Messages to Canada | Page 5

all obstacles in their path.
He fully realizes how great are the tasks facing your Assembly, but feels confident that the Canadian Bahá'ís will be able to accomplish them and will, indeed, set an example to their sister communities in different parts of the world. The people of that country, the national character, are such as to hold high promise for the future of the Cause there, and the great range covered by your Plan is stimulating in the extreme. To be the Trustees of such a Faith, in such a place, at such a time is a marvellous privilege, and he is looking forward to your next achievements with confidence and keen interest.
You may be sure his loving prayers are with you in all you do for the beloved Faith.
With warmest greetings, R. RABBANI.
Dear and Valued Co-workers:
The progress achieved in the course of the opening year of the Five Year Plan, to which the newly emerged independent Canadian Bahá'í Community is solemnly committed, is such as to excite the admiration, and merit the gratitude, of the entire Bahá'í World. A community, so small in numbers, so restricted in resources, labouring over so extensive a field, shouldering such weighty responsibilities, has passed through the initial stage of its task and discharged its duties with such distinction as to be worthy of the glowing promises and weighty utterances recorded in 'Abdu'l-Bahá's Tablets regarding the material as well as the spiritual potentialities with which that great and promising Dominion has been endowed.
OPERATION OF THE PLAN GATHERS MOMENTUM
Through the swift and marvellous increase in its membership, through its faithful and uncompromising adherence to both the spiritual and administrative principles of the Faith it so nobly serves; through the multiplication of its administrative centres from the Atlantic to the Pacific sea-board; through the steady consolidation of its local and national Funds, designed to sustain its ever-unfolding activities, through the spirit consistently manifested by the small yet eager and valiant band of its pioneers and administrators, and more recently through the official recognition providentially accorded the body of its national elected representatives by both chambers of the Legislature in that Dominion--an act wholly unprecedented in the annals of the Faith in any country, in either East or West--this vigorous, divinely sustained, resistlessly advancing community, has not only fulfilled the expectations and hopes that greeted its birth, but set a brilliant example to its sister communities in both the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.
The task which it has so splendidly inaugurated and which is being now prosecuted with such vigour, devotion, single-mindedness, harmony and determination, is still in the initial stage of its development. The process that has stimulated the growth and increased the number of its administrative centres must be accelerated no matter how great the sacrifice involved. The development of the local and national Funds must be continuously maintained as a prelude to the establishment of local and national endowments and the ultimate erection of a House of Worship that will incarnate the soul of a flourishing nation-wide community. The initiation of a systematic and sustained campaign beyond the frontiers of that Dominion, and in obedience to the Mandate of the Author of the Divine Plan, to which it stands inescapably pledged, and aiming at the introduction of the Faith in Greenland and the conversion of the Eskimos still remains to be undertaken. The consolidation of the summer school, the gradual incorporation of firmly established, properly functioning Assemblies are, moreover, objectives that must under no circumstances be overlooked or neglected.
As the operation of the Plan gathers momentum the members of this community must evince a still greater measure of solidarity, rise to higher levels of heroism, demonstrate a greater capacity for collective achievement, and attract still more abundant blessings on the varied enterprises on which they have embarked.
I am following the unfoldment of their Plan with eager and sustained interest. My ardent prayers will surround and accompany its prosecutors at every stage of their historic undertaking. My confidence in their ultimate success is not only unshaken, but has been immensely reinforced. May He Who watches over them guide every step they take, bless every measure they adopt, remove every obstacle that impedes their onward march and fulfil every desire they cherish for the future glory, honour and greatness of their beloved Faith in that vast and richly blessed Dominion.
SHOGHI.

Letter of June 23, 1950
June 23, 1950.
The National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Canada
Your letters ... have been received by our beloved Guardian, and he has instructed me to answer you on his behalf.
He feels sure you will understand the reason for the delay in answering your letters--and, indeed, all the other N.S.A.s' letters--when he explains that not only has this been a terrific winter of work in connection with the construction of the Shrine, but since