I was born in Liverpool and brought up in Sheffield, a working-class city in the North of England. My parents were communists until the year 1956 so I did not have any religious background although later on my mother joined a spiritual movement called Subud, which originated in Indonesia. At the age of seventeen I left home and emigrated to Australia. Having an adventurous spirit, I was always questioning the purpose of life. While appreciating some of the idealistic principles of my parents, I was disenchanted with the two world systems of communism and capitalism being in conflict.

After working my way around Australia for three years doing various manual jobs, i.e. sheep farming, agricultural shoreman, railway worker and generally experiencing the school of life, I went back to England and stayed with my parents for a further two years. I then became restless and was yearning to travel again. I emigrated to Canada. It was an interesting life learning different jobs, meeting people and admiring beautiful scenery, but I was searching for something.

After one year I returned to England again to stay with my parents in Sheffield. I became an avid reader of various subjects, including books on Buddha, reincarnation and UFOs. The search went on, growing more intense. I bought the New Testament and started to read through the Book of Revelation where Jesus Christ prophesied that He would come again and that He would return.

Around the same time as these meditations, I went with a friend from a UFO group to Warminster in the south of England. There were many reports of UFO sightings in the area. It was here that I met a man from Czechoslovakia who claimed to have met people from other planets. He shared spiritual teachings of his life experiences. Sometime later, after I became a Bahá’í, he wrote a letter saying he also was a Bahá’í, but he chose not to mention it at the time. His name was Stefan Chovat.

Not long after going to Warminster I found a book in the public library called Writing on the Ground by Wellesley Tudor Pole, not a Bahá’í. Even before I opened the book I had a strong intuitive feeling there was something in this book of great value to me. The first few chapters were on the author’s views and experiences of Christianity and then it went on to the Bahá’í Faith. The last few chapters of the book contained some spiritual principles, history and teachings of the faith. Also in the book was a drawing of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá. I thought He looked a wise and kind man. I took the book home. By then my mother had been in the Subud movement, which originated in Indonesia, for eleven years and I thought she would surely have heard of the Bahá’í Faith. To my surprise she hadn’t, which greatly increased my curiosity.

On the back of the book, I read “For further information write to the Bahá’í Centre in London”. I did this without delay and the secretary then sent me addresses of Bahá’ís living in Sheffield.

The first Bahá’ís I met were Iraj and Pashou Zamiri. They showed me wonderful Persian hospitality and answered questions in such a sweet patient way. I then read another book entitled ‘Release the Sun’ by William Sears. It was about the very early history of the Faith, and I found it extremely dramatic and inspiring. The events in my life leading up to my declaration were traumatic and overwhelmingly convincing. Within two weeks of coming into contact with the Bahá’í Faith, I became a Bahá’í, on 23^rdNovember 1969. I was attracted to the claim of Bahá’u’lláh being the Return of Christ; also, the principle of the ‘oneness of mankind’, the simplicity of religion, and that here was a system that could, in time, replace the two main defective systems in the world. Becoming a Bahá’í at the age of 24 was to change my life for ever.

After a period of four months my mother Ruth became a Bahá’í too. From that time we enjoyed a wonderful spiritual bond. I always admired her keen intellect, independent spirit, and wise and loving counselling. She was truly a spiritual giant in the way she taught by example.

Limerick  

A few weeks after becoming a Bahá’í I attended the national teaching conference in Birmingham. I remember how thrilled I was to be amongst so many Bahá’ís (around 200). There was indeed an exhilarating spirit pervading the atmosphere. Adib Taherzadeh gave a very inspiring and persuasive talk on pioneering.

There were many offers to pioneer to distant countries and localities in the British Isles. This already seasoned traveller offered to pioneer to the Line Islands. If you look at the world map they look like little dots – a chain of coral atolls somewhere in the central Pacific Ocean.

Sometime later I received a letter from the National Pioneer Committee advising me first to deepen my knowledge in the Faith before pioneering.

At the same National Conference, Ann and Fred Halliday, Bahá’ís in Sheffield, also offered to pioneer. The Pioneer Committee advised Ann and Fred that a Bahá’í family was wanted to pioneer to Limerick on the west coast of Ireland. I was then invited to go with the Hallidays, much to my joy, and I felt this was confirmation and the blessings of Bahá’u’lláh were with me. In those early days I was very open and shared the Faith with many people. Some who only looked remotely receptive, would become interested.

