Bahá’í News/Inserts/Issue 108/Letter from the National Spiritual Assembly/Text

Bahá’í News/Inserts/Issue 108/Letter from the National Spiritual Assembly

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[Page 1] "PROSECUTE UNINTERRUPTEDLY TEACHING CAMPAIGN RESUME WITH INFLEXIBLE DETERMINATION EXTERIOR ORNAMENTATION ENTIRE STRUCTURE TEMPLE"

The Guardian's Call to the American Bahá’í Community 1937-1944

Shoghi Effendi's cabled Message to the 1937 Convention is nothing else than a call to the entire Bahá’í community of the United States and Canada to assure the triumph of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh upon earth. The powers of ignorance and hate approach their climax of devastation, long foretold in all the Sacred Scriptures. Upon the American believers rests the supreme obligation to lay the eternal foundation of unity, devotion, enlightenment and world order. From this hour to the end of the first Bahá’í century the sacred task must go forward uninterruptedly and with inflexible determination.

The Teachings of Bahá’u’lláh have become firmly established in the hearts of the American believers. The basic Institutions of the Faith have been forged and developed. The true qualities of faith, devotion and sacrifice are fully shown. The habits and customs which raise the Bahá’í community high above the dissensions of the non-believing and collapsing world are faithfully practiced in more than seventy local communities. Tasks that at first appeared impossible have been achieved. To the Teachings of Bahá’u’lláh, to the perfect Life and creative Tablets of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, our beloved Guardian has added a complete explanation of our duties and responsibilities in the field of action and service. He has interpreted not only the significant meanings of the Will and Testament but also the hopeless condition of civilization apart from the Divine Plan.

There is no longer any need for hesitation, doubt nor concern with secondary matters. Our supreme task coincides with the time of supreme human trouble. It remains only to learn the necessary details of the Seven-Year Plan, and proceed immediately upon the first step of its full consummation.

"FORMULATE FEASIBLE SEVEN-YEAR PLAN INSURE SUCCESS TEMPLE ENTERPRISE"

The outgoing National Spiritual Assembly recommended that the incoming Assembly incorporate the sum of $19,000 for a new Temple Construction Fund in its Annual Budget. That amount is no longer adequate, in view of the Guardian's Convention Message and the munificent contribution of $100,000 now assured.

The National Spiritual Assembly, therefore, after consultation with the Delegates and prayerful consideration of the greater opportunities revealed to the American Bahá’í community, has adopted the following Budget for the year beginning May 1, 1937 and concluding April 30, 1938, when the next Convention will be in session:—

1. For administrative expense, for National Committees, and for the maintenance and operation of all Bahá’í properties, including Temple, Green Acre, Summer School at Geyserville, Wilhelm property (National Office) at West Englewood, the Malden house sacred to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, and for regular contributions to the International Fund at Haifa $30,000

2. For promotion of Teaching in North America, South America, Mexico and the West Indies, through the National, Regional and Inter-America Teaching Committees, under the guidance of the Divine Plan $30,000

3. For cost of Temple exterior decoration, the share allotted to the first of the seven years..$160,000

Total Annual Budget. $220,000 Less donation already assured $100,000 Balance to be contributed before April 30, 1938. $120,000

This measures the degree of our material sacrifice. As the continuance of Teaching throughout the seven years requires equal emphasis with Temple construction, the devotion of the friends, the readiness of pioneers to arise and settle in new regions, and the unified efforts of the Teaching Committees, Spiritual Assemblies, groups and isolated Bahá’ís to fulfil the Divine Plan represents an order of inner consecration which Bahá’u’lláh alone can estimate.

FUTURE TEMPLE CONTRACTS

The successive contracts required in order to complete the exterior ornamentation will be placed as rapidly as funds permit. The full estimated cost of future work is $350,000 for external decoration.

Expert advice and experience, both Bahá’í and non-Bahá’í, will be consulted at every stage of the building program, to assure the utmost economy and efficiency in the work. No construction will henceforth proceed until the full cost of the contract is already in hand. The Budget announced above therefore represents full and final costs and expenses to be incurred this year by the National Fund, under the preliminary estimates before the members of the National Spiritual Assembly at this time.

NATIONAL BAHA’I FUND

The believers are reminded of the Guardian's words concerning the National Fund: "As the activities of the American Bahá’í community expand, and its worldwide prestige correspondingly increases, the institution of the National Fund, the bedrock on which all other institutions must necessarily rest and be established, acquires added importance, and should be increasingly supported by the entire body of the believers, both in their individual capacities, and through their collective efforts, whether organized as groups or as local Assemblies. The supply of funds, in support of the National Treasury, constitutes, at the present time, the life-blood of these nascent institutions you are laboring to erect. Its importance, cannot, surely, be overestimated. Untold blessings shall no doubt crown every effort directed to that end."

