a'i Community
in the furtherance of the Grand Design delineated in 'Abdu'l-Baha's
immortal Tablets; to the members of the loyal, the assiduously laboring
and highly diversified community in the Indian sub-continent, whose
geographic position entitles them to extend substantial assistance to the
prodigious task of awakening the peoples of South East Asia to the
redemptive Message of Baha'u'llah; to the members of the second most
persecuted yet resolute community established in the heart of both the
Arab and Muslim worlds, who, by virtue of the position they occupy, must
play a distinctive part in the emancipation of a proscribed Faith from the
fetters of religious orthodoxy; to the members of the youthful yet
vigorously functioning community, championing the Cause of Baha'u'llah in
the Antipodes who, by reason of their close proximity, are expected to
contribute a substantial share to the establishment of the institutions of
the Faith in the numerous and widely scattered islands and archipelagos of
the South Pacific Ocean; to the members of a long-established yet still
persecuted community dwelling in a territory which may well rank, next to
the Holy Land and the Cradle of our Faith, as the most holy in the entire
Baha'i world, who are destined to share with their brethren in Persia,
Egypt and Pakistan in the task of achieving the recognition of a
down-trodden Faith, by the ecclesiastical leaders of Islam; to the
newly-fledged, spiritually alert communities of Central and South America,
who, by virtue of the responsibilities invested in the inhabitants of the
Western Hemisphere through the ringing call of Baha'u'llah in the Aqdas
and the utterances of the Center of His Covenant, are expected by their
brethren, in both the East and the West, to worthily play their part as
associates of the chief executors of the Plan bequeathed by 'Abdu'l-Baha;
to the members of the communities in Italy and Switzerland, as yet in the
embryonic stage of their development, and who will soon take their place
as an independent entity in the international Baha'i community, and must
assume their share in planting the banner of a triumphant Faith in the
heart of a continent regarded as the cradle of Western civilization as
well as in the stronghold and nerve-center of the most powerful church in
Christendom; indeed, to each and every believer, whether isolated, or
associated with any local Assembly or group, who, though as yet
unidentified with an