Chronology of the Bahá'í Faith

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Date 1930, ascending sort newest first

date event tags firsts
1930 In the early 1930's In Iran " [i]n the early years of the 1930s Bahá'í women joined the movement of discarding the veil and gradually abandoned the traditional veiling practice. This development opened new fields of service for women and made possible their fuller participation in the social and administrative activities of the communities." [BAHAISM v. The Bahai Community in Iran by V. Rafati] Women; Human Rights; Veils; Iran
1930 (In the year) Leonora Holsapple Armstrong visited Gibraltar, the first Bahá'í to do so. Leonora Holsapple Armstrong; Gibraltar first Bahá’í to visit Gibraltar
1930 (In the year) The publication of The Garden of the Heart by Francis Esty published by Roycrafters in New York. [Collins4.135]

A Bahá'í named Inez Greeven went on a prilgrimage. When she returned home she asked permission for two of her friends to go to Haifa and have the bounty of meeting the Master. The friends went and returned, apparently unaffected by the experience. In 1920, during her second pilgrimage, she asked 'Abdu'l-Bahá why her friends had not become Bahá'ís. This was His answer:

    "At the gate of the garden, some stand and look within, but do not care to enter. Others step inside, behold its beauty, but do not penetrate far. Still others encircle this garden, inhaling the fragrance of the flowers; and having enjoyed its full beauty, pass out again by the same gate. But there are always some who enter, and becoming intoxicated with the splendour of what they behold, remain for life to tend the garden." [Bahá'í Stories; The Garden of the Heart p14]
The Garden of the Heart; Frances Esty; Inez Greeven; New York, USA; USA
1930 (In the year) The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of England changed its name to become the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the British Isles. [Bahaipedia United Kingdom; BCBI423] National Spiritual Assembly, formation; Great Britain, UK
1930 2 Jan Martha Root met with King Faisal of Iraq in Baghdad to discuss the issue of the House of Bahá'u'lláh. The King said that a committee had been formed to study the problem and to settle it in such a way as to satisfy all groups interested in the matter. [MRHK149] House of Bahá'u'lláh (Baghdad); Martha Root; King Faisal; Baghdad, Iraq; Iraq
1930 Mar The intended pilgrimage of Queen Marie of Romania to the Bahá'í Shrines was thwarted. [GBF49; GPBXVIII; PP114]
  • For details of this episode see GBF49–50 and PP113–16.
  • In addition to visiting the Shrines Queen Marie had anticipated visiting her childhood friend, Lillian McNeill. She and her husband were resident in Mazra'ih at this time. [BW19p779-782]
  • Queen Marie of Romania; Pilgrimage; House of Bahá'u'lláh (Mazraih); Lilian Barron McNeill; - Bahá'í World Centre; Mazraih, Iran
    1930 18 Mar The International Bahá'í Bureau was registered as an International Working Unit by the League of Nations. [BIC History page 18 Mar 1939] International Bahá'í Bureau; League of Nations; Bahá'í International Community
    1930 Apr A ceremony was held at the American annual convention in dedication of the resumption of the building activities on the Wilmette Temple. [BBRSM183; BW3:47]
  • Shoghi Effendi's gift to the Temple was 'the most valuable sacred possession in the Holy Land' a 'precious ornament of the Tomb of Bahá'u'lláh', an exquisite Persian carpet. [BA180–1; BW4:208–12]
      The carpet, one of the most exquisite pieces ever woven in Persia, was made in Khurásán in about 1900-1905. It had been donated to by Díyá'ulláh Asgharzádih as a gift to Àbdu'l-Bahá Who immediately placed it in the Shrine of Bahjí. [BW4p208-210]
  • Conventions, National; Bahá'u'lláh, Shrine of; Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, Wilmette; Gifts; Carpets; Wilmette, IL; USA
    1930 Number of countries and territories where the Faith has been established: 42

    Number of National Spiritual Assemblies: 9

    Number of Local Spiritual Assemblies: 90 [from a pamphlet, The Bahá'í Faith and its World Community published by the NSA of Canada]

