With warmest Bahá’í love,
R. Rabbani
[From the Guardian:]
Dear and valued co-workers:
The brilliant success achieved by the Canadian Bahá’í Community,
marking the triumphant conclusion of the Plan formulated
on the morrow of the emergence of the community as
an independent member of the international Bahá’í Family, is
to be regarded as a milestone of far-reaching importance in
the evolution of the Faith not only in the Dominion of Canada
but throughout the entire Western Hemisphere. The vitality
displayed so strikingly by this youthful community, the exemplary
fidelity demonstrated by its members to the spiritual as
well as administrative principles of the Faith in the conduct of
their manifold activities; the splendid co-operation with their
national and local elected representatives which they have invariably
shown, at every stage in the development of the Plan;
the sacrifices they have repeatedly made; the vigilance and care
which they have exercised while discharging their sacred and
weighty responsibilities; the soundness of judgement, the enthusiasm
and perseverance that have distinguished them in
the pursuance of their tasks—all these have, in recent years,
contributed, in no small measure, to the raising of the prestige
of this community in the eyes of its sister communities in
both the East and the West, and in evoking feelings of profound
admiration in the hearts of the followers of the Faith in
every continent of the globe.
I myself am deeply touched, and feel a profound gratitude
for the superb contribution made by this community, still in
the early years of its development, to the world-wide progress
of the Faith achieved since the inception of the successive Plans
undertaken by various National Assemblies for the systematic
propagation of the Faith throughout the world.
The great strides which this virile and highly promising
community has made in so short a period, over so vast a continent,
despite such formidable obstacles, and in the service of
so glorious a Cause, fill my heart with confidence that the tasks
it has now assumed, on the morrow of the successful termination
of the first collective enterprise undertaken in Canadian
Bahá’í history, will be consummated in a manner that will
redound to the glory of the Faith to which its members are so
wholly dedicated.
The Ten Year Plan which your Assembly has now launched,
in its capacity as the elected representatives of the Canadian
Bahá’í Community—the recognized allies of the chief executors
of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine Plan—and which constitutes so
important a phase of the Global Spiritual Crusade on which
the followers of the Faith have embarked, marks the inauguration
of the initial stage in the unfoldment of the glorious Mission
of this community, a Mission which will enable it to implant,
in collaboration with its sister-community in the Great
Republic of the West, and with the support of the Latin American
Bahá’í Communities associated in the execution of the
Divine Plan, the standard of the Faith in all continents of the
Globe.
Of all the objectives of this momentous Ten Year Plan, with
which the immediate destinies of this firmly-grounded, fully
consecrated, high-minded, spiritually quickened community
are so closely linked, the purchase of the site of the Mother
Temple
of the Dominion of Canada and the settlement of
pioneers
in the thirteen virgin territories and islands, eleven of
which are situated in North America and two in the South Pacific
Ocean, may be regarded as the most important.
Prompt and effective measures must, no matter how great
the sacrifice involved, be taken to ensure that, ere the termination
of the first two years of the Plan, these two paramount
objectives, which constitute the opening phase of the Plan, will
have been fully attained. The entire Community must arise, as
it has never risen before, to meet the challenge of the present
hour. The time fixed for the achievement of the initial victories
of the Plan is admittedly brief. The prizes to be won in
distant fields, under the most trying circumstances, by the
members of a community so youthful, so circumscribed in
number and resources, are so precious that none of them can
as yet even dimly imagine their transcendent glory. On the
homefront, as well as in the far-off islands of the Pacific Ocean,
in both the teaching and administrative fields, the Canadian
Bahá’í Community must labour incessantly in anticipation of
the fulfilment of the inspiring prophecies made by the Centre
of the Covenant Who, repeatedly and in unmistakable language,
promised to this Community a glorious future, and predicted
both the material and spiritual advancement of the nation of
which it forms a part.
On the success of this initial stage in the unfoldment of its
Mission in foreign fields—a stage which will witness the departure
of the Canadian pioneers from their homeland, in the
northern regions of the Western Hemisphere, to the South Sea
Islands—must depend the degree to which they will be active
in days to come in other continents of the globe and their neighbouring
islands. As the chosen allies of the chief executors of
the Master’s Divine Plan, they shoulder a responsibility which
is at once staggering, sacred and inescapable. The greater their
exertions, the more abundant will be the outpouring of celestial
grace vouchsafed to them by the Author of the Plan Himself,
Who in His immortal Tablets has more than once assured
of His unfailing aid all who arise to serve His Father’s Cause.
Now is the hour to demonstrate to the entire Bahá’í world
those qualities which the heroes of God, unfurling in the Western
Hemisphere the banners of a World Crusade destined to be
carried over the entire surface of the globe, must possess in
order to accomplish their exalted Mission. The Canadian Bahá’í
Community must stand in the vanguard of this conquering
army of Bahá’u’lláh. They must prove themselves increasingly
worthy of their high calling as this momentous Crusade steadily
unfolds. They must put their entire trust in Him Who guides
its destinies from His station on high. They must dedicate themselves
heart and soul to the fulfilment of all its objectives without
delay, without any exception.
That they may acquit themselves of their task, as befits
their high station in this great spiritual adventure, that they
may enrich their heritage, and noise abroad the fame of the
Cause of Bahá’u’lláh through a whole-hearted and valiant participation
in this world-girdling spiritual Crusade, is the object
of my constant prayer and one of my most cherished hopes.
Shoghi
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