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Bahá’í News

December 1974

Bahá’í Year 131

50th anniversary issue

[Page 0] Universal House of Justice Message

The Bahá’í attitude towards material suffering

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Italy

Dear Bahá’í Friends,

In your letter of 11 September you say that the questions of how to help the Third World or the poor who are suffering under calamities are much discussed in your community and you wish to know whether to create a special fund for such needs, to ask for special contributions from time to time, or whether there are other ways in which you could help.

It is understandable that Bahá’ís who witness the miserable conditions under which so many human beings have to live, or who hear of a sudden disaster that has struck a certain area of the world, are moved to do something practical to ameliorate those conditions and to help their suffering fellow-mortals.

There are many ways in which help can be rendered. Every Bahá’í has the duty to acquire a trade or profession through which he will earn that wherewith he can support himself and his family; in the choice of such work he can seek those activities which are of benefit to his fellow-men and not merely those which promote his personal interests, still less those whose effects are actually harmful.

There are also the situations in which an individual Bahá’í or a Spiritual Assembly is confronted with an urgent need which neither justice nor compassion could allow to go unheeded and unhelped. How many are the stories told of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in such situations, when He would even take off a garment He was wearing and give it to a shivering man in rags.

But in our concern for such immediate obvious calls upon our succor we must not allow ourselves to forget the continuing, appalling burden of suffering under which millions of human beings are always groaning—a burden which they have borne for century upon century and which it is the mission of Bahá’u’lláh to lift at last. The principal cause of this suffering, which one can witness wherever one turns, is the corruption of human morals and the prevalence of prejudice, suspicion, hatred, untrustworthiness, selfishness, and tyranny among men. It is not merely material well-being that people need. What they desperately need is to know how to live their lives—they need to know who they are, to what purpose they exist, and how they should act towards one another; and, once they know the answers to these questions they need to be helped to gradually apply these answers to everyday behavior. It is to the solution of this basic problem of mankind that the greater part of all our energy and resources should be directed. There are mighty agencies in this world, governments, foundations, institutions of many kinds with tremendous financial resources which are working to improve the material lot of human beings. Anything we Bahá’ís could add to such resources in the way of special funds or contributions would be a negligible drop in the ocean. However, alone among men, we have the divinely-given remedy for the real ills of mankind; no one else is doing or can do this most important work, and if we divert our energy and our funds into fields in which others are already doing more than we can hope to do, we shall be delaying the diffusion of the Divine Message which is the most important task of all.

Because of such an attitude, as also because of our refusal to become involved in politics, Bahá’ís are often accused of holding aloof from the “real problems” of their fellow-men. But when we hear this accusation let us not forget that those who make it are usually idealistic materialists to whom material good is the only “real” good, whereas we know that the working of the material world is merely a reflection of spiritual conditions and until the spiritual conditions can be changed there can be no lasting change for the better in material affairs.

We should also remember that most people have no clear concept of the sort of world they wish to build, nor how to go about building it. Even those who are concerned to improve conditions are therefore reduced to combatting every apparent evil that takes their attention. Willingness to fight against evils, whether in the form of conditions or embodied in evil men, has thus become for most people the touchstone by which they judge a person’s moral worth. Bahá’ís, on the other hand, know the goal they are working towards and know what they must do, step by step, to attain it. Their whole energy is directed towards the building of the good, a good which has such a positive strength that in the face of it the multitude of evils—which are in essence negative—will fade away and be no more. To enter into the quixotic tournament of demolishing one by one the evils in the world is, to a Bahá’í, a vain waste of time and effort. His whole life is directed towards proclaiming the Message of Bahá’u’lláh, reviving the spiritual life of his fellow-men, uniting them in a divinely-created World Order, and then, as that Order grows in strength and influence, he will see the power of that Message transforming the whole of human society and progressively solving the problems and removing the injustices which have so long bedevilled the world.

With loving Bahá’í greetings,
THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE

November 19, 1974

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Contents

Universal House of Justice Message	Inside cover
The Bahá’í attitude towards material suffering
Editorial	2
Progress report to subscribers
Special Report	3-7
50 Years of Bahá’í News, by Beth McKenty
A note about the first Bahá’í News editor, by Sophie Loeding
Around the World	8
Australia, Chad, Ecuador, Guam, Iceland, Kenya, Mexico, Rhodesia, Seychelles, Spain
Retrospect	11
‘Abdu’l-Bahá: Last month in America, by Allan L. Ward
Youth	16
Out of a handful of dust-Part II, by Philip Christensen
A Poem	21
Through the varied patterned lace, by Margaret Esse Danner

Bahá’í News is published for circulation among Bahá’ís only by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, as a news organ reporting current activities of the Bahá’í world community. Material must be received by the fifteenth of the month preceding date of issue. Address: Bahá’í News Editorial Office, 112 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois 60091, U.S.A. Change of address should be reported directly to Membership and Records, National Bahá’í Center, 112 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, Illinois 60091, U.S.A.

Copyright © 1975, National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. World Rights Reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.

[Page 2] Editorial

Progress report to subscribers

A new format for Bahá’í News has been in the making since August 1973. In a general reorganization of the Bahá’í information system in the United States at that time, the magazine was assigned for production to the National Bahá’í Information Office, along with such other publications as The American Bahá’í and National Bahá’í Review.

Those who have subscribed to Bahá’í News during this period of transition have witnessed certain modifications in the traditional format of the magazine—improvements, we feel—and have perhaps been aware of others that should have been made.

An effort has been undertaken to extend the scope of the magazine’s coverage of events and to present more effectively that news which has been available. Much of the information printed arrives by mail from points around the globe; unfortunately, there is often a considerable lag between the time the event occurs and the time a report is submitted to Bahá’í News. Needless to say, many significant activities around the world go completely unreported. What we do receive we organize as best we can for a palatable presentation. We have tried of late to anticipate certain news activities by requesting information well in advance. The result has been a discernible increase in special news reports.

This work is far from completed. Efforts to improve the quality of news content will continue well into the future. The United States National Spiritual Assembly recently asked Continental Counsellors in different regions to recommend individuals to serve as reporters for the publication. A modest increase in the size of our editorial staff is also contemplated. A steady improvement in the quality of the magazine itself will serve as a continuing incentive to the friends around the world to make more information available.

With this issue, we take still another step in the process of alteration. A new nameplate for the publication has been adopted; the familiar globe design used for many years to designate the international newsletter has been retired in favor of a simpler, unembellished design. The change will give greater flexibility in the preparation of covers, and indicates further progress in the publication’s transformation from newsletter to magazine. For the first time also we use four-color printing in this issue. That is to mark the 50th anniversary of the magazine’s first publication in December 1924, as well as to symbolize the desire of the staff to make it the foremost Bahá’í journal in the world.

Most importantly perhaps, we are also moving to eliminate delays in production, handling, and mailing, all of which presently cause much inconvenience to our subscribers. In recent months, there has been more interest among Bahá’í writers and artists in submitting materials to the magazine for publication. For the first time, we are beginning to have a sustained flow of copy from which to select and design forthcoming editions. The magazine has also moved to acquire a modest amount of typesetting equipment, to give the staff more leverage in meeting rigorous printing deadlines. The subscriber maintenance system has also undergone major reorganization. For the first time, our subscriber lists have been computerized to permit orderly processing of new subscriptions and periodic renewals. This new system, coupled with the limited use of direct mail promotion, has already resulted in substantial increases in subscribers. Naturally, the larger the base of subscribers, the better able the magazine will be to upgrade its service.

The process of developing the potential of Bahá’í News is long and complicated. The changes, we assume, will make Bahá’í News more informative and useful to its readers. At any point along the way, consequently, we welcome your observations about these changes. The staff regrets the inconveniences that new production arrangements have caused, but hopes to have these under control soon.

The editors

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50
Years of

Bahá’í News

[Page 4] By Beth McKenty

O Son of Man! Magnify My Cause that I may reveal unto thee the mysteries of My greatness and shine upon thee with the light of eternity.¹

For fifty years, while the news media has carried headlines of wars and disintegration, Bahá’í News has been a vehicle for reports and news of a powerful integrating process—the building of the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh. The first words of its first issue (December 1924) were those of the Hidden Word shown above. The staff, for that issue, was one Bahá’í, Horace Holley, later given the rank of Hand of the Cause by the beloved Guardian. At that time he was secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada.

From his office at 169 Christopher Street, in New York, he produced and distributed the four-page news bulletin, called Bahá’í News Letter. The symbol of the Greatest Name appeared on the nameplate of that first edition. The contents of Volume I, Number 1, included a statement from Shoghi Effendi; a letter and financial statement from the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada; reports of national committees, and two columns of national and international news of the Faith.

The seeds of its future growth lay in that first issue. Helping the Bahá’ís maintain a close tie with the institutions of their Faith, providing current news of teaching and consolidation activities around the globe, and reporting on historical events of interest to the friends have remained its mission ever since.

A brief survey of issues from the past fifty years will uncover the illustrious names of our heroes and heroines, and illumine a chronicle of deeds that has broadcast the fame of the Cause far and wide.

It was only three years after the Ascension of the Master that the first issue of Bahá’í News appeared with this statement from the beloved Guardian:

The time is indeed ripe for the manifold activities, wherein the servants and handmaids of Bahá’u’lláh are so devoutly and earnestly engaged, to be harmonized and conducted with unity, cooperation, and efficiency, that the effect of such a combined and systematized effort, through which an All-Powerful Spirit is steadily pouring, may transcend every other achievement of the past, however glorious it has been, and may stand, now that, to the eyes of the outside world the glorious Person of the Master is no more, a convincing testimony of the potency of His everliving Spirit.²

First issue of Bahá’í News

Louis Gregory

The House of Worship, 1938

The second issue in January 1925, published less than five years after the unveiling of the Tablets of the Divine Plan in New York, carried this report about the international teaching work:

A letter from Clara and Hyde Dunn brings the good news that the work in Australia is progressing very rapidly. Melbourne and Perth have their Bahá’í Assemblies, as well as Auckland, New Zealand, and new Assemblies are about to be formed in Adelaide and Sydney, Australia.

The tremendous contribution which Martha Root has been making to the promotion of the Cause in China, Australia, and South Africa is a subject which would require many pages to do it justice. We hope to devote an early number of the News Letter to a full account of her activities.³

Several years later, in a special May 1932 Convention issue, Louis Gregory, posthumously named a Hand of the Cause, wrote:

The Convention is always a time of festival and spiritual refreshment among the followers of the faith and they are assisted by the Unseen Powers to convey these favors to others. Each occasion has its distinct features which are woven into the history and progress of the Cause.... The most striking feature of this Convention was its light, contrasted with the world’s gloom.... The Convention was reminded of the cosmic range of Bahá’í activity by messages, by letter or wire, from various cities at home and abroad.... indicating the oneness of spirit which invites distant friends, by sending loving greetings.⁴

In January 1942 Bahá’í News reported the completion of the sixth and seventh main story faces of the Temple and published a cable of appreciation from Shoghi Effendi. News from Hawaii, site of the Pearl Harbor bombing, was given, assuring the safety of the friends on Maui and the island of Hawaii. There followed in the edition two elaborate maps showing teaching plans for North America, together with a portion of the Master’s Divine Plan. A letter from the Guardian, regarding the duty and responsibility of Bahá’ís in a time of national crisis, was reprinted. It said in part:

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There are many ... avenues through which the believers can assist in times of war by enlisting in services of a noncombatant nature—services that do not involve the direct shedding of blood—such as ambulance work, anti-air raid precaution service, office and administrative works, and it is for such types of national service that they should volunteer.

