Bahá’í News/Issue 396/Text
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| No. 396 | BAHA’I YEAR 120 | MARCH, 1964 |
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Hands of the Cause Leroy Ioas and Zikru’lláh Khádem held a week-end conference for Auxiliary Board members at the Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds in Wilmette. The conference was to lay the ground work for the Nine Year Crusade to be presented to the Bahá’í World this Riḍván by the Universal House of Justice. LEFT: Seen in informal discussion are left to right: Frederick Graham (from Canada), Marc Towers, Mrs. Katherine McLaughlin, Mrs. Margery McCormick, Mrs. Velma Sherril, Curtis Kelsey, Mrs. Peggy Ross (from Canada), Albert James, Hands of the Cause Leroy C. Ioas and Zikru’lláh Khádem. RIGHT: One of the conference sessions.
Finland Officially Recognizes Bahá’í Faith[edit]
Incorporation of the Bahá’í Faith as an independent religion in Finland was realized on September 18, 1963 through a decision of the Ministry of Education declaring that the Bahá’í Faith shall have its own religious register. This is a very important accomplishment in a country which has a state church but which also has a religious freedom law.
The by-laws accepted by the Ministry of Education were much the same as those of the United States Declaration of Trust. Incorporation came about largely through the efforts of last year’s National Spiritual Assembly which did all of the preliminary work and followed-up until an application for registered status was finally accepted by the Ministry.
Copies of the Ministry’s decision and the by-laws were distributed to all church offices, governmental bureaus and local agencies throughout the entire country in either the Finnish or Swedish language. Moreover, this gives local and national assembly secretaries the authority to make out official documents needed by the Bahá’ís in many instances when dealing with local or federal authorities.
Winter School held at Panchgani (Satara), India December 24 to 30, 1963.
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Korean teaching activities. LEFT: Public meeting held in Kyong-ju November 27. RIGHT: Public meeting in Seoul held December 15.
A Winter Harvest in the “Land of the Morning Calm”[edit]
The winter months have brought not only cold weather to Korea but also new opportunities for expanding the teaching work among the mountain and island people who are now confined to their homes. This work gained impetus through the nine-day visit of Dr. Robert Wolff, pioneer in Malaya, who travelled to remote areas where mass conversion has begun, including the islands of Kumho and Koha in the southwest. In the southeast of Korea, Dr. Wolff culminated his visit to several villages with the commemoration of the Day of the Covenant in Taegu and a public meeting in Kyong-ju attended by fifty-five persons. Col. John S. McHenry of the United States spent nine days in December speaking to several Bahá’í communities and observing the phenomenal growth of the Faith since 1951-52 when he was stationed there. A number of winter conferences have been held in Kyong-ju, Seoul and Pusan, with strong support from high school and college youth, to augment further teaching work in the villages. New enrollments continue to come — from San-ch’ong, Seoul, Mun-san and the greatest number coming from Wolsong County. This is the rich harvest where the first seeds were planted over forty years ago by Agnes Alexander, now a Hand of the Cause, when she responded to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Tablets of the Divine Plan and carried the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh to the “land of the morning calm.”
Army Recognizes Independent Nature of the Faith[edit]
In a letter of clarification regarding recording of religious affiliation on service records and “dogtags,” the Chief of Army Chaplains wrote to the National Secretary: “... the Bahá’í World Faith is recognized as an independent religion by the United States Government and, therefore by the United States Army.”
The letter goes on to say that all Bahá’í servicemen are entitled to have “Bahá’í World Faith” in the religious preference section of their service record and “dogtags.” Since eighteen spaces are permitted on the “dogtags” no abbreviation is necessary.
NSA Supports Civil Rights Legislation[edit]
The National Spiritual Assembly, acting on behalf of the Bahá’ís of the United States, has notified the House Rules Committee that it supports enactment of the current civil rights legislation. The National Assembly called attention to the principles of Bahá’u’lláh relating to “Human Rights” and indicated the hope that these principles would be supported by the early passage of the current legislation.
