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Emboldened by the enduring and momentous successes won, on so many fronts, in such distant fields, among such a diversity of peoples, and in the face of such formidable obstacles, by a community now launched, in both hemispheres, on its world-encircling mission, I direct my appeal to the entire membership of this God-chosen community, to its associates and daughter communities in the Dominion of Canada, in Central and South America, and in the continent of Europe, to proclaim, in the course of this current year, to their sister communities in East and West and by deeds no less resplendent than those of the past, their inflexible resolve to prosecute unremittingly the plan entrusted to their care, and emblazon on their shields the emblems of new victories in its service. (52:1) The placing, with care and promptitude, of the successive contracts, designed to ensure the uninterrupted progress of the interior ornamentation of the Temple, at a time when the international situation is fraught with so many complications and perils; the acceleration of the twofold process designed to preserve the status of the present assemblies throughout the states of the Union and multiply their number; the constant broadening of the bases on which the projected Latin American national assemblies are to be securely founded; the steady expansion of the work initiated to give wider publicity to the Faith in the North American continent and in circles associated with the United Nations; and, last but not least, the constitution of firmly established assemblies in each of the remaining goal countries in Europe and the simultaneous initiation, in the countries already provided with such assemblies, of measures aiming at the formation of several nuclei calculated to reinforce the structural basis of an infant Administrative Order - these stand out as the primary and inescapable duties which the members of your Assembly - the mainspring of the multitudinous activities carried on in your homeland, in the Latin American field, and on the European front - must in this third year of the Second Seven Year Plan, befittingly discharge. (52:2) That the launching of one of these fundamental activities to be conducted by your Assembly during the present year - the commencement of the interior ornamentation of the Mother Temple of the West - should have so closely synchronized with the placing of the first two contracts for the completion of the Sepulcher of the Bab, as contemplated by 'Abdu'l-Baha, is indeed a phenomenon of singular significance. This conjunction of two events of historic importance, linking, in a peculiar degree, the most sacred House of Worship in the American continent with the most hallowed Shrine on the slopes of Mount Carmel, brings vividly to mind the no less remarkable coincidence marking the simultaneous holding, on a Naw-Ruz Day, of the first convention of the American Baha'i Community and the entombment by the Center of Baha'u'llah's Covenant of the remains of the Bab in the newly constructed vault of His Shrine. The simultaneous arrival of those remains in the fortress city of "Akka and of the first pilgrims from the continent of America; the subsequent association of the founder of the American Baha'i Community with 'Abdu'l-Baha in the laying of the cornerstone of the Bab's Mausoleum on Mount Carmel; the holding of the Centenary of His Declaration beneath the dome of the recently solemn occasion His blessed portrait was unveiled, on western soil, to the eyes of His followers; and the unique distinction now conferred on a member of the North American Baha'i Community of designing the dome, envisaged by 'Abdu'l-Baha, as the final and essential embellishment of the Bab's Sepulcher - all these have served to associate the Herald of our Faith and His resting-place with the fortunes of a community which has so nobly responded to His summons addressed to the "peoples of the West" in His Qayyumu'l-Asma'.
(52:3)
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