    Statistics
    1930 30 May The New History Society came into conflict with the local Bahá'í Assembly. Sohrab refused to allow the New York Spiritual Assembly, to have oversight of the affairs of the New History Society. The Assembly saw the organization as a threat to the unity of the Bahá'í Faith. [BBRSM124]
  • Shoghi Effendi wrote to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada to make a definitive statement regarding that organization and the Cause.
  • New History Society; Ahmad Sohrab; Covenant-breakers; - Bahá'í World Centre; New York, USA; USA
    1930 Jul Shoghi Effendi completed his translation of the Kitáb-i-Íqán (The Book of Certitude), the first of his major translations of the Writings of Bahá'u'lláh. [BBRSM63–4; GT60; PP214] Shoghi Effendi, Life of; Shoghi Effendi, Translations by; Translation; Kitáb-i-Íqán (Book of Certitude); Shoghi Effendi, Basic timeline; - Basic timeline, Expanded; * Bahá'u'lláh, Writings of; Shoghi Effendi, Works of; - Bahá'í World Centre
    1930 Aug The National Spiritual Assembly published a statement in the Bahá'í News entitled The Case of Ahmad Sohrab and the New History Society. Summarized, the article stated that the "New History Society was begun in New York early in 1929 by Sohrab and "one of its avowed purposes being to spread the Bahá'í teachings. Neither the local nor the National Assembly was consulted in the matter, and the meetings and activities of the New History Society have been maintained apart from the principles of consultation which today, under the Will and Testament of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, form the basis of Bahá'í unity and the protection of the Cause."

    "Both the local and National Assembly on several occasions attempted, through oral and written communications, to bring about full and frank consultation with the leaders of the New History Society, but without success.

    "Under these conditions it becomes the obvious responsibility of the National Spiritual Assembly to inform the friends that activities conducted by Ahmad Sohrab through the New History Society are to be considered as entirely independent of the Cause, as outside the jurisdiction of the local and National Assembly, and hence in no wise entitled to the cooperation of Bahá'ís."

    This statement also quoted from a letter written on behalf of the Guardian by his Secretary to the National Spiritual Assembly on May 30, 1930: "To accept the Cause without the administration is like accepting the teachings without acknowledging the divine station of Bahá'u'lláh. To be a Bahá'í is to accept the Cause in its entirety...." "The administration is the social order of Bahá'u'lláh. Without it all the principles of the Cause will remain abortive. To take exception to this, therefore, is to take exception to the fabric that Bahá'u'lláh has prescribed, it is to disobey His law." [Ahmad Sohrab and the New History Society]

    Covenant-breakers; Ahmad Sohrab; New History Society; New York, USA; USA
    1930 19 Aug Jean-Baptiste Louis Bourgeois, (b. 19 March 1856, Staint-Célestin de Nicolet, QC. d. Wilmette, IL), the architect of the first Bahá'i Temple of Worship in America, passed away. He was buried in East Lawn Memorial Park in Sacramento, California.[Find a Grave]

    He, like Sutherland Maxwell and Mason Remey, had studied at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris. These three and four others submitted designs for the Wilmette Temple for consideration. Other buildings designed by Louis Bourgeois include the Chicago Tribune Building, Evergreen Cabin in Englewood NJ where 'Abdu'l-Bahá hosted a Unity Feast, the Savoy Hotel in Chicago.

    He became a Bahá'í in New York sometime during the winter of 1906. In April of 1909 the National Spiritual Assembly called for design proposals for the first Bahá'í Hours of Worship in the West and he submitted is design proposal in October. It was finally accepted at the National Convention in 1920. [DP76-100]

    In Memoriam; Louis Bourgeois; Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, Wilmette; Staint-Celestin de Nicolet, QC; Wilmette, IL; Sacramento, CA; USA
    1930 20 Aug Louis Jean-Baptiste Bourgeois, (19 March, 1856, Saint-Célestin, Quebec, Canada) designer of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár in Wilmette, passed away in that city. He was buried in East Lawn Memorial Park Sacramento, Sacramento County, California, USA [DP145; Find a grave]
  • He had learned of the Faith in Boston through the efforts of Mary Hanford Ford. [Wikipedia]
  • For details of his life see DP76–86.
  • Louis Bourgeois; Architects; Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, Wilmette; In Memoriam; Births and deaths; Mary Hanford Ford; Saint-Célestin de Nicolet, QC; Quebec, Canada; Wilmette, IL; Boston, MA; USA first Bahá'í community in Boston.
    1930 22 Aug Martha Root returned to China for her third visit and stayed two months. She sailed from Shanghai on the 22nd of October 1930. [PH39-41; Film Early History of the Baha'í Faith in China 13min 46 sec ] Martha Root; Hong Kong; Shanghai, China
    1930 7 Oct Ruth White wrote to the High Commissioner of Palestine stating that she had sent a photograph of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Will and Testament to Dr Ainsworth Mitchell in England who had declared it a forgery. The High Commissioner requested she send that same evidence to him and he forwarded it to the Governor of Haifa who requested to meet with Shoghi Effendi and allow an expert to examine the original. The expert declared the Will authentic. [SETPET1p157]
  • See Mitchell's Mistake for a discussion of Mitchell's analysis of the handwriting of 'Abdu'l-Bahá by Senn McGlinn.
  • Covenant-breakers; Ruth White; `Abdu'l-Bahá, Will and Testament of; Shoghi Effendi, Life of; High Commissioners; Ainsworth Mitchell; Haifa, Israel; Israel; United Kingdom
    1930 Nov The National Assembly published a detailed supplementary statement in the Bahá'í News, quoting passages from the Aqdas, from the Master's Will and Testament, and from the Guardian's letters published in Bahá'í Administration followed by a reprint of the exchange of correspondence and cables with Mrs. Chanler, and with the Guardian, including the Guardian's cable to New York believers: "True unity can only be preserved by maintenance paramount position National Spiritual Assembly," and his cable approving the statement published in August, 1930, Bahá'í News.

