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Messages to Canada

  • Author:
  • Shoghi Effendi

  • Source:
  • Bahá’í Canada Publications
  • Pages:
  • 276
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Pages 102-104

The Birth of the Independent Canadian Bahá’í Community and the Five Year Plan 1948–1953

The Birth of the Independent Canadian Bahá’í Community and the Five Year Plan

Letter of 13 April 1948

[From the Guardian:]

13 April 1948

To the Canadian Bahá’í Convention

HEARTS UPLIFTED THANKSGIVING BAHÁ’U’LLÁH EPOCH-MAKING EVENT COMING AGE DEARLY BELOVED CANADIAN BAHÁ’Í COMMUNITY FORMATION FIRST NATIONAL CONVENTION CITY MONTREAL FORTHCOMING ELECTION CANADA’S NATIONAL ASSEMBLY CONSTITUTING NINTH PILLAR INSTITUTION UNIVERSAL HOUSE JUSTICE. ACKNOWLEDGE REVERENT GRATITUDE DEEPEST JOY MARVELLOUS INFLUENCE OPERATION INITIAL STAGE ‘ABDU’L-BAHÁ’S DIVINE PLAN ENABLING NORTHERNMOST COMMUNITY FOLLOWERS FAITH AMERICAN CONTINENT PASS STAGE INFANCY ATTAIN STATUS ASSUME FUNCTIONS INDEPENDENT EXISTENCE WITHIN WORLD BAHÁ’Í COMMUNITY. RECALL THIS AUSPICIOUS OCCASION WITH PROFOUND EMOTION HEROIC SERVICES MOTHER COMMUNITY MAY MAXWELL1 WHOSE LIFE DEATH FORGED UNBREAKABLE LINKS BINDING BODY CANADIAN BELIEVERS SISTER COMMUNITIES UNITED STATES LATIN AMERICA. MOVED APPEAL ASSEMBLED DELEGATES ARISE CONJUNCTION FIRST CANADIAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY TOKEN GRATITUDE MANIFOLD BLESSINGS DIVINE PROVIDENCE INITIATE HOUR BIRTH THEIR NATIONAL ACTIVITIES FIVE YEAR PLAN DESIGNED ASSOCIATE THEM FORMALLY SYSTEMATICALLY INDEPENDENTLY SISTER COMMUNITY UNITED STATES COMMON TASK PROSECUTION WORLD ENCOMPASSING MISSION. FULFILMENT THIS COLLECTIVE TASK CONFRONTING RAPIDLY MATURING COMMUNITY NECESSITATES INCORPORATION CANADIAN NATIONAL ASSEMBLY ESTABLISHMENT NATIONAL BAHÁ’Í ENDOWMENTS DOUBLING NUMBER LOCAL ASSEMBLIES THROUGHOUT DOMINION RAISING TO ONE HUNDRED TOTAL NUMBER LOCALITIES WHERE BAHÁ’ÍS RESIDE THROUGHOUT PROVINCES CONSTITUTION GROUP NEWFOUNDLAND FORMATION NUCLEUS FAITH TERRITORY GREENLAND SINGLED OUT SPECIAL MENTION AUTHOR DIVINE PLAN PARTICIPATION ESKIMOS RED INDIANS MEMBERSHIP SHARE ADMINISTRATIVE PRIVILEGES LOCAL INSTITUTIONS FAITH CANADA. FONDLY HOPE ARDENTLY PRAY CELEBRATION FIRST CENTENARY BIRTH BAHÁ’U’LLÁH’S PROPHETIC MISSION WILL WITNESS TRIUMPHANT CONSUMMATION FIRST HISTORIC PLAN LAUNCHED CANADIAN BAHÁ’Í COMMUNITY IN LAND WHOSE FUTURE GREATNESS GLORY BOTH MATERIALLY SPIRITUALLY CENTRE BAHÁ’U’LLÁH’S COVENANT TWICE EMPHATICALLY PROCLAIMED HIS IMMORTAL TABLETS.2

SHOGHI

1.May Ellis Maxwell—spiritual mother of the Canadian Bahá’í community, became a believer in 1898, visited ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in Haifa in 1899 and returned to Paris to found the first Bahá’í centre on the European continent, married Sutherland Maxwell and settled in Montreal in 1902, achieved “the priceless honour” of a “martyr’s death” in Argentina in 1940. For a review of the vast range of her contributions to the Faith in Europe and America, see The Bahá’í World Vol. VIII, 631–642, In Memoriam.  [ Back To Reference]
2.The Tablets of the Divine Plan, revealed by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá in 1916–17, and addressed severally to the Bahá’ís of the United States and Canada, constitute the authority for the successive Plans inaugurated by the Guardian for the spread of the Faith and the establishment of its Institutions throughout the world.  [ Back To Reference]