Bahá’í News/Issue 614/Text
| ←Previous | Bahá’í News Issue 614 |
Next→ |
 Proofread onceReturn to PDF view
|
| Bahá’í News | May 1982 | Bahá’í Year 139 |
The 70th anniversary
of the cornerstone ceremony
for the Mother Temple of the West
Bahá’í News[edit]
Bahá’ís in Iran counter opression with heroism, courage, faith | 1 |
The Master’s address at the laying of the cornerstone in Wilmette | 3 |
The Guardian on the spiritual significance of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár | 4 |
The Guardian’s glowing tribute to the Mother Temple of the West | 6 |
The House of Worship’s engineer writes about its unique structure | 9 |
Architect Louis Bourgeois discusses the House of Worship’s design | 11 |
A member of the Advisory Board talks about the Temple’s interior | 12 |
Around the world: News from Bahá’í communities all over the world | 14 |
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 © 1982, National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. World rights reserved. Printed in the U.S.A.
World Centre[edit]
Iranian Bahá’ís display faith, courage[edit]
ACCOUNTS HEROISM BELIEVERS CRADLE FAITH FILL OUR HEARTS WITH FEELINGS OF AWE, GRATITUDE, ADMIRATION. MOUNTING CRUELTIES OPPRESSORS MATCHED BY HEIGHTENED ENDURANCE STEADFASTNESS STAUNCH SUPPORTERS GREATEST NAME.
SINCE LAST REPORT ON 11 JANUARY 1982 CROWN MARTYRDOM HAS ADORNED TWO MORE LOVING SOULS, HUSAYN VAHDAT-I-HAQ OF TEHERAN AND IBRAHIM KHAYRKHAH OF BABU’L-SAR. THE FORMER, A HIGHLY QUALIFIED ELECTRONICS ENGINEER, WAS EXECUTED ON 28 FEBRUARY, EVE OBSERVANCE DECLARATION BÁB ACCORDING LUNAR CALENDAR, AND MR. KHAYRKHAH, ACTIVE BELIEVER CASPIAN AREA, TWO DAYS EARLIER. BOTH EXECUTED BURIED UNCEREMONIOUSLY WITHOUT RELATIVES FRIENDS BEING INFORMED.
CONFISCATION OF HOMES INNOCENT BAHÁ’ÍS WITHOUT PROVOCATION IS CONTINUING. LOOTING AND AUCTIONING OF FURNISHINGS OF BAHÁ’Í HOME IN ARDIKAN NEAR YAZD WAS PRELUDE TO SERIES SIMILAR RAIDS ON HOMES OTHER BAHÁ’ÍS THAT TOWN. IN SHIRAZ 17 MORE HOMES EITHER CONFISCATED OR IN PROCESS CONFISCATION. 35 ADDITIONAL BANK ACCOUNTS OF BAHÁ’ÍS IN SHIRAZ NOW FROZEN. SCORES OF BAHÁ’ÍS HAVE LOST THEIR JOBS OR BEEN DEPRIVED OF THEIR BUSINESS AND TRADE LICENSES. ON ONE OCCASION A HIGH-RANKING AUTHORITY DECREED, IN REPLY TO QUESTION FROM INSURANCE COMPANY, THAT A BAHÁ’Í WIDOW HAD NO RIGHT COLLECT HALF HER HUSBAND’S PENSION DUE HER NOR RETAIN CUSTODY HER CHILDREN. HISTORIC BAHÁ’Í SITES PROGRESSIVELY BEING DEMOLISHED INCLUDING HOUSE BABIYYIH IN MASHHAD.
IN FACE SUCH OPPRESSIVE MEASURES, THOUSANDS BAHÁ’ÍS IRAN UNMINDFUL OF POSSIBLE DIRE CONSEQUENCES, HAVE COURAGEOUSLY APPEALED BY LETTER OR CABLE TO VARIOUS HIGH OFFICIALS AT NATIONAL AND LOCAL LEVELS COMPLAINING ABOUT BARBARIC ACTS GROSS INJUSTICE, HAVE REVEALED THEIR NAMES AND ADDRESSES, AND HAVE EXPRESSED HOPE THAT FEAR GOD WILL ULTIMATELY AWAKEN BLOODTHIRSTY AND HATE-FILLED INDIVIDUALS TO DISGRACEFUL ABUSE THEIR POWERS AND INDUCE THEM CEASE BEHAVIOUR ABHORRENT ALL CIVILIZED PEOPLE.
BAHÁ’ÍS IRAN ARE GRATEFUL THEIR BRETHREN THROUGHOUT WORLD BECAUSE THEY HAVE NOT ONLY SUCCESSFULLY RAISED THEIR VOICES IN NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL FORUMS BUT ALSO HAVE PLEDGED REDOUBLE THEIR EFFORTS SERVE BAHÁ’U’LLÁH IN NAME CO-WORKERS CRADLE FAITH, IN ORDER TO COUNTERACT EVIL MACHINATIONS ENEMIES CAUSE DESIGNED ERADICATE FAITH IN LAND ITS BIRTH.
MARCH 9, 1982
Mother Temple of the West[edit]
Master’s talk at cornerstone ceremony[edit]
The power which has gathered you here today notwithstanding the cold and windy weather is, indeed, mighty and wonderful. It is the power of God, the divine favor of Bahá’u’lláh which has drawn you together. We praise God that through His constraining love human souls are assembled and associated in this way.
Thousands of Mashriqu’l-Adhkárs, dawning-points of praise and mention of God for all religionists will be built in the East and in the West, but this, being the first one erected in the Occident, has great importance. In the future there will be many here and elsewhere—in Asia, Europe, even in Africa, New Zealand and Australia—but this edifice in Chicago is of especial significance. It has the same importance as the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in ‘Ishqábád, Caucasus, Russia, the first one built there. In Persia there are many; some are houses which have been utilized for the purpose, others are homes entirely devoted to the Divine Cause, and in some places temporary structures have been erected.
In all the cities of Persia there are Mashriqu’l-Adhkárs, but the great dawning-point was founded in ‘Ishqábád. It possesses superlative importance because it was the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár built. All the Bahá’í friends agreed and contributed their utmost assistance and effort. The Afnán devoted his wealth, gave all he had to it. From such a mighty and combined effort a beautiful edifice arose. Notwithstanding their contributions to that building, they have assisted the
The address given by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá before laying the cornerstone for the Mother Temple of the West on May 1, 1912, is reprinted from The Promulgation of Universal Peace, pp. 71-72.
fund here in Chicago as well. The Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in ‘Ishqábád is almost completed. It is centrally located, nine avenues leading into it, nine gardens, nine fountains; all the arrangement and construction is according to the principle and proportion of the number nine. It is like a beautiful bouquet. Imagine a very lofty, imposing edifice surrounded completely by gardens of variegated flowers, with nine avenues leading through them, nine fountains and pools of water. Such is its matchless, beautiful design. Now they are building a hospital, a school for orphans, a home for cripples, a hospice and a large dispensary. God willing, when it is fully completed, it will be a paradise.
