Bahá’í News/Inserts/Issue 201/Letter from Shoghi Effendi to the NSA/Text

“My fervent plea . . . to insure the effective prosecution of these sacred tasks”

Insert, Baha'i News, November, 1947

“My Fervent Plea ...To Insure the Effective Prosecution of These Sacred Tasks” Letter from Shoghi Effendi to the National Spiritual Assembly

Dear and valued co-workers:

The steadily deepening crisis which mankind is traversing, on the mor- row of the severest ordeal it has yet suffered, and the attendant tribul- tions and commotions which a tra- vailing age must necessarily experi- ence, as a prelude to the birth of the new World Order, destined to rise upon the ruins of a tottering civiliza- tion, must, as they intensify, in- ereasingly influence the course, and, in some cases, retard the progress, of the collective enterprises succes- sively launched in the opening years of the second Baha'i century, and in almost every continent of the globe, by the world-wide community of the organized followers of the Faith of Baha'u'llah. In the land of its birth long-standing political rivalries, com- bined with a steady decline in the authority and influence exercised by the central government, are contribu- ting to the reemergence of reaction- ary forces, represented by an as yet influential and fanatical priesthood, to a recrudescence of the persecu- tion, and a multiplication of the disa- bilities, to which a still unemanci- pated Faith has been so cruelly subjected for more than a century. In the heart of the continent of Europe, still fiercer political rival- ries, as well as the clash of conflict- ing ideologies, have prevented the unification, indefinitely retarded the national revival, multiplied the vicis- situdes and rendered more desperate the plight, of a nation comprising within its frontiers the largest com- munity of the adherents of the Faith on that continent—a community destined, as prophesied by ‘Abdu’l- Baha, to play a major role in the spiritual awakening and the ultimate conversion of the European peoples and races to His Father’s Faith. In the sub-continent of India recent po- litical developments of a momentous character have plunged its divers castes, races and denominations into grave turmoil, brought in their wake riots, bloodshed, misery and con- fusion, fanned into flame religious animosities, and well-nigh disrupted its economic life. In the Nile Valley the outbreak of a widespread: and virulent epidemic, following closely upon the political unrest and the

severe economic crisis already afflic- ting its inhabitants, threatens to dis- organize the life of the nation and to bring in its wake afflictions of an even more serious character. In the Holy Land itself, the heart and nerve- center of the far-flung and firmly knit community of the followers of Baha- ‘ullah, and the repository of its holiest shrines, already gravely dis- turbed by the chronic instability of its political life, the religious dissen- sions of its inhabitants, and the ten- year-long strain and danger to which its people have been subjected and exposed, fresh perils are looming on its horizon, menacing it, on the one hand with the ravages of an epi- demic that has already taken so heavy a toll of the lives of the people beyond its southern frontier, and threatening it, on the other, with a civil war of extreme severity and unpredictable in its consequences. Subject to the same fundamental

causes which have deranged the”

equilibrium of present-day society and corroded its life are to be re- garded the privations, the restric- tions and crisis which, to a lesser de- gree, are oppressing the peoples of Central and South-Eastern Europe, of the British Isles and of certain Republics of Central and South America.

In all these territories, whether in the Eastern or Western Hemisphere, the nascent institutions of a strug- gling Faith, though subjected in varying degrees to the stress and strain associated with the decline and dissolution of time-honored in- stitutions, with fratricidal strife, economic upheavals, financial crises, outbreaks of epidemics and political revolutions, have thus far, through the interpositions of a merciful Provi- dence. been graciously enabled to follow their chartered course, un- deflected by the cross-currents and the tempestuous winds which must of necessity increasingly agitate hu- man society ere the hour of its ulti- mate redemption approaches.

In contrast to these sorely tried countries on the European, the Asiatic and the African continents, unlike her sister Republics in either Central or South America, the Great Republic of the West—the homeland

of that mother community which, fostered through the tender care of an ever-solicitous Master, has al- ready proved itself capable of rear- ing in its turn such splendid progeny among the divers communities of Latin America, which bids fair to multiply its daughter communities in a continent of mightier potentiali- ties—such a Republic has been, to a peculiar degree and over a long and uninterrupted period, relatively free from the chronic disorders, the po- litical disturbances, the economic convulsions, the communal riots, the epidemics, the religious persecu- tions, the privations and loss of life which, during successive genera- tions, have in one way or another afflicted so many peoples in almost every part of the globe.

Singled out by the Almighty for such a unique measure of favor, suffered to evolve, untrammelled and unperturbed, within the shel) of its God-given Administrative Or. der, distinguished from its sister communities through the revelation of a Plan emanating directly~from’ the mind and pen of its Founder, en- riched already by so many trophies, each an eloquent testimony to its missionary zeal and valor in distant fields and amidst divers peoples. the. Community of the Most Great Name in the North American continent, must, sensible of the abounding grace vouchsafed to it by Baha- ‘u'llah, resolve, as it has never re- solved before, to carry out, however much it may be buffeted by future circumstances and the unforseen or- deals which a heedless and chaotic world may still further experience, the mission confidently entrusted to its hands by an all-wise and loving Master.

