Messages to Canada | Page 6

the beginning of April my dear father, Mr. Maxwell(7), has been dangerously and desperately ill. The anxiety this caused us all, and the constant coming and going of doctors, nurses, and two periods in hospital, has necessitated putting aside all correspondence for months. Now, however, thank God, Mr. Maxwell is slowly improving, and the threads of normal existence can be taken up again by us all.
The Guardian was very happy to note the community increased this year by 66. He was also delighted to see your Assembly arranged for all delegates to be present. This is very important, especially during this period when full consultation and cooperation is necessary amongst all the far-flung Canadian Assemblies and groups, as well as isolated believers, in order to ensure the success of your first and so important Plan.
He approves of the measures you have inaugurated for intensive teaching during the coming year, and trusts they will meet with great success.
The British victories, in the face of great obstacles, and the consistent success across the border in the U.S.A., must be at once an inspiration and a challenge to the Canadian friends. There is no doubt they can succeed if the entire community applies itself eagerly and confidently to its task.
SETTLEMENT OF PIONEERS IN NEWFOUNDLAND
The Guardian is immensely pleased over the settlement of pioneers(8) in Newfoundland; this has accomplished one of the specific desires of the beloved Master, and will redound to the glory of the Canadian Bahá'ís.
The next, most important task is to get Miss Gates(9) into Greenland. This is fraught with many difficulties, but he urges your Assembly to persevere and exert its utmost to remove every obstacle. He will specially pray that a way may open for her to enter that country.
Regarding your question about contributions: it is up to the individual to decide; if he wishes to denote a sum to a specific purpose, he is free to do so; but the friends should recognize the fact that too much labelling of contributions will tie the hands of the Assembly and prevent it from meeting its many obligations in various fields of Bahá'í activity.
Concerning the points your Assembly raised in the letter of December 20, 1949:
The Guardian is very anxious that no new rules and regulations should be introduced. As far as possible each N.S.A. should decide secondary matters for itself, and not try to lay down a rule general in application.
Bahá'u'lláh gives no right of appeal to the law that both parents must give permission to the marriage, if they are living--Bahá'í marriages should be referred to assemblies to officiate; where there is no Assembly to officiate your body is free to decide what procedure should be followed. Whether it is the chairman or secretary or some other person who actually conducts the marriage is, likewise, a matter for your body to decide.
The Guardian has not found it desirable, for various reasons, to send a recorded message to any Convention.
TEACHING THE CANADIAN INDIANS
The work being done by various Bahá'ís, including our dear Indian believer(10) who returned from the United States in order to pioneer amongst his own people, in teaching the Canadian Indians, is one of the most important fields of activity under your jurisdiction. The Guardian hopes that ere long many of these original Canadians will take an active part in Bahá'í affairs and arise to redeem their brethren from the obscurity and despondency into which they have fallen.
The desire of your Assembly to remain in the closest touch with the Guardian pleases him very much--he assures you that the desire is mutual!
With the assurance of his loving prayers for you all.
Yours in His service, R. RABBANI.
P.S. The maps you forwarded were of great interest, and he thanks you for them. He intends to have one of them published in the next edition of "Bahá'í World."
Dear and Valued Co-workers:
The progress achieved in various fields by the members of the Canadian Bahá'í Community under the direction of its national elected representatives, since the inception of the Five Year Plan, merits the highest praise, and augurs well for its success in the years that lie immediately ahead. The spontaneity with which the members of this community, on the morrow of its having attained an independent, national existence, have arisen to execute the Plan designed for the furtherance of its interests and the consolidation of its newly-born institutions, the zeal and resolution which have characterized the prosecution of the task entrusted to their care, the notable success they have already achieved in the initial stages of their enterprise, have served to heighten my feelings of admiration for those who have directed its course and participated in its unfoldment, and to evoke the unstinted praise of all sister communities in both the East and the West.
A GREATER UNANIMITY IN SACRIFICE REQUIRED
Though much