To the First Canadian National Convention.
Hearts uplifted in thanksgiving to Baha'u'llah for the epoch-making event
of the coming of age of the dearly beloved Canadian Baha'i Community, the
formation of the first National Convention in the City of Montreal and the
forthcoming election of Canada's National Assembly constituting the ninth
pillar of the institution of the Universal House of Justice. I acknowledge
with reverent gratitude and deepest joy the marvellous influence of the
operation of the initial stage in 'Abdu'l-Baha's Divine Plan enabling the
northernmost community of the followers of the Faith on the American
continent to pass the stage of infancy and attain the status, and to
assume the functions of, an independent existence within the World Baha'i
Community. I recall on this auspicious occasion with profound emotion the
heroic services to the mother community of May Maxwell(1) whose life and
death forged unbreakable links binding the body of the Canadian believers
to the sister communities of the United States and Latin America. I am
moved to appeal to assembled delegates to arise in conjunction with the
first Canadian National Assembly, as a token of gratitude for the manifold
blessings of Divine Providence, to initiate in the hour of the birth of
their national activities a Five Year Plan designed to associate them,
formally and systematically and independently, with their sister community
of the United States, in the common task of the prosecution of their
world-encompassing mission. The fulfillment of this collective task
confronting the rapidly maturing community necessitates the incorporation
of the Canadian National Assembly, the establishment of National Baha'i
Endowments, doubling the number of Local Assemblies throughout the
Dominion and raising to one hundred the total number of localities where
Baha'is reside throughout the Provinces, the constitution of a group in
Newfoundland and the formation of a nucleus of the Faith in the Territory
of Greenland, singled out for special mention by the Author of the Divine
Plan, and the participation of Eskimos and Red Indians in membership to
share administrative privileges in local institutions of the Faith in
Canada. I fondly hope and ardently pray that the celebration of the first
centenary of the Birth of Baha'u'llah's prophetic mission will witness the
triumphant consummation of the first historic Plan launched by the
Canadian Baha'i Community in a land whose future greatness and glory, both
materially and spiritually, the Centre of Baha'u'llah's Covenant twice
emphatically proclaimed in His immortal Tablets.(2)