It is immaterial whether such activities would still expose them to dangers, either at home or at the front, since their desire is not to protect their lives, but to desist from any acts of wilful murder.⁵

A special issue reporting on the 36th annual Convention was published in 1944, the hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of the Báb. This stirring event was movingly observed with a devotional program whose readers included Louis Gregory, Olivia Kelsey, Honor Kempton, Mary McClennen, and Albert Windust. A cablegram dated May 25, 1944, from the Guardian arrived on the last day of the Convention, containing momentous news:

I am overjoyed by the auspicious opening of the Centennial Convention. The dearly-beloved American Bahá’í community was remembered during the historic night of the glorious Declaration at the Báb’s Holy Shrine. Announce to the friends the joyful tidings that the hundredth anniversary of the Declaration of the Mission of the martyred Herald of the Faith was signalized by the historic decision to complete the structure of His sepulcher erected by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá on the site chosen by Bahá’u’lláh. The recently designed model of the dome has been unveiled in the presence of assembled believers. Praying for the early removal of obstacles to the consummation of the stupendous Plan conceived by the Founder of the Faith and the hopes cherished by the Center of His Covenant.⁶

Nine years later, again at Convention time, the tasks facing the friends are even greater than those that had faced earlier gatherings of American Bahá’ís. News of the launching of the Ten Year Crusade for the spiritual conquest of the planet was carried in the May 1953 Bahá’í News, together with a picture of ten Hands of the Cause who had attended the First Intercontinental Bahá’í Teaching Conference in Uganda some months earlier. In his message, “Launching the World-Embracing Spiritual Crusade,” the Guardian wrote:

Elsie Austin and Dorothy Baker

Matthew Bullock

Resting place of the Guardian

Bahá’u’lláh’s army of light is standing on the threshold of the Holy Year. Let them, as they enter it, vow with one voice, one heart, one soul, never to turn back in the entire course of the fateful decade ahead until each and every one will have contributed his share in laying on a worldwide scale an unassailable administrative foundation for Bahá’u’lláh’s Christ-promised Kingdom on earth, swelling thereby the chorus of universal jubilation wherein earth and heaven will join as prophesied by Daniel, echoed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá; ‘on that day will the faithful rejoice with exceeding gladness.’⁷

The Guardian referred to 1953 as a “fivefold historic occasion,” marking as it did the dedication for public worship of the holiest Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the Bahá’í world; convocation of the Second Intercontinental Teaching Conference of the Holy Year; the Anniversary of the Declaration of Bahá’u’lláh in the Garden of Riḍván; the holding of the Forty-Fifth American Bahá’í Convention, and the launching of the epochal, global spiritual Crusade.⁸ The first Italo-Swiss convention was also held in April of that year, in Florence, Italy, with eighteen delegates and a total of 48 Bahá’ís attending.

Subsequent issues, not surprisingly, were filled with reports of departing pioneers and letters from pioneers at their posts. The January 1954 Bahá’í News carried the historic photograph of five members of the National Spiritual Assembly standing in front of the House of Worship prior to leaving for their pioneering posts. They were: William Kenneth Christian, Mamie Seto, Elsie Austin, the Hand of the Cause Dorothy Baker, and Matthew Bullock. The very next issue begins with a message from the Guardian lamenting the passing of Dorothy Baker:

Hearts grieved lamentable, untimely passing Dorothy Baker, distinguished Hand of the Cause, eloquent exponent of its teachings, indefatigable supporter of its institutions, valiant defender of its precepts ...⁹

The mysterious assistance given to pioneers is evidenced in one small paragraph in this same issue:

Miss Virginia Breaks, pioneer in Truk, Eastern Caroline Islands, a United States Trust Territory, reports, in a letter to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, that

[Page 6] while visiting at the home of the District Anthropologist in Yap, the anthropologist’s wife and Miss Breaks heard a Bahá’í broadcast. This was a radio interview with Mr. Faizí [the Hand of the Cause A.Q. Faizí] of Bahrain, broadcasting from Australia, some 2,500 miles away.¹⁰

Desire to participate in the Crusade crossed all barriers of age and health. In April 1954, in a report from the American National Teaching Committee, the following letter from a volunteer born in 1878 is quoted:

Area desired—“anywhere you want to send me.” When can you leave?—“at once.” Any health problems?—“Doctors say a nervous heart, but I would say perfect health.”

She adds, parenthetically, “Do have broken knee and hip and am on crutches.”

In December 1957, a tragic headline appeared:

Shoghi Effendi, Beloved of all Hearts, Sacred Trust Given Believers By Master, Passed Away (From) Sudden Heart Attack in Sleep.

Beneath that terrible headline were printed the messages from the Hand of the Cause Rúḥíyyih Khánum and the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States, containing the sorrowful details of the event. In reviewing the accomplishments of the thirty-six-year Guardianship, the National Assembly made this plea:

Honorable is the sorrow caused by the passing of a loved one, when that sorrow purifies the heart and confirms within it the supreme love—the love of God, and the resolute will to serve Him.¹²

The next six years see issues filled with articles on goals attained under the guidance of the Hands of the Cause, the Chief Stewards of the embryonic World Order of Bahá’u’lláh. In February 1958, we find a picture of a monument in Sofia, Bulgaria, erected at the grave of Marion Jack by the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. Before his passing, the Guardian had asked that this be done for Marion Jack, who died at her post in 1954. The details:

Loved by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Marion Jack won also the deep gratitude and admiration of the beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, for her steadfastness at her goal in Sofia, Bulgaria, where she now lies buried.

During World War II, in her elderly years [she was born in 1866] she suffered great privation. She was without heat, lacked clothing, food, and adequate shelter. She was bombed, lost all of her possessions, and was evacuated to the country, later returning, still valiant and on foot, to carry on her teaching work in Sofia.¹³

In June 1962, the Message from the Hands of the Cause to the Bahá’í World tells of the formation of eleven new National Spiritual Assemblies, with Finland added to the original ten goal countries. One year later we have the report of the election of The Universal House of Justice, together with other historic highlights of the Great Jubilee celebration in London’s Royal Albert Hall.

A year of respite was followed by the launching of the Nine Year Plan, aimed at raising the number of National Spiritual Assemblies in the world to 108, nine times the number that had existed at the launching of the Ten Year Crusade in 1954. Many stories concerned the efforts to increase the numbers of Local Spiritual Assemblies in the goal countries, and to elect new National Assemblies, pillars of The Universal House of Justice. Continental and oceanic conferences witnessed thousands of Bahá’ís gathering in Kampala, Reykjavik, Rose Hill, La Paz, Sapporo, and Wilmette, with Hands of the Cause present at each conference. The Hand of the Cause Tarázu’lláh Samandarí brought his own unique memories of the Blessed Perfection, Bahá’u’lláh, to share with those gathered in Chicago to honor the momentous Proclamation to the Kings.

As the Nine Year Plan drew to a close, the record of the enrollment of new tribes in the Faith continued, with news of the first believers amongst the Paez Indians, of Colombia. The travels of Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum in the Far East were described by the Bahá’í International News Service, including her visit to Daidanaw, a village of 2,000 people, of whom 1,800 are Bahá’ís.

Today, at the start of the Five Year Plan, the words of the beloved Guardian’s 50-year-old directive to Bahá’í News remain fresh and filled with ideas for the expansion and increased effectiveness of this publication in helping win the teaching victories of the Faith:

News Letter

The News Letter which you have lately initiated fulfills a very vital function and has been started admirably well. I would urge you to enlarge its scope, as much as your resources permit, that in time it may devote a special section to every phase of your activities, administrative, devotional, humanitarian, financial, educational, and otherwise. That it may attain its object it must combine the essential qualities of accuracy, reliability, thoroughness, dignity, and wisdom. It should become a great factor in promoting understanding, providing information on Bahá’í activity, both local and foreign, in stimulating interest, in combating evil influences, and in upholding and safeguarding the institutions of the Cause. It should be made as representative as possible, should be replete with news, up-to-date in its information, and should arouse the keenest interest among believers and admirers alike in every corner of the globe. I cherish great hopes for its immediate future, and I trust you will devote your special attention to its development, and by devising well-conceived and worldwide measures transform this News Letter into what I hope will become the foremost Bahá’í Journal of the world.

1. Bahá’u’lláh, The Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh, trans. Shoghi Effendi, rev. ed. (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1954), p. 13.
2. Bahá’í News, no. 1, December 1924, p. 3.
3. Ibid., no. 2, January 1925, p. 4.
4. Ibid., no. 2 May 1932, p. 1.
5. Ibid., no. 150, January 1940, p. 8.
6. Ibid., no. 168, May 1944, p. 3
7. Shoghi Effendi, Messages to the Bahá’í World: 1950-1957, rev. ed. (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1971), p. 44.
8. Bahá’í News, no. 267, May 1953, p. 2.
9. Ibid., no. 276, April 1954, p. 1.
10. Ibid., p. 4.
11. Ibid., no. 278, April 1954, p. 9.
12. Ibid., no. 322, December 1957, p. 3.
13. Ibid., no. 324, February 1958, p. 6.
14. Shoghi Effendi, Bahá’í Administration, 6th ed., rev. and enl. (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1968), p. 82.

[Page 7]

A note about the first Bahá’í News editor

In 1940, Sophie Loeding was invited by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States to become the first full-time employee of the Secretariat. From that year until the Hand of the Cause Horace Holley was called to Haifa in 1959 to join the Hands of the Cause stationed there, she served as his secretary. Until the beloved Guardian sent an instruction that no one except the nine members of the National Spiritual Assembly should be present at its deliberations, she attended Assembly meetings to keep full stenographic records for the minutes. Later, recording equipment was introduced, and she then transcribed the minutes from this equipment.

The first issue of Bahá’í News, published in December 1924, was the work almost solely of Mr. Holley. To recall and appreciate his unique record in serving the American Bahá’í community, Miss Loeding was asked to write her brief impressions of the man for this issue. Miss Loeding has been a Bahá’í since her parents, when she was still a very young girl, enrolled in the Faith in Chicago in 1898. She served at the National Center from 1940 until her retirement in 1968, and still assists in special projects. Ed.

