George Townshend (Bahá'í)

George Townshend (1876-1957) was born in Ireland and was a well known writer, clergyman before his conversion to the Bahá'í Faith in which he became a Hand of the Cause.

Early accomplishments

George went to Oxford for a time, then returned to Ireland where he was a lead writer for The Irish Times from 1900 to 1904. In 1904 he emigrated to the U.S. and became ordained in Salt Lake City. He then went to Sewanee, Tennessee where he became Associate Professor of English at the University of the South.

Return to Ireland

George spent many years near Ballinasloe, County Galway, where he was incumbent of Ahascragh and Archdeacon of Clonfert. Around this time he achieved recognition with "The Alter on the Hearth (1927)" and more widely with "The Genius of Ireland (1930)". He then moved to Dublin where he became the Canon St. Patrick's Cathedral. However, his lasted for only a short time before his resignation.

Bahá'í life

In 1918 Mr. Townshend started correspondence with Abdu'l-Bahá. He later became a Bahá'í and it was his activities in the Faith, including his writing of two books, “The Heart of the Gospel” and “The Promise of All Ages”, that created ever increasing tensions between Townshend and the other clergy and eventually caused Shoghi Effendi to call for his resignation as the Canon St. Patrick's Cathedral.

In 1947, at the age of 70, Townshend renounced his orders to the Anglican Church and wrote a pamphlet to all Christians under the title “The Old Churches and the New World Faith” that was sent out to 10,000 people in the British Isles on the occasion of this resignation. He then moved to a small bungalow outside of Dublin where he spent his last decade. George was one of the founding members of the Dublin Local Spiritual Assembly and in 1951 was designated by Shoghi Effendi as a Hand of the Cause of God.

With this designation he rendered many services to the Guardian, mainly in the area of writing, as Shoghi thought of him as 'the best writer we have . . . the pre-eminent Bahá'í writer.' He wrote the introduction to Effendi's only book "God Passes By" which recounted the events of the first century of the Bahá'í Faith. He also completed another of his own books, "Christ and Bahá'u'lláh", which Shoghi Effendi called 'his crowning achievement' shortly before dying of Parkinson's disease in 1957, at the age of 81.

Family

George had a wife Nancy, a son Brian and a daughter Una. Una and Brian helped him to write "Christ and Bahá'u'lláh" by writing down his dictations as he was dying from Parkinson's. Brian died in 1988 and Una in 2003. Una married Richard Dean, Bahá'í and one time Harlem Globetrotter, she also was a founding member of the Dublin Local Spiritual Assembly as well as a Knight of Bahá'u'lláh, a designation given to those Bahá'ís who were the first to reside in a country, hers being Malta.

Works

Shoghi Effendi once said about George Townshend that he feels "Mr. Townshend's services to the Faith can best be rendered by his writing about it, as he obviously has an outstanding ability in this direction..." (The Unfolding Destiny of the British Baha'i Community, p. 198).

*cite book
first=George
last=Townshend
year=1966
title=Christ and Bahá’u’lláh
publisher=George Ronald
location=Oxford, UK
id=ISBN 0853980055

*cite book
first=George
last=Townshend
year=1957
title=Abdu'l-Baha: The Master
publisher=George Ronald
location=Oxford, UK
id=ISBN 0853982538

*cite book
first=George
last=Townshend
origyear=1939
year=1951
title=Heart of the Gospel, The
publisher=George Ronald
location=Oxford, UK
id=ISBN 0853980209

*cite book
first=George
last=Townshend
origyear=1948
year=1972
title=Promise of All Ages, The
publisher=George Ronald
location=Oxford, UK
id=ISBN 0853980446

References

*cite book
first=David
last=Hofman
year=1983
title=George Townshend
publisher=George Ronald
location=Oxford, UK
url=http://www.bahaibooksonline.com/georgetownshend.html
id=ISBN 0853981264

*cite book
first=Barron
last=Harper
year=1997
title=Lights of Fortitude
edition=Paperback
publisher=George Ronald
location=Oxford, UK
id=ISBN 0853984131

External links

* [http://reference.bahai.org/en/t/se/UD/ud-647.html Bahá'í Reference Library Article]
* [http://www.grbooks.com/show_auth.php?author_id=111 Books]
* [http://www.grbooks.com/show_book.php?book_id=85 Biography]
* [http://news.bahai.org/story/234 Una's Obituary Article]
* [http://www.townsend-family.info/record.php?ref=5C04 Entry in The Townsend (Townshend) Family Records]