July 4. On this date in 1957, Shoghi Effendi wrote "I hail the formation of the historic Regional Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Scandinavia and Finland – an event which posterity will acclaim as a landmark of far-reaching significance in the history of the evolution of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh..."

 

July 4. On this date in 1957, Shoghi Effendi wrote "I hail the formation of the historic Regional Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Scandinavia and Finland – an event which posterity will acclaim as a landmark of far-reaching significance in the history of the evolution of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh..."

I hail the formation of the historic Regional Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá'ís of Scandinavia and Finland – an event which posterity will acclaim as a landmark of far-reaching significance in the history of the evolution of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh and the rise of its divinely appointed Administrative Order in the northern regions of the steadily awakening European continent. This great turning-point in the rising fortunes of the institutions of this irresistibly advancing Order is, no doubt, attributable to the warm and whole-hearted response of the Scandinavian and Finnish believers to the Message of the New Day, carried to them by the champion-builders of this Order labouring so valiantly in the Great Republic of the West, as well as to their own staunchness of faith, fidelity, constancy and exemplary devotion.

This new phase in the unfoldment of their beloved Faith, during this crucial period through which a turbulent, a spiritually famished, and morally decadent continent is passing, heralding as it does the advent of the day when each of these Communities will emerge as an independent national entity, must be signalized by an upsurge of activity, a demonstration of Bahá'í solidarity, of devotion and of self-sacrifice unparalleled in the annals of the Faith in those regions. . .

An attempt must also be made to introduce the Faith, however tentatively, into each of the three neighbouring Baltic States, destined, in the course of time, to play a memorable part in the establishment of the Faith in North-East Europe....

(In the handwriting of Shoghi Effendi, appended to a letter dated 4 July 1957 written on his behalf to the National Spiritual Assembly of Scandinavia and Finland) [23]