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Bahá’í News

September 1981

Bahá’í Year 138

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TRAGIC NEWS JUST RECEIVED THREE MORE PROMINENT PERSIAN BAHÁ’ÍS, BUZURG ALAVIAN, HASHIM FARNUSH AND FARHANG MAVADDAT EXECUTED TEHERAN YESTERDAY. CHARGES COMPLETELY MISREPRESENT BAHÁ’Í SERVICES AS POLITICALLY MOTIVATED ACTIVITIES ... OFFERING PRAYERS HOLY SHRINES BLESSED BEAUTY MAY CONFIRM ALL EFFORTS ALLEVIATE SUFFERINGS OPPRESSED INNOCENT COMMUNITY.

UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE
JUNE 23, 1981

WITH HEARTS BURNING WITH ANGUISH SHARE NEWS SOULS ANOTHER FOUR DISTINGUISHED BELIEVERS NOW GATHERED ABHÁ KINGDOM ON BEING MARTYRED YESTERDAY BY FIRING SQUAD: DR. MASIH FARHANGI MEMBER BOARD COUNSELLORS WESTERN ASIA; BADI’ULLAH FARID, YADU’LLAH PUSTCHI, VARQA TIBYANIYAN.

UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE
JUNE 24, 1981

WITH HEAVY-LADEN HEARTS ANNOUNCE NEWS JUST RECEIVED NINE HEROIC FRIENDS EXECUTED TABRIZ BY FIRING SQUAD ONE OF WHOM AUXILIARY BOARD MEMBER AND SEVEN MEMBERS LOCAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY: MASRUR DAKHILI, HUSAYN ASADULLAH-ZADIH, ALLAHVIRDI MITHAQI, MANUCHIHR KHADII, ABDUL-ALI ASADYARI, ISMAIL ZIHTAB, PARVIZ FIRUZI, MIHDI BAHIRI, HABIBULLAH TAHQIQI.

TWO TEENAGE GIRL STUDENTS IN MUSA-ABAD VILLAGE, NEAR TIHRAN, AND IN BALU VILLAGE NEAR URUMIYYIH, WESTERN AZIRBAYJAN, ABDUCTED FROM SCHOOL BY TEACHERS IN RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION. PARENTS UNABLE DETERMINE FATE DISAPPEARED CHILDREN. TEACHERS CLAIM GIRLS CONVERTED ISLAM REFUSE MEET BAHÁ’Í PARENTS. LOCAL AUTHORITIES UNCOOPERATIVE. GRIEVED AT RUTHLESS RAPIDITY WITH WHICH PRECIOUS LIVES DISTINGUISHED VIRTUOUS MEMBERS COMMUNITY BEING SNUFFED OUT, THEIR HONOUR VIOLATED, THEIR HOMES POSSESSIONS PLUNDERED. WE PRAY BAHÁ’U’LLÁH BEHALF ENTIRE BAHÁ’Í WORLD ATTAIN GREATER CAPACITY SERENELY BEAR WEIGHT ORDEALS, WITNESS EARLY DELIVERANCE HIS PERSECUTED LOVERS CRADLE FAITH FROM SHACKLES REPRESSION BIGOTRY, AS PROMISED HIS SACRED WRITINGS.

UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE
JULY 30, 1981

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Bahá’í News

Alaska’s Bahá’í community comes of age	1
The first Continental Youth Conference of the Seven Year Plan	7
The birth of Radio Bahá’í of Lake Titicaca in Perú	8
Construction continues on the Mother Temple of India	11
Around the world: News from Bahá’í communities all over the globe	12

Bahá’í News is published monthly 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. Manuscripts submitted should be typewritten and double spaced throughout; any footnotes should appear at the end. The contributor should keep a carbon copy. Send materials to the Periodicals Office, Bahá’í National Center, Wilmette, IL 60091, U.S.A. Changes of address should be reported to the Office of Membership and Records, Bahá’í National Center. Please attach mailing label. Subscription rates: one year, U.S. $8; two years, U.S. $15. Second class postage paid at Wilmette, IL 60091. Copyright © 1981, National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. World rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.

[Page 1]

Alaska

‘Holy souls’ arise to build a community

By JANET W. STOUT

On January 26, 1939, the beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, sent the following cablegram to the Bahá’ís of the world:

“Initial stage in the inaugurated Teaching Campaign still untraversed. End of First Century rapidly approaching. Alaska ... still unsettled ...

“The Concourse on high expectantly await, ready to assist and acclaim the nine holy souls who ... will ... forsake their homes ... and settle in these territories to lay firm anchorage of the Administrative Order of this undefeatable Faith.” (Messages from the Guardian, Bahá’í Publishing Committee, 1940, p. 36)

In response to the Guardian’s message, Honor Kempton of San Francisco, California, and Betty Becker of Kansas City, Missouri, became the first Bahá’ís to pioneer to Alaska during the first Seven Year Plan (1937-1944).

Honor Kempton was born in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, four months after the passing of Bahá’u’lláh in 1892. In 1921 she came to the United States and found work as a secretary at the American Medical Association office in Chicago.

She was living in nearby Wilmette with an English family, the Harvey Dibbles, and first heard of the Faith when a family member died and a Bahá’í funeral was held. In 1935 she moved to San Francisco where she attended meetings and firesides at the home of Leroy Ioas. She became a Bahá’í on November 4 of that year.

When the Guardian’s cablegram of January 1939 was released, Miss Kempton felt he was speaking directly to her, and believed that Alaska was the place for her to go, even though some close Bahá’í friends felt it was not a suitable post for her to fill.

The author with her husband, Verne L. Stout, in a photo taken in 1975.

However, when the National Spiritual Assembly of the U.S. met in Los Angeles, she was able to consult with them, and the Assembly approved her plans to pioneer to Alaska.

Miss Becker had become a Bahá’í in Missouri after attending a series of lectures by Orcella Rexford, a Bahá’í who had taught the Faith in Alaska in 1922 and who, at her last paid lecture, would invite her audience to return the following evening for a free lecture to learn about “something they had never heard before.”

