A prodigious expenditure of effort, a stupendous flow of material
resources, an unprecedented dispersal of pioneers, embracing so vast a
section of the globe, and bringing in their wake the rise, the
multiplication and consolidation of so many institutions, so divers in
character, so potent and full of promise, already stand to their credit,
and augur well for a befitting consummation of a decade-long task in the
years immediately ahead.
The opening of a large percentage of the virgin territories, scattered
over the face of the planet, and assigned, under the provisions of the
Ten-Year Plan, to this community and its sister and daughter communities
in all continents of the globe; the allocation of vast sums, for the
founding of national Haziratu'l-Quds, for the establishment of national
Baha'i endowments; and for the purchase of the sites of future Baha'i
Temples; the financial aid extended and the moral support accorded to a
still persecuted sister community, struggling heroically for its
emancipation, in the cradle of the Faith; the steady progress in the vital
process of incorporating firmly grounded local spiritual assemblies in
various states of the union; the translation of Baha'i literature into the
languages listed in the Ten-Year Plan, as well as into a number of
supplementary languages, spontaneously undertaken by American Baha'i
pioneers in territories far beyond the confines of their homeland; the
completion of the landscaping of the area immediately surrounding the
Mother Temple of the West, in conformity with the expressed, often
repeated wishes of 'Abdu'l-Baha, contributing so greatly to the beauty of
an edifice, the spiritual influence of which He, repeatedly and
unequivocally, emphasized; the acquisition of the site of the first
dependency of that same edifice, designed to pave the way for the early
establishment of the first of several institutions, which, as conceived by
Him, will be grouped around every Baha'i House of Worship, complementing,
through their association with direct service to mankind, in the
educational, the humanitarian and social fields, its spiritual function as
the ordained place of communion with the Creator and the Spirit of His
appointed Messenger in this day; the establishment of the Baha'i
Publishing Trust; the generous financial assistance extended, the
administrative guidance vouchsafed and the unfailing encouragement given,
by the elected representatives of this same community to the newly fledged
assemblies, emerging into independent existence in both the Eastern and
Western Hemispheres; the substantial share which one of its members has
had in the acquisition of one of the holy sites in the capital city of
Baha'u'llah's native land; the preponderating role played by the various
agencies, acting under the direction of its national elected
representatives, in giving publicity to the Faith, through the
proclamation of the fundamental verities underlying the Baha'i Revelation,
the airing of the manifold grievances weighing so heavily on the
overwhelming majority of their coreligionists, and the appeals directed,
on their behalf, to men of eminence in various walks of life, as well as
to different departments of the United Nations, both in New York and
Geneva; and, finally, ranking as equally meritorious to anything hitherto
achieved by the members of this privileged community, the magnificent and
imperishable contribution made by them, singly and collectively, to the
rise and establishment of the institutions of their beloved Faith at its
World Center; through the assistance given by their distinguished
representatives serving in the Holy Land, in hastening the erection of the
Baha'i International Archives, through the purchase of the site of the
Mother Temple of the Holy Land, the enlargement of the scope of Baha'i
international endowments on the slopes of Mt. Carmel and in the Plain of
Akka, the embellishment of the sacred precincts of the two holiest Shrines
of the Baha'i world; the formation of the Israel Branches of four national
spiritual assemblies, the preparation and completion of the designs of the
first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kars to be erected in the Asiatic, the African and
Australian continents, and the setting in motion, through the
instrumentality of various departments of the Israeli government, of a
long-drawn-out process, culminating in the expropriation by the state of
the entire property, owned and controlled by the remnants of the breakers
of Baha'u'llah's Covenant, immediately surrounding His resting-place and
the Mansion of Bahji, the evacuation of this property by this ignoble
band, and the final and definite purification, after the lapse of no less
than six decades, of the Outer Sanctuary of the Most Holy Shrine of the
Baha'i world, of the defilement, which had caused so much sorrow and
anxiety to the heart of 'Abdu'l-Baha--these are among the enduring
achievements which four brief years of unremitting devotion to the
interests of the Ten-Year Plan have brought about, and which will
eternally redound to the glory of the champion-builders of Baha'u'llah's
embryonic World Order, holding aloft so valiantly the banner of His Faith
in the great republic of the West.