[Wilmette--Chicago, May 1953]
With a heart overflowing with joy and thankfulness I acclaim, at this hour
marking the climax of the world-wide festivities of this Holy Year, the
convocation, in the heart of the North American continent and under the
shadow of the newly consecrated Mother Temple of the West, of the second
and, without doubt, the most distinguished of the four Intercontinental
Teaching Conferences commemorating the Centenary of the inception of the
Mission of Baha'u'llah. On the occasion of the opening of this
epoch-making conference, at which members of the United States, the
Canadian, the Central American and South American National Spiritual
Assemblies, as well as representatives of the Baha'i communities in the
states of the American Union, in the provinces of the Dominion of Canada,
in Alaska, and in the republics of Latin America, are assembled, I recall
the unique, the historic, the highly significant and profoundly moving
summons issued by the Author of the Baha'i Faith Himself, and enshrined
for all time in the Mother-Book of His Revelation and repository of His
laws, and addressed collectively to the rulers of the entire Western
Hemisphere, conferring upon them an honor such as has not been conferred
by Him on the rulers of any other continent of the globe. With a throbbing
heart I call to mind, at a distance of more than a century, since the
Herald of the Faith bade in His Qayyumu'l-Asma the "peoples of the West"
to "issue forth" from their "cities" to aid His Cause, the long series of
events which have illuminated the annals of Baha'i history in the course
of six memorable decades stretching from the time when the name of
Baha'u'llah was first publicly mentioned on the American continent to the
present hour when the first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the West has finally
been dedicated to public worship on the occasion of the celebrations
signalizing the termination of the first century since the birth of His
Mission. I can but, at this juncture, touch upon certain outstanding
episodes which, viewed in their proper perspective, may well be regarded
as landmarks in the rise and development of the Faith of Baha'u'llah
throughout the Americas. I am particularly reminded of the holding of the
World Parliament of Religions of Chicago in September 1893; of the arrival
of the first American Baha'i pilgrims in the Holy Land in December 1898;
of the inception of the Temple enterprise in June 1903; of the opening of
the first American Baha'i Convention in March 1909; of 'Abdu'l-Baha's
arrival in America in April 1912; of the laying by Him of the cornerstone
of the Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar in May 1912; of the unveiling of the Tablets
of the Divine Plan in April 1919; of the birth and rise of the Baha'i
Administrative Order on the morrow of 'Abdu'l-Baha's ascension; of the
official inauguration of 'Abdu'l-Baha's Plan through the launching of the
first seven-year teaching enterprise in April 1937; of the completion of
the exterior ornamentation of the Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar, on the eve of the
centenary celebrations of the Founding of the Faith, in May 1944; of the
inception of the Second Seven-Year Plan in April 1946; of the formation of
an independent National Spiritual Assembly in the Dominion of Canada in
April 1948; of the establishment of the National Spiritual Assemblies of
Central and South America in April 1951; and of the completion of the
interior ornamentation of the Temple in October 1952.