Long afterward, Miss Becker remembered saying indignantly to herself at that last paid lecture, “Who does she think she is, telling me she’ll let me know about something I haven’t heard before?” Of course, the topic of the free lecture was the Bahá’í Faith, and Miss Becker became a Bahá’í.

Honor Kempton was the first of the two pioneers to reach Alaska, arriving in Juneau in April 1939.

She remained there for six weeks; however, the word “anchorage” in the Guardian’s cablegram of January 26 kept ringing in her ears, so she decided to leave Juneau for Anchorage, where she planned to open a bookstore.

Miss Kempton set sail for Anchorage on May 20, 1939, without knowing that a passenger who left the ship in Juneau as she was boarding it would later become the first person to accept the Faith in Alaska during the first Seven Year Plan.

Although Miss Kempton immediately felt at home in Anchorage and was hostess at several firesides there, she was discouraged by the apparent lack of interest in the Faith. She wrote to Leroy Ioas, who was then chairman of the U.S. National Teaching Committee and would later be named a Hand of the Cause of God by the Guardian, saying, “Miracles don’t happen in Alaska.”

But the passenger who had gotten off the ship in Juneau was soon to make her way to Anchorage and meet Honor Kempton. The passenger was Janet Whitenack, from New York City. She had vacationed in Alaska in 1938, and, searching for a new way of life, decided in 1939 to make it her home.

Go west, young woman

She was met at the dock in Juneau—the day that Miss Kempton left for Anchorage—by a sorority sister, Edith Danielson, who was not a Bahá’í at that time but who would later become a Knight of Bahá’u’lláh after pioneering to the Cook Islands in the South Pacific.

Miss Whitenack did not find what she was looking for in Juneau, and everyone advised her to go further west. “Go west?” she thought. “Why, I’ve already come 3,000 miles west!”

Nevertheless, she did go west, to Fairbanks, and fell in love with that ci-

[Page 2] ty. Miss Whitenack decided that it would be the perfect place in which to open her own bookstore. But she wanted to see Anchorage before settling down to work.

Upon arriving there, she found that another woman was opening a bookstore in Anchorage. Miss Whitenack sought out and met the woman—Honor Kempton. On August 6, 1939, nine days after that first meeting, and five days after Miss Kempton first mentioned the Faith to her, Miss Whitenack asked how one went about becoming a Bahá’í.

A ‘miracle’ is found

“Honor turned away from me and went to the window,” she remembers. “I wondered what it was I had done. She was so stunned when I declared my belief that she didn’t know what to do! Finally, she turned around and told me I should study more.” Afterward, Miss Kempton wrote to Leroy Ioas, saying she had found her “miracle.”

After returning to Fairbanks, Miss Whitenack wrote to Miss Kempton, telling her that she still wished to become a Bahá’í. She was subsequently enrolled through the U.S. National Spiritual Assembly.

Miss Whitenack opened a bookstore in Fairbanks and remained there until February 1942, two months after the U.S. entered World War II.

Miss Becker, the second woman to answer the Guardian’s call for pioneers to Alaska, arrived in Juneau on August 1, 1939, five days before Janet Whitenack told Honor Kempton she would like to become a Bahá’í. At the suggestion of the U.S. National Teaching Committee, Miss Becker had visited the Bahá’í Summer School in Geyserville, California, before proceeding north to Alaska.

Finding the residents of Juneau unresponsive to the Faith, Miss Becker traveled to Sitka and Fairbanks, where she met Alaska’s newest Bahá’í, Miss Whitenack, and remained for a year. She later settled in Anchorage, as Miss Kempton had.

Miss Becker, who was 52 years old when she pioneered to Alaska, was a staunch member of the Anchorage Bahá’í community until she pioneered to Chile, where she died in 1974 at the age of 86.

The third of the “nine holy souls” to forsake their homes in response to the Guardian’s call for pioneers to Alaska was Joy Allen (McCormick), an employee of the U.S. Army who arrived in Fairbanks from San Francisco in 1940. She was transferred soon afterward to Anchorage.

The fourth pioneer to Alaska was Myrtle Dodge (Silva) who also arrived from San Francisco in 1940 to work with Joy Allen in Anchorage.

The three pioneers to Anchorage in 1940 (before Miss Becker arrived there)—Honor Kempton, Joy Allen and Myrtle Dodge—formed its first Bahá’í Group. Their weekly study classes led to the enrollment of Jean Van Cleve, who moved soon afterward to Oregon.

After the attack on Pearl Harbor and the U.S. entry into World War II in December 1941, there was a possibility that Honor Kempton, who was a British subject, would be asked to leave Alaska. Miss Kempton explained to a judge the importance of Bahá’í work in Alaska, was granted U.S. citizenship, and remained in Anchorage.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Army needed buildings in which to house its personnel who had moved to Alaska in connection with the war, and Miss Whitenack was forced to relinquish her bookstore space at the Pioneer Hotel in Fairbanks. She applied to the Bureau of Indian Affairs for a teaching position among the Eskimos, and arrived at her post in the Kusokwin village of Tuluksak in February 1942.

Since one of the requirements of the position was that she not proselytize, Miss Whitenack tried to live an exemplary Bahá’í life and hung a picture of the Master, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, on her living room wall. She attended the Eskimos’ Moravian church regularly to share fellowship with the villagers.

First male pioneer

On the day after Naw-Rúz, March 22, 1943, the fifth pioneer to Alaska arrived. She was Frances Wells of San Bernardino, California.

Her arrival was followed closely by that of the first male pioneer to Alaska during the first Seven Year Plan, Verne L. Stout, who came from Geneva, New York, in June 1943 to work for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Seven more people had become Bahá’ís in Anchorage following Jean Van Cleve’s declaration, but it became increasingly apparent that Orcella Rex-

The first Spiritual Assembly of Anchorage, Alaska, established by joint declaration on September 8, 1943. Front row (left to right) Pvt. Terrell William A. Frazier, Betty Becker, Verne L. Stout; middle row (left to right) Frances L. Wells, Janet B. Whitenack, Loraine Bean; back row (left to right) Mina Lundquist, Honor Kempton, Florence B. Green.

