Baháʼí Faith in Trinidad and Tobago
The sixth of the tablets was the first to mention Latin American regions and was written on April 8, 1916, but was delayed in being presented in the United States until 1919—after the end of the First World War and the Spanish flu.
The sixth tablet was translated and presented by Mirza Ahmad Sohrab on April 4, 1919, and published in Star of the West magazine on December 12, 1919.
[1] His Holiness Christ says: Travel ye to the East and to the West of the world and summon the people to the Kingdom of God.…(travel to) the Islands of the West Indies, such as Cuba, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Jamaica, the Islands of the Lesser Antilles(which includes Trinidad and Tobago), Bahama Islands, even the small Watling Island, have great importance…[10]In 1927 Leonora Armstrong was the first Baháʼí to visit and give lectures about the Baháʼí Faith in many Latin American countries including Trinidad and Tobago as part of her plan to complement and complete Martha Root's unfulfilled intention of visiting all the Latin American countries for the purpose of presenting the religion to an audience.
[2] Shoghi Effendi wrote a cable on May 1, 1936, to the Baháʼí Annual Convention of the United States and Canada, and asked for the systematic implementation of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's vision to begin.
[11] The Baháʼí National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada appointed the Inter-America Committee to take charge of the preparations.
[23] Israel Posner from Venezuela toured Trinidad promoting the religion in 1964 and was followed by two pioneers from England, Mr. and Mrs. John Firman.
That year the Trinidad Sunday Mirror published a photo of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá and an article with the title "A Message of Peace and New Way of Life.
"[25] There were some developments in 1966 - reorganized as a regional national assembly among the Baháʼís of Leeward, Windward and Virgin Islands with its seat in Charlotte Amalie[26] and Anthony Worley from Brazil was appointed as the twelfth member of the Auxiliary Board to foster the development of the religion for the area including the Guianas and Trinidad and Tobago.
[27] During October 1966 a trip to ten islands including Trinidad was planned by Lorraine Landau, a pioneer in Barbados[28] who was elected to the regional national assembly.
[29] With further pioneers and converts by 1969 there were two additional local assemblies: Arima and San Fernando, and the number of Baháʼís had been raised to 285.
[6] That same year the national assembly established a correspondence course for Baháʼís who signed up to learn more formally about their religion and had community news latter functioning.
[32] And a third Hand of the Cause visited in 1972 - Dr. Ugo Giachery came specifically as a representative from the Universal House of Justice,[33] head of the religion since 1963, for its second national convention (with 17 delegates).
[43] In 1978 Shirin Boman, serving as a Continental Counselor of the religion, toured the country with public and private meetings and interviews.
[8] A Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr. Daphne Phillips, spoke at the official opening of the National Baháʼí Center in Port of Spain on 12 November 2000 addressing an audience of some 200 people.
[57] Youth, women, and minorities are among those taking the lead in becoming tutors on Ruhi Institute courses in Trinidad and Tobago since 2006.
[62] The federal government published a series of stamps on local religions in 1992 in honor of the Inter-Religious Organization's steadfast interfaith activities.
[65] The Baháʼís has been mentioned as part of the discussions on national policy,[66] cross-cultural events[67] all while visibly not receiving government aide.
[80] In 2005/2010 the Association of Religion Data Archives (relying on World Christian Encyclopedia) estimated some 1.2% in Trinidad and Tobago - some 14–16,000 - were Baháʼís.
