Early this century American Bahá'í Horace Holley entitled
his book introducing the Bahá'í Faith ‘
The Modern
Social Religion'. The Bahá'í Faith originated in Iran
in the nineteenth century, through the Prophet-founder
Bahá'u'lláh (d.1892), who taught that all religions have the
same divine origin, that they share a common purpose, and that
the most pressing need of the present age is the achievement of
diverse but unified world society. Holley sought to emphasise
that this was a religion concerned with collective life, as much
as with that of the individual. Now that the Bahá'í Faith is
well established world-wide its members feel part of global,
national and local communities. Of these, the local community is
experienced most directly, for it is at local level that most
Bahá'ís find expression for their Faith.
This essay focuses on one particular community, that of the
municipality of Randwick in Sydney, the capital city of the state
of New South Wales, Australia. Notwithstanding attempts to make
the Bahá'í Faith more widely known in Randwick, the community
did not grow rapidly. Nor did everyone who joined the community
remain a part of it. Although this brief account cannot attempt
to mention everyone associated with the Randwick Community, it
does attempt to recall some of what the Randwick Bahá'ís have
experienced, and to provide also a sense also of what they have
achieved and failed to achieve. In many ways the story of
Randwick community is similar to that of thousands of other
Bahá'í communities across the globe. It consists of people of
diverse backgrounds, capacities and temperaments, brought
together by their common allegiance to the Teachings of
Bahá'u'llah. Its story is similar, also, in that it
revolves around a community of Bahá'ís striving, in the context
of their abilities and also their limitations, to promote their
beliefs in the wider community, and to bring their personal lives
into conformity with its spiritual and social principles.
The history of Randwick Bahá'í Community has unfolded in a
number of stages, each building on the one before it. It began
with the arrival of Clara and Hyde Dunn in Randwick in 1922. For
the next three decades it included a few members only, who were
members of the wider Sydney Community. In the late 1950s the
Randwick group aimed to establish their Local Spiritual Assembly,
and this was achieved in 1963. In the period since its formation
the Assembly has been sustained by a Community combining
well-settled families, young Bahá'ís still making their life
plans, and university students residing in the locality for
relatively short periods of time.
Clara and Hyde Dunn
The Bahá'í Faith came to Randwick, a major municipality in
the eastern suburbs of Sydney, soon after the arrival of Clara
and Hyde Dunn in Australia in April 1920. This English-born
couple had become Bahá'ís in North America, Hyde in Seattle in
1905 and Clara in Walla Walla, Washington in 1907. They married
in 1917 and when they learnt of Abdu'l-Bahá's call for
Bahá'ís to take the message of Bahá'u'lláh to other parts of
the world, the Dunns responded by forsaking friends and community
in California to sail West across the Pacific. Lack of funds made
life difficult in the first few months in Sydney. But after about
one year, during which Clara had worked, Hyde acquired a suitable
position as a travelling salesman. By March 1921 the Dunns moved
into a small but comfortable flat at 171 Avoca Street, Randwick.
This was to be their base for the next year and a half, and this
was the suburb to which they subsequently returned for an even
longer period.
The Dunns welcomed many new friends to their Avoca Street
home, to observe Bahá'í Feasts and to learn about the Bahá'í
Faith. In 1922 Hyde began to travel beyond Sydney on business.
Late in the year in the Northern NSW town of Lismore, he met
Oswald Whitaker, a Sydney optometrist, who after a period of
questioning and investigation became the first Australian to
fully embrace the Bahá'í Cause. Mr Whitaker lived in Sydney
municipality at this time, but in the late 1920s purchased a home
for his family at 43 Eastern Avenue, Kensington, and so became
part of the Randwick Bahá'í Community.
The First Sydney Assembly
In 1923 Shoghi Effendi wrote to the Bahá'ís if the world
about the need to establish administrative bodies to be called
"Assemblies". Bahá'u'lláh had specified in his
‘Most Holy Bookí, the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, that Assemblies
be established in every locality where there were nine or more
adult (21 years and above) believers. These "Spiritual
Assemblies" would in the future evolve into local Houses of
Justices. Assemblies were to take responsibility for "The
matter of Teaching, its direction, its ways and means, its
extension, its consolidation"; to look to the protection of
the unity of the Community; and to "promote amity and
concord amongst the friends, efface every lingering trace of
distrust, coolness and estrangement from every heart, and secure
in its stead an active and whole-hearted co-operation for the
service of the Cause."
Furthermore, the Assemblies were to help "the poor, the
sick, the disabled, the orphan, (and) the widow"; promote
the "material as well as the spiritual enlightenment of
youth, (and) the means for the education of children";
institute, whenever possible Bahá'í educational institutions;
correspond with other Bahá'í centres through newsletters;
encourage the development of Bahá'í magazines; hold regular
meetings, such as feasts and anniversaries, and other
"…special gatherings designed to serve and promote the
social, intellectual and spiritual interests of their
fellow-men."
