On the same day as the interment of the sacred remains of the Báb on Mount Carmel the first American Bahá'í Convention opened in Chicago. [BFA2:XVII, 309; BW13:849; MBW142–3; SBBH1:146]
• It was held in the home of Corinne True. [CT82–3]
• It was attended by 39 delegates from 36 cities. [GPB262; SBBH1:146]
• The Convention established the 'Bahá'í Temple Unity', incorporated to hold title to the Temple property and to provide for its construction. A constitution was framed and an Executive Board of the Bahá'í Temple Unity elected. This body became the future National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada. [BBD39; BBRSM:106; BW10:179; GPB349; PP397; SBBH1:146] iiiii

In a message to the Bahá'ís in America, Great Britain, Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy, Japan and in Australia, Shoghi Effendi instructed that local assemblies must be established in localities where the number of believers, aged twenty-one and over, was nine or more and he delineated the responsibilities of those assemblies. [BA37-39]
• In the same message he directed that, in countries where conditions are favourable and the number of believers merited it, that "secondary Houses of Justice" be established. He fixed the number of electors; in America-95, the Pacific Islands-95, Germany-95 and in Great Britain-19 and specified that they be elected annually. [BA39-41]
• Local and National Funds were to be established because "the progress and execution of spiritual activities is dependent and conditioned upon material means". [BA41]

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada made representations to the Iranian government concerning the martyrdoms in Jahrum and asking the Sháh to intervene on behalf of the oppressed Bahá'ís. They included in their submission a list of all the places in North America were Bahá'ís resided. [BBR469; BW2:287]
• For text of the petition see BW2:287–300.
• On the 31st of July the submission that had been reprinted in booklet form was sent to some 300 newspapers. Copies were also sent to the local spiritual assemblies with instructions to deliver them to all Bahá'ís and friends of the Faith. [BN No 12 June - July 1926 p1]

The National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada appointed seven people to a National Race Unity Committee. [SBR94; TMW166]
• For the functions and challenges faced by the committee see TMW165–72.

The British delegates, at their first National Convention, elected ten members because there were an equal number of votes for ninth and tenth places. [EJR253; UD70–1]
• One of the members was a Rev. Biggs. [EJR253; UD71]
• Shoghi Effendi wrote on 13 May recommending that next year the number of members be strictly confined to nine. In an earlier letter written on his behalf he explained that all of the delegates were to choose nine members of the National Assembly from all of those eligible. Prior to that time the understanding was that, for example, the London delegates would vote for a proportional number of persons from the London area, the Manchester delegates would choose a number of members based on their proportion of the total Bahá'í population. [EJR253; UD70, SETEP1p140]

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada drew up and published a 'Declaration of Trust' and 'By-laws of the National Spiritual Assembly'. [BW2:89, BW10:180]
• For text see BW2:90–8.
• The Guardian described it as the Bahá'í 'national constitution' heralding 'the formation of the constitution of the future Bahá'í World Community'. [GPB335; PP302–3]
• The drafting was largely the work of Horace Holley with assistance from the lawyer Mountfort Mills. [SBR234]
• In subsequent years the National Assemblies of India and Burma, of Egypt, Iraq, Persian and the British Isles all adopted this example almost verbatim. [UD101, BA134-5, SETPE1p145-6]

The American National Spiritual Assembly incorporated as a voluntary Trust. [BBRSM122; GPB335]
• This enabled the National Spiritual Assembly to hold property, to receive bequests and to enter into contracts. [BBRSM122; GPB335–6]

Keith Ransom-Kehler met the Iranian Court Minister Taymur Tash. [BW5:392]
• She presented the American petition to him asking that the ban on Bahá'í literature in Iran be lifted and received assurances from him that this would be affected. [BW5:392; PH46]
• She made seven successive petitions addressed to the Sháh of Persia. [GPB345]
• For the history and unsuccessful outcome of this effort see BW5:391–8.

