up for Temple construction for the period May 1-December 31, 1939 in the current Annual Budget. The Budget was in fact adopted to provide for the necessary expenses of Teaching and Temple. If the Budget is maintained, there will be no occasion for special appeals.

However, in advance of receipt of funds sufficient to maintain the Budget, the National Spiritual Assembly reports that it has assumed the obligation to meet Temple construction costs by December 31 to the extent of $13,357.94, in full confidence that the guidance of the Guardian, and the readiness of the Bahá’í community to sacrifice for the fulfilment of the Seven Year Plan, will discharge this obligation to the penny.

The Guardian’s Approval[edit]

The Guardian’s approval, conveyed in a cablegram received August 7, 1939, is as follows—

“Delighted approve placing contract (for) pylons (of) main story. Praying response (of) believers (will) insure uninterrupted completion entire edifice. Loving gratitude.”—SHOGHI

[Page 6]

TEACHING ACTIVITIES[edit]

Since Convention time, when the great news was released of the completion of the initial phase of the Seven Year Plan, our Bahá’í pioneers have pressed forward irresistibly in their spiritual conquest of the North American continent.

Miss Honor Kempton, who stopped in Juneau, Alaska, from April 18th until May 30th, has now moved to Anchorage, where she is making arrangements to open a circulating library. Her whole journey has been an adventure in stimulating and important contacts, including Alaska’s most famous aviator; the owner of a Bank in Fairbanks; an Engineer of Mines who worked on the Temple in the early days; a Finnish woman to whom the Faith came as thrilling news, of interest not only to herself but to her brother still living in Finland. In Seward Miss Kempton attended the marriage of a boat friend from Juneau, en route to her new home in McKinley National Park. “I got up early the morning of her wedding day and went to her stateroom and read Bahá’í Tablets on Marriage to her.... Later she told me how it had moved her and had made her think.” In Anchorage Miss Kempton has received the friendly interest and advice of the newspaper publisher, the president of the First National Bank, and a number of others. She has met Sidney Laurence, Alaska’s famous artist, a member of the Royal Academy with work in the Louvre. She has also visited Palmer, in the Matanuska Valley colony, where literature was presented to Dr. Albrecht, one of the colony’s best-known pioneers, and to the minister of the United Protestant Church. Perhaps Miss Kempton’s happiest occasion was her first fireside meeting, when she spoke at length of the Faith to the young woman who manages her apartment building. “I shall never forget my exultation and joy. I tried to be calm and quiet, but oh, how I was seething inside for pure joy ... I am hoping she will be the first Alaskan Bahá’í.... As she left she turned and said: ‘This is my birthday and I think you have given me the most beautiful birthday gift I have ever received.’ ”

In connection with this stirring report of Alaska, mention should be made of the liberal offer of Mr. and Mrs. Rafiollah Y. Mottahedeh of New York City, to defray the expenses of a pioneer in Alaska for a year.

Another most important Alaska news item is that Miss Betty Becker of Kansas City sailed for Juneau the end of July, after a visit to the Geyserville Summer School. She will settle there as the second pioneer for Alaska.

The pioneer work in Canada has received tremendous impetus through the settlement of Miss Doris Skinner in Calgary in April; Mr. Rowland Estall in Winnipeg in May; Mrs. Beulah S. Proctor and daughter in Halifax in April, followed later by the Grenville Wades of Montreal; a cross-continent business and teaching trip of Mr. Emeric Sala; the visit of Mr. and Mrs. Leonard King to Winnipeg and Regina; and new plans of the Regional Committee of Eastern Canada and Newfoundland for teaching in the Maritime Provinces.

