sion into Baha'i custody, the recognition of Baha'i Holy
Days by the Ministry of Education and Culture, following exemption granted
to Baha'i international endowments, and recognition accorded Baha'i
marriage certificate.

Baha'u'llah's residence in Akka, the scene of severe crises in the course
of the ministries of the Founder of the Faith and the Center of His
Covenant renovated and furnished, are added to the Holy Places already
opened to the steadily swelling number of visitors both local and foreign.

A significant step was taken by the City Governorate of Cairo presaging
the eventual recognition by state authorities of the Baha'i laws of
personal status, already codified and submitted to the central government
by the Egyptian National Assembly.

Bonds binding the Baha'i world community to United Nations strengthened by
Baha'i participation in regional conference of Non-Governmental
Organizations in Geneva and Istanbul.

Preliminary steps taken in preparation of final design for the
Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar on Mount Carmel by President of the International
Baha'i Council, specifically appointed by 'Abdu'l-Baha to be its
architect.

Process of the unfoldment of the ever-advancing Administrative Order
accelerated by the formation of the International Baha'i Council designed
to assist in the erection of the superstructure of the Bab's Sepulcher,
cement ties uniting the budding World Administrative Center with the
recently established state, and pave the way for the formation of the
Baha'i Court, essential prelude to the institution of the Universal House
of Justice.

I hail particularly the brilliant victory won by the American Baha'i
Community in meeting the financial requirements for the completion of the
interior ornamentation of the Temple and eliminating the deficit in the
Victory Fund, exploits doubly meritorious owing to the added
responsibilities courageously assumed to assist enterprise in the African
field, and construction of the Bab's Sepulcher in the Holy Land.

I am thrilled by the multiple evidences of the simultaneous prosecution of
Baha'i national plans, East and West, and the rise and steady
consolidation of the World Center of the Faith, constituting the
distinguishing features of the second epoch of the Formative Age whose
inception on the morrow of the Second World War coincided with the
inauguration of the second Baha'i century, and which bids fair to eclipse
the splendors of the preceding e