Members of the National Spiritual Assembly of Brazil after the resignation of the two members of the Auxiliary Board Mrs. Margot Worley and Edmund Miessler. Anthony Worley and Robert Miessler were elected to fill their places. Reading from lower left clockwise: Jalal Aghrari, Dr. Mario Dantas, Rangvald Taetz, Miss Dinah França, Robert Miessler, Mrs. Muriel Miessler, Vivaldo Ramos, Mrs. Nylza Taetz and Anthony Worley.
Know Your Bahá’í Literature[edit]
“The Advent of Divine Justice”[edit]
Reviewed by Alice Cox
With the new printing of The Advent of Divine Justice recently off the press, old and new believers alike will do well to turn attention, once again or for the first time, to the illumined pages of this small volume. The passage of two and one-half decades since the first printing in 1939 has not lessened the import of this message of Shoghi Effendi, while the course of world events has but heightened its relevance. Nowhere else in Bahá’í or non-Bahá’í literature, of the past or of the present, will the reader find spread out before his view so clear, so challenging and so bright a picture of the true destiny of America in relation to the world.
This theme has been a recurring one in the beloved Guardian’s letters to the American believers, but in this book he has treated more facets of the subject and these in greater detail than in any other work. For example, in a previous message entitled “America and the Most Great Peace,” dated 1933, Shoghi Effendi presented America’s destiny as foreshowed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine Plan and by prophecies made in His public addresses in the United States in 1912. At a later date (1947) than the writing of the book here being reviewed, he returned to the theme in “The Challenging Requirements of this Present Hour” to emphasize a few aspects with increased clarity.
We do know that from the time the American Federation was founded until the present hour there have been a few far-seeing statesmen who glimpsed a kind of hand-writing on the wall and predicted that, not alone for her own sake was this great nation born, but for a higher purpose — that of carrying the ideals of justice, unity and peace to all the earth and of promoting the universal establishment thereof in definite institutions. Now that the time of fulfillment of their vision is approaching, we, as Bahá’ís, can marvel at the accuracy of their dreams, knowing that such leaders were not consciously aware of the Great Plan of God that guided their thinking and directed the course of evolution of so great a nation.
Shoghi Effendi, writing The Advent of Divine Justice as a letter to the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada late in 1938, made it abundantly clear that in this century “both the community of the American believers, who are aware of that Source, and the great mass of their countrymen, who have not yet recognized the Hand that directs their destiny, are contributing, each in its own way, to the realization of the hopes, and the fulfillment of the promises” replete in the Bahá’í Writings, such promises as these made by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: “The American nation is equipped and empowered to accomplish that which will adorn the pages of history, to become the envy of the world, and be blest in both the East and the West for the triumph of its people.” “May it be the first nation to proclaim the unity of mankind. May it be the first to unfurl the Standard of the Most Great Peace.”
How the creative energies of the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, released within the American nation, have endowed it with a new worthiness, invested it with new and greater powers and capacities in this age, and are equipping it spiritually for its great mission, is the central thesis of the beloved Guardian’s letter. This thesis does not in his hands, however, remain a matter of historical analysis or of prediction. He wrote not only to inform but to illumine and guide, not only to set goals, but to challenge and to motivate — to gather and to galvanize the forces within the growing American Bahá’í Community; and to disclose greater vistas of the unfolding World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, in the eventual establishment of which the American nation is to play so predominant a role.
Of the main topics in the book there are four: 1) the mission of the North American Bahá’í Community as champion builder of the World Order; 2) spiritual preparation of the American believers for carrying out this mission; 3) the material phase of the immediate tasks before the American believers; and 4) the destiny of America.
Many goals set twenty-five years ago for the American Bahá’ís have been won, as were others before that, but these achievements belong not to the past alone; these goals have become the stepping stones for further progress. And that progress each time has depended and will continue to depend upon the same principles of divine guidance, spiritual preparation, practical techniques and vision of the future as delineated unerringly by Shoghi Effendi. It is for this reason that The Advent of Divine Justice will remain an invaluable and inspiring source of continuing guidance for the teachers and administrators of the American Bahá’í Community in whatever land or whatever sphere they labor until their nation has fulfilled “the unspeakably glorious destiny ordained for it by the Almighty ....”