Horace Holley was born in Torrington, Connecticut, in 1887. As an adult, he made his home in New York City and after his election to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada, he served there as its Secretary. He moved to Wilmette in 1938 when the National Center was established there. In 1951, he was appointed a Hand of the Cause by the beloved Guardian, and in late 1959, he was called to Haifa where he served as a Hand of the Cause in the Holy Land until his death in 1960.

Those associated with Mr. Holley at the National Center during his tenure as Secretary (1938–1959) knew him as a highly intellectual man, greatly gifted in the literary field, the author of many articles and books about the Faith, and the compiler of many of the writings of Bahá’u’lláh, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and the Guardian for the deepening and guidance of the friends. He was also a poet and among his works was a published book of verse which unfortunately is no longer available.

Horace Holley

Those who worked with him knew him as a kind man, generous and thoughtful of others, never showing impatience, never demanding but always getting from us the utmost in cooperation and service. He was a great reader and student, had a phenomenal memory and a keenly analytical mind. As Secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly for a period of many years, he was called upon, as the Cause spread, to deal with an ever-increasing correspondence ranging over a wide spectrum of subjects.

His letters were well reasoned, concise, and always conveyed the exact meaning he had in mind. He had a voluminous correspondence with the beloved Guardian, who expressed admiration and appreciation for his services and gave him many literary tasks to perform. Perhaps the most outstanding was that of arranging in legally acceptable form Shoghi Effendi’s instructions regarding the structure and organization of the Administrative Order of Bahá’u’lláh: The American Declaration of Trust of the National Spiritual Assembly and the By-laws of a Local Spiritual Assembly. After Mr. Holley — in conjunction with Mountford Mills, a Bahá’í lawyer — completed this important task, the material was submitted to the beloved Guardian, who approved it and designated it the pattern to be followed by all National Bahá’í communities in the world. The achievement of this immensely important task assigned to him by the Guardian will no doubt stand over the years as the crowning point of a distinguished career.

The range of information stored in Horace Holley’s memory was wide indeed, and factual. He knew the literature of the Faith and of related subjects as few others did, and could call upon this knowledge at will when necessary. He was a fluent and scholarly speaker, both in extemporaneous discourses and with carefully prepared material. He never used a written text to give presentations. Once when asked if in preparing his addresses he wrote out the text, he said: “I make myself a skeleton and dress the skeleton as I go along.” The “dressed skeleton” was always a thorough presentation of the subject, the “dress” being taken from the vast fund of information stored in his phenomenal memory.

His many gifts made Horace Holley a natural channel for furthering the work of the Cause, not only in the United States but abroad as well; the clarity of his thinking, his broad vision, and ability to convey, through both the written and the spoken word, the fundamental teachings of the Faith and their application to our daily lives, made him an unforgettable figure in the annals of the Faith.

Contemporary, friend, and co-worker of well-remembered believers like May Maxwell and Siegfried Schopflocher of Canada, Mountford Mills, Roy Wilhelm, John Bosch, George Latimer, Nellie French, Corinne True, Amelia Collins, Helen S. Goodall, Ella Cooper and many other great souls who responded to the call of Bahá’u’lláh, Mr. Holley was one of those who did the “spade work” for the magnificent edifice the young Bahá’ís of today and tomorrow will ultimately erect.

To have had the opportunity to serve as his secretary was a great privilege and a great learning opportunity. He had a keen sense of humor, was wise, unselfish, clear thinking; a ready tool forged for use by the beloved Guardian, to whom he was faithful, loyal, and obedient.

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Around the World

Australia

New Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds dedicated in Sydney

The National Spiritual Assembly recently advised that its offices have been moved “to the new building in the Temple gardens which is the first building of the national Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds complex to be completed.” A special dedication ceremony for the new center was held on Sunday, October 20, 1974. During the weekend of the dedication, the Continental Board of Counsellors in that zone sponsored a conference in Sydney.

A cable sent by The Universal House of Justice to be read at the dedication ceremony read:

“Warm greetings friends Australia occasion celebration hundred fifty-fifth anniversary birth blessed Báb chosen as day dedication new national Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds Sydney forty years after establishment your National Spiritual Assembly. Supplicating Ancient Beauty further blessings bestowals enrich strengthen and sustain growing vibrant Bahá’í community your continent.

Chad

Prayers now available in three new languages

In recent weeks, the National Spiritual Assembly succeeded in having a selection of Bahá’í prayers translated into three languages of the area: Massa, Ngambaye, and Kanouri. The translation into Kanouri, the National Assembly commented, “accomplishes not only the fulfillment of translation of the Short Obligatory Prayer in this language for inclusion in a forthcoming volume of The Bahá’í World but the beginning of the fulfillment of a Five Year Plan goal which calls upon us to translate and publish literature in this tongue.”

Ecuador

Members of Saraguro tribe enrolled in Ecuador

The National Spiritual Assembly has reported the recent enrollment of fourteen Indian believers of the Saraguro tribe in the province of Loja. “This is a very significant achievement,” the report stated, “because this group has remained intact in tradition, customs, garb, and it retains a strong sense of identity.” First enrollments among the Saraguro tribe were reported by the National Assembly in January 1969.

Guam

Newspaper reports on Hand of the Cause

During the recent visit to Guam of the Hand of the Cause H. Collis Featherstone, a photograph appeared in the Pacific Daily News showing Mr. and Mrs. Featherstone being welcomed to Guam by Governor Camacho. Accompanying the photograph was a splendid article which stated, in part:

“H. Collis Featherstone of Adelaide, Australia, a leading figure of the Bahá’í Faith, is visiting Guam after spending a few days with the Bahá’í communities at Majuro and Ebeye in the Marshalls and at Ponape and Truk in the Eastern Carolines.

“Featherstone is one of the Bahá’ís designated ‘Hand of the Cause of God.’ This title was conferred upon him by the late Shoghi Effendi, Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, in 1957.

“Although he is, by profession, an engineer, in recent years Featherstone has devoted his time primarily to visiting and assisting Bahá’ís throughout the world... Earlier this month, he participated in a U.S. Bahá’í Conference at St. Louis, Mo., attended by some 10,000 members.

“Several special events have been planned during Featherstone’s visit to Guam, including a public fireside-type meeting.... Tuesday the visitors go to Saipan to meet with Bahá’ís of that community...”

Iceland

First conference held in Arctic, sub-Arctic region

The first conference of the Arctic and sub-Arctic region of Europe, held in Tórshavn, Faroe Islands, on August 11-18, 1974, attracted a total attendance of 43 friends from Iceland, Denmark, Norway, the United Kingdom, and Faroes. Present were Betty Reed of the European

The Hand of the Cause Collis Featherstone and Mrs. Featherstone are seen being welcomed to Guam by Governor Camacho (seated).

[Page 9] Board of Counsellors, Auxiliary Board member Svana Einarsdottir, and members of the National Assemblies of Iceland, Denmark, Norway, and the United Kingdom. Also in attendance was Knight of Bahá’u’lláh Eskil Ljungberg who opened the Faroe Islands to the Faith in July 1953, in the opening phase of the Ten Year Crusade.

“The conference was seen as a historic one,” Mrs. Reed reported, “in that it was the first to which participants had come in order to discuss the whole area of the European Arctic and sub-Arctic stretching from Finland in the west to Greenland in the east, from Svalbard in the extreme north to the Scottish islands in the south.” Commenting that the whole region achieved a heightened sense of identity and common purpose, Mrs. Reed continued: “Many of the friends are in difficult, lonely or slow-moving places in this region; those who were at the conference felt drawn together in mutual love and support, and drew strength from that. All were confident that that spirit would spread throughout the entire region. The friends living in remote places who had not been able to attend the conference were remembered, and a copy of the conference photograph, carrying a loving message and signed by the conference participants, was sent to fifteen different places ...”

It was noted that Iceland has emerged as a “spiritual power-house” in the region and it is confidently expected that the Icelandic believers’ role in pioneering, traveling teaching, and their example of community development will beneficially influence the entire north. “Iceland is the only country in Europe that has planned and systematically carried out, year by year, a program of proclamation (now in its fourth year) that has taken the Faith throughout the entire country, north, south, east, and west,” Mrs. Reed observed. The National Spiritual Assembly of Iceland was formed at Riḍván, 1972.

“Joyously announce friends gathered Faroes initiate process extension, consolidation Faith Arctic, sub-Arctic Europe,” the friends cabled the World Center. “Wonderful spirit cooperation. Humbly request prayers success, awareness responsibility historic conference.”

Kenya

World Center visitor takes part in meeting

Following her appearance, as a representative of the International Teaching Center, at the conference sponsored by the Continental Board of Counsellors for the southern Africa zone, held in Salisbury, Rhodesia, August 23-25, Florence Mayberry visited Kenya where she met with the Central and East African Counsellors. On the following day, September 1, she addressed a general meeting of the friends at the Bahá’í Center in Nairobi.

Word was sent on short notice throughout Kenya that a visitor from the World Center would speak. Pioneers came in from 400 miles distant; African believers, despite transportation difficulties, from 100 miles away. Approximately 80 friends attended in all. A number who were unable to attend came to the airport to bid farewell to their guest. Mrs. Mayberry spoke of the World Center, the development of the International Teaching Center, the destiny of Africa as envisioned by the beloved Guardian, the release of our God-given potentialities, and the glorious station of Bahá’u’lláh.

Among those attending were several new blind believers. As a result of the teaching activity of a pioneer who settled in Kenya nine months ago, approximately fifteen blind individuals from a school near the pioneer’s home have recently entered the Faith.

Mexico

Counsellors join in ecumenical lectures

The National Spiritual Assembly was recently invited to participate in one of a series of lectures on the subject “The Man of Today and His Attitude Towards Religion,” organized by the Center for Ecumenical Studies, the University Cultural Center, and the University Parish. The Spiritual Assembly requested the participation of the members of the Continental Board of Counsellors residing in Mexico, Carmen de Burafato and Paul Lucas. One hundred people, the majority of whom were not Bahá’ís, attended the Bahá’í lecture which concluded with a lively question and answer period.

Mrs. de Burafato and Mr. Lucas were then invited to participate, with representatives of other religions in the lecture series, in a televised interview broadcast nationally on Channel 2, Mexican television. “We achieved in this way a simple proclamation in the university field on a national level,” the National Assembly commented.

The Bahá’ís were represented at an evening of “Ecumenical Fellowship” held at the University Cultural Center at the conclusion of the lecture series. “There was a cordial atmosphere and many questions were asked about the Faith,” the Bahá’í observer reported.

The sponsors of the program plan to publish an ecumenical magazine in which a resume of the talks will appear, and in successive editions articles will be published about the different religions taken from the books of each religion.

Rhodesia

Counsellors’ conference conducted in Salisbury

The conference sponsored by the Continental Board of Counsellors in Southern Africa, held in Salisbury, Rhodesia, August 23-25, succeeded in its purpose of lifting the hearts of the participants, quickening their spirit of unity, expanding their vision of service to the Cause, and intensifying their resolve to triumphantly accomplish every goal of the Five Year Plan.