In 1925, following their highly successful travel interstate,
the Dunns returned to Avoca Street, this time to number 143 Avoca
St, in a "dear little flat overlooking Coogee Beach" in
the "Whyralla" apartments. The Dunns had established
Local Spiritual Assemblies in Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth in
1923-24, and were now intent on forming one in Sydney, in
preparation for the formation of a national body. In May 1925
they wrote of their plans Shoghi Effendi, and the following month
received his reply:
My most precious unforgettable fellow-workers:
The sweet savours of your most welcome letter
refresh my soul & ease the burden that weighs often
heavily upon me. You are always close to my heart, ever
the object of my prayers & my constant companions in
spirit. I am delighted to learn of your intention to form
next year a Bahá'í Convention & the first National
Spiritual Assembly of Australasia. Accept my best wishes
& the assurance of my continued & ardent prayers
& of my keen desire to help & serve you in any
way I can. Your services, your indefatigable efforts
& exemplary achievements are graven upon my heart,
Shoghi
Illness and work commitments were the major obstacles. In the
middle of October 1925 Clara stayed with Kathleen and Ernest
Brewer at Penshurst in the south of Sydney while Hyde travelled
for work in Tasmania. When she became ill Mr Brewer asked
Margaret Dixson to come from Melbourne to assist in her recovery,
and he also called Hyde back from his work, which had by now
taken him to Queensland. Clara described Margaret, who stayed on
in Sydney and became in important member of the Assembly, as a
'dear little overworked thing who needs the rest more than I do.
She is like a sweet loving daughter. God is good to give us these
loving friends...". The Dunns' Randwick home was,
wrote Margaret, 'an outpost in a desert of unbelief and
materiality'.
The Sydney Assembly was formed in November 1925. Although it
was an Assembly for the entire city, meetings were held in the
Avoca Street flat occupied by Margaret Dixson and the Dunns. Mrs
Dixson remained close friends with the Dunns even when they moved
on to live in Brisbane, and later, Adelaide. In December 1926,
she accompanied Clara on a trip by boat to Melbourne, and in 1927
she was to travel with the Dunns on a pilgrimage to Haifa - a
pilgrimage which, for some reason, Clara Dunn eventually made on
her own.
The Dunns maintained their Avoca Street residence for a number
of years, despite occasional trips interstate. In July 1927, for
instance, the Dunns returned from Perth to reside once more at
143 Avoca Street. In the second half of 1927 Hyde worked in
country towns, returning periodically to Randwick. Clara was
chairperson of the Assembly, and Mr Whitaker corresponding
secretary and local secretary. Other members, in addition to Hyde
Dunn and Margaret Dixson, were Amy Wilkins, Mrs Colina, Mr Day,
Mrs Rose, and Mrs Neath. Other members of the community included
Mrs Fordward, Mrs Whitaker, the Greenhoughs, Mrs Luby, and Ernest
and Kathleen Brewer. It is not clear how many of these members
lived in Randwick Municipality.
The community also held regular meetings at Mr Whitaker's
home, and shared ‘unity feasts' among other
members' homes. Each week Margaret Dixson conducted
Esperanto classes, and the Dunns hosted meetings every Sunday. At
one time, the Assembly explained in a letter it sent to other
Bahá'í Communities around the world, it looked into the
possibilities of inviting "staffs of Business
Organisations" to lectures "in which the Bahá'í
principles would be set out as applied to business generally,
staff control, co-operation and general service etc., the talks
to be more on the indirect teaching method as approved by Shoghi
Effendi." The activities of the Assembly at this time were
influenced by the interests of the businessmen in the Community.
Before returning to Melbourne in August 1927, Margaret Dixson
described the Sydney group as a "handful of followers"
with little to show for their efforts, except a bond of unity, a
spiritual love in their hearts, and undying devotion to Clara and
Hyde Dunn, their "noble teachers".
Late in 1927 the Dunns gave up their home in Avoca Street and
resided for a time at 9 Clara St Randwick. A short time after,
the Assembly lapsed, and only re-formed in 1931, the year that
Mrs Keith Ransom-Kehler visited the Australian Bahá'ís to
encourage them in the formation of the National Spiritual
Assembly. Elected to the Sydney Assembly in 1931 were Oswald and
Linda Whitaker, Stanley and Mariette Bolton, Mr Day, Mrs Moffitt
(chair), Mrs Donald (corresponding secretary), Miss Beaver, and
Miss Hilda Gilbert (secretary). On 11 May about forty people
attended the opening of the Community's new centre, a room
rented in Siddley Chambers, 114 Hunter Street.
By 1934 there were some 26 voting members in Sydney. Notice of
the registration of the Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of
the City of Sydney appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald,
30 July 1938:
The nine members objects: to further the practice of
the Bahá'í religion etc. subscribers Thomas R. Dowson,
Stanley W Bolton, Mariette G. Bolton, Hilda Gilbert, Mary
C. Moffitt, Lynda Whitaker, Oswald A. Whitaker, Gladys C.
Moody, and Clara Dunn.
Oswald Whitaker
The Assembly's Centre was no longer in Randwick, and
although the Whitakers and perhaps other Bahá'ís continued to
live in the Municipality, it was to be several decades before a
strong group flourished once more in Randwick. When American
Bahá'í Loulie Mathews sailed into Sydney in 1933 she was
fortunate to have arrived on a day on which Hyde was speaking at
the Sydney Bahá'í Centre:
In my pocket I carried the address of the Bahá'í
Center which was not far from the pier where we were
berthed. I had no difficulty in finding it and slipped
into a seat in the rear of the hall. On the platform was
Hyde Dunn reading from The Foundations of World Unity
by íAbdu'l-Bahá. ... A remarkable man, Mr. Whitaker
by name, had joined the Faith in Sydney and whenever Mr.
Dunn was away he taught the classes and promoted the
work.
In 1937 Mr Whitaker introduced the Bahá'í Faith to Jim
Heggie, a young man destined to make a significant contribution
to the Australian Bahá'í Community. Jim recalled:
"In July I found myself in need of the service of
an optometrist as Iíd hurt my eyes through working
conditions. Luckily for me Australiaís first
believer was an optometrist and not a brain surgeon or a
psychiatrist; and so by chance I called in to the George
Street shop of Alex Hale, to find Mr. Oswald Whitaker who
not only prescribed the necessary spectacles but also
attracted me so that Iíd always call on him to say
‘helloí and talk a little…After a few
weeks I was invited to a youth meeting at Mr.
