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25th Anniversary of the passing of Hand of the Cause of God Collis Featherstone

September 27, 2015, in Articles > History & Tributes, by

The telephone rang. It was the Saturday morning of the long October Labor Day weekend in Australia. It was my mother ringing from Kathmandu, Nepal where she and my father, Collis Featherstone, were visiting the Baha’is before flying to Pakistan to attend a Youth Conference. I immediately suspected something was wrong. My father had just passed away following a heart attack. I was stunned, shocked, horrified, deeply deeply saddened and rocked to my very soul. How did this happen, how were we to go to Nepal for the funeral and how were we to arrange ticketing quickly with the Monday being a holiday and no travel agent open (no computer ticketing in those days)? Who was going to look after our four children?

The only answer was prayer. Answers came, and with the help of dear friends, my husband Ho-San and I flew out of Sydney to Kathmandu on Tuesday morning 2nd October, together with Judy Hassall as the representative of the National Spiritual Assembly of Australia. The funeral was held on Friday 5th October, and my father was laid to rest in the Baha’i Cemetery in Kathmandu.

Today you can go to Kathmandu and ask the taxi driver to take you to “the whiteman’s cemetery” and they all know where to go. The Baha’i Cemetery was not destroyed during the recent earthquakes, but the caretaker’s cottage was damaged.

My parents became Baha’is in late 1944 after hearing the message from Bertha Dobbins, who later became the pioneer and Knight of Baha’u’llah to the New Hebrides – now Vanuatu. Bertha and husband Joe, together with Mother Dunn (Hand of the Cause Clara Dunn) deepened my parents in the Faith. They embraced the Faith immediately and actively supported the activities. It was only a few months after becoming a Baha’i, that my father wrote to Shoghi Effendi seeking his advice on certain matters, and this was the first of many communications with the Guardian over the years.

In 1949 my father was elected to the National Spiritual Assembly of Australia, then in 1954 Mother Dunn appointed him as her Auxiliary Board Member together with Thelma Perks. They represented Mother Dunn on many occasions, both locally and overseas as Mother Dunn was already in her 80’s and too frail to travel.

In October1957 the Guardian appointed my father a Hand of the Cause of God together with seven others. This was the last contingent of Hands to be appointed and brought the total number of Hands at that time to 27 members.

My father did everything he could to make Shoghi Effendi, and later the Universal House of Justice happy. His responsibility of being a Hand of the Cause was enormous. He travelled constantly, meeting with National Spiritual Assemblies, Auxiliary Board Members, Baha’i communities, Heads of State, and Parliamentarians. He attended National Conventions, Summer Schools, he visited villages, he met with their Chiefs. He stayed in posh hotels and he stayed in village huts. He rode in limousines, trucks, cars, boats, canoes, motor bikes and he walked up and down mountains. He ate all kinds of food. One time he came to stay with Ho-San and I in Malaysia when we were living there. He was passing through on his way to another Baha’i Community. He was very tired and worn out from travelling and he was hungry. I asked him what would he like to eat. And he said “Have you got some toast and vegemite?” (He was missing his Aussie food!)

At the last count, throughout the 36 years of Collis Featherstone’s international travels as an Auxiliary Board Member and later as a Hand of the Cause, he made 529 visits to 108 countries outside of Australia.

The resting place of collis featherstone in kathmandu, nepal.
The resting place of Collis Featherstone in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Collis Featherstone was a leader. He inspired and he enthused the friends. He was warm and joyful and the love of Baha’u’llah shone through. He was detached from the material world and very much in tune with the spiritual realm. He loved the Baha’i Faith. He loved Shoghi Effendi and he loved the Universal House of Justice. He loved to talk about the Covenant, and the Will and Testament of Baha’u’llah and Abdu’l-Baha. He loved quoting from the “Gleanings” and he always knew from which page the quote was. He encouraged many friends to keep records of their Baha’i activities and events for posterity. He always said that the early communities were making history, and that these stories should be kept so that future generations could read about the early development of the Faith.

My father was a wonderful family man who loved his family dearly, and his children loved him back. There were five children and it was a busy household. He was a tool maker, and he had the initiative to go into partnership with an engineering business which he eventually bought over and managed on his own. But between the business and a very busy Baha’i life, there was not a lot of time left for recreational activities. My mother was his best friend, his secretary and help mate in every sense of the word. One of the Baha’i friends asked him what was the hardest thing about being a Hand of the Cause. He replied, “I can’t retire”. And he never did. He passed away during his travels while serving Baha’u’llah. May God bless him. To this day I miss him dearly and long for his hugs on the other side when I arrive.

