Letters from the Guardian to Australia and New Zealand

Miss Grette S. Lamprill, Secretary,
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Australia and New Zealand.

The beloved Guardian has received your letters of December 20 and 21, 1951, February 12 and 26, March 11 and May 2, 1952, with enclosures, and has instructed me to answer you on his behalf.

As regards various matters raised in your letters, Mr. … is now in Khartoum, Sudan at the following address: Mr. …, Khartoum. The reason the Guardian knows this is that he has received a contribution from him for the Shrine, which he has asked the Bank to trace back to the sender, so that he can return it to him.

The Guardian suggests that you contact Mr. …, and press him to discharge his debt to the believer in Fiji whom he has so grievously wronged, pointing out to him that surely, if he expects any forgiveness from God, the first pre-requisite is to conduct himself honestly.

The Guardian was very happy to hear that as a result of Mrs. Bolton’s trip to New Caledonia, there is now a believer in that far-off island. He was also very happy to hear of the close contact you maintain with the friends in Suva, and considers that this is extremely important, as of course at the New Delhi Conference, plans will have to be made for the unfoldment of the Faith throughout all the Pacific Islands, and the more strong centers we have to begin with, the better.

As regards World Religion Day, the Guardian does not attach any importance to what date the meeting is held on. 104 World Religion Day has nothing to do with our Faith as such, but is merely a useful means of getting the public together and bringing the Cause to them.

He sees no reason why Mother Dunn should not have a companion in the Hazírá, and hopes that she will settle down there comfortably and happily.

The sympathy you have expressed on the occasion of the passing of dear Mr. Maxwell was much appreciated by the Guardian. Although Mr. Maxwell is naturally missed very much here, the services God in His bounty enabled him to accomplish for the Faith preclude any feelings of sadness, when we think of the blessings showered upon him.

He urges your Assembly to constantly stimulate the believers to achieve their goals. It would be a great pity if, after the success of their First Plan, their Second historic Plan did not likewise culminate in victory, more particularly in view of the fact that the New Delhi Conference will involve the formation of work to be undertaken by eight National Bodies during a ten year period.

Consequently all Assemblies, not only yours, but all National Assemblies all over the world, should, so to speak, clear the decks for action, and wind up their present business, so that they will be free to carry out the much more important work that lies ahead of them.

The Guardian feels sure that the Australian and New Zealand Bahá’ís can make and will make sufficient effort to consummate their Plan with success. He is certainly sustaining them with his ardent prayers.

He assures you all that your labours are most deeply appreciated.

Though extremely preoccupied, during recent months, with the constantly expanding activities and manifold problems arising at the World Centre of the Faith, necessitating, to my extreme regret, a considerable delay in acknowledging your assembly’s communications, I have been watching, with close interest and ever deepening admiration, the progressive unfoldment 105 of the task which the community of the believers in Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania are so valiantly shouldering. I have noted, with particular gratification, the simultaneous advance made in the extension of the teaching activities of the steadfast and self-sacrificing members of this forward-looking highly promising community, as well as in the consolidation of the institutions which they are laboriously establishing throughout that far-away continent and its neighbouring islands. I rejoice at the remarkable vitality, courage and determination which they are increasingly demonstrating in enlarging the limits of the Faith and in implanting its banner beyond the confines of that continent, over and above the task assigned to them in accordance with the provisions of their Plan, and in territories where they are destined to exert a notable influence through their collective efforts and achievements in the years immediately ahead.

As the Plan, to which they stand committed, enters upon the last stage in its unfoldment the members of this community, however remarkable their accomplishments have been in the past, must steel themselves and through a supreme effort, endeavour to rise to still greater heights of dedication, display in the pioneering field a still more compelling degree of consecration, evince a still nobler spirit of self-abnegation, and a greater awareness of the gravity of the issues at stake and of the inestimable value of the prizes within their reach. That they may be qualified to undertake a still greater mission, assume weightier responsibilities and embark upon mightier enterprises, the adequate discharge of their present duties and the fulfilment of their sacred obligations is no doubt essential.

The multiplication and consolidaion of the administrative institutions of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh throughout Australia, New Zealand and Tasmania, as its followers in those regions, must undoubtedly be well aware, constitutes the primary foundation for, and the necessary prelude to, the firm establishment of the institutions of His Administrative Order, beyond the confines and in the neighbourhood of these territories, and amidst the highly diversified tribes and races inhabiting the numerous and widely scattered islands and archipelagos of the South Pacific Ocean.

The approaching Holy Year, a period of such unique significance in the history of the Faith; the prospect of the active participation 106 of some of the elected representatives and members of the community holding aloft the torch of the Faith in the Antipodes; in one of the most important Conferences to be held during that year; their formal association with no less than seven other National Spiritual Assemblies in the prosecution of the colossal tasks that are to be initiated in South East Asia, in the course of the coming decade; the manifold blessings which must assuredly flow from the assumption of such a sacred function and in the course of the development of so gigantic, so challenging and so meritorious an undertaking, can surely not fail to galvanize the privileged members of this community, constituting a vital outpost of the Faith, and occupying such a spiritually strategic position in the world crusade soon to be launched by itself and its sister communities in both the East and the West, into action, at once so swift and decisive, as to add fresh lustre to the annals of the Faith.

This community, now standing on the threshold of an era of unprecedented expansion, and gazing towards the glorious future that awaits it, must seize the priceless opportunities which these fast-fleeting months offer it, and must not allow for a moment its vision to be dimmed, its resolution to flag, its attention to be distracted or its faith in its ultimate destiny to waver.

With a heart full of hope, and with an affection and fervour which every forward step in the progress of its strenous labours serves to intensify, I will supplicate at the threshold of the Shrine of Bahá’u’lláh to enable His stalward followers championing His Cause in those far-away lands to achieve a resounding success in the task they have pledged themselves to fulfil.