Who, I may ask, when viewing the international character of
the Cause, its far-flung ramifications, the increasing complexity of its
affairs, the diversity of its adherents, and the state of confusion that assails on every side the infant Faith of God, can for
a moment question the necessity of some sort of administrative machinery that
will insure, amid the storm and stress of a struggling civilization, the unity
of the Faith, the preservation of its identity, and the protection of its
interests? To repudiate the validity of the assemblies of the elected ministers
of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh would be to reject those countless Tablets of
Bahá’u’lláh and ‘Abdu’l-Bahá wherein They have extolled the station of the
“trustees of the Merciful,” enumerated their privileges and duties, emphasized
the glory of their mission, revealed the immensity of their task, and warned
them of the attacks they must needs expect from the unwisdom of their friends
as well as from the malice of their enemies.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter dated February 27,
1929; ‘The World Order of Baha’u’llah’)
