Chapter 16

The task, at once arduous, thrilling and challenging, which now confronts these four Baha'i communities involves: First, the formation, under the aegis of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States, and in collaboration with the two existing national assemblies in Latin America, of one national spiritual assembly in each of the twenty Latin American republics as well as the establishment of a national spiritual assembly in Alaska under the aegis of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States of America. Second, the establishment of the first dependency of the Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar in Wilmette. Third, the purchase of land for the future construction of two Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kars, one in Toronto, Ontario; one in Panama City, Panama, situated respectively in North and in Central America. Fourth, the opening of the following twenty-seven virgin territories and islands: Anticosti Island, Baranof Island, Cape Breton Island, Franklin, Grand Manan Island, Keewatin, Labrador, Magdalen Islands, Miquelon Island and St. Pierre Island, Queen Charlotte Islands and Yukon, assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Canada; Aleutian Islands, Falkland Islands, Key West and Kodiak Island assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States of America; Bahama Islands, British Honduras, Dutch West Indies and Margarita Island, assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Central America; British Guiana, Chiloee Island, Dutch Guiana, French Guiana, Galapagos Islands, Juan Fernandez Islands, Leeward Islands, and Windward Islands, assigned to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of South America. Fifth, the translation and publication of Baha'i literature in the following ten languages, to be undertaken by the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States of America: Aguaruna, Arawak, Blackfoot, Cherokee, Iroquois, Lengua, Mataco, Maya, Mexican and Yahgan. Sixth, the consolidation of Greenland, Mackenzie and Newfoundland, allocated to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Canada; of Alaska, the Hawaiian Islands and Puerto Rico allocated to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States of America; of Bermuda, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Martinique, Mexico, Nicaragua and Panama allocated to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Central America; and of Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela, allocated to the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of South America. Seventh, the incorporation of the twenty-one above-mentioned national spiritual assemblies. Eighth, the establishment by these same national spiritual assemblies of national Baha'i endowments. Ninth, the establishment of a national Haziratu'l-Quds in the capital city of each of the aforementioned republics, as well as one in Anchorage, Alaska. Tenth, the formation of two national Baha'i publishing trusts, one in Wilmette, Illinois, and the other in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Eleventh, the formation of an Israel branch of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Canada, authorized to hold, on behalf of its parent institution, property dedicated to the holy shrines at the World Center of the Faith in the state of Israel. Twelfth, the appointment during Ridvan 1954, by the Hands of the Cause in the United States and Canada, of an Auxiliary Board of nine members who will, in conjunction with the four national spiritual assemblies participating in the American campaign, assist, through periodic and systematic visits to Baha'i centers, in the efficient and prompt execution of the plans formulated for the prosecution of the teaching campaign in the American continent.

PORTRAIT OF BAHA'U'LLAH SENT

Mindful of the magnificent services rendered during over half a century by the chief executors of 'Abdu'l-Baha's Divine Plan, within a territory that posterity will regard as the cradle of the embryonic World Order of Baha'u'llah and the stronghold of its nascent institutions, and confident that this vast and historic assemblage, over which the national elected representatives of this privileged community are presiding, will prove to be the harbinger of still greater victories, I have been impelled to transmit, through my special representative, who will participate on my behalf in the proceedings of this conference and act as my deputy at the official dedication of the Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar, a reproduction of the portrait of Baha'u'llah Himself, made in the prime of His life, whilst an exile in Ba_gh_dad, as a token of my admiration for this community's unflagging and herculean labors, and as a benediction and inspiration for those who, whether officially or unofficially, are participating in the proceedings of a conference that will go down in history as the most momentous gathering held since the close of the Heroic Age of the Faith and will be regarded as the most potent agency in paving the way for the launching of one of the most brilliant phases of the grandest crusade ever undertaken by the followers of Baha'u'llah since the inception of His Faith more than a hundred years ago.

[May 3, 1953]

All-America Intercontinental Conference--Second Message

On the occasion of the launching of an epochal, global, spiritual, decade-long crusade, constituting the high-water mark of the festivities commemorating the centenary of the birth of the Mission of Baha'u'llah, coinciding with the ninetieth anniversary of the declaration of that same Mission in the Garden of Ridvan, and synchronizing with both the convocation of the All-American Intercontinental Teaching Conference in Chicago, and the fiftieth anniversary of the inception of the holiest Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the Baha'i world and its dedication to public worship--on such a solemn and historic occasion I invite His followers, the world over, to contemplate with me the glorious and manifold evidences of the onward march of His Faith and of the steady unfoldment of its embryonic World Order both in the Holy Land and in the five continents of the globe.