[Page 10] In attendance were Florence Mayberry, representing the International Teaching Center; the three area Counsellors; all ten members of the Auxiliary Board of the zone; and representatives of most National Spiritual Assemblies in southern Africa. At its very beginning, the conference reached a high level of spirit which was maintained throughout the entire proceedings. The meetings provided the participants with an opportunity to discuss questions of mutual interest and concern. Some of the topics discussed were: Women, Children and Youth Activities; Inter-Assembly Cooperation in Achieving Five Year Plan Goals; and Creating a Distinctive Bahá’í Community. The contribution to the discussion by all participants was perceptive and a lively exchange of ideas took place.

Some of the highlights of the conference, drawn from Mrs. Mayberry’s report, are as follows:

“In one community, a Bahá’í Women’s Club has been organized to meet the need for social activity and shared learning. The club meets once, sometimes twice, a week, but the women are so enthused they would like to meet every day. Sessions are open to Bahá’ís as well as their friends; they visit, learn about the Faith, sew, cook, and eat together. They do crafts, including knitting jerseys for their families from scrap yarns. From discarded mealie bags, they create useful and beautiful domestic articles such as aprons, curtains, and pillows. A sewing machine has been procured for the use of the club members. Children are made welcome, as well. In women’s clubs, the women can be encouraged to develop classes for children. Already some African women are conducting such classes. One class started with 30 children and now has 80 attending. Another woman misunderstood the request that she teach a weekly children’s class and had one every day for 40 children; this class has now expanded into the teaching of reading, writing, science, and history as well as a study of the Bahá’í Faith.

“A Bahá’í woman in Lesotho had wanted to be a school teacher but did not have the opportunity to train for it. Each day herdboys passed her house in the morning and evening. As they stopped to rest, she began to teach them Bahá’í prayers and some school subjects. This has continued and in addition, she teaches a children’s class once a week. Thus, the Faith and her readiness to serve it fulfilled her heart’s desire.

“Youth activities are well developed in Swaziland. The Youth Committee meets every day and has formed clubs in schools. The members call on the sick in hospitals, distribute literature, reactivate fellow youth, and have offered to undertake circuit teaching in other countries to stimulate the youth to teach.

“Family conferences, designed to involve all family members, are successful. These conferences have special classes for parents, and separate children’s and youth classes. Classes are held in the morning and all groups have lunch together. Often there is a program in which the children’s accomplishments are displayed.

“The idea of early morning community prayers has been enthusiastically received, and already a number of communities are meeting for this purpose. On the surface, the morning prayer meetings seemed to be a simple goal, but the idea has proved to be one of the most profoundly stirring and moving goals of the entire Five Year Plan. One believer commented, ‘At first when we started early prayers, we were discouraged. Few came, but we continued. Now more and more are joining in.’

“The story was told of one area where a group of Bahá’ís was walking to a village to teach. One of the friends pointed to his land as they passed it and said, ‘One day you will see what a fine house I will build on this land.’ A 17-year-old girl in the group, a dedicated and excellent teacher, asked: ‘Is that part of the Five Year Plan?’ The man, his devotion quickened, gave his land to the National Spiritual Assembly.

“ ‘There is such a beautiful spirit in this room tonight,’ commented one of the friends as the conference concluded. Said another: ‘The spirit is here.’

“A beautifully-worded letter of appreciation, signed by all those present at the conference, was sent to The Universal House of Justice. The letter commented on the unsurpassed ‘multinational and inter-Assembly unity and solidarity within the Bahá’í community of Southern Africa,’ the ‘spirit of sincerity and love,’ and concluded: ‘With renewed hearts and refreshed vigor, we consolidate our dedication to the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh and consecrate ourselves to the united accomplishment of the goals of the Five Year Plan.’ ”

Following the conference, Mrs. Mayberry proceeded to Kenya, where she met with the Continental Board of Counsellors for the Central and East African zone, and addressed a general meeting of the believers in Nairobi.

Seychelles

The official news bulletin tells of Bahá’í meetings

The attendance of representatives of the National Spiritual Assembly of Seychelles at the conference sponsored by the Continental Board of Counsellors in Southern Africa, held in Salisbury, Rhodesia, August 23-25, 1974, was the subject of a lengthy, front-page news item in the Seychelles Government News Bulletin. The full text of the article, which appeared under the headline “Bahá’í Delegates Leaving for Conference,” was later broadcast on Radio Seychelles in both Creole and English. The article was objective and accurate. The National Assembly commented: “The publicity given to the conference in Salisbury, both on the radio and in the press in Seychelles, has caused tremendous interest in non-Bahá’í circles, and the news has received very favorable reaction in official and unofficial quarters.”

Spain

The Faith included in rare religious broadcast

A further report has been received about the first mention of the Bahá’í Faith on television in Spain: “A nationwide television program was broadcast on July 26, featuring different religious communities existing in Spain. Among the few chosen for the program was the Bahá’í Faith. The four-minute report included an interview with the National Assembly Secretary and showed part of a Nineteen Day Feast at the National Center. “Dia Prometido” (Promised Day), a recording Bahá’í musical duo, was also shown reciting a long quotation from the Writings with their own musical background. A recording of the whole program was made. This was the first time Spanish television ever mentioned the Bahá’í Faith. Curiously enough, they did so on their own initiative—after The Universal House of Justice had given Spain this goal as one of the goals of the Five Year Plan.”

[Page 11] Retrospect

Abdu’l-Bahá: Last Month in America†

By Allan L. Ward

‘Abdu’l-Bahá was in America for 239 days, from April 11 until December 5, 1912. By early November, He had traveled from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean and back, attracting the attention of the public, arousing the interest of the press, teaching the Faith according to the level of receptivity of His listeners, deepening the believers in the new Revelation in its history, Teachings, and service, opening to all who would perceive a glimpse of that spiritual world and the pathway to that existence for which the Báb had sacrificed His life, for which Bahá’u’lláh had suffered, and for which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s own 68 years had been spent in conditions that astounded the understanding ones. He now had 25 days remaining in America.

[Page 12] Back, at last, in New York, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá rented the same house as before on Riverside Drive near the Hudson River. Maḥmúd noted, on November 11, “The owner of the house and his relatives had entered the group of the sincere ones...”¹

From November 12 until December 5, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá stayed in New York and could be said to have conducted a month-long deepening class on every aspect of the Faith. Although invitations to speak poured in, He now refused most of them, for He preferred instead to visit the homes of the friends or to have them come to His house. Day and night, in this last face-to-face effort, He prepared them, as part of the army of God, for the things they must do, for the sacrifices they must make, for the spirituality they must attain, for the lessons they must learn, for the total integration and oneness they must achieve, and for the service they would be called upon to render to their fellow men in the path of Bahá’u’lláh.

To know the events of these days fully would be to know the weaving in and out of each human experience, as each person emerged from all his past experiences, entered ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s presence, and went again into the world. To see how the fabric of the new World Order was being woven, in that rented house on Riverside Drive, those thousands of threads, including their effects on other lives, would have to be followed endlessly.

On November 12, Maḥmúd recorded that the newspapers were filled with accounts of the war between the Balkan States and Turkey. He added, “The people looked upon us with eyes full of prejudice whenever they saw us in the market in Persian gowns. We were even refused accommodation in large hotels as they thought we were Turks.”²

On the same day, he recorded that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, as before, was invited to the homes of many socially prominent New Yorkers. But ‘Abdu’l-Bahá refused, saying, “ ‘I have work with the poor and not with the rich. I love all with heart and soul yet I am not here to visit the homes of the rich.’ ”³ When Andrew Carnegie implored Him to come, however, He did bestow upon him the honor of His presence.⁴ On November 19, the New York Times, in an article entitled “Prophet Blesses Morgan,” reported:

J. Pierpont Morgan was written down yesterday as one who had done “considerable philanthropy” when his library in East Thirty-sixth Street was visited by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the Persian prophet. After the patriarch had wandered through the treasure rooms, he paused before the album long enough to write a blessing on the financier and thereto append his autograph. Beneath the Persian script, his companion, Dr. Ameen Fareed, wrote this translation:

O, Thou Generous Lord, verily this famous personage had done considerable philanthropy, render him great and dear in Thy Kingdom, make him happy and joyous in both worlds, and confirm him in serving the Oneness, the world of humanity, and submerge him in the sea of Thy favors.⁵

Children were especially welcomed by the Master during His visit to America and many were blessed with His embrace and gifts. Here are the three children of Ali Kuli Khan and his wife, Florence, shown enjoying the bounty of the Master’s presence.

One of the few speaking invitations ‘Abdu’l-Bahá accepted was on November 15, to address the Divine Knowledge Club, comprised mostly of women, the leader of whom claimed clairvoyance and sat with her eyes closed most of the time to receive inspiration. On the way home, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said, “ ‘Behold: what superstition and vain thoughts are yet prevalent in America!’ ”⁶

On November 19, Maḥmúd noted, “A number of school children gathered near the Beloved saying, ‘Who is this person who looks like Christ?’ Miss Juliet Thompson⁷ spoke to them outside the house about the Beloved Cause and the life of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. They asked to interview Him and they were invited to come...”⁸

The days of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s visit were passing quickly. A farewell banquet was planned on November 24 at the Great Northern Hotel, that several hundred attended.⁹ The banquet hall was regal with festoons, banners, and flowers, the crystal glistening beneath the lights. The Master spoke of the oneness of mankind to the white Bahá’ís, the only friends the racially segregated hotel had permitted to enter. The next night, at the Kinney home¹⁰ ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the white friends personally served the black friends whom the hotel management had vehemently excluded the night before, and at that gathering ‘Abdu’l-Bahá said, “Today you have shown the Commandments of the Blessed Beauty in your actions and have acted according to the teachings of the Supreme Pen.”¹¹

The New York Tribune, on November 24, in an article headed “ ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Going Away,” noted:

Abdul-Baha, Abbas Effendi, the Persian prophet and center of the Bahai movement, received assurances of unswerving loyalty last night from members of the Bahai assembly of New York City, who gathered at a farewell dinner in his honor at the Great Northern Hotel. The oriental savant is to leave this country this week, presumably on the steamship Mauretania, though none of his followers would venture to make a definite date, as Abdul Baha, they said, made his plans from day to day.

The hour of the farewell dinner was unusually late. At precisely 9:40 o’clock Abdul Baha appeared, a venerable figure, with a long gray beard and a Persian cloak and white turban, walking slowly to his place of honor.

....He was received with a silent greeting by the three hundred members of the assembly, who rose at his approach.¹²

On November 25, the crowds kept coming to see Him. Maḥmúd noted, “As the multitude grew, He could not conveniently see them individually so He came downstairs to apologize for not being able to see them.”¹³

On November 26, the New York Tribune reported:

Mrs. Mary Stokes MacNutt, President of Minerva, and Mr. MacNutt were a happy pair yesterday, for they got Abdul Baha, of Persia, to speak at the

[Page 13] club’s annual luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria.