I hope the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in Chicago will be like this. Endeavor to have the grounds circular in shape. If possible adjust and exchange the plots in order to make the dimensions and boundaries circular. The Mashriqu’l-Adhkár cannot be triangular in shape. It must be in the form of a circle.
Mother Temple of the West[edit]
‘So vast and significant an enterprise ...’[edit]
My well-beloved friends:
Ever since that remarkable manifestation of Bahá’í solidarity and self-sacrifice which has signalized the proceedings of last year’s memorable Convention, I have been expectantly awaiting
the news of a steady and continuous
support of the Plan which can alone insure, ere the present year draws to its
close, the resumption of building
operations on our beloved Temple.
Moved by an impulse that I could not resist, I have felt impelled to forego what may be regarded as the most valuable and sacred possession in the Holy Land for the furthering of that noble enterprise which you have set your hearts to achieve. With the hearty concurrence of our dear Bahá’í brother, Ziaoulláh Asgarzadeh, who years ago donated it to the Most Holy Shrine, this precious ornament of the Tomb of Bahá’u’lláh has been already shipped to your shores, with our fondest hope that the proceeds from its sale may at once ennoble and reinforce the unnumbered offerings of the American believers already accumulated on the altar of Bahá’í sacrifice. I have longed ever since to witness such evidences of spontaneous and generous response on your part as would tend to fortify within me a confidence that has never wavered in the inexhaustible vitality of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh in that land.
I need not stress at this moment the high hopes which so startling a display of unsparing devotion to our sacred Temple has already aroused in the breasts of the multitude of our brethren throughout the East. Nor is it I feel necessary to impress upon those who
This letter from the beloved Guardian, dated October 25, 1929, and entitled “The Spiritual Significance of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár,” is reprinted from The Bahá’í World, Vol. III (1928-30), pp. 159-163.
are primarily concerned with its erection the gradual change of outlook which the early prospect of the construction of the far-famed Mashriqu’l-Adhkár in America has unmistakably occasioned in high places among the hitherto sceptical and indifferent towards the merits and the practicability of the Faith proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh. Neither do I need to expatiate upon the hopes and fears of the Greatest Holy Leaf, now in the evening of her life, with deepening shadows caused by failing eyesight and declining strength swiftly gathering about her, yearning to hear as the one remaining solace in her swiftly ebbing life the news of the resumption of work on an Edifice, the glories of which she has, from the lips of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Himself, learned to admire. I cannot surely overrate at the present juncture in the progress of our task the challenging character of these remaining months of the year as a swiftly passing opportunity which it is in our power to seize and utilize, ere it is too late, for the edification of our expectant brethren throughout the East, for the vindication in the eyes of the world at large of the realities of our Faith, and last but not least for the realization of what is the Greatest Holy Leaf’s fondest desire.
As I have already intimated in the course of my conversations with visiting pilgrims, so vast and significant an enterprise as the construction of the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the West should be supported, not by the munificence of a few but by the joint contributions of the entire mass of the convinced followers of the Faith. It cannot be denied that the emanations of spiritual power and inspiration destined to radiate from the central Edifice of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár will to a very large extent depend upon the range and variety of the contributing believers, as well as upon the nature and degree of self-abnegation which their unsolicited offerings will entail ...
True, we cannot fail to realize at the present stage of our work the extremely limited number of contributors qualified to lend financial support to such a vast, such an elaborate and costly enterprise. We are fully aware of the many issues and varied Bahá’í activities that are unavoidably held in abeyance pending the successful conclusion of the Plan of Unified Action. We are only too conscious of the pressing need of some sort of befitting and concrete embodiment of the spirit animating the Cause that would stand in the heart of the American Continent both as a witness and as a rallying center to the manifold activities of a fast growing Faith. But spurred by those reflections may we not bestir ourselves and resolve as we have never resolved before to hasten by every means in our power the consummation of this all-absorbing yet so meritorious a task? I beseech you, dear friends, not to allow considerations of number, or the consciousness of the limitation of our resources, or even the experience of inevitable setbacks which every mighty undertaking is bound to encounter, to blur your vision, to dim your hopes, or to paralyze your efforts in the prosecution of your divinely appointed task. Neither, do I entreat you, to suffer the least deviation into the paths of expediency and compromise to obstruct those channels of vivifying grace that can alone provide the inspiration and strength vital not only to the successful conduct of its material construction, but to the fulfillment of its high destiny.
And while we bend our efforts and
strain our nerves in a feverish pursuit
to provide the necessary means for the
speedy construction of the Mashriqu’l-[Page 5]
Adhkár, may we not pause for a moment to examine those statements
which set forth the purpose as well as
the functions of this symbolical yet so
spiritually potent Edifice? It will be
readily admitted that at a time when
the tenets of a Faith, not yet fully
emerged from the fires of repression,
are as yet improperly defined and imperfectly understood, the utmost caution should be exercised in revealing
the true nature of those institutions
which are indissolubly associated with
its name.
Without attempting an exhaustive survey of the distinguishing features and purpose of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, I should feel content at the present time to draw your attention to what I regard as certain misleading statements that have found currency in various quarters, and which may lead gradually to a grave misapprehension of the true purpose and essential character of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár.