This infinitely precious Faith, despite eleven decades of uninterrupted persecution, on the part of governments and ecclesiastics, involving the martyrdom of its Prophet-Herald, the four banishments and forty-year-long exile suffered by its Founder, the forty years of incarceration inflicted upon its Exemplar, and the sacrifice of no less than twenty thousand of its followers, has succeeded in firmly establishing itself in all the continents of the globe, and is irresistibly forging ahead, with accelerating momentum, bidding fair to envelop, at the close of the coming decade, the whole planet with the radiance of its splendor.

Confined within the lifetime of its Martyr-Prophet to two countries, reaching during the period of the ministry of its Author thirteen other lands, planting its banner in the course of the ministry of the Center of the Covenant in twenty additional sovereign states and dependencies in both hemispheres, this Faith has spread, since the ascension of 'Abdu'l-Baha, to ninety-four countries, raising the total number of the territories within its pale to one hundred twenty-nine, no less than eighteen of which were added in a single year, while fifty-one were opened in the course of the nine-year interval separating the first from the second Baha'i Jubilee. The number of eastern and western languages into which its literature has been translated and printed, or is in the process of translation, and which reached forty-one a decade ago, is now ninety-one, including thirteen African and twenty-five Indian and Burmese languages. The number of settlements in Greenland provided with Baha'i scriptures in the Greenlandic tongue has been raised to forty-eight, including Thule beyond the Arctic Circle and Etah near the 80th latitude, whilst Baha'i literature in that same language has been dispatched as far north as the radio station at Brondlunsfjord, Pearyland, 82nd latitude, the northernmost outpost of the world. Representatives of thirty-one races and of twenty-four African tribes have been enrolled in the Baha'i World Community. Contact has been established with the following seventeen minority groups and races: the Eskimos of Alaska and Greenland, the Lapps of Scandinavia, the Maoris of New Zealand, the Sea-Dayaks of Sarawak, the Polynesians of the Fiji Islands, the Cree Indians of Prairie Provinces, Canada, the Cherokee Indians in North Carolina, the Oneida Indians in Wisconsin, the Omaha Indians in Nebraska, the Seminole Indians in Florida, the Mexican Indians in Mexico, the Indians of the San Blas Islands, the Indians of Chichicastenango in Guatemala, the Mayans in Yucatan, the Patagonian Indians in Argentina, the Indians of La Paz in Bolivia and the Inca Indians in Peru.

ELEVEN PILLARS OF THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE RAISE CENTERS TO 2500

