Dear and Valued Co-workers:
The brilliant success achieved by the Canadian Baha'i Community, marking
the triumphant conclusion of the Plan formulated on the morrow of the
emergence of the community as an independent member of the International
Baha'i Family, is to be regarded as a milestone of far-reaching importance
in the evolution of the Faith not only in the Dominion of Canada but
throughout the entire Western Hemisphere. The vitality displayed so
strikingly by this youthful community, the exemplary fidelity demonstrated
by its members to the spiritual as well as administrative principles of
the Faith in the conduct of their manifold activities; the splendid
cooperation with their national and local elected representatives which
they have invariably shown, at every stage in the development of the Plan;
the sacrifices they have repeatedly made; the vigilance and care which
they have exercised while discharging their sacred and weighty
responsibilities; the soundness of judgement, the enthusiasm and
perseverance that have distinguished them in the pursuance of their
tasks--all these have, in recent years, contributed, in no small measure,
to the raising of the prestige of this community in the eyes of its sister
communities in both the East and West, and in evoking feelings of profound
admiration in the hearts of the followers of the Faith in every continent
of the globe.
I myself am deeply touched, and feel a profound gratitude for the superb
contribution made by this community, still in the early years of its
development, to the world-wide progress of the Faith achieved since the
inception of the successive Plans undertaken by various National
Assemblies for the systematic propagation of the Faith throughout the
world.
The great strides which this virile and highly promising community has
made in so short a period, over so vast a continent, despite such
formidable obstacles, and in the service of so glorious a Cause, fill my
heart with confidence that the tasks it has now assumed, on the morrow of
the successful termination of the first collective enterprise undertaken
in Canadian Baha'i history, will be consummated in a manner that will
redound to the glory of the Faith to which its members are so wholly
dedicated.
The Ten Year Plan which your Assembly has now launched, in its capacity as
the elected representatives of the Canadian Baha'i Community--the
recognized allies of the chief executors of 'Abdu'l-Baha's Divine Plan--and
which constitutes so important a phase of the global Spiritual Crusade on
which the followers of the Faith have embarked, marks the inauguration of
the initial stage in the unfoldment of the glorious Mission of this
community, a Mission which will enable it to implant, in collaboration
with its sister community in the Great Republic of the West, and with the
support of the Latin American Baha'i communities associated in the
execution of the Divine Plan, the standard of the Faith in all continents
of the Globe.