It should be borne in mind that the central Edifice of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, round which in the fulness of time shall cluster such institutions of social service as shall afford relief to the suffering, sustenance to the poor, shelter to the wayfarer, solace to the bereaved, and education to the ignorant, should be regarded apart from these Dependencies, as a House solely designed and entirely dedicated to the worship of God in accordance with the few yet definitely prescribed principles established by Bahá’u’lláh in the Kitabu’l-Aqdás. It should not be inferred, however, from this general statement that the interior of the central Edifice itself will be converted into a conglomeration of religious services conducted along lines associated with the traditional procedure obtaining in churches, mosques, synagogues, and other temples of worship. Its various avenues of approach, all converging towards the central Hall beneath its dome, will not serve as admittance to those sectarian adherents of rigid formulae and man-made creeds, each bent, according to his way, to observe his rites, recite his prayers, perform his ablutions, and display the particular symbols of his faith, within separately defined sections of Bahá’u’lláh’s Universal House of Worship. Far from the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár offering such a spectacle of incoherent and confused sectarian observances and rites, a condition wholly incompatible with the provisions of the Aqdás and irreconcilable with the spirit it inculcates, the central House of Bahá’í worship, enshrined within the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, will gather within its chastened walls, in a serenely spiritual atmosphere, only those who, discarding forever the trapping of elaborate and ostentatious ceremony, are willing worshippers of the one true God, as manifested in this age in the Person of Bahá’u’lláh. To them will the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár symbolize the fundamental verity underlying the Bahá’í Faith, that religious truth is not absolute but relative, that Divine Revelation is not final but progressive. Theirs will be the conviction that an all-loving and ever-watchful Father Who, in the past, and at various stages in the evolution of mankind, has sent forth His Prophets as the Bearers of His Light to mankind, cannot at this critical period of their civilization withhold from His children the Guidance which they sorely need amid the darkness which has beset them, and which neither the light of science nor that of human intellect and wisdom can succeed in dissipating. And thus having recognized in Bahá’u’lláh the source whence this celestial light proceeds, they will irresistibly feel attracted to seek the shelter of His House, and congregate therein, unhampered by ceremonials and unfettered by creed, to render homage to the one true God, the Essence and Orb of eternal Truth, and to exalt and magnify the name of His Messengers and Prophets Who, from time immemorial even unto our day, have, under divers circumstances and in varying measure, mirrored forth to a dark and wayward world the light of heavenly Guidance.
But, however inspiring the conception of Bahá’í worship, as witnessed in the central Edifice of this exalted Temple, it cannot be regarded as the sole, nor even the essential, factor in the part which the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, as designed by Bahá’u’lláh, is destined to play in the organic life of the Bahá’í community. Divorced from the social, humanitarian, educational and scientific pursuits centering around the Dependencies of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, Bahá’í worship, however exalted in its conception, however passionate in fervor, can never hope to achieve beyond the meager and often transitory results produced by the contemplations of the ascetic or the communion of the passive worshipper. It cannot afford lasting satisfaction and benefit to the worshipper himself, much less to humanity in general, unless and until translated and transfused into that dynamic and disinterested service to the cause of humanity which it is the supreme privilege of the Dependencies of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár to facilitate and promote. Nor will the exertions, no matter how disinterested and strenuous, of those who within the precincts of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár will be engaged in administering the affairs of the future Bahá’í Commonwealth, fructify and prosper unless they are brought into close and daily communion with those spiritual agencies centering in and radiating from the central Shrine of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár. Nothing short of direct and constant interaction between the spiritual forces emanating from this House of Worship centering in the heart of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár, and the energies consciously displayed by those who administer its affairs in their service to humanity can possibly provide the necessary agency capable of removing the ills that have so long and so grievously afflicted humanity. For it is assuredly upon the consciousness of the efficacy of the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh, reinforced on one hand by spiritual communion with His Spirit, and on the other by the intelligent application and the faithful execution of the principles and laws He revealed, that the salvation of a world in travail . must ultimately depend. And of all the institutions that stand associated with His Holy Name, surely none save the institution of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár can most adequately provide the essentials of Bahá’í worship and service, both so vital to the regeneration of the world. Therein lies the secret of the loftiness, of the potency, of the unique position of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár as one of the outstanding institutions conceived by Bahá’u’lláh.
Dearly beloved friends! May we not as the trustees of so priceless a heritage, arise to fulfil our high destiny?
Mother Temple of the West[edit]
The Guardian describes Temple’s impact[edit]
... Significant has been the erection of the superstructure and the completion of the exterior ornamentation of the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the West, the noblest of the exploits which have immortalized the services of the American Bahá’í community to the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh. Consummated through the agency of an efficiently functioning and newly established Administrative Order, this enterprise has itself immensely enhanced the prestige, consolidated the strength and expanded the subsidiary institutions of the community that made its building possible.
Conceived forty-one years ago; originating with the petition spontaneously addressed, in March 1903 to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá by the “House of Spirituality” of the Bahá’ís of Chicago—the first Bahá’í center established in the Western world—the members of which, inspired by the example set by the builders of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of ‘Ishqábád, had appealed for permission to construct a similar Temple in America; blessed by His approval and high commendation in a Tablet revealed by Him in June of that same year; launched by the delegates of various American Assemblies, assembled in Chicago in November, 1907, for the purpose of choosing the site of the Temple; established on a national basis through a religious corporation known as the “Bahá’í Temple Unity,” which was incorporated shortly after the first American Bahá’í Convention held in that same city in March, 1909; honored through the dedication ceremony presided over by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
These passages by the beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, concerning the Bahá’í House of Worship in America are taken from God Passes By, chapter XXII, pp. 348-353.
... this enterprise (the Temple) has itself immensely enhanced the prestige, consolidated the strength and expanded the subsidiary institutions of the community that made its building possible.
Himself when visiting that site in May, 1912, this enterprise—the crowning achievement of the Administrative Order of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh in the first Bahá’í century—had, ever since that memorable occasion, been progressing intermittently until the time when the foundations of that Order having been firmly laid in the North American continent the American Bahá’í community was in a position to utilize the instruments which it had forged for the efficient prosecution of its task.
