We hope you enjoy the Summer 2006 issue of our new and improved Kingdom Project e-newsletter. With the expanded scope of the Kingdom Project to include the Chilean Temple Initiative, the Kingdom Project e-newsletter, distributed quarterly, now features stories and updates about both the Kingdom Project and the building of the Chilean Temple.

This past Ridván (April) 2006, we celebrated winning the $36 million financial goal of the Kingdom Project, achieved through the “demonstrated generosity” and “sacrificial manner” noted by the Universal House of Justice as characteristic of our American Bahá'í community. Although the financial goal is won, due to the increased costs for the building of the new Temple Visitors Center in Wilmette, the National Spiritual Assembly asks the friends to continue their support of the Kingdom Project through contributions and pledges.

In addition, the National Spiritual Assembly urges all individuals and institutions to contribute and make a pledge to the Chilean Temple Fund, an estimated $27 million needed by April 2008. In response to the call from the House of Justice that the “vital flow of contributions to the already established Chilean Temple Fund be greatly increased to ensure full support to the work”, the U.S. National Assembly has appealed to the American believers to raise the lion’s share to meet this “new challenge”.

This issue of the e-Newsletter highlights the inspiration and details for the design of the new Temple Visitors Center in Wilmette in an interview with the architect, Scott Conrad; the extensive summer renovations, and top-down scrubbing, of our beloved Mother Temple of the West; Martha Root’s historic first visit to Chile on a treacherous route through the Andes mountains by mule; and the native Mapuche people who comprise nearly half of the Bahá'í community in Chile.

We hope that these stories and updates will inspire your own efforts in building the Kingdom and the Temple of Light! Please visit the Kingdom Project and new Chilean Temple Initiative websites for regular updates, stories, interviews, travel logs, and more.

With warmest Bahá'í greetings,

The Kingdom Project Office