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Messages to Canada

  • Author:

  • Shoghi Effendi

  • Source:
  • Bahá’í Canada Publications
  • Pages:
  • 276
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Pages 232-233

Letter of 13 January 1956

13 January 1956

To the National Spiritual Assembly

Dear Bahá’í Friends:
The beloved Guardian has instructed me to write you the following:
He was sorry to hear that the piece of plaster from the walls of the Prison of Máh-kú had not been placed in the grave of Mr. Maxwell;1 and he would like the National Assembly, with the greatest of care, to see that somehow or other in the foundation of the monument this piece of plaster is carefully inserted and preserved; if necessary, the head-stone can be removed, and it can be put under it, and the head-stone rebuilt in such a way as not to damage the head-stone.
He has decided that, in view of the fact that Anticosti is so extremely difficult to get into, the Canadian Assembly can choose some other goal as substitute for Anticosti. In other words, a territory or an island in the vicinity of Canada, which has never been opened to the Faith, may be opened in the place of Anticosti, and thus the goals of the Ten Year Plan will not be decreased.2 On the other hand, Anticosti should be maintained as an objective; and every effort be made to get a Bahá’í in there.
At present, Mr. Allan Raynor3 of your Assembly is visiting here, and, although unfortunately he has been laid up with a cold, it has been a great pleasure to have a Canadian Assembly member here.

With warmest Bahá’í greetings,

R. Rabbani
1.William Sutherland Maxwell—architect of the Shrine of the Báb, appointed a Hand of the Cause of God in 1951, died in Montreal in 1952. His “saintly life” is described in The Bahá’í World Vol. XII, 657–662, In Memoriam.  [ Back To Reference]
2.The Gulf Islands were later selected as a substitute for Anticosti Island, and opened by Cliff and Catherine Huxtable (1960–66).  [ Back To Reference]
3.Allan Raynor—member of the National Spiritual Assembly 1954–60 and 1963–64, passed away in 1979. See The Bahá’í World Vol. XVIII, 696–698, In Memoriam.  [ Back To Reference]