…the passing of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, "an event which
signalized at once the end of the Heroic Age of our Faith, the opening of the
Formative Age and the birth of the Administrative Order, the nucleus and
pattern of the World Order of Bahá'u'lláh."
- The Universal House of
Justice (From a message dated 15 April 1971, ‘Messages from the Universal House
of Justice 1963-1986’)