Saint Helena

Saint Helena
Dedication of the Saint Helena Bahá’í Center, 1998.
Location of Saint Helena
National Assembly		South Africa
Statistics:
Total Population
-	UN 2021	5,404
Bahá'í pop.
-	Bahá'í source
-	Non-Bahá'í source	48
History: Firsts
-	Local Bahá'í	1960, Gay Corker 1960, Basil George
-	Pioneers	1954, Elizabeth Stamp
-	Local Assembly	1973, Saint Helena
How to contact:
-	Phone	(+290) 23136
-	Email	enquiries@sthelenabahai.org
Official Website		http://www.sthelenabahai.org/
Related media
Categories: Saint Helena • People

Saint Helena is an island in the South Atlantic Ocean. It is a British Overseas Territory governed alongside Ascension and Tristan da Cunha as a single territory.

The island was uninhabited until the 16th century. In 1659 the British East India Company established a colony on the island and in 1834 it became a Crown Colony of the British Empire as Saint Helena and Dependencies with the name being changed to Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha in 2009.

The Bahá’í Faith was first present in Saint Helena in 1954 with a community beginning to become formally established in the 1970s. The Bahá’í community of the island is administrated by one Local Spiritual Assembly which is under the jurisdiction of the National Spiritual Assembly of South Africa.

History

In 1953 Shoghi Effendi launched the Ten Year Crusade, an international teaching plan for the Bahá’í Faith, and a goal of the plan was establishing a Bahá’í community on Saint Helena. Elizabeth Stamp pioneered to the island in 1954 and due to the Church of England's prominence on the island she found it difficult to teach the Faith. A couple declared through Stamp at some point but wished to keep their declarations secret fearing reprisal from the Church and they later withdrew from the Faith.

In 1960 Jagdish Saminaden, a Mauritian Bahá’í, joined Stamp on the island and Basil George, a policeman, and Gay Corker, who sang in the Church of England choir, became Bahá’ís through him in 1960 and were the first Saint Helena Bahá’ís to remain members of the religion. Saminaden departed Saint Helena in 1962 and Stamp had to depart in 1964 due to ill health with Barbara George pioneering to the island from Scotland in July that year to continue efforts to establish the Faith.

By 1966 there was only one Bahá’í on Saint Helena and that year Catherine and Clifford Huxtable pioneered to the island, with Catherine passing at their pioneer post the following year. As of 1968 there were Bahá’ís residing in one locality on the island, and in 1973 a Local Spiritual Assembly for Saint Helena was established. In 1974 a South African Bahá’í made a travel teaching trip to the island.

As of the early 1980's the development of the Bahá’í Faith on the island remained modest with pioneers still working to firmly establish a community, and by 1998 a community had been consolidated to the point a National Bahá’í Center could be established that year.

In 2003 Saint Helena Bahá’í Basil George was awarded the title Officer of the Order of the British Empire for his efforts to have Saint Helena citizens given British citizenship.