William Bernard Sears (March 28, 1911 - March 25, 1992) is a writer and personality of television and radio popular at various events peaking in the 1950s with In the Park but abandoned the popularity of television to promote FaÃÆ'¡'A Faith in Africa and started a lifelong service to religion, for about 35 years as Hand of the Cause, the highest position of religion he can designate. He wrote many books on religion with Thieves at Night being the most popular.
Video William Sears (Bahá'í)
Biography
Early life
William Bernard Sears was born on March 28, 1911 in Aitkin, (near Duluth) Minnesota, the youngest of four children Frank and Ethel Sears, and the only male. Sears comes from an Irish Catholic background. Sears suffers from jaundice which will affect his health in the future. Growing during the Great Depression period in the United States, he worked under the name of Bernard Sears as a playwright won several awards in 1933, and several dramas were published in 1935-6 including Dad Cashes in biographical aspects and one resulting from. The drama was not enough income and Sears got his first job on the radio at WOMT in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. His first wife, Kathleen Sears, died around 1934, leaving him with two sons, William and Michael, whom he and his second wife Marguerite Reimer Sears lift.
Second Marriage and BahÃÆ'¡'ÃÆ' Faith
Marguerite and William met in Milwaukee, Wisconsin - she had attended the University of Wisconsin and she was Marquette University. He had just joined BahÃÆ'¡'ÃÆ' Faith, despite hearing it from his father before, after meeting Mary Maxwell. He worked in Iowa for the previous Dubuque Radio station at WOLR who just worked in California. On a trip to California for work with KFBK (AM), Searses is considered to live in Utah because it is a destination for religion. They appeared to live in Salt Lake City in the spring of 1939, (apparently as their contribution to Shoghi Effendi's call for BahÃÆ'¡'ÃÆ's to move to support religion) where he soon became assistant manager of the radio station KUTA then KNRS (AM).) Marguerite and William were married arranged in San Francisco by Marion Holley during their visit out there for radio broadcasting Bill did in September 1940. Among them were two clear understandings. In part it is that religion is an important part of his life and he has to work with it to be a priority for him - influencing, for example, where they will live. On him it is that he has a one year old son with tuberculosis, and he needs someone to help take care of him. Marguerite left the book of The Dawn-Breakers' BahÃÆ'¡'Ã agars for her to read. After taking it and setting it aside once, he read it three times in three weeks and in December 1939 recognized as BahÃÆ'¡'ÃÆ', formally joined the religion in 1940.
Sears and Marguerite moved to San Mateo, California about the Summer of 1942, to where the Spiritual Assembly of Bahá''i had apostatized, and he gave a special lecture on the use of radio to promote religion. At San Mateo they were seen giving a lecture on religion in late February 1944, when he embarked on a national tour in 1945. He started with talks in the New York City area in February after a break giving 48 lectures in August and September through Salt Lake City , Laramie, Denver, Omaha, Topeka, Kansas City, Independence, Milwaukee, and Omaha and later in Canada in November and Charlottetown, and back in New York in December giving lectures and participating in conferences across the state of Bahá'As. Throughout the period he was also on a committee on radio use with Mildred Mottahedeh, prominently at a peaceful party with Dorothy Beecher Baker, in 1946 giving a lecture at a meeting in Los Angeles with scholar Marzieh Gail, and assisting in the production of higher profile radios in Denver. There was a gap in the general coverage of any talk of him until 1952 although the work behind the scenes continued and began to weave between his rising profile in the public eye and his ministry to religion.