Three weeks after his arrival in Winnipeg, Mr. Rowland Estall wrote that these were weeks “of the most rapid and astounding development of a Bahá’í community that I have ever witnessed. Two hours after I arrived I met Emeric Sala who had come here from Montreal the day before. Half an hour later we were talking to Miss Lillian Tomlinson, in her home, about the Cause and the future development here just as though we were any other ‎Teachiong Teaching‎ Committee, meeting to consider ways and means for a teaching campaign in a long-established Bahá’í city.” Using contacts made by Mrs. Sylvia King “during her previous visit in which she laid such a remarkable foundation for this work,” Mr. Sala arranged a lecture before the Phoenix Club on May 31st. Charles Clay, literary editor of the Free Press, “was chairman and gave one of the best introductory talks on the Faith I have heard from anyone.” Mr. Estall spoke briefly on the principles. “Towards the end of the meeting in walked Sylvia and Leonard King who had just arrived, so Sylvia wound up a successful evening with a talk on Bahá’í methods of attaining these objectives. You can hardly imagine the impression it created in the minds of the audience to have three speakers, from Montreal, San Francisco and Vancouver respectively, converge on their little club in one evening to tell them about the Bahá’í Faith. I felt as though Bahá’u’lláh was taking no chances, like a general marshalling all his forces at one point for a simultaneous and decisive attack which could only result in victory. Winnipeg was ‘taken’ for the Faith that night.” Two students are about ready to accept the Faith, and will be the first to join with Mr. Estall in forming a Bahá’í Group. He writes: “My earlier doubts and hesitation, even at this short distance, appall me!”

Other reports from Mr. Sala and Mrs. King describe the pioneer work which was next arranged by these pioneer workers. One day was spent in Regina by the Kings, during which plans were completed for a public lecture at the Hotel Saskatchewan, with Mr. A. T. Hunter, past president of the Institute of International Affairs, as chairman. A telephone call to an interested student in Saskatoon laid the basis for Mr. Sala’s visit there also, on June 19th. Through a chain of circumstances after his arrival, he was invited to speak to nine members of the Fellowship of Reconciliation. “I knew that I was assisted, for these intelligent young men and women listened with real interest to the most challenging claims of the 19th Century’s Revelation. ... They took all the pamphlets I had and expressed interest in a study group.”

The lecture in Regina, which was announced over the radio, was attended by about fifty people, “and it was one of the most successful meetings I have ever had,” Mr. Sala continues. “I spoke about forty minutes, beginning with an indirect approach, but feeling, as I went on about the station and the mission of Bahá’u’lláh, that the audience continued to follow me and that the challenge made met with no resentment. The question period lasted another forty minutes.... We had about 100 pamphlets on hand. Every one was taken.” So far as teaching records are concerned, no public Bahá’í work has ever been done previously in these two cities of Saskatchewan.

Miss Doris Skinner secured a position within two weeks after her arrival in Calgary, Alberta. Both Mr. Estall and Mr. Sala have stopped over for fireside meetings and contacts. An isolated believer in the southern part of Alberta, Miss Elizabeth Conlon, has offered to invite a group for Miss Skinner to teach. The latter writes: “Really I don’t know why more Bahá’ís don’t do pioneer work; it is quite the most exciting experience I have ever had. I wouldn’t go home again for anything...”

Mrs. Beulah Proctor has been joined in Halifax, Nova Scotia, by Mr. and Mrs. Grenville Wade, transferred from Montreal. “Mr. Wade has made some excellent contacts with professors of the University here which will materialize in the fall when classes open again, for he has been invited to give some round table talks to the men.” In connection with a new position, Mrs. Proctor

[Page 7] spent ten days in Liverpool, making many contacts. “I should say that there are about twelve people really interested in the Cause there.... One man, a chef in a small place where I went to eat, accepted the Cause as soon as I had finished telling him the story. ... I have been invited to give a talk about the Bahá’í Faith to the Women’s Institute later on and also to give a tall to men and women of the town some Sunday afternoon.”

Teaching in Hamilton, Ontario, has continued through the efforts of the Toronto Assembly with Mrs. Mabel Ives and Mrs. Mary Barton, resulting in the first declared Bahá’í, with at least four others “on the way.” Mrs. Barton writes: “There is a great joy and thrill in being out in the pioneer teaching field, indescribably rewarding; but certainly it makes one tremendously humble about one’s own poor efforts in relation to the importance and greatness of the work, and without turning constantly to Bahá’u’lláh, one couldn’t go on, for there is no adequate sufficiency in one’s own strength and capacity.” The friends will be happy to know that, through the generosity of one of the believers, Mrs. Ives will be able to continue her teaching work uninterruptedly for another year.

