Appointment of the Continental Boards of Counsellors

30 October 2005

To the Bahá’ís of the World

Dear Bahá’í Friends,

On the Day of the Covenant, 26 November 2005, a new five-year term of service for members of the Continental Boards of Counsellors for the Protection and Propagation of the Faith will open. We take great pleasure in announcing the names of the Counsellors appointed for the coming term, whose number remains at eighty-one.

AFRICA (19 Counsellors): Selam Ahderom, Desmond Browne, Maziar Djoneidi, Mehraz Ehsani (Trustee of the Continental Fund), Clément Thyrrell Feizouré, Agatha Gaisie-Nketsiah, Isatou Hyde-Forster, Amina Jaouane, Sinuhé Lozano, Eddy Lutchmaya, Enos Makhele, Tsatsi Othaniel Mfete, Maina Mkan- dawire, Ruth Mnyampi, Zowe Tiba Nganyade, Albert Nshisu Nsunga, Ahmad Parsa, Garth Pollock, Tiati à Zock.

THE AMERICAS (19 Counsellors): Farzin Aghdasi, Eugene Andrews, Stephen Birkland, Ann Boyles, Jorge Henrique Guerreiro, Ehsanollah Hemmat, Deborah Kirton, Ana Hilda de Lemus, Antônio Gabriel Marques, Juan Francisco Mora, Rebequa Murphy, Ganesh Ramsahai, Carmen Elisa de Sadeghian, Daniel Scott, Crystal Shoaie, Marilyn Smith, Leticia de Solano, Rodrigo Tomás (Trustee of the Continental Fund), Gerardo Vargas.

Centenary Anniversary of the Baha’i Faith in Germany

10 September 2005

To the friends gathered on the occasion of the Centenary of the Faith in Germany

Dear Bahá’í Friends,

It is with jubilant hearts and feelings of deep gratitude that we greet all of you who have gathered to celebrate the one hundredth anniversary of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh in Germany. No other community in the Western world can claim to have demonstrated a greater resilience in the face of formidable obstacles that threatened to rob you of the shining triumph, the potent prospects, signalized by your very meeting on so auspicious an occasion.

The spark lit in Stuttgart with the arrival in 1905 of Dr. Edwin Fischer, which was fanned into a flame with the momentous visit of the beloved Master to that city eight years later, has burgeoned into a conflagration that bids fair to enkindle the hearts of troop after troop of your spiritually hungry, fellow citizens. Especially is this evident in the dynamic efforts currently afoot to intensify the expansion and consolidation process at the crux of the Five Year Plan.

This is a moment for reflection, profound reflection—one that recounts the highlights in contrast to the dark aspects punctuating the history of crisis and victory that depicts the evolution of the German community. It should enable you to appreciate more fully than before the outstanding results of the early believers’ trust in Bahá’u’lláh and His unfailing guidance, which emboldened them to persevere despite the persecution they suffered and the prohibitions inflicted on their efforts. Their exemplary conduct assured the community of the capacity to rise like a phoenix from the devastation of the Second World War and thenceforward to become vibrant collaborators with their sister communities in prosecuting the great tasks set by the Divine Plan. How brilliantly do the signs of their success shine! Suffice it to mention a few: the erection on German soil of the first European House of Worship; the legal recognition accorded by the highest court in the land to the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh, underscoring the equality of its status to that enjoyed by other major religions; the wealth of Bahá’í literature translated and published in German; and the dispatch of pioneers to goal countries. Among these distinctions was the emergence of distinguished believers, including two Hands of the Cause of God whose tireless endeavours galvanized the will of the community to accomplish such wonderful feats.

Message to the Conference of Arabic-Speaking Believers

22 June 2005

To the conference of Arabic-speaking believers, Chicago, July 2005

Dear Bahá’í Friends,

With great joy we extend our loving greetings to you and to the other Arabic-speaking followers of Bahá’u’lláh residing in North America.

You have come together at a moment laden with portents and possibilities of change in the Middle East—far-reaching, positive change. The forces animating the Major and Minor Plans of God have so accelerated the simultaneous processes of disintegration and of integration operating in the world as to prompt the people of the region to recognize new realities and strive to take their rightful place in an emerging world society. Unprecedented global attention is increasingly focused on them, obliging them to act in awareness of the inescapable transition to a new age. Indeed, in concert with the social, economic, and cultural disorder affecting the entire planet, an array of crises has engulfed the Arab world. Peoples who in a previous age brilliantly advanced culture and civilization, extending the transformative spirit released by Islám far beyond the confines of the land of its birth, which regenerated every society it touched, now find themselves critically impeded by their inability to cope with the exigencies of modernity.

The condition of the Arabian diaspora is not dissimilar. Emigration to Western countries has greatly intensified the inner conflict being experienced between tradition and the values of a changing world. Prevailing attitudes extend from a wholehearted embrace of the goals of Western materialism to a retreat into fundamentalism. Within this spectrum a substantial minority struggles to find an enlightened social order consistent with spiritual ideals, indicating a rise in receptivity among certain Muslim populations.