The national plans, formulated and vigorously and systematically prosecuted, in the course of the concluding years of the first, and the opening years of the second, epoch of the Formative Age of the Faith, by the Baha'i communities in the United States, in Persia, in the British Isles, in Latin America, in Canada, in India, Pakistan and Burma, in 'Iraq, in Australia and New Zealand, in Germany and Austria, in Egypt and the Sudan, have raised the number of Baha'i centers established in both hemispheres to two thousand five hundred maintained by representatives of the white, the black, the yellow, the red and the brown races of mankind, comprising ten in the Arabian Peninsula, over thirty in Egypt and the Sudan, over forty in the recently opened European goal countries, over fifty in the British Isles, over sixty in Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania, over seventy in Germany and Austria, over ninety in Canada, over ninety in India, Pakistan and Burma, over one hundred in Central and South America, over six hundred in Persia and over one thousand two hundred in the United States of America. The superstructure of the Sepulcher of the Martyr-Herald of the Faith--a three-quarters of a million dollar enterprise--is nearing completion, on the slopes of the Mountain of God, within the heart of the Holy Land, the nest of the Prophets, and the divinely chosen Spiritual and Administrative Center of the Baha'i world. The preliminary measures, heralding the unfoldment of the institution of Guardianship, the pivot of 'Abdu'l-Baha's Will and Testament, have been adopted, through the appointment of the first two contingents of the Hands of the Cause, numbering nineteen, recruited from the five continents of the globe, representative in their extraction of the three principal religions of mankind, and constituting the nucleus of that august institution invested with such weighty and sacred functions by the Center of Baha'u'llah's Covenant. The International Baha'i Council, comprising eight members, charged with assisting in the manifold activities attendant upon the rise of the World Administrative Center of the Faith, which must pave the way for the formation of a Baha'i International Court and the eventual emergence of the Universal House of Justice, the supreme legislative body of the future Baha'i Commonwealth, has been established, enlarged, and the functions of its members defined. The number of the pillars of the Universal House of Justice has been raised to twelve through the successive formation of the Canadian, the Central American, the South American and the Italo-Swiss National Spiritual Assemblies. The stupendous process of the rise and consolidation of the World Administrative Center of the Faith has been accelerated through the acquisition, in the Plain of Akka, of a one hundred and sixty thousand square meter area, surrounding the Qiblih of the Baha'i world, permitting of the extension of the Outer Sanctuary of the Most Holy Tomb--to be designated henceforth the Haram-i-Aqdas--through the initiation, at the inception of the Holy Year, of the landscaping and embellishment of a tenth of the acquired area, and through the adoption of measures for the extensive illumination of the entire Sanctuary and the erection of stately portals constituting a befitting tribute to the memory of the Author of the Faith, within the sacred precincts of His Sepulcher, on the occasion of the celebration of the greatest festival of the year commemorating the Centenary of the birth of His Mission. The fifty-year-old enterprise, involving the purchase of land for the construction, the exterior and interior ornamentation, and the landscaping of the grounds of the holiest House of Worship ever to be reared to the glory of the Most Great Name, the Mother Temple of the West, and involving the expenditure of over two and a half million dollars, has been consummated, in time for its dedication to public worship during the Ridvan period of this Holy Year coinciding with both the fiftieth anniversary of the inception of this enterprise and the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Baha'u'llah's ministry. The design for the Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar on Mt. Carmel, conceived by the architect appointed by 'Abdu'l-Baha, has been completed, and a model constructed, which is soon to be unveiled at the All-America Intercontinental Teaching Conference, in anticipation of the selection and the purchase of its future site, and of its ultimate construction in the neighborhood of the Bab's Sepulcher. The total area of Baha'i international endowments, surrounding and permanently dedicated to the Tomb of the Bab has been raised, through recent successive purchases of extensive plots, overlooking that hallowed spot, to almost one-quarter of a million square meters. The estimated value of the Baha'i international endowments and holy places at the World Center of the Faith, in the twin cities of Akka and Haifa, has passed the four million dollar mark. The Baha'i national endowments in the United States of America now exceed three million dollars. The area of land purchased on the slopes of the Elburz Mountains, overlooking the city of Tihran, in anticipation of the construction of the first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of Persia, has reached approximately four million square meters. The area of land dedicated to the Shrine of Baha'u'llah, in the vicinity of the confines of the Holy Land, exceeds two million three hundred thousand square meters. The area of land dedicated to the Shrine of the Bab and registered in the name of the Israel branch of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States of America, is more than one hundred thousand square meters. Over one hundred and fifty thousand square meters of land have been dedicated to the Faith in the Antipodes, eighty thousand square meters in the Territory of Alaska, whilst the lands contributed in Latin America for a similar purpose approximate one-half of a million square meters, ninety thousand of which have been set aside near Santiago, Chile, for the first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of South America. The estimated value of the national Baha'i administrative headquarters established in Tihran, in Wilmette, Illinois, in Ba_gh_dad, in Cairo, in New Delhi, in Sydney, in Frankfurt and in Toronto, exceeds one and three-quarters of a million dollars. The Baha'i spiritual assemblies now incorporated number one hundred and fourteen, of which nine are national and the rest local assemblies, fifty-six of which are in the United States of America, sixteen in India, eleven in South America, six in Central America, three each in Pakistan, in Burma and in Canada, two in Australia and one each in Germany, in Balu_ch_istan, in New Zealand, in the Philippine Islands and in Malaya. The Baha'i marriage certificate has been recognized by the Israel civil authorities, as well as by twenty-one federal districts and states of the United States of America. The Baha'i holy days have been recognized by the Ministry of Education of the State of Israel, in the British Isles, by the state of Victoria in Australia, in Anchorage, Alaska, in Washington, D.C. and in seven states of the American Union. National Baha'i conferences have been held in recent years in Bern, Zurich, Basel, Rome; national Baha'i women's conventions and youth conferences have convened in Tihran, whilst regional teaching conferences have been organized in Buenos Aires, in Panama City, in Scandinavia, in the Iberian Peninsula, and in the Benelux countries. European international teaching conferences have been convened successively in Geneva, in Brussels, in Copenhagen, in Scheveningen and in Luxembourg City, paving the way for the convocation of four successive Intercontinental Teaching Conferences, the first of which has recently been held in Kampala, in the heart of the African continent, the rest to be successively convened in Wilmette, Illinois, in Stockholm and in New Delhi--Conferences which, God willing, will be the forerunners of the World Baha'i Congress, to be convened in the city of Ba_gh_dad, on the occasion of the centenary of the formal assumption by Baha'u'llah of His prophetic office. Recognition has been extended to the Faith by the United Nations as an international non-governmental organization enabling the Baha'i International Community to appoint accredited representatives, who have already attended, in their capacity as observers, the Conference on Human Rights held in Geneva and the United Nations General Assembly held in Paris and participated in United Nations regional non-governmental conferences, held in localities as far apart as New York, Santiago, Manila, Istanbul, Den Passar, Paris, Managua, Geneva and Montevideo.

