The American Bahá’í/Volume 9/August Special/Text
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[Page 1]
A Nation Arises!
New Spirit Driving U.S. Bahá’ís to Victory[edit]
The Bahá’í communities of Berkeley, Albany, El Cerrito and Richmond, California, observed the second Victory Weekend (June 24-25) with a variety of events including a Unity Picnic at Berkeley’s Live Oak Park that drew some 85 people, 25 of whom were non-Bahá’ís. Saturday evening, Bahá’ís and seekers attended a fellowship gathering that featured the filmstrip, “ ‘Abdu’l-Bahá: Glimpses of Perfection.” Sunday’s activities included prayers, workshops, and direct teaching in the nearby community of San Pablo. Here, Jamai Dueberry of Berkeley (left) and Nadi Hofmann of Munich, Germany, put up posters to set the theme for the Bahá’í Unity Picnic.
A new spirit is sweeping across the nation. Every day, the National Teaching Committee office receives news of victories being won by the many believers who are teaching in all parts of the country. So inspiring is this news that this issue of The American Bahá’í is devoted to the teaching activities.
More than SEVENTY-FIVE mass teaching/mass consolidation projects are under way in the United States. They have generated HUNDREDS of declarations and more than FOUR HUNDRED SIXTY enrollments since most of the projects began in early June.
FIFTY-ONE Assemblies have been raised up this year since Riḍván; this is more than were raised up during the entire last year when FORTY-NINE Assemblies were formed. With the present rate of Assembly formations, we should reach 1,100 by the end of September.
The National Teaching Committee has sent mailgrams to FORTY-NINE Districts asking that their team teaching projects continue to the end of the Plan in order to ensure the formation of 1,400 Local Spiritual Assemblies.
NORTH TEXAS — Declarations in North Texas have increased to more than ONE HUNDRED with TWENTY-TWO enrollments. Reports indicate the TWO Groups of Canyon and Plainview are preparing to form their Assemblies as consolidation efforts continue to confirm new believers into the Faith. The teaching project is still under way with weekend teaching activities endeavoring to open FIVE more localities including Claude, Fritch, Panhandle, Phillips, and White.
California: Victory Team Marches to Success[edit]
Bearing their state-wide standard, “ONE PLANET, ONE PEOPLE... PLEASE,” California’s Victory Team is marching toward a successful completion of all its assigned goals.
Current statistics indicate that, as a result of the teaching efforts of the Victory Team, more than NINE HUNDRED interest cards have been received; ONE HUNDRED SIXTY-TWO people have declared their belief in Bahá’u’lláh; and ONE HUNDRED TWENTY-TWO new believers have been enrolled.
The California Regional Teaching Committee reported to the National Teaching Office that THREE new Assemblies in Brawley, Lemon Grove and Los Banos have formed and are continuing with their consolidation efforts.
Carol Allen, Secretary of the California Regional Teaching Committee, said that TWELVE additional Assemblies — Calabasas-Topanga, La Canada-Flintridge, Lakewood, Lynwood, Morro Bay, Pacific Grove, Rosemead, Santa Maria J.D., South San Francisco, Spring Valley, Suisun City, and
New York:
Large Teaching Upsurge Points Way To Victory[edit]
Since Riḍván, New York has formed FIVE Assemblies in the goal localities of Babylon, Jamestown, Scarsdale, Smithtown and White Plains. There have been SEVENTEEN enrollments as a result of the intensive teaching efforts in the Saranac Lake and Rochester areas.
Augmenting the upswing in teaching in the specially designated state is the nationally sponsored road show “New World Light Company”. The road show has given performances in EIGHT different locations in and about New York. At each performance the road show is averaging an attendance of FORTY non-Bahá’ís.
In the town of Hudson, which has a population of 6,000, nearly FOUR HUNDRED people attended the performance; NINE interest cards were received at the show.
FIFTY non-Bahá’ís attended and there was ONE enrollment when the road show played in Saranac Lake. In Lake Placid, the performers were so busy
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Illinois:
Country’s Heartland on Move[edit]
With the Mother Temple of the West gracing its shores on Lake Michigan and the Bahá’í National Center generating spirit and channeling energy for a successful completion of the Five Year Plan, the goal state of Illinois has been designated the HEARTLAND of the American Bahá’í community.
