Baháʼí Faith in Kiribati

The Baháʼí Faith in Kiribati begins after 1916 with a mention by ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, then head of the religion, that Baháʼís should take the religion to the Gilbert Islands which form part of modern Kiribati. The first Baháʼís pioneered to the island of Abaiang (aka Charlotte Island, of the Gilbert Islands), on March 4, 1954. They encountered serious opposition from some Catholics on the islands and were eventually deported and the first convert banished to his home island. However, in one year there was a community of more than 200 Baháʼís and a Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly. Three years later the island where the first convert was sent to was found to now have 10 Baháʼís. By 1963 there were 14 assemblies. As the Ellice Islands gained independence as Tuvalu and the Gilbert Islands and others formed Kiribati, the communities of Baháʼís also reformed into separate institutions of National Spiritual Assemblies in 1981. The Baháʼís had established a number of schools by 1963 and there are still such today - indeed the Ootan Marawa Baháʼí Vocational Institute being the only teacher training institution for pre-school teachers in Kiribati. All together the Baháʼís now claim more than 10,000 local people have joined the religion over the last 50 years and there are 38 local spiritual assemblies.

Early days

ʻAbdu'l-Bahá's Tablets of the Divine Plan

From 1892 to 1977 the islands of Kiribati were known as part of the British Empire and included the Gilbert Islands. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá, head of the religion from 1892 to 1921, mentioned the Gilbert Islands among the places Baháʼís should take the religion to. ʻAbdu'l-Bahá wrote a series of letters, or tablets, to the followers of the religion in the United States in 1916-1917; these letters were compiled together in the book titled '' Tablets of the Divine Plan''. The seventh of the tablets mentioned taking the Baháʼí Faith to the Gilbert Islands and was written on April 11, 1916, but was delayed in being presented in the United States until 1919 — after the end of World War I and the Spanish flu. These tablets were translated and presented by Mirza Ahmad Sohrab on April 4, 1919, and published in Star of the West magazine on December 12, 1919.

(Tablet 7) "A party speaking their languages, severed, holy, sanctified and filled with the love of God, must turn their faces to and travel through the three great island groups of the Pacific Ocean—Polynesia, Micronesia and Melanesia, and the islands attached to these groups, such as New Guinea, Borneo, Java, Sumatra, Philippine Islands, Solomon Islands, Fiji Islands, New Hebrides, Loyalty Islands, New Caledonia, Bismarck Archipelago, Ceram, Celebes, Friendly Islands, Samoa Islands, Society Islands, Caroline Islands, Low Archipelago, Marquesas, Hawaiian Islands, Gilbert Islands, Moluccas, Marshall Islands, Timor and the other islands. With hearts overflowing with the love of God, with tongues commemorating the mention of God, with eyes turned to the Kingdom of God, they must deliver the glad tidings of the manifestation of the Lord of Hosts to all the people. Know ye of a certainty that whatever gathering ye enter, the waves of the Holy Spirit are surging over it, and the heavenly grace of the Blessed Beauty encompasseth that gathering."

Beginnings

The first Baháʼís to Kiribati were Elena Marsella and Roy Fernie, who left their home in Panama and positions on the National Spiritual Assembly of Panama to pioneer. They arrived on the island of Abaiang (aka Charlotte Island, of the Gilbert Islands), on March 4, 1954. For this service they were named Knights of Baha'u'llah by then head of the religion, Shoghi Effendi. About the first of June 1954, former Roman Catholic seminarian and mission teacher Peter Kanere Koru quickly became the first convert on the island. He attributed his conversion in part to his attraction to the racial equality practiced by the pioneers, and their desire to implement such equality in his society.

Incidents related to the first native Baháʼí

When Koru became the first Baháʼí Shoghi Effendi urged him in a letter of welcome to be "very discreet in spreading this Message", explaining that the Baháʼís did not wish to become a "source of discord, or arouse opposition". However several issues came to the fore to animate hostility from the local Catholics. First, Roy was an amateur magician. Roy was a confident figure who held a show along with a piano the first night they arrived. Records show that within weeks he attracted Sunday audiences perhaps dropping attendance at Sunday services. In the judgement of researcher Graham Hassall, Roy was most likely unaware of the fact that sorcery and magic were practiced widely in Gilbertese culture, and were being actively suppressed by the Catholics ministers and now here was a new presence in the community giving shows including magic tricks. Indeed, there are reports the Catholic minister's actions against the Baháʼís helped spread knowledge of them. Then there was the attempt of the Fernies to set up an English language school - and the fund-raising activities they organised in Tuarabu conflicted with the Tuarabu Catholics attempt to raise funds for their own purposes and embarrassingly unable to match donations with another nearby Catholic community. Indeed, a quarter ton of text books were sent from the Baháʼís of Panama to support the imminent school which was to be open to all natives irrespective of their religion. Lastly the conversion of a seminarian and missionary teacher away from Catholicism - these are all issues mostly likely to lead to antagonism from the Catholics. Indeed, the Catholic mission worked to have the Fernies deported, and on several occasions used its journal to "warn" its members against examining this new religion. Central to their initial complaint to authorities, however, was the fact that missionary activity required 100 or 200 individuals to sanction a group of religionists to allow for missionary work. However over two hundred Abaiang residents registered their wish to become Baháʼís after showing up at the home of the Fernies at 3am, and some 90 people came the next day to see Koru whom Catholic opposition had forced into banishment to his home island of Tabiteuea later in June. His pregnant wife who went into labour had to be left behind in a hospital and she died a short time later. On 24 September 1955 the government gave legal recognition to the first Baháʼí institution in the islands, the village of Tuarabu's Baháʼí Local Spiritual Assembly on the island of Abaiang. Regardless, Roy Fernie was deported in November 1955 with the support of local land owners. Through correspondence Koru and Elena Marsella were working on translations of a collection of the Baháʼí prayers, Hidden Words, and excerpts from the writings of ʻAbdu'l-Bahá until later in 1956 when Marsella left. Before she left the Education Department had approved Elena and two native Baháʼís as teachers in the new school. The new Baháʼí community which had formed essentially in one year continued to function and for a time Shoghi Effendi requested no further pioneers go to the Gilbert Islands. Koru did not meet Baháʼís again until four years later, but he remained steadfast in his beliefs. By the time Baháʼís were eventually able to come to visit him, nine more people were active members of the religion on his island, (apparently nearly fifty had been drawn to the religion there.) One of them was a Protestant minister then under disciplinary sanction by his church.

Continued early growth of the religion

In 1956 four assemblies (including Tuarabu, Tebero, and Kuria) were elected and five smaller groups of Baháʼís. In addition to Koru, other early converts included Taukoriri Eritai, who became a Baháʼí at the time the Fernies were on Abainag, and Timeon Tamaroa who helped take the religion to the island of Beru. In earliest 1957 Shoghi Effendi allowed pioneers to consider the Gilbert Islands and Frances Heller from the United States was able to arrive on February 8, 1957. She was able to remain despite failing health until June 1958 - having helped elect the spiritual assembly of Betio. American Mabel Adelle Sneider was the next to arrive and she and Heller agreed the religion needed to be taken to the capital of the islands. So it was that Sneider established herself in the village of Bikenibeu on Tarawa