Fayetteville, Arkansas

Fayetteville
City in the United States
The First Local Spiritual Assembly of Fayetteville, 1969.
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History:
Firsts
 -  Local Assembly 1969 
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Fayetteville is a city in the U.S. State of Arkansas. It is one of five cities in Arkansas to have a Local Spiritual Assembly as of 2015.[1]

History[edit]

In 1956 Bahá’í student Tim Rost made arrangements for David Ruhe to deliver an eight class course on the Faith at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.[2]

A small Bahá’í community had been established by 1968 and an event to celebrate Naw-Rúz was held in the city that year,[3] and a Local Spiritual Assembly of Fayetteville was established in 1969.[4] The same year the Assembly was formed a Bahá’í Club was established at the University of Arkansas and the Bahá’í community held a week of events at the end of October during which a copy of The Proclamation of Bahá’u’lláh was presented to the Mayor of Fayetteville.[5]

Garland Melton, Mayor of Fayetteville, being presented The Proclamation of Bahá’u’lláh.

By the early 1980's the Fayetteville Assembly had lapsed and in 1982 Karen and Jeff Jentz pioneered to the city to assist in restoring the Assembly.[6] That year the Fayetteville Bahá’í community collaborated with three other Arkansas communities to host a booth at Washington County Fair at which five hundred people received Bahá’í literature,[7] and the community began hosting weekly firesides with their efforts leading to the successful re-establishment of the Assembly in 1983.[6]

In 1988 the Fayetteville Bahá’í community and the Washington County Bahá’í community volunteered to clean up the Oaks Cemetery in Fayetteville as a service project to commemorate Ayyam-i-Ha,[8] and collaborated with the Washington County and Eureka Springs communities to hold a fund-raising dinner to commemorate Naw-Rúz.[9]

The Fayetteville Local Assembly was in danger of lapsing again in 1991 with pioneers being requested to assist in teaching the Faith in the community,[10] and by 1992 there were less than nine Bahá’ís living in the city,[11] although by 1995 the community had stabilized and the Fayetteville Assembly was able to co-sponsor a teaching project to establish a Bahá’í community in Fort Smith.[12] As of 1998 there was an active Bahá’í Association at the University of Arkansas.[13]

References[edit]

  1. ↑ https://encyclopediaofarkansas.net/entries/bah%C3%A1%C3%ADs-4312/
  2. ↑ Baha'i News (1956). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 302, Pg(s) 13. View as PDF.
  3. ↑ Baha'i News (1968). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 447, Pg(s) 13. View as PDF.
  4. ↑ Baha'i News (1969). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 460, Pg(s) 15. View as PDF.
  5. ↑ Baha'i News (1970). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 466, Pg(s) 22. View as PDF.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 The American Bahá’í (1983). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. Volume 14, Issue 7, pg(s) 10. View as PDF.
  7. ↑ The American Bahá’í (1983). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. Volume 14, Issue 1, pg(s) 17. View as PDF.
  8. ↑ The American Bahá’í (1988). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. Volume 19, Issue 5, pg(s) 21. View as PDF.
  9. ↑ The American Bahá’í (1988). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. Volume 19, Issue 6, pg(s) 32. View as PDF.
  10. ↑ The American Bahá’í (1991). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. Volume 22, Issue 7, pg(s) 26. View as PDF.
  11. ↑ The American Bahá’í (1992). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. Volume 23, Issue 4, pg(s) 2. View as PDF.
  12. ↑ The American Bahá’í (1995). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. Volume 26, Issue 8, pg(s) 20. View as PDF.
  13. ↑ The American Bahá’í (1998). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. Volume 29, Issue 2, pg(s) 29. View as PDF.
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