Chapter 12

In the Holy Land--the Qiblih of a world community, the heart from which the energizing influences of a vivifying Faith continually stream, and the seat and center around which the diversified activities of a divinely appointed Administrative Order revolve--following upon the termination of the construction of the Bab's holy Sepulcher, marking the closing of the first chapter in the history of the evolution of the central institutions of a world Faith, a marked progress in the rise and establishment of these institutions has been clearly noticeable. The remaining twenty-two pillars of the International Baha'i Archives--the initial Edifice heralding the establishment of the Baha'i World Administrative Center on Mt. Carmel--have been erected. The last half of the nine hundred tons of stone, ordered in Italy for its construction, have reached their destination, enabling the exterior of the building to be completed, while the forty-four tons of glazed green tiles, manufactured in Utrecht, to cover the five hundred square meters of roof, have been placed in position, the whole contributing, to an unprecedented degree, through its colorfulness, its classic style and graceful proportions, and in conjunction with the stately, golden-crowned Mausoleum rising beyond it, to the unfolding glory of the central institutions of a World Faith nestling in the heart of God's holy mountain.

Simultaneous with this striking development, the plan designed to insure the extension and completion of the arc serving as a base for the erection of future edifices constituting the World Baha'i Administrative Center, has been successfully carried out. The dilapidated house, situated in the close neighborhood of Baha'u'llah's Shrine, recently acquired from the Development Authority of the State of Israel, because of its historic associations, has been restored. Negotiations, moreover, have been initiated with that same Authority for the acquisition of two plots to the north and south of the Shrine, for the purpose of safeguarding its precincts from a further extension of the new settlements springing up rapidly in the plain of Akka. Steps have also been taken to register the title-deeds of a centrally located plot, originally owned by a Covenant-breaker, and abutting on the International Archives, in the name of the Israel Branch of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the British Isles. A further blow has been struck at the remnants of the implacable enemies of 'Abdu'l-Baha, the breakers of His Father's Covenant, still living in the immediate vicinity of the holiest shrine of the Baha'i world, through the destruction of a row of ruinous sheds which had been under their control, through orders issued by the Municipal Authorities of Akka. And, lastly, an expropriation order has been published in the Israel Official Gazette by the Treasury Department of Israel related to buildings enclosed within the Haram-i-Aqdas, aiming at the eviction of these same enemies from the outer Sanctuary of Baha'u'llah's Sepulcher, following upon the evacuation by them of the Mansion at Bahji after two score years of occupancy, and which, when carried out, will mark the final cleansing, after more than sixty-five years, of the immediate surroundings of the holiest Spot in the Baha'i world.

Nor can I dismiss this subject related to the progress achieved in the development of Baha'i international institutions in the Holy Land without a special reference to the continual extension and embellishment of the international endowments of the Faith in the plain of Akka and on the slopes of Mt. Carmel, the value of which now exceeds five million two hundred thousand dollars, as well as to the ever-swelling crowds of visitors flocking to the Baha'i Shrines in both of these places, and particularly to the number of those entering the Tomb of the Bab which, during a single day, in a three-hour period, has exceeded a thousand.

THE TEN-YEAR PLAN IN THE UNITED STATES

In the United States of America, the cradle and citadel of the embryonic World Order of Baha'u'llah, the elected national representatives of the American Baha'i Community, acting as the representatives of the International Baha'i Community, charged with the defense of the cause of their persecuted brethren in the cradle of the Faith, have energetically pursued their efforts, through representations made to the United Nations officials and agencies in New York and Geneva, through their contact with high-ranking officials of the American State Department and through measures of publicity in the American Press, all culminating in the victory won over the adversaries of the Faith, to which reference has been made earlier in these pages.

