Significant as the formation of a new National Spiritual
Assembly is as evidence of an active, vigorous and widespread
Baha'i community in its land, its full importance
lies in the fact that the institution of the
National Assembly itself is but a step in
the development of the Baha'i world order.
A National Spiritual Assembly stands not as an independent body,
nor a final authority in the realm of collective action, but
as the pillar upon which will rest in future the dome of the Baha'i social structure-the
International House of Justice. A
great part of the necessary foundation for
that crowning Baha'i achievement has already been constructed.
It remains only for the new National Spiritual
Assemblies to begin functioning with effective
power…The requisite capacity will then have been
acquired, and the proper conditions realized, for the decisive final step upon
which the world's peace and even its very existence depends.
- Horace
Holley (from ‘Survey of Current Baha’i Activities in the East and West,
International’, in ‘The Baha’i World 1934-1936’)