# Arc Project: 1994 Open Letter

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-18 — 1 clipping.*

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> To all National Spiritual Assemblies
> 
> Dear Bahá'í Friends,
> 
> As construction work commences on the first of the monumental Edifices
> which must be raised on Mount Carmel to complete the World Administrative
> Centre of the Bahá'í Faith, it seems Appropriate to review the
> significance of this vast project and to reflect on its basic purpose.
> 
> The projects under way on this mountain are of profound significance. They
> represent much more than the erection of buildings to meet the expanding
> needs of the Bahá'í World Centre. The call for contributions to the Arc
> Projects Fund, far from being a diversion of resources which might
> otherwise be used to help relieve the distress of mankind, offers the
> followers of Bahá'u'lláh a providential opportunity to participate in an
> endeavour which is central to the work of the Faith in eradicating the
> causes of the appalling suffering now afflicting humanity.
> 
> The Bahá'í community encourages and supports the manifold efforts being
> made by people of goodwill to better the condition of humankind and
> promote unity and harmony among the peoples and nations of the earth. 
> However, the believers should never, for even one moment, lose sight of
> the fact that the crisis now engulfing every part of the planet is
> essentially spiritual. "That which the Lord hath ordained as the sovereign
> remedy and mightiest instrument for the healing of all the world",
> Bahá'u'lláh emphatically states, "is the union of all its peoples in one
> universal Cause, one common Faith." Our acute awareness of the magnitude
> of the misery which so many groups and individuals are experiencing should
> spur us on to ever-greater exertions, inspired and animated by an abiding
> consciousness that only through the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh can the
> multitudinous problems burdening humanity be resolved.
> 
> From the dawn of Bahá'í history, attention has been directed to the glory
> of the World Order which the Revelation of Bahá'u'lláh is destined to
> unfold. The Bab Himself declared, "Well is it with him who fixeth his gaze
> upon the order of Bahá'u'lláh and rendereth thanks unto his Lord!" while
> Bahá'u'lláh affirmed, in the Mother Book of His Dispensation, that "the
> world's equilibrium hath been upset through the vibrating influence of
> this most great, this new World Order. It is abundantly evident that the
> exalted aims of the Faith can be accomplished only through the
> instrumentality of the World Order which Bahá'u'lláh has established for
> that purpose. The spiritual transformation of humanity, the relief of the
> diverse peoples of the earth from rampant suffering, the attainment and
> preservation of true peace in the world, the birth of a world civilization
> -- all such noble objectives of the Cause of God will remain unrealized
> unless they are associated with that radical change in the structure and
> functioning of human society inherent in the growth and fruition of His
> divinely ordained Order. The institutions of the Bahá'í Administrative
> Order, now being raised in all parts of the world through the endeavours
> of the believers, are the precursor, the nucleus and the pattern of that
> World Order which will, in the course of time, exert its full benevolent
> influence on all the peoples of the earth.
> 
> To all National Spiritual Assemblies    4 January 1994
>        Page 2
> 
> Shoghi Effendi explained that the revelation by Bahá'u'lláh of the
> Kitab-i-Aqdas "preserves for posterity the basic laws and ordinances on
> which the fabric of His future World Order must rest. And he referred to
> "the triple impulse generated through the revelation of the Tablet of
> Carmel by Bahá'u'lláh and the Will and Testament as well as the Tablets of
> the Divine Plan bequeathed by the Centre of His Covenant -- the three
> Charters which have set in motion three distinct processes, the first
> operating in the Holy Land for the development of the institutions of the
> Faith at its World Centre and the other two, throughout the rest of the
> Bahá'í world, for its propagation and the establishment of its
> Administrative Order." These three processes, although distinct, are
> closely interrelated. Developments at the World Centre of the Faith, the
> heart and nerve-centre of the Administrative Order, must necessarily exert
> a pronounced influence on the organic body of the worldwide Bahá'í
> community, and be affected by its vitality. The Administrative Order may
> best be viewed as the chief instrument for the prosecution of the Divine
> Plan, while that Plan has become recognized as the most potent agency for
> the development of the administrative structure of the Faith. It follows
> that, for the sound and balanced growth of the Faith and the speedy
> attainment of world Order, due attention must be paid to all three
> processes. 