Whitakerís home where I first heard the word
‘Bahá'íí. The following weekend when I
visited the Optician Rooms in George Street I told Mr.
Whitaker I was not interested in religion; he said that
it didnít matter and that weíd talk of other
things. From then on I visited his home twice a week and
weíd talk of ‘science', for he was
wonderfully informative so that I soon came to realize
that my scepticism in religious matters was due to the
inadequate church doctrines."
Oswald Whitaker was a member of Sydney Local Spiritual
Assembly throughout the 1930s, and a member of the National
Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Australia and New Zealand
from its establishment in 1934 until his passing on 3 July 1942.
Hilda Brooks, an Adelaide Bahá'í who was the secretary of the
first National Spiritual Assembly, knew Mr Whitaker well, and
wrote an ‘In Memoriamí article that appeared in The Bahá'í
World:
In 1934 Mr. Whitaker was elected to the first National
Spiritual Assembly and for several years was a valued and
beloved vice-chairman. His sincerity and honesty of
purpose, his staunchness and fidelity to the Faith were
ever an inspiration to his colleagues. His understanding
heart, his generous spirit, and a courage that admitted
of no compromise when teaching the Faith, coupled with
his unfailing adherence to the spiritual principles,
which were the compelling force in his personal character
and conduct, gained for him the respect and esteem of all
who were privileged to know him. He had a rare gift of
friendship, constant and deep, which communicated itself,
even to strangers, as a benediction of goodwill. He never
spared himself when duty called or the opportunity of
extending a helping hand presented itself, and no one
will ever be able to appreciate the extent of his
sacrifice for the Faith.
Although Mr Whitakerís wife and daughter were Bahá'ís,
his death - and that of Hyde Dunn a year earlier - stripped the
eastern suburbs Bahá'ís of their most dedicated champions. It
was to be many years before Randwick Community once again enjoyed
a similar level of energy and commitment.
Administrative Reform
Expansion of the Australian Bahá'í community's
administrative capacity and needs led in time to the acquisition
of properties as local and national secretariats. In 1944 the
National Assembly acquired its first headquarters in Sydney. A
"summer school" first established at Yerrinbool, south
of Sydney, has operated annually since 1938. In the 1940s the
National Spiritual Assembly decided to implement administrative
reforms affecting the formation of Local Spiritual Assemblies.
Whereas the first Local Spiritual Assemblies were established on
a city-wide basis, so that a single Assembly existed, for
instance, in Sydney, in Melbourne, and in Adelaide, the National
Spiritual Assembly announced that the time had come to form Local
Communities on the basis of municipal boundaries. In Sydney,
separate Communities were formed in Caringbah, Kuring-gai and
North Sydney. The Bahá'ís of Australia and New Zealand
undertook a ‘Six Year Planí 1947-1953. The goal was to
increase the size of the Community from five Local Assemblies and
five groups by an additional 31 groups and 7 Local Spiritual
Assemblies.
To the Assemblies already existing in Sydney, Adelaide,
Auckland, Caringbah and Yerrinbool were to be added others in
Brisbane, Melbourne, Hobart, Perth, Woodville, Port Adelaide, and
Wollongong. Eight new Assemblies were to be formed in New South
Wales, although Randwick was not among them. Arthur Hicks, Town
clerk for Randwick Municipal Council, who lived at 16 Church St.
with his wife Rita, had become a Bahá'í in 1938, and was
quite possibly the only Bahá'í living in the municipality at
this time. By 1953 twelve Assemblies had been formed, bringing
the number in Australia and New Zealand to 17. The Bahá'ís in
Randwick were one of 40 groups yet to reach Assembly status.
The World Crusade
In 1953 the Bahá'ís commenced a decade long and
world-embracing plan of action, designed to take
Bahá'u'lláhís Teachings to the remaining corners of the
Globe. This was a unique period in Bahá'í history, in which
Bahá'ís travelled throughout the world to share the Teachings
of Bahá'u'llah. Although there were just 60 Bahá'í
centres in Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania, a number of
Australians travelled to the Pacific Islands, while others
relocated within the country. Randwick Bahá'ís had a share in
this activity, and in time established a network of close friends
in countries of the Pacific Islands, and later across South East
Asia.
Administrative consolidation of the Bahá'í community in the
1950s included the multiplication and legal establishment of
Bahá'í centres and Local Assemblies, official recognition of
Bahá'í holy days, and Bahá'í marriage certificates, and the
maturation of the various administrative committees. This was the
decade, and the Plan, in which Randwickís Assembly
re-formed. There were three in the group in 1958. Mrs Mae Beat
joined the Community in May 1960. A nurse at St Vincentís
hospital in her early years, Mrs Beat became a Bahá'í in
September 1951, and the Randwick Bahá'í group was later formed
at her home at 23 King St Randwick. She was secretary of the
group during the first year (1960-61), then treasurer (1961-62),
and she remained a member of Randwick Community until she moved
to Waverly in September 1969. For many years Mrs Beat travelled
every Wednesday to the House of Worship at Mona Vale to act as a
guide for visitors.
Fred and Eva Grant
The third founding member of the Randwick group was Fred Grant
(1931-1987). Mr Grant was the first Jewish man to join the Faith
in Australia. He already resided in Carrington Road Coogee when
he visited the Bahá'í Holy Shrines
in Haifa in 1953, and declared in May 1957, after attending many
meetings at ‘Bahá'í Headquartersí, 2 Lang Road
Paddington. He married Eva Rachel Steiner in May 1960, and Eva
herself declared in 1962.