The landscaping of the Temple area, including the operation of the nine fountains, as envisaged by 'Abdu'l-Baha, has been completed at a cost of two hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars. The number of visitors who, since public guiding has been instituted, have flocked to the doors of this Mother Temple of the West, now standing amidst such attractive surroundings, has exceeded seven hundred thousand, whilst more than three thousand have entered its doors in the course of a single day. Authorization has moreover been recently given by the Wilmette Village Board for the construction of the Home for the Aged, the first Dependency of the Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar. The value of national and local endowments owned by, and under the control of, that community, whose members have so spontaneously and effectively championed the cause of the persecuted and the down-trodden, and so generously contributed to their relief in the past, is now four and a half million dollars. The number of American Indian tribes with which contact has been established in the Western Hemisphere--an achievement in which the members of this Community have played a leading role--is now over forty-five. No less than eighteen American Indian tribes are now represented in the Baha'i communities of that same hemisphere, mainly as a result of the assiduous endeavors exerted by the members of this Community. The number of territories, federal districts and states where official authorization for the conduct of Baha'i marriages has been obtained is now twenty-eight, whilst the number of localities, in that same country, where the Baha'i Holy Days are officially recognized is one short of forty.

IN THE AFRICAN CONTINENT

In the African continent, where the momentum gained in the process of propagation of the Faith and the consolidation of its newly-born administrative institutions has exceeded the rate of progress achieved in every other continent of the globe, and particularly since the emergence, a year ago, of three regional spiritual assemblies, the number of the adherents of the Faith, including those in the newly-opened islands off the eastern and western coasts of that vast continent, is now well over thirty-five hundred, over three thousand of whom are Negroes. The number of localities where the followers of Baha'u'llah reside is over five hundred and fifty. The number of tribes represented in these flourishing communities has reached one hundred and ninety-seven. The number of languages into which Baha'i literature has been and is being translated is over seventy, whilst the number of local spiritual assemblies, constituting the bedrock of a solidly established Order, is approaching one hundred and fifty.

IN THE PACIFIC AREA

In the Pacific area, where Baha'i exploits bid fair to outshine the feats achieved in any other ocean, and indeed in every continent of the globe, now competing for the palm of victory with the African continent itself, preliminary measures have been undertaken for the formation of no less than three of the thirteen national and regional spiritual assemblies which are to be established in the course of this year's Ridvan festivities. These three assemblies, the seats of which are to be located in Japan, in Indonesia and in the Dominion of New Zealand, are destined to function in regions where the yellow, the brown and white races predominate, and in which the majority of the inhabitants belong either to the Buddhist, the Muslim or Christian Faiths. In so vast and promising an area, blessed by the labors of two Hands of the Cause of God, the number of localities where Baha'is reside, which in the concluding years of the Apostolic Age of the Faith, had barely reached ten, has now swelled to over two hundred and ten, scattered over no less than forty islands. It already boasts over seventeen hundred believers of the brown race alone, more than fifty local spiritual assemblies, five national Haziratu'l-Quds, three Baha'i schools, twenty-one incorporated local spiritual assemblies, four states where Baha'i national endowments have been established, a site purchased for its first projected Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar, three territories where the Baha'i Marriage Certificate is recognized, and three others where Baha'i children have been allowed to observe the Baha'i Holy Days, as well as the translation of Baha'i literature into no less than fifty of the languages current among its indigenous population. It, moreover, prides itself on the initiation of teaching activities in no less than a hundred of the four hundred islands constituting one of its numerous southern archipelagos.

THE MOTHER-TEMPLES OF THREE CONTINENTS

So brilliant and diversified a record of services to the Cause of Baha'u'llah, in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, has been greatly enriched by the plans now initiated for the launching of an ambitious three-fold enterprise, designed to compensate for the disabilities suffered by the sorely-tried Community of the followers of His Faith in the land of His birth, aiming at the erection, in localities as far apart as Frankfurt, Sydney and Kampala, of the Mother-Temples of the European, the Australian and African continents, at a cost of approximately one million dollars, complementing the Temples already constructed in the Asiatic and American continents. One-third of this sum I, gladly and with a grateful heart, pledge at this auspicious hour, a sum which, when added to the funds already donated for this laudable purpose, amounting to one hundred and forty thousand dollars--over one hundred thousand of which represents the munificent donation of the Hand of the Cause, Amelia Collins--will constitute well-nigh half of the entire amount required to ensure the consummation of this stupendous, epoch-making undertaking.

