The beloved Guardian assures you all of his loving and continued prayers for the success of your work, for your strength, guidance and protection.
(signed by R. Rabbani)
(in the Guardian’s handwriting)
Dear and valued co-workers:
The formation of the Regional Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of North East Asia is to be acclaimed as an event of far-reaching historic significance, whose repercussions cannot be confined to the Pacific area, but are bound to affect the immediate fortunes of the entire Bahá’í world. The emergence of this epochal institution, however transitional its character, represents the culmination of a fifty-year old process that has had its inception in the days of the Centre of the Covenant, during the last decades of the Heroic Age of the Bahá’í Dispensation. The rise and expansion of the Administrative Order of the Faith in the northern regions of the vast Pacific Ocean fills a great gap, and constitutes a notable parallel to the rise of similar institutions in the Antipodes, establishing thereby a spiritual equilibrium destined to affect, to a marked degree, the destinies of the Faith throughout the islands of the Pacific Ocean, in the years immediately ahead. It should be hailed, moreover, as a momentous development paving the way for the eventual introduction of the Faith into the far-flung Chinese mainland and, beyond it, to the extensive territories of Soviet Russia.
A milestone of such tremendous significance in the progress of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh, in so strategic and important an area of the globe, should be acclaimed by the members of your assembly, as well as by the rank and file of the believers throughout that area, as a demonstration of the creative energies released by its Author and the Centre of His Covenant, in territories and amidst peoples and races destined to play a role of immense significance in the future development of the human race.
This God-given opportunity, now presenting itself to the prosecutors of the Bahá’í world Spiritual Crusade, at so critical a stage in the history of the peoples and nations established in those far-off islands and territories, should be seized with eagerness and enthusiasm, and exploited to the full in the years lying immediately ahead.
The Six-Year Plan, designed to lend a tremendous impetus to the awakening of the peoples and races in those regions, should be prosecuted with the utmost diligence, unrelaxing vigilance and whole-hearted consecration. All must participate, young and old alike, both men and women, however limited their circumstances or circumscribed their resources.
An effort, unprecedented in its scope and intensity, must be exerted to attain, speedily and completely the specific objectives of this Plan. The number of the avowed supporters of the Faith must rapidly increase. The isolated centers, groups and local assemblies, constituting the bedrock of a rising Administrative Order, must steadily and continually multiply. All firmly grounded local spiritual assemblies must be speedily incorporated, in order to reinforce the foundations of the institution of this divinely conceived Order. The Bahá’í marriage certificate, as well as the Bahá’í Holy Days must, at the earliest possible opportunity, receive recognition from the civil authorities concerned. The work now being initiated in the Northern and smaller islands of Japan, with such zeal and devotion should be constantly reinforced and its scope continually widened. The literature of the Faith must be translated into as many languages as possible, published and widely disseminated. The holding of the summer-schools is yet another objective that should receive the earnest and immediate attention of the members of your assembly. The purchase of Bahá’í burial-grounds, should, moreover, be, in due course considered and effectively carried out. The newly-opened territories, that have been so painstakingly brought within the pale of the Faith, must at whatever cost, be safeguarded, and the enterprises initiated within their confines carefully expanded and consolidated. The acquisition of a plot, in the outskirts of Tokyo, to serve as the site of the first Mashriqu’l-Adhkár of North East Asia, must, likewise, be seriously considered and brought to a successful conclusion.
The task challenging the spirit and resources of your assembly, as well as those whom you represent, is admittedly arduous, pressing and sacred. The field in which you operate is exceptionally vast, and the barriers standing in your way are varied and formidable. Nothing short of complete dedication to the objectives of the Six-Year Plan you are called upon to fulfill, and of the utmost self-sacrifice on your part, as well as on the part of those who are to participate in its prosecution, can ensure the success to which I confidently look forward, to which your sister, as well as parent, communities throughout the Bahá’í world, are likewise, eagerly anticipating.