The story of how Fred and Eva survived the holocaust is
remarkable and will be described in brief here. Mr Grant was born
Mordechai Grossman, 23 August 1931, in the small town of
Luchenyetz, in Czechoslovakia. Jews of Hungarian Nationality were
hoarded onto trucks, and thrown out of the country. Hungary would
not accept them, and tens of thousands were on the border, with
no-where to go. When a family of distant relations disappeared
Fred began to sense trouble. He acquired identity papers from
another boy and became Michael Harangozo (meaning
"Bell-ringer") and left home on 26 May 1944 without
telling his mother. He was thirteen years old, and had practised
for leaving home by riding a bicycle on all-day trips to other
towns to watch soccer, and left with only a bag of apples. Fred
was on the first train from Budapest back into Czechoslovakia
after the German retreat, and discovered amidst the physical
destruction that most of his family had perished in Nazi
Concentration camps.
Fred heard of the Faith from Mrs Shamsi Sedaghat in 1953 while
travelling by ship to Haifa, Israel. Through Mrs Sedaghat, Fred
met Hand of the Cause Dr Lutfulah Hakím, and on his
return to Sydney visited Hand of the Cause Clara Dunn at 2 Lang
Rd. He also attended meetings at the Bahá'í room in Piccadilly
Arcade during 1954-55.
Eva Steiner was born in 1940 in St Martin, Czechoslovakia. At
age of four she arrived at Teresienstad Concentration Camp with
her mother and grandmother. All three survived, but all other
members of the family were killed. She lived in Jerusalem, Israel
for seven years from 1949, before migrating to Australia in 1956.
The Grant family, especially following the birth of their son
John in 1961, provided an initial foundation for the community.
While many members had passed through Randwick, few had settled,
and the pattern remained the same for several decades. Most
Community members were young and single, still seeking their
life-partner and their calling. Just a handful of families
arrived and stayed for the longer term. Randwick Community came
to accept this pattern, and made every member welcome for however
long they could stay.
In 1961 young Bahá'ís John Walker and Bruce Saunders moved
into the area, and Mae Beatís son James declared. Larger
activities began to be held, for the purpose of making the
Bahá'í Faith more widely known. A meeting was held in La
Perouse following National Convention, in April 1961, at which
South Australian Bahá'í Howard Harwood
showed slides of the Holy Land and of Aboriginal Bahá'ís in
South Australia and Victoria.
The Randwick Bahá'ís continued their contact with the
Aboriginal Community at La Perouse for many years. When a team of
American Bahá'ís visited La Perouse in the 1970s a group of
residents spontaneously agreed to join the Faith – although
their knowledge of it was minimal, and no actual enrolments
followed. One Aboriginal youth, Miss Aileen Liddy declared in
April 1970, but subsequently resigned and returned to Darwin.
By Ridvan 1962 there were five adult Bahá'ís in Randwick,
and the Regional Teaching Committee decided to name it a
‘goal areaí. Rockdale and Warringah were also named as
goal areas at this time. The ‘goalí was to establish a
Community with at least nine members by Ridvan 1963, so that a
Local Spiritual Assembly could be formed.
Activities continued at an increased pace in 1962. Stanley
Bolton visited to show slides on 30 June. On 31 July Marion Adams
addressed an audience of 50 at the University of New
South Wales during a lunch hour meeting, and on 1 August Peter
Khan spoke to an audience of similar size. Following the
declaration of Don Wilkinson in May there were seven members in
the Community, and by October, following the declaration of Eva
Grant there were eight Randwick Bahá'ís. Then Anna Phillips
arrived from Fiji and the formation of Randwick Assembly was
announced in the Australian Bahá'í Bulletin
for October. The celebrations were short-lived, however, as it
was later realised that one of the ‘membersí actually
lived outside the boundaries of Randwick municipality. Another
member moved at the same time and the search for the eighth and
ninth members resumed.
Early in 1963, prior to the April deadline, the Community
achieved its much sought after status as an Assembly with the
arrival of Robert Greenfield from Port Adelaide, South Australia,
and the celebration by Bruce Saunders of his 21st
birthday. Although the first Local Assembly in all of Sydney had
been established at the Dunns home in Randwick, that Assembly had
been, strictly speaking, an Assembly for the entire city. Now, in
1963, an Assembly had been established for Randwick municipality
alone. Its members were Arthur Hicks, Mae Beat, Fred and Eva
Grant, Robert Greenfield, Bruce Saunders, Anna Phillips, Barry
OíBrien (secretary) and Don Wilkinson. The advice given to
Assemblies by Shoghi Effendi so many years before now became more
relevant, and no doubt the Assembly members spoke at length in
the first years about the ways in which they could respond to it.
The Community calendar included observance of the Bahá'í Feasts
and Holy days, firesides and public meetings, and support for
activities at the House of Worship, dedicated at Mona Vale in
September 1961.
The Nine Year Plan (1964-1973): Randwick consolidates
Between 1964 and 1973 the Australian Bahá'ís participated in
a 'Nine Year Plan' of activities to make the Bahá'í Teachings more widely
known, and to strengthen the capacity of the Bahá'í Community
and its institutions. Randwick Assembly held its first Public
meeting on 5 November 1964. The meeting was advertised in two
local papers, and 1,000 invitations were distributed with a
pamphlet, ‘One Universal Faith'. Although the program
(a short introduction to the Faith, a slide show, questions and
supper) attracted just one inquirer, the Assembly was satisfied,
and decided to hold a second meeting, on 29 January, for which
2,000 letters were to be distributed. This was a time of
intensive effort to make the Bahá'í Teachings more widely known
and the Randwick Bahá'ís were very much involved. Eva Grant was
a member of the Regional Teaching Committee in the 1960s, the
State Proclamation Committee and the National Goals Committee in
the early 1970s. David Bailey was also on the RTC at this time,
and later served for long periods on the National Teaching
Committee and the National Spiritual Assembly. The other members
of the community were similarly busy with one or other type of
Bahá'í activity. The House of Workshop at Mona Vale had been
dedicated in 1961, and Randwick Bahá'ís now began participating
in its many programs, and responsibilities. They supported the
services held each Sunday at 3.30pm, and took their turns on an
inter-community roster to act as ‘guides' to the
increasing numbers of curious visitors.
