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Fortified by such reflections, the American believers, in whichever section of the Western Hemisphere they find themselves laboring, whether at home or abroad, and however dire and distressing the processes involved in the disintegration of the structure of present-day civilization, will, I feel convinced, prove themselves, through their lives and deeds, worthy of that priceless heritage which it is their undoubted privilege to proclaim, preserve and perpetuate. (23:1) OFFICIAL INAUGURATION OF WORLD MISSION Newly-launched Central American campaign marks official inauguration of long-deferred World Mission constituting 'Abdu'l-Baha's distinctive legacy to the Baha'i Community of North America. Chosen Community broadening its basis, gaining in stature, deepening in consecration. Its vanguard now entering arena monopolized by entrenched forces of Christendom's mightiest ecclesiastical institutions. Laboring amidst race foreign in language, custom, temperament embracing vast proportion of New World's ethnic elements. American believers, isolated overseas teaching enterprises hitherto tentative, intermittent, now at end. New epoch opening, demanding exertions incomparably more strenuous, unflinchingly sustained, centrally directed, systematically organized, efficiently conducted. Upon alacrity, tenacity, fearlessness of present prosecutors of the unfolding mission depend speedy and fullest revelation, in the First and Second Centuries, of the potentialities of the birthright conferred upon American believers. Convey to pioneers in North, Middle and South America my eagerness to maintain with each direct, personal contact. Assure Teaching and Inter-America Committees my delight at successive testimonies of believers' glowing spirit reflected in Minutes, letters and reports recently received. Entreat every section of community to labor unremittingly until every nation in Western Hemisphere is illumined by rays and woven into fabric of Baha'u'llah's triumphant Administrative Order. (23:2) FULFIL THE REQUIREMENTS The readiness of your Assembly, as expressed in your recently cabled message, to transfer the National Baha'i Secretariat to the vicinity of the Temple in Wilmette has evoked within me the deepest feelings of thankfulness and joy. Your historic decision, so wise and timely, so surprising in its suddenness, so far-reaching in its consequences, is one that I cannot but heartily and unreservedly applaud. To each one of your brethren in the Faith, throughout the United States and Canada, who are witnessing, from day to day and at an ever-hastening speed, the approaching completion of their National House of Worship, the great Mother Temple of the West, your resolution to establish within its hallowed precincts and in the heart of the North American continent the Administrative Seat of their beloved Faith cannot but denote henceforward a closer association, a more constant communion, and a higher degree of coordination between the two primary agencies providentially ordained for the enrichment of their spiritual life and for the conduct and regulation of their administrative affairs. To the far-flung Baha'i communities of East and West, most of which are being increasingly proscribed and ill-treated, and none of which can claim to have had a share of the dual blessings which a specially designed and constructed House of Worship and a fully and efficiently functioning Administrative Order invariably confer, the concentration in a single locality of what will come to be regarded as the fountain-head of the community's spiritual life and what is already recognized as the mainspring of the administrative activities, signalizes the launching of yet another phase in the slow and imperceptible emergence, in these declining times, of the model Baha'i community - a community divinely ordained, organically united, clear-visioned, vibrant with life, and whose very purpose is regulated by the twin directing principles of the worship of God and of service to one's fellow-men.
(23:3)
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