[Page 3] The first All-Alaska Teaching Conference was held August 6, 1955, in Anchorage.

ford’s observation, made in 1922, still held true—Alaska’s population shifted like the proverbial sands of the desert. New believers and old were leaving Anchorage, including Joy Allen and Myrtle Dodge, both of whom returned to California.

To help form a Spiritual Assembly—the first in Alaska—in Anchorage, the National Teaching Committee in 1943 asked Janet Whitenack if she would be willing to leave her teaching post and move to Anchorage.

Miss Whitenack wasn’t at all sure she would be able to give up her position, as her appointment was for “the duration of the war and six months thereafter.” But she did obtain permission, and before leaving was asked by the villagers to tell them about her “church.” On July 4, speaking through an interpreter, Miss Whitenack was able to tell nearly all of the 100 residents of that Eskimo community about the Faith.

Following her arrival in Anchorage, Alaska’s first Local Spiritual Assembly was formed by joint declaration on September 8, 1943. Its members and officers were Honor Kempton (chairman), Verne L. Stout (vice-chairman), Frances L. Wells (corresponding secretary), Betty Becker (recording secretary), Janet B. Whitenack (treasurer), Lorraine Bean, Pvt. Terrell William A. Frazier, Florence B. Green, and Mina Lundquist.

When the Assembly was formed, the Guardian said it was “the northernmost center of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh in the world.” (Challenging Requirements of the Present Hour, June 5, 1947, p. 8)

In January 1944, four months after the Anchorage Assembly was formed, its continuance was assured by the arrival from Glendale, California, of Dagmar Dole, and of Helen Robinson and her family from Alhambra, California.

In November 1945, Mrs. Robinson’s daughter, Donna Mae, became the first declared Bahá’í youth in Alaska.

The culmination of the first Seven Year Plan initiated by the Guardian was the commemoration at the Bahá’í House of Worship in Wilmette, Illinois, on May 22, 1944, of the Centenary of the Declaration of the Báb.

Rose Perkal (Gates) became a Knight of Bahá’u’lláh after pioneering to Kodiak Island, Alaska, in 1953.

The Bahá’ís of Alaska were delighted when Honor Kempton, the first delegate from Alaska to the U.S. National Convention, was chosen as one of five readers at the commemoration ceremony on that historic evening.

Later, the chairman of one of the sessions at the National Convention

[Page 4] Frances Wells, one of the early Bahá’í pioneers to Alaska, later served the Cause in Luxembourg until her death in 1960.

asked Miss Kempton and Artemus Lamb, a pioneer to the southernmost tip of South America, to come to the platform and shake hands. The Guardian later wrote that Alaska, together with Magallanes, Chile, “may be likened to the extremity of the Bahá’í arms stretched out and waiting to embrace the whole world in the order of peace and love which Bahá’u’lláh has established for the children of men in this day.” (Bahá’í News, February 1945, p. 2)

The first person to be enrolled in the Faith in Alaska in the second century of the Bahá’í Dispensation was Evelyn Huffman of Anchorage, in February 1945. When the first National Spiritual Assembly of Alaska was formed in 1957, Mrs. Huffman became its secretary.

A dramatic enrollment came from Mrs. Huffman’s husband, Vernon, who signed his declaration card while on a trip to Wales, an Eskimo village that is the most westerly community on the North American continent. Mr. Huffman was enrolled in December 1945. The Huffmans later gave property from their homestead for Alaska’s Temple site and the present National Office.

The first family to enter the Faith together in Alaska was the Brown family, in 1947: Howard Brown—now an Auxiliary Board member—his wife, Lea, and their children, Sandra and Boyer. At the first International Bahá’í Convention in 1963, Mr. Brown had the honor of being the first Bahá’í in the world to cast a ballot for the election of the Universal House of Justice.

On June 23, 1949, Agnes Parent (Harrison) became the first native Alaskan to be enrolled in the Faith in Alaska. Melba Call (King), an Alaskan Eskimo, had been enrolled six years earlier, but that enrollment took place outside Alaska.

With the opening of the second Seven Year Plan (1946-1953) came the European Teaching Project, a campaign in which the Faith was to be established in the capital cities of 10 European countries.

Three of Alaska’s pioneers—Honor Kempton, Dagmar Dole and Frances Wells—arose to help with that project. Mrs. Dole, who pioneered to Denmark and then to Italy, later became the first believer to give her life for the Cause in the European project when she died in Switzerland on the 135th anniversary of the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh, November 12, 1952. The Guardian wrote: “She died in ‘Battle Dress’ ... Her spiritual station is very high.” (Bahá’í News, December 1952, p. 18)

Mrs. Wells served in Luxembourg until her death in 1960. Miss Kempton, meanwhile, served first on the Italo-Swiss National Spiritual Assembly, and later on the first National Spiritual Assembly of Luxembourg.

In 1947, the Guardian gave the Bahá’ís of Alaska a list of tasks that needed urgently to be completed. The first of these, to maintain and consolidate the Spiritual Assembly of Anchorage, proved to be an ever-present challenge. The believers there wryly added “Bahá’ís” to Alaska’s well-known export products: fish, furs and gold.

The Bahá’í community of Anchorage in April 1945. From left to right are Mina Lundquist, Honor Kempton, Myrtle Dodge, Florence Green, Betty Becker, Verne L. Stout, Janet W. Stout, Dagmar Dole, Frances Wells, Evelyn Huffman, Helen Robinson.

In the 13 years from the formation of the Spiritual Assembly of Anchorage in 1943 until 1956, there were 68 adult believers resident in that city, but seldom more than 15 at any one time. In one year (1950-51) there were 15 different believers who, throughout the year, were elected to the Assembly, and in another year (1953-54) by-elections saw the necessity of 17 believers maintaining the Assembly.

In spite of its constantly shifting membership, however, this first structure of the Administrative Order in Alaska was firmly grounded. By February 24, 1948, the Articles of Incorporation for the Spiritual Assembly

[Page 5] of the Bahá’ís of Anchorage were filed with the Office of the Auditor, Territory of Alaska.