Already in the newly opened Euro- pean field, where the first stage of its transatlantic missionary enterprise is now unfolding, the success which the vanguard of its army of pioneers has already achieved in several lead- ing capitals of that continent is truly heart-warming and evokes intense admiration. The broad outlines of the primary institutions heralding the erection of the administrative framework of the Faith of Baha- �[Page 2]*w’llah in no less than ten sovereign states of Europe can already be dis- cerned—a powerful and signal rein- forcement of the organized and pro- gressive efforts exerted by the Brit- ish and German communities on the north western limits of that continent and in its very heart. In the Latin American field, where the structural basis of a rising Administrative Order has already been established, through the formation of firmly grounded Assemblies in each of the Republics of Central and South America, the stage is being set for the erection of those institutions which are to be regarded as the har- bingers of the secondary Houses of Justice which, in each of these Re- publics must act as pillars, and as- sist in sustaining the weight, of the final unit designed to consummate the institutions of that order. On the northern portion of that same hemis- phere the stage is already set for the impending emergence of an in- stitution which, however circum- scribed its basis, must ultimately, directly participate in the measures preliminary to the constitution of the Universal House of Justice.

A community now in the process of marshalling and directing, in such vast territories, in such outlying re- gions, amidst such a diversity of peoples, at so precarious a stage in the fortunes of mankind, forces of such incalculable potency, to serve purposes so meritorious and lofty, cannot afford to falter for a moment or retrace its steps on the path it now travels. Its commitments, so vast, so challenging, so rich in their po- tentialities, in the North American continent, must, whatever betide it, be carried out, in their entirety and without the slightest reservation or hesitation. The pledge to multiply the local Administrative institutions, throughout the length and breadth of this continent must be honored, and the placing of the contract for the interior ornamentation of the Holiest House of Worship ever to be erected to the glory of Baha’u’llah expedited.

Above all a prodigious effort, nation- wide, sustained and wholly unprece- dented in the annals of a richly en- dowed and spiritually blessed com- munity, aiming at the immediate increase of the financial resources required for the effective prosecution of its manifold and pressing tasks, is required.

The triple campaign, conducted in two hemispheres, comprising within the scope of its operation the entire territory of the North American Re- public, the Dominion of Canada, twenty Republics of Latin America, and no less than ten sovereign States of the European continent, is indeed of critical importance. Every phase of this threefold crusade, undertaken at the dawn of the second Baha’i century by the executors of ‘Abdu’l- Baha’s Will and the custodians of His Plan, must be accorded its due measure of consideration and its needs simultaneously and vigorously fulfilled. The allurements of the glorious adventure in the Latin American field, the glittering prizes already won and the new ones within reach, must, at no time obscure the issues, or retard the task confront- ing the prosecutors of the Plan in their homeland, or allow the inter- ests of its Assemblies, for the most part new and struggling, to be either neglected or forgotten. Nor must the glamor of the still more recent and glorious adventure embarked upon across the Atlantic, within a turbu- lent, politically convulsed, economi- cally disrupted and spiritually de- pleted continent, dim, in however small a measure, the radiance, or detract from the urgency, of the magnificent enterprises, whose first fruits in Latin America are only be- ginning to mature, in direct conse- quence of the initial operation of the Plan bequeathed by ‘Abdu’l-Baha to the American believers.

To the vital requirements of this Plan, at so critical a juncture, both in the fortunes of mankind in gen- eral, and of the Plan itself, to which

detailed reference has been made in a previous communication, I need not again refer. All I desire to em- phasize is my fervent plea, ad- dressed to both the administrators who, as the elected representatives of the community must devise the plans, coordinate the activities, and direct the agencies of a continually expanding community, and to those whose privilege it is to labor, at home and abroad, to insure the effec- tive prosecution of these sacred tasks. to realize the propitiousness of the present hour, recognize its urgency, meet its challenge and ap- preciate its unique potentialities. As the international situation worsens, as the fortunes of mankind sink to a still lower ebb, the momentum of the Plan must be further accelerated, and the concerted exertions of the community responsible for its execu- tion, rise to still higher levels of con- secration and heroism. As the fabric of present-day society heaves and cracks under the strain and stress of portentous events and calamities, as the fissures, accentuating the cleav- age separating nation from nation, class from class, race from race, and creed from creed, multiply, the prosecutors of the Plan must evince a still greater cohesion in their spirit- ual lives and administrative activi- ties, and demonstrate a higher stand- ard of concerted effort, of mutual assistance, and of harmonious devel- opment in their collective enter- prises.

Then, and only then, will the re- action to the stupendous forces, re- leased through the operation of a divinely conceived, divinely impelled Plan, be made apparent, and the fairest fruit of the weightiest spirit- ual enterprise launched in recorded history under the aegis of the Center of the Covenant of Baha’u’llah be garnered.

Your true brother, Suocut Haifa, Palestine October 25, 1947 