After the 1914 American Bahá’í Convention the purchase of the Temple property was completed. The 1920 Convention, held in New York, having been previously directed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to select the design of that Temple, chose from among a number of designs competitively submitted to it that of Louis J. Bourgeois, a French-Canadian architect, a selection that was later confirmed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself. The contracts for the sinking of the nine great caissons supporting the central portion of the building, extending to rock at a depth of 120 feet below the ground level, and for the construction of the basement structure, were successively awarded in December, 1920 and August, 1921. In August, 1930, in spite of the prevailing economic crisis, and during a period of unemployment unparalleled in American history, another contract, with twenty-four additional sub-contracts, for the erection of the superstructure was placed, and the work completed by May 1, 1931, on which day the first devotional service in the new structure was celebrated, coinciding with the 19th anniversary of the dedication of the grounds by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. The ornamentation of the dome was started in June, 1932, and finished in January, 1934. The ornamentation of the clerestory was completed in 1935, and that of the gallery unit below it in November, 1938. The mainstory ornamentation was, despite the outbreak of the present war, undertaken in April, 1940, and completed in July, 1942; whilst the eighteen circular steps were placed in position by December, 1942, seventeen months in advance of the centenary celebration of the Faith, by which time the exterior of the Temple was scheduled to be finished, and forty years after the petition of the Chicago believers had been submitted to and granted by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
This unique edifice, the first fruit of a slowly maturing Administrative Order, the noblest structure reared in the first Bahá’í century, and the symbol and precursor of a future world civilization, is situated in the heart of the North American continent, on the western shore of Lake Michigan, and is surrounded by its own grounds comprising a little less than seven acres. It has been financed, at cost of over a million dollars, by the American Bahá’í community, assisted at times by voluntary contributions of recognized believers in East and West, of Christian, of Muslim, of Jewish, of Zoroastrian, of Hindu and Buddhist extraction. It has been associated, in its initial phase, with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and in the concluding stages of its construction with the memory of the Greatest
[Page 7]
Holy Leaf, the Purest Branch and their
mother. The structure itself is a pure
white nonagonal building, of original
and unique design, rising from a flight
of white stairs encircling its base; and
surmounted by a majestic and beautifully proportioned dome, bearing nine
tapering symmetrically placed ribs of
decorative as well as structural significance, which soar to its apex and finally merge into a common unit pointing skyward. Its framework is constructed of structural steel enclosed in
concrete, the material of its ornamentation consisting of a combination of
crystalline quartz, opaque quartz and
white Portland cement, producing a
composition clear in texture, hard and
enduring as stone, impervious to the
elements, and cast into a design as delicate as lace. It soars 191 feet from the
floor of its basement to the culmination of the ribs, clasping the hemispherical dome which is forty-nine feet high, with an external diameter of
ninety feet, and one-third of the surface of which is perforated to admit
light during the day and emit light at
night. It is buttressed by pylons forty-five feet in height, and bears above its
nine entrances, one of which faces
‘Akká, nine selected quotations from
the writings of Bahá’u’lláh, as well as
the Greatest Name in the center of each
of the arches over its doors. It is consecrated exclusively to worship, devoid
of all ceremony and ritual, is provided
with an auditorium which can seat
1600 people, and is to be supplemented
by accessory institutions of social service to be established in its vicinity,
such as an orphanage, a hospital, a dispensary for the poor, a home for the
incapacitated, a hostel for travelers
and a college for the study of arts and
sciences. It had already, long before its
construction, evoked, and is now increasingly evoking, though its interior
ornamentation is as yet unbegun, such
interest and comment, in the public
press, in technical journals and in
magazines, of both the United States
and other countries, as to justify the
hopes and expectations entertained for
it by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. Its model exhibited
at Art centers, galleries, state fairs and
national expositions—among which
may be mentioned the Century of Progress Exhibition, held in Chicago in
1933, where no less than ten thousand
people, passing through the Hall of Religions, must have viewed it every
day—its replica forming a part of the
permanent exhibit of the Museum of
Science and Industry in Chicago; its
doors now thronged by visitors from
far and near, whose number, during
the period from June, 1932, to October, 1941, has exceeded 130,000 people, representing almost every country
‘When the foundation of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár is laid in America, and that Divine Edifice is completed, a most wonderful and thrilling motion will appear in the world of existence ...’
in the world, this great “Silent Teacher” of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, it may be confidently asserted, has contributed to the diffusion of the knowledge of His Faith and teachings in a measure which no other single agency, operating within the framework of its Administrative Order, has ever remotely approached.
“When the foundation of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár is laid in America,” ‘Abdu’l-Bahá Himself has predicted, “and that Divine Edifice is completed, a most wonderful and thrilling motion will appear in the world of existence ... From that point of light the spirit of teaching, spreading the Cause of God and promoting the teachings of God, will permeate to all parts of the world.” “Out of this Mashriqu’l-Adhkár,” He has affirmed in the Tablets of the Divine Plan, “without doubt, thousands of Mashriqu’l-Adhkárs will be born.” “It marks,” He, furthermore, has written, “the inception of the Kingdom of God on earth,” And again: “It is the manifest Standard waving in the center of that great continent.” “Thousands of Mashriqu’l-Adhkárs,” He, when dedicating the grounds of the Temple, declared, “... will be built in the East and in the West, but this, being the first erected in the Occident, has great importance.” “This organization of the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár,” He, referring to that edifice, has moreover stated, “will be a model for the coming centuries, and will hold the station of the mother.”
“Its inception,” the Architect of the Temple has himself testified, “was not from man, for, as musicians, artists, poets receive their inspiration from another realm, so the Temple’s architect, through all his years of labor, was ever conscious that Bahá’u’lláh was the creator of this building to be erected to His glory.” “Into this new design,” he, furthermore, has written, “... is woven, in symbolic form, the great Bahá’í teaching of unity—the unity of all religions of all mankind. There are combinations of mathematical lines, symbolizing those of the universe, and in their intricate merging of circle into circle, and circle within circle, we visualize the merging of all the religions into one.” And again: “A circle of steps, eighteen in all, will surround the structure on the outside, and lead to the auditorium floor. These eighteen steps represent the eighteen first disciples of the Báb, and the door to which they lead stands for the Báb Himself.” “As the essence of the pure original teachings of the historic religions was the same ... in the Bahá’í Temple is used a composite architecture, expressing the essence in the line of each of the great architectural styles, harmonizing them into one whole.”
‘Temple of Light’[edit]
‘It is the first new idea in architecture since the 13th century,’ declared a distinguished architect, H. Van Buren Magonigle, President of the Architectural League, after gazing upon a plaster model of the Temple on exhibition in the Engineering Societies Building in New York, in June 1920. “The Architect,” he, moreover, has stated, “has conceived a Temple of Light in which structure, as usually understood, is to be concealed, visible support eliminated as far as possible, and the whole fabric to take on the airy substance of a dream. It is a lacy envelope enshrining an idea, the idea of light, a shelter of cobweb interposed between earth and sky, struck through and through with light—light which shall partly consume the forms and make of it a thing of faery.”
“In the geometric forms of the ornamentation,” a writer in the well-known publication Architectural Record has written, “covering the columns and surrounding windows and doors of the Temple, one deciphers all the religious symbols of the world. Here are
[Page 8]
the swastika, the circle, the cross, the
triangle, the double triangle or six
pointed star (Solomon’s seal)—but
more than this—the noble symbol of
the spiritual orb ... the five pointed
star; the Greek Cross, the Roman
cross, and supreme above all, the wonderful nine pointed star, figured in the
structure of the Temple itself, and appearing again and again in its ornamentation as significant of the spiritual
glory in the world today.”
“The greatest creation since the Gothic period,” is the testimony of George Grey Barnard, one of the most widely-known sculptors in the United States of America, “and the most beautiful I have ever seen.”
“This is a new creation,” Prof. Luigi Quaglino, ex-professor of Architecture from Turin declared, after viewing the model, “which will revolutionize architecture in the world, and it is the most beautiful I have ever seen. Without doubt it will have a lasting page in history. It is a revelation from another world.”