Early in the year 1970 this little band of first-time pioneers crossed the Irish Sea to the Republic of Ireland. In Dublin we met with the National Teaching Committee which consisted of Margaret McGill, Philip O’Brien, Adib Taherzadeh, Joe Watson and Lesley Gibson.

I was advised that my over-eagerness to teach would not be a wise approach in Ireland. We were to move into Limerick like little mice (quietly) and find accommodation and work etc. It would be unwise to have any Bahá’í public meetings or publicity. After all, the Irish had taken the Christian religion to many countries in the world and they might find it strange that we were bringing religion to them. There was also the possibility that if we made too much noise we could be deported. The National Teaching Committee said there would be no public meetings or firesides. We would not be handing out Bahá’í pamphlets or books initially and in fact it would not be wise to be seen associating with other Baha’is. This was going to be a very quiet revolution.

We soon discovered that curiosity was a national characteristic of the Irish people. In our interactions with the local people of Limerick we needed to be tactful and cautious. This certainly brought spiritual rewards later on. I have no doubt that the wisdom and guidance of the Committee was a catalyst in the success of promoting the Faith in Limerick.

There were already two pioneers in Limerick, Lesley Gibson (later to be Taherzadeh) and Gillian Phillips. Lesley was the first Bahá’í to pioneer to Limerick in 1967 and she worked as a speech therapist at St Joseph’s clinic for children with special needs. She lived in a flat at 6 Alphonsus Terrace next to the Redemptorist Catholic Church. Gillian arrived in 1968 and was a nurse at the local hospital. She lived at 10 Lower Mallow Street in the centre of Limerick. Hers was a very lovable and bubbly personality. Both were such wonderful steadfast souls with enthusiastic spirits. Oh how I enjoyed their company.

Ann and Fred Halliday always showered people with loving kindness, and the most wonderful hospitality. Ann was famous for her cooking, and baking delicious pastries. Fred displayed so much patience and consideration to friend and stranger alike.

Gradually more Bahá’í pioneers moved into Limerick. Stan Wrout, a very close and dear friend, arrived from London in early May 1970. He was a very humble and pure soul with a great sense of humour. He spent many months searching for a job in Limerick. He loved riding his motorbike around town and in the countryside. Mary Lou Martin and Hordy Bradehorst came to Limerick from the United States. They were two very dedicated beautiful souls who had been Bahá’ís then for over thirty years.

Another very dear friend who pioneered to Limerick was Doris Holley, wife of the late Hand of the Cause Horace Holley. She had the most wonderful sense of humour, and could relate very well to the Irish Bahá’í youth.

In Limerick we were blessed with visits from Hands of the Cause John Robarts, Ugo Giachery, William Sears, and Collis Featherstone. Adib Taherzadeh was a tower of spiritual strength to the Irish Bahá’í community. I remember so well his deeply inspiring talks which would take you into spiritual raptures. Sometimes he would keep us spellbound, speaking without pause for up to four hours. This knowledgeable and humble soul was indeed an example of selflessness, and really endeared himself to all.

Sometime after the visit of Hand of the Cause John Robarts in October of 1970, and at his suggestion, it was decided to say the short prayer of the Báb ‘The Remover of Difficulties’ either 500 or 1,000 times, going around in a circle, every week at Lesley’s flat. This carried on until March 1971. As time went by this served to create an even stronger spiritual bond between us all. The degree of unity and harmony existing in our Assembly became stronger and stronger. We felt these magnetic vibrations would, in time, take effect on the community of Limerick.

To persevere in our efforts and reach beyond the veils of prejudice and materialism; could it happen in some mysterious way? After saying these prayers for a period of six months, a combination of circumstances would develop that would ultimately embrace two hundred youth and bring them into the Faith within two years.

The sudden loss at the end of July 1970 of our precious and steadfast pioneer, Stan Wrout, who drowned whilst swimming in the River Shannon, was very sad. He was laid to rest where his body was found at the little village of Kilbaha, which means ‘church of life’. At the Bahá’í funeral there were Bahá’ís of many different nationalities, and the local people looked on with great curiosity. Our Bahá’í community in Limerick was in grief and shock for some time. The sacrifice of Stan’s life was also the start of some amazing developments in the spread of the Faith in Limerick.

