In the far-flung Latin American field, where the first fruits of the
Divine Plan, operating beyond the confines of the North American
continent, have already been garnered in such abundance, the Latin
American Baha'i communities, from the Mexican border to the extremity of
Chile, should bestir themselves for the collective, the historic and
gigantic tasks that await them, and which must culminate, ere the expiry
of the present Plan, in the formation of two national spiritual assemblies
for Central and South America.
The marvelous progress achieved as a result of the operation of the first
Seven Year Plan, as evidenced by the establishment of full-fledged
spiritual assemblies in the virgin territories of no less than fourteen
republics, and the formation of active groups in the remaining republics,
has been enhanced by the even more startling expansion of Baha'i activity
since the termination of the first stage of the Divine Plan. As a result
of this expansion spiritual assemblies have been established in all the
remaining republics, the number of localities where Baha'is reside has
been raised to over a hundred, almost double the number of localities in
which the Faith had been introduced after the completion of the first
Seven Year Plan, the number of spiritual assemblies has swelled to no less
than thirty-seven, three of which have been duly incorporated, a notable
impetus has been given to the activities of the distributing centers of
Baha'i literature in Argentina and Panama, historic conferences have been
held in these two republics, summer schools have been inaugurated in
Argentina and Chile, and a tract of land has been presented as a site for
the first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar in Latin America. No community since the
inception of the hundred-year-old Faith of Baha'u'llah, not even the
community of the Most Great Name in the North American continent, can
boast of an evolution as rapid, a consolidation as sound, a multiplication
of centers as swift, as those that have marked the birth and rise of the
community of His followers in Latin America.
The colossal tasks that now summon this Latin American Baha'i community to
a challenge, cannot but dwarf, if faithfully and promptly accomplished,
the magnificent achievements that have immortalized the first decade of
organized activity in Latin American Baha'i history. The seed-sowing stage
associated, in the main, with the labors and travels of that saintly soul,
that star-servant of the Faith of Baha'u'llah, the incomparable Martha
Root, links this decade of organized Baha'i activity in Latin America with
both the closing years of the Heroic Age of our Faith and the first
fifteen years of the initial epoch of the Age we live in.