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Abstract: The introduction of the Bahá’í Teachings to the Gilbert and Ellice Islands in the 1950s and the consequent disturbance of the delicate church-state relationship operating at that time. Similar interactions may have occurred in other colonial environments. Notes: First presented at the 1st International Conference of the Chair for Bahá'í Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, December 2000 under the title "Bahá'í Faith, Christianity and local religions in the Pacific Islands: the case of Gilbert and Ellis Islands." Mirrored with permission from journal.bahaistudies.ca/online/article/view/131. See also Hassall's Bahá'í Communities by Country: Research Notes. |
Origins of the Bahá'í Faith in the Pacific Islands:
The Case of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands
by Graham Hassall
published in Journal of Bahá'í Studies, 16:1-4, pages 33-59Ottawa: Association for Bahá'í Studies North America, 2006
About: “Modern religious history” in the Pacific Islands generally refers to the conversion of Pacific Islanders to Christianity by Catholic and Protestant missionaries. In the case of the British colony of the Gilbert and Ellice Islands (GEIC—today the independent states of Kiribati and Tuvalu), the introduction of the Bahá’í Teachings in the 1950s perplexed secular and religious authorities alike. This paper uses colonial records and other sources to examine the ways in which the arrival of a new and little-understood religion disturbed the delicate church-state relationship operating at that time. The possibility exists that these interactions were experienced in similar ways in other colonial environments that had comparable sociopolitical conditions.
Download: hassall_gilbert_ellice_islands.pdf.
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