... he came... looking as if he had on the same white turban and the same long gown that he wore when he landed here from Persia last April.

His face was just as peaceful as it was then, too... and he didn’t seem the least bit touched by his seven months in America....¹⁴

On Wednesday, November 27, during His discourses throughout the day, He told His listeners, “Their [the Manifestations’] only motive was the education of blessed souls and sanctified spirits who became the teachers of the divine education and the promoters of the Great Guidance and the Supreme Favor. The people of Bahá must endeavor day and night to enforce this noble purpose. They must put forth their energy to educate themselves and other sanctified souls.’ ”¹⁵

On November 28, Thanksgiving Day, Maḥmúd commented: “During these last days of His stay in America, there was always an influx of friends in His Presence. They came to offer supplications, to turn to the eternal Face, to look upon the Dawning Place of the Divine Covenant, and to cling to His Mantle of Favor. Every moment the cries of the lovers increased and the fire of love in the breasts glowed more. There was not a moment’s rest for the Holy Being. He was either delivering an address to a public meeting or talking to a friend in His private chamber. The Holy Tongue was imparting joy to the sad, hope to the hopeless, and a flame to the dormant while He guided strugglers to the Right Path.”¹⁶

On Friday, November 29, He moved to the Emery home. In an evening meeting at the Kinneys’, He spoke with the friends about their offers of money. He said, “Distribute it among the poor from Me. It will be as if I have given it to them. The most acceptable offering to Me is the unity among friends, service to the Cause of God, diffusing the Divine Fragrances, and acting upon the admonitions of the Beauty of Abhá.”¹⁷

The friends kept trying to give Him money, supplicating by letter and in person, asking the Persians to intercede. Finally, on November 30, some devised a plan for clinging to His mantle until He would accept it. He called in others and said to them all: “I am pleased with your services and I am grateful for all you have done for Me... Now you have brought presents for the members of My family. They are acceptable, but the best of all

The first home in America visited by the Master, Abdu’l-Bahá, was that of Saffa Kinney (shown here). He was the conductor of a large vocal ensemble in New York at the time he entered the Bahá’í Faith and his services include composing a great deal of the early music used by Bahá’ís.

presents is the love of God which remains preserved in the treasuries of hearts. Material presents remain for a time but this lasts forever. These presents require chests and shelves for safekeeping while this is preserved in the repositories of the minds and hearts and remains eternal and immortal forever in the divine worlds. I shall, therefore, convey to them your love which is the most precious of all gifts. No one uses diamond rings in our home and no one wants rubies. That house is free from all these things.

“ ‘I, however, accept your presents but I leave them in your safekeeping with the request that you will kindly sell them and send the proceeds to the funds for the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár....’ ”¹⁸

On Sunday, December 1, one of the subjects ‘Abdu’l-Bahá discussed was universal peace: “This question of peace in the religion of Bahá’u’lláh is a positive command and religious obligation. It is not the resolution of a congress or the edict of a parliament of a nation or a country so that it can be considered as permeated with selfish desires and be subject to amendments. It is a positive divine command and is, thus, certain to come to pass. As opposition to Christ is considered a sin in the terminology of that religion, the rejection of peace has the same status in the religion of Bahá’u’lláh.’ ”¹⁹

It was on Monday, December 2—the day the newspapers announced Sarah Bernhardt’s arrival in New York to start a vaudeville tour—that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá summed up His admonitions to the Bahá’ís by saying: “In brief, let each one of you be as a lamp shining forth with the light of the virtues of the world of humanity. Be trustworthy, sincere, affectionate, and replete with chastity. Be illumined, be spiritual, be divine, be glorious, be quickened of God, be a Bahá’í!”²⁰

Maḥmúd noted on December 3: “Today a spirit of sadness came over the lovers of the Peerless Beauty as preparations were made for His leaving.”²¹ Two large meetings were held, one in the afternoon at the home of Mrs. Krug, and the other at the home of Mrs. Kinney.

On December 4, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá continued to talk with the streams of visitors. That night He addressed the Theosophical Society of New York.

Finally, Thursday, December 5, the day of departure from America, came. Two hundred thirty-nine days had passed while ‘Abdu’l-Bahá traveled across the North American continent, communicating to the hearts, opening spiritual eyes and ears and minds, with little rest, in train cars, assembly halls, homes, hotels, embassies, parks, streets, and sanctuaries. He had cut across the forms and fetters of social class, race, and color. He had uplifted, praised, and encouraged every sign of spiritual development shown by each soul.

In His autumn years that recalled a spring when there had been no classroom but the prison cell and the home of exile and no teacher but His Father, He had amazed experts in a variety of fields with His sagacity and wisdom. The Teachings of the perfect Instructor Bahá’u’lláh were reflected in ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the perfect Pupil, the kind and simple, the saintly, the single-minded, laughing, majestic mystery of a Man, Who had been appointed by that same Instructor as the pivot of the Covenant of God with all the earth. A thousand or thousands of years of spiritual potential for the planet had been channeled into that single human form. He performed in each small action the seed-planting for a millennium.

The Exemplar, the Master, the Servant was now to leave the shores of America and return to the Threshold of the Holy Tomb of Bahá’u’lláh to serve His remaining years on earth. All the future, all the coming ages, all the children yet unborn would be dependent on the spiritual

[Page 14] threads He had woven during His journeys across this and other lands. Not one breath would be drawn in future centuries, not one word spoken or deed performed in that earth-wide, centuries-long tapestry of the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, whose strands would not ultimately reach back to the Divine Loom of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the Center of the Covenant.

The friends were already looking back, as they would increasingly in the future, on the rich store of experiences that had been woven together and were recounting their memories and recalling the interviews, articles, and news stories that had packed the eight and one-half months.

They could recall how some of the friends, in the infancy of their development, had been apprehensive about His coming to America, which had caused Mohammed Yazdi to write these prophetic words from Egypt in 1911 to the American Bahá’ís:

Some people have expressed anxieties and fears because of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s possible visit to America; they think that the newspapers will write sensational articles and ridicule the Cause. Such people are very shortsighted. They have not realized deeply, nor superficially, the force of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s presence. Neither have they dreamed of the magnetic influence of His Highness.... He is a man whose very appearance will solve all the perplexed anxieties of the visionaries of disaster.... Should we be afraid to receive the One who is the source of all our inspiration and all our light? ... Future historians will record the coming of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to America as a great and momentous event. Broaden your vision and look into the future, when the nations of America shall celebrate, from one end of the continent to the other, the anniversary of the day when ‘Abdu’l-Bahá set foot upon “the land of the brave and the free!”... He does not want your houses and palaces, but your hearts. Prepare your hearts, purify your hearts, cleanse your hearts, that he may find a place therein!²²

The American friends had also been concerned about ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s monetary well-being and recalled: “When the Bahá’ís of this country received word of his intended visit, the sum of eighteen thousand dollars was subscribed toward the expense of his journey. He was notified of this action and a part of the money forwarded to him by cable. He cabled in answer that the funds contributed by his friends could not be accepted, returned the money and instructed them to give their offering to the poor.”²³

They could recall the praise and honor heaped on ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the touching and humorous episodes recorded in the articles printed about Him, such as the one that appeared on April 21, in the magazine section of the New York Times. The reporter, after covering in detail her extensive interview with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, related what happened after she and the translator left His room:

In a minute the door had closed and the reporter stepped from Palestine to the conventional hotel sitting room. The interpreter was beside her.

“Is he not a kind man?” he asked, all his face aglow with affection for his master. “He is the kindest man in the world.”

“Indeed, yes.”

“You travel with him?”

“Yes, I interpret for him....”

An American Bahá’í came up. His fashion of putting his devotion was somewhat in contrast to the Oriental way of speaking that had prevailed in the apartment, but it bore witness to the love the master inspires.

“For that man,” he said, “I’d jump head first from a fifteenth-story window.”

So it is with everybody who had come in contact with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá....

“I used to wash my hands after shaking hands with a Christian,” said a Mohammedan Bahai. “Now I want to shake hands with all the world.”²⁴

They could recall the letters to the editors about ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, such as the one appearing in the New York City Globe on April 22:

Abdul Baha Abbas, now in New York to spread his gospel of peace, is found in Gertrude Atherton’s new novel, “Julia France and Her Times,” which the Macmillan Company has just published. The heroine of Mrs. Atherton’s story...goes to Persia. “Even a little of the wisdom of the east,” as she explains, “must widen our vision and prove an everlasting antidote to the modern spirit of unrest.” She goes to Acca. And what took her to Acca?

“I went to see Abdul Baha Abbas and investigate the new religion....”²⁵

The friends could recall the magazine articles introducing information about the Faith and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. One appeared in the April 27 issue of The Survey magazine:

Wherever a Bahai center has been formed, there has been a new spirit and a new impetus to progress. Thirty years ago a book called the Mysterious Forces of Civilization, by a Bahai Philosopher,²⁶ had a commanding influence in educating toward constitutional government in Persia.... Bahais do not label as theirs the schools and hospitals they establish. But they are back of or within every progressive movement... Their influence goes far because they become one with their surroundings and have no missionary label....

....Scientists and men of affairs who have met him [‘Abdu’l-Bahá] marvel at his wisdom and common-sense knowledge of world conditions, questioning how he can meet them on their own level when he has been a political prisoner for forty years.²⁷

They could remember how often the newspapers reported the superficial instead of the deep spiritual message, as in the May 14 article (picked up from a New York paper) in the Chicago Record-Herald headed “ ‘All Right,’ Nation’s Slogan”:

‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Persian prophet of world peace, said today he had found the keynote expression of American optimism.

“It is those two words, ‘all right,’ ” he said. “Everywhere I go,” the Persian went on, “I hear those two magical words—words which I have never heard used by any other nation in any other country. With you Americans it is always ‘all right’.”

“If I ask a bellboy at the hotel to do something, he responds, ‘all right.’ If I inquire as to the health of a person I have met here, he answers, ‘all right.’

“When the conductor wants the train to start, he shouts, ‘all right.’

“Everything is ‘all right’ in the United States. I believe the expression typically reflects the optimism of this great country.”²⁸

Many small instances would be remembered and retold by those who witnessed them. William Copeland Dodge recalled, for example, this glimpse: “The homes of many of the believers were also visited by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Among them was the residence of my mother and father at 261 West 139th Street, New York City, and my home, 1043 East 16th Street, Flatbush, Brooklyn. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had luncheon with us. We had placed a large,

[Page 15] comfortable chair at the table for Him, but He sat in a smaller chair. Another example of humility!”²⁹

Some people could not recall the specific things that went on in His presence but could remember the impact of His presence, as did Lucy Jane Marshall, who said of one meeting in California: “If he spoke or if anyone else was there, I do not recall; but O, in quiet times, the power of his presence, the peace in his face and his steadfast eyes are with me still.”³⁰

Some of the friends could recall their desire after once meeting with Him to follow wherever He went. Mrs. Bertha Rohr Clark remembered: “At the Kinney home there were between three and four hundred souls waiting to receive His blessing. He came to each one of us and took our hands in His with a loving greeting and a few words I did not understand. However, I felt an electric shock that went from my head to my feet.... Whenever the Master spoke, in homes or churches, hall or societies, I went almost at the cost of my position which I [had] held for many years.”³¹

Mrs. Hazel Tomlinson remembered: “... at His home, He asked to see me. When I went to Him, Ella Bailey was there also....