Bahá’ís in the Anchorage area were active in community affairs. Helen Robinson and Evelyn Huffman were officers in the Anchorage Women’s Club in 1949-50. The club is affiliated with the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, and the Bahá’ís were instrumental in facilitating the enrollment of the first black member (a non-Bahá’í) of the Alaska branch.

Faith spreads rapidly

Interracial work was stressed by the Anchorage Bahá’ís from the beginning. In 1953, Verne Stout became the first white man to serve on the board of directors of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). The following year he was elected treasurer.

In another field, Edgar Russell was vice-president in 1949-50 of the American Federation of Government Employees while working for the Alaska Railroad, and served as a negotiator for the union with management, negotiations that amicably produced a new pay scale and five-day work week for employees. The meetings were opened with Bahá’í prayers for guidance, and were free from the bitterness on both sides that had characterized previous negotiating sessions.

To help further a second goal that the Guardian had given to Alaska for the second Seven Year Plan, that of multiplying the centers of the Faith in Alaska, the Bahá’ís spread rapidly around the territory, gradually concentrating in areas chosen for the formation of new Local Spiritual Assemblies to assure the solid foundation necessary for the formation of the first National Spiritual Assembly of Alaska.

The main room of the Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds in Anchorage as it appeared on dedication day, August 6, 1955.

Two additional goals of the

Shown are some of the believers who attended the dedication ceremony for the Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds in Anchorage held August 6, 1955. Four years later, the building was used as the first Bahá’í National Center in Alaska.

[Page 6] Plan—propagating the Faith among the Eskimos and translating and publishing passages from the Writings into their native language—were carried steadily forward over a period of time preceding and following the second Seven Year Plan, as well as during the Plan itself.

At the annual Fur Rendezvous in Anchorage, when Eskimos came from Nome, Diomede Island and King Island to trade furs, dance, and have blanket tosses, the Bahá’ís of Anchorage offered them hospitality and entertained them in their homes.

Meanwhile, a long search was undertaken to find an Eskimo willing and able to help translate passages from the Writings into the Eskimo language. Finally, Hadley Ferguson, a non-Bahá’í who was a full-blooded Eskimo princess of the Kobuk tribe, told Frances Wells, who was then in Fairbanks, that she would help. A pamphlet in the Eskimo language was published in 1954. It contained passages from the Writings in English, translations into the Kobuk Eskimo dialect, and drawings to illustrate the principles of the Faith.

The first All-Alaska Teaching Conference was held in the Anchorage area in the summer of 1955 with one of its principal instructors Florence Mayberry, who is now a Counsellor serving at the International Teaching Centre in Haifa. More than half of the Bahá’í community of Alaska attended this precursor of a Bahá’í summer school.

In accordance with the goals of the Ten Year Crusade (1953-1963) the Bahá’ís of Alaska, with the help of pioneers, opened the Aleutian Islands, Baranof Island, and Kodiak Island, all by 1954,

First National Assembly

To prepare for the establishment of the National Spiritual Assembly of Alaska, Local Spiritual Assemblies were formed in Fairbanks, Tanana Valley, Ketchikan and Juneau. In addition to the Assembly in Anchorage, there was another in the adjacent rural area known as the Anchorage Recording District (later known as Spenard, and now Oceanview).

These Local Assemblies were formed by April 1957, and the first National Spiritual Assembly of Alaska was elected on April 23 of that year with the Hand of the Cause of God Paul Haney, who was then chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, representing the Guardian at the first National Convention of Alaska. The National Spiritual Assembly of Alaska was the fifth of 13 elected during that Riḍván period and was the 17th pillar of the Universal House of Justice to be raised in the Bahá’í world.

The members of Alaska’s first National Spiritual Assembly were Robert E. Moul (chairman), Howard J. Brown (vice-chairman), Evelyn Huffman (secretary), Kathy Rodgers (recording secretary), Lois K. Lee (treasurer), Warren H. Rodgers, Janet W. Stout, Verne L. Stout, and Rose Perkal Gates. All of the members except Mr. and Mrs. Rodgers had at one time or another been members of the Spiritual Assembly of Anchorage.

At the establishment of its National Spiritual Assembly, the Hands of the Cause of God in America summed up the Alaska saga to that point in their matchless way:

“How brief the time during which Alaska has passed through the pioneer period, the election of Local Spiritual Assemblies, the acquiring of administrative experience, and arrival at the fateful period when a National Spiritual Assembly can be brought into existence! Thus, under the beloved Guardian’s guidance, has the humanly impossible been undertaken and made possible, and an epochal milestone set up to mark the irresistible progress of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.”

Next: The acceleration of growth, 1958-1981.

The first National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Alaska, elected at Riḍván 1957. From left to right are Robert E. Moul, Rose P. Gates, Janet W. Stout, Verne L. Stout, Evelyn Huffman, Warren Rodgers, Kathy Rodgers, Lois Lee, Howard Brown.

[Page 7]

United States

The 1st Continental Youth Conference

More than 3,000 Bahá’í youth from every one of the continental United States, Alaska, Canada, Hawaii, Mexico and at least 10 other countries gathered July 2-5 in Kansas City, Missouri, for the first Continental Bahá’í Youth Conference of the Seven Year Plan.

The historic conference was blessed by the presence of the Hands of the Cause of God Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum and Zikrullah Khadem.

Among the other guests at the conference were two members of the Continental Board of Counsellors for the Americas, Farzam Arbáb and Velma L. Sherrill; seven members of the U.S. National Spiritual Assembly; and members of the National Spiritual Assemblies of the Bahamas, the French Antilles and Mexico.

Visitors also came from Bermuda, England, Finland, Germany, Ireland, India, Nigeria and Pakistan.

The U.S. National Youth Committee, which together with the National Teaching Committee and other offices at the Bahá’í National Center helped plan and organize the conference on behalf of the National Spiritual Assembly, used the occasion to unveil the National Youth Plan for the second phase of the Seven Year Plan.

Numerous highlights

The new plan, which emphasizes promoting the Faith, prayer and deepening, contributing to the Fund, and serving the Faith in one’s community, was received enthusiastically by the young people in Kansas City.

