In every state and province of North America Bahá’í Assemblies are functioning. In thirteen hundred localities of the United States and Canada Bahá’ís reside. Bahá’í Centers have been established in every republic of Latin America, fifteen of which possess Spiritual Assemblies. The Faith in the Western Hemisphere now stretches from Anchorage, Alaska, to Magallanes, the world’s southernmost city. Sixty-two Centers have been established in India, twenty-seven with Spiritual Assemblies. Among the historic sites purchased in Persia are the Ṭihrán home of Bahá’u’lláh, the Báb’s shop in Bushire, the burial place of Quddús, part of the village _Ch_ihríq, three gardens in Badasht, and the place where Táhirih was confined. Bahá’í administrative headquarters have been founded in Ṭihrán, Delhi, Cairo, Ba_gh_dád, Wilmette and Sydney. Bahá’í endowments in the Holy Land and the United States have been exempted from taxes by the civil authorities. Civil recognition has been extended to Bahá’í Assemblies in five states of the United States to solemnize Bahá’í marriages. May 9, 1944 MESSAGE TO CENTENARY CONVENTION Hail with glad, grateful heart the historic Assembly of the elected representatives of the followers of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh throughout the Western Hemisphere participating in the first All-America Convention gathered in the vicinity of the first Bahá’í Center of the Western World beneath the dome of the first Ma_sh_riqu’l-A_dh_kár of the West to commemorate alike the Anniversary of the founding of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh and the Birth of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the Anniversary of its establishment in the Occident and to celebrate the completion of the exterior ornamentation of the most hallowed House of Worship in the entire Bahá’í world. I recall with profound emotion on this solemn, auspicious occasion the milestones in the progress of the community whose rise constitutes one of the noblest episodes in the history of the First Bahá’í Century. Called into being through the operation of the will of the Center of Bahá’u’lláh’s Covenant, energized at the hour of its birth by dynamic spirit communicated to it by the band of first returning pilgrims, purged in its infancy by fiery tests involving the defection of its acknowledged founder, nursed through the dispatch of unnumbered Tablets by the vigilant Master, as well as by the successive messengers designed to support its infant strength, launched upon its rapid career through series of institutional acts and missionary journeys signalizing the first stirrings of its community life, infinitely enriched by priceless benefits conferred upon its members in the course of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s sojourn in their midst, invested with a unique mission through the revelation of the Tablets of the Divine Plan, firmly knit through processes proclaiming the emergence of the Divinely appointed Administrative Order, immortalized through the signal acts of its illustrious member who succeeded in winning the