Peter McLaren

Peter McLaren
Peter McLaren in the Caracas Hazira, 1967.
Born	May 29, 1933 Texas, USA.
Died	February 17, 2025 Guaynabo, Puerto Rico.
NSA member	Venezuela 1963 - ????
ABM	Americas 1969 - 1973
Counsellor	South America 1973 - 1980 Americas 1980 - 2000
Media

Peter McLaren (May 29, 1933 - February 17th, 2025) was an American Bahá’í who pioneered to Venezuela where he served as a Continental Counselor.

Biography

Early service in the United States

McLaren's mother, Edith, became a Bahá’í in the 1930's. As of 1955 McLaren was serving on the Central States Area Youth Committee which was responsible for Bahá’í youth activities in Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa, and by 1956 he was chairman of the National Youth Committee and chaired a discussion at the 1956 U.S. National Convention on ways to reach youth. By the end of the year he was no longer serving on the Youth Committee.

Pioneering to Venezuela

At some point McLaren pioneered to Venezuela settling in Valencia and he helped establish the Local Spiritual Assembly of Valencia in 1960 and was elected to the body. In 1962, he and Judith Long McLaren had a daughter, Munirih. In 1962 he made a teaching trip with Dr. Israel Posner into the Amazon jungle in Venezuela and was able to proclaim the Faith to members of the Guahibos tribe. They made three return visits throughout the year which resulted in thirty-five declarations, and in December 1965 he participated in the first Guajiro Teacher Training Institute in Riohacha. As of 1963 McLaren was serving as vice-chairman of the National Spiritual Assembly of Venezuela and he served on the body throughout the 1960's.

In 1966, Peter and Judith had son, David McLaren, born in Maracaibo, Venezuela. In 1967 McLaren made several travel teaching trips to goals set for Venezuela for the Nine Year Plan visiting Trinidad, Curazao, Aruba, and Margarita Island, and as of 1967 he was serving on the Colombo-Venezuelan Guajira Teaching Committee. In October 1967 he visited Panama and translated for Auxiliary Board member Ruth Pringle at the commemoration of the laying of the foundation stone of the House of Worship. In 1968 he accompanied Rúḥíyyih Khánum during her visit to Venezuela.

As of 1969 McLaren had been appointed as an Auxiliary Board member for Venezuela and that year he attended a Counsellors Conference for Andean Countries held in Bolivia. In early 1970 McLaren helped facilitate a deepening conference in Caracas as Board member which led to led to a successful teaching project in the city. In May he spoke at the first All Quajira Bahá’í Conference in Los Mochos, and in December he visited Trinidad where he assisted with a two-day deepening conference. In August 1972 he visited Guatemala where his mother was also serving as an Auxiliary Board member and he gave a talk to the Bahá’í community of Guatemala City.

Service as Counselor for South America

In 1973 the Universal House of Justice appointed McLaren as a Counselor on the Continental Board for South America, and he visited Trinidad again that year to assist with teaching work. In January 1975 he visited Lima, Peru, at the same time as fellow Counselor Mas’ud Khamsi and Hand of the Cause Raḥmatu’lláh Muhájir, and later in the year he spoke at a Counselors conference held in Colombia on the functioning of Auxiliary Boards. In 1976 he spoke at a Bahá’í Youth Camp held in Guyana, and was interviewed on television while visiting Surinam alongside Leonora Armstrong and Hooper Dunbar.

In 1977 McLaren spoke at an International Teaching Conference in Bahia, Brazil, and represented the Continental Board for South America at the establishment of the National Spiritual Assembly of Surinam and French Guiana, attended the National Teaching Conference of Bolivia in Cochabamba, and attended an International Bahá’í Conference for women in Peru. In 1978 McLaren was a member of a Bahá’í delegation which met with General Augusto Pinochet of Chile for a fifteen minute audience.

Service as Counselor for the Americas

In July 1980 McLaren attended the National Teaching Conference for Trinidad & Tobago in Palmyra. In November 1980 the Universal House of Justice merged the Continental Boards of North, South, and Central America into a single body and introduced five year terms and McLaren was appointed to the body. In 1982 he visited Guyana consulting with the National Spiritual Assembly with Lloyd Gardner and then touring the country for a week, and in August he participated in the Intercontinental Teaching Conference in Quito, Ecuador. In April 1983 he facilitated a deepening class at the first Bahá’í International Youth Camp in Suriname, and in 1984 he visited Trinidad & Tobago, Guyana, and St. Lucia.

In 1985 McLaren was appointed for a second five year term as Counsellor. In 1988 he facilitated a national conference for assistants to the Auxiliary Board in Guyana on the Six Year Plan, and the same year he was appointed the Trustee of the Continental Fund for the Americas. In 1990 he was reappointed for his third term as Counsellor and the same year he assisted in launching the Muhájir Project, a major teaching campaign in Guyana, with fellow Counsellor Eloy Anello selecting full-time teachers to assist with the campaign. The campaign resulted in 2,200 declarations within a month. In 1995 he was appointed for his final term as Counsellor, and also as Trustee of the Continental Fund, completing his service in the role in 2000.

McLaren continued to serve the Bahá’í community of Venezuela after his service as Counsellor and was still living in Maracaibo as of 2014 and then moved to Puerto Rico where he lived with his wife, Susan McLaren. Their daughter, Nuriyeh McLaren, and her two children Alma and Dario, live in Puerto Rico. He passed in Guaynabo, Puerto Rico, in 2025.

References

Bahai.media has a related page: Category:Peter McLaren