The Pacific Islands Connection
In 1964 the Australian Bahá'ís had responsibility for
assisting in the establishment of a National Spiritual Assembly
in Papua New Guinea. The Randwick Assembly offered ‘to give
special assistance to the Rabaul Community'. At about this
time Ruhi and John Mills, and their children Jalal and Louise
(Leroy had not yet arrived) moved to Randwick. They had lived in
the Solomon Islands, and in 1969 moved to Rabaul, in Papua New
Guinea. David and Sue Podger also moved from Randwick to the
Pacific. They lived in Randwick following their marriage in
January 1964, and moved to Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, in
1965. As will be seen, this connection with Papua New Guinea and
the Pacific was maintained in later years.
Other Community members in the 1960s included Stan and Joy
Mathews, Keithie Blum, Mr and Mrs V. Blake, Brian Whitehead,
Hilton and Helen Grigor and Gladys Pollard. The Grigors moved to
Randwick from Cooma in December 1965 and pioneered to Western
Samoa in April 1966. Even Mrs Pollard spent some time in the
Pacific. Born in England in 1895, she had declared in 1938. She
spent three months with Bertha Dobbins in the New Hebrides in
1959. Canadian Bahá'í Jean Levy (nee Court) moved to Randwick
late in 1965. Although she soon transferred to Sydney Community
Randwick Assembly assisted her August 1968 marriage to Walter
White.
Late in 1966 Miss Pollard and Barry OíBrien both moved
from Randwick to Wahringah, and by February 1967 the Randwick
Assembly required two members to maintain its status. This
deficit was filled by Mohsen Zein, from Concord, and Marjorie
MacDonald, from Adelaide. Other members of the Zein family - Mrs
Sanush Djalal Zein, Mr Samir Fein, and Miss Hodah Zein - arrived
from Cairo, Egypt, at the end of 1968. Mrs Zeinís other
daughter, Nabila, also arrived. This community that held a
principle of the ‘oneness of humanityí now had members
of Jewish, Islamic and Christian backgrounds. Later, Persian and
Chinese Bahá'ís arrived, further adding to its experience of
diversity, and its demonstration of harmony amongst people of
different cultures and races.
Teaching activities
The Randwick Bahá'ís contributed significantly to activities
of the Sydney Bahá'í Community during the Nine Year Plan. The
Assembly administered the Sydney Metropolitan Advertising Fund,
which allowed for a number of Assemblies to cooperate in funding
advertisements in the major newspapers. In 1967 the National
Spiritual Assembly asked it to assume responsibility for a
display at Central Railway Station, and this continued until the
station was re-furbished and display boxes discontinued.
Sometimes the Community got together for recreation, without a
specific program of Teaching. At Easter 1966, for instance,
Bahá'ís from Randwick, Concord and Leichardt visited Helmut and
Elaine Newman in Gerringong.
Events continued to be held at the University of New South
Wales. At a Public meeting on 10 November 1967 Gina Garcia and
David Podger spoke on ‘The Proclamation of Bahá'u'lláh, to
an audience of 27, of whom nine were inquirers. Another talk at
the University attracted an audience of 45. Many more events were
held elsewhere. When Books were presented to the Mayor of
Randwick on 14 November the Bahá'í delegation was well
received. The Bahá'í Bulletin reported:
The Town Clerk and councillors will receive
presentation books and pamphlets in December. The
district of Botany has become an extension area for the
community, and arrangements are in hand for presentations
to the mayor and councillors. During the month of Speech
the community has been meeting every evening for the
special prayers for Proclamation and Teaching in
Australasia.
At the end of school holidays in May 1967, Randwick Assembly
arranged a picnic for 40 Aboriginal children and friends at La
Perouse. According to the report that appeared in the Bulletin:
This was the second successful picnic. A photo was
given to every child who attended the picnic. At the
previous picnic slides were taken which were shown with
Bahá'í slides at a later date at one of the aboriginal
friendsí homes.
By the 1970s the Randwick Community was among the most stable
in Sydney, and although its numbers did not increase
dramatically, the National Assembly was confident of its
stability and suggested that it become legally registered. Thus,
in 1972 the Assembly was incorporated under the Companies Act.
In practical terms, this meant that the annual election of the
Assembly at Ridvan (21 April) was also the annual meeting of the
Company and its Board of Directors (the LSA members). Each year
the Community also elected two delegates to the National
Convention. Later, with the emergence of ‘unit
conventionsí, the Randwick Bahá'ís joined with other
Communities in the Eastern suburbs in electing delegates from the
‘unit areaí to National Convention.
New Members
The intense activities of the Bahá'í Community during the
Nine Year Plan attracted a certain number of new members,
although a majority of ‘newí members were existing
Bahá'ís, who took up residence in the municipality. Bahá'ís
who moved into the Community included Harry Bergin from Whyalla;
Brian Whitehead, who arrived in Australia from Manchester in
1962, who lived in Randwick in 1964; and David & Irene
Bailey, who lived in Chapman Ave Maroubra Beach from November
1966 until moving to Mudgee in February 1969. Marjorie A.