In keeping with that spirit, the Illinois Regional Teaching Committee has implemented an
District Conventions Add New Dimension[edit]
District Conventions October 1 will take on a new dimension. The agenda will focus on the goals of the District yet to be won. The National Spiritual Assembly will send a separate message to each Convention which will highlight the progress of each District in fulfilling its assigned goals. In addition, the National Treasurer’s Office will send a filmstrip showing sacrificial efforts to teach the Faith and highlighting the “needs of the present hour.”
Because of the necessity to consult on the District’s current teaching goals, there will be no National Committee reports to be read at the Convention.
The consultation portion of the Convention will not be a time for discussing what the plans should have been nor for canvassing new ones. Rather, consultation will concentrate on one thing — carrying out the District’s current teaching plans. District Conventions will be the vehicle for channeling the upsurge in spirit and dedication toward achieving the specific goals yet to be won in each particular District.
The spirit of the District Convention is to revolve around the idea of “here is the goal to be won and here is how to win it.” The District Teaching Committees are being instructed by the National Teaching Committee to have available at the Convention information on each of the goal localities to assist the friends in a dispersal and relocation process as a method of filling the remaining goals. Displays and other materials are to be set up to assist each and every individual to gain a clear understanding of the needs of his particular District, where it stands in terms of winning its goals, and, in short, what is needed to fill the remaining goals.
The National Teaching Committee announced to the delegates at the National Convention it felt it essential to add the ingredient of mass teaching/mass consolidation projects to any plan the friends now have or else the expansion goals will not be won. The committee wishes the friends to continue and expand the use of individual firesides, as this is one of the most effective teaching, as well as consolidation, tools we have. Nevertheless, since the fireside method has not brought about sufficient enrollments to achieve our goals, the committee felt the need to call for increased development of mass teaching projects that also included ingredients for mass consolidation activities.
At a meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, on August 12–13, the Bahá’ís involved in mass teaching/mass consolidation projects stated that there is an urgent need for ongoing firesides in each locality. After several days of working with new inquirers, a place is needed to which the seeker can be taken to gain a fuller understanding of the Faith. The fireside fills this need. Even those who enroll quickly need the fireside as a deepening experience.
UNIVERSAL PARTICIPATION — All of the friends can be included in the intensive teaching activities. Those who feel uncomfortable with street teaching activity should be made to feel comfortable by participating in other ways — assisting in the consolidation work, supporting the teaching teams through such things as planning, logistics, assisting with cooking, etc. If the friends do not wish to be involved in the project, certainly they should continue with their own personal teaching and their own individual firesides, as well as support the projects with their prayers.
INTEREST CARDS & FOLLOW UP – THE KEYS TO SUCCESS — In the California Victory Campaign and renewed campaigns in South Carolina, the interest card has been found to be an invaluable aid in the teaching work. Those who make the initial contact follow up within 24 hours to make certain the interest is really there. The enrolling agency is notified when the newly found seeker is ready. Not everyone may be ready to declare his faith in Bahá’u’lláh quickly, but may feel the spirit and wish to follow up his interest at a later date. The interest card facilitates this process. The friends should make certain a genuine interest exists, that they have found a waiting soul, rather than simply try to get a lot of cards signed!
The Hotel Colorado in Glenwood Springs where ‘Abdu’l-Bahá stopped September 28, 1912, during his eight-month visit to the United States. The 66th anniversary of His visit will be commemorated September 23-24 at the hotel.
Colorado:
Glenwood Springs to Commemorate Master’s Visit[edit]
“It was two o’clock past midnight when He (‘Abdu’l-Bahá) alighted at Glenwood Springs (Colorado) and spent the day there. During the entire eight months of that year 1912 when ‘Abdu’l-Bahá traveled and sojourned in America, this September 28 was the only day He could be said to have rested and relaxed.
“He went to the mineral baths and had His lunch on the spacious lawn of the Colorado Hotel. And even on that day, as He stood by a cool stream and gazed at the verdant mountains, sorrow surged within Him, because He could not put aside the thought of that bleak prison-city and Bahá’u’lláh’s incarceration inside its forbidding walls. He remembered that His Father once said: ‘I have seen no greenery for years.’ ”
This account of the Master’s visit to Glenwood Springs, quoted from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá by the Hand of the Cause of God H. M. Balyuzi (pp. 283–84) gives an impression of the significance that the Hotel Colorado and its surroundings must have had to the Beloved Master.
