As soon as the site of the projected House of Worship is selected, either within or in the immediate vicinity of the City of Frankfurt, which, owing to the establishment of the Hazíratu’l-Quds within its confines, has come to be regarded as the national Bahá’í Administrative Headquarters of your Assembly,—an area that need not, for the present, exceed one or two acres—steps will be taken by myself as well as by your sister-Assemblies in both Hemispheres to aid you in this historic fate-laden enterprise which will enable the continent of Europe, the third in the Bahá’í world, to boast of having raised in its very heart, its own Bahá’í House of Worship and which will, God willing, through its termination, at the appointed hour, contribute an outstanding share to the projected festivities which are to commemorate the centenary of the Declaration of the Mission of the Founder of our Faith.
Second in importance and no less urgent a task is the opening, ere the close of the current year, of the three virgin territories assigned to your Assembly, through the despatch of at least one pioneer...
While these primary and urgent tasks are being diligently prosecuted, the utmost effort should be exerted to stimulate the all-important process of multiplying and consolidating the newly-established assemblies, groups and isolated centres in both Germany and Austria as the essential pre-requisite to the early formation of independent National Assemblies in both countries occupying so central a position in the European continent, and destined to play so vital a part in the promotion of the interests of the Faith in the heart and in the eastern as well as the southern regions of that continent.
The responsibilities devolving upon these two communities, in the course of the coming ten years are enormous, pressing, sacred and inescapable. The Plan committed to their care will inaugurate a new and glorious stage in the unfoldment of their historic Mission—a stage that will enable them to carry, for the first time in their history and in a systematic manner, the banner of Bahá’u’lláh beyond the confines of their homelands.
Every sacrifice should be made, and all agencies, local, regional and national, must energetically, whole-heartedly, and steadfastly participate, to ensure a worthy inauguration and an efficient prosecution of the Ten-Year Plan, on which the immediate fortunes of these communities must necessarily depend. All without distinction of age, sex or calling should arise and lend, to the utmost of their capacity, an impetus to the progress of this tremendously important and dynamic process now operating in the heart of Europe, and whose possibilities can only be dimly imagined at present.
The hour is propitious for the members of your Assembly, reinforced by the continual, the whole-hearted and strenuous exertions of the entire body of the German and Austrian believers, to distinguish themselves in their ceaseless efforts to attain the objectives of their Ten-Year Plan, by deeds of such valour as will eclipse the feats achieved by them in the past.
Cognizant of the splendid qualities that have characterized their stewardship to the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, fully aware of the services, they have rendered, in both the teaching and administrative spheres of Bahá’í activity, despite the severe and prolonged tests and trials which they have experienced, I feel confident that these communities, so valiant, so richly endowed, so tenacious in their faith and sterling in their character, will, at this challenging hour grasp this priceless opportunity for the display of still greater heroism and of a still more compelling love and devotion to the Cause they love so dearly, to which they have been so unwaveringly faithful and which they have served so long and so well.
Shoghi