Conference highlights included:

• Two addresses by Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum and another by Mr. Khadem.
• A gala public meeting and fireside Saturday evening that featured Bahá’í entertainers Seals & Crofts, Danny Deardorff, Leslie and Kelly and John Ford Coley, England Dan Seals, and the McPherson family.

Among the many outstanding Bahá’í entertainers who performed at the Continental Youth Conference July 2-5 in Kansas City, Missouri, were Jim Seals (left) and Dash Crofts.

• The premiere of a one-act drama, “Soul Wars,” produced by the Office of the Treasurer.
• More than 20 special workshop sessions whose subject matter ranged from developing effective communication skills and planning one’s career to preparing for marriage and conducting effective firesides.
• Two separate presentations of the film “The Pilgrimage,” which was written and narrated by Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum, and one of an audio-visual program, “The Heritage of the Martyrs.”
• A panel discussion in which members of the U.S. National Spiritual Assembly answered questions from the youth.
• Addresses by youth speakers Gisu Muhájir of Brookline, Massachusetts, and Mark Sisson of Los Angeles, California.

Keynote address

• Three late-night social events that featured entertainment ranging from bluegrass music to modern jazz along with dancers from several countries.

The keynote address Thursday evening was given by Glenford E. Mitchell, secretary of the U.S. National Spiritual Assembly.

Saturday’s public meeting, at the Kansas City Municipal Auditorium, drew an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 non-Bahá’ís.

The fireside that followed also was well-attended, with at least eight declarations reported afterward.

A large scroll with hundreds of signatures was sent from the conference to the Universal House of Justice.

The Supreme Body cabled its congratulations to conference participants in these words:

“Delighted learn revitalizing impact Kansas City conference on impressively large assemblage youth. Confident exciting plans generated presence inspiration Handscause Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum and Zikrullah Khadem members institutions Faith resulting adoption both immediate and long-range projects will channel enthusiasm energies important resource American Bahá’í community towards prosecution current future worldwide teaching campaigns. Fervently praying success efforts youthful band lovers beloved Master emulate early American teachers in promotion His Father’s Cause.”

[Page 8]

Perú

Radio Bahá’í of Lake Titicaca is born

By BORIS HANDEL

At an altitude of 12,541 feet above sea level, on the high plains of southeastern Perú, a momentous international Bahá’í teaching project linking the sister communities of Perú and Bolivia has been initiated: Radio Bahá’í of Lake Titicaca.

The radio station, located strategically near the town of Chucuito, about 11 miles from Puno on the shores of Lake Titicaca, the largest navigable lake in the world, is destined to serve as a powerful instrument for the proclamation, promotion and reinforcement of Bahá’í teaching in that area, and for the deepening and consolidation of a large number of Aymara Indian Bahá’í communities distributed throughout a 150-mile-long zone between Puno, Perú, and La Paz, Bolivia.

Aymara culture

The Aymara people have an ancient culture that is distinguished from that of other groups by their language and deeply-rooted customs. Their principal occupations are agriculture and animal husbandry. Agriculture is limited by a hostile environment and by a shortage of arable land; animal husbandry, on the other hand, is pursued more intensively, and is even found at altitudes higher than 15,500 feet.

At the present time there are approximately 4,000,000 Aymaras, a large portion of whom are virtually untouched by Western civilization. Many are illiterate and do not speak Spanish. The Aymaras, from earliest times, have been characterized by a stubborn resistance to cultural change. The powerful Inca empire met strong and heroic resistance to its expansion to the east, and was able to annex the Aymaras only after establishing a treaty that respected their language, religion and organized way of life. The first Christian missionaries in Perú also encountered many problems in attempting to establish their evangelical centers among the Aymaras.

The Message of God

Today the Word of God is deeply fixed in the hearts of these men and women. For them, the life-giving Message of Bahá’u’lláh has opened the door to their true salvation.

An ancient Aymaran tradition states that at a certain time white men would come from the other side of Lake Titicaca and forcibly impose their culture on the Indians. Then, at another time, other white men would come from across the lake, but this time to educate and guide them for their wellbeing.

The building that houses Radio Bahá’í of Lake Titicaca, near Puno, Perú, as seen from the highway.

Throughout the past few years in this rough, immense land, the Bahá’í teachings have been actively promoted. Various groups and individuals have come to establish projects for teaching and expansion. The inspiration for this noble enterprise was the promise by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, reiterated many times by the beloved Guardian, that was made on Page 10 of the Tablets of the Divine Plan:

“You must give great importance to teaching the Indians, that is, the aborigines of America. For these souls are like the ancient inhabitants of Peninsular Arabia, who previous to the Manifestation of His Holiness Muḥammad were treated as savages. But when the Muḥammadic light shone forth in their midst, they became so illumined that they brightened the world. Likewise, should these Indians and aborigines be educated and obtain guidance, there is no doubt that through the divine teachings, they will become so enlightened as in turn to shed light to all regions.”

Valuable testimony to this sacred promise has been the great receptivity to the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh in the Aymara area and definite indications of the beginnings of mass conversion. The progressively increasing acceptance of the teachings has fanned a fervent desire among the Bahá’ís to reinforce and augment the work already done, and has motivated many traveling teachers and pioneers, both national and foreign, to teach among the Aymaras.

This area of Perú has been honored by the presence of the Hands of the Cause of God Amatu’l-Bahá Rúḥíyyih Khánum and Raḥmatu’lláh Muhájir. Among the first pioneers to come to this zone were Dr. William Baker (son of the Hand of the Cause of God Dorothy Baker and

[Page 9] presently an Auxiliary Board member in Bolivia), Miss Christine Hoyt, John Kepner, and Ronald Mease, who served as an Auxiliary Board member.

First meeting in centuries

The potential of the area, and the formation of the first Bahá’í communities, especially in the Juli region, moved the National Spiritual Assembly of Perú to organize the first International Aymara Bahá’í Conference in August 1978. It was attended by Aymaras from Perú and Bolivia. For the first and only time in their history, the Aymara peoples met together to consult about their spiritual welfare, and to study seriously the conditions under which their village life could be improved.