> 
> The construction work now in progress on Mount Carmel should be seen as a
> major historic thrust in the development of the first of these three
> mighty processes -- a process which was launched more than one hundred
> years ago by Bahá'u'lláh Himself when He pitched His tent on this Holy
> Mountain and revealed the Tablet described by the Guardian as "the Charter
> of the World Spiritual and Administrative Centres of the Faith". The
> unfoldment of this process has been distinguished by the interment of the
> sacred remains of the Bab in the bosom of this mountain within a sanctuary
> built by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, followed subsequently by the erection of the
> superstructure of the Shrine of the Bab by Shoghi Effendi. When, in 1939,
> the Guardian transferred the bodily remains of the brother and mother of
> the Master to their final resting-place in the immediate vicinity of that
> of the Greatest Holy Leaf, he described his action as one which
> "incalculably reinforces the spiritual potencies of that consecrated Spot
> which, under the wings of the Bab's overshadowing Sepulchre", is
> designated to be the focal centre of these world-shaking, world-embracing,
> world-directing administrative institutions which the followers of
> Bahá'u'lláh are raising for the salvation of humanity and the fulfilment
> of its glorious destiny.
> 
> Shortly before his passing, the Guardian completed the structure of the
> International Bahá'í Archives, "the first stately Edifice destined to
> usher in the establishment of the World Administrative Centre of the Faith
> on Mount Carmel -- the Ark referred to by Bahá'u'lláh in the closing
> passages of His Tablet of Carmel".
> 
> In more recent years the contributions of the believers around the world
> permitted construction of the Seat of the Universal House of Justice, the
> second of the Edifices which Shoghi Effendi had envisaged as being located
> on a far-flung arc, surrounding the resting-places of the members of the
> Holy Family. This achievement opened the way for the announcement in 1987
> of the project for erection of the remaining buildings of the World
> Administrative Centre of the Faith and for the construction of the
> eighteen monumental terraces contemplated by 'Abdu'l-Bahá, below and above
> the Shrine of the Bab. It signalled a major step toward the consummation
> of the vision expressed
> 
> To all National Spiritual Assemblies    4 January
> 1994        Page 3
> 
> by the Guardian as "the splendour of the institutions which that
> triumphant Faith must erect on the slopes of a mountain, destined to be so
> linked with the city of 'Akka that a single grand metropolis will be
> formed to enshrine the spiritual as well as the administrative seats of
> the future Bahá'í Commonwealth". 
> 
> The Edifices and Terraces now under construction are a manifest expression
> of the emergence from obscurity of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh and of the
> determining role it is ordained to play in the affairs of humankind. When
> the buildings are completed, they will stand as the visible seat of mighty
> institutions whose purpose is no other than the spiritualization of
> humanity and the preservation of justice and unity throughout the world. 
> The future significance of the Terraces is evident from their
> characterization by Shoghi Effendi as "the Pathway of the Kings and Rulers
> of the World". The beauty and magnificence of the Gardens and Terraces now
> under development are symbolic of the nature of the transformation which
> is destined to occur both within the hearts of the world's peoples and in
> the physical environment of the planet.
> 
> The establishment of the World Administrative Centre of the Faith on Mount
> Carmel at this juncture in the fortunes of mankind is essential to hasten
> the accomplishment of God's purpose for humanity through the operation of
> the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh. The believers are called upon to sustain
> this vast collective enterprise upon which the community of the Most Great
> Name is now embarked, through a sacrificial outpouring of material
> resources and through their dedication to the work of the Cause at this
> time of unprecedented need and opportunity.
> 
> Mount Carmel was extolled by the prophet Isaiah almost three thousand
> years ago, when he announced that "it shall come to pass in the last days,
> that the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of
> the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall
> flow unto it. Now, with the coming of the Lord of Hosts, His devoted
> servants throughout the world have been summoned to the momentous
> undertaking with which the fulfilment of this ancient promise is
> associated. As they dedicate themselves to this mighty task, let them draw
> inspiration from these Words of Bahá'u'lláh: "Carmel, in the Book of God,
> hath been designated as the Hill of God, and His Vineyard. It is here
> that, by the grace of the Lord of Revelation, the Tabernacle of Glory hath
> been raised. Happy are they that attain thereunto; happy they that set
> their faces towards it."
> 
> 	With loving Bahá'í greetings,
> 
> cc: The Hands of the Cause of God
>       International Teaching Centre
>       Counsellors
>
> — *Arc Project: 1994 Open Letter (Used by permission of the curator)*