“Americans,” wrote Sherwin Cody, in the magazine section of the New York Times, of the model of the Temple, when exhibited in the Kevorkian Gallery in New York, “will have to pause long enough to find that an artist has wrought into this building the conception of a Religious League of Nations.” And lastly, this tribute paid to the features of, and the ideals embodied in, this Temple—the most sacred House of Worship in the Bahá’í world, whether of the present or of the future—by Dr. Rexford Newcomb, Dean of the College of Fine and Applied Arts at the University of Illinois:
“This ‘Temple of Light’ opens upon the terrain of human experience nine great doorways which beckon men and women of every race and clime, of every faith and conviction, of every condition of freedom or servitude, to enter here into a recognition of that kinship and brotherhood without which the modern world will be able to make little further progress ... The dome, pointed in form, aiming as assuredly as did the aspiring lines of the medieval cathedrals toward higher and better things, achieves not only through its symbolism but also through its structural propriety and sheer loveliness of form, a beauty not matched by any domical structure since the construction of Michelangelo’s dome on the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome.”
Mother Temple of the West[edit]
The structure of the House of Worship[edit]
The Temple in Wilmette will be a beautiful building. It will be rich in decoration consistently carried out. Its color will be nearly white, which is appropriate for a structure of this monumental character.
The Temple is being built from plans made by Mr. Louis Bourgeois, an architect of many years’ experience and great artistic ability. The design was selected in a competition among a number of architects, held in New York City in 1919. All of the com- petitors were of the Bahá’í Faith, and thus had the inspiration and enthusiasm of their religious belief to aid them in their efforts.
In presenting his design Mr. Bourgeois submitted a model of the building which he had molded and carved largely with his own hands—a most painstaking and tedious work. This model was sent to Chicago and exhibited at the Art Institute in May, 1921. As soon as a suitable place is available at the Temple it will be reassembled there. This model was so carefully made that it was closely followed in making full size detail drawings.
The location of the building is in the southeast section of Wilmette. On the east and northeast is Sheridan Road, with an unobstructed outlook upon Lake Michigan. Northeasterly the view is across the Wilmette Harbor and the Lake Front Park of Wilmette. To the west and northwest the property is bounded by the Drainage Channel and
This address entitled “The Structure of the Bahá’í Temple” was given by Major Henry J. Burt, who was then engineer of the House of Worship, before the Wilmette chapter of the American Association of Engineers on November 2, 1922. It is reprinted from The Bahá’í World, Vol. II (1926-28), pp. 116-119.
across the channel is the park area which was recently contributed to the Wilmette Park Board.
By these surroundings the Temple is protected against the encroachment of other buildings on all sides save the south and as this will probably be residence property permanently, there will not be any serious interference. In all other directions no buildings are likely to be erected within a distance of one thousand feet. For the most part the ground is about twenty-five feet above the lake level. There will be a terraced approach to form the base of the Temple. From this terrace steps will lead up to the main floor, nine feet higher.
The central portion of the building is a single space extending from the main floor up to the inner shell of the dome. Around this area are nine rooms extending to the outer wall of the first section.
The portion of the structure which is now enclosed is the basement. The top of the present construction is the first floor level. The top of the terrace will be at the top of the outside wall and the sloping surface from this wall inward is the base for the steps that will encircle the superstructure.
The superstructure, for convenience of description, can be divided into three sections. The first section extends from the main floor to the first gallery, the second section from the first gallery to the second gallery and the third section from the second gallery to the top of the dome.
At each of the balcony levels there are large windows, partially screened by tracery, which would give ample light in daytime and which will stand out in great brilliance when the structure is lighted at night.
The extreme height of the structure from the first floor to the pinnacle of the dome is 161 feet.
The height of the first gallery above the main floor is 36 feet and the distance from the first gallery to the second gallery is 45 feet.
The distance from the second gallery to the base of the dome is 19 feet.
The height of the dome proper, leaving out of account the projecting ribs, is 49 feet.
The minarets guarding the first story of the structure rise to a height of 45 feet above the first floor.
The extreme diameter of the basement is 202 feet.
The diameter at the top of the steps is 152 feet.
The central portion of the building is a single space extending from the main floor up to the inner shell of the dome. Around this area are nine rooms extending to the outer wall of the first section. One of these rooms or spaces is assigned to stairway. The others are for use as enclosed rooms.
Domed ceiling[edit]
In the basement the central portion is a single room with a domed ceiling having a height of approximately 25 feet from the floor to the crown. Outside of this central area, the space can be divided according to the uses to be made of it and this has not been quite fully developed. In general, however, the space under the steps will be used for the installation of the mechanical apparatus such as the electrical switch board room, and heating coils and fans for the heating and ventilation system, for plumbing and temporarily for heating plant. The remainder of the space under the steps will be suitable for
[Page 10]
storage. It is the intention of the architect to preserve in this space all of the
models which are required for molding
the exterior of the building. The remainder of the basement space will be
subdivided for such uses as may be required.
Crowning feature[edit]
There are a number of interesting structural features in connection with this building. The designer, in attacking a structure of this kind, usually begins at the top and works downward. The crowning feature of the building is, of course, the dome. The masonry of this dome is to be perforated for the purpose of admitting light from the outside during the daytime and for the purpose of throwing out light at night. The masonry is, therefore, only a screen or tracery and not a roof.
The area of the perforations is about thirty per cent of the area of the surface. While this masonry could be made self-supporting, it was not considered expedient to do so, so it is supported by a steel framework. This framework consists of a series of ribs, spaced about nine feet apart at the base and coming together at the top with a suitable bracing between the ribs.
This metal skeleton then forms the base for the masonry screen above it. The roof will be made of glass inside of and entirely free from the masonry dome. This will be a difficult piece of work to construct on account of its shape. It will have to be a wire glass set in metal frames. Some of the frames need to be hinged so that they can be opened for ventilation and for cleaning, more particularly for the latter purpose.
Lower down comes the inner dome or ceiling. This has an independent steel framework made of arched ribs with the bracing between, similar to the framework of the outer dome. This will support the inner envelope of glass. This inner glass may be in the form of mosaics or ornament. The weight of the dome is supported at nine points. At each of these points is a group of four columns extending from the base of the dome down to the foundations.
Following the structure downward, these columns gradually accumulate the weight of the dome and the floors until in the lowest section they carry a very considerable burden amounting to about one and one-half million pounds at each of the nine points.
