ich posterity will recognize as the greatest shrine in the Western
world.

Nor must the elaborate preparations in connection with the forthcoming
celebration of the centenary of our glorious Faith be overlooked or
neglected, if we would befittingly consummate this first, this most
fecund, century of the Baha'i era. An unprecedented, a carefully
conceived, efficiently co-ordinated, nation-wide campaign, aiming at the
proclamation of the Message of Baha'u'llah, through speeches, articles in
the press, and radio broadcasts, should be promptly initiated and
vigorously prosecuted. The universality of the Faith, its aims and
purposes, episodes in its dramatic history, testimonials to its
transforming power, and the character and distinguishing features of its
World Order should be emphasized and explained to the general public, and
particularly to eminent friends and leaders sympathetic to its cause, who
should be approached and invited to participate in the celebrations.
Lectures, conferences, banquets, special publications should, to whatever
extent is practicable and according to the resources at the disposal of
the believers, proclaim the character of this joyous Festival. An
all-American Convention, at which representatives of Baha'i centers in
every Republic in Central and South America will be invited to
participate, and to which, for the first time, all isolated believers, all
groups, and all communities already possessing local Spiritual Assemblies
will have the right to appoint delegates and to share in the election of
the National Spiritual Assembly, will, moreover, have to be held to
commemorate this epoch-making event. A dedication ceremony, in consonance
with the solemnity of the occasion, and held beneath the dome of the
Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar, on the very day and at the very hour of the Bab's
historic Declaration, followed by a public session, consecrated to the
memory of both the Bab and 'Abdu'l-Baha, should constitute the leading
features of this historic Convention.

For it should be borne in mind that in the year 1944 we celebrate not only
the termination of the first century of the Baha'i Era, but also the
centenary of the birth of the Baha'i Dispensation, of the inception of the
Baha'i cycle, and the birth of 'Abdu'l-Baha, and commemorate as well the
fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the Baha'i Faith in the
Western world.

No effort, nor any sacrifice can be deemed too great to insure the
de