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Citadel of Faith
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Pages 111-112
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RECENT SERVICES DESERVING MENTION
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The services rendered by this same community in recent years, in
its capacity as the chief executors of `Abdu'l-Bahá's Divine Plan, in the
course of the second stage of the initial epoch in its evolution, are of
such importance and significance as to deserve particular mention at
this time. In the North American continent, throughout the republics
of Latin America, in the ten goal countries of Europe, on the shores and
in the heart of the African continent, the members of this community
have, in conformity with the provisions of the Second Seven Year Plan,
performed feats of such noble and enduring heroism as to enhance
immensely their prestige, demonstrate unmistakably the caliber of their
faith and qualify them to assume a preponderating share in the
prosecution of the Ten Year Plan whose operations are to extend over
the entire surface of the globe.
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In the multiplication and consolidation of Bahá'í administrative
institutions and their auxiliary agencies throughout Central America,
the Antilles and every South American republic--a task supplementing
the initial enterprise undertaken, in pursuance of the first Seven
Year Plan, in connection with the introduction of the Faith into the
republics of Latin America; in the even more rapid development of
nascent institutions of the Faith in Scandinavia, in the Benelux
countries, in Switzerland, in the Italian and Iberian Peninsulas; in the
laying of the administrative basis of the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh in
the capital and in some of the major cities of each of the ten European
sovereign states included within the scope of the Plan; in the convocation
of a series of historic teaching conferences in the north and in the
heart of the European continent--heralding the convocation of the
recently held, epoch-making Intercontinental Teaching Conferences;
in the translation, the publication and dissemination of Bahá'í literature
in various European languages; in the still more dramatic evolution
of the Faith in the African continent, culminating in the convocation
of the first Intercontinental Teaching Conference of the Holy Year in
the heart of Africa; in the tremendous sacrifices spontaneously and
repeatedly made to broaden and reinforce the foundations of the Faith
in the North American continent, to sustain the campaigns undertaken
in Latin America, Europe and Africa, and to meet the many demands
of the Bahá'í Temple, rapidly nearing completion in Wilmette; in the
successive emergence of three national spiritual assemblies in the Western
Hemisphere--an outstanding contribution to the evolution and
consolidation of the structure of the world Administrative Order of the
Faith; in the completion of the interior ornamentation of the first
Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of the West, the provision of its accessories and the
initiation of the landscaping of its grounds; in the support extended to
the development of the institutions of the World Center of the Faith;
in the role played by its representatives, whether as Hands of the Cause
or members of the International Bahá'í Council; in the financial aid
unhesitatingly given to hasten the construction, and insure the completion,
of the superstructure of the Báb's Sepulcher on Mt. Carmel--
above all, in the share its national elected representatives have assumed
in providing the means for the convocation of the second Intercontinental
Teaching Conference of the Holy Year; in commemorating
worthily the dedication to public worship of the Mother Temple of the
West, on the occasion of its Jubilee; in befittingly inaugurating the
launching of the World Spiritual Crusade, and in celebrating the
climax of the Holy Year marking the centenary of the birth of
Bahá'u'lláh's Mission--in all these the American Bahá'í Community
has fully deserved the praise and gratitude of posterity, has merited the
applause of the Concourse on High and earned a full measure of the
divine blessings and of the celestial sustenance of which it will stand in
such great need in the course of the prosecution of still mightier and
more glorious enterprises in the days to come.
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