Following on the success of the initial Race Amity conferences in Washington, DC, the National Spiritual Assembly formed a racial amity committee. For a list of the committees complete with membership from 1921 until 1932 see The Bahá'í 'Race Amity' Movement and the Black Intelligentsia in Jim Crow America: Alain Locke and Robert Abbot by Christoper Buck. [Bahá'í Studies Review 17, 2011, 3–46]
• In July, 1936 it was announced that "The National Spiritual Assembly had not appointed a Race Amity Committee that year. Its view was that race amity activities have sometimes resulted in emphasizing race differences rather than their unity and reconciliation within the Cause. Local Assemblies were requested to provide for amity meetings and regard them as a direct part of teaching." [TMW213]

An Act to incorporate the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Canada was passed. The act established the name, named the officers as directors, stated the location of the headquarters, defined the objectives, gave it the right to manage the affairs of the Bahá'ís, to make by-laws and to hold property. It was used as a model for registration/incorporation in other states.
• The pdf for the Act can be found here.
• The National Spiritual Assembly members at that time were John Aldham Robarts, of the city of Toronto, province of Ontario, manager; Emeric Sala, of the city of St. Lambert, province of Quebec, manufacturer; Dame Laura Romney Davis, wife of Victor Davis of the city of Toronto, province of Ontario; Siegfried Schopflocher, of the city of Montreal, province of Quebec, manufacturer; Rowland Ardouin Estall, of the city of Montreal, province of Quebec, insurance broker; Ross Greig Woodman, of the city of Toronto, province of Ontario, lecturer; Lloyd George Gardner, of the city of Toronto, province of Ontario, wholesaler; and Dame Doris Cecilia Richardson, wife of J. P. Richardson, of the city of Toronto, province of Ontario; and Dame Rosemary Scott Sala, wife of the said Emeric Sala, of the city of St. Lambert, province Corporate of Quebec.
• See Shoghi Effendi's letter of 19 June, 1949 for his comments.

Bahá'í women in Iran were accorded full rights to participate in membership of both national and local Bahá'í assemblies. [MBW65]
• This removed the 'last remaining obstacle to the enjoyment of complete equality of rights in the conduct of the administrative affairs of the Persian Bahá'í Community'. [MBW65]

Twenty–four national spiritual assemblies and five national conventions sent messages of support to the Custodians, repudiating the claim made by Charles Mason Remey to be the second Guardian. [MC199–202]
• The National Spiritual Assembly of France voted to recognize Remey's claim. [MC203]

Hand of the Cause Abu'l-Qásim Faizí was sent by the Custodians to France to meet with the National Spiritual Assembly and Bahá'ís of France. He was accompanied by Auxiliary Board Member Dr Aziz Navidi. [MC197]
• Initially eight of the nine members of the National Spiritual Assembly accepted the claim of Mason Remey.
• After consultation, five members of the assembly continued to support Charles Mason Remey in his claim to be the second Guardian and resigned from the assembly. The five members who sided with Remey were: Joel Marangella, Bernard Fillon, Donald Harvey, Monir Derakhchan and Jaques Soghomonian. The four that remained true to the Covenant were A-M Barafroukhteh, Alain Tamenne, Sara Kenny, and Henriette Samimy. Even though some or maybe all of this group had voted to accept Remey they changed their vote after the meeting with Mr. Faizi. The national assembly was dissolved. [MC203]
• See SETPE2P236-244 for an account of Mason Remey's defection and ultimate end.

The Custodians issued a statement of information to the national spiritual assemblies of the United States and Europe regarding the Bahá'ís imprisoned in Morocco and under threat of death, reminding them that clemency or a pardon are not sufficient, as the condemned Bahá'ís cannot be pardoned for a crime they did not commit. [MoC414]
• For text of statement see MC414–20.

Following the revolution in Portugal in April, the National Spiritual Assembly was officially recognized.
• The process of incorporation began in 1951.

The National Hazíratu'l-Quds of Iran was seized by the Revolutionary Guards. [BW18:250]
• All the records of the National Spiritual Assembly, including a membership list of all the Bahá'ís in Iran, were confiscated by the government. [BW19:43]

The persecution of the Bahá'ís in Iran entered a new, more dangerous phase. [BW18:255]
• Prominent Bahá'ís were abducted. [BW18:256]
• The homes of members of the National Spiritual Assembly were raided. [BW18:256]

The National Spiritual Assembly of Brazil submitted proposals based on Bahá'í principles such as human rights to the National Constitutional Assembly drafting the new constitution. [BINS174:2]
• Favourable responses were received from 46 Senators and Deputies. [BINS174:2]

The National Spiritual Assembly of South Africa made a submission for the drafting of a new constitution.
• The judge that received it, the President of the South African Law Commission, commented that this document stated the Bahá'ís were the only group whose ideas had a spiritual and moral basis for the constitution. [AWH87-8]