In order to have a big central space in the basement, 72 feet in diameter, the ceiling and floor above had to be supported without the use of interior columns. To provide this support it was decided to use a reinforced concrete dome. As the dome is perfectly regular in its outline and uniformly loaded, it was not particularly difficult to design nor was it extremely difficult to construct although the construction offered some difficulties.
The shell of the dome is 12 inches thick. It is reinforced with two layers of steel rods, one near the top and one near the bottom. Each of these layers is made up of rods in radial position and others in circumferential position. For its final support, this dome rests on the concrete encasements of the steel columns.
In general the framework of the structure is of reinforced concrete except the supports of the dome, which are structural steel. The structural steel consists principally of the nine groups of four columns each which extend from the basement level to the springing line of the dome and the structural steel dome framing. There are some odd members of structural steel in the first story and, of course, there is structural steel bracing between the columns. The framing of the first story outside of the dome section is of reinforced concrete as is all of the first floor framing and all of the columns other than the main columns just described.
The foundation problem is a somewhat intricate one. There are heavy loads at the nine points which support the main dome. At the other points the loads are comparatively light, carrying as they do only one floor and a roof together with walls. As a matter of sentiment as well as a matter of safety, it was desired to have the dome supported from bedrock. On this basis the foundations for the dome consist of nine piers extending to rock at a depth of 120 feet below the ground level.
The contract for the basement section, including the pile foundations, was let in August 1921, to be completed about January 1st, 1922. The basement section has just been completed and, as winter is again at hand, no effort will be made to go ahead with the superstructure until spring.
Mother Temple of the West[edit]
A word from the architect of the Temple[edit]
The Master, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, told us that the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár will symbolize the body of the Manifestation among men. Of supreme importance, then, to all Bahá’ís, and especially to those of us who live in America is the building of this great edifice at Wilmette, Illinois, by the shores of beautiful Lake Michigan.
The history of this Temple, as step by step it unfolds, is so unique that already the story will fill a book. Its inception was not from man for, as musicians, artists, poets receive their inspiration from another realm, feel themselves to be a receiver by whose means a heavenly melody is transmitted, a new idea is given to the world, so the Temple’s architect through all his years of labor was ever conscious that Bahá’u’lláh was the creator of this building to be erected to His glory. And the architect’s belief was confirmed in a talk with the beloved Master.
When the man-made creeds are stripped away from all the religions we find nothing left but harmony. Today, however, religion is so entangled in the superstitions and hypotheses of men that it must needs be stated in a new form to be once again pure and undefiled. Likewise in architecture those fundamental structural lines which originated in the faith of all religions are the same, but so covered over are they with the decorations picturing creed upon creed and superstition after superstition that we must needs lay them aside and create a new form of ornamentation.
Into this new design, then, of the
This article by Louis Bourgeois, entitled “A Word from the Architect of the Temple,” is reprinted from The Bahá’í World, Vol. III (1928-30), p. 155.
The studio in which architect Louis Bourgeois completed his plans for the Mother Temple of the West in Wilmette, Illinois, now serves as the U.S. National Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds. The building is directly across from the House of Worship on Sheridan Road.
Temple is woven, in symbolic form,
the great Bahá’í teaching of unity—the
unity of all religions and of all mankind. There are combinations of
mathematical lines, symbolizing those
of the universe, and in their intricate
merging of circle into circle, of circle
within circle, we visualize the merging
of all the religions into one.
On the first floor of the Bahá’í Temple there will be the great auditorium of the building, above which will rise the stately dome, 162 feet high. A corridor encircles the dome on the outside, and inside the building is a circle of rooms, or alcoves, all opening upon the main auditorium. A circle of steps, eighteen in all, will surround the structure on the outside and lead to the auditorium floor. These eighteen steps represent the eighteen first disciples of the Báb, and the door to which they lead stands for the Báb Himself.
In the rear of the building will be steps leading to the first and second balconies which, tier above tier, follow the circular dome. In the second balcony choirs of children will sing their songs of praise to God, the all-glorious.
The auditorium under the dome, with its beautiful molded tracery, will be protected inside by a glass dome and in the space between the stone dome and the glass dome will be placed electric lights which will shine through the auditorium. On the dome’s pinnacle there will be a sunken room and this will house a mighty search light. Through the nine faces made by the ribs which will bind the dome into a unity this search light will radiate its star-like rays.
Mother Temple of the West[edit]
‘... a unified, integrated entity ...’[edit]
A good many years have passed since Louis Bourgeois conceived and developed the design for the Temple in Wilmette. These intervening years have seen perhaps as rapid and violent a change in prevailing concepts of architecture as the world has ever known. In 1920 and the years immediately preceding, American architecture was in the grip of rigid stylism, of painstaking archaeology. In 1950 American architecture has abandoned eclecticism and is committed to a wholehearted expression of function and structure as the supreme objective.
The Bahá’í Temple typifies neither point of view. Had Bourgeois been content to swim along in the main stream of 1920 American architecture he would have clad his design in a medley of architectural styles. Instead he put away his books of archaeology and brought forth a flowing, dynamic type of ornamentation that defies placing as to specific source. Were we to follow the prevailing fashion of 1950 as we complete the interior we would simply leave exposed the concrete framework of the interior and probably do a lot of talking about the honesty, integrity and beauty of naked, unabashed structures—perhaps a little whitewash and a few accents of color and form and we would consider it complete.
But all of us who are Bahá’ís during this thrilling period of completing this most holy House of Worship, know that our Temple is something quite apart from any architectural fashion of
This article, “Architecture of the Temple Interior,” by Robert W. McLaughlin, a member of the Bahá’í Technical Advisory Board, is reprinted from The Bahá’í World, Vol. XII (1950-54), pp. 528-29.
the moment. When our Temple is completed it will be a unified, integrated entity, although designed and built in a period of swiftly moving change. The Guardian has directed that it be so, and of course that is the only way that a Bahá’í Temple can be.
When we enter one of the nine entrances to the Temple, some time in the spring of 1951, we will find the old temporary wooden doors removed, and simple but fine aluminum and glass substituted. The wooden crossbars above are to be removed and two large pieces of clear glass installed in each opening—there would be only one piece, except for the pressures of high winds off Lake Michigan. These large areas of glass will show, from the inside of the Temple the ornament on the back of some of the exterior columns and arches.
The concrete piers in the bays have already been finished as round columns. A picture of these appeared in the Bahá’í News for December, 1949. The design of these columns makes no attempt to copy heavy, masonry forms. They taper towards the bottom rather than towards the top as has been the case with masonry columns for milleniums past. In so doing they register as surface treatment and not as massive masonry, for the load is carried by the concrete pier within. Vertical joints, instead of being staggered in usual masonry fashion, are lined one above the other, further recognizing the surface qualities of the material. The marble base of the column will be recessed rather than projecting in the usual manner. We can see already, at the Temple, the lightness and grace, as well as the great dignity, of these columns.
