A Feast of Unity Under the Trees
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When in Bahá'í history
New York (today: New York, USA)
On 20 June 1912, speaking at 309 West Seventy-eighth Street in New York, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá told the friends of a gathering He wished to hold:
I am about to leave the city for a few days rest at Montclair. When I return, it is my wish to give a large feast of unity. A place for it has not yet been found. It must be outdoors under the trees, in some location away from city noise—like a Persian garden. The food will be Persian food. When the place is arranged, all will be informed, and we will have a general meeting in which hearts will be bound together, spirits blended and a new foundation for unity established. All the friends will come. They will be my guests. They will be as the parts and members of one body. The spirit of life manifest in that body will be one spirit. The foundation of that temple of unity will be one foundation. Each will be a stone in that foundation, solid and interdependent. Each will be as a leaf, blossom or fruit upon one tree. For the sake of fellowship and unity I desire this feast and spiritual gathering.
Source: ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, The Promulgation of Universal Peace, p. 206 (talk of 20 June 1912, New York; notes by Howard MacNutt).
Collected from bahaistories.com (Subject: hospitality).
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