In the United States of America, the home of the champion-builders of a
fast-evolving Order, an official invitation was extended to the Baha'i
Community by the San Francisco Council of Churches to send representatives
to attend a Service of Prayer for Peace and Divine Guidance to the United
Nations, an invitation to which the Community warmly responded. At this
inter-religious gathering, held in the Cow Palace in San Francisco, the
birthplace of the Charter of the United Nations, which united nearly
sixteen thousand people in worship and silent prayers, and at which
government leaders, among them the United States Secretary of State, were
present, the voice of the Baha'i representative was the first to be
raised, reciting a prayer revealed by Baha'u'llah, after whom a prayer was
read by each of the representatives of the Christian, the Muslim, the
Jewish, the Hindu, and the Buddhist Faiths, all of whom were similarly
invited to participate in that immense and historic gathering. A prayer
revealed by 'Abdu'l-Baha for America was presented by the elected national
representatives of the United States Baha'i Community to President
Eisenhower, who acknowledged its receipt in warm terms and above his own
signature.