The third annual commemoration of the visit by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá to Glenwood Springs will be held at the Hotel Colorado from noon Saturday, September 23, to noon on the following day. The event is sponsored by the Local Spiritual Assembly of Mesa County, Colorado.
Last year’s commemoration attracted more than 200 Bahá’ís from the Western states, and this year’s promises to be even larger.
The Rocky Mountain region is in the process of achieving great victories through well-conceived and executed direct teaching and consolidation projects. The commemoration of the Master’s visit should be the springboard to launch the attendees into even greater teaching activity during the closing months of the Five Year Plan.
An honored guest at the commemoration will be Counsellor Edna M. True who will share with the friends reminiscences of her several personal meetings with ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.
Other participants will include Auxiliary Board members servicing Colorado and surrounding states.
Glenwood Springs is on Interstate 70, 160 miles west of Denver in the Colorado Rockies.
Air service is available to the nearby communities of Aspen and Vail via Denver or Grand Junction. Rental car service is available from all four airports.
Also, bus service can be arranged through Continental Trailways or Greyhound bus lines.
Attendees who wish to stay at the Hotel Colorado should contact the hotel directly at 303-945-6511. Be sure to let them know that your reservation is for the Bahá’í conference. In case of overbooking, there are rooms in Grand Junction and in Vail.
New Spirit Sweeping U.S. Bahá’ís to Victory[edit]
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Deer. The Bahá’í population of North Texas will be doubled if the balance of the declarants are enrolled!
WESTERN COLORADO — FORTY declarations and SIXTEEN enrollments are just the start of the results expected from the mass teaching projects held in Western Colorado. The assigned goal was to raise up TWO Assemblies. The new Assembly of La Plata was formed at Riḍván; Delta County is expected to form in just a few short weeks. The District Teaching Committee has adopted FOUR additional goals to raise to Assembly status by the end of the Plan. They are Alamosa, Glenwood Springs, Montezuma County, and Ute Mountain Reservation.
NORTHERN IDAHO/EASTERN WASHINGTON — Here the goals are being pursued one at a time. The mass teaching/consolidation project now under way in this District will stay in Wenatchee, Washington, until both Wenatchee and the surrounding Commissioner’s District each has an Assembly. FOUR adults are needed in each locality. The project will then move on to Lapwai on the Nez Perce Reservation in Idaho where TWO are needed to form an Assembly. Finally, the campaign will work in Richland, Washington, until the TWO individuals needed to form an Assembly are enrolled.
Bahá’ís from the California Victory Team entertain in the town square during a teaching campaign in Watsonville, California
EAST TEXAS NO. I — Teaching efforts in the goal areas of East Texas No. I have been confirmed with ONE HUNDRED FIFTY interest cards signed, FIFTY people declaring their acceptance of Bahá’u’lláh, TWENTY enrollments of new believers, and TWO goal Groups — Corsicana and Ennis — in the process of forming new Assemblies.
MICHIGAN — Since receiving their new goals in April of this year, the believers in mainland Michigan have raised up SIX new and restored Assemblies in the goal areas of Adrian, Alpena, Avon Township, Kalamazoo Township, Meridian Township, and Wyandotte. They have also enrolled ELEVEN new believers as a result of their renewed teaching efforts.
NORTH CAROLINA — Following two teacher training institutes, THREE Assemblies — Farmville, Goldsboro, and Wilson — are in the process of forming in Eastern North Carolina. Central North Carolina has had SIX declarations and THREE enrollments, and has adopted EIGHT goal areas to raise to Assembly status. Following another training institute in Western North Carolina, teaching efforts yielded FIVE interested seekers. The believers there are concentrating on one goal at a time — currently West Buncombe County.
GEORGIA — During June and July, intensive teaching projects have resulted in the enrollment of SIXTEEN new believers. The THREE localities of College Park, Macon and Newton County are currently in the process of forming their Assemblies.
