etion of the interior ornamentation of the first
Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the West, the provision of its accessories and
the initiation of the landscaping of its grounds; in the support extended
to the development of the institutions of the World Center of the Faith;
in the role played by its representatives, whether as Hands of the Cause
or members of the International Baha'i Council; in the financial aid
unhesitatingly given to hasten the construction, and insure the
completion, of the superstructure of the Bab's Sepulcher on Mt.
Carmel--above all, in the share its national elected representatives have
assumed in providing the means for the convocation of the second
Intercontinental Teaching Conference of the Holy Year; in commemorating
worthily the dedication to public worship of the Mother Temple of the
West, on the occasion of its Jubilee; in befittingly inaugurating the
launching of the World Spiritual Crusade, and in celebrating the climax of
the Holy Year marking the centenary of the birth of Baha'u'llah's
Mission--in all these the American Baha'i Community has fully deserved the
praise and gratitude of posterity, has merited the applause of the
Concourse on High and earned a full measure of the divine blessings and of
the celestial sustenance of which it will stand in such great need in the
course of the prosecution of still mightier and more glorious enterprises
in the days to come.

ADDED RESPONSIBILITIES IN PROPAGATING THE DIVINE PLAN

The stage is now set, and the hour propitious, for a deployment of forces,
and for the revelation of the indomitable spirit animating this community,
on a scale and to a degree unprecedented in the entire course of American
Baha'i history. To the Antilles and the seventeen republics of Central and
of South America--the scene of the initial exploits of a community
inaugurating the opening phase of its world-girding mission--to the ten
sovereign states of Europe which, at a subsequent stage in the unfoldment
of that mission, the members of this community enthusiastically and
determinedly arose to open up and conquer; to the African territories
which, in addition to their allocated task under the Second Seven Year
Plan, they spontaneously endeavored to win to the all-conquering Cause of
Baha'u'llah--to these numerous islands and archipelagos, bordering the
American, the European and African continents; dependencies extensive,
well-nigh inaccessible, and remote from the