In the Western
Hemisphere, shortly after work commenced on the House of Worship in 'Ishqabad,
the members of the nascent Baha'i community in North America were galvanized to
demonstrate their faith and devotion by constructing a Temple of their own, and
they wrote in 1903 to seek the Master's consent. From that moment, the
Mashriqu'l-Adhkar became inseparably intertwined with the fate of those
dedicated servants of Baha'u'llah. While progress on this complex project was
obstructed over decades by the effects of two world wars and a widespread
economic depression, each stage in its development was intimately tied to the
expansion of the community and the unfoldment of its administration. On the
same day as the interment of the sacred remains of the Bab on Mount Carmel in
March 1909, delegates gathered to establish the Baha'i Temple Unity, a national
organization whose elected Board became the nucleus of the far-flung local
communities of the continent. This development soon gave rise to the formation
of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Baha'is of the United States and
Canada. 'Abdu'l-Baha Himself laid the cornerstone of the building during His
travels to North America, endowing the Mother Temple of the West with
tremendous spiritual potentialities. And contributions for this historic
enterprise flowed from Baha'i centres in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America,
and the Pacific-a demonstration of the solidarity and sacrifice of the Baha'is
of the East and West.
- The Universal House of Justice (From a message dated 1
August 2014)