UTAH — On July 20, the District Teaching Committee launched an intensive teaching campaign which has visited SEVEN goal localities including Brigham City, Farmington, Logan, Ogden, Provo, Tooele, and Vernal. The efforts of the TWO full-time teachers and the project as a whole have resulted in FIVE declarations and TWO enrollments with many more expected.
EASTERN COLORADO — The Groups of Pueblo County and Longmont are hopeful of being raised to Assembly status very shortly as mass teaching/mass consolidation efforts continue in those goal areas. Thus far they have had SIXTEEN declarations and THREE enrollments from their efforts; more than FORTY-FIVE interest cards have been received. The Eastern Colorado project began in July.
MASSACHUSETTS — “Really glorious things are happening here,” says one of Massachusetts’ new project coordinators. In mid-July, the District Teaching Committee developed plans for an intensive mass teaching/mass consolidation campaign. On the Wednesday immediately following the committee’s meeting, the project coordinators met with TEN Local Assemblies in an inter-Assembly meeting to discuss the plan.
The Assemblies pledged their overwhelming support to the campaign, and during the meeting several Assembly members committed themselves to participate in the teaching work. By the following Friday, the entire state was mobilized for action.
The campaign began with a three-day institute at Newton Center which was attended by more than THIRTY people. On the Monday after the institute, the first team went into action with a week-long session of prayer, deepening and spiritual preparation for teaching. As of Monday, August 14, the first team of NINE teachers had begun the actual teaching work.
The spirit of unified support for the project has assured the teaching teams of a victorious campaign. They expect major confirmation for the efforts they are putting forth as a unified state.
Country’s Heartland on Move[edit]
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intensive teaching endeavor designed to win all its assigned goals.
In support of its teaching efforts and projects, Illinois, one of the three specially designated states for the Five Year Plan, has been receiving large amounts of assistance from various sources. Traveling teachers from several states are lending a hand with the teaching work. TEN believers from North Dakota returned to Illinois to assist with the teaching and consolidation efforts under way; they will be stationed in Wood Dale.
Local Spiritual Assemblies and Bahá’ís from the border states of Iowa, Missouri, Indiana, and Wisconsin are all pitching in to help Illinois during the remaining months of the Plan.
Thus far, the efforts of the Illinois teaching teams in June and July have generated more than FORTY-FIVE enrollments and have raised up TWO new Assemblies, in Freeport and Washington.
Also in June, an intensive mass teaching/mass consolidation project was initiated in Belleville in southern Illinois. FORTY interest cards have been received from the work there.
Meetings held in Harvey, Illinois, have yielded SEVEN enrollments and have been attended by as many as FIFTY people, most of whom were attracted by the teaching teams.
The Regional Teaching Committee reported that they feel certain Illinois will win all of its assigned goals. To accomplish this, the teaching teams need to bring in enough new believers to raise up THIRTY-FIVE new Assemblies.
Coupled with the concentration on the goal Groups and the plans from the Illinois Regional Committee is the specially funded National Spiritual Assembly project in Chicago.
On August 5, the first of two centers for the special teaching project was dedicated in the heart of the Spanish-speaking area of Chicago. Ernest Lopez, a member of the Illinois Regional Teaching Committee, explained that the purpose of the project is to bring about entry by troops in the city of Chicago. There have been FIVE declarations and ONE enrollment since the center opened.
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Remember to Attend Your District Convention Sunday, October 1 |
Two newly-enrolled Bahá’ís (left) with Bahá’í teachers outside the Bahá’í Center in Harvey, Illinois, where recent meetings have drawn as many as 50 seekers.
California[edit]
Continued From Page 1
Whittier — are in the process of forming.
Reports indicate that with additional enrollments of those who have declared, some FIFTEEN more Assemblies can be formed very shortly.
Most of the victories have been won through a united effort on the part of SEVENTY-FIVE full-time teachers and the many other part-time teachers and local Bahá’ís throughout the state.
The California Regional Teaching Committee has recently received direct assistance for its campaign from the National Spiritual Assembly. The secretary said, “Since the National Assembly wanted to set up a National Spiritual Assembly project in California with special funding, our committee recommended that instead of starting a separate project, the funds and other support be put into the Victory Campaign.”