I found a job working as an assistant cook at Bunratty Castle, 14 km from Limerick. This was a very busy tourist attraction for people from all over the world. One day when Stan was missing, I fell down the castle steps and sprained an ankle. Consequently I was unable to do any further work at the Castle. Eventually I recovered from the injury and found a job at a market garden with a Dutch family named Droog, where they propagated tomatoes, chrysanthemums, lettuces and various other plants. The family were very strict about time, and they used to use a siren for breaks and finish times, which I found hilarious.

After a period of time I left the market gardening job as I wanted to be more in contact with people than with plants. The landlord of the flat I was renting advised me to try the Intercontinental Hotel for work. A few days later (May 1971) the head chef gave me a job as a kitchen porter.

On the second day of working at the hotel one of the chefs, Martin Burke, came up to me and started talking about religion and witchcraft, and he said, “You can’t beat Jesus Christ, can you?”, whereupon I mentioned the name of Bahá’u’lláh to him. From that point on Martin just kept asking question after question about the Bahá’í Faith. He read the book Bahá’u’lláh and the New Era and a week later he became a Bahá’í.

Martin Burke became the first Irish Bahá’í in Limerick City. It was then revealed that Martin knew of a folk group who were going from church to church searching for truth. The youth in this folk group met in the same café every night of the week. Martin and I decided to go and share the Faith with them. The seed was then planted in their hearts and all the members of that folk group became Bahá’ís after going to firesides for six weeks.

________________

This now very happy group of young Irish believers knew of another folk group in Limerick, who were living together with about fourteen other youth. These youth were disenchanted with society and, at the time, experimenting with different types of drugs.

We shared the Faith with them and invited all the youth to a fireside at Lesley’s home. It was there they felt the loving spiritual atmosphere pervading the room. Coming from a spiritual background, they soon turned to the Bahá’í prayers, and especially to the Hidden Words of Bahá’u’lláh. Within two days they all embraced the Faith.

This was the start of ‘Entry by troops’. The transformation of these first Irish believers was really incredible. The power of the Holy Spirit was seen in action. Their lives changed from despair, stress, and hopelessness, to being on fire with the love of Bahá’u’lláh burning in their precious hearts. They wrote songs about the Faith, changed the way they dressed, gave up drugs and alcohol, found good jobs and meaning to their lives. From that point on, every night of the week we had firesides. Some of the first Irish believers told the pioneers that what made them curious about our religion was the fact that we didn’t go from door to door preaching about it.

Gradually the teaching work became more intense and we started what was known as ‘street teaching’. This consisted of continual firesides throughout the day prior to saying prayers and reading from the Heroic Age of our Faith. The youth would then pair off and go to different streets in Limerick to share the Faith with their friends, and invite them back to firesides.

Now what really attracted those friends to attend the firesides was that they wanted to share in the happiness which they could see exuding from their old friends. So the days and nights passed by on a very high note. There was so much singing, deep spiritual conversation, and those happy smiling Irish faces. How could one ever forget those historic and momentous days! This was an experience which could penetrate the soul of this servant for the rest of his life.

So the Faith progressed from strength to strength in Limerick. Opposition came in the form of Catholic priests entering the firesides to trick the new believers into saying they did not believe in the Divine Christ. As always, with opposition, a fresh outpouring of spiritual energy was released into the community. Wave after wave of young people came into the Faith. Their enthusiasm and steadfastness were renowned throughout Europe. Limerick had the highest retention of believers in that continent.

In 1972 the Universal House of Justice wrote, “The efforts of the Irish believers have excelled the efforts of the early Christians”.

When I revisited Ireland in 1980 many of these early believers had pioneered to different towns and villages in the South. There were then seventeen Local Spiritual Assemblies.

Is it within the destiny of Ireland to repeat its religious history one more time?

________________

Stornoway

In 1972 I pioneered to Stornoway, the largest town in the Isle of Lewis, Scotland. There was a need to make up the ninth member of the Spiritual Assembly.

Shoghi Effendi had given great importance to the islands surrounding the British Isles.