Our pioneers of Providence, Rhode Island, Mr. and Mrs. Don T. McNally, are now holding Wednesday fireside meetings for a young group. Contact with the radio station has resulted in a suggestion from its managers that “we bring in talks on science, religion and education, and they would try to introduce the Cause from that angle. They are from Chicago and have seen the Temple. We are trying to arrange for a Temple display in October.... The experience of coming here has been the most glorious adventure of our lives and we are now so fully aware of the power of Bahá’u’lláh and of our inability to do anything ourselves.... One really must get out in the world to know the real value of being a Bahá’í and experiencing the fellowship that exists within those sacred twelve principles.”

Mr. and Mrs. William Sears are now well established in Salt Lake City, where they have recently purchased a home. Mr. Sears has been made assistant manager of radio station, KUTA in Salt Lake City. Recent Bahá’í visitors have included Mrs. Sylvia King, who spent twelve days, and Mrs. Helen Bishop, who spoke before the young people’s group at the Unitarian Church. “We love Salt Lake City and feel that a slow beginning is a firm ending. So far I have a small list of about fifteen who have been given a picture of the Cause.... We expect in the fall to do some extensive radio work. Until then we will continue doing ground work.”

“He hopes, and will specially pray, that this final drive to complete the exterior ornamentation of the Temple will prove completely successful, and will serve to demonstrate once again those qualities of heroic self-sacrifice and of resourcefulness evinced in the course of building operations on that unique and sacred Edifice.”—From a letter of the Guardian to the National Treasurer.

Miss Helen Griffing, in Reno, Nevada, has had the assistance of three Bahá’í teachers, Mrs. Mamie Seto, Mrs. Helen Bishop, and Miss Joy Allen. “For a pioneer who is supposed to be enduring suffering and hardships I’m having the time of my life.” Excellent contacts are being made among all classes of people, and it is reported that Miss Griffing already has many friends, as she is taking an active part in community life. Three of these new friends attended the Geyserville Summer School with Miss Griffing in July.

From Charleston, West Virginia, come the first reports from Mr. and Mrs. Hilbert Dahl. Preliminary contacts are being made, and books have been accepted by the YWCA library. “After we have become more settled the way will undoubtedly open for the institution of a coordinated effort.... Remember West Virginia in your prayers, that this rugged, barren, industrial beehive may blossom as a rose garden.”

Miss Neyso Grace Bissell, who has settled in Rutland, Vermont, reported in April that “contacts have been made with the city librarian, the newspaper editor, and the Zonta Club, as well as with several private individuals.” She continues, “I am overwhelmed when I think of the great bounty of being allowed to come to Vermont. I love this State and even today, with a heavy snowfall—unseasonably late—it is glorious to me.”

This sampling of the reports which are flowing into the Teaching Committee from all parts of America, not only from pioneer teachers, but from the whole army of Bahá’u’lláh’s followers, is a striking proof of the confirmations vouchsafed to Bahá’ís in this chaotic time. Almost alone among peoples, we who are dedicated to the unfoldment of the Divine Plan, have reason to anticipate the future with eagerness. For these are the very words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, addressed to us in the Divine Plan: “The full measure of your success is as yet unrevealed, its significance still unapprehended. Ere long, ye will, with your own eyes, witness how brilliantly every one of you, even as a shining star, will radiate in the firmament of your country, the light of Divine Guidance, and will bestow upon its people the glory of an everlasting life.”

NATIONAL TEACHING COMMITTEE.

INTER-AMERICA TEACHING[edit]

Since the Convention, several of the plans that were in the offing, have become events, and others have been ratified by the National Spiritual Assembly, to be carried out in the coming months.

