Bahai Library Online

Chronology of the Bahá'í Faith in Canada

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Date 1927, sorted by date, descending

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1927 May
192-
The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada drew up and published a 'Declaration of Trust' and 'By-laws of the National Spiritual Assembly'. [BW2:89, BW10:180]
  • For text see BW2:90–8.
  • The Guardian described it as the Bahá'í 'national constitution' heralding 'the formation of the constitution of the future Bahá'í World Community'. [GPB335; PP302–3]
  • The drafting was largely the work of Horace Holley with assistance from the lawyer Mountfort Mills. [SBR234]
  • In subsequent years the National Assemblies of India and Burma, of Egypt, Iraq, Persian and the British Isles all adopted this example almost verbatim. [UD101, BA134-5, SETPE1p145-6]
National Spiritual Assembly; Horace Holley; Mountfort Mills; Constitutions (Bahá'í); By-laws; Recognition (legal); Montreal, QC The first document of this sort to establish a clear legal basis for the National Spiritual Assembly
1927 29 Apr - 3 May
192-
The nineteenth National Convention of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada was held at the Windsor Hotel in Montreal, the hotel where 'Abdu'l-Bahá stayed during His visit in 1912. [Bahá'í News No. 17 April, 1927]
  • The Declaration of Trust and By-laws of the National Spiritual Assembly was accepted with its implications for more restricted membership. [OBCC166]
  • The question of race "was discussed at length and with unprecedented frankness". [OBCC90]
  • Edwina Powell spoke on the subject, as she had been asked by Shoghi Effendi. [TMW178]
  • In her address, Sadie Oglesby recalled her conversations with Shoghi Effendi on the subject of race. [TMW178–80]
National Convention; Declaration of Trust and By-laws; Edwina Powell; Oglesby; Montreal, QC
1927 24 - 28 Apr
192-
Just prior to the National Convention, the Bahá'í Community of Montreal organized a "World Unity Conference". It was attended by Louis Gregory. [OBCC90] Race amity; Louis G. Gregory; Montreal, QC
1927 (In the year)
192-
The second local spiritual assembly in Canada was elected in Vancouver. [OBCC125]
  • Those elected were: George Monroe (chair), Stanley Kemp (tres.), Evelyn Kemp (sec'y), Rhoda Harvey, Thursa Murwood-Clark, Christina Monroe, Isobel Seifert, Florence Sherborne, and Katherine Warnicker. [OBCC130]
Local Spiritual Assembly, formation; George Monroe; Stanley Kemp; Evelyn Kemp; Rhoda Harvey; Thursa Murwood-Clark; Christine Monroe; Isobel Seifert; Florence Sherborne; Katherine Warnicker; Vancouver, BC
1927 (In the year)
192-
Ugo and Angeline Giachery spent two days in St. John's, NL on a stopover while on a cruise ship. Ugo Giachery; Angeline Giachery; St. Johns, NL
1927 (In the year)
192-
The formation of a Bahá'í Youth Group in Montreal, perhaps the first in the Western World. [OBCC78, 85]
  • Some of the members were: Mary Maxwell, George Spendlove, Rowland Estall, Emeric Sala, Mary Gillis, (later Rosemary Sala), Teddy Edwards Alizade, Norman McGregor, Judie Russell Blakely, Dorothy and Glen Wade, Edward Dewing, Gerrard Sluter, David Hofman, Rena Gordon and Eddie Elliot.
  • The Bahá'í youth group was a social club organized by Ruhiyyih Khanum called the "Fratority Club." By this word, Ruhiyyih Khanum meant to put together the words "fraternity" and "sorority" and had invited to belong to it people, mostly young students at McGill, who would otherwise not have been able to find membership in the exclusive fraternities and sororities around the campus. [Black Roses in Canada's Mosaic: Four Decades of Black History by Will C. van den Hoonaard and Lynn Echevarria-Howe]
  • When advised of the formation of this group Shoghi Effendi replied, in part
      ...I urge them to study profoundly the revealed utterances of Bahá'u'lláh and the discourses of Àbdu'l-Bahá and not to rely unduly on the representations and interpretation of the Teaching given by the Bahá'í speakers and teachers. [MtC30-31]
  • A Bahá'í youth group had been started in California in 1912, but the Montreal group was the first in North America to systematically study the Teachings—an exercise that had a long—lasting influence on the development and growth of the Bahá'í community in Canada and elsewhere. Members of the group would later distinguish themselves as some of the best-known teachers, administrators, pioneers, and writers of the Bahá'í Faith. [BWM46]
Youth Group; George Spendlove; Rowland Estall; Emeric Sala; Rosemary Sala; Teddy Edwards Alizade; Norman McGregor; Judie Blakely; Russell Blakely; Dorothy Wade; Glen Wade; Edward Dewing; Gerrard Sluter-Schlutius; David Hofman; Rena Gordon; Eddie Elliot; Montreal, QC first Bahá'í Youth Group in Montreal
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