The Unfolding Destiny of the British Bahai Community Part 23

Beloved Baha'i Brother,

Your welcome letter of August 7th together with the enclosed programme of the English Baha'i Summer School and Mrs. Bishop's notes on the Baha'i session of the World Fellows.h.i.+p of Faiths Congress have all duly arrived and been read with sustained interest and deepest appreciation by our beloved Guardian.

He has been particularly pleased to read Mrs. Bishop's report which is truly illuminating and highly encouraging. The Cause has no doubt been well represented at the Congress, and the attendants must have surely been deeply impressed by the manner in which the Message was introduced and presented by both the Baha'i and non-Baha'i speakers.

The Guardian feels particularly grateful for the share which your N.S.A., as well as your distinguished and able co-workers Mrs. Bishop and Madame Orlova have contributed towards the success of the Baha'i meeting. May the n.o.ble efforts which you all have so unitedly and so successfully exerted in this connection serve to attract, even as a magnet, the blessings of G.o.d and His favours upon the entire community of the believers throughout the British Isles.

With every good wish and hearty greetings to you, and to your fellow-members in the N.S.A....

[From the Guardian:]

Dearest co-workers,

I rejoice to learn of the splendid work that has recently been achieved.

Your accomplishments should spur you on to achieve still greater results in both the teaching and administrative spheres of Baha'i service. My prayers will be offered on your behalf. The work in which you are so devotedly engaged is near and dear to my heart. Persevere and never feel disheartened.

Affectionately, Shoghi

Letter of 17 October 1936

17 October 1936

Dear Mr. Hofman,

I am directed by our beloved Guardian to acknowledge with thanks the receipt of your letter dated August 25th with the enclosed minutes of the British N.S.A.'s last meeting. He has read them all with utmost care and profoundest appreciation.

Regarding your Summer School; he is indeed grateful to your a.s.sembly for the great success that has attended your efforts for the formation of this inst.i.tution, the teaching value of which for England cannot be overestimated. He wishes, in particular, to offer his most sincere thanks to the Baha'i youth group in London for their remarkable share in making the school such an outstanding success this year. This has been certainly a bold undertaking, considering the limited number and resources of the believers in England. But the results obtained are highly encouraging and augur well for the future of this first English Baha'i Summer School. The unity, courage and whole-hearted loyalty of the friends have enabled them to boldly face and successfully overcome the difficulties and obstacles which may have first appeared, to many at least, to be quite unsurmountable. The Guardian would, therefore, urge all the believers to persevere in their efforts for raising the standard, both intellectual and spiritual, of their Summer School and to heighten its prestige in the eyes of the friends, and of the general non-Baha'i public outside. The inst.i.tution of the Summer School const.i.tutes a vital and inseparable part of any teaching campaign, and as such ought to be given the full importance it deserves in the teaching plans and activities of the believers. It should be organised in such a way as to attract the attention of the non-believers to the Cause and thus become an effective medium for teaching. Also it should afford the believers themselves an opportunity to deepen their knowledge of the Teachings, through lectures and discussions and by means of close and intense community life.

As regards the N.S.A.'s request concerning Mrs. Bishop's teaching services in England, the Guardian wishes you to a.s.sure your fellow-members of his hearty approval of their suggestion that she should extend her stay in your country for another year. He is advising her to visit Geneva for a brief period and then return immediately back to England....

[From the Guardian:]

Dearest co-worker,

I wish to congratulate in person the English believers, and particularly the members of the youth group, on their splendid achievements. The activities they have initiated, the perseverance, zeal and fidelity they have increasingly manifested, the plans they have conceived and the obstacles they have already overcome, rejoice my heart and arouse fresh hopes and expectations within me. I will continue to pray for their success. Rest a.s.sured and persevere.

Affectionately, Shoghi

Letter of 2 December 1936

2 December 1936

Dear Baha'i Friend,

Your kind letter of November 22nd with enclosures have been read with deep interest and profound grat.i.tude by our beloved Guardian, and their contents have imparted fresh encouragement to his heart. He has also received your communication of the 28th September with the accompanying minutes of the British N.S.A. and the report of your Summer School, and is indeed sorry for the long delay in thanking you for them.