Three sub-committees have been formed: Eastern States, Middle, and Pacific Coast area, respectively. These co-workers will discover contacts among the Pan-American societies, which are reaching out to our southern neighbors, and fostering good will or material reciprocity.

In August, Miss Eva Nicklin, cooperating with the Administrative Order, will settle in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as a permanent resident. Mr. Philip Marangello is leaving for Havana; and, for at least one year, will advance the New World Order in Cuba. Mr. Gerrard Sluter, now of Toronto, has left for Guatamala.

In Mexico City, Mr. Pedro Espinosa, and the friends, are working on the translations into Spanish of Some Answered Questions; Foundations of World Unity; Wisdom of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá; Bahá’í Procedure. The booklet of Prayers may be bought from the Publishing Society or from the Assembly in Mexico.

Our representative to Panama, Mr. Mathew Kaszab, is gaining newspaper publicity of excellent type, and is giving a series of lectures in the School of Arts and Trades. We are watching the post for the next page of his refreshing, “Tropical News—published 9 degrees north of the Equator ...”

[Page 8] “I had a good announcement in all three newspapers about my lecture in the Theosophical Hall. This was not in the religious section of the paper, so, happily, I was not messed up with the sectarians. The subject was Cycles of Civilization ... I went out to Gamboa this afternoon, Sunday, the 4th of June, but my audience had gone to an important funeral, so there were only a few high school children. I also believe in burying the dead! I did talk to a few of the live ones,—who were not following corpses ...”

In Selano, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippine Islands, Mr. Felix Madella is waiting for the Spanish registration cards to give students in the class. Already, he has petitioned for letterheads printed with the suggested form: “The Philippine Spiritual Assembly, The New Scientific and Spiritual Religion, the Bahá’í Teaching Which Is Bringing New Life to a Spiritually Dead World.” He writes: “I am proud to inform you that one of my co-workers on the Bahá’í Movement will donate at least six hectares of land on a beautiful site on the top of a very low hill and along the sides of a National Road ... to help us start and rush to put up a temporary, semi-permanent building and to buy an adjacent suitable lot for our Reading Bahá’í-Room ...”

From Buenos Aires, comes another letter from Mrs. Frances Benedict Stewart, in part, as follows: “May 25th was celebrated as the great, national patriotic holiday of Argentina—the winning of the Revolution against Spain. Early in the morning a friend and I (Maria Casati of the Bahá’í Group) went to see a parade of poor, miserable, exploited Indians that came from Patagonia, and from the northern forests, to beg schools, lands, and food for their tribes.... The Committee in charge invited me to meet the Indians and I held a long interview with them, and told them that the great Prophet for the New Age had demanded Justice for them also, and that a new spirit of unity and love was pervading and silently working in all corners of the earth. One Indian said he wanted to talk to me alone, for he is a descendant of an ancient chief of the Incas, and he wanted to tell me of an ancient legend when all mankind would unite and worship the Great Spirit together! ... His wife, a German woman, soon after I began unfolding the Great Message, interrupted me, saying, ‘Yes, I heard of the Báb, of Bahá’u’lláh, of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Germany, and have longed to know more of their mission.” They feel the Message must be carried to the Indians of all America and possibly this man can do it!

KNOXVILLE BAHÁ’Í COMMUNITY
(Spiritual Assembly Newly Established April 21, 1939)

“Then last week I was given a book. Dr. Ricardo Rojes, the professor in Latin-America and Spanish literature of the University here, and a famous writer wrote, The Christ Invisible. I read it and found the last few chapters a wonderful prophecy that these are the days of the Apocalypse and Revelations, that chaos is engulfing a wandering humanity and only ‘A New Spiritual Messenger and a New Message adapted to this New Age’ could save humanity! I, of course, used his book as my introduction and then I gave him the glorious Message, that both ‘the new Prophet’ and ‘The New Spiritual Message’ have been given to the world! Well, he was fascinated and then I told him I was soon sailing, he stood up and said, ‘No, not yet, for I must know more of them.’ ”

