In the 1870s Bahá’u’lláh commented favourably on the British parliamentary system and commended Queen Victoria for the ending of slavery by her government.
From its earliest years the Bahá’í Faith has had connections with Britain
The Times of London published an account of the new religion on 1 November 1845. Irish physician Dr Cormick attended the Báb in Tabriz in July 1848. In the 1870s Bahá’u’lláh commented favourably on the British parliamentary system and commended Queen Victoria for the ending of slavery by her government. And Cambridge University orientalist Edward Granville Browne was granted four interviews with Bahá’u’lláh, in the Holy Land, in April 1890.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá visited Britain twice, in 1911 and again in 1912-13 and was knighted by the British government in 1920. Shoghi Effendi was studying at Balliol College, Oxford, when ‘Abdu’l-Bahá passed away in 1921; when he returned to Haifa from London he learned that ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had appointed him Guardian of the Bahá'í Faith. Shoghi Effendi died in London on 4 November 1957 and was laid to rest in the New Southgate Cemetery.
Early British Bahá’ís >>>
From its earliest years the Bahá’í Faith has had connections with Britain
The Times of London published an account of the new religion on 1 November 1845...
Early British Bahá’ís
The first Englishman to become a Bahá’í was Thomas Breakwell. He heard of the Bahá'í Faith in Paris in 1901, while on a vacation from the United States where he was working...
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s visits to Britain.
It is impossible to overstate the importance of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s visits to Britain. The early Bahá’ís in the West had little access to Bahá’í scriptures or other literature...
Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.
Elizabeth Jane Whyte, wife of Revd Alexander Whyte, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Free Church of Scotland, visited ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in 1906. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá stayed with the Whytes in Edinburgh in 1913...
1920s & 1930s.
After ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s death in 1921, the Bahá'í Faith in the United Kingdom declined in activities and numbers until the mid-1930s, when an influx of young Bahá’ís revived the community...
National and global spread.
From 1944 to 1950 the UK Bahá’í community, under the leadership of Shoghi Effendi as Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, pursued a plan to spread the Bahá’í Faith throughout the British Isles...
First Bahá’í World Congress.
By the end of the plan in 1963 over 50 National Spiritual Assemblies had been established and the Universal House of Justice, ordained by Bahá’u’lláh the community’s world-level legislative body, was elected for the first time. In the years following the Congress, the Bahá'í community grew and consolidated itself in all parts of the UK...
Into the 21st century.
In 2009 over 3,000 Bahá’ís met in London at one of 41 regional conferences that took place around the world to discuss the global endeavour of the Bahá’ís to develop a new culture of learning and to engage with those who wish to be agents of change for the betterment of the world...