In these historic days we are witnessing a major triumph in
the development of the Faith of Baha'u'llah. Not only is the raising up of this
House of Worship a further significant fulfilment of the Blessed Beauty's
promise, it also presages a brilliant future in the Pacific for His Faith,
whose quickening light is casting its rays on the peoples of this vast ocean.
In his message to the Baha'i world in April 1957 the beloved Guardian,
referring to the Pacific, wrote, "... Baha'i exploits bid fair to outshine
the feats achieved in any other ocean, and indeed in every continent of the
globe ..."
In reviewing the religious history of the Pacific during the
Baha'i Dispensation we recall that it was only a short time prior to the
Declaration of the Bab that the Teachings of Christ spread throughout these
islands; that the Teachings of Baha'u'llah were first proclaimed there when the
Hand of the Cause Agnes Alexander arrived in the Hawaiian Islands in December
1901; that at the beginning of the World Crusade in 1953 only a handful of
islands had had any contact with the Faith; and that at Ridvan 1959 when the
first regional National Spiritual Assembly of the South Pacific was established
in Suva there were in its area but twelve Local Spiritual Assemblies in nine
island groups. Witness now what has happened in the quarter century since 1959.
- There are now a total of thirteen National Spiritual Assemblies in the homelands of the Polynesians, the Melanesians and the Micronesians.
- The Caroline Islands
- Fiji
- The Hawaiian Islands
- Kiribati
- The Mariana IslandsThe Marshall Islands
- New Caledonia and the Loyalty Islands
- Papua New Guinea
- Samoa
- The Solomon Islands
- Tonga
- Tuvalu
- Vanuatu
