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Messages to Canada

  • Author:

  • Shoghi Effendi

  • Source:
  • Bahá’í Canada Publications
  • Pages:
  • 276
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Pages 66-67

Letter of 25 August 1939

25 August 1939

To Doris Skinner1

Dear Bahá’í Sister,
Your delightful message of July 23rd addressed to our beloved Guardian was most welcome indeed, and he wishes me to hasten to thank you for it, and to express his satisfaction and gratitude at the admirable work you have been accomplishing for the Faith in Calgary during the past few months. He hopes that before long you will succeed in establishing an Assembly in that centre, and wishes you from now on to concentrate all your efforts to that end with the help of Miss Dorothy Sheets,2 whom you have already confirmed, this goal should not prove impossible of attainment, and it is to be hoped that as soon as the holiday season is over you will jointly endeavour to start a regular study group which will form the nucleus of the future Bahá’í Assembly of Calgary.
Your desire to also assist in spreading the Cause throughout the province, and in the prairie cities, is indeed most commendable, and the Guardian would certainly urge you to persevere in carrying out your plans in this connection, and would also suggest that you endeavour to contact the Germans and Ukrainians who form the largest section of the foreign population of that region.
Now regarding your questions: the Guardian has considered them carefully, and wishes me to answer them in the order in which they have been put.
The question of whether capital punishment should be inflicted on the criminally insane is one for the Universal House of Justice to decide. Such people, however, not being responsible for their actions, will not suffer any spiritual effect from acts committed while mentally deranged....
Regarding “mercy killings” or legalized euthanasia; this is also a matter which the Universal House of Justice will have to legislate upon.
Suicide is forbidden in the Cause. God Who is the Author of all life can alone take it away, and dispose of it in the way He deems best. Whoever commits suicide endangers his soul, and will suffer spiritually as a result in the other Worlds Beyond.
As regards the sterilization of the mentally deficient or the physically unfit; the Teachings bear no direct reference to the subject, and it therefore devolves on the Universal House of Justice to decide and legislate on this matter.
With the assurances of the Guardian’s prayers for the confirmation of your services to the Cause, and also for the spiritual enlightenment and progress of your dear mother in the World Beyond, and with very warm greetings,

Yours in His Service,

H. Rabbani

[From the Guardian:]

Wishing you all success in your devoted efforts to promote effectively the best and vital interests of the Faith of God and its new-born institutions,

Your true brother,

Shoghi
1.Doris Skinner—Bahá’í from Vancouver who was the first pioneer to Calgary in 1939, until 1949, when she pioneered to Newfoundland.  [ Back To Reference]
2.Dorothy Sheets—first Bahá’í to declare her belief in Bahá’u’lláh in Calgary, later pioneered to Regina, Saskatchewan and to Newfoundland, passed away in 1997.  [ Back To Reference]