-Mariette Leong (nee Featherstone and fourth daughter)

Posted by

Mariette Leong

I am the fourth daughter of the Featherstone family and grew up in Adelaide, South Australia. My wonderful husband Ho-San and I met in Malaysia in 1968, married and pioneered to Papua New Guinea in 1974. We have four children and one adopted Papua New Guinean. We currently live with our eldest daughter and family in Wollongong, outside of Sydney, Australia.
Mariette Leong

Discussion 12 Comments

Hi Mariette! I just wanted to say how much I enjoyed this post. Having been named after your father, and been lucky enough to meet him once when I was very young, he is very much an inspiration for me 🙂

Collis

Collis (September 9, 2015 at 6:42 AM)

Thank you for this lovely story. I met your father twice when he visited Tonga twice in the 1980s. I was serving then as a member of the National Spiritual Assembly (NSA) of Tonga and then later as an Auxiliary Board Member. On both visits, I was asked by the NSA to be the interpreter for your father when he gave talks and when he met the national institutions of the Faith in Tonga. It was a bounty to serve with him on those occasions and to observe and learn from his talks and, more importantly, his humility, love, courage, patience and great sense of enthusiasm and humour. I also got to meet his loving wife and your mother, Madge. For my health and upon doctor’s advice, my wife (Tupou, whose father was one of the first ten believers in Tonga) had to move with our children to New Zealand in 1994, much to our disappointment. When the news of your father’s death reached us, we were sad but we were comforted by the knowledge that he moved on to the next world while serving the Kingdom.
He was indeed a great servant of Baha.

Sione Tu'itahi

Sione Tu'itahi (September 9, 2015 at 8:14 AM)

It was lovely to read your story about your dear father, mother and your family. I live in the Yukon, Canada (northern Canada) and you might be pleased to know that ours was one of the many communities your father and mother once visited! Their warm and radiant memory lives on here as well. Thank you for this wonderful memorial and tribute.

Diane Larkin

Diane Larkin (September 9, 2015 at 7:30 PM)

I am truly inspired by reading this article. I was a refugee in Pakistan when Mr Featherstone came to visit us there. His visit and presentations made a lasting impression. .lots of love and prayers. .

Masoud Ali-Akbari

Masoud Ali-Akbari (September 9, 2015 at 7:54 PM)

Allah’u’Abha Aloha Kia Ora from
Aotearoa New-Zealand

Walter R D Brown

Walter R D Brown (September 9, 2015 at 8:43 PM)

I had the bounty of meeting your dear father, our beloved Hand of the Cause of God for the first time at a National Convention in India. He was truly a valiant and dedicated servant of Baha’ullah. Thank you for sharing this beautiful story.

Vahideh Hosseini

Vahideh Hosseini (September 9, 2015 at 12:05 AM)

Hi Mariette, thank you for the lovely tribute to your dear father. My family had the honour of being long time friends of yours’ and I have many wonderful memories of the talks your dear father gave and of his ability to remember one’s name and a genuine interest in what one was doing. We shared a passion for Minox cameras back in the late ’70s and enjoyed comparing notes. Both your parents’ names are on my prayer list and I shall remember them always.

Chris Heggie

Chris Heggie (September 9, 2015 at 2:55 AM)

Firstly, a big thank you to the moderators of this Baha’i blog.
This article is, of course, first and foremost a tribute to Hand of the Cause H. Collis Feathersone and his wife Madge but please allow me to indulge in my own set of memories.
My first contact with the Baha’i Faith, way back in 1956, was a film show (super 8 I think was the format) which the Featherstone’s showed at their home, after their return from a trip to Haifa. I remember thinking that this person, the Guardian, was a wonderful gardener and it took several firesides at the Featherstone’s home to all ow me to realize that the Guardian was indeed a gardener of hearts.
It was the change of my life and tears well in my eyes as I express my eternal gratitude to this family.

Aaron Blomeley

Aaron Blomeley (October 10, 2015 at 1:49 AM)

A lovely, well-written article about a true inspiration. It is especially nice to read these tributes from close family members who have a personal insight. Thanks Marriette

Anis

Anis (October 10, 2015 at 11:58 PM)

I was at several Baha’i gatherings in Karachi, Pakistan in early 1960s where your father spoke. Once he was asked what convinced him to become a Baha’i and his answer was ‘reading the Dawn Breakers’!
I have shared this with hundreds of Baha’is in my life! It is just too poignant a statement to ponder coming from a Hand of the Cause!

Riaz Mazcuri

Riaz Mazcuri (October 10, 2015 at 1:55 AM)

AllahuAbha. Mr Featherstone and Dr Rahmatullah Muhajir both As Hand of The Cause of God were my Favourite Bahai Teachers. Love. Dr Sudirman. Merauke. Papua. Indonesia.

Dr Sudirman Deny Musaddad

Dr Sudirman Deny Musaddad (August 8, 2016 at 4:40 PM)

In the r winter of 1971 we were living in the Ranwick community of Sydney Australia. There was a Baha’i winter school in the mts. west of Sydney. At the schooli room with Mariette Leong husbands Ho-San . My family my wife Jean and 5 daughters. I will always remember our stay in Australia. Collis Featherstone was so wonderful. With love Merle

Merle Schrumpf Highland,Illinois USA

Merle Schrumpf Highland,Illinois USA (March 3, 2018 at 9:41 PM)

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