Bahá’í World/Volume 8/United States and Canada Supplementary Report 1938-1939
SUPPLEMENTARY REPORT
NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY OF THE BAHÁ’ÍS OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA—1938-1939
THE month covered by this supplementary report has been notable in the swift development of events, signifying a great acceleration in the field of Bahá’í action.
Communications from the Guardian received in this period include, first, the following cablegram dated April 1: “Assure each pioneer immeasurable gratitude. Such vigorous response, in such perilous times, to so vital a call, opens brilliant epoch in the formative age of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh. Impelled congratulate Assembly for its wise, efficient stewardship.”—And second, a letter dated March 17, which informs us that the roll of pioneers has been augmented by the names of Mr. and Mrs. W. T. Bidwell, who had informed Shoghi Effendi that they have established residence in Greenville, South Carolina, in order to raise up a Bahá’í community in that State.
To the number of local groups qualified to form new Assemblies, the groups at Albuquerque can now be added.
From Miss Martha Root has come a bundle of newspaper clippings describing her activities in Australia, with a schedule indicating some thirty public meetings during the first few weeks after her arrival from India.
The far country of Lapland has been illumined with the light of the Faith by the indomitable energy of Mrs. Lorol Schopflocher, who has been traveling in that land and spreading the Message in recent months.
The reprint of the Master’s address at the Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People at Chicago in 1912, already mentioned, has now been made, and copies are available to delegates and friends. In a few words, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá gave the American people so many years ago the reality of human oneness, and now it is our privilege to ponder His message on race amity with deeper understanding, and share it with the leaders of opinion throughout the country. Similar reprints of striking Bahá’í texts are to follow as rapidly as conditions justify, thus adding to our teaching literature a series of expositions that cannot fail to command the attention of awakened souls.
The present Convention is privileged to receive visits from co-workers from other lands. Mr. and Mrs. Sabet are here from Ṭihrán, on a visit that will take them to a few of the larger cities and perhaps also include both World’s Fairs.
Moreover, we have as honored guests not one, as had been anticipated, but four members of the new Spiritual Assembly of Mexico City: Pedro Espinosa, Mrs. Refugio Ochoa, Miss Zenay da Jurado, and Mrs. Maria Luisa Jurado, radiant in their enthusiasm and ardent in their service to the Faith. This visit is a great historic event, for it marks the true beginning of that new inter-continental teaching task which the Guardian has expounded for us in The Advent of Divine Justice. We join hands and hearts with these co-workers from Bahá’u’lláh’s own native land, and with the co-workers from the newest country blessed with the institution of a Spiritual Assembly. The Master, surely, beholds with joy from on high a gathering so blessed and so pregnant with promise of future achievement.
Our foundation has been firmly laid in nearly ninety local Spiritual Assemblies, in the House of Worship rapidly nearing completion, in three Summer Schools, and in a Bahá’í community which has acquired a great diversity of experience and manifests a rich variety of gifts. Each successive general communication from the Guardian has clarified our vision, deepened our aims and extended our horizon of consciousness. And now, as the world trembles on its collapsing basis, the American Bahá’í community numbering some thirty-five hundred souls, is bidden to exemplify the coming of the Kingdom to mankind. In reverence and in true humility we can but turn to the words of Bahá’u’lláh:
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"O people of Bahá!
Ye are the breezes of
spring that are wafted over the world.
Through you We have adorned the world of
being with the ornament of the knowledge
of the Most Merciful. Through you the
countenance of the world hath been wreathed
in smiles, and the brightness of His light
shone forth. Cling ye to the cord of
steadfastness, in such wise that
all vain imaginings
may utterly vanish. Speed ye forth from the
horizon of power, in the name of your Lord,
the Unconstrained, and announce unto His
servants, with wisdom and eloquence, the
tidings of this Cause, whose splendor hath
been shed upon the world of being.”
“This is the day in which to speak. It is incumbent upon the people of Bahá to strive, with the utmost patience and forbearance, to guide the peoples of the World to the Most Great Horizon. Every body calleth aloud for a soul. Heavenly souls must needs quicken, with the breadth of the Word of God, the dead bodies with a fresh spirit.”