Dear and Valued Co-workers:
The Plan on which the attention of the Canadian Baha'i 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 of 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-Baha'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 Baha'i 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 Baha'u'llah. Sister communities in both the East and the West, less
privileged than it and deprived of the primacy with which the twin Baha'i
national communities labouring in the North American continent have been
invested by the unerring Pen of the Centre of Baha'u'llah'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-Baha in His immortal
Tablets(21). 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.