The most valuable fruit of this conference was the inauguration of a teaching campaign entitled “The Spiritual Conquest of Lake Titicaca,” which during the Five Year Plan generated an impressive record of expansion of the Cause, opening vast new horizons for the immediate future.

The Bahá’í Teaching Institute in Juli, Perú, was dedicated to the majestic and inspiring figure of Dr. Muhájir. Bahá’í literature was translated into the Aymara language; in the space of a few months, through the dedicated efforts of native-born traveling teachers, more than 2,000 new believers were enrolled; meanwhile, local endowments were made and 20 local Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds were constructed.

The beloved Dr. Muhájir, during a visit to Perú in December 1979, called on the Peruvian Bahá’ís to unite and arise to carry the Message of Bahá’u’lláh to all parts of the region by participating in a special 40-day teaching project in Puno. A few days after his ringing call and moving presentation, word was received of the unexpected ascension of this illustrious teacher of the Cause of God. The friends were plunged into sadness and consternation by this news; nevertheless, it added even greater impetus to the teaching efforts, and the spirit of service and devotion of the Peruvian and Bolivian Bahá’ís was redoubled, resulting in widespread proclamation of the Faith and the enrollment of hundreds of new believers.

A Bahá’í children’s class is held in the middle of the ‘Puna.’ The jeep used by the Bahá’í teachers is at the left.

The first radio activities

Toward the end of 1978, when 18 enthusiastic indigenous

Bahá’ís participating in a teacher training class in Pilcuyo, Perú, present a colorful picture in their native costumes.

believers attended the first radio workshop at the Bahá’í Teaching Institute in Juli, they could not anticipate the glorious nature of the activities they were initiating. A series of five more workshops followed, culminating in the International Bahá’í Radio and Television Conference, held in Puno in May 1980. The desire of the friends to serve Bahá’u’lláh enabled them to surmount virtually impossible difficulties, such as woefully inadequate equipment, to produce for the first time ever programs in the Aymara language that were broadcast by a local commercial radio station. Their constancy and progressively improving expertise, coupled with their devotion and the selflessness with which they shouldered the many responsibilities, assuredly attracted the blessing of being chosen by the Universal House of Justice to establish the second Bahá’í radio station in the world.

Radio Bahá’í of Perú is born

The first International Bahá’í Conference on Radio and Television, sponsored by the National Spiritual Assembly of Perú and the Continental Board of Counsellors for South America, was held on the campus of the National Technical University of the Altiplano. In addition to exchanging ideas and experiences in radio and TV teaching in several national communities and on several different levels, the participants also commemorated the 88th anniversary of the Ascension of Bahá’u’lláh.

At a crucial and dramatic moment during the conference, dozens of Bahá’ís came forward to volunteer their help in the development and construction of Radio Bahá’í of Lake Titicaca. The success of the conference far exceeded what had been expected. As a part of the program, the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh was proclaimed to high government officials. Among the other high points was a meeting of conference participants at the proposed site of Radio Bahá’í in Perú and the recital of prayers in several languages.

The ‘For’ project is begun

In the days following the Radio and TV Conference, a teaching program entitled “For” was launched. A number of Bahá’ís from several countries volunteered their services

[Page 10] and were immediately organized in teams that traveled and taught in the area around Lake Titicaca. Starting from Puno and ending at La Paz, Bolivia, where a satellite conference was held, the campaign had as its objective the location of towns that could, in future, become archetypes of a Bahá’í society.

The satellite conference was transformed into a “unity feast” at which new methods of teaching were shared, including such innovative ideas as the establishment of a traveling Bahá’í teaching institute, the use of new audio-visual materials, local “tuning in” or receiving centers (to receive and listen to Bahá’í radio programs), and so forth. On their return to Perú, the teams openly and enthusiastically taught the Faith, visiting schools, public plazas and parks, radio stations, and government representatives. The doors were opened to present the Cause at a TV station, a theatre, a Catholic church, and a military base.

Bahá’í teachers with participants in a deepening class in Plateria, Puno, Perú.

Closely paralleling the teaching campaign was the initiation of construction work on the building that was to house Radio Bahá’í of Lake Titicaca. On July 15, 1980, the cornerstone was laid. Construction has been directed by Kamran Mansuri, a selfless and devoted pioneer to Ecuador from Iran who is an engineer. A number of indigenous believers from the Puno area also have volunteered their services to help construct the edifice.

Expansion and consolidation

At present, the teaching work among the Aymaras is performed largely by indigenous Bahá’ís who visit the numerous and distant localities, usually traveling on foot due to the lack of reliable transportation. Throughout the year, district institutes are held in the various regions of the country, sponsored by the Regional Teaching Committee. A permanent Bahá’í traveling teaching institute maintains a program of regular visits of a few days each to various Bahá’í communities where the local believers are deepened in such matters as Bahá’í education of children, women’s activities, functions of the Local Spiritual Assembly, the Nineteen Day Feast, and so on. A Bahá’í club is being formed at the university in Puno (the National Technical University of the Altiplano) where the most talented youth in the region are to be found. During the Riḍván period of B.E. 137 (1980), 50 new localities were opened to the Faith and 51 Local Spiritual Assemblies were elected. During Riḍván 138 (1981), the number of Assemblies was increased to 130. Radio Bahá’í will be invaluable in the deepening and consolidation of these Assemblies and localities.

Permission to broadcast

Much worrying and preoccupation was caused in the Peruvian Bahá’í community by the long wait involved in the radio licensing process. Finally, after a memorable week during which the entire Peruvian national community united spiritually and prayed the Tablet of Aḥmad daily, permission was granted, on March 3, 1981, to use the shortwave band at 890 KHz. The official announcement, coming less than three weeks before Naw-Rúz, filled the Bahá’ís with joy. That same day, the National Spiritual Assembly cabled the exciting news to the Universal House of Justice.

