H. Collis Featherstone
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Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Graham Hassall, H. Collis Featherstone, bahai-library.com.
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H. Collis Featherstone

Graham Hassall

published in Australian Bahá'í Bulletin

1990-10

(1913-1990). When, in October 1957, Shoghi Effendi cabled
"ANNOUNCE YOUR ELEVATION RANK HAND CAUSE CONFIDENT NEW
HONOUR WILL ENABLE YOU RISE GREATER HEIGHTS SERVICE BELOVED
FAITH", Collis Featherstone was already closely associated
with the service of Clara Dunn (q.v.), who had been appointed to
the rank of Hand of the Cause in 1952. He possessed, as she did,
an energy and devotion to the Faith, and a single-mindedness in
serving it, which outshone the accomplishments of many raised in
more privileged circumstances. We stand at too close a point in
time to obtain a proper perspective on his life-work, and in a
brief account such as this it is only possible to review his
achievements in their broadest outline.

Mr Featherstone was born at Quorn, in the mid-north of the
Australian state of South Australia, on 5 May 1913. Although
named Harold Collis, he was known as Col or Collis. His Father's
job took the family to several country towns, but his most
memorable years from 1921 were spent in Smithfield, about 25
kilometres from Adelaide. He travelled daily from Smithfield to
school in the city, and to his first job as an office boy. He
then studied accounting at night school. For four years from 1932
he worked for a large engineering firm, where he learnt his
fitting and turning and die-making trade. By the time he married
in 1938 he was already a partner in an engineering business,
making pressed metal parts. He became a first class die-maker,
and his integrity, fairness, and expertise earnt him much respect
in the business community. He bought out his partner in the
1950s.

Mr Featherstone had contemplated becoming an Anglican
clergyman, but was unable to reconcile himself to various church
doctrines, or to the variety of churches. In his search for
satisfaction, he at one time attended three different church
services each Sunday, favouring those of the Unitarian preacher
Rev. G.E. Hale, who drew on the scriptures of the
"other" great religions. He had begun visiting the
library to read on comparative religions.

Bertha and Joe Dobbins introduced Collis and his wife Madge to
the Bahá'í Faith in 1944, and when they became Bahá'ís late that
year they were among the first "young people", then
with only three small children, to enter the Adelaide community.
Mr Featherstone quickly set about absorbing knowledge of all
aspects of the Faith. When not satisfied with the answers
received from individuals or institutions in Australia, he
directed his enquiry to the Guardian, who over the years replied
in about 20 letters and cables on all manner of subjects.

From 1944 to 1949 the Featherstones assisted mostly in
expanding teaching activities in Adelaide. Firesides (with
delicious suppers) which started long before they became Bahá'ís,
continued at their home in Albert Park. Later there were
deepening classes and other meetings in their home, and their
physical vigour and spiritual energy gradually affected the
entire Adelaide Bahá'í community. When an Assembly was
established in Woodville (which included Albert Park) at Ridvan
1948 about 130 guests - including most members of the NSA and
nearly all the Bahá'ís in Adelaide - attended a dinner held to
celebrate the formation of the first Assembly formed outside
Adelaide city, which was reported in the local paper. This
success was not Mr Featherstone's alone, but here, and with so
many accomplishments later on, his spirit of action was probably
the factor that transformed potential for success into real
achievement.

In addition to his involvment in local Bahá'í activities, Mr
Featherstone served on the teaching committee for South
Australia. He regularly visited Kingston with Harold Fitzner, and
later visited other country towns which were goal areas. At this
time he began to travel interstate more frequently in support of
events such as "World Religion Day" - in Melbourne, or
some other capital city. For several years the family attended
the national Summer School at Yerrinbool, outside Sydney,
travelling the 900 miles by car and caravan. Both Mr and Mrs
Featherstone contributed talks to the program, and with their
children, contributed fully to the life of the summer school.

The Australians and New Zealand Bahá'ís were engaged in their
first co-ordinated teaching plan (1947-1953) when Mr Featherstone
first when to National convention as a delegate, in 1949. He was
elected to the National Assembly, and was subsequently re-elected
annually until 1962. He served as chairman in 1953 and in several
of the subsequent years. He assisted the National Assembly, in
the period when he was first elected to it, in its handling of
complex legal matters concerning Assembly by-laws, foreign and
Local Assembly incorporation, and property registration and
leasing - which had emerged at the time in addition to the usual
matters concerning teaching and administration of the Faith. He
was strong, even emphatic, when convening meetings, and with
these qualities was able to ensure that business was concluded
promptly. He was efficient and considerate of the views of
others, yet firm when carrying out decisions. His sense of humour
and positive approach aided him in overcoming petty obstacles and
difficulties.

