thout
precedent in human history. Never before had persons into whose hands the
supreme power in a great religion had fallen and who enjoyed a level of
regard unmatched by any others in their community, requested not to be
considered for participation in the exercise of supreme authority, placing
themselves entirely at the service of the Body chosen by the community of
their fellow believers for this role.(103)

VII

However great is the distance between the Guardianship and the unique
station of the Centre of the Covenant, the role played by Shoghi Effendi
after the Master's passing stands alone in the history of the Cause. It
will continue to occupy this focal place in the life of the Faith
throughout the coming centuries. In important respects Shoghi Effendi may
be said to have extended by an additional, critical, thirty-six years the
influence of the guiding hand of the Master in the building of the
Administrative Order and the expansion and consolidation of the Faith of
Baha'u'llah. One has only to make the fearful effort of imagining the fate
of the infant Cause of God had it not been held firmly, during the period
of its greatest vulnerability, in the grip of one who had been prepared
for this purpose by 'Abdu'l-Baha and who accepted to serve--in the fullest
sense of the word--as its Guardian.

Although emphasizing to the body of his fellow believers that the Master's
twin Successors were "inseparable" and "complementary" in the functions
they were individually designed to carry out, it is clear that Shoghi
Effendi early accepted the implications of the fact that the Universal
House of Justice could not come into existence until a lengthy process of
administrative development had created the supporting structure of
National and Local Spiritual Assemblies it required. He was entirely
candid with the Baha'i community about the implications of the fact that
he was called on to exercise his supreme responsibility alone. In his own
words:

Severed from the no less essential institution of the Universal House of
Justice this same System of the Will of 'Abdu'l-Baha would be paralyzed in
its action and would be powerless to fill in those gaps which the Author
of the Kitab-i-Aqdas has deliberately left in the body of His legislative
and administrative ordinances.(104)

Aware of this truth, Shoghi Effendi proceeded with scrupulous regard for
the constraints placed on him by circumstance, a faithfulness that