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Citadel of Faith
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Pages 106-109
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Forty-Fifth Annual Convention: U.S. Tasks in World Crusade
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My soul is uplifted in joy and thanksgiving at the triumphant
conclusion of the Second Seven Year Plan immortalized by the brilliant
victories simultaneously won by the vanguard of the hosts of
Bahá'u'lláh in Latin America, in Europe and in Africa--victories
befittingly crowned through the consummation of a fifty year old
enterprise, the completion of the first Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of the western
world. The signal success that has attended the second collective
enterprise undertaken in the course of American Bahá'í history climaxes
a term of stewardship to the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh, of almost three
score years' duration--a period which has enriched the annals of the
concluding epoch of the Heroic, and shed luster on the first thirty years
of the Formative Age of the Bahá'í Dispensation. So fecund a period
has been marked by teaching activities unexcelled throughout the
western world and has been distinguished by administrative exploits
unparalleled in the annals of any Bahá'í national community whether
in the East or in the West. I am impelled, on the occasion of the
anniversary of the Most Great Festival, coinciding with a triple
celebration--the dedication of the Mother Temple of the West, the
launching of a World Spiritual Crusade and the commemoration of the
Birth of Bahá'u'lláh's Mission--to pay warmest tribute to the preeminent
share which the American Bahá'í Community has had in the
course of over half a century in proclaiming His Revelation, in shielding
His Cause, in championing His Covenant, in erecting the administrative
machinery of His embryonic World Order, in expounding His
teachings, in translating and disseminating His Holy Word, in dispatching
the messengers of His Glad Tidings, in awakening royalty to
His Call, in succoring His oppressed followers, in routing His enemies,
in upholding His Law, in asserting the independence of His Faith, in
multiplying the financial resources of its nascent institutions and, last
but not least, in rearing its greatest House of Worship--the first
Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of the western world.
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The hour is now ripe for this greatly gifted, richly blessed community
to arise and reaffirm, through the launching of yet another
enterprise, its primacy, enhance its spiritual heritage, plumb greater
depths of consecration and capture loftier heights in the course of its
strenuous and ceaseless labors for the exaltation of God's Cause.
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The Ten Year Plan, constituting the third and final stage of the
initial epoch in the evolution of `Abdu'l-Bahá's Master Plan, which,
God willing, will raise to greater heights the fame of the stalwart
American Bahá'í Community, and seat it upon "the throne of an
everlasting dominion," envisaged by the Author of the Tablets of this
same Plan, involves:
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First, the opening of the following virgin territories, eleven in
Africa: Cape Verde Islands, Canary Islands, French Somaliland,
French Togoland, Mauritius, Northern Territories Protectorate, Portuguese
Guinea, Reunion Island, Spanish Guinea, St. Helena and St.
Thomas Island; eight in Asia: Caroline Islands, Dutch New Guinea,
Hainan Island, Kazakhstan, Macao Island, Sakhalin Island, Tibet and
Tonga Islands; six in Europe: Andorra, Azores, Balearic Islands,
Lofoten Islands, Spitzbergen and Ukraine; and four in America:
Aleutian Islands, Falkland Islands, Key West and Kodiak Island.
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Second, the consolidation of the Faith in the following territories,
six in Asia: China, Formosa, Japan, Korea, Manchuria, Philippine
Islands; two in Africa: Liberia and South Africa; twelve in Europe: the
ten goal countries, Finland and France; three in America: the
Hawaiian Islands, Alaska and Puerto Rico.
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Third, the extension of assistance to the National Spiritual Assemblies
of the Bahá'ís of Central and South America, as well as to the
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Italy and Switzerland in
forming twenty national spiritual assemblies in the republics of Latin
America and two in Europe, namely in Italy and Switzerland; the
extension of assistance for the establishment of a national Hazíratu'l-Quds
in the capital of each of the aforementioned countries as well as
of national Bahá'í endowments in these same countries.
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Fourth, the establishment of ten national spiritual assemblies in the
following European countries: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Belgium,
Holland, Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, France and Finland.
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Fifth, the establishment of a national spiritual assembly in Japan
and one in the South Pacific Islands.
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Sixth, the establishment of the National Spiritual Assembly of the
Bahá'ís of Alaska.
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Seventh, the establishment of the National Spiritual Assembly of
the Bahá'ís of South and West Africa.
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Eighth, the incorporation of each of the fourteen above-mentioned
national spiritual assemblies.
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Ninth, the establishment of national Bahá'í endowments by these
same national spiritual assemblies.
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Tenth, the establishment of a national Hazíratu'l-Quds in the
capital city of each of the eleven of the aforementioned countries, as
well as one in Anchorage, one in Suva, and one in Johannesburg.
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Eleventh, the erection of the first dependency of the first
Mashriqu'l-Adhkár of the western world.
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Twelfth, the extension of assistance for the purchase of land for
four future Temples, two in Europe: in Stockholm and Rome; one in
Central America, in Panama City; and one in Africa, in Johannesburg.
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Thirteenth, the completion of the landscaping of the grounds of the
Mashriqu'l-Adhkár in Wilmette.
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Fourteenth, the raising to one hundred of the number of incorporated
local assemblies within the American Union.
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Fifteenth, the raising to three hundred of the number of local spiritual
assemblies in that same country.
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Sixteenth, the incorporation of spiritual assemblies in the leading
cities of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg,
Spain and Portugal, as well as of the Spiritual Assemblies of Paris, of
Helsingfors, of Tokyo, of Suva and of Johannesburg.
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Seventeenth, the quadrupling of the number of local spiritual
assemblies and the trebling of the number of localities in the aforementioned
countries.
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Eighteenth, the translation of Bahá'í literature into ten languages in
Europe, (Basque, Estonian, Flemish, Lapp, Maltese, Piedmontese,
Romani, Romansch, Yiddish and Ziryen; ten in America: Aguaruna,
Arawak, Blackfoot, Cherokee, Iroquois, Lengua, Mataco, Maya, Mexican
and Yahgan.
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Nineteenth, the conversion to the Faith of members of the leading
Indian tribes.
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Twentieth, the conversion to the Faith of representatives of the
Basque and Gypsy races.
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Twenty-first, the establishment of summer schools in each of the
Scandinavian and Benelux countries, as well as those of the Iberian
Peninsula.
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Twenty-second, the proclamation of the Faith through the press
and radio throughout the United States of America.
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Twenty-third, the establishment of a Bahá'í Publishing Trust in
Wilmette, Illinois.
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Twenty-fourth, the formation of an Asian teaching committee
designed to stimulate and coordinate the teaching activities initiated by
the Plan.
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May this community--the spiritual descendants of the dawn-breakers
of the Heroic Age of the Bahá'í Faith, the chief repository of
the immortal Tablets of `Abdu'l-Bahá's Divine Plan, the foremost
executors of the Mandate issued by the Center of Bahá'u'lláh's Covenant,
the champion-builders of a divinely conceived Administrative
Order, the standard-bearers of the all-conquering army of the Lord of
Hosts, the torchbearers of a future divinely inspired world
civilization--arise, in the course of the momentous decade separating
the Great from the Most Great Jubilee to secure, as befits its rank, the
lion's share in the prosecution of a global crusade designed to diffuse
the light of God's revelation over the surface of the entire planet.
[April 29, 1953]
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