Marion arranged for Abu’l-Faḍl-i-Gulpáygání, a Persian Bahá’í scholar, to visit Vancouver in January and February 1921. Four people declared themselves Bahá’ís on the last day of his February visit, one of whom was Rhoda Harvey, who began holding informal meetings known as firesides in her home. In 1921, Christina Moore pioneered to Vancouver from Seattle and assisted Rhoda with Baha’I activities enabling four more people to join the small Baha’I community in 1922.
Louis Gregory made a teaching trip to Vancouver in the early 1920’s and spoke at five meetings arranged by Marion Jack.
In June 1926, May Maxwell and Elizabeth Greenleaf visited Vancouver and began a teaching campaign. John Bosch, George O. Latimer and Laurence Woodfin visited Vancouver from the United States in January 1927 to continue the campaign which resulted in eight local friends to became Bahá’ís by the time it ended.
The Local Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of North Vancouver District was established in 1961. It was the ___??____ Local Spiritual Assembly in Canada. DYLAN, DO WE HAVE MORE HISTORY HERE??? IS there more The Assembly was invited to send representatives to the 1927 National Convention of the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada. In 1928, the Vancouver Assembly sent one delegate to vote for the combined National Assembly of United States and Canada. Twenty-one percent of the Canadian Baha’i community, became Baha’is in Vancouver between 1913 and 1927. In the early 1930’s, growth of the Vancouver community slowed, partly because some were cautious about expressing their Faith publicly due to Government suspicion of unfamiliar groups. In 1932 it was decided that study groups should only be attended by Bahá’ís. In 1935 Vancouver Bahá’í News began publication, a new Bahá’í Centre was purchased, and the Assembly began meeting more regularly, signaling the end of an insular period of the community. In late 1937 the Spiritual Assembly of Vancouver arranged for a series of Bahá’í talks and fireside discussions to be broadcast by radio on Station CKMO. In 1938 the talks were broadcast on a larger station, allowing for simultaneous weekly broadcasts across the whole of British Columbia. In 1938 the number of delegates sent by the Vancouver community to the National Convention increased from one to two. The Vancouver Assembly was incorporated as a society in British Columbia under the Societies Act on March 25, 1939.
In 1940, the Vancouver Assembly sent a letter to the Canadian Department of National Defence requesting that Bahá’ís be exempt from combat duty which they received a letter of acknowledgement. Shoghi Effendi (The Guardian of the Baha’I Faith) approved of the letter and regarded it as a step forward in the recognition of Bahá’í administrative institutions.
In late 1943, Amelia Collins visited Vancouver for three days before travelling on to Calgary. On May 23, 1944 a banquet to commemorate the Bahá’í Centenary was held in Vancouver at the Devonshire Hotel which was attended by fifty people. The Vancouver Assembly also arranged for a fifteen minute talk on the Centenary to be broadcast over radio.
In early November 1945, John Robarts visited Vancouver and participated in Baha’i activities.
The 1951, Canadian National Convention was held in Vancouver from April 27 to April 29. Mary Maxwell (Rúḥíyyih Khánum), the wife of The Guardian of the Baha’I Faith, attended the Convention and presented a lock of Bahá’u’lláh’s hair on behalf of Shoghi Effendi. She visited the city again for a few days in 1960 during a tour of the United States and Canada.
On December 16, 1958, the Vancouver Local Spiritual Assembly received a Certificate of Registration under the Marriage Act from the government of British Columbia, giving the members of the Assembly the legal authority to conduct marriages. It was the first Assembly to receive legal recognition for Bahá’í marriage in Canada.
The Bahá’ís of Vancouver come from all backgrounds and walks of life. We are united by the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh, the Founder of the Bahá’í Faith: that there is one God, one human race, and one evolving religion.
Bahá’ís see humanity as a single people who live in a shared world and a one common destiny; “the earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens.”