The designs for these sacred Fanes, to be raised to the glory of the Founder of our Faith, and dedicated to the worship of the one true God, have, in the case of the Australian and African Temples, been already executed by the Hand of the Cause, Mason Remey, whilst the design for the German Temple has been completed by the German architect, Teuto Rocholl--all three of which will be exhibited, for the first time, to the assembled delegates at the thirteen historic Baha'i National Conventions being held for the first time during this year's Ridvan Festival. The excavation of the foundations of the African Temple has actually commenced, whilst plans and specifications are being prepared by a well-known firm in Kampala. The construction of the Australian Temple has, moreover, been placed in the hands of a reliable Sydney architect, who will have completed the detailed drawings and specifications by the first of Ridvan, and contemplates beginning work on the foundations by next June and completing the building by March, 1959.

To the National and Local Spiritual Assemblies, more than a thousand in number, to groups as well as individuals, in every continent of the globe, and in whatever island they may be laboring in the service of this glorious Faith, I direct an earnest plea to arise, now that the prodigious task of the purchase of more than forty national Haziratu'l-Quds, and the establishment of Baha'i national endowments in nearly fifty countries, has been triumphantly consummated and display, at this hour when the global Spiritual Crusade has just passed the third-way point, the self-same solidarity, generosity, tenacity and single-mindedness which they have consistently demonstrated since its inauguration four years ago, which have insured the success of some of the most arduous enterprises launched under the Ten-Year Plan, and which, in the decades preceding its inception, have brought to a glorious culmination the task of erecting the first two Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kars of the Baha'i world.

KNIGHTS OF BAHA'U'LLAH AND HEROIC PIONEERS

A special tribute, I feel, should be paid in this survey of worldwide Baha'i achievements, to the heroic band of pioneers, and particularly to the company of the Knights of Baha'u'llah, who, as a result of their indomitable spirit, courage, steadfastness, and self-abnegation, have achieved in the course of four brief years, in so many of the virgin territories newly opened to His Faith, a measure of success far exceeding the most sanguine expectations. Such a success, reflected in both the numerical strength of these territories and the range and solidity of the achievements of the Baha'i crusaders responsible for their opening and development, has surpassed to an unbelievable extent the goals set for them under the Ten-Year Plan.

To Uganda, opened on the eve of the Global Crusade, where the number of the avowed adherents of the Faith has now passed the eleven hundred mark, and the number of Baha'i centers exceeds one hundred and eighty, to the Gilbert and Ellice Islands and Gambia where the number of the believers has reached five hundred and three hundred respectively, must be added Mentawai Islands, where adult Baha'is now number over eleven hundred; the British Cameroons, with well-nigh three hundred adult Baha'is; Mauritius with over seventy; Basutoland with over fifty; Ruanda-Urundi and the Seychelles, each with over thirty; Spanish Morocco, Reunion Island, the French Cameroons, British Togoland, French Togoland, Sikkim, the Canary Islands, British Guiana, Cape Verde Islands, Ashanti Protectorate, Swaziland, South Rhodesia, each with over twenty; and Key West, French Equatorial Africa, Cook Islands, Balearic Islands, French Somaliland, Italian Somaliland, Cyprus, Morocco International Zone, Samoa Islands, Mariana Islands, New Hebrides Islands, Solomon Islands, Portuguese Timor, Bechuanaland, Northern Territories Protectorate, Bahama Islands, and Brunei, each with between ten and twenty.

