June 9. On this date in 1974, a letter from the Universal House of Justice to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Ísafjürdur [sic] listed "those laws listed in the "Synopsis and Codification of the Kitab-i-Aqdas" which are not at present binding upon the friends in the western world."

 

June 9. On this date in 1974, a letter from the Universal House of Justice to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Ísafjürdur [sic] listed "those laws listed in the "Synopsis and Codification of the Kitab-i-Aqdas" which are not at present binding upon the friends in the western world."

In 1973 a "Synopsis and Codification" of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the central book of the Bahá'í Faith written by Bahá'u'lláh, was published in English by the Universal House of Justice, with 21 passages of the Aqdas that had already been translated into English by Shoghi Effendi with additional terse lists of laws and ordinances contained in the book outside of any contextual prose.

The Aqdas was only officially translated into English in 1992, by which time other translations, such as one by the Royal Asiatic Society, were becoming increasingly available through dissemination via the internet. My personal opinion is that the material in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas is so objectionable that the Bahá'í authorities wished to shield Western believers from its contents, as they do from Bahá'u'lláh's other works by not providing translations.

June 9. On this date in 1974, a letter from the Universal House of Justice to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Ísafjürdur [sic] listed "those laws listed in the "Synopsis and Codification of the Kitab-i-Aqdas" which are not at present binding upon the friends in the western world."

June 9. On this date in 1974, a letter from the Universal House of Justice to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Ísafjürdur [sic] listed "those laws listed in the "Synopsis and Codification of the Kitab-i-Aqdas" which are not at present binding upon the friends in the western world."

 In 1973 a "Synopsis and Codification" of the Kitáb-i-Aqdas, the central book of the Bahá'í Faith written by Bahá'u'lláh, was published in English by the Universal House of Justice, with 21 passages of the Aqdas that had already been translated into English by Shoghi Effendi with additional terse lists of laws and ordinances contained in the book outside of any contextual prose.

The Aqdas was only officially translated into English in 1992, by which time other translations, such as one by the Royal Asiatic Society, were becoming increasingly available through dissemination via the internet. My personal opinion is that the material in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas is so objectionable that the Bahá'í authorities wished to shield Western believers from its contents, as they do from Bahá'u'lláh's other works by not providing translations.

February 4. On this date in 1906, Kathryn Alio was born. An early American Bahá'í who pioneered to Alaska, Lesotho and Iceland, she served on the National Spiritual Assembly of Alaska.

February 4. On this date in 1906, Kathryn Alio was born. An early American Bahá'í who pioneered to Alaska, Lesotho and Iceland, she served on the National Spiritual Assembly of Alaska.

Kathryn Alio was born in Columbus Ohio on February 4, 1906 as the second of six children. She cared for her younger siblings as a child. At some point she moved to Dayton where she worked as a secretary at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

She became a Bahá'í while living in Dayton by 1940 and despite being an isolated Bahá'í she remained an active member of the community, attending an inter-city Teaching Conference in Springfield in 1946. By 1949 a Local Spiritual Assembly of Dayton had been established, and Kathryn served as its Secretary.

In 1954 she left Dayton, pioneering to Fairbanks in Alaska, and moving to Anchorage shortly after arriving. She was elected to the Alaskan National Spiritual Assembly shortly after it was established and served on it until 1963. She served as editor of Alaska Bahá'í News from 1962 to 1964. In 1967 she was a member of a Proclamation Committee in Anchorage, which aimed to teach the Faith on a wide scale.

Kathryn pioneered to Lesotho in the late 1960’s and wrote a report on the first Lesotho National Convention in 1971. She moved from South Africa to Iceland, and returned to Alaska during the 1970’s where she worked at a department store in her old age.

In 2005 she moved to Waltham Crossings, where she lived with her sister Phyllis.
She died on September 25, 2009, at the age of 103.