McDonald was a member of Randwick Assembly in BE 124 before
transferring to Punchbowl. Roslyn and Victor Blake arrived in
April 1966 and departed in January 1967; Canadians Deborah and
Neil Huget were on the Assembly during BE 131; and Austrian
Bahá'í Frederika Hauser in Randwick 1969 to April 1971. In 1970
Fiona Dunn (now McDonald) lived in Randwick briefly before moving
to England, and Elaine Harwood arrived in May 1970. Pamela Potter
arrived in May 1970 before returning home to England about 1974.
Don Bennet, who had become a Bahá'í in Brisbane in 1967, moved
to Randwick in March 1971. He was secretary of the Assembly
1971-72, before moving to Rockdale, and from there to Surabaya in
Indonesia. Adrian Salter moved into Randwick in 1971. In July
1972 he married Lyn Pickings, and they resided in Arden St,
Coogee.
Aaron and Pam Blomeley moved into Randwick from Darwin in
November 1966. Aaron heard of the Faith from Margaret
Featherstone and had declared in Woodville Community, South
Australia, in June 1956. He subsequently moved to the Northern
Territory, where he and his new bride Nola (Pam) were members of
the first Darwin LSA, established in 1963. The Blomeleys moved to
Moss Vale in November 1973, but returned to 43 Houston Road four
years later, and remained through the 1980s. The Blomeley
children - Noeline (b.1960), Noel (b.1961), Michael (b.1963) and
Natasha (b.1965), added a new dimension to the Community, and
provided welcome company for John Grant.
Bahá'ís continued to settle in Randwick for short periods to
study at the University. Verona Mauger (now Lucas) arrived from
Western Australia in 1969. She recalls:
I had enrolled at UNSW in March 1969 to do a Master of
Applied Science. The following year, 1970, with the help
of the Randwick LSA the Bahá'ís registered
a club and did an Orientation week display using a
display octagon that had been designed and built by
Richard Lucas. It was located at the entrance from Anzac
Parade.
My residence in Randwick was the flat owned by Fred
and Eva Grant, above a shop, whose previous tenants had
included Keithie Blum, before she married Bruce Saunders.
I believe Randwick launched many hard working
Bahá'ís into their Bahá'í lives and I am happy to
count myself as one of those.
Alan Waters, a Bahá'í from December 1971, served on the
Assembly the following year, and Alan Poll, who had declared at
Yerrinbool Summer School 1972/3, also arrived as a student. The
Community was privileged to have Dr Peter Khan and Dr Janet Khan
as members for a six-month period, while Dr Peter Khan had a
visiting appointment at the University.
The Hassall family moved to 20 Day Ave, Kensington in 1973.
David and Judy Hassall had become Bahá'ís in Orange, NSW, in
June 1961. In 1962 they had moved to Warringah to assist in the
formation of its first Assembly, at Ridvan 1963, and after
periods spent in Concord and Strathfield, had moved to Randwick.
The Hassall children Graham and Jane also became part of the
Randwick community. In 1975 David was appointed as the first
assistant to an Auxiliary Board Member, and was himself appointed
Auxiliary Board Member for Propagation in the Sydney Hunter and
Manning region in April 1977. Over the succeeding years the
Hassall home became a centre of activity not only for the
Randwick community, but for all of Sydney.
Departures
There were departures from the Community and unfortunately,
resignations as well. Mr and Mrs Blake moved to Leichardt, Miss
B. A. Luthy moved to Sydney. Stan and Joy Mathews had moved into
Randwick in February 1965, soon after declaring. They returned to
Nowra the following November, and resigned form the Faith in 1971
to join the Hare Krishna organisation. James Beat participated as
a Bahá'í youth in 1968, but resigned from the Faith in February
1969. Mr Ly Yia, who arrived in Randwick in April 1969 from Laos,
resigned from the Faith in May. Antoine Malhame, who declared in
Randwick in June 1968, transferred to Puerto Rico in September
1969.
Consolidation 1974-79
The second half of the 1970s the Bahá'ís of the world
undertook a ‘Five Year Planí. For Randwick the
challenge remained sharing the Bahá'í message as widely as
possible in the municipality, and continually improving the
quality of Community life. Deepenings were being held at the home
of Adrian & Lyn Salter, and ‘dawn prayersí were
being held in Centennial Park each Sunday morning. Firesides were
being held Friday evenings at the University (7.30pm, room 2, in
the student union building known as ‘Stage 3í). Another
focus of youth activity was the flat of Alan Waters and Eric
Kingston, who were both undertaking post-graduate studies in
chemistry at the University.
In February 1976 the UNSW Bahá'í Society arranged a stall
for Orientation Week, and Randwick Assembly assisted in the
holding of a public meeting on the evening of Friday, 27th.
Philip Hinton spoke on ‘The basis of world peaceí to an
audience that included 17 inquirers, at the Barker Lodge Motel,
just off campus. Regular monthly meetings were being held by the
Society. In June the Society showed the film ‘Green Light
Expeditioní in the Universityís Burrowís Theatre.
In addition, firesides were being held on most Fridays of the
Month at Grantís, on the third Friday at Zeinís, and on
the fourth Friday at Hassalls.
Randwickís new members at this period included several
declarants, many transfers, and an increasing number of
University students. Lorna Lauw, who had declared in Papua New
Guinea, arrived in February 1973, and served for a time as
Assembly secretary. Kathy Conroy declared in Goulburn and moved
into Randwick in July 1974. Abdul-Karim and Dalah Nabaha and
their children arrived in 1974, before moving the following year
to Mascot. Kim & Ernst Walti were members of the Community
from July 1977 to January 1978, when they returned to Canada.