CONFERENCES AND INSTITUTES

Nor should reference be omitted in these pages to the surprisingly numerous conferences and institutes which, in the course of the last twelve months, have been organized by the enterprising, the indefatigable and vigilant members of Baha'i communities in various parts of the world, supplementing the multiple activities carried on with such splendid vigor in the course of the prosecution of the Ten-Year Plan. A mere enumeration of these institutes and conferences will serve to reveal their diversity and scope, and demonstrate the earnestness with which their organizers and participants are discharging their primary obligation to propagate their Faith:

The first Southeast Asia Teaching Conference in Djakarta, Indonesia; the first All-Taiwan Teaching Conference in Tainan; the Korean Summer and Winter Conference in Kwangju; the Indo-China Teaching Conference in Saigon; the Japanese National Teaching Conference in Kyoto; the first American Indian Teaching Conference in Northern Arizona; the American Indian Teaching Conference in Los Angeles, California; the Alaskan Teaching Conference in Fairbanks; the Hawaii-wide Teaching Conference in Honolulu; the Western Canada Summer Conference in Banff; the Maritime Teaching Conference in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island; the Teaching Conference in Beaulac, Canada; the French Teaching Conference in Mentone-Garavan; the third Italian Teaching Conference in Rome; the third Swiss Teaching Conference in Basel; the Teaching Conference in Romanshorn; the Teaching Conference in Neuchatel; the Iberian Teaching Conferences in Barcelona; the first Austrian Teaching Conference in Gosau; the Teaching Conference in Frankfurt; the Regional Convention in Stuttgart; the Teaching Conference in Stockholm; the Benelux Regional Teaching Conferences in Brussels and in The Hague; the Nordisk Teaching Conference in Moss, Norway; the Northwest Teaching Conferences in Liverpool, Blackpool and Manchester; the Midlands Teaching Conference in Birmingham; the Southeast Teaching Conferences in London and Reading; the Scottish Teaching Conferences in Edinburgh and Glasgow; the Northern Ireland Teaching Conference in Belfast; the Northeast Teaching Conference in Leeds; the Southwest Teaching Conferences in Portcawl, Torquay and Cardiff; the British Northern Isles Teaching Conference in Lerwick, Shetland Islands; the South India Teaching Conference in Bangalore; the Pakistan Teaching Conference in Karachi; the South Australian State Teaching Conference in Adelaide; the New South Wales Regional Teaching Conference in Sydney; the Australian Post-Convention Teaching Institute in Sydney; the New Zealand Teaching Conference in Wellington; the New Zealand Regional Teaching Conference in New Plymouth; the Regional Teaching Conference in Hobart, Tasmania; the Canary Islands Teaching Conference in Las Palmas; the first Colombian Teaching Conference in Bogota; the Peruvian Teaching Conference in Lima; the first Mexican Teaching Conference in Mexico City; the Cuban Teaching Conference in Havana; the Haitian Teaching Conference in Port-au-Prince; the Honduran Teaching Conference in Honduras; the Guatemalan Teaching Conference in Guatemala; the Dominican Teaching Conference in Ciudad Trujillo; the Jamaican Teaching Conference in Kingston; the El Salvador Teaching Conference in Santa Ana; the Nicaraguan Teaching Conference in Managua; the Costa Rican Teaching Conference in San Jose; the Panamanian Teaching Conference in Panama City; the Annual Study Institute of Brazil in Rezende; the Teaching Conferences of the British Cameroons in Mutengere, as well as a large number of similar conferences and institutes too numerous to mention held throughout the United States of America.

To these highly praiseworthy accomplishments, in which an increasing number of the promoters of the Faith of Baha'u'llah, whether teachers or administrators, have shared in recent years, must be added an even more impressive list of enterprises, none of them specified as part of the Ten-Year Plan, and which stalwart upholders of His Cause, driven by an irresistible impulse to further enlarge its limits, multiply its assets, consolidate its foundations, and noise abroad its fame, have initiated and conducted at a steadily accelerated pace since the launching of the World Spiritual Crusade.