The highest legal authority in Germany, the Federal Constitutional Court, overturned the decisions of a number of lower courts that had refused to register the by-laws of a Local Spiritual Assembly on the grounds that the authority granted to the National Spiritual Assembly in the document violated the legal principle requiring the autonomy of all legally incorporated associations.
• The case was first brought before the District Court of Tübingen when the legal administrator refused to register the Local Assembly on the 8th of December, 1983. The decision was appealed on the 5th of May 1985 to the High State Court in Sturrgart and rejected on the 27th of January 1986. News of the decision caused other jurisdictions to demand that local assemblies amend their By-Laws or face cancellation of their existing incorporation. The National Spiritual Assembly was in danger of the same fate. An appeal was submitted in March of 1986.
• The ruling affirmed Bahá'í community, by its right as a recognized religion, recognized by public knowledge and by the testimony of scholars of comparative religion, had the right to a legal identity. [AWH87]
• See Ridván Message 1991.
• For complete details of the case see Mess86-01p206-235.

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Russia formally received its re-registration documents under the new law on religious organizations that was passed by the Russian Parliament in the fall of 1997.
• Formal recognition as a "centralized religious organization" entitled the community to full rights to teach and proclaim the Faith, publish and import literature, rent and own property, invite foreign nationals etc. [From "European Bulletin" Issue 60 February 1999]

The Seventeenth Annual Convention of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada was held at Green Acre. [GAP117; SBR94]
• National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada was elected for the first time. [GPB333, SETPE1p107]
• Like the previous attempts at electing a National Assembly in 1922, 1923 and 1924, the delegates didn't fully understand the Bahá'í election procedure. Nine members were elected as well as nine alternates whose purpose was to replace absent members at meetings. [SETPE1p108]
• The members were: Alfred Lunt, Harry Randall, May Maxwell, George Latimer, Louis Gregory, Elizabeth Greenleaf, Mariam Haney and Keith Ransom-Kehler with Horace Holley becomes its first full-time secretary. [BW13:852; SBR233, SETPE1p108]

"A Plan of Unified Action to Spread the Bahá'í Cause Throughout the United States and Canada January 1, 1926-December 31, 1928" was formulated by The National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and Canada in response to Shoghi Effendi's message to the annual National Convention. [BA86-89; BN No 10 February 1926 p1]
• It can be found at [Plan] The goals were (1) to unify the American Bahá'í community's efforts, (2) to increase the number of Bahá'ís, (3) to "penetrate the consciousness of the public with the spirit of Bahá'u'lláh", and (4) to raise $400,000 so that the construction of the first unit of the Temple's superstructure could begin. [SBBR14p160, BFA1p110]
• This was the first of two Plans developed by the North American National Assembly in the years from 1926 to 1934 the second being "A New Plan of Unified Action To complete the Bahá'í Temple and promote the Cause in America (1931-1934)". [SBBR14p155-197]
• The above two plans were the first to have the expansion and development of the Bahá'í community as a primary goal and it is likely that they provided the model for other plans organized by Shoghi Effendi and other National Assemblies. [SBBR14p155]
• The first Plan of Unified Action indicates the ascendancy of those Bahá'ís who supported a centralizing authority over those who wanted a more amorphous system or no organization at all.[BiW177-8]
  • For an essay on this subject see "Some Aspects of the Establishment of the Guardianship" by Dr Loni Bramson-Lerche in SBBR5p253-293
• During the years of these two plans the National Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada developed practices commonly used in subsequent plans, organized propagation, a central budget and the modern form of the Nineteen Day Feast. [SBBR14p160]

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of the United States and Canada drew up and published a 'Declaration of Trust' and 'By-laws of the National Spiritual Assembly'. [BW2:89, BW10:180]
• For text see BW2:90–8.
• The Guardian described it as the Bahá'í 'national constitution' heralding 'the formation of the constitution of the future Bahá'í World Community'. [GPB335; PP302–3]
• The drafting was largely the work of Horace Holley with assistance from the lawyer Mountfort Mills. [SBR234]
• In subsequent years the National Assemblies of India and Burma, of Egypt, Iraq, Persian and the British Isles all adopted this example almost verbatim. [UD101, BA134-5, SETPE1p145-6]

