To the elected representatives of all the Bahá’í communities of the New World, assembled beneath the Dome of the Mother Temple of the West, on the occasion of the historic, first All-American Bahá’í Convention—a Convention at which every state and province in the North American continent is represented, in which the representatives of every Republic of Latin America have been invited to participate, whose delegates have been elected, for the first time in American Bahá’í history, by all local communities already possessing Assemblies, by all groups and isolated believers throughout the United States and Canada, and whose proceedings will be for ever associated with the celebration of the Centenary of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, of the hundredth anniversary of the birth of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Bahá’í Faith in the Western Hemisphere, and of the completion of the exterior ornamentation of the First Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of the West, to all the privileged attendants of such an epoch-making Convention, I, on my own behalf, as well as in the name of all Bahá’í Communities sharing with them, at this great turning point in the history of our Faith, the joys and triumphs of this solemn hour, feel moved to convey the expression of our loving admiration, our joy and our gratitude for the brilliant conclusion of what posterity will no doubt acclaim as one of the most stirring episodes in the history of the Formative Age of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, as well as one of the most momentous enterprises undertaken during the entire course of the first Century of the Bahá’í Era.
April 15, 1944
INTERNATIONAL ACHIEVEMENT
Bahá’ís have established residence in seventy-eight countries, fifty-six of which are sovereign states. Bahá’í literature has been translated and published in forty-one languages. Translations have been undertaken in twelve additional languages. Thirty-one races are represented in the Bahá’í world community. Five National Assemblies and sixty-one local Assemblies belonging to ten countries are incorporated and legally empowered to hold property. The Bahá’í international endowments held in the Holy Land are estimated at a half million pounds sterling. National Bahá’í endowments in the United States are estimated at one million, seven hundred thousand dollars.
The area of land in the Jordan Valley dedicated to the Bahá’í Shrines is over five hundred acres. The site purchased for future Bahá’í Temple of Persia comprises three and a half million square meters. The cost of the structure of the first Bahá’í Temple in the West has been one million, three hundred thousand dollars.
In every state and province of North America Bahá’í Assemblies are functioning. In thirteen hundred localities of the United States and Canada Bahá’ís reside. Bahá’í Centers have been established in every republic of Latin America, fifteen of which possess Spiritual Assemblies. The Faith in the Western Hemisphere now stretches from Anchorage, Alaska, to Magallanes, the world’s southernmost city. Sixty-two Centers have been established in India, twenty-seven with Spiritual Assemblies.
Among the historic sites purchased in Persia are the Ṭihrán home of Bahá’u’lláh, the Báb’s shop in Bushire, the burial place of Quddús, part of the village Chihríq, three gardens in Badasht, and the place where Táhirih was confined.
Bahá’í administrative headquarters have been founded in Ṭihrán, Delhi, Cairo, Baghdád, Wilmette and Sydney. Bahá’í endowments in the Holy Land and the United States have been exempted from taxes by the civil authorities. Civil recognition has been extended to Bahá’í Assemblies in five states of the United States to solemnize Bahá’í marriages.