PRELUDE TO PRODIGIOUS EXPANSION

So glorious a record of accomplishments in the service of the Faith of Baha'u'llah, whether local, national or international, in both the teaching and administrative spheres of Baha'i activity, can be regarded in no other light than as a prelude to a period of prodigious expansion and consolidation to be inaugurated by the launching of a global spiritual crusade, on the threshold of which the Baha'i world now stands. This crusade extending through ten years will involve the simultaneous prosecution of twelve national plans, will necessitate the active and sustained participation of each of the twelve existing national spiritual assemblies representing no less than thirty-six nations and will demand the utmost exertion, consecration and heroism. It aims at the broadening and the reinforcement of the foundations of the Faith in each of the twelve areas that are to serve as operational bases for the prosecution of these twelve national plans; the opening of one hundred and thirty-one territories to the Faith; the consolidation of one hundred and eighteen territories; the translation and printing of literature in ninety-one languages; the construction of two Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kars; the acquisition of sites for the future construction of eleven Temples; the formation of forty-eight national spiritual assemblies; the founding of forty-seven national Haziratu'l-Quds; the incorporation of fifty national spiritual assemblies; the framing of Baha'i national constitutions and the establishment of Baha'i national endowments by each of these national assemblies; the adoption of preliminary measures for the construction of Baha'u'llah's Sepulcher; the erection of the first dependency of the first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the western world; the development of the institution of the Hands of the Cause; the transformation of the International Baha'i Council into an international Baha'i court; the codification of the laws and ordinances of the Kitab-i-Aqdas; the establishment of six national Baha'i Courts in the chief cities of the Islamic East; the extension of international Baha'i endowments in the Plain of Akka and on the slopes of Mt. Carmel; the construction of the International Baha'i Archives in the neighborhood of the Bab's Sepulcher; the construction of the tomb of the Bab's wife in _Sh_iraz; the identification of the resting-places of Baha'u'llah's father, of the Bab's mother and of His cousin and their reburial in the neighborhood of the Most Great House; the acquisition of the Garden of Ridvan in Ba_gh_dad, and of the sites of the Siyah-_Ch_al in Tihran, of the Bab's martyrdom in Tabriz and of His incarceration in _Ch_ihriq; the establishment of six Baha'i national publishing trusts; the formation of seven Israel branches of Baha'i national spiritual assemblies; the participation of women in the membership of Baha'i local and national spiritual assemblies in Persia; the establishment of a Baha'i national printing-press in Tihran; the reinforcement of the ties binding the Baha'i World Community with the United Nations; the opening to the Faith, circumstances permitting, of eleven republics comprised in the Soviet Union, as well as two Soviet-controlled European states--all, please God, culminating in the convocation of a World Baha'i Congress, in the vicinity of the Garden of Ridvan, in the third holiest city of the Baha'i world, on the occasion of the world-wide celebrations commemorating the centenary of the formal assumption by Baha'u'llah of His prophetic office.

A PLANETARY SPIRITUAL CRUSADE

Let there be no mistake. The avowed, the primary aim of this Spiritual Crusade is none other than the conquest of the citadels of men's hearts. The theater of its operations is the entire planet. Its duration a whole decade. Its commencement synchronizes with the centenary of the birth of Baha'u'llah's Mission. Its culmination will coincide with the centenary of the declaration of that same Mission. The agencies assisting in its conduct are the nascent administrative institutions of a steadily evolving divinely appointed order. Its driving force is the energizing influence generated by the Revelation heralded by the Bab and proclaimed by Baha'u'llah. Its Marshal is none other than the Author of the Divine Plan. Its standard-bearers are the Hands of the Cause of God appointed in every continent of the globe. Its generals are the twelve national spiritual assemblies participating in the execution of its design. Its vanguard is the chief executors of 'Abdu'l-Baha's master plan, their allies and associates. Its legions are the rank and file of believers standing behind these same twelve national assemblies and sharing in the global task embracing the American, the European, the African, the Asiatic and Australian fronts. The charter directing its course is the immortal Tablets that have flowed from the pen of the Center of the Covenant Himself. The armor with which its onrushing hosts have been invested is the glad tidings of God's own message in this day, the principles underlying the order proclaimed by His Messenger, and the laws and ordinances governing His Dispensation. The battle cry animating its heroes and heroines is the cry of Ya-Baha'u'l-Abha, Ya 'Aliyyu'l-A'la.