Increased national awareness
As early as 1946 Sears is more visible in public, working for various radio and television stations. He worked on WPEN AM radio, and in 1948 at WCAU-TV, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In between, in February 1947, Marguerite led a class in radio production at the Green Acre BahÃ'Â''Ã' School in Maine where Sears acted as a narrator and consultant before it aired on the WHEB and in June Sears produced a set of announcements for the national radio and radio show for religion. For commercial work he performed various performances including the The Bill Sears Show , while at the same time publishing his first booklet out: The Martyr-Prophet of a World Faith , 19-page work with quotes from ALM Nicholas, Francis Younghusband, EG Browne, and then to WCAU
Arriving around July 18th, Sears, his wife, and one of their children are near Johannesburg on the first six months visa. Intending to go to Kenya, they live in South Africa. This was during the Apartheid period and like some new laws that separate the people who played: the Reservation of the Separate Facilities Act and the Education Law. Sears suffered a heart attack a few days after their stay. After recovering they lived in Kampala Uganda at the Hand of the Cause MÃÆ'ºsÃÆ'¡ BanÃÆ'¡nÃÆ' just after Enoch Olinga left for Cameroon. In April 1954, Sears continued the Bahá'a pilgrimage with a quick stop by Marguerite in the United States, that the pioneering did not miraculously change a person and when their other son returned also moved to South Africa. Among his comments on the things that Sears learned in the pilgrimage was the attitude of service in pioneering:
"Repeatedly these general principles are reaffirmed: the pioneers who go to Africa must be self-destructive, they must realize that going to Africa they go to teach native Africans, not Europeans or others who migrate there The pioneers must be shown by action, not by words alone, that they love Africans and have come to Africa to serve them and show their love for them.... and (reporting the words of Shoghi Effendi) "to choose those who are taught carefully, teach them thoroughly, strengthen them in their understanding. Give them a message in such a way as to create in them a desire to teach. Then the task is done. Then let the white man disperse. "
After returning Sears and family moved to South Africa where they bought a farm. They helped select the local assembly of Johannesburg and he was appointed to the Assembly for Africa under the Hands of the MÃÆ'ºsÃÆ'¡ BanÃÆ'¡nÃÆ' Cause. Sears got a job with a pre-recorded South African Broadcasting Corporation radio program and used free time to travel to support religion. There is a short trip to North America - Sears in Canada may be while adjusting passports to stay longer and giving lectures while Marguerite is in Illinois. Back in 1956 Sears was elected as chairman of a new regional assembly for South and West Africa. Among many trips, Sears drove to the Zulu area looking for pioneers with John Quigley and also arranged a quick trip to the United States for a July television program about religion for Chicago educational television where he served as an outdoor cameraman and one of the people interviewed. But the new law in South Africa, the Industrial Peace Act, 1956, sets the standard that mixed groups can have only one race governing the group. The BahÃÆ'¡'ÃÆ's chose to choose only black African leadership. While in South Africa around September 1957 Sears finished from the preface to his first book - Release the Sun . Sears briefly in America in October, before returning to South Africa and studying him designated as Hand of the Cause by Shoghi Effendi, along with Enoch Olinga and John Robarts, with responsibility for West and South Africa. Telegram arrived in late October from MÃÆ'ºsÃÆ'¡ BanÃÆ'¡nÃÆ', just before Shoghi Effendi died on November 4th.
Hand Cause
Crisis of death Shoghi Effendi
With the death of Shoghi Effendi, the Hand of the Cause of God, now with those appointed recently, decided the elected group would be selected to act at the Bahá'a World Center for religious purposes between the period of Shoghi Effendi's leadership and promise the election of the Universal Justice House at the end of the Ten Year Crusade in 1963. This is called the Watchman. In 1958 Sears attended the French national assembly. During this period the Sears are separated for about a year until he can stay in Haifa and then they travel together. Meanwhile, one of their sons is married and lives in Africa.
Sears next appeared in the news in America was 1959 after redistribution of responsibility and attended the national convention of the US community along with Corinne True and Horace Holley. He then toured long talks across the United States and into Canada until the Spring of 1960. He interrupted his tour in September after reaching over 2000 Bahá¡'ÃÆ's in over a hundred meetings. Beginning in June Sears wrote several telegrams reacting to the decision of fellow Hand of the Cause Mason Remey to call himself Guardian who started the BahÃÆ'¡'Ã div division. But this claim was almost universally rejected by the BahÃÆ'¡'ÃÆ's body and the group subsequently broke into several other divisions, and shrank. In October 1959 Sears released a number of cassettes and scripts that individuals could use to make their own presentations for several occasions, and their video footage was used in racial meetings in Durham NC that same month. Meanwhile, in July 1960 Hands Cause Horace Holley who had been elected to act as a Custodian died. Sears is named by the Hand to fill its place. Sears also released his autobiography God Loves Laughter . He then toured Latin America, Central America, Greater Antilles and northern South America countries in July 1960.
Tour in service
Complete the Crusade
Sears was one of the signers of a letter urging BahÃÆ'¡'ÃÆ's from the west to continue his work for the crusade. The Sears journey continued from December 1960 starting in Alaska and then to California before continuing extensively throughout the United States and into the spring of 1961. And the recording of his talks began to circulate.