Shoghi Effendi, in a letter dated May 12, 1939, sends the following instructions through his secretary, “... the importance of establishing the Faith in that republic (i. e. Panama) as already stressed by the Guardian in his last general letter, cannot be overemphasized, and whatever the obstacles that will have to be faced by future Bahá’í pioneers in that country, the task of insuring the spiritual conquest of that territory, of whose far-reaching possibilities as a radiating center for the diffusion of the light of the Cause throughout Central and South America ‘Abdu’l-Bahá has so explicitly written in the Tablets of the Divine Plan, must be vigorously and systematically pursued.... In closing, Shoghi Effendi wishes me to stress the all-importance of the teaching work in Central America. While the teaching campaign in South America should be continually and vigorously prosecuted, special attention, he feels, should be directed to Central America, aiming at the permanent establishment of at least one believer in each one of its republics, before the end of the present year.”

INTER-AMERICA COMMITTEE.

BAHÁ’Í DIRECTORY[edit]

The following changes are reported:

Local Assemblies.

Los Angeles, Mrs. Mary Hotchkiss Bode, Corresponding Secretary, 963 No. Doheny Drive.

Berkeley, Mrs. Helen B. Rutledge, 2828 Stuart Street.

Albuquerque, N. M., Miss Elizabeth R. Cox, 410 So. Pine Street.

Miami, Mrs. Dorothy B. Logelin, P. O. Box 1975.

San Francisco, Miss Myrtle Dodge, 2139 Pacific Avenue.

National Committees.

Teaching Committee, Miss Charlotte M. Linfoot, Secretary, 156 Nova Drive, Piedmont, Calif.

Reviewing Committee, Genevieve L. Coy, Chairman, 117 West 10th Street, New York, N. Y.

International Auxiliary Language, Mr. Hugh Rouse.

[Page 9]

PARENTS AND TEACHERS[edit]

Work Is Worship[edit]

Fall study classes for children are soon to be under way. An interesting suggestion comes to us from the Children’s Workshop Community at Bilthoven, Holland. Here children of mixed ages, sexes, religions, and social opportunities are gathered in a community life of work, study and play, with partial responsibility in government.

The little citizens have built their own furniture, hot-houses and equipment, and each year raise flowers and vegetables in their gardens.

They learn many languages, being European children, among them Esperanto, which they speak fluently and use as a medium of correspondence with children everywhere.

The natural bents of the children are studied and fostered, and always with an emphasis on cooperation rather than competition.

The success of the experiment is evidenced by the increase in numbers from a mere handful to one hundred and twenty in a short space of time.

This experiment is interesting to Bahá’ís both from the point of view of its cosmopolitan nature, and because of its emphasis on happy, cooperative work. American Bahá’í groups may find it possible to experiment in some small way in this direct method of teaching the ideal of work is worship. Bahá’í parents, if not group leaders, are in an excellent position to do this most happily.

A few simple rules should be of assistance to parent and teacher.

Choose work as nearly as possible adapted to the child.
Keep the spirit of it happy.
Insist upon regularity.
Encourage always, but praise the work only when the praise can be sincere.
Compare new work with old, thus developing the urge for improvement and new achievements.
Cultivate the love of doing hard things, but never strain a child beyond his actual ability.
Motivate the work; that is, plan ahead with the worker what shall be done with it when finished.
Keep the spiritual basis always alive. Teach them a few of the Utterances of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on work.

“Work done in the spirit of service is worship.”—‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

“The best of men are they that earn their livelihood by a profession, and expend on themselves and on their kindred, for the love of God, the Lord of all worlds.”—Bahá’u’lláh.

“It is incumbent upon every one of you to engage in some one occupation, such as arts, trades, and the like. We have made this your occupation, identical with the worship of God, the True One. Reflect, O people, upon the mercy of God, and upon His favors; ... Waste not your time in idleness and indolence, and occupy yourselves with that which will profit yourselves and others besides yourselves. ... Every soul who occupies himself in an art or trade, this will be accounted an act of worship before God.”—Bahá’u’lláh.