“While we were sitting there a bride and groom came in dressed in all their finery. She was white and he was colored. They knelt at Abdul-Baha’s feet and He blessed them and put a candy in each mouth, saying as He did so, ‘The East and the West.’

“Then when we rose to go Abdul-Baha gave my sister (Kathryn Frankland) a banana and to me He gave a beautiful persimmon, my first one. It was delicious. Ever since then I have eaten many of them....

“I remember at one time in His home on California street.... There were a number of people around Him and a few reporters. He had given these reporters some very lovely roses with very long stems. They looked as if they didn’t know what to do with them....

“Did we not always learn a lesson when with the Master? Even for a very few minutes while with Him. We scarcely knew how very important these minutes were to us and the whole world in general.... One evening He told us of the terrible Black Pit where Bahá’u’lláh was confined for four months.... He was sitting on a low davenport. He said, ‘I was a child of eight,’ and He wept. He continued—‘They had taken me to see Bahá’u’lláh when He would come out of this awful pit for a little fresh air and water. He was chained with convicts and murderers and His clothes were worn so thin and ragged, and He said, “Why is this child here, take him away,” and they took me away.’ And the Master still wept and we all wept with Him. Then He continued: ‘In all your Feasts and all your Meetings speak of Bahá’u’lláh and all His sufferings.”³²

The threads that He had woven would be traced and followed through the fabric of the World Order for the whole of a Dispensation.

And so it was, on December 5, 1912, on the 239th day after His arrival in America, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá stood on the ship, Celtic, and looked at the friends, on whose actions, together with the actions of their fellow-believers, in large part hung the fate of the world. He said to them:

“This is my last meeting with you, for now I am on the ship ready to sail away. These are my final words of exhortation. I have repeatedly summoned you to the cause of the unity of the world of humanity...

“The earth is one nativity, one home, and all mankind are the children of one father. ... The obstacle to human happiness is racial or religious prejudice, the competitive struggle for existence and inhumanity toward each other.

“Your eyes have been illumined, your ears are attentive, your hearts knowing. You must be free from prejudice and fanaticism, beholding no differences between the races and religions... the best way to thank God is to love one another.

“Beware lest you offend any heart, lest you speak against anyone in his absence, lest you estrange yourselves from the servants of God....

“... A world-enkindling fire is astir in the Balkans. God has created men to love each other, but instead, they kill each other with cruelty and bloodshed....

“As to you;—your efforts must be lofty. Exert yourselves with heart and soul so that perchance through your efforts the light of Universal Peace may shine....

“Consider how the prophets who have been sent...have exhorted mankind to unity and love.... Consider the heedlessness of the world...Notwithstanding the heavenly commandments to love one another, they are still shedding each other’s blood....

“Your duty is of another kind, for you are informed of the mysteries of God. Your eyes are illumined, your ears are quickened with hearing. You must therefore look toward each other and then toward mankind with the utmost love and kindness. You have no excuse to bring before God if you fail to live according to his command, for you are informed of that which constitutes the good-pleasure of God.... It is my hope that you may become successful in this high calling.... And unto this I call you, praying to God to strengthen and bless you.”³³

† This article is condensed from material in chapter 19 of the book ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in America, approved for future publication by the Bahá’í Publishing Trust.

1. Maḥmúd-i-Zarqání accompanied ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in America. He wrote down the talks as ‘Abdu’l-Bahá presented them in Persian. He also kept a daily account of events, which was reviewed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and was, at His direction, printed in India (in Persian) under the title Badáyi’u’l-Áthár (the Wondrous Annals) in 1914 and 1921 in two volumes, generally referred to as “Mahmud’s Diary” in the West. Quotations are taken from an unpublished English translation found in the National Archives. This entry is found under November 11, 1912.
2. Maḥmúd, op. cit., Nov. 12, 1912.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. New York Times, Nov. 19, 1912.
6. Maḥmúd, op. cit., Nov. 15, 1912.
7. Early American Bahá’í, an artist by profession, who also kept a diary of this period.
8. Maḥmúd, op. cit., Nov. 19, 1912.
9. Estimates varied. Maḥmúd and newspaper accounts estimated 300; Howard Colby Ives in Portals to Freedom estimated 600.
10. Saffa Kinney and his wife were early believers whose home was the first in which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá stayed in America.
11. Maḥmúd, op. cit., Nov. 24, 1912.
12. New York Tribune, Nov. 24, 1912.
13. Maḥmúd, op. cit., Nov. 25, 1912.
14. New York Tribune, Nov. 26, 1912.
15. Maḥmúd, op. cit., Nov. 27, 1912.
16. Ibid., Nov. 28, 1912.
17. Ibid., Nov. 29, 1912.
18. Ibid., Nov. 30, 1912.
19. Ibid., Dec. 1, 1912.
20. Ibid., Dec. 2, 1912.
21. Ibid., Dec. 3, 1912.
22. Mohammad Yazdi, “ ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Egypt: A Call to the American Bahá’ís,” Star of the West, vol. 1, no. 17, January 19, 1911, pp. 5-7.
23. Promulgation of Universal Peace, vol. I, Chicago: Executive Board of the Bahá’í Temple Unity and Bahá’í Publishing Committee, 1921, p. ii.
24. New York Times, magazine section, April 21, 1912.
25. New York City Globe, April 22, 1912.
26. This refers to Secret of Divine Civilization, written by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. In 1912 it had not been disclosed who had authored the book.
27. Irene Earle, “Personals,” The Survey, vol. 28, no. 4, April 27, 1912, p. 179.
28. Chicago Record-Herald, May 14, 1912.
29. Notes of William Copeland Dodge, National Bahá’í Archives, Wilmette, Illinois.
30. Notes of Lucy Jane Marshall, National Bahá’í Archives, Wilmette, Illinois.
31. Notes of Bertha Rohr Clark, National Bahá’í Archives, Wilmette, Illinois.
32. Notes of Hazel Tomlinson, National Bahá’í Archives, Wilmette, Illinois.
33. Promulgation of Universal Peace, op. cit., vol. II, pp. 464-467.

[Page 16] Youth

Out of a handful of dust

Part II

by Philip Christensen
Research by Sherman Waite

‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s arrival in New York City on April 11, 1912, marked the beginning of a nine-month journey which spanned more than 5,000 miles. The seeds of heroism, transported from the land of the dawn-breakers and already planted by early teachers in receptive hearts, were nurtured by the Master during that epic journey, yielding a harvest of dedicated Bahá’ís—including youth—whose services illumined the early years of the Cause in North America.

Except for his talks to large gatherings on the campuses of major universities—Columbia, Howard, New York, and Stanford—‘Abdu’l-Bahá saw the Bahá’í youth of that day in large gatherings of believers. At that time there were no youth committees or youth conferences. Indeed, there were only a handful of Local Spiritual Assemblies in the United States. The Bahá’í community was embryonic—a few large groups numbering in the hundreds in places such as New York, Chicago, and Kenosha, Wisconsin, a scattering of believers across the rest of a vast land, and tens of thousands of cities and towns as yet untouched by the rays of the Dawning Sun.

Fred Mortensen

Dorothy Baker

Nonetheless, some Bahá’í youth were already rising to heights of sacrificial service that reflected the dedication of their long-suffering brethren in the East.

Consider, for instance, the story of Fred Mortensen. He was reared in the slums, where he learned to be tough, dishonest, and hateful. He had been a fugitive for four years, having walked out of jail while awaiting trial. Then one day he encountered a young man being arrested. While trying to take him away from the policeman, Fred noticed a couple of detectives approaching and hastened to escape them. With bullets whizzing around his head, he leaped over a thirty-five-foot wall, breaking his leg in the process. There he was discovered by a Bahá’í teacher who defended him, cared for his injuries, and told him of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

Fred Mortensen often compared this to the story which Bahá’u’lláh relates in The Seven Valleys about the lover who vaulted a wall into a garden to escape the watchman, thereby discovering his beloved after long years of separation.

Out of wrath, the guard had led him who was athirst in love’s desert to the sea of his loved one, and lit up the dark night of absence with the light of reunion. He had driven one who was

[Page 17] afar, into the garden of nearness, had guided an ailing soul to the heart’s physician.¹⁹

Abdu’l-Bahá appeared to this newly ignited youth in a dream, and Fred resolved to seek His presence at Green Acre. He had only one way to get to Maine with his low finances: as a hobo. Starting from Cleveland (where he was attending a printers’ conference), he rode the rods to Buffalo, then for nine long hours through the night to Boston. He arrived in Portsmouth on top of a passenger train, then took a boat and a streetcar to Green Acre. He arrived at the Sarah Farmer Inn, tired, travel-soiled, but happy.

Early the next morning the word was sent: “Abdu’l-Bahá wishes to see Mr. Mortensen.” The Master warmly welcomed the somewhat baffled youth, thrice asked him whether he was happy, and demanded to know the details of his journey. A year later, in a Tablet, Abdu’l-Bahá told him:

That trip of thine from Minneapolis to Green Acre will never be forgotten. Its mention will be recorded eternally in books and works of history. Therefore, be thou happy that, praise be to God, thou hast an illumined heart, a living spirit, and art vivified with merciful breath.²⁰

Agnes Alexander and Martha Root in Japan.

The Master, upon first hearing the story, kissed Fred on both cheeks, gave him much fruit, and kissed the dirty hat which he wore. At the end of His stay at Green Acre, He took Fred Mortensen with Him to Malden, Massachusetts, for an entire week. That meeting, and another brief one which followed a few weeks later, firmly set Fred Mortensen’s feet on the path of service to the Cause and obedience to the Covenant. He lived to be a dedicated pioneer to Montana, a representative of the Bahá’í Temple Unity, and, for more than twenty years, a member of the Chicago community. Like Badi‘ himself, Fred Mortensen began as a delinquent. Like Badi‘, his story testifies to the transforming power of Bahá’u’lláh. He wrote:

“Thus the Word of God gave me a new birth, made me a living soul, a revivified spirit. I am positive that nothing else upon the earth could have changed my character as it has been changed. I am indeed a new being, changed by the power of the Holy Spirit... I have been resurrected and made live in the Kingdom of Al-Abhá.”²¹

But Fred Mortensen was not the first western youth to be so transformed. The services of Bahá’í youth in America actually began with the first mention of Bahá’u’lláh’s Revelation to the World’s Parliament of Religions in 1893. A young woman of twenty-two, drawn to Chicago by the inner promptings of her searching heart, saw His Name in a newspaper article. In 1894, after investigating His Teachings, she enrolled in the new Faith. Her name was Lua Getsinger. So great were her services that Abdu’l-Bahá called her the “Herald of the Covenant” and Shoghi Effendi referred to her as the “mother-teacher of the American Bahá’í community.”

