the Tehran project was blocked),
and the expansion of the number of Local Spiritual Assemblies around the
world to a total of five thousand, of which three hundred and fifty must
be incorporated. Nothing in their collective experience had prepared the
Baha'is of the world for so colossal an undertaking. The magnitude of the
challenge was set out by Shoghi Effendi in a cablegram of 8 October 1952:

Feel hour propitious to proclaim to the entire Baha'i world the projected
launching ... the fate-laden, soul-stirring, decade-long, world-embracing
Spiritual Crusade involving ... the concerted participation of all
National Spiritual Assemblies of the Baha'i world aiming at the immediate
extension of Baha'u'llah's spiritual dominion ... in all remaining
Sovereign States, Principal Dependencies comprising Principalities,
Sultanates, Emirates, Shaykhdoms, Protectorates, Trust Territories, and
Crown Colonies scattered over the surface of the entire planet. The entire
body of the avowed supporters of Baha'u'llah's all-conquering Faith are
now summoned to achieve in a single decade feats eclipsing in totality the
achievements which in the course of the eleven preceding decades
illuminated the annals of Baha'i pioneering.(97)

Victory in so ambitious an enterprise would mean that the embrace of the
Faith would span the globe, that the institutional foundations of its
Administrative Order would expand at least five-fold, and that its
community life would be enriched through the participation of believers
from a vast number of as yet untapped cultures, nations and tribes.

In effect, the Plan called for the Cause to make a giant leap forward over
what might otherwise have been several stages in its evolution. What
Shoghi Effendi saw clearly--and what only the powers of foresight inherent
in the Guardianship made it possible to see--was that an historical
conjunction of circumstances presented the Baha'i community with an
opportunity that would not come again and on which the success of future
stages in the prosecution of the Divine Plan would entirely depend. What
he did not hesitate to call the "summons of the Lord of Hosts" was
embodied in a message that seized the imagination of Baha'is in every part
of the world:

No matter how long the period that separates them from ultimate victory;
however arduous the task; however formidable the exertions demanded of
them; however dark the days which mankind, perplexed and sorely-tried,
m