Eric Kingston, a graduate student who declared in July 1974,
eventually married Fahimeh Hesser-Amiri, at that time secretary
of Randwick Assembly. Of all these new families, the Zein family
was the most settled. In 1977 Mohsen Zein married Bahia Muhammad
Negm el Deen, whose Kurdish father and Egyptian mother were
members of the Cairo Bahá'í Community. Shireen and Jason were
born to Mohsen and Bahia in 1979, and Carmel in 1990, and through
the 1980s and 1990s childrenís classes were held on a
regular basis at their Maroubra home. A great many visitors and
inquirers have been fortunate to experience the bountiful
delicious and exotic Egyptian food produced in Bahiaís
kitchen.
1979-86
In 1979 the Bahá'ís of the world commenced a new Teaching
Plan, this time of seven years duration. At its beginning
Randwick Assembly took primary responsibility for organising a
two-day Institute at the request of the Continental Board of
Counsellors.
The ‘Counsellorsí Instituteí was held at
Eleanora Heights, and brought together the Bahá'ís from across
New South Wales. New Bahá'ís in the Community near this time
included Andrew Zurek (who declared in November 1981 and served
on the Assembly in 1982) and Christine Baker (who declared in
September 1983). Bahá'í students at the University of New South
Wales resident in Randwick included Ravi, Davin and Suresh
Dharmalingham (from Malaysia), and Soheil Eftekhari (from
Brazil). Stephen Duncan lived on campus while studying education.
Peter Tidman arrived to study optometry and met and married
Marjorie Dibdin in February 1980. Mee Hong Moh, another Malaysian
student at UNSW, and a member of Randwick Assembly, was
tragically killed in a car crash in February 1985. Another
tragedy was the death of Roger Payne, a believer who suffered
from mental illness, who fell from an apartment balcony in
November 1986.
On the University campus, the Bahá'í Society conducted a
range of activities, from displays during Orientation week that
commenced the new academic year, to regular book displays, and
meetings both mid-week and on Friday evenings. In one year the
Society sponsored an exhibition of sculptures by Jannu. In
September 1983 it undertook, with the Assembly's
encouragement and support, a ‘Bahá'í Information
Week'. Invitations were distributed to 1,500 academic staff,
and more than 100 copies of a specially prepared poster were
displayed. Books were presented to the Deans of the
Universityís ten faculties, and many inquirers attended a
week-long series of lunchtime seminars.
The growth in numbers of youth in Randwick prompted the
appearance of a newsletter for youth. The first issue of Youth
News, which appeared in July 1979 under the editorship of
Jane Hassall and Rosemary Vellas, announced a series of youth
deepenings, ‘working beesí at the House of Worship, and
even a picnic at Bobbin Head. Other social events were held in
nearby Centennial Park.
The Hassall home in Day Avenue continued as a centre of
activities throughout the 1980s. These were related to
Davidís responsibilities as an Auxiliary Board Member for
the Sydney Hunter and Manning Region, to Judyís involvement
in public information and media, or Graham and Janeís
involvement in youth activities. Regional newsletters for these
years frequently advertised events at Day Avenue. The June 1982
issue, for instance, carried the notice:
New LSA members: Attention!
Discussion/workshop for new LSA members
On Saturday 3rd July, Auxiliary Board
Member David Hassall will be conducting a
Discussion/Workshop for newly elected Local Spiritual
Assembly members who have not served as such before.
The function, which is being held at Judy and David
Hassallís home, 20 Day Avenue, Kensington, will
start at 6pm sharp with a put luck dinner, after which
there will be informative talks and discussions which
should be of assistance….
The next newsletter, for July 1982, carried notice of a
‘Publicity Seminar':
With the dramatic increase in publicity and interest
shown by the media, State Information Officer, Judy
Hassall, invites all local publicity officers from
Spiritual Assemblies, and anyone interested in publicity,
to a seminar on Saturday, 24 July at 7.30 at 20 Day Ave,
Kensington. ….
The other Bahá'í homes in the Community were equally busy.
Aaron Blomeley, Assembly secretary, was co-ordinating teaching
activities in Sydney preceding and following the International
Conference held in Canberra, while Pamela and Noel were busy
planning and carrying out travel teaching trips to country towns.
In 1984 Randwick Assembly co-ordinated a Bahá'í exhibition at
the Royal Easter Show. A notice in the Regional Newsletter
announced:
The Bahá'ís of Randwick have decided to undertake a
display of Bahá'í material at the Royal Easter Show, to
be held from 13-24 April 1984. They have done this with
the clear knowledge that it will not be a success without
the assistance of all the Bahá'ís of New South Wales.
This is a Show which inevitably attracts over a
million people from all around NSW and is an opportunity
to present the Faith to visitors from the country areas,
and to all strata of Society in Sydney itself. Bahá'í
displays have been held here in the past, but not since
1970. With the extra number of Bahá'ís in NSW we should
be able to make 1984 a good year.
A large workforce of people will be needed to erect
the display and then to man it for 12 hours per day,
seven days a week. Volunteers will be needed and do not
be shy just because English is not your mother tongue.
The Assembly estimated that the Easter show project would cost
$1500 and called on the surrounding Bahá'í Communities to
assist with donations.
