This period is an important Centenary Celebration for the Bahá’í community of these islands. Having spent four weeks in England in 1911, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá had returned to Egypt, where He had established His residence, before embarking on an eight-month journey through North America. Greatly to the joy of the Bahá’ís in the British Isles His return journey in 1912 brought Him back to these shores on 13 December to renew and reinforce the relationship He had built with them during His first visit. He left the here on 21 January 1913.
On 1st January 1913 ‘Abdu’l‐Bahá addressed the friends gathered at 97 Cadogan Gardens.
Civilization is like a moving hill of sands. Today it is here. Tomorrow a hundred miles away. It is subject to these constant transferences… Who knows what course of nobler and higher civilization is not paved for the East – the cradle of Spiritual Civilization, the foundation of the moral life of man, the main-spring of divine Effulgences, the horizon from which the Day-Star of Hope is arising with resplendent beauty. When the material civilization joins hand to divine civilization then the world has reached the goal of a new order of things. Then there will be no poverty, no squalor, no crime, no shame. Then there will be no night and no winter. Eternal day and perennial spring will gladden all hearts.
(‘Abdu’l-Bahá quoted in a letter)
