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Still other factors promoting the development of that Order and contributing to its consolidation have been the systematic institution of the Nineteen Day Feast, functioning in most Baha'i communities in East and West, with its threefold emphasis on the devotional, the administrative and the social aspects of Baha'i community life; the initiation of activities designed to prepare a census of Baha'i children, and provide for them laboratory courses, prayer books and elementary literature, and the formulation and publication of a body of authoritative statements on the non- political character of the Faith, on membership in non- Baha'i religious organizations, on methods of teaching, on the Baha'i attitude towards war, on the institutions of the Annual Convention, of the Baha'i Spiritual Assembly, of the Nineteen Day Feast and of the National Fund. Reference should, moreover, be made to the establishment of National Archives for the authentication, the collection, the translation, the cataloguing and the preservation of the Tablets of Baha'u'llah and of Abdu'l- Baha and for the preservation of sacred relics and historical documents; to the verification and transcription of the original Tablets of the Bab, of Baha'u'llah and of Abdu'l- Baha in the possession of Oriental believers; to the compilation of a detailed history of the Faith since its inception until the present day; to the opening of a Baha'i International Bureau in Geneva; to the holding of Baha'i district conventions; to the purchase of historic sites; to the establishment of Baha'i memorial libraries, and to the initiation of a flourishing children's Savings Bank in Persia. (342:1) Nor should mention be omitted of the participation, whether official or non- official, of representatives of these newly founded national Baha'i communities in the activities and proceedings of a great variety of congresses, associations, conventions and conferences, held in various countries of Europe, Asia and America for the promotion of religious unity, peace, education, international cooperation, inter- racial amity and other humanitarian purposes. With organizations such as the Conference of some Living Religions within the British Empire, held in London in 1924 and the World Fellowship of Faiths held in that same city in 1936; with the Universal Esperanto Congresses held annually in various capitals of Europe; with the Institute of Intellectual Cooperation; with the Century of Progress Exhibition held in Chicago in 1933; with the World's Fair held in New York in 1938 and 1939; with the Golden Gate International Exposition held in San Francisco in 1939; with the First Convention of the Religious Congress held in Calcutta; with the Second All- India Cultural Conference convened in that same city; with the All- Faiths' League Convention in Indore; with the Arya Samaj and the Brahmo Samaj Conferences as well as those of the Theosophical Society and the All- Asian Women's Conference, held in various cities of India; with the World Council of Youth; with the Eastern Women's Congress in Tihran; with the Pan- Pacific Women's Conference in Honolulu; with the Women's International League for Peace and with the Peoples Conference at Buenos Aires in Argentina-- with these and others, relationships have, in one form or another, been cultivated which have served the twofold purpose of demonstrating the universality and comprehensiveness of the Faith of Baha'u'llah and of forging vital and enduring links between them and the far- flung agencies of its Administrative Order.
(342:2)
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