The first main topic, the mission of the American Bahá’í Community as champion builder of World Order, is examined from many angles, such as: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Tablets of the Divine Plan as the foundation of this mission; the Greater Plan of God; the world turmoil in which this mission must be accomplished; the virtues and faults of America and the pitfalls for the believers; the promises of “unfailing Light.”
The second topic, spiritual preparation of the American believers, reveals specifically how Bahá’u’lláh has raised the standards of individual, social and governmental morality for this Day of God. With the transformation of character to be wrought through the potency of His Revelation success can be assured for the American Bahá’í Community and for the nation as a whole, within which the believers must become the new leaven.
The third topic treats of the immediate tasks of the first Seven-Year Plan, in 1938 one year old: 1) completion of the First Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the West; and 2) the teaching goals in North and South America, with careful examination of all that would be required of participants, whether teachers or pioneers, individuals, committees or Assemblies, in a continent-wide campaign. Through consideration of all subjects runs a stirring appeal to the believers to do their share to awaken souls, particularly at that time in Latin America. This appeal is directed with special emphasis to the vitality and the enthusiasm of American Bahá’í youth.
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And finally, Shoghi Effendi points out how the American nation is moving inexorably on to its destiny of
“proclaiming the solidarity, the unity and the maturity
of mankind” and leading the nations of the world to
“exorcise, forever,” the curse of war. While their nation experiences advances and reverses in the course of
this evolution, drawn further and further into the vortex of world upheaval, the American Bahá’ís will consummate “their divinely-appointed mission within its
heart.”
The extensive Index provided in this printing is new. It will prove a valuable aid as a guide, not only to details of the main topics, but to phases of many subtopics of either continuing or eternal importance, some of which are: race prejudice (in America); (corruption in) politics; world crises; (the) “left”; moral rectitude; teaching, approaches and methods; justice, divine principal; Revelation, chief function of; and man, a new race.
One great asset of the book is the rich supply of quotations gleaned by the author from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to support the many topics discussed. Many of these may be located by means of the Index. Not less than ten complete pages of quotations on the subject of the Advent of the Kingdom of God are collected near the end of the book to present such subjects as: the inconceivable greatness of Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation; the station of true believers in this Day of God as “the breezes of spring that are wafted over the world”; the approaching hour of world calamity when “the most great convulsion will have appeared”; the power of Bahá’u’lláh to “bestow everlasting life ... and confer that which is conducive to true living”; promises to believers in times of adversity — “Nothing save that which profiteth them shall befall my loved ones”; the blessing of teaching: “Unloose your tongues and proclaim unceasingly His Cause. This is better for you than all the treasures of the past.”
Winter School Activity Increases[edit]
Hawaii held a very successful Winter School December 27 through 29 which was attended by over a hundred people. The main emphasis of the sessions was on preparation for Riḍván when two important events will occur. First, the new National Spiritual Assembly of Hawaii will be elected and second, the state will be divided into twenty-seven judicial districts instead of the previous four. Courses were given on the Covenant and the Administration and on interesting facts about the Faith. In addition there was a panel discussing the forthcoming new National Spiritual Assembly, election procedures, the formation of new local spiritual assemblies and other related subjects. There were also classes and entertainment for the children. One of the eleven non-Bahá’ís who were present declared himself during the school session and another did so on the following week.
The Bahá’í Winter Institute at Frogmore, South Carolina was held December 28 through January 1. Here also the attendance was quite large. Over one hundred people from fourteen states and the Philippines were
National Spiritual Assembly of Finland elected May 26, 1963. Left to right, seated: Ritva Yli-Pohja, Greta Jankko (Corresponding Secretary), visiting Hand of the Cause John Robarts, Maiija Ravola, Sirkka Salmi. Standing: Habib’u’llah Zabihian (Vice-Chairman), Ghodrat Bidardel, Eine Kylliäinen (Treasurer), Osmo Päivinen (Chairman), Donald Oja (Recording Secretary).
registered. In addition, the school was honored by the
presence of Hand of the Cause Zikru’lláh Khádem who
spoke movingly of the power and the station of the
Guardianship. Classes were taught by Dr. Allan Ward,
Riaz Khadem and Mrs. Jane McCants. Curtis Kelsey
told many of his stories about ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. On the
last night the youth presented an evening program
which was moderated by Ricky Abercrombie consisting of a series of talks in which several youths
told about their experiences in the Faith. During the
five day session six people declared their desire to enroll in the Faith. Two of these are residents of Frogmore.
