My soul is uplifted in joy and thanksgiving at the triumphant conclusion
of the Second Seven Year Plan immortalized by the brilliant victories
simultaneously won by the vanguard of the hosts of Baha'u'llah in Latin
America, in Europe and in Africa--victories befittingly crowned through the
consummation of a fifty year old enterprise, the completion of the first
Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the western world. The signal success that has
attended the second collective enterprise undertaken in the course of
American Baha'i history climaxes a term of stewardship to the Faith of
Baha'u'llah, of almost three score years' duration--a period which has
enriched the annals of the concluding epoch of the Heroic, and shed luster
on the first thirty years of the Formative Age of the Baha'i Dispensation.
So fecund a period has been marked by teaching activities unexcelled
throughout the western world and has been distinguished by administrative
exploits unparalleled in the annals of any Baha'i national community
whether in the East or in the West. I am impelled, on the occasion of the
anniversary of the Most Great Festival, coinciding with a triple
celebration--the dedication of the Mother Temple of the West, the launching
of a World Spiritual Crusade and the commemoration of the Birth of
Baha'u'llah's Mission--to pay warmest tribute to the preeminent share which
the American Baha'i Community has had in the course of over half a century
in proclaiming His Revelation, in shielding His Cause, in championing His
Covenant, in erecting the administrative machinery of His embryonic World
Order, in expounding His teachings, in translating and disseminating His
Holy Word, in dispatching the messengers of His Glad Tidings, in awakening
royalty to His Call, in succoring His oppressed followers, in routing His
enemies, in upholding His Law, in asserting the independence of His Faith,
in multiplying the financial resources of its nascent institutions and,
last but not least, in rearing its greatest House of Worship--the first
Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the western world.
The hour is now ripe for this greatly gifted, richly blessed community to
arise and reaffirm, through the launching of yet another enterprise, its
primacy, enhance its spiritual heritage, plumb greater depths of
consecration and capture loftier heights in the course of its strenuous
and ceaseless labors for the exaltation of God's Cause.
The Ten Year Plan, constituting the third and final stage of the initial
epoch in the evolution of 'Abdu'l-Baha's Master Plan, which, God willing,
will raise to greater heights the fame of the stalwart American Baha'i
Community, and seat it upon "the throne of an everlasting dominion,"
envisaged by the Author of the Tablets of this same Plan, involves:
First, the opening of the following virgin territories, eleven in Africa:
Cape Verde Islands, Canary Islands, French Somaliland, French Togoland,
Mauritius, Northern Territories Protectorate, Portuguese Guinea, Reunion
Island, Spanish Guinea, St. Helena and St. Thomas Island; eight in Asia:
Caroline Islands, Dutch New Guinea, Hainan Island, Kazakhstan, Macao
Island, Sakhalin Island, Tibet and Tonga Islands; six in Europe: Andorra,
Azores, Balearic Islands, Lofoten Islands, Spitzbergen and Ukraine; and
four in America: Aleutian Islands, Falkland Islands, Key West and Kodiak
Island.
Second, the consolidation of the Faith in the following territories, six
in Asia: China, Formosa, Japan, Korea, Manchuria, Philippine Islands; two
in Africa: Liberia and South Africa; twelve in Europe: the ten goal
countries, Finland and France; three in America: the Hawaiian Islands,
Alaska and Puerto Rico.
Third, the extension of assistance to the National Spiritual Assemblies of
the Baha'is of Central and South America, as well as to the National
Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Italy and Switzerland in forming
twenty national spiritual assemblies in the republics of Latin America and
two in Europe, namely in Italy and Switzerland; the extension of
assistance for the establishment of a national Haziratu'l-Quds in the
capital of each of the aforementioned countries as well as of national
Baha'i endowments in these same countries.
Fourth, the establishment of ten national spiritual assemblies in the
following European countries: Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Holland,
Luxembourg, Spain, Portugal, France and Finland.
Fifth, the establishment of a national spiritual assembly in Japan and one
in the South Pacific Islands.
Sixth, the establishment of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is
of Alaska.
Seventh, the establishment of the National Spiritual Assembly of the
Baha'is of South and West Africa.
Eighth, the incorporation of each of the fourteen above-mentioned national
spiritual assemblies.
Ninth, the establishment of national Baha'i endowments by these same
national spiritual assemblies.
Tenth, the establishment of a national Haziratu'l-Quds in the capital city
of each of the eleven of the aforementioned countries, as well as one in
Anchorage, one in Suva, and one in Johannesburg.
Eleventh, the erection of the first dependency of the first
Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the western world.
Twelfth, the extension of assistance for the purchase of land for four
future Temples, two in Europe: in Stockholm and Rome; one in Central
America, in Panama City; and one in Africa, in Johannesburg.
Thirteenth, the completion of the landscaping of the grounds of the
Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar in Wilmette.
Fourteenth, the raising to one hundred of the number of incorporated local
assemblies within the American Union.
Fifteenth, the raising to three hundred of the number of local spiritual
assemblies in that same country.
Sixteenth, the incorporation of spiritual assemblies in the leading cities
of Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Spain and
Portugal, as well as of the Spiritual Assemblies of Paris, of Helsingfors,
of Tokyo, of Suva and of Johannesburg.
Seventeenth, the quadrupling of the number of local spiritual assemblies
and the trebling of the number of localities in the aforementioned
countries.
Eighteenth, the translation of Baha'i literature into ten languages in
Europe, (Basque, Estonian, Flemish, Lapp, Maltese, Piedmontese, Romani,
Romansch, Yiddish and Ziryen; ten in America: Aguaruna, Arawak, Blackfoot,
Cherokee, Iroquois, Lengua, Mataco, Maya, Mexican and Yahgan.
Nineteenth, the conversion to the Faith of members of the leading Indian
tribes.
Twentieth, the conversion to the Faith of representatives of the Basque
and Gypsy races.
Twenty-first, the establishment of summer schools in each of the
Scandinavian and Benelux countries, as well as those of the Iberian
Peninsula.
Twenty-second, the proclamation of the Faith through the press and radio
throughout the United States of America.
Twenty-third, the establishment of a Baha'i Publishing Trust in Wilmette,
Illinois.
Twenty-fourth, the formation of an Asian teaching committee designed to
stimulate and coordinate the teaching activities initiated by the Plan.
May this community--the spiritual descendants of the dawn-breakers of the
Heroic Age of the Baha'i Faith, the chief repository of the immortal
Tablets of 'Abdu'l-Baha's Divine Plan, the foremost executors of the
Mandate issued by the Center of Baha'u'llah's Covenant, the
champion-builders of a divinely conceived Administrative Order, the
standard-bearers of the all-conquering army of the Lord of Hosts, the
torchbearers of a future divinely inspired world civilization--arise, in
the course of the momentous decade separating the Great from the Most
Great Jubilee to secure, as befits its rank, the lion's share in the
prosecution of a global crusade designed to diffuse the light of God's
revelation over the surface of the entire planet.
[April 29, 1953]