So brilliant and diversified a record of services to the Cause of
Baha'u'llah, in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres, has been greatly
enriched by the plans now initiated for the launching of an ambitious
three-fold enterprise, designed to compensate for the disabilities
suffered by the sorely-tried Community of the followers of His Faith in
the land of His birth, aiming at the erection, in localities as far apart
as Frankfurt, Sydney and Kampala, of the Mother-Temples of the European,
the Australian and African continents, at a cost of approximately one
million dollars, complementing the Temples already constructed in the
Asiatic and American continents. One-third of this sum I, gladly and with
a grateful heart, pledge at this auspicious hour, a sum which, when added
to the funds already donated for this laudable purpose, amounting to one
hundred and forty thousand dollars--over one hundred thousand of which
represents the munificent donation of the Hand of the Cause, Amelia
Collins--will constitute well-nigh half of the entire amount required to
ensure the consummation of this stupendous, epoch-making undertaking.
The designs for these sacred Fanes, to be raised to the glory of the
Founder of our Faith, and dedicated to the worship of the one true God,
have, in the case of the Australian and African Temples, been already
executed by the Hand of the Cause, Mason Remey, whilst the design for the
German Temple has been completed by the German architect, Teuto
Rocholl--all three of which will be exhibited, for the first time, to the
assembled delegates at the thirteen historic Baha'i National Conventions
being held for the first time during this year's Ridvan Festival. The
excavation of the foundations of the African Temple has actually
commenced, whilst plans and specifications are being prepared by a
well-known firm in Kampala. The construction of the Australian Temple has,
moreover, been placed in the hands of a reliable Sydney architect, who
will have completed the detailed drawings and specifications by the first
of Ridvan, and contemplates beginning work on the foundations by next June
and completing the building by March, 1959.
To the National and Local Spiritual Assemblies, more than a thousand in
number, to groups as well as individuals, in every continent of the globe,
and in whatever island they may be laboring in the service of this
glorious Faith, I direct an earnest plea to arise, now that the prodigious
task of the purchase of more than forty national Haziratu'l-Quds, and the
establishment of Baha'i national endowments in nearly fifty countries, has
been triumphantly consummated and display, at this hour when the global
Spiritual Crusade has just passed the third-way point, the self-same
solidarity, generosity, tenacity and single-mindedness which they have
consistently demonstrated since its inauguration four years ago, which
have insured the success of some of the most arduous enterprises launched
under the Ten-Year Plan, and which, in the decades preceding its
inception, have brought to a glorious culmination the task of erecting the
first two Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kars of the Baha'i world.