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Citadel of Faith
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Pages 2-4
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Participation in Second Seven Year Plan [MESSAGE TO 1947 CONVENTION]
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My heart is filled with delight, wonder, pride and gratitude in
contemplation of the peace-time exploits, in both hemispheres, of the
world community of the followers of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, triumphantly
emerging from the crucible of global war and moving irresistibly
into the second epoch of the Formative Age of the Bahá'í Dispensation.
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The opening years of the second century of the Bahá'í Era, synchronizing
with concluding stage of the memorable quarter-century
elapsed since the termination of the Heroic Age of the Faith, have been
distinguished by a compelling demonstration by the entire body of
believers, headed by the valorous American Bahá'í Community, of
solidarity, resolve and self-sacrifice as well as by a magnificent record of
systematic, world-wide achievements.
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The three years since the celebration of the Centenary have been
characterized by a simultaneous process of internal consolidation and
steady enlargement of the orbit of a fast-evolving Administrative Order.
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These years witnessed, first, the astounding resurgence of a
war-devastated Bahá'í community of Central Europe, the rehabilitation of
the communities in Southeast Asia, the Pacific Islands and the Far
East; second, the inauguration of a new Seven Year Plan by the
American Bahá'í Community destined to culminate with the Centenary
of the Birth of Bahá'u'lláh's Prophetic Mission, aiming at the
formation of three national assemblies in Latin America and the
Dominion of Canada, at completion of the holiest House of Worship in
the Bahá'í world, and at the erection of the structure of the Administrative
Order in ten sovereign states of the European continent; and
third, the formulation by the British, the Indian and the Persian
National Assemblies of Six Year, Four and One-Half Year, and Forty-Five
Month Plans respectively, culminating with the Centenary of the
Báb's Martyrdom and pledged to establish nineteen spiritual assemblies
in the British Isles, double the number of assemblies in the Indian
subcontinent, establish ninety-five new centers of the Faith in Persia,
convert the groups in Bahrein, Mecca and Kabul into assemblies and
plant the banner of the Faith in the Arabian territories of Yemen,
Oman, Ahsa and Kuweit.
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Moreover, the number of countries opened to the onsweeping
Faith, and the number of languages in which its literature has been
translated and printed, is now raised to eighty-three and forty-seven,
respectively. Four additional countries are in process of enrollment.
Translations into fifteen other languages are being undertaken. No less
than seventeen thousand pounds have accumulated for the international
relief of war-afflicted Bahá'í communities of East and West. The
Bahá'í endowments on the North American continent have now passed
the two million dollar mark. The value of the endowments recently
acquired at the World Center of the Faith, dedicated to the Shrines, are
estimated at thirty-five thousand pounds. Bahá'í literature has been
disseminated as far north as Upernavik, Greenland, above the Arctic
Circle. The Bahá'í message has been broadcast by radio as far south as
Magallanes. The area of land dedicated to the Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of
Persia has increased by almost a quarter-million square meters. The
number of localities in the Antipodes where Bahá'ís reside has been
raised to thirty-five, spread over Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania.
Twenty-seven assemblies are functioning in Latin America. In
over a hundred localities Bahá'ís are resident in Central and South
America, almost double the localities at opening of the first Seven Year
Plan. Historic Latin American conferences have been held in Buenos
Aires and Panama. Summer schools are established in Argentina and
Chile. Land has been offered in Chile for site of the first
Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of Latin America. Additional assemblies have been
incorporated in Paraguay and Colombia. Seven others are in process of
incorporation. A notable impetus has been lent this world-redeeming
Message through the concerted measures devised by the American
National Assembly designed to proclaim the Faith to the masses
through public conferences, press and radio.
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Such remarkable multiplication of dynamic institutions, such thrilling
deployment of world-regenerating forces, North, South, East and
West, endow the preeminent goal of the Second Seven Year Plan in
Europe with extraordinary urgency and peculiar significance. I am
impelled to appeal to all American believers possessing independent
means to arise and supplement the course of the second year of the
Second Seven Year Plan through personal participation or appointment
of deputies, the superb exertions of the heroic vanguard of the hosts
destined, through successive decades, to achieve the spiritual conquest
of the continent unconquered by Islám, rightly regarded as the mother
of Christendom, the fountainhead of American culture, the mainspring
of western civilization, and the recipient of the unique honor of two
successive visits to its shores by the Center of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant.
[April 28, 1947]
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