Now the finishing touches to the radio station’s construction are being directed by a team of Bahá’í engineers who are lovingly dedicating their time and knowledge to the completion of this worthy project. The team includes Kurt Grove, an American geologist lately from Puerto Rico who is pioneering in Puno; Zabihollah Mohebbi, an electronics engineer from Iran who is pioneering in Bolivia; and Antonio Fernandez, a Peruvian electrical engineer. They are being guided, as the entire project has been guided, by engineer K. Dean Stephens, a pioneer from the U.S. to Puerto Rico who is the technical adviser to the Universal House of Justice on radio in the Americas.

Radio Bahá’í of Lake Titicaca was scheduled to begin broadcasting in July, with the official inauguration program to be held November 12, 1981, the 164th anniversary of the Birth of Bahá’u’lláh.

For the Bahá’ís in Perú and throughout the world, this radio station, dedicated to Bahá’u’lláh and His Cause, together with its sister station in Otavalo, Ecuador, and the future stations to be established in Bolivia, Brazil, Chile and Panama, represents the first glimmerings of the glory promised to the indigenous American believers by the prophetic pen of the beloved Master, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, in the Tablets of the Divine Plan.

[Page 11]

India

Progress on the Mother Temple

These recent photos show further progress on construction of the Mother Temple of the Indian sub-continent near Delhi. Because of the rapidly rising cost of materials and labor, the Universal House of Justice called in June for an acceleration of work on the Houses of Worship in India and Samoa. The chief architect on the lotus-shaped Temple in India is Fariburz Ṣahba.

[Page 12]

The world

Faith is proclaimed widely in Pakistan

The Faith was widely proclaimed in Karachi and Hyderabad, Pakistan, during a week of Bahá’í activities in April and May.

Proclamation efforts April 25-May 4 in Karachi, planned by the local teaching committee, included meetings with radio and television executives and with principals and head masters of 14 primary and secondary schools.

Bahá’í books were given to many educators. Faith at every opportunity and conducted many successful firesides.

The proclamation week in Karachi ended May 4 with a public meeting at the Bahá’í Center. Later that evening, Radio Pakistan broadcast a 12-minute program of excerpts from the meeting whose theme was “The Destiny of Mankind.”

Proclamation events were held May 18-25 at six educational institutions in Hyderabad including Sind University and three women’s colleges.

Auxiliary Board member Dr. Sabir Afaghi proclaimed the Faith during a government-sponsored seminar on the problems of book publication and sales in national and regional languages. The seminar was attended by more than 20 delegates from every region of Pakistan.

Bahá’í literature in Pushti, Punjabi, Baluchi and Sindhi was presented to the directors of the academies of those regional languages. Other delegates also were given Bahá’í literature.

Bahá’í youth from 13 localities in Pakistan participated May 8-9 in a National Youth Conference at the Bahá’í Center in Rawalpindi.

The speakers included Auxiliary Board members Yusuf Bijnouri and Dr. Afaghi who reviewed the goals of the Seven Year Plan.

A handicrafts and poster contest was held, and youth performed newly composed songs and skits about the Faith.

At the conclusion of the conference, many participants volunteered to carry out various goals of the second phase of the Seven Year Plan.

A public meeting May 4 at the Bahá’í Center in Karachi, Pakistan, using the theme ‘The Destiny of Mankind’ was recorded by Radio Pakistan. The meeting ended a week of proclamation activities planned by the local teaching committee. Addressing the audience is Asrar H. Siddiqui, a Bahá’í speaker. The guest speaker, Prof. Abul Khair Kashfi, is at the left. Fazil Kiayani (center) also participated in the proclamation program.

The first training camp for selected believers from some 15 localities in Pakistan was held last December 30-31 at a newly acquired Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds in Nawabshah, about 50 minutes north of Hyderabad.

During the two-day conference, the friends discussed common problems and share experiences.

Village teaching has been conducted regularly in the state of Punjab, where Pakistani Bahá’ís and visiting believers from other countries have distributed substantial amounts of Bahá’í literature.

A regional teaching committee organized two-day deepening classes in Lahore, and children’s classes are being held in Gujrat and Islamabad.

In January, 35 children attended a weekend of activities organized by the local education committee in Karachi.

[Page 13]

Portugal

Eighty people including 30 non-Bahá’ís were present May 9 at the first meeting on the Faith ever held at the University of Coimbra, Portugal.

Speakers included Saiid Jalali, a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of Portugal, and Auxiliary Board member Fernando Mesquita.

Believers from all areas of the country helped the Bahá’ís of Coimbra plan the proclamation event that received widespread publicity in local newspapers and on radio.

The program included an introduction to the Faith, live music by Bahá’í musicians, and a presentation of the film, “Give Me That New Time Religion,” with Dizzy Gillespie and Seals and Crofts.

The program was followed by a question-and-answer session that lasted until midnight.

Shown are some of the 80 people who were present May 9 at the first Bahá’í meeting ever held at the University of Coimbra, Portugal. The audience, composed primarily of students, included 30 non-Bahá’ís.

Saiid Jalali (right), a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of Portugal, addresses the 80 people who attended a public meeting May 9 at the University of Coimbra, Portugal. The meeting, the first Bahá’í-sponsored event ever held at the university, was chaired by Auxiliary Board member Fernando Mesquita (left).

Fiji Islands

Delegates and guests at the Bahá’í National Convention held April 25-26 in Colo-i-suva, Fiji Islands, are shown outside the Convention meeting place. One of the believers whose hobby is photography made copies of the photo available to participants before the close of the Convention.

[Page 14]

Chad

More than 160 Bahá’í youth from 40 localities in Chad attended the second National Youth Conference held March 19-21 in Moissala. The conference, one of the largest Bahá’í events ever held in that country, and a month-long teaching campaign organized by the National Youth Committee, led to the enrollment of 100 new believers and helped open many new localities to the Faith. During the conference, the Faith was introduced to the vice-president of Chad by M. Changuiz, a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of Chad; Auxiliary Board member M. Gheadoumadji; and a member of the National Youth Committee. The meeting with the vice-president lasted for one and one-half hours.

