Many religions trying to establish themselves in Canada have concentrated in major cities or built identities by setting themselves apart from others. Canada’s small Baha’i community has taken a different tack, according to sociologist Will van den Hoonaard, whose chapter on the Baha’is is part of a new book on Canadian religions published by University of Toronto Press.
The Religions of Canadians explores the world’s religions from a Canadian point of view by locating the religions of Canadians within a global context,” says editor Jamie Scott. Scott is Director of the Graduate Program in Interdisciplinary Studies at York University. The book focuses more on the characteristics of religious communities than their beliefs. Who are they? How did they establish themselves in Canada? In what direction are they moving?
“The geographical distribution of Baha’is differs markedly from the Canadian norm,” says van den Hoonaard, a professor at the University of New Brunswick.
In addition to their wide distribution, including large numbers in small towns, Baha’i s have been—and still are—an unusually mobile population. “Almost 36% of the whole Baha’i population moves each year. By contrast, about 10% of Canadians in general change their addresses each year.” That mobility has helped the relatively small Baha’i population—over 30,000—to spread out to more than 2300 localities throughout the country.
Unlike some other religious communities in Canada that are comprised largely of immigrants, the membership of the Baha’i Faith, which has no sects, was built largely through the conversion of Canadians, although it has included a significant number of Iranian refugees and their families since the revolution of 1979 in Iran.
The Religions of Canadians covers nine religious traditions—Aboriginal spirituality, Catholicism, Protestantism, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and the Baha’i Faith.
“While many books of this type grant just a few paragraphs to the smaller faith groups,” says Jamie Scott, “we give more or less equal time to the Christians—numbering in the many millions—and the Baha’is, numbering in the tens of thousands. One reason for doing this is that the Baha’is are somewhat indicative of the New Religious Movements that have found a home and flourished in Canada. Plus, we had a qualified scholar in Will van den Hoonaard who had done the research.”
Key to the diversification of religious expression in Canada in the late 20th century, says Scott, has been Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms, legislated in 1982, and the Canadian Multiculturalism Act of 1988. These reinforced the tolerant attitude that has long been a Canadian quality.
The Baha’i Faith in Canada dates back to the end of the 19th century. One of the first Canadians to become a Baha’i was Honoré Jaxon—a farmer who was once secretary to Métis leader Louis Riel—but Jaxon joined the faith in 1897 after moving to the United States. It was an American who had moved to Montreal in 1902, May Maxwell, who is credited with starting the first Baha’i group in Canada. The fledgling Canadian Baha’i community of the early 20th century was populated with free thinking social activists, suffragettes, and what might today be termed “new agers.”
The visit of ‘Abdu’l-Baha to Montreal in 1912 galvanized the few early Baha’is into a community with a distinct identity. The son of Baha’u’llah, the founder of the Faith, ‘Abdu’l-Baha inspired people across racial, ethnic and religious boundaries. A series of letters he wrote, called the Tablets of the Divine Plan, which urged the few Canadian Baha’is to travel throughout the country to establish the faith in every corner, can be seen as major factor in the unusual mobility of Baha’is, even to this day.
The Baha’i community passed through a number of stages as it slowly took hold across the country. Van den Hoonaard describes, for example, the important role that single women played in expanding the faith, and how this influenced its early membership.
“The Baha’i Faith initially attracted a large proportion of women. In the earlier periods, it was a magnet for suffragists and women social reformers like May Maxwell’s colleagues, Edith Magee and Rose Henderson, who campaigned tirelessly for the advancement of women, the eradication of poverty and the elimination of prejudice. Increasingly, the Faith began to attract single, urban women. Between 1942 and 1947, for example, the number of women members in Vancouver’s Baha’i community rose from 56% to 84%.”
Ethnic composition is another factor. Early Baha’is had mainly British Protestant roots. “Roman Catholic and francophone Canadians found an unfamiliar landscape in the lack of ritual and congregational prayer, the large number of single people and couples without children, and the absence of extended family and social ties. Such a social landscape lacked recognizable landmarks for new Baha’is from other cultural and religious backgrounds.”
A major shift in composition came with efforts to interest Aboriginal Canadians in the Baha’i teachings. “In 1960, a Baha’i couple in Calgary formed a social club for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples. By early 1961, the club had become the foundation of what later became known as the Native Friendship Centre, attracting gatherings of 50 to 150 people, more or less equally divided between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians.” Soon, the Baha’i message was being shared with thousands of First Nations people. Youth enrolments in the faith also became significant in the 1960 and 1970s, and the community remains relatively youthful to this day.
The emphasis on moving to new areas to establish Baha’i communities, contributed to the at times exponential growth of Baha’i membership. In 1944, there were only 90 Baha’is in the whole country. By 1949, when an Act of Parliament incorporated the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha’is of Canada, there were 263 Baha’is living in 41 localities, including 16 Spiritual Assemblies (or governing councils). Five years later there were 554 Baha’is in 102 localities, and the community now saw many Canadian Baha’is moving to other countries. By 1963, 2,500 Baha’is could be found in 290 locales, with 68 Spiritual Assemblies spread across Canada.
“While the overall rate of growth of the Baha’i community in Canada has not been spectacular,” comments van den Hoonaard, “it has been steady, marked by occasional peaks of immense growth.” Today, a new emphasis on inviting all, whether Baha’i or not, to neighbourhood activities, is beginning to attract greater participation from members and non-members alike.
One area where Canadians have made a disproportionate contribution has been in the field of “Baha’i architecture.” Canadian architects designed many of the best-known Baha’i sites, including the landmark Chicago Temple; the magnificent garden terraces and Shrine of the Bab in Israel; the Lotus Temple in India—among the most visited sites in the world—and now the temple in Chile, currently under construction.
“The fact that the Canadian Baha’i community is characterized by a higher proportion of young members than the general population should ensure that the Baha’i community will continue to grow,” says van den Hoonaard,“developing even deeper roots in Canada.”