With warm Bahá’í love,
R. Rabbani
[From the Guardian:]
Dear and valued co-workers:
The opening of the second year of the third phase of the
Ten Year Bahá’í spiritual Crusade presents the entire Canadian
Bahá’í Community, and, particularly, its elected representatives,
with an opportunity, and brings them face to face
with a challenge, unique since its inception over half a century
ago.
The achievements that have distinguished the record of its
stewardship, ever since its founding, and particularly since
the launching of the World Bahá’í Crusade, both on the
homefront and beyond its confines, have been such as to ennoble
the annals of the Faith to which it is so whole-heartedly
dedicated, and to arouse in the hearts of all those who have
watched, throughout succeeding decades, its rise, its emergence
into independent existence, and its rapid consolidation, feelings
of profound admiration, of pride and of thankfulness.
The distance that has been traversed, in the course of the
four brief years since the inauguration of the Ten Year Plan,
by a community, still highly restricted in numbers and circumscribed
in resources, and faced with tremendous responsibilities,
as a result of the colossal task it has willingly shouldered,
is admittedly great, and augurs well for its further advancement
along the path traced for it by the pen of the Centre
of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant in His immortal Tablets.
The utmost care and vigilance, however, should be exercised
by this youthful and dynamic community, so richly laden
with the prizes it has so deservedly won, lest the momentum,
so painstakingly gained in recent years, in both the teaching
and administrative spheres of Bahá’í activity, be lost or reduced.
The standard of dedication and of efficiency, attained,
while pursuing the goals it has pledged itself to achieve, must
never be allowed, through apathy, neglect or faint-heartedness,
to be lowered. The vision that has fired its members, on the
occasion of the centenary celebrations which witnessed the
launching of the Ten Year Plan must, no matter how prolonged
or arduous the task, never grow dim. Their unswerving fidelity
to the Covenant established by the Author of their Faith,
and their attachment to the ideals and precepts enshrined in
His Revelation, should, under no circumstances, no matter
how active and subtle the machinations of its enemies, both
within and without, be weakened. The momentous and highly
exacting task, initiated far beyond the confines of their homeland—a task which posterity will recognize as the opening
chapter of their glorious Mission overseas—must be pursued
with undiminished diligence, nay with redoubled zeal, and
renewed determination and dedication. The no less vital obligation
to expand, and consolidate the manifold activities conducted
on the homefront, from the Atlantic to the Pacific seaboard,
and from the northern confines of the Great Republic
of the West to the fringes of the Arctic Ocean, must be faithfully
discharged. The setbacks and difficulties that have, unexpectedly
and most unfortunately, been recently experienced
in connection with the acquisition of both the national
Hazíratu’l-Quds and the site of the future Mother Temple of
Canada, must be faced with resolution and vigour, and a definite
and permanent solution be found which will ensure the
full attainment of these twofold primary objectives. The long
overdue conversion of the American Indians, the Eskimos and
French Canadians, as well as the representatives of other minorities
permanently residing within the borders of that vast
Dominion, must receive, in the months immediately ahead,
such an impetus as to astonish and stimulate the members of
all Bahá’í communities throughout the length and breadth of
the Western Hemisphere. The independent character of the Faith
they profess and champion must, moreover, be fully vindicated
through a closer adherence, on the part of the rank and file of
the believers, to its distinguishing tenets and precepts, as well
as through a fuller recognition by the civil authorities
concerned
of the Bahá’í Marriage Certificate and of the Bahá’í
Holy Days. The integrity of the fundamental teachings of the
Faith, its security, the healthy and steady development, and
ultimate fruition, of its nascent institutions, must, above all,
be ensured and safeguarded, for upon these will depend the
consummation of the Mission with which the Author of the
Tablet of the Divine Plan has chosen to entrust them.
The few remaining years, separating the steadfast and high-minded
members of the Canadian Bahá’í Community, striving
so assiduously to achieve their goals, from the time fixed
for the termination of a swiftly unfolding Crusade, are rapidly
slipping by. A community which, ever since its inception, has,
through the instrumentality of its most distinguished members,
and particularly its founder
and those nearest to her, as
well as a number of her spiritual children and associates, won
such prizes at the World Centre of the Faith, in Latin America,
in Europe, in Africa and in the Pacific area—such a community,
at this crucial hour, cannot afford to either stand still,
falter or hesitate. As this World Crusade sweeps majestically
forward and draws nearer to its close, exploits, as superb as
those its sons and daughters have successively achieved in
widely scattered areas of the globe, must continue to distinguish
and ennoble the imperishable record of its services.
‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s prophetic words regarding the future of its
homeland, spiritually as well as materially—the initial evidences
of which are becoming more apparent every day, must
not be lost sight of for a moment, however exacting and all-absorbing
the strenuous task ahead, however complex the problems
its prosecution involves, however burdensome the preoccupations
which it must needs engender.
Afire with that same love that burned so brightly in the
hearts of its earliest pioneers, holding fast to the strong cord of
the spiritual precepts and administrative principles of the Faith
it bas so whole-heartedly espoused, confident of its ability to
achieve, in its entirety, the Mission entrusted to it by the Author
of the Tablets of the Divine Plan, this community must
forge ahead, with undeviating loyalty, with indomitable courage,
with unbreakable unity, and exemplary consecration,
striving to scale loftier heights, and widening constantly the
range of its operations, on the American mainland as well as
in neighbouring and distant islands, until each and every objective
of its allotted task has been triumphantly attained.
Shoghi
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