California
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California |
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| - | Local Assembly | 1907, Oakland |
California is a state of the United States of America. It is home to many large Baha'i communities, and also to Bosch Baha'i School.
History[edit]
The Bahá’í Faith was introduced to California in 1898 when Edward and Lua Getsinger visited the San Francisco area. Edward visited Phoebe Hearst several times in Pleasanton and Hearst then invited the Getsinger's to dinner, then hosted a study class on the religion facilitated by the Getsinger's which resulted in several declarations including Hearst, several of her relatives and friends, and her butler Robert Turner who was the first African American Bahá’í.[1] In February 1899 Helen Goodall and her daughter Ella Cooper, who had heard of the Faith from the Getsinger's in 1898 and studied the religion in New York, settled in Oakland,[2] and began actively teaching the Faith resulting in communities being established throughout northern California.[3] In 1907 the Oakland Bahá’ís established a consultative body representing the earliest Bahá’í administrative body in California and a precursor to Local Spiritual Assemblies.[4]
In March 1910 Dr. Ameen Fareed and Lua Getsinger began a teaching tour of California on the instructions of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Helen Goodall estimated they proclaimed the Faith to 5,000 people in the southern part of the state early in their tour.[5] In 1910 an organized body called the Bahá’í Assembly of Los Angeles was established, a precursor to a Local Spiritual Assembly, which had a five member Executive Board and represented a community of thirty. It was noted that there were more who were close to the Faith but did not yet wish to formally register with an organization.[6]
As of 1911 Goodall was hosting two Bahá’í meetings a week in Oakland,[5] and by the end of the year there were regular meetings being held in Los Angeles and San Francisco.[7] The San Francisco Bahá’í community established a Local Spiritual Assembly in 1911 and received a Tablet from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá commending them, an excerpt:
"This Assembly was organized at the right time. It is my hope that it may become a magnet of confirmation. If it remain firm and steadfast this Assembly will become so illumined that it will he a full, refulgent moon in the Horizon of everlasting Glory.
Report and write to me the services which are accomplished by this Assembly so that they may become the cause of spiritual happiness and joy to the heart.
Upon thee be the Glory of God!"[8]
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ Robert Stockman, The Baha'i Faith in America: Volume 1, Baha'i Publishing Trust: Wilmette, 1985, p 139
- ↑ World Order, Vol. 25(1), p 31
- ↑ Robert Stockman, The Baha'i Faith in America: Volume 1, Baha'i Publishing Trust: Wilmette, 1985, p 156
- ↑ Robert H. Stockman (1995). The Bahá’í Faith in America Volume 2: Early Expansion 1900-1912. United Kingdom: George Ronald. p. 192. ISBN 0853983887.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Star of the West, Vol. 2(13), p 6
- ↑ Star of the West, Vol. 1(2), p 7
- ↑ Star of the West, Vol. 2(14), p 14
- ↑ Star of the West, Vol. 2(10), p 4