Local Assembly of Forth Worth, Texas incorporated December 31, 1963. Left to right, seated: Mrs. George Galinken, Mrs. Martin Watkins, George Galinken (Chairman), Mrs. John Banks (Secretary), Mrs. Ed Makeland. Standing: Martin Watkins, Mrs. Gordon Dobbins (Treasurer), Gordon Dobbins, John Banks (Vice-Chairman).
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Local Spiritual Assembly of Santa Fe, New Mexico incorporated December 10, 1963. Left to right, seated: Theodore Claus, David P. Smith, Amy B. Dwelly. Standing: Margaret Overlock, Geraldine Smith, Neva Jean Nothwang, Thomas Breneiser, Lynn Claus, Kenneth Overlock.
International News Briefs[edit]
The National Spiritual Assembly of Alaska has undertaken an interesting venture in public relations. Letters were written to all Alaskan Legislators congratulating them on the passing of a Bill which resulted in the appointment of a Human Rights Commission. The Governor and members of the commission received such letters. With each one, the National Spiritual Assembly enclosed the pamphlet Man One Race. The answers thus far received have been heartening.
Many new believers have entered the Faith in recent months in Haiti. These new recruits have immediately entered the field of service and are doing exemplary and heroic work as native pioneers and teachers. Mass conversion has been well under way since March amongst the country people and continues to gain momentum. There are about one thousand new Bahá’ís and thirteen local assemblies in these areas, all since last March. The people are Negro with some mixture of French.
Another step forward in official recognition of the Faith in Canada is the recent action of the Department of Citizenship and Immigration, in Ottawa, in defining the status of Bahá’í pioneers as “representatives” of the Bahá’í “organization” in foreign lands, and consequently exempting them from automatic loss of citizenship after prolonged absence from their home country.
Recent reports indicate that several hundred Indians in the jungle areas of Brazil, Colombia, and Peru have been enrolled under the banner of Bahá’u’lláh, including about 250 Amazon Indians in the remote corner of Brazil near Colombia. One of the Auxiliary Board Members states that the whole Amazon area appears to contain a vast hidden treasure of receptive souls for Bahá’u’lláh’s Kingdom. In many areas Christianity has not yet penetrated or is only now reaching these virgin areas of such great promise.
The teaching work continues without interruption in India. The National Spiritual Assembly has adopted a One-Year Plan of extension and consolidation. On November 12th celebrations were held by the friends to mark the enrollment of more than 100,000 believers. The number of centers in India has reached 4,729. In addition to the Teaching Institute in Indore, three more buildings for similar institutes are being acquired by the friends, whilst the number of local Bahá’í Schools has reached twenty-one.
We have just received word from the National Spiritual Assembly of Central and East Africa that since Convention the number of centers throughout that region has increased by 300, and during these seven months they have accepted 7,000 new believers into the Bahá’í fold. Advanced training courses have been organized in English, Swahili, Luganda, Ateso and Acholi, for those believers who have already received the National Assembly’s elementary training course.
The city and state governments of Porto Alegro, Brazil, recognized the marriage of Miss Sudabé Shayani and John Wilding which was performed by the Local Spiritual Assembly. This recognition establishes the Faith as an official religious body. The way is now cleared for the registration and recognition of Bahá’í marriages throughout Brazil.
The first Bahá’í wedding legally recognized in the province of Manitoba, Canada was performed by the Spiritual Assembly of Winnipeg in October 1963. This was the first marriage performed under the new provincial statute, passed in November 1962, allowing Bahá’ís to be married without a civil ceremony.
