48th ABS Annual Conference

With the close of the first century of the Formative Age, the Bahá’í world now turns its attention to the requirements of a new century of endeavor beginning with a release in ever greater measures of the society building power of the Faith. In The Advent of Divine Justice, Shoghi Effendi explained to the Bahá’í community of North America that, following the close of the international mission placed upon them for the execution of the Divine Plan, “a greater, a still more superb mission, incomparable in its splendor, and foreordained for them by Bahá’u’lláh” may be thrust upon them. It would require their involvement in eradicating, from the generality of the people to which they belong, the three evil tendencies he addressed in detail in that book. “Suffice it to say,” he explained, “that out of the turmoil and tribulations of these ‘latter years’ opportunities undreamt of will be born, and circumstances unpredictable created, that will enable, nay impel, the victorious prosecutors of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s Plan, to add, through the part they will play in the unrolling of the New World Order, fresh laurels to the crown of their servitude to the threshold of Bahá’u’lláh.” The presentation will consider the initial steps in the century ahead toward fulfillment of this greater mission, including exploring a framework for action for the elimination of racial prejudice.