The ceiling of each bay consists of a pair of ogee curves meeting in a straight line at the top. A lighting trough carries around each bay between columns, and silhouetted in front will be the nine inscriptions selected by the Guardian. Color can be applied to the ceilings, and there is space for draperies against the outside wall, between windows.
In the main portion of the Temple there are, of course, the nine pairs of columns which rise to the springing of the dome. These columns are even now being finished with square sections of the surface material, and between each pair of columns rises a brilliant panel of ornament, clear to the springing of the dome. Our architect, Alfred Shaw, has felt from the very start of his work that he wanted to recapture the scale and quality of the exterior ornament of the dome. That he has at last fully done so is clear to those who have watched his designs progress from sketches to detailed drawings, to clay models, plaster casts, and finally to the executed panels. These nine great vertical panels of vibrant, flowing ornament eventually find their way into the detail of the dome.
[Page 13]
Between the nine panels and pairs of
piers are first the main story arches,
then the gallery arches, and finally the
smaller interlacing arches of the triforium gallery. At each of the main
story arches is a nine pointed star on
which will be inscribed the Greatest
Name. The Guardian has sent a detail
of this inscription, which is to be followed exactly lest any Occidental liberties with epigraphy offend a practiced eye.
The dome has been brilliantly designed with an interlacing of flowing ornament, culminating in the Greatest Name at the zenith. The interior dome, like the exterior treatment, will be pierced, to transmit light.
To have watched the development of the interior design has been a thrilling experience. The complete willingness and desire of our distinguished architect, Alfred Shaw, to merge his great creative powers into the background of the over-all concept of the Temple has been stirring and deeply and gratefully admired. The problem has been difficult technically if only because of the absolute necessity of integrating what is being done in 1950 to form a harmonious entity with what was conceived before 1920.
But in only a little more than a year from now, given the necessary flow of funds, the Temple interior will have been completed. And it is going to be very beautiful.
The world[edit]
Marianas campaign includes ‘60 Minutes’[edit]
A 13-week proclamation campaign launched January 18 by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Mariana Islands included a series of 30-second spot announcements in prime time on the highly acclaimed and popular weekly program “60 Minutes” televised from Guam.
The campaign also included radio spots and newspaper ads.
Messages about the Faith were broadcast on a local radio station each weekday morning at a time when many people were in their cars on the way to work.
Bahá’ís participated in a “prayer campaign” that ran concurrently with the media proclamation. Each morning, the friends read the “Tablet of Aḥmad” and a special prayer for teaching.
Meanwhile, Bahá’ís on Saipan were preparing to launch a proclamation campaign using announcements in a newspaper and on radio.
Australia[edit]
The Hand of the Cause of God Collis Featherstone joined more than 300 Bahá’ís from all parts of Australia at a conference last October 10-12 in Adelaide that was sponsored by the Continental Board of Counsellors in Australasia in collaboration with the National Spiritual Assembly of Australia.
The conference theme was the emergence of a new world through the spread of the Faith to all parts of the planet and through the concomitant unfoldment of the Administrative Order.
Other participants included Counsellor Peter Khan, four members of the National Spiritual Assembly of Australia, and three Auxiliary Board members.
Analysis of the progress of the goals of the Seven Year Plan brought news of several new Local Spiritual Assemblies and an increased rate of enrollments.
A high point of the conference was an audio-visual presentation highlighting the growth of the Australian Bahá’í community during the past 50 years including its expanding role in the Pacific area.
Each session was opened by a Bahá’í youth who read from the Writings. The entire conference was videotaped for later use during deepening classes.
Dominican Republic[edit]
Children in the Dominican Republic listen to Derek Risk (foreground), a member of one of the Bahá’í teaching teams that participated in last summer’s three-month teaching campaign, talk about the Faith. As a result of the campaign, 30 localities were opened to the Faith and three new Local Spiritual Assemblies were formed.
Thirty localities were opened to the Faith and three Local Spiritual Assemblies were elected during a three-month teaching campaign that was carried out last June through August in the Dominican Republic.
The project, which resulted from a teaching conference in La Romana early in June, was inspired by the message on mass teaching from the Universal House of Justice and sustained by the prayers of the Supreme Body.
The campaign in the eastern part of the country was largely carried out by youth with the help of adult Bahá’ís who were able to participate more fully on weekends.
Papua New Guinea[edit]
The academic excellence achieved by these Bahá’í students in Papua New Guinea was reported in an article published in a Rabaul newspaper that also published a photo of the young believers under the headline “Bahá’í Student Successes.” Jenny Homerang (left) was graduated with top marks from the Rabaul Secretarial College. Qudrat Larawin (center) was the top student in grade six in all the community schools of the Gazella Peninsula area. Poigo Willie was voted the top girl guide of the year.
Suhayl ‘Alá’í (left of center), a member of the Continental Board of Counsellors for Australasia, attended a meeting last June in Rabaul, Papua New Guinea, at which a film showing the laying of the cornerstone for the Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of Samoa was presented to a group of 50 believers and their guests including a number of children.
Korea[edit]
More than 50 people attended a national Bahá’í youth conference last October in Seoul, Korea, the first such conference held in that country in 10 years.
Youth from Pusan, Taejun, Anyang and Seoul participated in the conference, which was conducted entirely in Korean except for a moving presentation by Auxiliary Board member Fereydoun Mithaqiyan on the joy of accepting persecution and martyrdom for the Faith.
The steadfastness and courage demonstrated during the current wave of persecutions in Iran was depicted in a play written by a Bahá’í from Seoul that was performed at the conference.
Kim Chang Jin, one of the earliest believers in Korea, recalled his youth and summarized the early history of the Faith, which was established in Korea some 60 years ago as a result of the devoted service of the Hand of the Cause of God Agnes Alexander.
Consultation by groups of participants from various communities focused on the development of local goals to be implemented in those communities. Many felt that this was the most significant achievement of the conference.
Togo[edit]
Among those who joined local believers in a six-week teaching campaign last fall that encompassed 33 localities in goal areas of Togo were Bahá’ís from Niger, a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of Bénin, and a traveling teacher from the World Centre.
Early results include enrollments in 15 new localities; four all-Bahá’í villages; the enrollment of four tribal chiefs; and the formation of two Spiritual Assemblies.
The Message was taken to members of the Kabyé, Bassar, Ana, Kotokoli, Tchokossi and Gourma tribes.