For some of the time I stayed with the family of Pixie and Enayat Rawhani. They were extremely kind and hospitable and I so much enjoyed their company.

Stornoway had the highest unemployment rate in Britain. However, after finding some jobs with Enayat, I managed to obtain work in an electrical shop. One of my duties was to take the delivery van on board the ferry to Mallaig and drive to Glasgow. There I would collect electrical products from the wholesale warehouse. Overnight I would stay with the Tahzib family, some of the first Bahá’ís to Scotland. The next day I would drive to Inverness and again take on board more electrical goods. This time I would stay with the Shepherd family, another band of courageous pioneers. It was indeed a wonderful job, and discovering Scotland’s beautiful scenery was an added bonus.

The Local Spiritual Assembly in those days had some growing pains. Sometimes it was a great struggle to even finish a meeting. It was to be such a contrast from the dynamic Bahá’í Community of Limerick. However, from these tests grew more spirituality.

We also received many attacks from the ministers of the ‘Wee Free’ and Church of Scotland. I remember being assailed verbally on the streets of Stornoway. Other attacks came in the form of newspaper articles in the local Stornoway Gazette.

Stornoway was a very closed community. Scots who went from the mainland to live there would have to wait generations before being accepted as islanders.

The islanders had very beautiful singing voices. They often sang about their sad history, i.e. shipwrecks, storms, departing families etc. Their lives were very simple, usually looking after a few sheep, and growing some vegetables.

The islands appeared to be draped in a romantic mystical curtain; windswept and lashed by the Atlantic storms.

Towards the end of 1972 I travelled to Dublin and attended the National Convention. This was the year of the formation of the first National Assembly of the Republic of Ireland. It was there I met my first wife, Maxine, who was living in the North, and our marriage took place in the town of Lurgan. So I then left the Isle of Lewis to resettle once again in Ireland. My parents by then had moved to Larne in Northern Ireland (my mother as a pioneer).

It was wonderful to meet so many dedicated, steadfast Bahá’ís in Northern Ireland. Faced with dangerous and difficult times in that often violent society, the Faith progressed only slowly in comparison with what was happening in the South of Ireland.

________

But then God does work in mysterious ways. Our astonishment can, and does, increase with the passage of time.

Early in 1974 Maxine and I decided to go and live in West Australia.

__________________

West Australia

After staying around nine months in the community of Osborne park in Perth, we pioneered to the goal town of Collie, in the South West of Western Australia. We were the first pioneers to that town. I was able to find work as a gardener at the Collie Shire Council and later as a trade assistant at the Muja Power Station.

Some of the local aboriginal people became attracted to the Faith and became Bahá’ís. We had numerous visits from Bahá’ís in Perth who came on travel-teaching trips. They supported us very well and it wasn’t too long before a Local Spiritual Assembly was formed in that community.

In July 1974 our first daughter, Jedda, was born at the local hospital, a very beautiful baby with a gorgeous smile. She used to love playing amongst the pumpkin patch in the vegetable garden.

Around June 1975 we decided to stay three months in Kununurra with relatives before going travel teaching through Asia, some Middle East countries, and then pioneering to Patras on the west coast of Greece.

We visited many villages sharing our beloved Faith and experiences in Malaysia, Burma, India, Pakistan, Iran, Turkey and Greece.

Greece was a very difficult country in which both to establish the Faith, and also to teach.  We helped form the first Spiritual Assembly of Patras. However, during this time Maxine became pregnant and wanted to return to West Australia.

During March 1976 we visited Iran for three weeks. We stayed at the Western Pilgrim’s Hostel in Teheran and visited the House of Bahá’u’lláh. For two days we stayed in Isfahan and visited the mosque where the Báb prayed. In Shiraz we visited the House of the Báb twice; a very powerful and moving experience.

During these travels, spent mostly on public transport, our daughter Jedda, then fourteen months old, was carried on our backs.

We stayed with some very heroic and steadfast Bahá’ís in Iran, visited the castle prison in Tabriz where He was incarcerated; we also attended a teaching conference.

In 1976 we returned to West Australia and lived on a dairy farm at Burekup, about fifteen kilometres from Bunbury. My son Sabour [meaning patience] was born there in January 1977.