ENROLLMENTS AND TRANSFERS[edit]

Montreal, two. Portland, one. Topeka, one. Los Angeles, three. Peoria, three. Toronto, one. Glendale, Calif., one. Philadelphia, one. Kansas City, one.

IN MEMORIAM[edit]

... The true believer, whose existence and life are to be regarded as the originating purpose of all creation.—BAHÁ’U’LLÁH.

Mrs. Georgie Wiles, Nashville.

Mrs. Walter Covington, New York.

Mr. William Patzer, Waterbury, Connecticut.

Mr. Joseph G. Bray, San Francisco.*

Dr. William Young Allen, Berkeley.*

_____
* In correction of name misspelled in a previous announcement.

MANUSCRIPTS FOR REVIEW[edit]

The National Spiritual Assembly requests Bahá’í authors to submit their manuscripts for review to the National Assembly and not directly to the Reviewing Committee. The material is to be in final form, as the function of correcting manuscripts and improving the writing has not been extended to the Reviewing Committee.

COMMITTEE REPORTS[edit]

National Committees are requested, through their chairman, to provide ten copies of the Minutes of each meeting, one copy for the Guardian and nine for the members of the National Assembly. Committees which do not meet for consultation are to provide ten progress reports every three months.

PUBLISHING ANNOUNCEMENTS[edit]

The Publishing Committee wishes to announce that the two volumes of Promulgation of Universal Peace, the American talks of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, hitherto sold separately at $2.50 per copy, can now be supplied bound together as one volume, with cloth cover, for $2.50 complete—one-half the former cost.

These are the days when the fundamental verities which the Master released for the American continent have become the outstanding problems and topics for discussion. The combining of these two volumes into one will make it easier for every active believer to possess a copy.

An Index to Bahá’í Procedure has been supplied by the Index Committee, and copies will be inserted in all unsold copies of the Procedure, but the friends who already possess a copy can obtain the Index for 5c. Assemblies, are requested to stock a supply for local sale, as the Committee is not equipped to sell these small cost items on individual order.

Bahá’í Procedure, with Index.		$0.75
The Reality of Man, a compilation, new edition		0.50
Vol. II of Promulgation of Universal Peace (only a few copies on hand) at special price of	net	1.25
Study Outline on Public Speaking	net	0.10
Study Outline on the Essential Principles of Creative Writing	net	0.10

MARTHA ROOT IN INDIA[edit]

(Continued )

Poona.—We left on an early train for Poona and arrived there in the night. Poona is a Bahá’í paradise and one of the high spiritual lights in India. The first morning, February fifth, we had a beautiful program of welcome in the Bahá’í Hall in the National Hotel. The pupils from the Bahá’í school marched to the hall. All Bahá’ís were present, and after the program tea was served.

The entire stay was so well arranged that even New York and Tihrán would say “Bravo!” I think the plan could with profit be carried out in other cities. At 7 P. M. that first day, the President of the Local Spiritual Assembly gave a tea in the Bahá’í Hall for twenty-four journalists of India. I had prepared my speech, (the resumé), to journalists very carefully and made carbon copies. I spoke on

[Page 10] Journalism and the Cause and then read to them my interview and distributed it to them. Shirin spoke and there was a resumé of her talk. Questions were asked and some of the journalists came each day afterwards and were very interested. (If it had been a big reception we could not have spoken intimately of journalism and the Cause and what Bahá said about the press.)

The next forenoon, Sunday, at ten o’clock, a great lecture was staged in the cinema theatre, “Deccan Talkies” to more than a thousand people, 99 per cent of whom were university and college students. Many came who could not get into the hall. We had the loudspeaker. Mr. K. F. Nariman, one of the very popular men in India was the Chairman, and he was sympathetic to the Faith. Fourteen copies of the resumés of our speeches were given to the journalists whose papers represented several different languages. A number of students and journalists came to the hotel afterwards to ask further.

In the afternoon we visited the Bahá’í School to meet the pupils.