Papua New Guinea

Bahá’í posters and pamphlets decorate this store window on a busy street in Rabaul, Papua New Guinea. The store is owned by a Bahá’í pioneer who has agreed to have Bahá’í displays in the window on a permanent basis. The believers in Rabaul place new materials in the window every few weeks. The Bahá’í community reports that many interested passersby have taken Bahá’í literature that is available inside the store.

El Salvador

Sixty Bahá’ís and one young seeker attended a memorial service June 21 at the Bahá’í Center in San Salvador, El Salvador, that was held in honor of the seven martyrs of Hamadan, Iran.

Prayers were read and chanted in English and Persian. Two believers who are distant relatives of two of the martyrs of Hamadan spoke about them.

Bahá’ís in El Salvador attended another memorial service, this one for the martyrs of Yazd, Iran, two weeks prior to the June 21 event.

A delegation composed of members of the National Spiritual Assembly of El Salvador delivered written messages about the Bahá’í martyrdoms to government officials in that country.

Hong Kong

The first Cantonese-language broadcast to mention the name of Bahá’u’lláh and the Bahá’í Faith was presented March 21 by a commercial radio station in Hong Kong that can be heard in Canton, China, as well as in Hong Kong and Macao.

That same evening, the broadcast was repeated in English.

The National Bahá’í Radio and Television Committee of Hong Kong describes the broadcast in Cantonese as an important “first” for the Faith.

[Page 15]

India

Nearly 100,000 people visited a Bahá’í book stall at the annual Lucknow Festival held for 15 days in February and sponsored by the government of Uttar Pradesh State, India. Bahá’í literature was offered for sale at the booth, and people waited in turn to ask about the Faith.

Mexico

More than 140 people attended a dinner-dance in Guadalajara, Mexico, on the anniversary of the Birth of the Báb.

The festive evening was sponsored by the Spiritual Assemblies of Guadalajara and Zapopan.

The keynote speaker was Carmen de Burafato, a Continental Counsellor for the Americas. A summary of her talk was given in English, and many questions followed.

Bahá’í literature was made available, and a red carnation was presented to each woman present.

Swaziland

During Intercalary Days the Spiritual Assembly of Mbabane, Swaziland, sponsored a party for a children’s ward of a government hospital in that city.

Rangers from the Mlilwane Game Park participated by showing the children a film about Swaziland’s wild animals.

After the film Bahá’í youth sang a song, a healing prayer was read, and refreshments were served.

[Page 16]

Nigeria

Approximately 50 people participated April 9-12 in the first Bahá’í Youth Conference ever held in eastern Nigeria.

The conference, organized by Nigeria’s National Youth Committee, was held at the Afikpo District Bahá’í Center in Ndibe Village, Imo State.

Included were deepening classes on Bahá’í history, laws, teachings, and basic responsibilities of Bahá’í youth.

Teachers included Auxiliary Board member Paul Alu and pioneers from the Philippines and the United States.

Children, youth and adults took part in the classes.

During the four day conference, four Bahá’í teaching teams of three to six people each visited local villages and compounds in the Afikpo area.

Food was prepared by the local believers. One evening of the conference was set aside for local Bahá’í children who sang songs in the local languages.

More than 75 students at a teacher training college in Afikpo, Nigeria, expressed their desire to become Bahá’ís and the first Spiritual Assembly of Etiti Ama Oso, Nigeria, was elected during a teaching campaign last February by a group of about 30 believers from nine Nigerian cities.

Members of the Spiritual Assembly of Etiti Ama Oso, Nigeria, are shown shortly after the Assembly’s formation February 23. Among the members of the Assembly is village Chief Ezeogo Okorie Ndukwe (seated in center with photo of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá) whose son has been a Bahá’í for several years.

The project, centered around Afikpo in southeastern Nigeria, was dedicated to the seven recent Bahá’í martyrs in Yazd, Iran. Participants included two Auxiliary Board members and the musical group, “The Waves of One Sea.”

More than 400 students and faculty members attended a public meeting at Macgregor Teacher Training College in Afikpo. The event was held in the college chapel, which was decorated with Bahá’í posters and a book display.

At the end of the presentation, more than 75 students insisted that they wished to become Bahá’ís. They were then divided into groups and were deepened in various aspects of the Faith.

The traveling teachers were warmly received in Etiti Ama Oso, where the first Local Spiritual Assembly was formed February 23 with the village chief as one of its elected members.

Nineteen residents of Uburu village declared their belief in Bahá’u’lláh when the teachers visited that community.

The chief in Uburu said Bahá’ís had been in that village two years before, but no one had come since them to tell them more.

The teaching project was a result of a meeting January 1-2 in Lagos for Persian believers at which a message from the Universal House of Justice to Persian Bahá’ís living outside Iran was studied.

Shown here are participants in a teaching trip last February in southeastern Nigeria. The successful effort was dedicated to the memory of the seven martyrs of Yazd, Iran. It began with a weekend meeting at the district Bahá’í Center in Afikpo, Nigeria.

[Page 17]

Hawaii

Gov. George R. Ariyoshi of Hawaii signs into law a bill that excuses pupil absences from the state school system for religious holy days. Witnessing the signing are (left to right) Tracy Hamilton, chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Hawaiian Islands; State Sen. Charles Campbell; Julius Nodel, Rabbi Emeritus of Temple Emanu-El in Honolulu; and Elizabeth Hollinger, secretary of the National Spiritual Assembly. The new law, which benefits children of every religion, is the result of 19 years of work by the Bahá’í community of Hawaii. It was supported by the Jewish, Christian and Buddhist communities.

Mauritius

Shown here are many of the Bahá’ís who attended the National Convention of Mauritius held April 30-May 3.

André Brugiroux (standing at left), a traveling teacher from France, addresses Bahá’ís in Port Louis, Mauritius, March 8 during his visit to French-speaking countries in Africa. Mr. Brugiroux proclaimed the Faith on radio and television in Mauritius. Articles about his travels that have resulted in a book and film he has produced appeared in all the country’s major newspapers. He spoke to a total of 1,500 school students. The National Spiritual Assembly of Mauritius described Mr. Brugiroux’s visit as highly successful for the proclamation of the Faith.

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