The Six Year Plan was completed with jublication, and with
much last-minute effort. The Faetherstones did their part by
moving to Port Adelaide to help establish the Assembly there.
Now, the period in which activities were confined to the
home-front were over, and Shoghi Effendi had announced the goals
of a ten-year "world encircling Crusade". Collis and
Magde attended the New Delhi conference in October. The
Australian and New Zealand Bahá'ís were allocated seven
"virgin" and six "consolidation" territories
to settle in the Asia-Pacific region, and some pioneers moved to
their posts following the conference. The Featherstones travelled
on to make their pilgrimage to the Holy Shrines in Akka and
Haifa, and to meet the Guardian, Shoghi Effendi. This was a
unique privilege, to be in Haifa at time when the Guardian was
receiving word of the movement of those pioneers he named
"Knights of Bahá'u'lláh". The Featherstones asked as
many questions as possible to guide them in their services in the
coming decade, and they returned to Australia brimming with
energy.

Mr Featherstone immersed himself in the administration
regional expansion. Notwithstanding commitments with work and
family (after four daughters, a son was born in September 1954),
he became secretary of the Asian Teaching Committee, the National
Assembly's major committee responsible for the dispersement and
welfare of pioneers. The committee's newsletter "Koala
News", distributed from 1954 until the formation of the
South Pacific Regional Assembly in 1959, was treasured by the
pioneers as a source of encouragement and news, and the latest
instructions from Shoghi Effendi. An important message that
arrived in Adelaide during the day would be typed out by Madge,
and roneoed and rushed to the Post Office by Collis for posting
before midnight. Where committee responsibilities ended, the
Featherstones worked personally to assist.

In 1954 Clara Dunn appointed her first two Auxiliary Board
Members for Australasia - Collis Featherstone and Thelma Perks,
who became responsible for protection and propagation of the
Bahá'í Faith in Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific region.
Clara Dunn received letters from the Hands of the Cause in the
Holy Land explaining which activities Shoghi Effendi felt were
most important for herself and her Board Members to undertake in
the period immediately ahead. In June 1954, for instance, they
informed her that during the second phase of the Crusade, which
was to last from 1954-1956, the major tasks to be accomplished by
the Hands, the Auxiliary Boards, and National Spiritual
Assemblies, included the acquisition of Temple sites (the Sydney
site had already been purchased) and of National Headquarters
(including one in Auckland, and another in Suva); the maintenance
of victories already won; the multiplication of Bahá'í Centres;
the expansion of literature; the purchase of national endowments;
the incorporation of Assemblies; and the establishment of
Publishing Trusts.

As a member of the Asian Teaching Committee, the National
Assembly, and the Auxiliary Board, Mr Featherstone was at the
heart of efforts to communicate the vital needs of the time to
the Bahá'í community. The Guardian had specifically requested
that the Board Members encourage individuals and Assemblies
through correspondence and personal visits, and assist in
fostering amongst them the sense of unity regarded as essential
to the attraction of spiritual assistance. They were,
furthermore, to encourage contributions to the various funds, so
that the community's many important activities could be carried
forward. The Guardian gave general instructions such as these
while leaving the details of the functioning of Auxiliary Boards
to the various Hands of the Cause. There were no rules of
procedure, and the Hands on each continent were free to determine
their own modes operation. They were advised to send news of
achievements to Haifa, but to settle for themselves questions of
rules, regulations and procedure.

Until 1957 Mr Featherstone and Thelma Perks assisted Clara
Dunn in every possible way. They wrote reports to the Guardian on
her behalf, and travelled frequently and extensively visiting the
Pacific pioneers and the first Pacific Island Bahá'ís. Mr
Featherstone re-arranged his business affairs so as to allow
himself greater freedom for travel. In late December 1954 he
travelled to Suva and Auckland on the first of a great many
Pacific Island trips. At this time, his task was was to inspire
and encourage the isolated pioneers - most of whom where were
living and working for the Faith in intensely difficult
circumstances - and to deepen the Islanders who were being
attracted into the Cause. Later, as a Hand of the Cause, he had
to explain the nature of the Bahá'í teachings to government
officials and religious leaders, and solve difficulties as they
occured within the infant Bahá'í communities.

