Hartford, Connecticut

Hartford
City in the United States
Bahá’í children's class in Hartford, 1957.
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History:
Firsts
 -  Local Assembly 1948 
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Hartford is the capital city of the U.S. state of Connecticut.

A small Bahá’í community has existed in Hartford from as early as 1916. A Local Spiritual Assembly was established in 1948 however it lapsed in 1952. The community maintained community building and teaching activities throughout the 1950s and 1960s and by the early 1970s it had re-established a Local Spiritual Assembly and the community remains active to the present day.

History[edit]

In 1916 it was reported that a Bahá’í community had been established in Hartford,[1] and in 1927 Albert Vail visited the city to speak on the Faith at a Theological Seminary.[2]

As of 1931 there were seven Bahá’ís in Hartford, including Mabel Ives,[3] who formally established an organized Bahá’í Group that year.[4] In 1933 it was reported there had been some growth and an Assembly could potentially be formed,[5] however teaching efforts struggled in the mid 1930's as no travel teachers visited the city.[6] Some progress was made in 1938 when a study group was formed with Mountfort Mills serving as its facilitator.[6]

As of 1946 Hartford had five Bahá’ís and had maintained its formal Bahá’í group,[7] by the end of 1947 there were six Bahá’ís,[8] and in 1948 the Local Spiritual Assembly of Hartford was formed.[9] In 1949 George Goodman, chairman of the Hartford Assembly, delivered a talk on the Faith at the Unitarian Church of Hartford which was filled to capacity for the talk,[10] and the community began holding a weekly study course on Bahá’í administration for Bahá’ís and an informal study class for friends of the community.[11]

Teaching efforts in Hartford struggled again in the early 1950's and the Hartford Assembly lapsed in 1952.[12] Auxiliary Board member William deForge visited Hartford in 1954 to support teaching efforts,[13] and in 1956 Auxiliary Board member Margery McCormick visited Hartford during a tour of the United States to visit and support communities aiming to establish Local Spiritual Assemblies.[14]

As of 1957 the Hartford Bahá’í community was holding a weekly children's class on Sunday mornings,[15] and in September 1959 the community launched an intensive teaching campaign centred around a series of lectures titled Five Living Faiths which invited representatives of various religious communities to give speeches including Firuz Kazemzadeh representing the Bahá’í Faith.[16] In 1960 Mildred Mottahedeh delivered a talk on the Faith at a Race Amity Day event hosted by the Hartford Bahá’ís,[17] and the community participated in a celebration of the founding of the United Nations sponsored by the Greater Hartford People-to-People Council.[18]

In 1961 the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States identified re-establishing the Local Spiritual Assembly of Hartford as an important goal for the American Bahá’í community.[19] The Bahá’í Faith received prominent coverage in the Hartford Times in 1963 when the newspaper published an article covering Mark Tobey,[20] and the community commemorated Race Amity Day with a picnic and roundtable discussion.[21] In 1965 the Hartford community was Connecticut's only Bahá’í community to hold a celebration of World Peace Day,[22] and in 1966 the community held public meetings to teach the Faith as part of a week long teaching initiative for the Bahá’ís of Connecticut.[23]

In 1971 the Bahá’í film It's Just the Beginning was broadcast on local Hartford television,[24] and the same year the University of Hartford granted the Bahá’í community an exemption to its rule that organizations could only hire a campus space once a year allowing the community to use its premises as many times as required annually.[25] In 1972 the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States launched a programme of Local Spiritual Assembly seminars in Hartford, intended to assist Local Assemblies in handling the affairs of Bahá’í communities, with Glenford Mitchell conducting a workshop at the seminar.[26] As of 1973 the Local Spiritual Assembly of Hartford had been re-established. That year it sponsored a musical presentation made by Bahá’í youth to commemorate World Religion Day,[27] and an Arts Festival,[28] and the same year another Local Spiritual Assembly development seminar was held in the city this time chaired by Firuz Kazemzadeh.[29]