Some of those attending the Asilomar Bahá’í Youth Conference held December 27-29, 1963 in California.
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Local Spiritual Assembly of Rochester, Minnesota incorporated September 3, 1963. Left to right, first row:
Mrs. Georgia Naves, Mrs. Evelyn Duncan, Mrs. Betty
Gooden. Second row: Mrs. Lorraine Wright, Mrs. Jean
Herting, Mrs. Anita Tuttle. Third row: Verne Tuttle,
Lerton Duncan, Arthur Jones.
National Teaching Notes[edit]
On January 15 a Bahá’í couple, Helen and Jozep McCoy, was interviewed on a Dayton, Ohio radio program called “Conversation Piece.” The program lasted forty-five minutes and while the broadcast was in progress seventeen people called to ask questions about the Faith.
Three Bahá’ís from Waterloo and two from Cedar Falls, Iowa represented the Bahá’í Faith at the Black Hawk County Conference on Race and Religion which was held in Waterloo on November 2. Workshops were held on the following topics: Government and Law Enforcement, Education and Youth, Public Services and Accommodations, Labor Unions and Employment, Church and Synagogue. The Faith was mentioned in each of the workshops as each participant had to identify himself and the organization he represented. In addition, several of the Bahá’ís were able to present the Bahá’í point of view during the discussions. After the conference a “Committee for Better Racial Understanding” was formed and it publicly called for open housing.
The Mayor and City Commission of Fargo, North Dakota have recently established a Human Relations Commission. The Bahá’í Assembly wrote a letter to the Mayor commending this action and the Mayor was so impressed by the letter that he had it read by the City Commission. In addition, he appointed the secretary of the Assembly as one of the fifteen new members of the Commission.
The Bahá’ís of Dallas and University Park, Texas presented an “Emancipation Centennial Celebration” on November 10. The program began with a get-acquainted hour during which there were refreshments, music and door-prizes. This was followed by an inter-racial panel consisting of prominent Dallas Negroes and whites and a Bahá’í speaker who spoke about the milestones in the Bahá’í Faith’s 100 year history and how they parallel important events in Negro progress since the Emancipation Proclamation.
The Rochester and Olmsted County, Minnesota Bahá’í communities jointly sponsored a Human Rights Forum on November 17. The program consisted of an inter-racial panel which discussed several pre-determined questions dealing with the problems of integration. This was followed by a pot-luck supper at the YWCA.
Kenneth Wiley of the Santa Monica Bahá’í community spoke about the Bahá’í Faith to a class at U.C.L.A. on November 22. The class was a course on comparative religion in the Anthropology Department and there were about 125 students present who seemed sincerely interested in the talk. Shortly afterwards the speaker received a call from one of the students asking for more information about the Faith.
The Bahá’ís of Lane County, Oregon had a float in the Springfield Christmas parade. The theme of the float was God’s Flower Garden and the children riding on it were Chinese, American, Negro, American-Indian and Japanese-Hawaiian. The float won second place in its category.
December 7-9 the youth of the Rocky Mountain States held a Bahá’í Youth Council Fire on the Arapahoe Indian Reservation in Ethete, Wyoming. Approximately 250 Indians attended and after the conference four youths declared themselves.
The Bahá’í World Faith was listed as a participating organization in the World Friendship Fair held in Gwynedd, Pennsylvania on October 5. The local Bahá’ís had a table and display on the fair grounds.
Bahá’í pioneer to Columbia, Helen Jacobs Hornby, was recently asked to speak at the A.M.E. Church, one of the larger Negro churches of Nashville, Tennessee. There were over 200 people present who were impressed not only by the teachings of the Faith but also by the unity demonstrated by the Negro and white believers who were present.
The Spiritual Assembly of Fresno Judicial District, California, held a Youth Conference November 28-30. The conference concluded with a public meeting which featured a panel discussion on the subject, “Youth and Tomorrow.” A nineteen year old youth from Bakersfield enrolled in the Faith shortly after the Conference.
