Messages to Canada.
by Shoghi Effendi.
THE GUARDIAN'S FIRST LETTER TO CANADA. 1923
The beloved of the Lord and the handmaids of the Merciful throughout Canada.
Care of the members of the Spiritual Assembly in Montreal
Dear Friends,
It is a great pleasure and privilege to me to enter into direct, and I trust, permanent correspondence with those faithful friends of 'Abdu'l-Baha, who though few in number and scattered over that vast and flourishing country, will I trust act as a powerful leaven to the mass of that spiritually-minded people.
Though its people be firmly entrenched in their religious sectarianism and strongly attached to their religious doctrines and traditions, yet who can doubt that with courage and persistence, kindliness and wisdom, the all-conquering words of Baha'u'llah can fail to break down all these barriers of prejudice and religious exclusiveness and conquer this longstanding stronghold of sectarian belief!
Surely the efficacy of the universal Teachings of Baha'u'llah as applied to the cherished and time-honoured religious traditions of the East, has been sufficiently demonstrated to justify at present our confident hopes for the future and speedy re-awakening of that land.
May the small company of the steadfast followers of 'Abdu'l-Baha in Canada be filled with the outpourings of the Divine Grace that are being showered so mightily in these days upon the friends of God the world over, and may they arise with undiminished fervour to carry out to their fullest measure the last wishes and instructions of our departed Master for that great and flourishing Dominion!
With all good wishes,
Your brother and co-worker, SHOGHI.
Haifa, Palestine.
January 2, 1923.
THE BIRTH OF THE INDEPENDENT CANADIAN BAHa'i COMMUNITY AND THE FIVE YEAR PLAN. 194853
THE BIRTH OF THE INDEPENDENT CANADIAN BAHa'i COMMUNITY AND THE FIVE YEAR PLAN. 194853
Letter of April 14, 1948
April 14, 1948.
ELECTION OF FIRST NATIONAL ASSEMBLY AND ANNOUNCEMENT OF FIVE YEAR PLAN
To the First Canadian National Convention.
Hearts uplifted in thanksgiving to Baha'u'llah for the epoch-making event of the coming of age of the dearly beloved Canadian Baha'i Community, the formation of the first National Convention in the City of Montreal and the forthcoming election of Canada's National Assembly constituting the ninth pillar of the institution of the Universal House of Justice. I acknowledge with reverent gratitude and deepest joy the marvellous influence of the operation of the initial stage in 'Abdu'l-Baha's Divine Plan enabling the northernmost community of the followers of the Faith on the American continent to pass the stage of infancy and attain the status, and to assume the functions of, an independent existence within the World Baha'i Community. I recall on this auspicious occasion with profound emotion the heroic services to the mother community of May Maxwell(1) whose life and death forged unbreakable links binding the body of the Canadian believers to the sister communities of the United States and Latin America. I am moved to appeal to assembled delegates to arise in conjunction with the first Canadian National Assembly, as a token of gratitude for the manifold blessings of Divine Providence, to initiate in the hour of the birth of their national activities a Five Year Plan designed to associate them, formally and systematically and independently, with their sister community of the United States, in the common task of the prosecution of their world-encompassing mission. The fulfillment of this collective task confronting the rapidly maturing community necessitates the incorporation of the Canadian National Assembly, the establishment of National Baha'i Endowments, doubling the number of Local Assemblies throughout the Dominion and raising to one hundred the total number of localities where Baha'is reside throughout the Provinces, the constitution of a group in Newfoundland and the formation of a nucleus of the Faith in the Territory of Greenland, singled out for special mention by the Author of the Divine Plan, and the participation of Eskimos and Red Indians in membership to share administrative privileges in local institutions of the Faith in Canada. I fondly hope and ardently pray that the celebration of the first centenary of the Birth of Baha'u'llah's prophetic mission will witness the triumphant consummation of the first historic Plan launched by the Canadian Baha'i Community in a land whose future greatness and glory, both materially and spiritually, the Centre of Baha'u'llah's Covenant twice emphatically proclaimed in His immortal Tablets.(2)
SHOGHI.
Letter of November 4, 1948
November 4, 1948.
National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of Canada.
Your letter to our beloved Guardian, dated October 6th, has been received, and he has instructed me to answer you on his behalf.
AVOID BLANKET RULINGS
Our teachings, as outlined in the Advent of Divine Justice, on the subject of living a chaste life, should be emphasized, but certainly no ruling what-so-ever should be laid down in this matter. The Baha'is have certainly not yet reached that stage of moral perfection where they are in a position to too harshly scrutinize the private lives of other souls, and each individual should be accepted on the basis of his faith, and sincere willingness to try to live up to the Divine Standards; further than this we cannot go at present.
