1955: Festival of Faith - Celebrations marking the tenth anniversary of the founding of the United Nations, San Francisco, California

The Baha'i representative who participated by reading a Baha'i prayer is standing at the extreme right. 

(The Baha'i World 1954-1963)

The first radio broadcast mentioning the Faith in Canada - explained by Amatu'l-Baha Ruhiyyih Khanum

 

“The power of God can entirely transmute our characters and make of us beings entirely unlike our previous selves.”

He wishes again to assure you he will pray for your spiritual advancement in the Holy Shrines.  The power of God can entirely transmute our characters and make of us beings entirely unlike our previous selves.  Through prayer and supplication, obedience to the divine laws Bahá’u’lláh has revealed, and ever-increasing service to His Faith, we can change ourselves.

- Shoghi Effendi  (From a letter dated 22 November 1941 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer; compilation: Prayer and Devotional Life, prepared by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice, 2019)

“the champion-builders of an Order which posterity will hail as the harbinger of a civilization to be regarded as the fairest fruit of the Revelation proclaimed by Bahá'u'lláh”

The American Bahá'í Community -- the champion-builders of an Order which posterity will hail as the harbinger of a civilization to be regarded as the fairest fruit of the Revelation proclaimed by Bahá'u'lláh; the principal trustees of a Plan which future generations will acclaim as one of the two greatest legacies left by the Center of His Covenant; marching in the van of a Crusade which history will recognize as the most momentous spiritual enterprise launched in modern times; beset by the same anxieties and perils by which the nation of which it forms a part finds itself, to an unprecedented degree, afflicted and surrounded -- such a community is, at this hour, experiencing the impact of a challenge unique in its sixty years of existence.

In its meteoric career its fortunes have risen so swiftly, its exploits have so greatly multiplied, its spirit in times of emergency has swelled and risen so high, it has earned on such occasions the applause and excited the admiration of its sister communities throughout both hemispheres to such a degree, that it cannot, at this critical hour in its destinies, suffer this golden opportunity to slip from its grasp, or this priceless privilege to be irretrievably forfeited.

This challenge, so severe and insistent, and yet so glorious, faces no doubt primarily the individual believer on whom, in the last resort, depends the fate of the entire community. He it is who constitutes the warp and woof on which the quality and pattern of the whole fabric must depend. He it is who acts as one of the countless links in the mighty chain that now girdles the globe. He it is who serves as one of the multitude of bricks which support the structure and insure the stability of the administrative edifice now being raised in every part of the world. Without his support, at once whole-hearted, continuous and generous, every measure adopted, and every plan formulated, by the body which acts as the national representative of the community to which he belongs, is foredoomed to failure. The World Center of the Faith itself is paralyzed if such a support on the part of the rank and file of the community is denied it. The Author of the Divine Plan Himself is impeded in His purpose if the proper instruments for the execution of His design are lacking. The sustaining strength of Bahá'u'lláh Himself, the Founder of the Faith, will be withheld from every and each individual who fails in the long run to arise and play his part. 

- Shoghi Effendi  (From a message dated 28 July 1954; ‘Citadel of Faith’)