The brilliant success achieved by the Canadian Bahá’í
Community, marking the triumphant conclusion of the Plan formulated on the
morrow of the emergence of the community as an independent member of the
international Bahá’í Family, is to be regarded as a milestone of far-reaching
importance in the evolution of the Faith not only in the Dominion of Canada but
throughout the entire Western Hemisphere. The vitality displayed so strikingly
by this youthful community, the exemplary fidelity demonstrated by its members
to the spiritual as well as administrative principles of the Faith in the
conduct of their manifold activities; the splendid co-operation with their
national and local elected representatives which they have invariably shown, at
every stage in the development of the Plan; the sacrifices they have repeatedly
made; the vigilance and care which they have exercised while discharging their
sacred and weighty responsibilities; the soundness of judgement, the enthusiasm
and perseverance that have distinguished them in the pursuance of their
tasks—all these have, in recent years, contributed, in no small measure, to the
raising of the prestige of this community in the eyes of its sister communities
in both the East and the West, and in evoking feelings of profound admiration
in the hearts of the followers of the Faith in every continent of the globe.
- Shoghi Effendi (Post script to a letter dated 20 June 1953, written on his
behalf to the Canadian National Spiritual Assembly’ ‘Messages to Canada’)