Indeed the multiplicity, variety, scope, and significance of these enterprises have impelled me to tabulate and record them for posterity on a specially prepared map, designed to present graphically the achievements supplementing the tasks already performed in pursuance of the provisions of the Ten-Year Plan. A bare recital of these additional victories won, in such rapid succession, over so vast a field, by the band of Baha'u'llah's crusaders, will amply demonstrate the unquenchable enthusiasm, no less than the inflexible resolve and boundless devotion, animating His followers in the pursuit of their high calling.

DYNAMIC POWER OF FAITH

The opening of the Sovereign states of Laos and of Cambodia and of the islands of Trinidad, of Corisco, of Fernando-Po, of Pemba and of Mafia; the acquisition of sites for the construction of the future Mother-Temples of Argentina, of Brazil and of Libya; the sum recently allocated for the purchase of a site for the erection of the first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the British Isles; the launching of the twin far-reaching enterprises designed to culminate in the establishment of the Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kars of Africa and of Australasia; the founding of Baha'i Schools in the New Hebrides Islands, in Mentawai Islands and in the Gilbert and Ellice Islands; the establishment of Baha'i burial grounds in Libya, Burma and Tanganyika; the formulation of supplementary plans by the newly emerged regional spiritual assemblies in Africa, and by the Baha'i communities of the Seychelles and the Sudan; the acquisition of land for the Baha'i summer schools of Egypt, of 'Iraq and of Chile; the establishment of Baha'i endowments in the Aleutian Islands, in Swaziland, in Mentawai Islands, in Spanish Morocco, in Basutoland and in Liberia; the acquisition of local Haziratu'l-Quds in Gambia, in the Aleutian Islands, in Uganda, in Spanish Morocco, in the British Cameroons, in Algeria and in French Morocco; the translation of Baha'i literature into thirty-one African, seven American Indian, and twenty-eight miscellaneous languages; the purchase of Baha'i historic sites in the City of Adrianople; the founding of an Indian Cultural Institute in Chichicastenango, Guatemala; the transfer of the remains of the Bab's infant son from a mosque in _Sh_iraz to the Baha'i burial ground in that city--these proclaim, in no uncertain terms, the splendid initiative and the dynamic power of the faith of the bearers of the Gospel of the New Day, as well as their unyielding determination to exceed, by every means in their power, the bounds of their prescribed duties and responsibilities assumed under the Ten-Year Plan, and to enhance, through every channel open to them, and over as wide a range as their circumstances permit, their share of service in the collective task now being prosecuted with such exemplary heroism, on the whole surface of the planet, for the world-wide triumph of the Cause of Baha'u'llah and the ultimate redemption of all mankind.

SOLEMN RENEWAL OF DEDICATION

Dearly-beloved friends: The opening of the second year of the third phase of a ten-year long Crusade, marking the passing of a little over one third of its duration; coinciding with the closing of a period rendered memorable by the achievement of so many of its goals, as well as by a succession of victories won in fields beyond its scope; significantly ushered in by the emergence of no less than thirteen national and regional spiritual assemblies in four continents, with a jurisdiction embracing more than forty territories of the globe, in the election of which over three hundred delegates representing more than one hundred and thirty local communities will participate; and over the inauguration of which no less than thirteen Hands of the Cause of God will preside--the opening of so auspicious a year must be signalized by a solemn renewal of dedication, on the part of all who are participating in this colossal, world-girdling enterprise, and indeed by the entire company of those who profess the Faith of Baha'u'llah--a dedication which, as the year pursues its course, will be reflected in acts the brilliance of which will eclipse the shining exploits achieved since the inception of the Crusade, and, indeed, since the commencement of the Formative Age of the Baha'i Dispensation.

The preeminent task of teaching the Faith to the multitudes who consciously or unconsciously thirst after the healing Word of God in this day--a task so dear to the heart of 'Abdu'l-Baha; at once so sacred, so fundamental, and so urgent; primarily involving and challenging every single individual; the bed-rock on which the solidity and the stability of the multiplying institutions of a rising Order must rest--such a task must, in the course of this year, be accorded priority over every other Baha'i activity.