Steve Cooney wrote:
> "Was He not, through the several functions which He
> exercised whilst He dwelt amongst them, whether in the
> laying of the corner-stone of their House of Worship,
> or in the Feast which He offered them and at which He
> chose to serve them in person , or in the emphasis
> which He on a more solemn occasion placed on the
> implications of His spiritual station--was He not,
> thereby, deliberately bequeathing to them all the
> essentials of that spiritual heritage which He knew
> they would ably safeguard and by their deeds
> continually enrich?"
>
> Now I'm okay with the House of Worship and Netties
> stone and the EngleWood Feast but What is the solemn
> occasion in respect of his station?
Dear Steve,
Judging from God Passes By, the solemn occasion was "the dynamic affirmation
by Him of the implications of the Covenant instituted by Baha'u'llah,
following the reading of the newly translated Tablet of the Branch, in a
general assembly of His followers in New York". Balyuzi appears to give the
date for this as June 19. The book Century of Light quotes Juliet
Thompson's recollection of what 'Abdu'l-Baha said to Lua Getsinger earlier
on that same day.
--- Vaughn
The character of the acts He performed fully demonstrated the
importance He attached to that visit. The laying, with His own hands, of
the dedication stone of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkar, by the shore of Lake
Michigan, in the vicinity of Chicago, on the recently purchased property,
and in the presence of a representative gathering of Baha'is from East and
West; the dynamic affirmation by Him of the implications of the Covenant
instituted by Baha'u'llah, following the reading of the newly translated
Tablet of the Branch, in a general assembly of His followers in New York,
designated henceforth as the "City of the Covenant"; the moving ceremony in
Inglewood, California, marking His special pilgrimage to the grave of
Thornton Chase, the "first American believer," and indeed the first to
embrace the Cause of Baha'u'llah in the Western world; the symbolic Feast He
Himself offered to a large gathering of His disciples assembled in the open
air, and in the green setting of a June day at West Englewood, in New
Jersey; the blessing He bestowed on the Open Forum at Green Acre, in Maine,
on the banks of the Piscataqua River, where many of His followers had
gathered, and which was to evolve into one of the first Baha'i summer
schools of the Western Hemisphere and be recognized as one of the earliest
endowments established in the American continent; His address to an audience
of several hundred attending the last session of the newly-founded Baha'i
Temple Unity held in Chicago; and, last but not least, the exemplary act He
performed by uniting in wedlock two of His followers of different
nationalities, one of the white, the other of the Negro race - these must
rank among the outstanding functions associated with His visit to the
community of the American believers, functions designed to pave the way for
the erection of their central House of Worship, to fortify them against the
tests they were soon to endure, to cement their unity, and to bless the
beginnings of that Administrative Order which they were soon to initiate and
champion.
(Shoghi Effendi: God Passes By, Page 288)
[June 19th] was an historic day for the Bahá'ís of New York, for on that day
'Abdu'l-Bahá named their city the City of the Covenant. He spoke in their
gathering of the Tablet of the Branch, revealed by Bahá'u'lláh in
Adrianople, and declared His own station: the Centre of the Covenant. In New
York He had made this emphatic, authoritative statement in public, and
therefore New York was invested with that distinction.
(H.M. Balyuzi, Abdu'l-Baha - The Centre of the Covenant, p. 220)
Choosing New York City for His purpose -- and designating it "the City of
the Covenant" -- 'Abdu'l-Bahá unveiled for Western believers the devolution
of authority made by the Founder of their Faith for the definitive
interpretation of His Revelation. A highly regarded believer, Lua Getsinger,
had been called on by the Master to prepare the group of Bahá'ís who had
gathered in the house where He was temporarily residing for this historic
announcement, following which He Himself went downstairs and spoke in
general terms about some of the implications of the Covenant. Juliet
Thompson, who, with one of the Persian translators, had been in the upstairs
room at the time this mission had been given to her friend, has left an
account of the circumstances. She quotes 'Abdu'l-Bahá as saying:
...I am the Covenant, appointed by Bahá'u'lláh. And no one can refute His
Word. This is the Testament of Bahá'u'lláh. You will find it in the Holy
Book of Aqdas. Go forth and proclaim, 'This is the Covenant of God in your
midst.' [Juliet Thompson, The Diary of Juliet Thompson (Los Angeles: Kalimat
Press, 1983), p. 313]
(Century of Light, p. 26)
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