I joined the Bahá’í Faith in 1974, aged 35, while I was at Central School of Speech and Drama, studying Speech and Language Therapy. I had been interested in the Faith for many years before that, however, and especially in the idea that Christ had returned.  I was very unhappy at boarding school in my teens, and it so happened that my mother was friendly with Lisbeth Greaves.   Lisbeth was a Baha’i, originally from Australia, who lived in Belfast.   Lisbeth had been born with the gift of healing, and though my mother was a dedicated member of the Church of Ireland, Lisbeth aske ..read more

  It might help to know my background.  My dear father was a very strict Roman Catholic, which in some ways did not help.  But I was grateful for the discipline and faith, which enabled me to face my difficulties in life.  Since becoming a Bahá’í, my spirit is now free!  So I will begin my story… There is a wonderful building in the Cotswolds called Stanton Guildhouse, on a hillside overlooking beautiful countryside.  It was built specially to teach arts and crafts in a natural setting.  Once a month, this centre held what they called a ‘Quiet Day’ (at the t ..read more

Sadly neither of my parents, Ann and Peter Kyne, were able to write their histories themselves, so this is only a summary of their relationship with the Bahá’í Faith, but time runs on and I was at least a witness to the beginnings of their journey during my teenage years and watched their spiritual metamorphoses (though with a stunning lack of insight, I now realise….).  Although we had lived for several years just a stone’s throw from the Guardian’s Resting Place in Southgate, North London, Ann and Peter first encountered the Faith through a most special and radiant soul, Atherton Parso ..read more

Don and Margaret celebrating with their grandchildren at cricket The following is an amalgamation of both our stories as they are obviously intertwined, and since Don lost the ability to walk, talk, read or write in 1991 (owing to a severe head injury), his early years are based on my recollections of our previous conversations.  Don was born in Glasgow on 20th November, 1951. He had one older brother, two younger brothers and a younger sister. His father was a builder and his mother a seamstress. The whole family moved to Shrewsbury when Don was about 7 and started a bed-and-breakfast ..read more

The following account has been written by Hassan’s children, Farid Afnan and Parvin Morrissey. The quotations are taken from the transcript of a video of Hassan which his eldest daughter Shahin recorded in 2001. Birth Hassan Afnan was born in Yazd in 1926. He and his brother Abbas were descended from two of the maternal uncles of the Báb through his (Hassan’s) mother from Hájí Mírzá Hassan-‘Alí and through his father from Hájí Mírzá Siyyid Muhammad. Hassan spent most of his childhood in Shiraz, where his mother’s branch of the family lived, but spent summer holidays in Yazd, visiting his grand ..read more

The very first time the name Bahá’í fell upon my ears was when I was a student in Dundalk, County Louth, Ireland. It was the early 1980s and a friend of mine (later to become my sister-in-law) had student lodgings with a Bahá’í family. On a number of occasions after I had walked her home I spotted a black hat in the hallway and assumed this was “something Bahá’ís wear”. At the time I found it extremely amusing to bid her goodnight by saying “Bahá’í, see you tomorrow”. I find it extraordinary to look back now at what must have been a day pretty much like any other day, leaving college to head ..read more

Soroush and Gillian Malakooti My journey Where to Begin.. I have learnt that life is a series of journeys, short, long, simple or complicated which bring us growth and illumination. My story starts in a bad place, sad but true, nothing hidden. I had spent 23 years in a marriage which had descended into domestic violence to myself – Physical, mental, emotional, and financial.  One day I fell to my knees, looked up, and begged for help. The next day a colleague at work quietly told me that her father-in-law had a flat I could move to.  I went to see the flat, loved it, cried because ..read more

My family hated religious pomposity and hypocrisy, so there was never any church going, and it was my paternal grandfather, Sam, who encouraged me to think of the world in a spiritual sense. His face was gnarled like an old tree, nails caked with black tobacco, arms flecked with blue mining scars, but his eyes were lit with humour. ‘Mighty fine,’ he would cheerfully growl like a cowboy when asked how he was, and his foggy chest would rattle with laughter. From childhood he had been a medium, but World War One shell shock and economic depression had deepened his reliance on God. ‘Never ask God ..read more

David and Jackie Grant A fellow student at my high school, Thellie Lovejoy, recently became a Bahá’í and was actively teaching the Faith. I was intrigued and attended a few firesides at her house where her mother was also a Bahá’í. She invited me to attend the Bahá’í school in Geyserville. At that time they were the only Bahá’ís in the local community but their love of the Faith soon attracted others and soon there was an LSA in Milpitas, California, where I lived. I declared my faith in Bahá’u’lláh in April 1969 at the Bahá’í school at Geyserville, California USA.  That Bahá’u’lláh was ..read more

Clarence Ronald Stee was born in a hospital in Toronto when his mother was 48. His parents were Clarence Orrin Stee and Stella Cornelia Jacobson Stee. The story is told that when the doctor confirmed that she was pregnant, Stella said to him, “Do I have to have my grandchildren too?”! Ron’s father, C O Stee, had broken with tradition. He was the eldest son of a farmer – second and third generation, Norwegian-American born, in Dazey, Barnes County, North Dakota, USA. He had won himself a football scholarship to university and had become a mining engineer. He then took off to Peru for adve ..read more