Messages to Canada | Page 3

further
than this we cannot go at present.
Now that your Assembly is formed, and is embarking on its
independent existence as a National Body, he wishes to emphasize a
point which he is constantly stressing to other National Bodies: you
must avoid issuing rules and regulations. The fundamentals laid down
in the Bahá'í Administration must, of course, be adhered to, but there is
a tendency for Assemblies to constantly issue detailed procedures and
rules to the friends, and he considers this hampers the work of the
Cause, and is entirely premature. As far as is possible cases which
come up should be dealt with and settled as they arise, and not a
blanket ruling be laid down to cover all possible similar cases. This
preserves the elasticity of the Administrative Order and prevents red
tape from developing and hampering the work of the Cause. You must
likewise bear in mind that you are now a wholly independent National
Body, and must consider the administration of the affairs of the Faith
within your jurisdiction as your separate problem. There is no more
need for you to follow every single rule laid down by the American
N.S.A., than there is for the British or the Australian and New Zealand
N.S.A.s to do this. Uniformity in fundamentals is essential, but not in
every detail. On the contrary, diversity, the solving of the local
situation in the right way, is important.
He will be very happy to receive reports of the measures you are taking
to carry out your important Five Year Plan. You have the unique
distinction of being the first National Body, yet formed, to be born with
a Plan in its mouth! and you may be sure your fellow Bahá'ís, East and
West, are watching your progress with keen interest, not unmixed with
curiosity, to see how well you fare in your historic work and your
newly created independence.
The Guardian has high hopes for the achievements of the Canadian

Bahá'ís. Their national character, which so fortuitously combines the
progressiveness and initiative of the Americans, and the stability and
tenacity of the British, fits them to make great contributions to the
progress of the Faith, both in Canada and throughout the world.
He urges you to keep in close touch with him, and assures you that you,
and your labours, are very dear to his heart, and he is ardently praying
for your success in every field of your manifold activities.
With warm Bahá'í love, R. RABBANI.
Dear and Valued Co-workers:
I hail with a joyous heart and confident spirit the truly compelling and
almost simultaneous evidences of the creative, the irresistible power of
the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh as witnessed by the formation of the first
Canadian National Bahá'í Assembly and the inauguration of the Five
Year Plan, designed to orient its members toward and canalize the
energies of the entire Canadian Bahá'í Community in support of the
immediate tasks lying before them. So auspicious a beginning, in the
life of a community attaining adulthood under the influence of the
processes set in motion as the result of the progressive unfoldment of
the Divine Plan, in a territory of such vast dimensions, blessed through
both the mighty utterances, and the personal visit of the One Who
fostered it from the hour of its birth, and Whose Plan enabled it to
reach maturity, may well be regarded as one of the most momentous
happenings immortalizing the opening years of the second Bahá'í
century.
IMPLICATIONS OF PLAN TREMENDOUSLY VAST
The responsibility shouldered by an institution ranking as one of the
sustaining pillars of the future Universal House of Justice is indeed
staggering. The Plan entrusted to its infant hands is, in both its
magnitude and implications tremendously vast. The anxieties, the
strenuous exertions attendant upon the proper guidance, the effectual
development and the sound consolidation of a community emerging
into independent national existence, are inevitably trying. The

numerical strength of that community, the immensity of the area
serving as the field for the operation of its Plan, the meagerness of the
resources now at its disposal, the relative inexperience of its
newly-recruited members, the perils overhanging the territory in which
they reside in the event of a future global conflict, the intensity of
opposition which the unfoldment of its mission may provoke in the
strongholds of religious orthodoxy inimical to the liberalizing
influences of the Faith it represents--all these offer a challenge at once
severe, inescapable and soul uplifting.
The eyes of its twin-sister community in the North American continent,
which assisted it in achieving its independence, are fixed upon it, eager
to behold, and ready to aid it in its march to glory. Its sister
communities in Latin America, whose coming of age is as yet
unattained, watch with mingled curiosity and envy,