In October 1957 Shoghi Effendi appointed a "third
contingent" of Hands of the Cause, comprising Enoch Olinga,
William Sears, John Robarts in West and South West Africa, Hasan
Balyuzi & John Ferraby in British Isles; Abu'l-Qasim Faizi in
the Arabian Peninsula, and H. Collis Featherstone and
Rahmatu'llah Muhajir in the Pacific. With his appointment as a
Hand of the Cause, and news of Shoghi Effendi's untimely passing
one month later, Mr Featherstone's previous services, no matter
how zealously carried out, paled in significance to the
challenges ahead: he was now one of the "chief
stewards" of Bahá'u'lláh's embryonic World Order, who now
held supreme and grave responsibilities for the protection and
upliftment of the Cause of God. Mr Featherstone travelled with
Clara Dunn to Haifa for the first convocation of the Hands, and
shared with the other Hands the anguish that accompanied the
realisation that Shoghi Effendi had not left a will. As the Chief
Stewards, the Hands guided the Bahá'í world to complete the Ten
Year Crusade goals. They announced after their 1959 conclave that
the Universal House of Justice would be both elected and
established on Mount Carmel at Ridvan 1963. The Hands of the
Cause ruled themselves ineligible for election to the supreme
institution and Collis resigned from the Australian National
Spiritual Assembly in September 1962.

The Hands of the Cause now took responsibility for the
completion of the goals of the Ten Year Crusade. Initially, Mr
Featherstone's responsibilities continued to be mostly in the
Australasian region. The Bahá'í communities in numerous Pacific
Islands worked toward the goal of establishing a Regional
Assembly for the South Pacific, which was formed in Suva in 1959.
The role of the Hand seemed to have no limits: cabling
encouraging words to conferences, summer schools, and
conventions; pointing to the comparative success of new
communities (in July 1960 Australia was struggling to hold 28
Local Spiritual Assemblies, while the South Pacific had already
established 37); encouraging prominent Bahá'í speakers to visit
the Pacific Islands as they passed through the region from Asia
to North America; cabling money to aid pioneers and communities
which had been devastated by natural disasters (such as Bertha
Dobbins, whose school in Port Vila was affected by a cyclone in
1960) or to assist pioneers to remain at remote posts at which
there was no possibility of gaining employment (thus allowing
Jean Sevin to lengthen his stay on Loyalty Island in 1961);
informing Assemblies of the fate of churches and clerics who had
attacked the Faith (such as the South Australian Anglican paper
that fell into financial and legal difficulties soon after it had
printed an unfavourable article); overseeing the work of Auxliary
Board Members; consulting with National Assemblies; conveying
progress reports to the Hands in the Holy Land.

When John Robarts became ill in 1961, Mr Featherstone took his
place at the inaugural conventions of the Bahá'ís of Nicaragua
and Honduras. For the first time he was travelling beyond the
Asia-Pacific region to represent the Hands of the Cause. As
usual, he visited Bahá'í communities while both approaching and
departing Central America: in Suva he presented members of the
South Pacific Regional Assembly with a curtain from the Shrine of
the Bab. During the following year, many goals of the Ten Year
Plan remained to be completed, and Mr Featherstone travelled
extensively. Indicative of the pace at which he travelled, was an
itinerary between October 3 and November 12, to Sydney, Noumea,
Vila, Suva, Tonga, Suva again, Apia, Pago Pago, Nadi, Auckland,
Christchurch, and Melbourne, during which he spoke to Prime
Ministers, gave firesides, and consulted institutions: this was
the pattern that he repeated for another three decades.