In 1979 a Satellite Conference of the United States National Bahá’í Convention was held in Hartford which was attended by one thousand Bahá’ís with Glenford Mitchell representing the National Spiritual Assembly at the conference.[30] In 1983 the National Spiritual Assembly delegated the responsibility for securing a condemnation of the persecution of Bahá’ís in Iran from the State government of Connecticut to the Local Spiritual Assembly of Hartford.[31] In 1985 a Regional Bahá’í Teaching Conference for the Northeast United States was held in Hartford at which Farzam Arbab, Alberta Deas, and Eugene Andrews spoke on the importance of teaching the Faith to over two hundred attendees.[32]

The Bahá’ís of Hartford organized a Race Unity Picnic in 1992 which was attended by two hundred people including the Mayor of Hartford.[33]


References[edit]

  1. ↑ Star of the West (December 31, 1916). Bahai News Service. Volume 7, Issue 16. Pg(s) 158. View as PDF.
  2. ↑ Baha'i News Letter (1927). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. No 19, Pg(s) 4. View as PDF.
  3. ↑ Baha'i News (1931). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. No 48, Pg(s) 4. View as PDF.
  4. ↑ Baha'i News (1931). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. No 57, Pg(s) 7. View as PDF.
  5. ↑ Baha'i News (1933). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. No 74, Pg(s) 9. View as PDF.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Baha'i News (1938). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. No 117, Pg(s) 9. View as PDF.
  7. ↑ Baha'i News (1946). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. No 185, Pg(s) 11. View as PDF.
  8. ↑ Baha'i News (1948). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. No 203, Pg(s) 4. View as PDF.
  9. ↑ Baha'i News (1948). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. No 209, Pg(s) 8. View as PDF.
  10. ↑ Baha'i News (1950). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 227, Pg(s) 4. View as PDF.
  11. ↑ Baha'i News (1950). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 236, Pg(s) 15. View as PDF.
  12. ↑ Baha'i News (1952). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 260, Pg(s) 3. View as PDF.
  13. ↑ Baha'i News (1955). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 290, Pg(s) 2. View as PDF.
  14. ↑ Baha'i News (1956). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 301, Pg(s) 2. View as PDF.
  15. ↑ Baha'i News (1957). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 316, Pg(s) 22. View as PDF.
  16. ↑ Baha'i News (1960). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 348, Pg(s) 12. View as PDF.
  17. ↑ Baha'i News (1960). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 353, Pg(s) 10. View as PDF.
  18. ↑ Baha'i News (1960). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 357, Pg(s) 15. View as PDF.
  19. ↑ U.S. Supplement, No. 42, p 1
  20. ↑ Baha'i News (1963). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 383, Pg(s) 15. View as PDF.
  21. ↑ Baha'i News (1963). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 389, Pg(s) 9. View as PDF.
  22. ↑ Baha'i News (1965). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 417, Pg(s) 17. View as PDF.
  23. ↑ Baha'i News (1966). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. No 425, Pg(s) 13. View as PDF.
  24. ↑ The American Bahá’í (1971). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. Volume 2, Issue 3, pg(s) 4. View as PDF.
  25. ↑ The American Bahá’í (1971). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. Volume 2, Issue 5, pg(s) 8. View as PDF.
  26. ↑ The American Bahá’í (1972). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. Volume 3, Issue 1, pg(s) 3. View as PDF.
  27. ↑ The American Bahá’í (1973). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. Volume 4, Issue 3, pg(s) 16. View as PDF.
  28. ↑ The American Bahá’í (1974). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. Volume 5, Issue 1, pg(s) 7. View as PDF.
  29. ↑ The American Bahá’í (1974). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. Volume 5, Issue 3, pg(s) 4. View as PDF.
  30. ↑ The American Bahá’í (1979). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. Volume 10, Issue 7, pg(s) 1. View as PDF.
  31. ↑ The American Bahá’í (1983). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. Volume 14, Issue 12, pg(s) 25. View as PDF.
  32. ↑ The American Bahá’í (1985). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. Volume 16, Issue 5, pg(s) 13. View as PDF.
  33. ↑ The American Bahá’í (1992). National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States. Volume 23, Issue 10, pg(s) 4. View as PDF.
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