Baha’i in the News[edit]
Tapestries in the Sand, the Spirit of Indian Sand Painting, written by David V. Villasenor, a Bahá’í widely known for his understanding, interpretation and demonstration of sand painting, contains a brief quotation from the Bahá’í Writings. The book, published by Naturegraph Company, Healdsburg, California, contains a number of reproductions in color of exquisite examples of sandpainting.
The East Side Journal, a local weekly newspaper in Kirkland, Washington, asked the Bahá’ís for an article for their Christmas edition. The article was printed with several others by the pastors of the local churches.
An excellent article and photograph of Mark Tobey appeared in the December 26, 1963 issue of the Monterey Peninsula Herald, Monterey, California. After an analysis of Tobey’s work and technique the writer says, “Any contemplation of Tobey’s work reveals the deep spiritual concepts that guide his brush. The Bahá’í World Faith exerts a strong influence on everything he expresses. He paints from a vision of a world at once infinitely diverse and joined in the progressive rhythm of widening understanding and brotherhood.”
The December 24 edition of the Monterey Peninsula Herald ran an article about Mount Carmel and three photographs of Haifa. One of these photographs was of the shrine of the Báb and the caption underneath it mentioned that one of the two founders of the Bahá’í World Faith is buried there.
An article about Jordan, in the December 28 edition of the Chicago Daily News, mentions a Bahá’í Hostel in the Jordan Valley. However it erroneously calls the Faith a Persian Moslem sect.
The December 23 edition of the Illinois Times, a Champaign, Illinois Negro newspaper, contained two articles about the Faith. The first one was about the State Convention and included a photograph of the Temple. The second was the entire text of a radio talk given by Georg E. Brehman, Jr. on the subject of racial prejudice. The talk urges people to deal with the Negro with justice and with love and at one point states, “The Bahá’ís believe that segregation and prejudice of any sort is forbidden by God and that the teachings of Jesus and of Moses, of Buddha and of Krishna, of Zoroaster and of Mohammed also explicitly or by inference, forbid such attitudes and acts on the part of man.” The entire article was printed as an editorial.
Baha’i Publishing Trust[edit]
The Advent of Divine Justice. By Shoghi Effendi. New printings of this important work have been produced in both cloth and paperbound editions, each carrying for the first time an excellent index prepared by Alice Cox. This is a basic Bahá’í book that belongs in every individual’s library and which should be used extensively in deepening classes. Some of the chapters which are especially pertinent and inspiring at the present time are: “The Possibilities of the Future”; “Spiritual Prerequisites”; “The Most Challenging Issue.” The chapter entitled “The Teaching Requirements” contains some of the most essential instruction on teaching, particularly for the individual, to be found in our literature. A temple drawing by Gordon Laite has been utilized for both the jacket and paper cover.
Paperbound edition | $1.00 |
Clothbound edition | $2.00 |
Calendar of Events[edit]
- FEASTS
- March 21 — Bahá (Splendor)
- April 9 — Jalál (Glory)
- DAYS OF FASTING
- March 2 to 21
- HOLY DAY
- March 21 — Naw-Ráz (Bahá’í New Year)
- U.S. NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY MEETINGS
- March 27-29
Baha’i House of Worship[edit]
- Weekdays
- 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. (Auditorium only)
- Sundays and Holidays
- 10:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (Entire building)
- Sundays
- 3:30 to 4:10 p.m.
- Sunday, March 15
- 4:15 p.m.
BAHÁ’Í NEWS is published for circulation among Bahá’ís only by the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, as a news organ reporting current activities of the Bahá’í world community.
BAHÁ’Í NEWS is edited by an annually appointed Editorial Committee: James Cloonan, Managing Editor; Mrs. Lilian Cloonan, Assistant Editor; Mrs. Eunice Braun, International Editor; Miss Charlotte Linfoot, National Spiritual Assembly Representative.
Material must be received by the twentieth of the second month preceding date of issue. Address: Bahá’í News Editorial Office, 110 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois, U.S.A.
Change of address should be reported directly to National Bahá’í Office. 112 Linden Avenue. Wilmette, Illinois, U.S.A.
