The national plans, formulated and vigorously and systematically
prosecuted, in the course of the concluding years of the first, and the
opening years of the second, epoch of the Formative Age of the Faith, by
the Baha'i communities in the United States, in Persia, in the British
Isles, in Latin America, in Canada, in India, Pakistan and Burma, in
'Iraq, in Australia and New Zealand, in Germany and Austria, in Egypt and
the Sudan, have raised the number of Baha'i centers established in both
hemispheres to two thousand five hundred maintained by representatives of
the white, the black, the yellow, the red and the brown races of mankind,
comprising ten in the Arabian Peninsula, over thirty in Egypt and the
Sudan, over forty in the recently opened European goal countries, over
fifty in the British Isles, over sixty in Australia, New Zealand and
Tasmania, over seventy in Germany and Austria, over ninety in Canada, over
ninety in India, Pakistan and Burma, over one hundred in Central and South
America, over six hundred in Persia and over one thousand two hundred in
the United States of America. The superstructure of the Sepulcher of the
Martyr-Herald of the Faith--a three-quarters of a million dollar
enterprise--is nearing completion, on the slopes of the Mountain of God,
within the heart of the Holy Land, the nest of the Prophets, and the
divinely chosen Spiritual and Administrative Center of the Baha'i world.
The preliminary measures, heralding the unfoldment of the institution of
Guardianship, the pivot of 'Abdu'l-Baha's Will and Testament, have been
adopted, through the appointment of the first two contingents of the Hands
of the Cause, numbering nineteen, recruited from the five continents of
the globe, representative in their extraction of the three principal
religions of mankind, and constituting the nucleus of that august
institution invested with such weighty and sacred functions by the Center
of Baha'u'llah's Covenant. The International Baha'i Council, comprising
eight members, charged with assisting in the manifold activities attendant
upon the rise of the World Administrative Center of the Faith, which must
pave the way for the formation of a Baha'i International Court and the
eventual emergence of the Universal House of Justice, the supreme
legislative body of the future Baha'i Commonwealth, has been established,
enlarged, and the functions of its members defined. The number of the
pillars of the Universal House of Justice has been raised to twelve
through the successive formation of the Canadian, the Central American,
the South American and the Italo-Swiss National Spiritual Assemblies. The
stupendous process of the rise and consolidation of the World
Administrative Center of the Faith has been accelerated through the
acquisition, in the Plain of Akka, of a one hundred and sixty thousand
square meter area, surrounding the Qiblih of the Baha'i world, permitting
of the extension of the Outer Sanctuary of the Most Holy Tomb--to be
designated henceforth the Haram-i-Aqdas--through the initiation, at the
inception of the Holy Year, of the landscaping and embellishment of a
tenth of the acquired area, and through the adoption of measures for the
extensive illumination of the entire Sanctuary and the erection of stately
portals constituting a befitting tribute to the memory of the Author of
the Faith, within the sacred precincts of His Sepulcher, on the occasion
of the celebration of the greatest festival of the year commemorating the
Centenary of the birth of His Mission. The fifty-year-old enterprise,
involving the purchase of land for the construction, the exterior and
interior ornamentation, and the landscaping of the grounds of the holiest
House of Worship ever to be reared to the glory of the Most Great Name,
the Mother Temple of the West, and involving the expenditure of over two
and a half million dollars, has been consummated, in time for its
dedication to public worship during the Ridvan period of this Holy Year
coinciding with both the fiftieth anniversary of the inception of this
enterprise and the one-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Baha'u'llah's
ministry. The design for the Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar on Mt. Carmel,
conceived by the architect appointed by 'Abdu'l-Baha, has been completed,
and a model constructed, which is soon to be unveiled at the All-America
Intercontinental Teaching Conference, in anticipation of the selection and
the purchase of its future site, and of its ultimate construction in the
neighborhood of the Bab's Sepulcher. The total area of Baha'i
international endowments, surrounding and permanently dedicated to the
Tomb of the Bab has been raised, through recent successive purchases of
extensive plots, overlooking that hallowed spot, to almost one-quarter of
a million square meters. The estimated value of the Baha'i international
endowments and holy places at the World Center of the Faith, in the twin
cities of Akka and Haifa, has passed the four million dollar mark. The
Baha'i national endowments in the United States of America now exceed
three million dollars. The area of land purchased on the slopes of the
Elburz Mountains, overlooking the city of Tihran, in anticipation of the
construction of the first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of Persia, has reached
approximately four million square meters. The area of land dedicated to
the Shrine of Baha'u'llah, in the vicinity of the confines of the Holy
Land, exceeds two million three hundred thousand square meters. The area
of land dedicated to the Shrine of the Bab and registered in the name of
the Israel branch of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the
United States of America, is more than one hundred thousand square meters.
Over one hundred and fifty thousand square meters of land have been
dedicated to the Faith in the Antipodes, eighty thousand square meters in
the Territory of Alaska, whilst the lands contributed in Latin America for
a similar purpose approximate one-half of a million square meters, ninety
thousand of which have been set aside near Santiago, Chile, for the first
Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of South America. The estimated value of the
national Baha'i administrative headquarters established in Tihran, in
Wilmette, Illinois, in Ba_gh_dad, in Cairo, in New Delhi, in Sydney, in
Frankfurt and in Toronto, exceeds one and three-quarters of a million
dollars. The Baha'i spiritual assemblies now incorporated number one
hundred and fourteen, of which nine are national and the rest local
assemblies, fifty-six of which are in the United States of America,
sixteen in India, eleven in South America, six in Central America, three
each in Pakistan, in Burma and in Canada, two in Australia and one each in
Germany, in Balu_ch_istan, in New Zealand, in the Philippine Islands and
in Malaya. The Baha'i marriage certificate has been recognized by the
Israel civil authorities, as well as by twenty-one federal districts and
states of the United States of America. The Baha'i holy days have been
recognized by the Ministry of Education of the State of Israel, in the
British Isles, by the state of Victoria in Australia, in Anchorage,
Alaska, in Washington, D.C. and in seven states of the American Union.
National Baha'i conferences have been held in recent years in Bern,
Zurich, Basel, Rome; national Baha'i women's conventions and youth
conferences have convened in Tihran, whilst regional teaching conferences
have been organized in Buenos Aires, in Panama City, in Scandinavia, in
the Iberian Peninsula, and in the Benelux countries. European
international teaching conferences have been convened successively in
Geneva, in Brussels, in Copenhagen, in Scheveningen and in Luxembourg
City, paving the way for the convocation of four successive
Intercontinental Teaching Conferences, the first of which has recently
been held in Kampala, in the heart of the African continent, the rest to
be successively convened in Wilmette, Illinois, in Stockholm and in New
Delhi--Conferences which, God willing, will be the forerunners of the World
Baha'i Congress, to be convened in the city of Ba_gh_dad, on the occasion
of the centenary of the formal assumption by Baha'u'llah of His prophetic
office. Recognition has been extended to the Faith by the United Nations
as an international non-governmental organization enabling the Baha'i
International Community to appoint accredited representatives, who have
already attended, in their capacity as observers, the Conference on Human
Rights held in Geneva and the United Nations General Assembly held in
Paris and participated in United Nations regional non-governmental
conferences, held in localities as far apart as New York, Santiago,
Manila, Istanbul, Den Passar, Paris, Managua, Geneva and Montevideo.