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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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