Messages to the Bahá’í World: 1950–1957

Share National Assemblies following announcement supplementing message recently addressed to delegates of the Bahá’í Conventions.

Annual elections of the second year, second decade, of the second Bahá’í century, were signalized by the formation of the first historic local Assemblies in communities as diversified and far apart as Mecca, Qiblih of Islamic world, Muscat and Riaz, situated on the shore and in the heart of the Arabian Peninsula; in the Bahamas, British West Indies; in Diu Island, Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, Sargodha, Saigon, in Southeast Asia; Monte Carlo, Basel, Mongat, Orleans, Marseilles, Bergen, Cologne, in Europe; in Reunion Island, Zanzibar, Seychelles, Madagascar, in the Indian Ocean; in the holy cities of Kazímayn and Najaf, strongholds of Shí’ih orthodoxy in ‘Iráq, in addition to the group already established in Karbilá; Teneriffe and Las Palmas, in the Atlantic Ocean.

Africa alone boasts the establishment of above seventy new Assemblies, raising the total number established since the launching of the systematic simultaneous teaching campaigns on the African continent four years ago to well above one hundred. Uganda in particular achieved the unique, memorable feat of the formation of seventeen new Assemblies, swelling number of Assemblies to forty-one, localities to over hundred, total believers to almost nine hundred.

The sacred dust of the Báb’s infant son, extolled in the Qayyúmu’l-Asmá was respectfully and ceremoniously transferred on the anniversary of his Father’s martyrdom, in the presence of pilgrims and resident believers to the Bahá’í cemetery in Shíráz, the prelude to the translation to the same spot of the remains of the Báb’s beloved and long-suffering consort.

Five additional incorporations of local Assemblies, including Suva, Fiji. 86

A pioneer has embarked for Loyalty Island, the last remaining unopened island in the Pacific Ocean outside the Soviet orbit.

Negotiations for the purchase of national Hazírás in Colombo and Jakarta are nearing completion.

Preliminary steps have been undertaken for the establishment of a Bahá’í Publishing Trust in Ṭihrán.

The design for the Mother Temple in the cradle of the Faith was unveiled in the presence of pilgrims and resident believers assembled within the Ḥaram-i-Aqdas on the first day of Riḍván.