Messages to Canada | Page 5

as well.

The increase in membership in the Canadian Bahá'í Community this
past year was also most encouraging. It shows that there is, primarily,
unity among the believers, for where this fundamental quality is
lacking in a Bahá'í community any real growth is impossible. That is
why the beloved Master so constantly admonished the friends to be as
one soul in different bodies, for this love and unity constitutes their
spiritual health and gives them the strength to overcome 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