Dearly loved friends,
A span of eighteen years separates us from the centenary of
Bahá'u'lláh's Ascension and the unveiling of His Almighty Covenant. The
fortunes of humanity in that period no man can foretell. We can, however,
confidently predict that the Cause of God, impelled by the mighty forces of
life within it, must go on from strength to strength, increasing in size and
developing greater and greater powers for the accomplishment of God's purpose
on earth.
The abundant evidences of Divine confirmation which have
rewarded the strenuous and dedicated efforts of the Bahá'í community during the
past decade are apparent throughout the earth and give incontrovertible
assurance of its capacity to win the good pleasure of Bahá'u'lláh and answer
every call made upon it in His service.
The Five Year Plan to which this community is now summoned
is the opening campaign of these critical years. It is the third global plan
embarked upon by the Army of Light in its implementation of 'Abdu'l-Bahá's
Divine Plan, that world-encompassing programme disclosed in His perspicuous
Tablets and described by the Guardian of the Cause of God as the Charter for
the propagation of the Faith throughout the world. It was the Guardian himself,
the beloved "sign of God," who, through his exposition and
interpretation of the Revelation, through his discipline and education of the
Bahá'í community and through a series of national plans assigned to the various
units of that community, forged the Administrative Order of the Faith and made
it an instrument for the carrying out of this great Charter, and he himself
designed and launched the first global plan, the unique, brilliant and
spiritually glorious Ten Year Crusade. The victories of that crusade implanted
the banner of Bahá'u'lláh throughout the planet and the following Nine Year
Plan reinforced and extended the bastions of the Faith and raised the number of
National Spiritual Assemblies -- the supporting pillars of the Universal House
of Justice -- to one hundred and thirteen, a number increased to one hundred
and fifteen by the formation at this Ridvan of the National Spiritual
Assemblies of Hong Kong and South East Arabia.
