- 1910-10-00 — Mr and Mrs E T Hall read an account of the Faith in The Christian Commonwealth written by Wesley Tudor Pole and wrote to him asking for further information. Pole passed the letter on to Ethel Rosenberg who sent a package of Bahá'í literature to the Halls who became interested and shared it with their relatives, the John Cravens. The Halls wanted to know if there were any other Bahá'ís in Manchester and were told of Sarah Ann Ridgeway who had become a Bahá'í in America and had returned to England in about 1904 or 1905. The Halls, the Cravens and Sarah Ann Ridgeway had a visit from Ethel Rosenberg who deepened them in the Faith. [SAR90; EJR118-121]
For further information on the development of the Manchester Bahá'í community see BCBI p62-65; 131-139.
For an account of the beginning of the Bahá'í Cause in Manchester see The Bahá'í Dawn - Manchester by E T Hall. - 1921-06-20 —
Shoghi Effendi at Oxford - The Long Vacation 1921
- Those students who wished to continue their studies during the vacation were required to move to an annex situated near Manchester College known as Holywell Annexe.
- His English style was influenced by his reading of the King James Bible as well as British historians Thomas Carlyle and Edward Gibbons, the author of The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. [SEO106; PP37]
- At some point during this period of his residency in England Shoghi Effendi made the acquaintance of Sir E Denison Ross, the first director of the University of London's School of Oriental Studies. He was the British Empire's leading scholar of the Persian and Arabic languages. His opinion was the gold standard and he had high praise for Shoghi Effendi's translation of The Dawn-Breakers. [PP216]
- Shoghi Effendi met with Edna True at her hotel in London as she was passing through. [PG178]
- He visited Dr. Esslemont in Bournemouth probably around the 20th of July for two weeks. [PG179]
- 26 July: He went to London to meet his sister and went with her to the home of Mrs Thornburgh-Cropper. [PG179]
- At some point during the vacation he visited Crow-borough. [PG179]
- Obedient to the instructions of the Master he spent some time during the break in rest in Torquay in August, at least from the 10th to the 29th of the month. [PG179-180]
- 25 September (approx.) He travelled to London to sent his sister to Scotland to resume her studies. She had been staying with Mrs Thornburg-Cropper (at 20 Bloomsbury Square?). While there he met with Lady Blomfield. [PG181]
- 1 to 6 October: Shoghi Effendi and his friend Díyá'u'lláh Asgharzádih travelled to Manchester, a community of some thirty believers. They stayed at the home of Jacob Joseph where a meeting of the community was held that evening. The group sent a letter to the Master which Shoghi Effendi translated the following day. He also sent a report of the situation in Manchester to the Master. [PG182-190]
- See PG206-207 for a photo of Shoghi Effendi with the Manchester Bahá'ís and with the Joseph brothers.
- See PG193 for a subsequent note from Shoghi Effendi to the friends in Manchester.
- See PG193-194 for the Master's response to their joint supplication dated 18 October, 1921 and excerpts from Tablets to individuals.
- 1921-10-00 —
Shoghi Effendi visited the Bahá'í community of Manchester. At his first meeting with the friends he reported on 'Abdu'l-Bahá's reaction to the news that Nora Crossley had cut off her hair and offered it for auction to raise funds as her contribution for the construction of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár in Chicago.
- See Some Bahá'ís to Remember p56 for the Tablet that 'Abdu'l-Bahá sent to Nora Crossley and the circumstances under which Shoghi Effendi presented it, as well as gifts from 'Abdu'l-Bahá, to her in the presence of the Bahá'ís of Manchester.
- Although not one to allow pictures to be taken of himself, Shoghi Effendi insisted that a photo be taken of himself with the Manchester group. It can be seen at Worldwide Community of Bahá'u'lláh.
- See as well Memoirs of Nora Crossely: 1921. She writes that
...all the honours that were showered on me by the Beloved Master, were NOT solely because of my gift to the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár, as most people think, but because I loved Him so much, I was prepared to obey Him, and carry out His wishes, AT ALL COST."
- See also A Tribute to Nora Crossley by Rob Wienberg and the video based on Rob's paper.
- 1922-05-31 —
The communities of London, Manchester and Bournemouth elected a Bahá'í Spiritual Assembly for England. [EJR213; SBR28, 67]
- This was also known as the Spiritual Assembly for London and the All-England Bahá'í Council. [EJR2 13; SBR67]
- See EJR213 and SBR28 for membership.
- The social centre of the London group was Ethel Rosenburg with Mrs Thornburgh-Cropper and later Lady Blomfield also playing significant roles. The group in Manchester came from the working- or lower middle-class background with Edward Hall and other men in leadership positions. The group in Bournemouth developed around Dr. Esslemont. In addition to these centres there were a few scattered isolated believers. [SBBH5p220]
- 1950-00-00 — The publication of The Covenant, An Analysis by George Townshend. It was published in Manchester by the Bahá'í Publishing Trust 15p. [Collins7.2578]
- 1950-03-26 — The British Community needed 22 declarations to complete the goals of their Six Year Plan. The National Spiritual Assembly of Canada sponsored a trip by John Robarts to lend his assistance. During his 13 day stay he visited London, Manchester, Blackpool, Blackburn, Sheffield, Oxford, Dublin, Belfast, Glasgow and Edinburgh and witnessed 18 declarations. By April 10th the goal had been won. [CBN No 13 May, 1950 p4]
- 1962-12-05 —
The passing of Edward Theodore Hall (b.19 December 1879 in Burnley, UK). He heard about the Faith from Sarah Ann Ridgway in 1910. He was instrumental in establishing the second Bahá'í group in the British Isles in Manchester that established a Spiritual Assembly in 1922 with him as its secretary.
- In 1922 he represented Manchester on the first National Spiritual Council and served on that body until 1928. [Unfolding Destiny p9]
- In 1925 the Manchester Assembly published his work The Bahá'í Dawn, Manchester. Other shorter works were also published, [Collins 7.1121-7.1125a]
|
Wiki tags