Now that your Assembly is formed, and is embarking on its independent existence as a National Body, he wishes to emphasize a point which he is constantly stressing to other National Bodies: you must avoid issuing rules and regulations. The fundamentals laid down in the Baha'i Administration must, of course, be adhered to, but there is a tendency for Assemblies to constantly issue detailed procedures and rules to the friends, and he considers this hampers the work of the Cause, and is entirely premature. As far as is possible cases which come up should be dealt with and settled as they arise, and not a blanket ruling be laid down to cover all possible similar cases. This preserves the elasticity of the Administrative Order and prevents red tape from developing and hampering the work of the Cause. You must likewise bear in mind that you are now a wholly independent National Body, and must consider the administration of the affairs of the Faith within your jurisdiction as your separate problem. There is no more need for you to follow every single rule laid down by the American N.S.A., than there is for the British or the Australian and New Zealand N.S.A.s to do this. Uniformity in fundamentals is essential, but not in every detail. On the contrary, diversity, the solving of the local situation in the right way, is important.
He will be very happy to receive reports of the measures you are taking to carry out your important Five Year Plan. You have the unique distinction of being the first National Body, yet formed, to be born with a Plan in its mouth! and you may be sure your fellow Baha'is, East and West, are watching your progress with keen interest, not unmixed with curiosity, to see how well you fare in your historic work and your newly created independence.
The Guardian has high hopes for the achievements of the Canadian Baha'is.
Their national character, which so fortuitously combines the progressiveness and initiative of the Americans, and the stability and tenacity of the British, fits them to make great contributions to the progress of the Faith, both in Canada and throughout the world.
He urges you to keep in close touch with him, and assures you that you, and your labours, are very dear to his heart, and he is ardently praying for your success in every field of your manifold activities.
With warm Baha'i love, R. RABBANI.
Dear and Valued Co-workers:
I hail with a joyous heart and confident spirit the truly compelling and almost simultaneous evidences of the creative, the irresistible power of the Faith of Baha'u'llah as witnessed by the formation of the first Canadian National Baha'i Assembly and the inauguration of the Five Year Plan, designed to orient its members toward and canalize the energies of the entire Canadian Baha'i Community in support of the immediate tasks lying before them. So auspicious a beginning, in the life of a community attaining adulthood under the influence of the processes set in motion as the result of the progressive unfoldment of the Divine Plan, in a territory of such vast dimensions, blessed through both the mighty utterances, and the personal visit of the One Who fostered it from the hour of its birth, and Whose Plan enabled it to reach maturity, may well be regarded as one of the most momentous happenings immortalizing the opening years of the second Baha'i century.
IMPLICATIONS OF PLAN TREMENDOUSLY VAST
The responsibility shouldered by an institution ranking as one of the sustaining pillars of the future Universal House of Justice is indeed staggering. The Plan entrusted to its infant hands is, in both its magnitude and implications tremendously vast. The anxieties, the strenuous exertions attendant upon the proper guidance, the effectual development and the sound consolidation of a community emerging into independent national existence, are inevitably trying. The numerical strength of that community, the immensity of the area serving as the field for the operation of its Plan, the meagerness of the resources now at its disposal, the relative inexperience of its newly-recruited members, the perils overhanging the territory in which they reside in the event of a future global conflict, the intensity of opposition which the unfoldment of its mission may provoke in the strongholds of religious orthodoxy inimical to the liberalizing influences of the Faith it represents-all these offer a challenge at once severe, inescapable and soul uplifting.
The eyes of its twin-sister community in the North American continent, which assisted it in achieving its independence, are fixed upon it, eager to behold, and ready to aid it in its march to glory. Its sister communities in Latin America, whose coming of age is as yet unattained, watch with mingled curiosity and envy, its first strides along the steep path which they themselves are soon to tread. Other sister communities in the European, African, Asiatic and Australian continents, some of venerable age, others rich in experience, and resources, still others tried and tested, by the fires of persecution, observe with keen anticipation in their hearts and benediction on their lips, the manner in which this youngest recruit to their ranks will launch upon its career, the resolution with which it will face its problems, the spirit which will animate it in its battles and the stupendousness of the efforts required to win its victories. Above and beyond them the Spirit of a Master Who nursed it in its infancy and to Whose Plan it now has consecrated its mature energies, overshadows it with that self-same solicitude that called it into existence, that stimulated His tender care in its infancy, that inspired His written promises, that prompted His lavish praise, that impelled Him to cast the radiance of His person, in the evening of His life, on its mother city(3), and induced Him, ere His passing, to bequeath to it so rich a legacy in what may be regarded as one of the mightiest repositories of His last wishes. No one, of the galaxy of immortal heroes, now gathered to the glory of Baha'u'llah, can contemplate with greater delight the advances, which this community has made, or intercede with greater efficacy on its behalf, than she(4) who has won the peerless title of the Mother of that community, the initial phase of whose career was signalized by the founding of the mother community in the European continent, and the conclusion of which was crowned by a death cementing the spiritual bonds now indissolubly uniting the North and South American continents.
EXECUTION OF THE PLAN