“If the learned and worldly-wise men of this age were to allow mankind to inhale the fragrance of fellowship and love, every understanding heart would apprehend the meaning of true liberty, and discover the secret of undisturbed peace and absolute composure.” (Bahá’u’lláh)
Bahá’í’s believe God has sent to humanity a series of divine Educators – known as Manifestations of God – whose teachings have provided the basis for the advancement of civilization.
These Manifestations have included Abraham, Krishna, Zoroaster, Moses, Buddha, Jesus and Muhammad.
The Bahá’í Faith is an independent religion founded in Persia by Mirzá Husayn Alí (1817‐1892,) known as Bahá’u’lláh. It has its own sacred literature, religious and social tenets, as well as practices.
Bahá’u’lláh, the latest of these Messengers, explained that the religions of the world come from the same Source and are in essence successive chapters of one religion from God.
Bahá’í’s believe the crucial need facing humanity is to find a unifying vision of the future of society and of the nature and purpose of life. Such a vision unfolds in the writings of Bahá’u’lláh.
The Bahá’í commemorate May 23, 1844, when the Bab, the herald of the Bahá’í Faith, announced in Shiraz, Persia (now Iran,) that he was the herald of a new messenger of God. It is one of the nine holy days of the year when work is suspended.
Dr. Augur, Disciple of ’Abdu’l-Baha was born in New Haven, Connecticut and educated at Yale University. In 1898 Dr. Augur and his wife Ruth and their son Morris moved to Hawaii. Sometime in 1909 the Augur’s became Bahá’ís.
On December 26, 1901 Agnes Baldwin Alexander, a native of Hawaii, returned to Honolulu from a trip to Rome where she discovered the Bahá’í Revelation, and Hawaiʻi’s first Bahá’í.
She rejoiced that she was continuing work begun by her distinguished grandparents (Rev. Dr Dwight and Charlotte Baldwin and Rev. William Patterson and Mary Ann Alexander) who were in the fourth and fifth companies to bring Christianity to the Hawaiian Islands.
Miss Martha Louise Root, was born in Richwood, Ohio in 1872 encountered the Bahá’í Faith and became confirmed shortly thereafter. For the next twenty years she roamed the globe interviewing the famous and powerful while spreading the teachings of Baha’u’llah.
She was the first to travel and teach in South America. When Martha Root passed away in Honolulu on September 28, 1939, it was noted that, “unnumbered admirers throughout Bahá’í world lament … the earthly extinction of her heroic life.”
Two American Bahá’í, Mr Howard Struven and Mr CM (Charles Mason) Remey, were making a world trip in 1909 proclaiming the Faith; they first stopped in Honolulu. A local paper noted the following invitation for readers to learn about Bahá’í:
“The Bahá’í of Honolulu extend to all a cordial invitation to attend a lecture to be given at the Young Hotel on Monday night, at eight o’clock, by Prof CM Remey of the architectural department of the George Washington University, of Washington DC upon the history, teachings and reforms of the Bahá’í movement.”
“The object of the Bahá’í movement is the unification of all religions. Having had its birth in Persia over half a century ago, its truths have been taught the world over.”
“Mr. Remey and Mr. Struven, the Bahá’í workers, are now spending three weeks here, on a tour of the world which they are making in the interests of the Bahá’í cause.” (Pacific Commercial Advertiser, November 28, 1909)
Later (March 1915,) Remey returned to the Islands, with him were George O Latimer, a Portland attorney, and Miss Corrine True of Chicago.
While in the Islands, in addition to community gatherings to discuss the Bahá’í faith, Remey, Latimer and True met with former Queen Liliʻuokalani.
Click the following link to see a video of a reenactment of the meeting of the Bahá’í followers with Queen Liliʻuokalani. It was performed at Washington Place on March 25, 2015, the Centenary of the meeting with the Queen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0TtXRrDYWPc
Today the Bahá’í communities can be found in over 200-nations. The voluminous Sacred Scriptures of the Bahá’í Revelation have been translated into more than 800-languages.
The spiritual heart of the American Bahá’í community is the Bahá’í House of Worship for North America, located in Wilmette, IL, just north of Chicago.
The Bahá’ís of Hawaiʻi are found on every inhabited island of the Hawaiian chain. Every race and ethnic group found in the islands is reflected in the Bahá’í community, as Baha’u’llah stated, we are all ‘fruits of one tree’ and ‘flowers of one garden’.
The Hawaiian Bahá’í community is a separate administrative community from the US Bahá’í community in the worldwide Bahá’í Faith. The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the Hawaiian Islands was established in 1964.
Its administrative association is Australasia and the Mother Temple of the Pacific is in Samoa. All temples are dedicated to humanity and open to all for prayer and meditation. (Rice) (Lots of information here is from Bahá’í and Hawaiʻi Bahá’í.)
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