There was a special Sears coverage that helped to dedicate BahÃÆ'¡'Ã Rumah's Worship House in Uganda in January 1961. The famous book of Sears, The Thief in the Night, was then published. It follows the biographical element of interest in BÃÆ'¡b history. His books began to be discussed at meetings; This continued for many years.
In spring Sears visits the Panama Bahá¡¡¡s, attends the Guatemalan national convention and visits the newly elected Bahá new Council, a precursor to the Universal House of Justice. While there he co-signed the letter to the Australian BahÃÆ'¡'ÃÆ's in their efforts in the final years of the crusade. In 1962, he visited the University of Urbana-Champaign and later participated in a radio program on WLS (AM) in Chicago before attending a US national convention that year (where he advocated reducing registration requirements which later became common practice and shared prayers in Afrikaans ,) and then the French summer school Bahá¡'ÃÆ'.
In 1963 he attended the Hand of the Cause Conclave in Haifa anticipating the election of the Universal Judiciary Building to become the new head of religion and sending messages recorded to the all-Indian council of BahÃÆ'¡'ÃÆ's held near Tucson. Sears was in London for the first World Congress of BaháÊ »a, who chose Universal House of Justice. Sears spoke on the second night giving a public lecture.
Under Universal House of Justice
Sears spent several years abroad from America but in 1965 Sears was covered in various newspapers - the Associated Press religious writer, George W. Cornell, wrote an article on religion including interviewing him. His book Release the Sun was included by BahÃÆ'¡'ÃÆ's in donating to the JFK President's Memorial Library, and echoed elsewhere. He was interviewed at WBBY, and attended various community meetings in the California region. In late January 1966, BahÃÆ'¡'ÃÆ's held a major conference in Fresno, California. Nine days, with one-day talk, scheduled with Lisa Montell, Mildred Mottahedeh, Arthur Dahl, Florence Mayberry, William Sears, Russell Garcia, Gina Valentine, Eulalia Bobo, Sookha Winters, and Chester Khan. In February Sears released a series of tapes that discussed the ideals and importance of contributing to religion. In May the two-hand Causes conferences, Sears and Zikr'u'llah Khadem, some of their additional councilors, and representatives of the national assembly, consulted in Waukesha, Wisconsin, and Sears were interviewed on the NBC Today Show on May 23rd.
He was overseas from America during 1967-8, beginning with attending regional assembly elections in west central Africa. In 1968 Sears was in the hundred years of the arrival of BahÃÆ'¡'u'llÃÆ'¡h in Akka prison in 1868 with 9 other Hands and about 2,300 BahÃÆ'¡'ÃÆ's at a conference in Palermo, Sicily before going to Haifa as a group. He then toured the BahÃÆ'¡'Ã komunitas community in England. In December he helped dedicate a new Bahá''Ã © center in San Bernardino, California followed by attending several conference conferences organized by the newly established institution of Continental Counselors held across North America in Quebec, Ontario, Georgia, Pennsylvania, California. , Missouri, Saskatchewan and British Columbia until March 1969. In April he attended the National Bahá Convention of the United States, speaking several times, and in September Sears helped dedicate a new Bahá center in Desert Hot Springs, California. Meanwhile, God Loves Laughter was included in the donation to the library and the recording of his talk was used for youth conferences in Australia and Honduras in 1968.
In 1970 Sears attended a statewide conference in February in Bradenton, Florida, and other recordings of his talk were sent to a youth conference in Indiana and a summer school in Seattle in June, but Sears was actually out of the country. In May he attended the French national convention and in August a maritime conference (India) in Mauritius en route to the task commissioned by the Universal House of Justice. He has requested that Sears tour Iran with Marguerite, and their journey is aided by the Iranian National Spiritual Assembly, some of which will disappear within a few years. They can visit many important sites in the History of Faà £ ¡'ÃÆ' Faith - the home of BÃÆ'¡b and BahÃÆ'¡'u'llÃÆ'¡h, the venue of the Badasht Conference, Siyah-Chal, the Maku fortress, the site of the Battle of Fort Tabarsi, and the place of Bash execution - all apart from various levels of abuse. Sears published The Prisoner and the Kings following this journey. The next Bahá''á event was the opening of Naw-Ruz from the New Year celebration of BahÃÆ'¡'ÃÆ' in at a number of events in Los Angeles in March, despite the San Fernando earthquake in February 1971, attracting participants from New Mexico, Nevada and Arizona. The talks and slides of the event were recorded. When he was in Iran, a recorded message was presented at a US national convention, a cassette of public discussion on the spiritual assembly as a religious institution was released, once again Sears' God Loves Laughter was donated to the library and the recording of his talk was used in public meeting in Indiana.