The experience of the National Spiritual Assembly suggests the following— [Page 2] ing explanations concerning certain aspects of that Fund.

1. While the National Fund has different classifications of expense, it is a unit as regards the receipt of funds. Contributions made out to the National Bahá’í Fund unlabelled in reality go to sustain every activity. If contributions are labelled for this or that particular purpose, the balance of the work might be destroyed. The Temple cannot be constructed if the administration of the Faith is crippled by the lack of funds. Our collective responsibilities stand or fall as a whole. To fulfil the Seven-Year Plan, the full amount of each annual Budget must be donated.

2. The proportion of local donations used for local expenses, and the proportion sent to the National Fund, IS a delicate question which every Spiritual Assembly must carefully consider. Local activities are rapidly increasing, and this is an indication of increased spiritual power, but the American Bahá’í community is an indivisible unit in relation to the Guardian's Seven-Year Plan, and not a few score separate local sovereignties. Success in the National undertaking will establish every local Bahá’í community on an impregnable foundation, while failure in that larger enterprise would surely weaken fatally the spiritual life of the many local communities and groups.

3. It is for the local Spiritual Assemblies to raise a high standard of collective response to the new Plan and gather together the united support of the entire community. Each Assembly stands as a Trustee in the enterprise, a strong pillar in the consecrated edifice. The National Spiritual Assembly, however, while turning to the local Assemblies for powerful reinforcement, believes that the Guardian's call is directed to every individual Bahá’í in North America, young and old, newly confirmed or matured in the Cause, member of a Bahá’í community or isolated and alone. The spirit of confirmation in action knows no frontiers and no separation. All are committed to the sacred task, all will share in the ultimate triumph.

4. Resumption of Temple construction does not require the raising of the entire $350,000. The work will be done by successive contracts, and no contract will be placed until the amount called for by it is in the National Fund. But unless the $350,000 has been contributed before the fifth or sixth year of the Seven-Year Plan, the actual construction can not be completed by May 23, 1944. The sooner, therefore, that work begins, and the more rapidly each successive contract is placed, the more assurance will we give the Guardian that the American Bahá’í community has risen to the height of his most urgent desire.

"NO SACRIFICE TOO GREAT FOR COMMUNITY SO ABUNDANTLY BLESSED, (SO) REPEATEDLY HONORED"

The words quoted above are the Guardian's final comment on the Seven-Year Plan. He alone knows the full power of that quickening Spirit which ‘Abdu’l-Bahá infused into the soul of America during His journey across the continent twenty-five years ago. He alone can estimate our collective capacity to establish the new World Order in all the countries of the Americas during the next seven years, while at the same time completing the exterior decoration of the House of Worship. Since, therefore, Shoghi Effendi has measured the sacred task, we may have abundant faith that the task will be fully performed, the mission completed, the victory assured.

As for the response already made to these plans by the Delegates at the Twenty-Ninth Annual Convention, as representatives of all local Bahá’í communities, the spirit of the Convention has been expressed in the following resolution:-

"The delegates present at this Twenty-Ninth Annual Bahá’í Convention, mindful of the Guardian's successive appeals for the fulfilment of America's spiritual mission, and his repeated warnings concerning the perilous condition of the world, pray for purity, humility and sacrifice to rededicate ourselves to the achievement of the holy task before the end of the first century of the Bahá’í Era.

"United under the Guardian's sacred leadership we turn to Bahá’u’lláh and implore the assistance and inspiration of the Holy Spirit for ourselves and our fellow-believers throughout the American continent."

The National Spiritual Assembly will report each step of progress to all the Bahá’ís. All will be made to feel actually present and personally active in the heroic labor. May each believer pray for complete dedication, and day by day renew his or her appeal to tributing to the worldwide Triumph of Bahá’u’lláh for the privilege of con- God’s holy Faith!

"O my friend! The undying Fire which the Lord of the Kingdom hath kindled in the midst of the holy Tree is burning fiercely in the midmost heart of the world. The conflagration it will provoke will envelop the whole earth. Its blazing flames will illuminate its peoples and kindreds. All the signs have been revealed; every prophetic allusion hath been manifested. Whatever hath been enshrined in all the scriptures of the past hath been made evident. To doubt or hesitate is no more possible. . . . Time is pressing. The Divine Charger is impatient, and can tarry no longer. Ours is the duty to rush forward and, ere it is too late, win the victory." — ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

Devotedly your co-workers, NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY. May 3, 1937.