In the United States of America, the base from which the manifold
operations of this holy expedition are conducted, the enterprise
associated with the completion of the first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the
West, designed to consummate this historic undertaking in time for the
celebration of its Jubilee in the year 1953, must be strenuously pushed
forward. The prodigious efforts exerted for the erection of this noble
edifice--the holiest House of Worship ever to be reared by the followers of
Baha'u'llah--on which no less than one million four hundred thousand
dollars have thus far been expended, and which will necessitate the
expenditure of at least half a million more dollars, ere it is completed,
must not, for one moment, be relaxed. The necessary modifications of the
design chosen for its interior ornamentation should be adopted, the plans
and specifications prepared, the preliminary contracts for its execution
placed, and actual construction work started, if possible, ere the expiry
of the present year.
The utmost effort by the National Teaching Committee and its auxiliary
Regional Teaching Committees, aimed at raising the number of spiritual
assemblies in the North American continent to no less than one hundred and
seventy-five, ere the expiry of the current year, should be exerted. The
eighty cities newly opened to the Faith should, likewise, be reinforced.
The two hundred and eighteen groups already constituted should be
continually encouraged to evolve into assemblies, while the vast number of
localities, totalling over nine hundred, where isolated believers reside,
should, however tremendous the exertion required, be enabled to attain
group status, and be eventually converted into properly functioning
assemblies.
Collateral to this process of reinforcing the fabrics of the
Administrative Order and of widening its basis, a resolute attempt should
be made by the national elected representatives of the entire community,
aided by their Public Relations, Race Unity, Public Meetings, Visual
Education, College Speakers Bureau and Radio Committees, to reinforce the
measures already adopted for the proclamation, through the press and
radio, of the verities of the Faith to the masses, and for the
establishment of closer contact with the leaders of public thought, with
colleges and universities and with newspaper and magazine editors.
National advertising and publicity should be further developed, the
contact with seven hundred and fifty newspapers, magazines and trade
papers should be maintained and the public relations programs amplified.
Association, as distinct from affiliation, and untainted by any
participation in political matters, with the various organs, leaders and
representatives of the United Nations and kindred organizations should be
stimulated for the purpose of giving, on the one hand, greater publicity
to the aims and purposes of the Faith, and of paving the way, on the
other, for the eventual conversion of a selected number of capable and
receptive souls who will reinforce the ranks of its active and unreserved
supporters.
The process of the incorporation of properly functioning spiritual
assemblies must be simultaneously and vigorously carried out. The
forty-five assemblies now incorporated are the first fruits of an
enterprise of great significance, which must rapidly develop in the days
to come, as an essential preliminary to the establishment, and the
extension of the scope, of Baha'i local endowments, as soon as the
financial obligations incurred in connection with the completion of the
Temple have been discharged. The institutions of the three summer schools,
at Green Acre, Davison and Geyserville, and the International School at
Temerity Ranch, as well as the activities of the Baha'i Youth, must, under
the close supervision of their respective national committees, be
continually expanded and increasingly utilized as agencies for the
furtherance of the vital objectives of the Plan.
The beneficial and highly responsible activities undertaken by the
Publishing, the Reviewing, the Library, the Service for the Blind, the
Visual Education, the Pamphlet Literature and Study Aids Committees,
designed to disseminate and insure the integrity of Baha'i literature,
should, however indirectly connected with the purposes of the Plan, and
within the limits imposed upon them through its operation, be steadily
expanded, consolidated and be made to promote, in whatever way possible,
its paramount interests.
Nor should the "spacious territory of Alaska," particularly mentioned by
'Abdu'l-Baha in His Tablets of the Divine Plan, and at present the
northern outpost of the Faith in the Western Hemisphere, be ignored, or
its vital requirements neglected. The maintenance and consolidation of the
first historic spiritual assembly in Anchorage, the northernmost
administrative center of the Faith of Baha'u'llah in the world; the
multiplication of Baha'i centers in that territory; the propagation of the
teachings among the Eskimos, emphasized by 'Abdu'l-Baha's pen in those
same Tablets; the translation and publication of selected passages from
Baha'i literature in their native language; the extension of the limits of
the Faith beyond Fairbanks and nearer to the Arctic Circle--these
constitute the urgent tasks facing the prosecutors of the present Plan in
the years immediately ahead.
"Alaska is a vast country," are 'Abdu'l-Baha's own words, recorded in
those Tablets, "...Perchance, God willing, the lights of the Most Great
Guidance will illuminate that country, and the breezes of the rose garden
of the love of God will perfume the nostrils of the inhabitants of Alaska.
Should you be aided to render such a service, rest ye assured that your
heads shall be crowned with the diadem of everlasting sovereignty."