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Citadel of Faith
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Pages 8-10
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GOALS IN THE UNITED STATES AND ALASKA
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1 |
In the United States of America, the base from which the manifold
operations of this holy expedition are conducted, the enterprise
associated with the completion of the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of the
West, designed to consummate this historic undertaking in time for the
celebration of its Jubilee in the year 1953, must be strenuously pushed
forward. The prodigious efforts exerted for the erection of this noble
edifice--the holiest House of Worship ever to be reared by the followers
of Bahá'u'lláh--on which no less than one million four hundred
thousand dollars have thus far been expended, and which will necessitate
the expenditure of at least half a million more dollars, ere it is
completed, must not, for one moment, be relaxed. The necessary
modifications of the design chosen for its interior ornamentation should
be adopted, the plans and specifications prepared, the preliminary
contracts for its execution placed, and actual construction work started,
if possible, ere the expiry of the present year.
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The utmost effort by the National Teaching Committee and its
auxiliary Regional Teaching Committees, aimed at raising the number
of spiritual assemblies in the North American continent to no less than
one hundred and seventy-five, ere the expiry of the current year, should
be exerted. The eighty cities newly opened to the Faith should,
likewise, be reinforced. The two hundred and eighteen groups already
constituted should be continually encouraged to evolve into assemblies,
while the vast number of localities, totalling over nine hundred, where
isolated believers reside, should, however tremendous the exertion
required, be enabled to attain group status, and be eventually converted
into properly functioning assemblies.
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3 |
Collateral to this process of reinforcing the fabrics of the
Administrative Order and of widening its basis, a resolute attempt should be
made by the national elected representatives of the entire community,
aided by their Public Relations, Race Unity, Public Meetings, Visual
Education, College Speakers Bureau and Radio Committees, to reinforce
the measures already adopted for the proclamation, through the
press and radio, of the verities of the Faith to the masses, and for the
establishment of closer contact with the leaders of public thought, with
colleges and universities and with newspaper and magazine editors.
National advertising and publicity should be further developed, the
contact with seven hundred and fifty newspapers, magazines and trade
papers should be maintained and the public relations programs amplified.
Association, as distinct from affiliation, and untainted by any
participation in political matters, with the various organs, leaders and
representatives of the United Nations and kindred organizations should
be stimulated for the purpose of giving, on the one hand, greater
publicity to the aims and purposes of the Faith, and of paving the way,
on the other, for the eventual conversion of a selected number of
capable and receptive souls who will reinforce the ranks of its active
and unreserved supporters.
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4 |
The process of the incorporation of properly functioning spiritual
assemblies must be simultaneously and vigorously carried out. The
forty-five assemblies now incorporated are the first fruits of an enterprise
of great significance, which must rapidly develop in the days to
come, as an essential preliminary to the establishment, and the extension
of the scope, of Bahá'í local endowments, as soon as the financial
obligations incurred in connection with the completion of the Temple
have been discharged. The institutions of the three summer schools, at
Green Acre, Davison and Geyserville, and the International School at
Temerity Ranch, as well as the activities of the Bahá'í Youth, must,
under the close supervision of their respective national committees, be
continually expanded and increasingly utilized as agencies for the
furtherance of the vital objectives of the Plan.
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5 |
The beneficial and highly responsible activities undertaken by the
Publishing, the Reviewing, the Library, the Service for the Blind, the
Visual Education, the Pamphlet Literature and Study Aids Committees,
designed to disseminate and insure the integrity of Bahá'í literature,
should, however indirectly connected with the purposes of the
Plan, and within the limits imposed upon them through its operation,
be steadily expanded, consolidated and be made to promote, in whatever
way possible, its paramount interests.
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Nor should the "spacious territory of Alaska," particularly mentioned
by `Abdu'l-Bahá in His Tablets of the Divine Plan, and at
present the northern outpost of the Faith in the Western Hemisphere,
be ignored, or its vital requirements neglected. The maintenance and
consolidation of the first historic spiritual assembly in Anchorage, the
northernmost administrative center of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh in the
world; the multiplication of Bahá'í centers in that territory; the propagation
of the teachings among the Eskimos, emphasized by `Abdu'l-Bahá's
pen in those same Tablets; the translation and publication of
selected passages from Bahá'í literature in their native language; the
extension of the limits of the Faith beyond Fairbanks and nearer to the
Arctic Circle--these constitute the urgent tasks facing the prosecutors
of the present Plan in the years immediately ahead.
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7 |
"Alaska is a vast country," are `Abdu'l-Bahá's own words, recorded
in those Tablets, "...Perchance, God willing, the lights of the Most
Great Guidance will illuminate that country, and the breezes of the rose
garden of the love of God will perfume the nostrils of the inhabitants of
Alaska. Should you be aided to render such a service, rest ye assured
that your heads shall be crowned with the diadem of everlasting
sovereignty."
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