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Citadel of Faith
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Pages 151-153
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ENDURING ACHIEVEMENTS
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A prodigious expenditure of effort, a stupendous flow of material
resources, an unprecedented dispersal of pioneers, embracing so vast a
section of the globe, and bringing in their wake the rise, the multiplication
and consolidation of so many institutions, so divers in character, so
potent and full of promise, already stand to their credit, and augur well
for a befitting consummation of a decade-long task in the years
immediately ahead.
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The opening of a large percentage of the virgin territories, scattered
over the face of the planet, and assigned, under the provisions of the
Ten-Year Plan, to this community and its sister and daughter communities
in all continents of the globe; the allocation of vast sums, for the
founding of national Hazíratu'l-Quds, for the establishment of national
Bahá'í endowments; and for the purchase of the sites of future Bahá'í
Temples; the financial aid extended and the moral support accorded to
a still persecuted sister community, struggling heroically for its
emancipation, in the cradle of the Faith; the steady progress in the vital
process of incorporating firmly grounded local spiritual assemblies in
various states of the union; the translation of Bahá'í literature into the
languages listed in the Ten-Year Plan, as well as into a number of
supplementary languages, spontaneously undertaken by American
Bahá'í pioneers in territories far beyond the confines of their homeland;
the completion of the landscaping of the area immediately surrounding
the Mother Temple of the West, in conformity with the expressed,
often repeated wishes of `Abdu'l-Bahá, contributing so greatly to the
beauty of an edifice, the spiritual influence of which He, repeatedly
and unequivocally, emphasized; the acquisition of the site of the first
dependency of that same edifice, designed to pave the way for the early
establishment of the first of several institutions, which, as conceived by
Him, will be grouped around every Bahá'í House of Worship, complementing,
through their association with direct service to mankind, in
the educational, the humanitarian and social fields, its spiritual function
as the ordained place of communion with the Creator and the
Spirit of His appointed Messenger in this day; the establishment of the
Bahá'í Publishing Trust; the generous financial assistance extended,
the administrative guidance vouchsafed and the unfailing encouragement
given, by the elected representatives of this same community
to the newly fledged assemblies, emerging into independent existence
in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres; the substantial share
which one of its members has had in the acquisition of one of the holy
sites in the capital city of Bahá'u'lláh's native land; the preponderating
role played by the various agencies, acting under the direction of its
national elected representatives, in giving publicity to the Faith,
through the proclamation of the fundamental verities underlying the
Bahá'í Revelation, the airing of the manifold grievances weighing so
heavily on the overwhelming majority of their coreligionists, and the
appeals directed, on their behalf, to men of eminence in various walks
of life, as well as to different departments of the United Nations, both
in New York and Geneva; and, finally, ranking as equally meritorious
to anything hitherto achieved by the members of this privileged
community, the magnificent and imperishable contribution made by
them, singly and collectively, to the rise and establishment of the
institutions of their beloved Faith at its World Center; through the
assistance given by their distinguished representatives serving in the
Holy Land, in hastening the erection of the Bahá'í International
Archives, through the purchase of the site of the Mother Temple of the
Holy Land, the enlargement of the scope of Bahá'í international
endowments on the slopes of Mt. Carmel and in the Plain of Akká, the
embellishment of the sacred precincts of the two holiest Shrines of the
Bahá'í world; the formation of the Israel Branches of four national
spiritual assemblies, the preparation and completion of the designs of
the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkárs to be erected in the Asiatic, the African
and Australian continents, and the setting in motion, through the
instrumentality of various departments of the Israeli government, of a
long-drawn-out process, culminating in the expropriation by the state
of the entire property, owned and controlled by the remnants of the
breakers of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant, immediately surrounding His
resting-place and the Mansion of Bahjí, the evacuation of this property
by this ignoble band, and the final and definite purification, after the
lapse of no less than six decades, of the Outer Sanctuary of the Most
Holy Shrine of the Bahá'í world, of the defilement, which had caused
so much sorrow and anxiety to the heart of `Abdu'l-Bahá--these are
among the enduring achievements which four brief years of unremitting
devotion to the interests of the Ten-Year Plan have brought about,
and which will eternally redound to the glory of the champion-builders
of Bahá'u'lláh's embryonic World Order, holding aloft so valiantly the
banner of His Faith in the great republic of the West.
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