March 17. On this date in 1919, Joy Stevenson was born. She would serve on the NSA of Australia, as a Continental Counsellor for Australasia, and as a Counsellor member of the International Teaching Centre for ten years from May 19, 1988 to 1998.

 

March 17. On this date in 1919, Joy Stevenson was born. She would serve on the NSA of Australia, as a Continental Counsellor for Australasia, and as a Counsellor member of the International Teaching Centre for ten years from May 19, 1988 to 1998.

Marion "Joy" Stevenson was born on March 17, 1919.

The first two children's camps at the Yerrinbool School were organized by John and Joy Stevenson, Madge Painter and John Milne in 1963 and 1964. The site of the summer school in the small village of Yerrinbool was purchased by "Stanley and Mariette Bolton, for the purpose of holding Bahá'í summer schools" and officially opened on May 2, 1937 by "one hundred delegates and observers attending the national Bahá'í convention in Sydney ...[who] "traveled down the winding Mittagong Road to the small village of Yerrinbool."

The first Bahá'í House of Worship to be raised in the Antipodes, located in Ingleside, New South Wales in the northern suburbs of Sydney, Australia was dedicated on September 17, 1961. In her description of the inaugural service which concluded the ceremony of the opening of the Temple, Stevenson quotes the words of Rúḥíyyih Khánum who warmly welcomed everyone from all religious backgrounds to offer prayers in the newly-constructed Temple.

She served on the National Spiritual Assembly of Australia, and as a Continental Counsellor for Australasia, and an Auxiliary Board member in Australasia.

In 1985 she was a Trustee of the Continental Fund and one of nineteen Continental Counselors for Asia.

When the Universal House of Justice increased the number of Counsellor members to serve on the International Teaching Centre for a five-year term to begin on May 23, 1988, Joy Stevenson was appointed along with Dr. Farzam Arbab, Dr. Magdalene Carney, Hartmut Grossmann, Mas’ud Khamsi, Lauretta King, Donald Rogers, Isobel Sabri and Peter Vuyiya.

She died in Queanbeyan, Australia, on April 25, 2016. When she died the Universal House of Justice requested that Baha'i communities around the world convene "commemorative gatherings in her honour."