With Bahá’í love,
R. Rabbani
P.S. The Guardian has received no copy of his last letter to
you, sent last spring, and thinks perhaps the material was lost.
Will you please send him a copy in whatever form it was circulated
amongst the believers?
[From the Guardian:]
Dear and valued co-workers:
The Plan on which the attention of the Canadian Bahá’í
Community is focused, and upon the success of which must
depend its immediate destinies, is now entering a critical stage,
demanding increasing vigilance on the part of all its members,
utter consecration to the Plan’s objectives, and a determined
inflexible resolve to carry it to a successful conclusion.
Little over a year separates this valiant community, still in
the earliest stage of its independent existence, from the fateful
hour that will mark the termination of the first collective enterprise
undertaken in its history. The vastness of the field in
which its infant strength is being tested is indeed staggering.
The resources it can command are severely limited. The number
of active participators, whether as pioneers or administrators,
is admittedly small. The experience of the vast majority
of its supporters is inadequate to the tremendous obligations
it has assumed. The obstacles confronting it whether in
Greenland, or among the Indians and the Eskimos of the extreme
North, are truly formidable. Yet the potency infused into
this community, through the Revelation of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Divine
Plan, and the spiritual capacity engendered in its earliest
members through His visit to their native land—distinctions
which it fully shares with its sister community in the Great
Republic of the West—empower it to discharge—if it but rise
to the occasion—all the responsibilities it has undertaken and
consummate the task to which it stands pledged.
The eyes of the Bahá’í world are expectantly turned towards
this newly erected pillar, designed to sustain in conjunction
with other National Assemblies the weight of the Supreme
Legislative Body of the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh. Sister
communities in both the East and the West, less privileged
than it and deprived of the primacy with which the twin Bahá’í
national communities labouring in the North American continent
have been invested by the unerring Pen of the Centre of
Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant, yet able to achieve, under circumstances
no less challenging, a success wholly out of proportion
to their numbers, are eagerly awaiting the outcome of this initial
crusade embarked upon by this blessed, this envied community
in conformity with the Mandate issued by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
in His immortal Tablets.
He Himself Who nourished and
watched over it with such loving care from the earliest days of
its inception, Who, in unmistakable language and on more
than one occasion, foreshadowed its glorious future, both
materially and spiritually, is from His station on high, gazing
down upon the youthful efforts exerted by a community so
dear to His heart, so newly launched upon a course which He
Himself has charted.
This final phase of the first Plan, undertaken by a newly
fledged, repeatedly blessed community, as it speeds to a close,
must witness an upsurge of spirit, of courage and determination,
a display of activity, a demonstration of self-sacrifice
and of solidarity such as to eclipse its brightest achievements
in the past. The highly meritorious tasks initiated in both
Greenland and Newfoundland need not be enlarged at the
present hour, but should, under no circumstances, be allowed
to suffer any setback. The work started among the Eskimos
and Indians should be maintained at its present level, and
should not be permitted to decline. An extraordinary concentration
of effort, systematic, determined and sustained, is however
required throughout all the nine provinces of the Dominion,
aiming at an unprecedented flow of contributions by the
entire body of the believers, each according to his or her means,
into the National Treasury; a marked increase in the number
of pioneers; a much greater dispersion; a higher degree of austerity;
a still nobler display of consecration—all of which must
result in a speedy multiplication of Assemblies and groups,
which constitutes the core of the Plan, and on which hinges its
fortunes.
The fleeting months ahead will be truly decisive. Upon the
success of the present Plan must depend, not only the joint
tribute to be paid by the Canadian Bahá’í Community to the
memory of the Founder of the Faith on the occasion of the
centenary of the Birth of His Revelation, but also the rapid
unfoldment of subsequent stages of the Mission which the Tablets
of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá so clearly and emphatically entitle it to
fulfil.
The opportunity given to this Community is precious, unutterably
precious. The fate of this first historic Plan now hangs
in the balance. The present chance, if lost, cannot be retrieved.
The issues on which hinge the successful prosecution of the
Plan are so weighty that none can assess them at present. The
needs of a sorely-stricken society, groping in its distress for
God’s redemptive Message, are growing more acute with every
passing hour. The Canadian Bahá’í Community, newly emerged
as an independent member of the Bahá’í World Community,
so richly blessed through its elevation to the rank of a chosen
prosecutor of a Divine Plan, unique, in many respects, among
its sister communities in both Hemispheres in the manifold
blessings bestowed upon it, can neither afford to flinch for a
moment or hesitate in the discharge of its sacred duty. Every
effort exerted by this community, during these fate-laden
months, every sacrifice willingly endured by its members, will,
if they but persevere, be richly blessed by Him Who brought it
into being, who nursed it through His love, Who conferred upon
it so distinguished a Mission, Who made such magnificent
promises regarding its future, and Who will continue to sustain
it though His unfailing, His abounding grace and favour.
May this Community, ever aware of the position it occupies,
and of the bright prospects unfolding before it, brace itself
for one, last, supreme effort, and ensure, while there is yet
time, the complete and total success of the enterprise to which
it stands committed.
Shoghi
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