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Chronology of the Bahá'í Faith in Canada

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Date 1954-04, descending — sort earliest first

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1954 30 Apr - 2 May The. seventh Canadian Bahá'í National Convention was held at Victoria Hall, Westmount, Montreal. followed by a Teaching Conference held Sunday, May 2nd in the Assembly Hall of the YMCA across the street. The following were elected to serve on the National Spiritual Assembly: Lloyd Gardner (chair), Allan Raynor, (vice), Audrey Westheuser (sec'y), Peggy Ross, (treasurer), Rolland Estall, Angus Cowan, Winnifred Harvey, Donald MacLaren, Albert Rakovsky. [CBN No 53 June 1954 p3; CBN No 54 July 1954 p1]
  • On Saturday afternoon, May 1st, the delegates and friends gathered at Victoria Hall in Westmount for a brief commemoration and prayers. [CBN No 63 April 1955, Insert p4]
  • A memorial service for Marion Jack, the beloved Canadian pioneer to Sofia, Bulgaria, was held. Miss Jack was born in St. John, N .B. As an artist, as well as a believer, she was invited to Haifa to paint many of the scenes there. She was in Bulgaria during the war and suffered greatly. Because of this, the Guardian invited her to leave and return to Haifa. She decided, however, to remain, even though the difficulties were great, and stayed at her post until her passing March 27, 1954. She is interred in the British Cemetery in Sofia. [CBN No54 Jul 1954 p1]
  • Polly Pollexfen, Ethel Martens and Hart Bowsfield were injured in a motor vehicle accident while travelling from Winnipeg to the National Convention in Montreal. It was a serious accident and recovery was slow. [CBN No57 Oct 1957 p2]
    		•  National Convention; NSA; Lloyd Gardner; Allan Raynor; Audrey Westheuser; Peggy Ross; Rolland Estall; Angus Cowan; Winnifred Harvey; Donald MacLaren; Albert Rakovsky; National Spiritual Assembly, election of; Westmount, QC
    1954 Apr They were unable to obtain visas for the Comoro Islands and so Rosemary and Emeric Sala set their new pioneering destination to Basutoland (Lesotho).[CBN No53 Jun 1954 p2] Pioneer; Rosemary Sala; Emeric Sala; Basutoland
    1954 Ridván Twenty-six local Spiritual assemblies were formed in Canada. [CBN No 76 May 1956 p6] Statistics; Local Spiritual Assembly, formation
    1954 21 Apr Bruce Matthew came to Canada in 1951 from Scotland via Hertfordshire and moved to Toronto in 1953 where he encountered the Faith after responding to a newspaper in The Toronto Star. The advertisement was for a talk by Laura Davis at a public meeting at the Bahá'í Centre. Willing to go "anywhere" he was asked to move to Goose Bay, NL and arrived on the 21st of April, 1954, the deadline established by Shoghi Effendi for being named a Knight of Bahá'u'lláh by Shoghi Effendi. Bruce has an interesting story of his miraculous healing just prior to his boarding the plane for Goose Bay. [KoB270-271]
  • During the time he spent there, from April 1954 to January 1956, Bruce worked at the hospital and later as a court reporter for the United States Air Force until his job was phased out.
  • In consultation with the Goals Committee, Bruce pioneered to Charlottetown, PE, then St. John's, NL, and Windsor, ON. The Goals Committee then suggested that Bruce go to Moncton, NB, and he finally settled in the community of Alliston, ON, north of Toronto. [CBN Vol4 Issue 2 Jun 1991 p11; KoB271; BW13p453]
    		•  Bruce Matthews; Knight of Bahá'u'lláh; Goose Bay, NL; Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island; St. Johns, NL; Windsor, ON; Moncton, NB
    1954 10 Apr The National Spiritual Assembly made a careful study of the Hazira and Temple Grounds Committee and new directives to the committee were formulated. [kCBN No 53 Jun 1954 p3] Hazira and Temple Grounds Committee; Toronto, ON
    1954 6 Apr Shoghi Effendi called upon the Hands of the Cause to appoint, during Ridván 1954, five auxiliary boards to act as their adjuncts or deputies to work with the national spiritual assemblies to execute the projected national plans. [MBW44, BW13p335; CBN No 53 June, 1954 p6; MBW58-60] Auxiliary board members; Haifa, Israel
    1954 Apr Howard Gilliland, an Air Force captain, arrived in Labrador and was named a Knight of Bahá'u'lláh. Because of housing difficulties his family was not able to join him. He left in February of 1955. [BW13:453; KoB269] Howard Gilliland; - Knights of Bahá'u'lláh; Labrador, NL

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