s stretching from the time when the name of
Baha'u'llah was first publicly mentioned on the American continent to the
present hour when the first Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar of the West has finally
been dedicated to public worship on the occasion of the celebrations
signalizing the termination of the first century since the birth of His
Mission. I can but, at this juncture, touch upon certain outstanding
episodes which, viewed in their proper perspective, may well be regarded
as landmarks in the rise and development of the Faith of Baha'u'llah
throughout the Americas. I am particularly reminded of the holding of the
World Parliament of Religions of Chicago in September 1893; of the arrival
of the first American Baha'i pilgrims in the Holy Land in December 1898;
of the inception of the Temple enterprise in June 1903; of the opening of
the first American Baha'i Convention in March 1909; of 'Abdu'l-Baha's
arrival in America in April 1912; of the laying by Him of the cornerstone
of the Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar in May 1912; of the unveiling of the Tablets
of the Divine Plan in April 1919; of the birth and rise of the Baha'i
Administrative Order on the morrow of 'Abdu'l-Baha's ascension; of the
official inauguration of 'Abdu'l-Baha's Plan through the launching of the
first seven-year teaching enterprise in April 1937; of the completion of
the exterior ornamentation of the Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_dh_kar, on the eve of the
centenary celebrations of the Founding of the Faith, in May 1944; of the
inception of the Second Seven-Year Plan in April 1946; of the formation of
an independent National Spiritual Assembly in the Dominion of Canada in
April 1948; of the establishment of the National Spiritual Assemblies of
Central and South America in April 1951; and of the completion of the
interior ornamentation of the Temple in October 1952.

SIX DECADES OF ACHIEVEMENT

So remarkable a development in the course of the past six decades,
spanning the concluding phase of the Heroic and the opening decade of the
Formative Age of the Faith, and encompassing the length and breadth of a
continent, so greatly blessed, so richly endowed, has resulted in the
extension of the ramifications of a nascent Administrative Order to every
state of the American Union, to every province of the Dominion of Canada,
and to every republic of Central and South America; in the construction,
the ornamentation, and the dedication to public worship of the first
Ma_sh_riqu'l-A_d