The National Assembly did just that. In addition to this reinforcement, the California Regional Teaching Committee has just moved into its new office which is now the CALIFORNIA BAHÁ’Í CENTER.
Even though the progress that has been made thus far brings California so much closer to winning its goals as one of the three specially designated states during the Five Year Plan, still this is not enough. The Regional Committee already is making plans to expand and enhance the Victory Campaign. Initially, the campaign was to last for the summer. Plans are in the making to continue the intensive teaching endeavor on into the fall and through to the end of the Plan.
In the meantime, the Victory Team is continuing its march through the blazing heat of California’s summer up the length of the state heading for the remaining FIVE of its THIRTEEN scheduled stops. The team will endeavor to raise up more than FIFTY additional Assemblies needed to win California’s commitment to the Plan and to initiate the process of entry by troops in California.
One of the many firesides held each day and evening at the new Bahá’í Center in Watsonville, California, whose Spiritual Assembly was recently restored.
New York Teaching Accelerates[edit]
Continued From Page 1
teaching that they couldn’t find the time to give one of their scheduled shows. The New World Light Company is still on the move and will continue to perform and assist the teaching work in New York State.
In the small town of Rhinebeck, the Bahá’í Group is making great efforts to achieve Assembly status. The Group sent press releases and ads to local papers and held radio interviews in preparation for “person-to-person” teaching efforts.
More than TWENTY Bahá’ís joined the teaching teams, and a total of TWENTY-FIVE seekers attended the meetings held after the teaching efforts during the day.
Teaching teams from New York City are making regular trips to the distant goal area of Warren County where they are assisting the resident believers to raise up an Assembly in one of the localities there.
The National Spiritual Assembly’s specially funded project in New York is under way. From the teaching efforts there, the teams have received more than ONE HUNDRED interest cards and have had TWO enrollments.
On the weekends as many as TWENTY teachers have been involved. At the project they have distributed about ONE THOUSAND invitations and more than SEVENTEEN HUNDRED proclamation flyers.
New York is receiving support from the neighboring states of Connecticut and Massachusetts. Both these states have organized teaching teams and adopted goal areas in which to concentrate their efforts.
The District Teaching Committee for Eastern New York reports that with the kind of support it is receiving from sister states, all the assigned goals will assuredly be won.
New, Restored Assemblies[edit]
Below is a list provided by the National Spiritual Assembly of the newly formed and restored Assemblies whose formations have been recognized since Riḍván. Not included are many other Assemblies which are in various stages of the formation process and have not yet been recognized by the National Spiritual Assembly.
- CENTRAL STATES (9)
- Adrian, Michigan
- Boone, Iowa
- Burlington, Wisconsin
- Delafield, Wisconsin
- Freeport, Illinois
- Kalamazoo Township, Michigan
- Washington, Illinois
- Wyandotte, Michigan
- NORTHEASTERN STATES (9)
- Babylon, New York
- Cranston, Rhode Island
- Exeter, New Hampshire
- Jamestown, New York
- Scarsdale, New York
- Tonawanda Town, New York
- White Plains, New York
- Woburn, Massachusetts
- Wyckoff, New Jersey
- WESTERN STATES (7)
- Brawley, California
- Forest Grove, Oregon
- Lemon Grove, California
- Los Banos, California
- McMinnville, Oregon
- Ramah Navajo Chapter, NM
- Woodburn, Oregon
- SOUTHERN STATES (22)
- Blacksburg, Virginia
- Bluefield, West Virginia
- Cape Coral, Florida
- Charleston Heights, South Carolina
- Clemson, South Carolina
- Denmark, South Carolina
- Donnelly, South Carolina
- Greater Kershaw, South Carolina
- Midwest City, Oklahoma
- Moncks Corner, South Carolina
- Montgomery, Alabama
- Neyles, South Carolina
- Orangeburg, South Carolina
- Patrick, South Carolina
- Richmond, Kentucky
- St. Martinville, Louisiana
- Salisbury, Maryland
- Sumter, South Carolina
- Tuscaloosa, Alabama
- Varnville, South Carolina
- Walterboro, South Carolina
- Williams, South Carolina
- California — 3
- Illinois — 2
- New York — 5
- South Carolina — 13