Not long after this we pioneered to the goal town of Bunbury. I obtained work as a gardener at the school of Newton Moore for three years. Subsequently I became head gardener at the Bunbury Senior High School for four years. We helped form the first Spiritual Assembly of Bunbury. A few pure souls in the Australind / Harvey area became Bahá’ís. Within the Bunbury area itself the response to our teaching efforts was very slow.

On 3 July 1979, our second daughter, Sharva, was born in Bunbury. A delightful baby, very placid and with an exquisite smile. I have fond memories of our children growing up there in their early years.

In 1982 my parents came out from Sheffield to live near us in Bunbury. After one year, they moved to Albany on the south coast.

The Universal House of Justice, in a message to the Bahá’ís of Australia in 1981, requested more Bahá’ís to move to the north of Capricorn. Responding to this request, we decided to pioneer to far North Queensland. We left Bunbury in April 1983 in a long-wheelbase Army Land Rover, with a trailer full of bits and pieces on the back.

Queensland

We arrived in Cooktown, far North Queensland, sometime around June of 1983. The choice of Cooktown came about because there were no other Bahá’ís in that area. The Shire of Cook was nearly the size of England, and quite a few aboriginal tribes lived there.

For a while our home was a tent behind the Sovereign Hotel until we managed to rent a house. Cooktown itself was a very sleepy coastal village in those days. It only had six shops and a population of maybe 500 people.

During the dry season one year we did a three-week travel teaching trip, visiting five Aboriginal and Islander communities. The Army Land Rover served us very well during those two thousand and two hundred miles we travelled. However, on one occasion, coming back, it did give us a problem. Just before arriving at the Wenlock River, the bearings in the steering box broke. Through the grace of God, and many prayers, we managed to pass through that river. We then had to travel all the way to Weipa on the west coast to get mechanical repairs, something we had not planned for.

It was another one hundred miles of rugged dirt road, and we had very little in the way of steering. We drove all morning without seeing another vehicle. At one stage we became completely lost. As in most times, assistance came very quickly. A motor bike rider from one of the local stations had broken down right where we were lost, and so put us in the right direction.

When we arrived at the local garage in Weipa, we asked the mechanic to fix the steering problem. He refused to do so and was amazed to learn we had driven all the way to Weipa. A man waiting there overheard our problem and asked us to follow him. He took us to a friend of his and there in his backyard was an old land rover with nothing left but the steering column. After some hours of painstaking work the transfer was complete and we were fit for the road again. It was probably the most dangerous journey I have ever been on. When looking back on those times, it has to be appreciated how Bahá’u’lláh protected and assisted us in so many ways.

Whilst in Weipa we met and shared the faith with some of the local Aboriginal people.

From Bamaga on the tip of Cape York we took the ferry to Thursday island and stayed with the pioneers. We enjoyed the music and dancing of the Torres Strait Islanders very much. They are generally very friendly and happy people.

On returning to Cooktown, we lived in a caravan for eighteen months before buying a block of land and having a house built. A few of the Aboriginal people living at Hopevale Reserve (50km from Cooktown) became Baha’is. I travelled with eighteen more Baha’is in a bus on a travel-teaching trip to the Gulf of Carpentaria, visiting Croydon-Normanton and Doomagee.  Some 40 Aborigines became Baha’is. In 1989 we left Cooktown and moved to Blackriver, north of Townsville. For almost three years I served on the Thuringowa Assembly. I also did travel-teaching to Charters Towers, a goal area north-west of Townsville.

Maxine and I were divorced in 1993.

________________

For the past 27 years I have been living in Albany, West Australia. My wife of the past 24 years, Sri, originally from Java in Indonesia, is from a Christian background.  An Irish Bahá’í, Ann Dooney, who was teaching Sri English, introduced me to her here in Albany.

I worked with a chiropractor for 14 years as a remedial masseur, and 15 years voluntary work doing remedial massage and reflexology with cancer patients and their carers at the Albany Hospital.  We are now both retired but live an active life. We are involved in the Albany table tennis club, a senior walking group, gardening – and learning to play the ukulele.

_______________

I have two daughters, Jedda and Sarva, one son Sabour, one stepson Hansen, two granddaughters Poppy and Kaia, and one grandson Zachary.

Jim Bradley

Western Australia, August 2020

---