Messages to America

The followers of Bahá’u’lláh throughout five continents unanimously rejoice in the partial emergence of a war-torn humanity from the titanic upheaval unerringly predicted seventy years ago by the Pen of the Author of their Faith. The cessation of hostilities in the European continent signalizes 81 yet another chapter in the tragic tale of fiery trials providentially decreed by inscrutable wisdom designed ultimately to weld the mutually antagonistic elements of human society into a single, organically-united, unshatterable world commonwealth. They gratefully acclaim the signal evidence of the interposition of divine Providence which during such perilous years enabled the World Center of our Faith to escape what posterity will recognize as one of the gravest dangers which ever confronted the nerve center of its institutions. They are profoundly aware of the bountiful grace vouchsafed by that same Providence insuring, unlike the previous world conflict, uninterrupted intercourse between the spiritual Center and the vast majority of the communities functioning within the orbit of a far-flung Faith. They are immeasurably thankful for the miraculous preservation of the Indian, Persian, Egyptian, British and Iráqí communities, long threatened by dire perils owing to their proximity to the theatre of military operations. They are deeply conscious that the progress achieved, despite six tempestuous years, in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, through the collective enterprises launched by these communities, outshines the sum total of the accomplishments since the inception of the Formative Age of the Faith.

The Seven Year Plan inaugurated by the American Bahá’í community under the lowering clouds of the approaching conflict victoriously completed the exterior ornamentation of the Mother Temple of the West, established the structural basis of the Faith in every State and Province of the North American continent, and hoisted its banner in every Republic of Latin America. The Indian believers’ Six Year Plan, launched on the eve of hostilities, more than quadrupled the centers functioning within the pale of the Administrative Order. The edifices consecrated to the administrative affairs of an ever-advancing Cause, involving the expenditure of over a hundred thousand dollars, were erected, purchased or completed in the Capital Cities of India, ‘Iráq and Egypt as well as Sydney, Australia. The acquisition of numerous properties in Bahá’u’lláh’s native land, on Mount Carmel and in the Jordan Valley, as well as the purchase of several important historic sites associated with the Lives of both the Herald and the Author of the Faith, swelled to an unprecedented degree our Bahá’í endowments.

Preliminary steps for the completion of the Báb’s Sepulchre and the establishment of the World Administrative Center through the removal of the Remains of the Brother and Mother of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá were undertaken. The termination of the First Century of the Bahá’í Era, synchronizing with the climax of the raging storm, was publicly and befittingly celebrated, despite the multiplication of restrictions. Above all, the unity and integrity of an incorruptible world community was consistently safeguarded in face 82 of the insidious opposition of avowed enemies without and the Covenant-breakers within.

Such splendid victories, over so vast a field, amidst such tribulations during so prolonged an ordeal, augur well for the colossal tasks destined to be accomplished during the course of the peaceful years ahead by the builders of the embryonic World Order of Bahá’u’lláh amidst the wreckage of a disrupted, disillusioned society.

Cablegram May 12, 1945