Another young American who arose at that time was May Bolles. At the age of eleven, she dreamed of an earth covered with mystic symbols of which she could read only a “B” and an “H”, and of a Figure who beckoned to her from across the Mediterranean Sea. In 1898, at the age of twenty-eight, she met Lua Getsinger and was attracted by the hidden fire she saw in that soul. May Bolles joined her teacher in the first party of Americans to attain the Master’s presence. When she met Him, she found the Figure from her dream. Later she married William Sutherland Maxwell and continued her exemplary teaching. A dedicated servant to the end, she passed away in 1940 at her pioneering post in Argentina. Shoghi Effendi said that she had “laid down her life in such a spirit of consecration and self-sacrifice” and had “truly merited the crown of martyrdom.”²²

The Master’s visit to North America enkindled many youth with the same fire that burned in the souls of the dawn-breakers. One youth who arose in the early part of this century was Dorothy Baker. She was the granddaughter of Mother Betty Beecher, who took her to see Abdu’l-Bahá in New York City when she was fourteen years old. A painfully shy girl, she was at first extremely nervous. Gradually she relaxed under the calming influence of His love. Although she left without speaking and could never remember the words addressed to her, from that time she considered herself a Bahá’í. A few days after the visit, she wrote to the Center of the Covenant, saying that she wished to serve the Cause. He sent her a Tablet promising His prayers that God would grant her desire.

Abdu’l-Bahá told Mother Beecher, “... your granddaughter is My own daughter. You must train her for Me.”²³ Dorothy Baker’s lifelong service ended in an airplane crash on her way back to the United States from a teaching trip in India in 1954. Three years prior to her death, she had been appointed a Hand of the Cause of God by Shoghi Effendi. Her abilities to reach minority peoples and youth with the Message of Bahá’u’lláh helped win great victories for the Faith which she had embraced at such a young age.

Another young woman who accepted the Bahá’í Faith in the early part of this century also went on to become a Hand of the Cause. She was Agnes Alexander. She discovered the new Revelation while in Rome and traveled all the way to Paris to study under the nearest Bahá’í teacher, May Bolles. In 1913 she asked the Master for permission to visit Haifa. He replied, “It is best that thou goest directly to Japan and while there be engaged in spreading the fragrances of God.”²⁴ She left immediately for Tokyo and began to teach the waiting souls there as soon as she arrived. So resplendent was her example that she is one of only three teachers, all women, mentioned by name in the Tablets of the Divine Plan. Abdu’l-Bahá explained that through the efforts of this youthful pioneer:

... a number of souls have reached the shore of the sea of faith! Consider ye, what happiness, what joy is this! I declare by the Lord of Hosts that had this respected daughter founded an empire, that empire would not have been so great! For this

[Page 18] sovereignty is eternal sovereignty, and this glory is everlasting glory.²⁵

In the Holy Land at the same time, a young member of the Holy Family was becoming well known among the Eastern friends for his devotion and service to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. His name was Shoghi Effendi, and he was the Master’s grandson. He was carefully trained by his Grandfather and educated in Western schools. While still a college student at Oxford, he was called back to Haifa by the news of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s passing. There he received the shattering announcement that he was the Guardian of the Faith, chosen successor of the Center of the Covenant. At that time, Shoghi Effendi was only 24 years old.

For more than a decade, the young Guardian labored to erect a foundation for the administrative institutions whose seeds had been generated by the martyrs of the Heroic Age. No youth committees could exist, for example, without the Spiritual Assemblies which he had first to form and train. The individual heroism which had characterized the growth of the Faith to that time now had to be placed in the setting of a true Bahá’í community guided by a God-given Administrative Order. The task was so arduous that it frequently threatened to destroy Shoghi Effendi’s health.

Youth gathered at second and third National Bahá’í Youth Conferences.

The American Bahá’í youth had already demonstrated their right to be called “spiritual descendants of the dawn-breakers.” Now they were required to help build Bahá’í communities and to train themselves to serve Bahá’í institutions. They did not fail in this work.

One of the most successful early youth groups was located in Montreal, where May Bolles Maxwell was residing. It began in 1927 with a study class which soon attracted both Bahá’ís and seekers. It was called the “Youth Group for Independent Investigation of Truth.” The program’s success rested on two pillars. One was the Montreal Assembly, which offered the necessary loving trust and genuine understanding. The other was adherence to the Guardian’s own admonition, in a special letter to the youth of that community, to study the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá instead of relying too heavily on individual interpretations.

In 1933, a new era began for American Bahá’í youth. In that year, the National Spiritual Assembly appointed the first National Bahá’í Youth Committee. Thus, young believers were formally incorporated into the Administrative Order so painstakingly constructed under the Guardian’s direction. This special youth agency was a token of their growing importance to the Faith. Its goal was described in this way:

At various times in the past few years, the National Spiritual Assembly has attempted to inaugurate some type of action among younger believers, but never with any great success. At last, however, a mechanism has been evolved which it is hoped will perpetuate itself and stimulate growth.²⁶

Shoghi Effendi was excited by this development. In the first letter to the National Youth Committee written on his behalf in August 1933, he stressed two themes. One was the imperative need to deepen in the Teachings. The other was that the Committee:

... should not confine your activities to the national sphere but should strive to create under the supervision of your National Spiritual Assembly an international body of active Bahá’í men and women who, conscious of their manifold and sacred responsibilities, will unanimously arise to spread the Holy Word.²⁷

Responding to this mandate, the Youth Committee established in 1936 an International Bureau, a step which met with the Guardian’s hearty approval. By 1946, its International Secretary was in communication with youth in fifteen countries. In those years, before there were dozens of National Spiritual Assemblies in the Bahá’í world, youth played a leading role in orienting the community as a whole to the global dimensions of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.

One of the most successful tools in this work was World Youth Day. An annual event inaugurated in 1936, World Youth Day was celebrated into the 1960s and united Bahá’í youth everywhere in international participation and celebration. The National Youth Committee also developed more unusual approaches to world-mindedness. In 1939, for example, Bahá’ís from other countries were invited to join in sponsoring a series of “Persian Dinners”:

These dinners have been planned by the Bahá’í Youth Groups for the Bahá’í Community and some invited guests who were not Bahá’ís. After eating Persian food (many times sitting cross-legged on the floor and pretending that they really were living in the days of the Dawn-Breakers) young Bahá’ís acted as storytellers and told of the beauty and courage and wisdom

[Page 19] and love of the great heroes of our Faith.²⁸

These international activities were educational experiences in their own right. But the Guardian had told the youth to deepen, and the Youth Committee felt impelled to develop a wide variety of responses to this challenge. Local study groups were established for young believers, following the pattern so successfully developed in Montreal. In 1937-38, a nationwide series of “intensive study days” was begun. One deepening tool, however, eclipsed all others in its effectiveness and popularity: the Bahá’í summer school.

When the National Youth Committee was first appointed in 1933, a new emphasis was placed on developing specialized courses of study for youth at these schools. The program at Green Acre the next year included three youthful teachers. One of these was Mary Maxwell (now Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum), who taught a class on The Dawn-Breakers. Another was David Hoffman (now a member of The Universal House of Justice), who discussed proposed solutions to economic problems. In 1935, the Louhelen youth program was directed by Dorothy Baker, whose great services to young Bahá’ís everywhere had already won her their love and admiration. Who knows how well the youth of this period understood the magnitude of their privilege as they listened to teachers such as Horace Holley, Fred Schopflocher, Dorothy Baker, Glenn Shook, Stanwood Cobb, and Marion Holley?

Complementing the summer schools were the early youth conferences. They began in the 1930s as special youth dinners at each National Bahá’í Convention. By 1940, local and regional youth conferences began to occur in all parts of the United States, and the National Youth Committee soon took on the responsibility of coordinating them. The idea of a national youth conference was not voiced until 1951, however, when a special meeting during the National Convention was proposed to establish youth goals for the Jubilee Year of 1953 (the hundredth anniversary of the birth of the Bahá’í Revelation).

Indeed, during most of the twenty years between 1933 and 1953, the only regular youth activity that was truly national in scope was the Committee’s bulletin, Bahá’í Youth. This grew from an occasional newsletter in the mid-thirties into a regular publication, supervised by a special subcommittee, which included reports of activities, excerpts from the Writings, essays on many topics, and even an Esperanto page. Otherwise, much of the work was still done by individuals, and most activities were held in a few local communities.

At Riḍván of 1953, Shoghi Effendi announced to the excited but somewhat overwhelmed Bahá’ís of the world the goals of the Ten Year Crusade. It was this campaign that was destined to open the planet to the Message of Bahá’u’lláh, prepare the foundation for The Universal House of Justice, and serve as a beacon which, held aloft by the Hands of the Cause, would safely lead the community through the dangerous years between the untimely passing of the Guardian and the first election of The Universal House of Justice. It marked another turning point in the history of American Bahá’í youth.

It is possible to divide that history into four stages: 1893-1921, 1921-1933, 1933-1953, and 1953 to the present time. The initial stage began with the first mention of the Cause in North America and the enrollment of figures such as Lua Getsinger. Highlighted by the visit of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to North America, its stories chiefly revolve around the heroism and service of spiritually reborn youth. The second stage began with the passing of the Master. Under the leadership and patient guidance of the youthful Shoghi Effendi, the Bahá’í community slowly grew in size and sophistication. While continuing their individual services, youth began to prepare themselves for future contributions to the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh.

The appointment of the first National Youth Committee in 1933 marks the beginning of the third chapter in this history. The Administrative Order had begun to function in earnest, and the importance of the Bahá’í community was becoming clearer to believers of all ages. There was even a Local Spiritual Assembly in Flint, Michigan, during the mid-1930s which consisted entirely of youth between the ages of 21 and 25. Yet this transition was by no means instantaneous. For a time, there was even a question about the eligibility of youth to be functioning community members. In 1936, the National Spiritual Assembly was still explaining that young people had the responsibility to declare their interest in the Cause and the right to participate in elements of the Administration such as Feasts and committees.

What has marked the fourth stage in the history of American Bahá’í youth, beginning with the inauguration of the Ten Year Crusade in 1953, is their complete incorporation into the life of the community at all levels. There are many stories of exemplary individuals from this period to be told by future historians, but their services are inexorably interwoven with the Administrative Order of Bahá’u’lláh. Several factors help account for this evolution:

[Page 20] the World Crusade itself, which opened the eyes of all Bahá’ís to the planet-embracing scope of the Revelation and the truly international dimensions of the Tablets of the Divine Plan; the ever-increasing sophistication of the administrative institutions so laboriously erected under the guidance of the Guardian; the development of a corps of young Bahá’ís trained in the principles underlying those agencies and deepened in the Teachings; the continued growth in the number of Bahá’í youth, which made available greater human and material resources; and an ever-increasing pitch of excitement, activity, and dedication.