Persian Bahá'ís
There were by the mid-1980s many Iranian Bahá'ís in
Australia, who had fled Iranís 1979 Islamic Revolution. The
Randwick Community became very involved in the resettlement of
refugee families who arrived in large numbers at Endeavour
Hostel, where many of Australiaís refugee and migrant
population stayed on arrival. For several years Randwickís
Nineteen-day feast was transformed from a regular and small
gathering of familiar faces into a welcome for large numbers of
Persian Bahá'ís, distressed at having fled their homeland, and
anxious about their future. Every available car in the Community
was mobilised on Feast evenings to transport refugee families to
and from the hostel. Speaking little English and carrying tales
of persecution and flight in their hearts, many families turned
to the Assembly for assistance in making important decisions
about the future. Where should they live? What should they study?
When could their families join them? Although few of these
families settled in Randwick, the Community was never again as
small. The pattern of constant turnover in membership continued,
and the Community's core of more permanent members continued
to provide the steady support that allowed for continuity in
Community life, and Assembly development.
1986-92
In 1988-89 there were 29 members in the community. New members
included students Michael Curtotti and Ranjana Arasaratnam, Paul
Wallace and Shidan Toloui, who married in 1985 and moved to
Randwick the following February, Vahid and Lucky Tavakol, and
Vicky Pontello. The Assembly appointed just two committees in
that year, one for Teaching, and another for Feasts. Feasts and
other gatherings were held in turn in eight homes: Azita and
Changez Ahadizadeh, Bob & Fariba Bayzaee, Ata and Shokouh
Eshraghi, Eva and John Grant, David & Judy Hasssall, Monireh
Yamini, Mohsen & Bahia Zein, and Ranjana Arasaratnam.
Firesides were being held on the first Thursday of every month at
the Ahadizadehís, in Sturt Street Kingsford. Ziadollah and
Aghdas Sanaei and their children Farin, Fardin and Negin, who had
arrived in Australia in 1986, moved to Randwick in 1990, and
opened their home to Community and youth activities.
The numbers of Bahá'í students at the University who resided
in Randwick continued to grow in the 1990s, and their presence
boosted the activities of the Bahá'í Society on campus, the
Local Assembly and the community: among the many students were
Danesh Sarooshi, who arrived in 1986 to study economics/law
before moving to London for further studies in 1991; Dannyís
sister Natasha, who commenced in 1991; and Milan Voykovik, who
resided at New College. Other students included Katayoun Sedghi,
Kourosh Farokzadeh, Arvid Yeganegi and Vahid Baskaran. In 1989
the Bahá'í Society fielded its own soccer team against such
teams as the Tigers, ‘no sweatí and ‘the
Stradlattersí. The Society also hosted a number of seminars,
and had articles published in the student newspaper, Tharunka.
Another significant development during this period was the
opening of the ‘Bahá'í Information Centreí in a shop
front at 393 Anzac Parade, near the Kingsford shopping centre.
Although not in a main thoroughfare, the Centre brought the
Bahá'í Community to the notice of an ever-widening circle of
local residents, largely through the efforts of many volunteers,
including Maryam and Elham Vedadhagi, Herald Derakshan, and
Khodrat Samadani.
Departures
It was in the nature of things for students to move out. But
the time came too for some of the established families to move.
The Blomeleys moved out of Randwick. Aaron became Executive
Director of the Bahá'í Office of the Environment in Taiwan,
continuing the link with Asia and the Pacific that had commenced
so many years before. In 1989 the Assembly assisted the National
Spiritual Assembly of Papua New Guinea with a parcel of books,
which were divided amongst Bahá'í schools in Bonara and Lae.
The Hassall family also moved: Graham to Canberra, Jane and
her family to Rockdale. David and Judy moved to Newport. He had
retired from teaching at the University and the move closer to
the House of Worship allowed Judy to carry out her activities as
Public Information Officer for the Australian Bahá'í Community
and as a member of the National Spiritual Assembly.
Retrospect and Prospect
Pausing to celebrate such occasions as this, the 75th
anniversary of a Community's founding, allows for reflection
on the achievements of those who neither desire nor acquire, any
measure of fame. Randwick Community is one of the
longest-established Bahá'í Communities in Australia. Its first
members had brought the Bahá'í Message with them from North
America in 1920, and its first Australian adherent, Oswald
Whitaker, was in fact the first Australian Bahá'í.
Randwickís Local Assembly has the distinction of being among
the few Assemblies established before the close of the Ten Year
World Crusade, a decade of world-embracing activity which called
for Bahá'ís to spread out to the remaining lands that had not
heard of the coming of Bahá'uílláh. Although the Community
has never experienced rapid numerical expansion, its members have
been consistently engaged in its promotion within the
municipality and beyond. High rates of mobility in the Eastern
suburbs, together with the shifting population associated with
the University of New South Wales, has meant that those who did
become Bahá'ís in the Community tended to re-locate within a
short period of time.
However, the size of the Community was never as important a
factor as the experience of Bahá'í life within it. Following
the early years in which the community comprised just a few
individuals, community life in Randwick has demonstrated the
practice of unity in diversity. It is the story of teachers,
mothers, mechanics, students, jewellers, traders, public
servants, and office workers, drawling together their diverse
talents in the service of common goals. The Community has
comprised families of diverse cultural backgrounds, and
individuals of diverse temperaments and training, coming together
in a spirit of fellowship and collective endeavour, demonstrating
their capacity to build a community of peace. The Nineteen-day
Feast in Randwick Community, for instance, has always been an
occasion for celebration and rejuvenation. Holy Days have always
been observed with marked reverence. Gatherings for all purposes,
whether for children, youth, or adults, have been framed in
happiness, and differences between community have been settled
without unbearable conflict. At a time when Australian society is
still deciding whether it can remove its mantle of racism and
fear of global change, the Randwick Bahá'ís have steadily, and
quietly, demonstrated how the foundations of a modern,
grass-roots religious community, can be laid.