The National Spiritual Assembly of the Dominion of Canada was established. [BBRSM:186; BW13:856; MBW143; PP397; BW11p20]
• It was attended by 112 Bahá'ís, 19 of them delegates. The country-wide membership was less than 500. [BC Vol 9 No 8 October 1987 p17]
• Those elected were: John Robarts (chair), Emeric Sala (vice), Laura Davis (sec'y), Siegfried Schopflocher (tres), Rowland Estall, Lloyd Gardner, Ross Woodman, Rosemary Sala, and Doris Richardson. [BN No 207 May 1948 105BE p3]
• See BW11:160, 184, Bahá'í Historical Facts for pictures.
• The first National Convention was held in the Maxwell home (in 'Abdu'l-Bahá's home as will be the election of the Universal House of Justice some 15 years hence.) with 13/19 delegates from all the provinces attending. (Six were unable to attend due to a flood.) Those elected to the first National Spiritual Assembly were: Laura Davis, Rowland Estall, Lloyd Gardner, Doris Richardson, John Robarts, Emeric Sala, Rosemary Sala, Siegfried Schopflocher, and Ross Woodman. [TG110, OBCC269-272]
• For a picture of the first Canadian National Spiritual Assembly see OBCC148.
• For Ruhiyyíh Khanum's Message to the first Canadian Convention see BN212 October 1948 pg2-t and Part II of the same address can be found at BN213 Novembe3r 1948 pg10-11.

Canada's fourth National Convention was held in the Vancouver Hotel. Those elected were; John Robarts (chair), Rowland Estall (vice-chair) Laura Davis (secretary), Emeric Sala (treasurer) Rosemary Sala, Lloyd Gardner, Mae McKenna, Winnifred Harvey, and Siegfried Schopflocher.
• For a list of delegates (18) see CBN No 18 Mar 1951 p2. For the agenda see CBN No 19 April 1951 p10-11.
• Amelia Collins attended the Convention and gave the Canadian Bahá'í Community a lock of hair of Bahá'u'lláh as a gift from Shoghi Effendi. In addition, she gave a piece of Burmese alabaster from the Tomb of the Báb, These precious relics were placed in the Maxwell home archives in Montreal. [UC31]

The sixth National Convention took place in the Unitarian Church of Forest Hill Village and was attended by sixteen delegates as well as over 100 visitors. Elected were: John Robarts, (chairman), Lloyd Gardner, (treasurer), Rowland Estall, (vice chair), Laura Davis, (secretary), Winnifred Harvey, Emeric Sala, Rosemary Sala, Albert Rakovsky and Audrey Westhaeser. [CBN No 41 June, 1953 p2]
• This convention marked the end of the Five Year Plan that had been given to Canada in 1948 upon the formation of the National Spiritual Assembly.

The October issue included a graphic that illustrated the reporting structure of the national committees. [CBN No 93 October 1957 p7]

The presentation of the first Race Unity Award by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Canada.
• See message from the Universal House of Justice entitled Cultural Reconciliation in Canada.

The passing of Florence Virginia Wilson Mayberry (b. 18 September 1906 in Sleeper, Missouri) in Marshfield, Missouri. She became a Bahá'í in 1941 in Reno, Nevada. From 1954 to 1959 she served on the first Auxiliary Board for North America covering the Western States and Canada. While serving as an Auxiliary Board member, Florence was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States in 1959. Shortly after the Mayberry family pioneered to Mexico in 1961 where Mrs. Mayberry was elected to serve on the National Spiritual Assembly of that country and participated in the first International Bahá'í Convention in 1963. In 1968 she was appointed to the Continental Board of Counsellors for North America, then in 1973 she was appointed as one of three Counselors of the newly established International Teaching Center where she served for 10 years. [BW26p275]
• Her autobiography, The Great Adventure was published by Nine Pines Publishing in 1994.
• She was a mystery writer. She had a number of stories published in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.
• Find a grave.

Her greatest love was teaching the Native people of Canada and Greenland. She travelled to Australia, Europe, Southeast Asia and attended the dedication of the Houses of Worship in the the United States, Samoa and in India. [BW28p309]

He was survived by his wife Dr. Marion Woodman, an internationally-known author and psychoanalyst, who passed away in 2018. [CBNS 27 March 2014]

A film called Rebel Angel was made about their marriage.

For nearly forty years Mr Woodman was Professor in the Department of English at the University of Western Ontario, where he taught Romantic literature, until his retirement in 1989. In 1993 he received the Distinguished Scholar Award from the Keats-Shelley Association of America.

His publications include: The Apocalyptic Vision in the Poetry of Percy Bysshe Shelley and a book about celebrated Canadian poet and fellow-professor at the University of Western Ontario, James Reaney.

Mr Woodman contributed several articles to The Journal of Bahá'í Studies.