Minneapolis, Minnesota

Minneapolis
City in the United States
Minneapolis Bahá'ís, 1956.
Location of Minneapolis
History: Firsts
-	Local Assembly	1909
How to contact:
-	Phone	(612) 823-3494
-	Email	minneapolis.bahai@gmail.com
-	Address	3644 Chicago Ave. S Minneapolis, MN 55407
-	State	Minnesota
-	Country	United States
Official Website		https://www.minneapolisbahai.org/
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Minneapolis is the largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota.

History

Early years

The first Bahá'í to have lived in Minneapolis, albeit before they declared, was likely Charles F. Haney, who was an active Bahá'í by 1900, and worked as a City Clerk in Minneapolis for eight years before retiring and leaving the city in 1896. As early as 1905 the Bahá'í Faith had received press coverage in local Minneapolis press.

Early Bahá'ís of Minneapolis include prominent lawyer Albert H. Hall and Fred Mortensen. As of 1906 the city had approximately six Bahá'ís, and by 1909 the number had grown to fifteen and a community was formally established. Minneapolis sent a delegate, Albert Hall, to the U.S. Bahá'í National Convention in 1909, and he was elected to the first Bahá'í Temple Unity, a national body formed by the American Bahá'í community to coordinate efforts to build a Mashriqu'l-Adhkár in the United States.

In 1912 'Abdu'l-Bahá's visit to the United States was reported locally in Minneapolis, and in June it was reported that He was going to visit the area. In mid-September 1912 He visited Minneapolis, and spoke before audiences totaling about a thousand. He was photographed in Loring Park with local Bahá'ís, including the Halls and McCutcheon.

In 1915 Howard Colby Ives visited Minneapolis, although this was to raise funds to aid Armenian civilians suffering due to WWI and the Faith was not mentioned in the media report of his visit. In 1916 Albert Hall gave a talk at a New Thought conference which received press coverage, and the Bahá'ís began holding public meetings which were initially held in a Unitarian Church, and later in the Northwestern National Life Insurance Company building. In November travel teacher Mary Hanford Ford visited the city for a protracted period, going into December, and gave public talks, and regular community meetings continued following her departure.

Bahá'í activity continued in 1917, with two meetings being held in January. In April the election of the Minneapolis delegate to the National Convention received press coverage. In June Mary Hanford Ford returned, and that month the community held both formal and informal meetings which were advertised.

In October 1921 Louis Gregory visited Minneapolis, and after his departure the Bahá’ís delivered presentations before black women's groups in 1922. In 1923 Martha Root visited Minneapolis. As of 1932 Dr. Charles S. Frink, a Bahá’í from Minneapolis, was producing large portraits of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá for Bahá’í communities across the United States at the cost of materials.

Local development

In October 1946 a public meeting was held in the East Room of the Curtis Hotel, at which local Bahá’ís Maria Montana, semi-retired professional soprano sang, and Dr. Charles Frink and F. Flaxington Harker performed a violin/cello arrangement. Lawrence Hautz chaired the event and Carl Scheffler spoke at it. In early 1947 travel teacher William Lacey visited Minneapolis during a teaching tour, and there was one declaration in the city later that year, perhaps as a result of his visit.

In November 1947 a Minneapolis youth group, University of Life, which was holding a class on different religions at Hennepin Avenue Church requested a Bahá’í speaker, and the Minneapolis Bahá’ís asked Lawrence Hautz of Minnesota to visit. Hautz gave a talk to the group which resulted in a discussion which lasted for so long the group had to be asked to leave the church with Hautz continuing to answer questions as they departed, and another Bahá’í speaker being requested by the youth group. By the time of the next University of Life meeting in February 1948 the Minneapolis Bahá’ís decided that they needed to raise their own capacity to proclaim the Faith, so instead of asking for a Bahá’í speaker to visit Helen Frink, the chair of the Local Assembly, prepared a talk. After her talk to the University of Life she was invited to have four personal appointments to discuss the Faith with people, and a few days later she was invited to give two talks at Central High School, which she gave on progressive revelation, and which were highly successful resulting in students requesting Bahá’í booklets. Frink was not allowed to distribute any religious material due to school policy, but the school did allow her to mail them afterwards to students who requested them.

Recent years

In the 1970s and 1980s the Bahá’ís of Minneapolis organized the Bahá’í Glad Tidings School for children and rented a building of the University of Minnesota to accommodate it, however rent was high so in 2000 the Bahá’ís of Minneapolis purchased a building on Chicago Avenue which now serves as a Bahá’í Center and hosts holy days, conferences, and study groups. The building was constructed in 1927 and had served multiple purposes before being purchased by the Bahá’ís from an African American church. The city traded a part of the property for a nearby area which the Bahá’ís now use for parking.

In 2017 the Wilmette Institute came to an agreement with the United Theological Seminary for Minneapolis and St. Paul which allowed students of the Seminary to take Wilmette Institute courses. A Bahá’í Days event was held by the Seminary to celebrate the agreement, and establishing a Bahá’í Studies program at the Minneapolis Seminary was discussed.

Further Reading

• Wikipedia article on Minneapolis