The following morning, Monday, the Bahá’í school presented a Peace Play and Bahá’í Songs for us. In the afternoon a tea was given in the Bahá’í Hall by the Local Spiritual Assembly President to the educators of Poona. I spoke to these professors about the Bahá’í Faith in various universities of the world and what great scholars have said and written about it. At each tea there was a fine and beautifully arranged exhibition of Bahá’í books and we explained the books for they were interested. Shirin spoke on Quratu’l-Ayn and sang, and we both gave resumés to the reporters. The professors said they would gladly arrange lectures in their schools when we come again.

The third afternoon the tea by the President was for the lawyers of Poona. We had a talk and discussion followed; they, too, said they would arrange lectures when we return, for most of them belong to clubs.

One lawyer said in fun: “I belong to Brahmo-Samaj but we are a little lazy in working, (but I say ‘it is all right, for the Bahá’ís are promoting all the ideals for which we stand!’ ”

That night the Bahá’ís gave a farewell party for us. In the times in between lectures and interviews we had a number of heart to heart talks about Haifa and about promoting the Cause.

The Bahá’í School in Poona is a model and I believe great Bahá’í spiritual teachers for the Cause will come out from that school. They are getting a marvelous training there.

The Secret of the very wonderful Bahá’í work in Poona is mobilized Unity for service! The Holy Spirit is with them, attracted by their unity. The Bahá’í world over the five continents has been gripped at times by Poona’s work, and travelling over India three times as I have, I have met a number of fine people who said they first heard of the Teachings when staying for a few days in the National Hotel of Poona. I must give tribute to Poona because since 1915, when I first met them, I feel they are “living the life” up there.

Bombay.—Early the morning of February ninth we entrained down to Bombay. Bombay is the “Mother City” of all the Bahá’í work in India. Many dear Bahá’í friends met us at the station with smiles and garlands of sweet jasmines and roses and fragrant bouquets. Such a great program was planned, but alas, as all the chairmen and most of the journalists of Bombay were at Haripura for two weeks to the fifty-first Congress of India it was thought best by all of us that we postpone the intensive campaign in Bombay until March twenty-first. However, in these three or four days there we had a glorious welcome reception in the Bahá’í Hall and they asked us to tell about the tour. We lectured in C. L. High School, Dadar, Bombay, to more than five hundred students and met with the Bahá’í friends who are arranging our program. We spoke Sunday in Bahá’í Hall to a large audience. We were so happy to see all the friends. There are nearly eight hundred Bahá’ís in Bombay.

My baggages from Shanghai—those suitcases that I had to leave behind when I fled as a refugee from Shanghai bombings on August 17—arrived in Bombay, February fourth, thanks to our dear Bahá’í brother Mr. Ouskouli of Shanghai who saved them for me and sent them on. I was very, very thankful to get those bags.

I received a telegram from our beloved Guardian. He approves the publication in India of my little book, Tahirih, Irán’s Greatest Woman. He suggested I stay in India until about January first and then proceed to Australia and New Zealand for prolonged tour. So I expect to sail December 29 for Australia and New Zealand, disembarking first at Perth.

Our Guardian wishes Shirin Fozdar to go to United States to speak, and I hope she can leave in December. The Bahá’ís of our country will be so happy to have her come. She left February 14, for her home in Ajmere and I have come to Surat to visit the blessed family, Mr. N. R. Vakil and his wife and two daughters and to do some writing. It is heavenly to be with them and a very great help to my work. Mr. Vakil was the first Hindu in India to become a believer and he is one of the great Bahá’ís of this world. Our loved Guardian has said he hopes the two young daughters will some day come to Irán and to the United States as Bahá’í teachers. He is a very distinguished lawyer and deeply spiritual. They will come some time when his health will permit. Mr. Vakil and family with a few others may go to America on their next trip. I shall write about the work in Surat and in Bombay in my next report.

I thank from the depths of my heart and soul the N. S. A. members in India and Burma for their love and their wonderful help and the splendid way they have planned the work in India. The Cause is progressing very much in India, and I truly believe that India will become a strong Bahá’í country, standing in line with the nations leading in the new world order. Allá’h-u-Abhá! Deep and abiding love to all of you.