Regarding Mr. Townshend, the Guardian is pleased to hear that he has written you, and offered a method whereby he could be freed to serve the Faith. He is confident that your N.S.A. will give this matter their most careful and sympathetic consideration, and fervently hopes that they will, as a result, be able to find some way that would relieve Mr. Townshend of his many domestic cares and troubles which, as you know only too well, seriously impede the progress and expansion of his activities for the Faith.

It is a matter of deep regret, indeed, that our dear friend's material position is such as to make it quite impossible for him to devote his full time and energies to the Cause. The friends in Great Britain, who are in special need of his able a.s.sistance in their teaching work, should, therefore, consider it their responsibility to find some solution to this urgent problem facing one of their most distinguished and competent fellow-workers.

Any suggestion which your N.S.A. could offer would certainly be deeply appreciated by Mr. Townshend, and the Guardian would be only too pleased to a.s.sist your a.s.sembly in insuring the success of any plan you may propose and decide upon in this matter.

Wis.h.i.+ng you full and continued success in your work, and a.s.suring you again of Shoghi Effendi's fervent prayers on your behalf and on behalf of your fellow-members in the N.S.A....

[From the Guardian:]

Dear and prized co-worker,

Your splendid collaboration with the English believers is, as I am gradually and increasingly realising it, infusing a new life and a fresh determination into individuals and a.s.semblies which will prove of the utmost benefit to our beloved Cause. Persevere in your remarkable efforts and historic achievements. With the aid of Mrs. Bishop an unprecedented and most powerful impetus will I am sure be given to the onward march of the Cause of G.o.d. I am deeply grateful to you.

Your true brother, Shoghi

Letter of 10 January 1937

10 January 1937

Beloved Baha'i Brother,

The Guardian has instructed me to inform you of the receipt of your communications of the 6th and 24th December and of the 1st January, all of which he has read, together with their enclosures, with sustained interest. Kindly convey to your fellow-members in the N.S.A. his appreciation and grat.i.tude for the truly valuable work they are accomplis.h.i.+ng for the promotion of the Faith in Great Britain. He is continually and fervently praying for the guidance and success of the plans they have recently initiated for the extension of the teaching work and for the consolidation of the administrative inst.i.tutions of the Cause in their land.

The Guardian is specially praying for the success of your N.S.A.'s project in connection with Mr. Townshend's problem. Much as he realises the financial difficulties involved in such a plan, he is nevertheless convinced that if every individual believer, no matter how limited his resources, pledges himself to give it his whole-hearted and continued support it will eventually, though after considerable effort and self-sacrifice, become effective and successful. The opportunity has now come for the friends in Great Britain to demonstrate the measure of their devotion to the Cause, as well as their capacity to maintain, consolidate and extend its nascent administrative inst.i.tutions in that land. The occasion calls for a tremendous amount of sacrifice, of perseverance and united labour on the part of the friends, and for the self-same devotion that characterised the nation-wide efforts of the American believers for the building up of their beloved Temple at Wilmette. May the friends in Great Britain, despite their limited numbers and resources, be guided and a.s.sisted to successfully meet this challenge. Their triumph will a.s.suredly draw upon them the blessings and confirmations of Baha'u'llah, and may prove to be the signal for fresh conquests and unprecedented developments in the Cause throughout the British Isles.

Regarding the New Commonwealth Society, the Guardian does not wish the friends, whether individually or collectively, to affiliate themselves with this and other kindred organisations, in view of the fact that the aims and ideals upheld by such bodies do not entirely conform to the Teachings, and hence there is always the possibility of creating complications for the Cause by accepting members.h.i.+p in them.

However, as the New Commonwealth Society is nearer to the Cause than perhaps any other organisation of its kind, the Guardian would advise the friends to partic.i.p.ate, occasionally and in an informal manner, in its activities, to attend some of its meetings, and to contribute articles to its publications. a.s.sociation, as you certainly realise, is quite different from affiliation, and it is the latter which the Guardian wishes the friends to strictly avoid.

With his warmest greetings and sincere good wishes to you and your fellow-members in the N.S.A....

[From the Guardian:]

With the renewed a.s.surance of my continued, my loving and ardent prayers for the expansion and the consolidation of the splendid work which the English believers are unitedly accomplis.h.i.+ng for the furtherance of the Cause of Baha'u'llah,

Your true brother, Shoghi