New activities in harmony with this trend appeared soon after 1953. For example, in the 1950s, the National Youth Committee began to coordinate local youth conferences into a series of meetings in various parts of the country which culminated in a national gathering each year at the Annual Bahá’í Convention in Wilmette. And in 1968, midway through the Nine Year Plan, the first national youth conference was held independently of any other Bahá’í event. It drew about 500 participants from all over the country. Six years later, the third national Bahá’í youth conference brought 4,000 dedicated souls to Oklahoma City.

One innovation which emerged during this period was the Bahá’í College Club. It had roots in the work of such figures as Martha Root, who, in the early 1930s, spoke at more than 400 colleges and universities during an eleven-month cross-country teaching trip. Soon after, in 1937, the first Bahá’í Club officially recognized by a university administration was formed at the University of Illinois. It was not until 1955, however, that the Youth Committee organized the Bahá’í College Bureau to supervise campus teaching. In 1960 about 25 college clubs were operating under a model constitution approved three years earlier by the National Spiritual Assembly. By the end of the Nine Year Plan, the total was well over 300. Bahá’í high school clubs were also established. They, too, began in 1937, when the Peoria, Illinois, Bahá’ís founded a “Charm, Culture, and Character Club” for 60 high school girls as a method of indirect teaching.

Some of the American Youth in the Ten Year Crusade

The National Youth Committee was very active in the arena of deepening during the Ten Year Crusade. It developed compilations, wrote deepening outlines, sponsored special institutes and retreats, and continued to support the work of the summer schools. But it was in the realm of teaching that new trails were blazed. Prior to 1953, the primary emphasis of the Committee had not been on proclamation. The Guardian had directed youth to concentrate on internationalism and deepening, and this they did with exemplary dedication. In 1953, however, young Bahá’ís were assigned a role in the spiritual conquest of the planet. The Youth Committee responded by organizing teaching circuits, sponsoring a Speakers’ Bureau, and increasing the intensity of work on college campuses.

So successful was university teaching that, in 1960, the National Youth Committee was replaced entirely by its own offspring, the Bahá’í College Bureau. Local communities were promoting and supporting youth activities as a matter of course, and the emphasis at the national level had clearly shifted to campus-related work. As the administrative structure at the National Bahá’í Center evolved in response to the challenges of the Nine Year Plan, the Bahá’í College Bureau became the Office of Youth and Student Activities. It was supervised by the National Teaching Committee, the chief auxiliary arm of the National Spiritual Assembly, and served a wider range of youth—students and non-students alike—as the goal of proclaiming the Message of Bahá’u’lláh to all strata of society was increasingly realized.

Innovative teaching methods continued to be developed to meet the needs of a changing society. In the mid-1960s, for example, the Youth Office began to organize summer youth projects. These were designed to spread the Bahá’í Faith to designated areas of the country, often emphasizing deeds over words. They were most successful. So, too, were the road shows—groups of Bahá’í youth who taught the Faith through music—which began to develop during the last few years of the Nine Year Plan. The success of these approaches was demonstrated by the rapidly increasing number of youth declarations during that period. In 1953 about 60 new Bahá’í youth were welcomed. In 1967 more than eleven times that number joined the Cause. And two years later, the total enrollments of youth for one year had rocketed to 1,800.

At the beginning of the Nine Year Plan, the National Spiritual Assembly, perceiving increased momentum in American Bahá’í youth activity, wrote: “That the Bahá’í Faith in America could soon become a youth-invigorated movement is most suggestive and heartening.”²⁹ By 1968, with this hope already a reality, it could take the historic step of assigning specific goals to Bahá’í youth. At the first national youth conference of the Nine Year Plan, the youth made such a recommendation. The National Assembly, which was present at that session, was so excited by the possibility that it did not even wait to return to its council chambers for consultation. Meeting on the lawn in front of the national Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds, it approved a Five Year Youth Program and returned to announce it to 500 cheering Bahá’ís. The Two Year Youth Program which is now challenging youth is built solidly on the foundation of success laid during those five years between 1968 and 1973.

And what of the future? The Universal House of Justice, in the very first paragraph of the Five Year Plan, explains:

A span of eighteen years separates us from the centenary of Bahá’u’lláh’s Ascension and the unveiling of His Almighty Covenant. The fortunes of humanity in that period no man can foretell. We can, however, confidently predict that the Cause of God, impelled by the mighty forces of life within it, must go on from strength to strength, increasing in size and developing greater and greater powers for the accomplishment of God’s purpose on earth.³⁰

The glorious history of youth in the Bahá’í era, as it has so far developed, can leave no doubt about the contributions which they can, must, and will make to that evolution from strength to strength. Their spiritual zeal, energy, and idealism have already left a lasting mark on the development of the Cause of God, and thus on the course of human history. The Báb was a Youth.

[Page 21]

Through the varied: patterned lace As I look into each different face, I am exalted. I am exalted to recognize His Grace shimmering through the varied patterned lace. There is this Good in every man whether Russian or French, Italian or American and glowing so in you, O, Ibo, Yoruba, Zulu, Congolese, Fan. I look at you and feel it flooding me. Divinity must win the race. It will not be halted. We are all small sons of one clan. I am exalted. Margaret Esse Danner

Bahá’u’lláh Himself was but twenty-eight years old when he embraced His Forerunner’s Cause. Abdu’l-Bahá began His services while still young, and Shoghi Effendi was not yet twenty-five when he assumed the reins of authority. Even Siyyid Káẓim was a young man when he succeeded Shaykh Aḥmád in the days before the Báb’s Declaration.

In such footsteps followed the youthful heroes and heroines of the Heroic Age. Mullá Ḥusayn, Quddús, Ṭáhirih, the youthful Letters of the Living; Anís who suffered martyrdom with the Báb; youths such as Rúḥu’lláh and Badi‘, who joyously offered up their lives for their Faith; Mírzá Mihdí, the Purest Branch, who died so that others might gain the bounty of his Father’s presence; these are only the most exemplary from the hosts of God-intoxicated youth among the dawn-breakers. Their legacy was preserved in America by figures such as Lua Getsinger, May Bolles, Dorothy Baker, Agnes Alexander, and Fred Mortensen, who, though young in years, gave mature, dedicated, sacrificial service to the Cause of God and the American Bahá’í community. And finally, there are the hosts of as yet unsung heroes who have offered themselves in living martyrdom to the development of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh in the cradle of His Administrative Order.

If the Bahá’í youth of today are to become worthy of this heritage, if they are to successfully play their crucial role in winning the goals of the Five Year Plan, they must follow in such footsteps. With blazing hearts, enlightened minds, and sanctified characters, they must dedicate themselves to the service of God. Let them, like Badi‘, be handfuls of dust, mixed with the waters of might and power, filled with the spirit of assurance, and transformed into a new race of men. Let their prayers echo this poem from the pen of the twelve-year-old martyr, Rúḥu’lláh:

From the cup of divine bounty give me to drink

And rid me of sin and weakness;

For though my sins be great indeed,

The mercy of my Lord is greater still.

Welcome to thee, Sáqi (Cupbearer) of the divine banquet!

Come thou, refresh my soul and make

Me worthy of being sacrificed

In the path of the Beloved.³¹

19. Bahá’u’lláh, The Seven Valleys and the Four Valleys, trans. Ali-Kuli Khan and Marzieh Gail, rev. ed. (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1952), pp. 14-15.
20. “In Memoriam: Fred Mortensen,” The Bahá’í World, vol. XI, 1946-50 (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Committee, 1952), p. 486.
21. Ibid, p. 484.
22. Shoghi Effendi, Messages to America: Selected Letters and Cablegrams Addressed to the Bahá’ís of North America, 1932-1946 (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Committee, 1947), p. 39.
23. Miriam Haney, “In Memoriam: Dorothy Baker,” The Bahá’í World, vol. XII, 1950-54 (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1956), p. 671.
24. Beth McKenty, “Agnes Alexander,” Bahá’í News, no. 520, July 1974, pp. 6-7.
25. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Tablets of the Divine Plan: Revealed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá during 1916 and 1917 (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1959), pp. 13-14.
26. “Youth Activities Throughout the Bahá’í World,” The Bahá’í World, vol. V, 1932-1934 (New York: Bahá’í Publishing Committee, 1936), p. 372.
27. Marion Holley, “Youth Activities Throughout the Bahá’í World,” The Bahá’í World, vol. VI, 1934-1936 (New York: Bahá’í Publishing Committee, 1937), p. 426.
28. National Spiritual Assembly Annual Report, 1938-39, p. 40.
29. National Spiritual Assembly Annual Report, 1963-64, p. 3.
30. The Universal House of Justice, The Five Year Plan: Messages from The Universal House of Justice to the Bahá’ís of the World and of the United States, Naw-Rúz 1974, Announcing the Third Global Teaching Campaign (Wilmette, Ill.: Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1974), p. 3.
31. Gloria Faizi, Fire on the Mountaintop (London: The Bahá’í Publishing Trust, 1973), p. 92.

[Page 22] Don Rufino Fuentes, a Mayan Bahá’í, at the ruins of Uxmal.

Bahá’í Proclamation and Deepening Film

Step by Step

An artist, a mechanic, a field laborer, an accounting manager, a policeman, a hospital administrator — what have these people in common? They’re Bahá’ís and they appear in a new Bahá’í film, Paso a Paso, produced by Kiva Films.

The film, which is titled Step by Step in English, depicts the growth of the Bahá’í Faith among Indians, blacks, and Latins in Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, and Panama. Unified by their common belief in Bahá’u’lláh and His Message, these persons comment on their faith and what it means to them.

These native teachers share their views on such widely varying topics as prophecy, the unity of mankind, world peace, universal governing institutions, and a divine civilization. Simply, clearly, and directly they discuss how the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh is unifying all mankind, step by step, through the infusion of Divine Love.

Feasts, the local Spiritual Assembly, elections, and other aspects of Bahá’í administration are explained.

In addition, the 29-minute, color-and-sound film mentions ancient Mayan prophecies concerning world peace, the Return, and a spiritual revival, and relates these to the newest Bahá’í House of Worship in Panama. It complements two earlier films, El Alba and The Dedication. Designed for television use, this new film is also suited to public meetings and other proclamation events. The film is also universally suitable for teaching and deepening.

How to Get the Film

To obtain rental information and purchase prices, write to your publishing trust or national Bahá’í distributor. If you do not know the name and address of the one serving your area, you may send your inquiry to the International Bahá’í Audio-Visual Centre, 1640 Holcomb Road, Victor, N.Y. 14564, U.S.A. for forwarding to the proper organization.

Specify Step by Step, Product Number 20672, for the English edition, or Paso a Paso, Product Number 20671, for the Spanish version.