Mr Featherstone absorbed the Bahá'í writings, and drew on when
speaking. When embarked on a tour, he pursued specific themes
drawn from messages of Shoghi Effendi and later from the
Universal House of Justice. He counselled on the urgency of
teaching, and on the necessity for obedience to the institutions.
His intelligence was of a practical nature, and he drew on
personal experience to know the condition of society. He
installed a powerful world-band radio on which to receive news
broadcast from around the globe. He was a practical and
methodical man who at all times radiated joy. He not only had
vision and foresight, but the ability to think projects through
from beginning to end (when he designed and made a die he had to
be able to visualize at the beginning the finished product he
would end up with). He was not a spur of the moment man - he was
a practical planner - but nevertheless could act quickly and
decisively when necessary. He spoke with authority and inspired
confidence. Across almost three decades he represented the
Universal House of Justice at such significant Bahá'í events as
the dedication of Mashriqu'l-Adhkars, formation of
new National Spiritual Assemblies, and the convening of
international conferences; he negotiated with heads of states and
governments to secure the protection or the rights of Bahá'í
communities; on equally numerous occasions he visited
governmental and religious leaders as special representative of
the Universal House of Justice. He attended many of the most
significant conferences held in the past four decades: the New
Delhi (1953) and Sydney (1958) Conferences associated with the
World Crusade; those in Sydney (1967), Singapore, Suva, and
Sapporo (1971) associated with the Nine Year Plan (1964-73); in
Anchorage (July 1976), and Auckland (1977) associated with the
Five Year Plan (1974-1979); and Canberra and Dublin (1982) in the
middle of the Seven Year Plan (1979-1986). In addition, Mr
Featherstone attended the first National Convention held in
Uganda (1963),and represented the Universal House of Justice at
the inaugural national conventions of the South West Pacific
Ocean (1964), Gilbert and Ellice Islands (1967), Papua New Guinea
(1969), Samoa (1970), Northwest Pacific Ocean (1972), Marshall
Islands (1977), and Tuvalu (1981).

During the Nine-year plan the work of the Hands of the Cause
increased dramatically, and Mr Featherstone maintained an 18
member Auxiliary Board (9 for Propagation, 9 for protection),
spread throughout the Australia, New Zealand, and the Pacific.
With the appointment of a three-member Continental Board of
Counsellors in 1968 - which assumed all responsibility for the
Boards - he was freer to travel beyond the Asia-Pacific region.
In the 1970s the Featherstones travelled world-wide several times
to visit Bahá'í communities in East and Southern Africa, the
Indian ocean, East Asia, and the Pacific Islands.

In 1976 the Universal House of Justice expressed to Mr
Featherstone its hope that he could devote all his energies to
Bahá'í duties. He sold his business and moved to Rockhampton in
North Queensland, while the punishing pace of travel continued
unabated. In 1979, for instance, the Featherstones undertook a
76-day journey through 10-nations in the Asia-Pacific region.
They had come to know Bahá'ís in a multitude of different
cultures, visited remote villages under the most arduous
circumstances of climate, food, transportation and accommodation.
On 29 September 1990 Mr Featherstone, succumbed to a heart attack
and died in Kathmandu, Nepal. Several days later his children
Margaret, Joan, Kay, Mariette and Jeff, and other family members
and representatives of National Assemblies, joined Madge for his
burial at the "rooftop of the world" against a
Himalayan sky. He joined the distinguished company of fellow
Hands of the Cause John Esslemont, Keith Ransom-Kehler, Martha
Root, Clara and Hyde Dunn, Dorothy Baker, A.Q. Faizi, Rahmat
Muhajir, Aldebert Muhlschlegal, Leroy Ioas, Paul Haney, and Ugo
Giachary, who also died far from their native lands in the path
of service to Bahá'u'lláh.

Mr Featherstone "focused much energy on reinvigorating
the long-suffereing friends in war-ravaged Vietnam." (UHJ
Rid90). The Universal House of Justice cabled: "Deeply
grieved announce passing valiant Hand Cause God Collis
Featherstone while visiting Kathmandu Nepal course extensive
journey Asia. His notable accomplishments as staunch fearless
defender covenant his unceasing commitment propagation Cause all
parts world especially Pacific region his unremitting
perseverence fostering establishment local national institutions
administrative order his exemplary devotion to writings Faith his
outstanding personal qualities unswerving loyalty enthusiasm zeal
and dedication distinguish his manifold services throughout many
decades offering prayers holy shrines bountiful reward his
radiant soul Abha Kingdom advice friends everywhere hold
befitting memorial gatherings particularly in Mashriqu'l-Adhkárs
recognition magnificent achievements".

Bibliography

Australian Bahá'í Bulletin (various numbers
1944-1990)

Shoghi Effendi, Messages to the Bahá'í World 1950-1957,
Bahá'í Publishing Trust, Wilmette, 1971.

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-- H. Collis Featherstone (Used by permission of the curator)