India[edit]
Shown here are Dangis Bahá’ís in one of the villages between Bombay and Ahmadabad, India. Each of the more than 300 villages in the Dang tribal area north of Bombay now has a Local Spiritual Assembly. A girl in the front row is holding a photo of a model of the House of Worship now being built near New Delhi.
Auxiliary Board member Mr. Furudi (second from right) and Dr. Marco Kappenberger, a traveling teacher from Switzerland (right) are shown with a family of Bahá’ís on the front porch of a local Bahá’í Center in the Dang tribal area between Bombay and Ahmadabad, India. There are now Local Spiritual Assemblies in each of the more than 300 Dangis villages in that area of India, according to Dr. Kappenberger.
Trinidad/Tobago[edit]
Shown here are Bahá’ís who attended the North Area Teaching Conference last October 25 at the National Bahá’í Center in Woodbrook, Port of Spain, Trinidad. The conference was one of six area gatherings planned for Bahá’í Year 138.
Brazil[edit]
The National Spiritual Assembly of Brazil sent a telegram of congratulations and one of its members to speak at the graduation ceremonies last December 12 for five young believers who were graduated as engineers in materials from the Federal University of São Carlos.
Speaking on behalf of the Bahá’í community of Brazil, Dorian Seabra of the National Spiritual Assembly addressed more than 500 friends and relatives of the university’s graduating class of 32 students.
Entrance examinations for state and federal universities in Brazil are quite difficult, limiting acceptance to only 10 percent of all applicants.
Three of the recent Bahá’í graduates were members of the first Spiritual Assembly of São Carlos that was formed in 1980 and composed entirely of university faculty and students.
South and West Africa[edit]
One hundred twenty-seven Bahá’ís including youth from Lesotho, Bophuthatswana and Transkei, as well as from Kwa Zulu, Ceiskei, Natal and Johannesburg, South Africa, attended an International Youth Conference last October in Shalima near Potchefstroom in the Transvaal. Forty of the participants are pioneers.
A cable to the Universal House of Justice said participants were “filled overwhelming spirit Bahá’í law” and requested “prayers for spiritual growth of youth of southern Africa.”
Among the speakers at the conference were Continental Counsellor William Masehla, four members of the National Spiritual Assemblies involved, and four Auxiliary Board members.
Canada[edit]
Two hundred Bahá’ís attended a fund-raising dinner and dance last October 24 in Pickering, Ontario, Canada, that was planned in response to a call from the Universal House of Justice for an increase in contributions to the International Fund because Iranian believers presently are unable to contribute to that Fund. The event, planned by members of the Bahá’í community of Pickering that includes 16 adults and two youth, raised $2,200 for the Fund.
About 200 non-Bahá’í guests were among an audience of 500 last December 10 in Vancouver, Canada, for a program entitled “The Persecution of the Bahá’ís in Iran: A Holocaust in the Making.”
The program, organized by the Spiritual Assembly of West Vancouver, had as its main speaker Douglas Martin, a member of the National Spiritual Assembly of Canada.
Slides were used to illustrate a comprehensive report of the recent persecution of the Iranian Bahá’í community.
A focal point of the program was a report on the responses thus far by agencies of the United Nations, the International Human Rights Commission, the world media and various governments.
The idea for the meeting sprang from a conference on the Iranian crisis called last November 1 by the National Spiritual Assembly and attended by the friends in Vancouver.
With only a few weeks to prepare for the December meeting, the Bahá’ís made the necessary arrangements including distribution of more than 2,000 invitations to seekers and members of humanitarian and other organizations in the greater Vancouver area.
Initial reports from Canada’s “Arctic Project” in the vast reaches of the
Northwest Territories are showing
great results.
In Baker Lake, nine persons have enrolled in the Faith, and 11 others have been enrolled in Rankin Inlet.
In Frobisher Bay, authorities were approached, and in Makenzie Delta contact has been established with great numbers of people who were enrolled during the Five Year Plan.
More good reports are expected from teams returning from “Canada’s most difficult teaching environment—the Arctic.”
El Salvador[edit]
Three hundred forty-two people including 12 seekers attended El Salvador’s Bahá’í summer school last December 31-January 3 at Santa Tecla.
Presentations covered a wide range of topics including prayer, fasting, the Funds, teaching, life after death, the fulfillment of prophecy by the coming of Bahá’u’lláh, and the present situation in Iran.
Group study sessions focused on major themes in the books Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era and The Pattern of Bahá’í Life.
AVAILABLE FROM
Your Bahá’í Publishing Trust or
National Bahá’í Distribution Center
The Seven Martyrs
of Hurmuzak
Muḥammad Labib
Translated and with a Foreword by Moojan Momen
In July 1955 occurred an event all too common in modern Iranian history — a group of innocent people were violently murdered for the simple reason that they were members of the Bahá’í Faith. The incident described in this little book was only one element in a wave of persecution of the Bahá’ís in Iran during that year. But it has been particularly well documented, since the author was able to interview a survivor very shortly after the killings, and to take photographs showing the destruction. In addition there are newspaper reports of the subsequent trial.
The events described in this book are not unlike some of those depicted by Nabíl in his classic account of the early years of the Bábi-Bahá’í Faith. In the current circumstances of the Bahá’í community in Iran this book is both timely and valuable as a reminder of what the Bahá’í Faith has suffered in the land of its birth under many different regimes.
80 pp, 20.9 x 13.8 cm (8¼ x 5½ in) 23 illustrations
Cased and paper editions.
Khánum, The Greatest Holy Leaf
As Remembered by Marzieh Gail
For Bahá’ís, the woman commemorated in this essay is of the same rank as Mary, the Mother of Jesus, Fáṭimih, daughter of Muḥammad, and Ṭáhirih, disciple of the Báb. She is known as Bahíyyih Khánum, the Greatest Holy Leaf, the daughter of Bahá’u’lláh.
This essay by Marzieh Gail calls to mind the story of this great lady, the sorrow she experienced, the services she rendered, the love she inspired and gave. And it illumines surprising and delightful aspects of her character — human, understanding, and down-to-earth. Here are memories of personal meetings when the author was young, set down with the freshness and vivid observation which her readers have come to expect. There are also valuable glimpses of the family of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and of the young Shoghi Effendi. Interwoven into the essay are incidents from the author’s own biography and that of her family, which brought them near to the Greatest Holy Leaf.
Published to commemorate the Fiftieth Anniversary of the passing of Bahíyyih Khánum.
48 pp, 19.8 x 12.9cm (7¾ x 5 in), colour frontispiece.
Hardcover edition.
