Tools for Living: Winnifred Harvey and the Beginning of the Bahá'í Faith in Ottawa
- Author(s)
- Harvey, Heather
- Year
- 2026
- ISBN
- 979-8184855837
Description
This book tells the story of a woman who made a difference in the Bahá’í community and beyond. Winnifred (1911-1990) was a well-known Canadian Bahá’í teacher and administrator who was the first Bahá’í in Ottawa and, by her count, the hundredth Bahá’í in Canada. With Winnifred, we experience many firsts of the Canadian Bahá’í community in the mid-1900s, such as the first summer schools, first Spiritual Assemblies, the first National Convention, the first outreach to communities outside Ottawa, the beginnings of French-Canadian teaching and Canada’s response to the Ten-Year Crusade. We accompany Winnifred on her pilgrimage in 1956, where she met the Guardian, and to his funeral in London just a year later. There are also stories of her teaching trips across Canada (including the North), Scandinavia, Nigeria and Europe. We also meet her co-workers, such as Roger White, Rosemary and Emeric Sala, Rowland Estall, and Hands of the Cause Siegfried Schopflocher and John Robarts. The last 20 years of her life, until her death, she served the Bahá’í Faith at the World Centre in Haifa, where she is buried. Winnifred left a rich archive. Her handwritten account of her pilgrimage alone is close to 80 pages long. This well-researched book is based on the five boxes of her papers left to the Canadian Bahá’í Archive, files in the Ottawa Bahá’í Archives, papers in the U.S. Bahá’í archives, the box of her papers sent to me from the Bahá’í World Centre, letters of friends and family, scrapbooks, and about 15 interviews. There are extensive footnotes and references. The Ottawa Bahá’í community is now one of the most successful in North America, and I thought it was important to chronicle its beginnings, as Winnifred was so instrumental in its founding. And, as her niece, it was hard to resist this project.