To the American Bahá’í community for the Feast of Qudrat

 

Dearly loved Friends,

 

Though the jubilant nationwide commemorations of the 200^th anniversary of Bahá’u’lláh’s birth are now some days behind us, memories of their vibrancy linger. Reports are just beginning to be received of the ingenuity, festiveness, poignancy, and reverence with which Bahá’í communities in localities across the land observed this historic and never-to‑be-repeated occasion.

 

As we collectively pause, “tired but blissful,” to reflect on the remarkable variety, beauty, and meaningfulness of the events we created―celebrations whose joyful reverberations are still being felt far and wide by large numbers of our friends and neighbors―we must surely be inspired to warm appreciation for and gratitude to our fellow believers for their sharing with us, side by side, the long months of consultation, careful planning, creativity, and assiduous effort it took to transform concepts, designs, and schemes into impressive reality. Be certain this Assembly fully joins you in this loving appreciation and gratitude.

 

Many of our offices here at the Bahá’í National Center likewise worked throughout the year to ensure your efforts were strongly supported and supplemented. While one team worked diligently to build a rich interactive website stocked with an abundance of useful advice, planning aids, and publicity materials, another painstakingly put the finishing touches on The Bahá'ís, a comprehensive magazine-like presentation of the Faith’s history and essential teachings. Still other offices attended to the translation―into three other languages―of the narrative of Light to the World, the documentary film commissioned by the Universal House of Justice, and to the DVD’s swift distribution to the community.

 

These are but a few examples of the wonderful spirit of unity and accord with which our entire national community rose to the occasion of the Bicentenary and did all in its power to honor it and to exploit its vast potential for making our Faith better known to our fellow-citizens. But the achieving of such splendid results obviously did not come without a cost―as do all our activities. This simple but powerful truth was perfectly conveyed by the beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, in his observation that “the progress and execution of spiritual activities is dependent and conditioned upon material means.”

 

Friends, we mention this principle because, at this writing, with virtually half our fiscal year complete, the status of our National Bahá’í Fund is again considerably short of expectations, with contributions standing at about $12.8 million, slightly more than a third of our goal of $36 million for the year. Put another way, with just six months remaining in our fiscal year, we will need more than $23 million―contributions of roughly $4 million each calendar month―to meet our goal.

 

Experience has shown us we can do it. The power of our determination, our enthusiasm, our creativity, our spirit of enterprise, and our readiness to sacrifice has many times enabled us to surmount more formidable mountains.

 

As we take time to savor the triumphant results of our efforts to ensure that the Bicentenary of the King of Glory’s birth was befittingly celebrated―let us draw such firm resolve and renewed energy from what we have accomplished as to propel us not only to win our goal but to far surpass it!

 

Our admiration and gratitude for all you do to advance this Cause knows no bounds. Our prayers for your happiness, well-being, and great success are ardent and constant.

 

                                             With loving Bahá’í greetings,

                                             NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY OF

                                             THE BAHÁ’ÍS OF THE UNITED STATES

                                             Juana C. Conrad

                                             Treasurer