    Further, in a letter from Haifa to the Yonkers Assembly, "The Guardian pointed out the difference between the freedom defined by Bahá'u'lláh ("To have liberty is to observe My commandments") and that advocated by Sohrab ("The other kind of freedom which is in defiance of law He (Bahá'u'lláh) considers to be animal, and far from being of any good to man"). [Ahmad Sohrab and the New History Society]

    Covenant-breakers; Ahmad Sohrab; New History Society; New York, USA; USA
    1930 Nov Louise Gregory sailed on the SS Sinaia from Providence, Rhode Island with a destination of Constanta in Romania. The ship carried her via the Azores, Algiers and Istanbul. In all possibility she visited Bucharest and Poland before arriving at her destination of Sofia some time in January. [SYH169]
  • Marion Jack had been on pilgrimage and Shoghi Effendi suggested she might go to Sofia to help Louise. She left Haifa near the end of March, stopped over briefly in Cyprus then on to Trieste and then to Sofia. Meanwhile Louise had been informed by the American Legation that the police had become suspicious of her "non-Christian" work and she had to vacate the country before the expiration of her visa. [SYH172, NBAD122, 143-144]
  • Louise left Sofia on the 8th of April. She stopped in Geneva, Switzerland to visit her friends at the International Bahá'í Bureau. After making her way to England she departed from Liverpool on the SS Britannic on the 24th of April arriving in Boston on the 2nd of May. [SYH241]
  • Marion had arrived in Sofia on the 9th of April 1931. [SYH172]
  • Louise Gregory; Marion Jack; Pilgrimage; International Bahá'í Bureau; Sofia, Bulgaria; Bulgaria; Geneva, Switzerland
    1930 17 Nov Ethel Rosenberg, (b.6 August, 1858, Bath) Disciple of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, 'England's outstanding Bahá'í pioneer worker', passed away in London. She was buried in Gap Road Cemetery, Wimbledon, England. [BW4:118–119, 262-263; EJR274–5; Find a grave]
  • She became a Bahá'í around 1899 and went on her first pilgrimage in 1901.
  • While 'Abdu'l-Bahá was in London, Ethel Rosenberg was His social secretary, arranging appointments for the Master.
  • 'Abdu'l-Bahá asked Ethel Rosenberg and a number of other people to form a committee to decide what to do about collecting funds and publishing Bahá'í books. Their first published book was 'Abdu'l-Bahá in London.
  • She made her third pilgrimage in November 1921, but arrived just after 'Abdu'l-Bahá's passing. Shoghi Effendi sent her home with instructions to call for the election the first National Spiritual Assembly of England. She served on this body for a number of years. Shoghi Effendi named her an 'Apostle of 'Abdu'l-Bahá'. [In the Footsteps of 'Abdu'l-Bahá p9]
  • For her obituary see BW4:262–3.
  • For her biography see Weinberg, Ethel Jenner Rosenberg and SEBW55–64.
  • Ethel Rosenberg; In Memoriam; - Disciples of `Abdu'l-Bahá; Births and deaths; London, England; United Kingdom
    1930 Dec The first Asian Women's Conference was held in India. [BW17:180] Conferences, Bahá'í; Conferences, Women; - First conferences; - Asia; India first Asian Women’s Conference

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