In the Spring of 1971 he sent a message recorded to a US national convention while he was on board an ongoing vessel for the Jamaican national convention, and another for the May Caribbean conference in Jamaica when he was at a national convention in Germany, and then the German national youth symposium. After the events in South Carolina, where thousands of people began to join the religion, Sears released a pair of hour-long discussions on the issue of mass involvement and community response. He appeared personally in December at an award program in California. In 1972 he again sent recordings to the US national convention, a letter to a national convention in Chad, and one for a joint convention of Swaziland and Mozambique - this time he went for the election of a new national assembly of Ireland. In October he sent a message recorded to the dedication of a new institute named Louis G. Gregory in South Carolina.
1973 was another active year - he published a biography of Lua Getsinger, gave lectures at several meetings around South Carolina in January at the Louis Gregory Institute, addressed to delegates to the third international convention, the US national convention, and the third annual youth US convention (held at in June in Oklahoma where some 4000 BahÃÆ'¡'ÃÆ's are present. It was brought by ABC affiliate in Hawaii. In the Spring of 1974 he attended a national convention in Japan and met Bahá'ÃÆ's in South Korea at a conference. In July he attended the Bosch School of Education Bahá¡'ÃÆ' in Santa Cruz, California. In August he had two great appearances: in early August he appeared an international youth conference in Hilo, Hawaii and at the end of August he was in music programs with Russell Garcia and Seals and Crofts in Illinois.
In 1975 he started in January in New York, and then the US national convention in April. But he was unable to attend a conference in Montreal due to damage in his health so he had to stop his performance for a while. He sent a letter to the Alaska conference in September. He was able to perform at one of two BahÃÆ'¡'ÃÆ's conference in California in December.
The television series he worked on in Hawaii in 1973 was recorded and made available in 1976 and aired in Alaska. She attended the Canadian national convention BahÃÆ'¡'ÃÆ's, bringing to the US convention a gift of roses in honor of Charlotte Linfoot who had just suffered a serious stroke, and then the Alaskan conference in July. In October he was in Nairobi Kenya for the BahÃÆ'¡'ÃÆ's international conference.
After the Islamic Revolution in Iran and the treatment of BahÃÆ'¡'ÃÆ's Sears wrote A Cry from the Heart: The BahÃÆ'¡'ÃÆ's in Iran . In the meantime, some books were previously donated to libraries or given. A Cry from the Heart was included in testimony to the US Congress on events in Iran and donated to the library in 1982. In 1983 George Plagenz paid close attention to Sears's analysis of Christian prophecy (without naming < i> Thieves at Night ) and it was brought in several cities from time to time. He spoke of the US national convention and his comments were recorded.
Last year
The Sears moved to Tucson in 1985 partly for his health because the climate was better for him. He published All Flags Flying to tell anecdotes of his journey. In 1986 he attended the dedication of the Lotus Temple and gave a recorded sermon. The Sears' then started a project to establish the Desert Rose School Bahá¡'á which held its first meeting in 1988. Despite developing a prostate cancer, in 1991 Sears started his last major project - he began touring five cities in America United and then extend the tour to the other nine. But Sears died before reaching the eighth city, on the morning of March 25, 1992. Along the way he published Run to Glory! with his fiction and funny life anecdotes. He also has a record of unpublished works that have been completed and published - In Grandpa's Warehouse and Half-Inches Prophecy . She is buried at East Lawn Palms Cemetery in Tucson, Arizona.
Marguerite died in 2006.
Maps William Sears (Bahá'í)
Thief in the Night
The Sears 'Evening Evening Book, or the Strange Case of the Lost Millennium' relates to the history and understanding of prophecy with respect to BÃÆ'¡b and includes references to a number of problems from Edwin Tolerance's 1844 Edition of William Miller's prophecy and the Millerism movement, Big Disappointment as understood in the West, and History of Bahà £ ¡'ÃÆ' Faith in Persia. This provides an alternative understanding of the Christian Scriptures that challenge current Christian thinking on any issues raised (it may be assumed that there is unanimity about such things in the Christian faith), while this book presents an understanding of Bahà £ ¡'ÃÆ' on these various themes.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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