The Universal
House of Justice
26
November 1999
To the Baháfís of the World
Dearly loved Friends,
1. On this special day, when our hearts and thoughts are focused on the
immortal example set by the life of the Centre of the Covenant, we pause to
note, with feelings of deep gratitude, the current progress of the Divine Plan
which He conceived, and to glance at the future beyond the four-year stage now
rapidly coming to an end.
2. The accomplishments during this period are encouraging indeed. An
impressive network of training institutes on a scale but dimly imagined at the
start of the Plan has been established throughout the world. These nascent
centres of learning have made significant strides in developing formal
programmes and in putting into place effective systems for the delivery of
courses. Reports indicate that the number of believers benefiting directly from
training courses has climbed to nearly 100,000. Without question, the capacity
of the worldwide community to develop its human resources has been distinctly
enhanced.
3. The effects of this systematic approach to human resource
development are making themselves felt in the lives of all three protagonists
of the Plan—the individual believer, the institutions, and the local community.
There has been an upsurge in teaching activities undertaken at the initiative
of the individual. Spiritual Assemblies, Councils, and committees have grown in
their ability to guide the believers in their individual and collective
endeavours. And community life has flourished, even in localities long dormant,
as new patterns of thought and behaviour have emerged.
4. As we survey the Baháfí world, we see a greatly strengthened
community, internally sound and notably reinforced. Its achievements in
reaching the general public, governments and organizations of civil society and
in winning trust in all these circles are striking. Agencies specialized in
external affairs, following a well-defined strategy, have broadened the range
of the Faithfs influence nationally and internationally, and projects of social
and economic development, which seek the spiritual and material upliftment of
entire communities, are penetrating society at the grassroots.
5. The two stages in the unfoldment of the Divine Plan lying
immediately ahead will last one year and five years respectively. At Ridván
2000 the Baháfí world will be asked to embark on the first of these two stages,
a twelve-month effort aimed at concentrating the forces, the capacities and the
insights that have so strongly emerged. The Five Year Plan that follows will
initiate a series of worldwide enterprises that will carry the Baháfí community
through the final twenty years in the first century of the Faithfs Formative
Age. These global Plans will continue to focus on advancing the process of
entry by troops and on its systematic acceleration.
6. It is essential that, during the one-year effort, national and
regional institutes everywhere bring into full operation the programmes and
systems that they have now devised. National communities should enter the Five
Year Plan confident that the acquisition of knowledge, qualities and skills of
service by large contingents of believers, with the aid of a sequence of
courses, will proceed unhindered. Ample attention must also be given to further
systematization of teaching efforts, whether undertaken by the individual or
directed by the institutions. In this respect, the International Teaching
Centre has identified certain patterns of systematic expansion and
consolidation for relatively small geographical areas consisting of a
manageable number of localities. Through the collaboration of Counsellors and
National Spiritual Assemblies, several gArea Growth Programmesh are being
established in each continent. They will be carefully monitored during the
Twelve Month Plan and their methods will be refined so that this approach can
be incorporated into subsequent Plans.
7. Strategies to advance the process of entry by troops cannot ignore
children and junior youth, if the victories won in one generation are not to be
lost with the passage of time. It is imperative, then, that at this point in
the process of systematization of the teaching work, definite steps be taken to
ensure that the vision of the community fully embraces its younger members. The
education of children, an obligation enjoined on both parents and institutions,
requires special emphasis so as to become thoroughly integrated into the
process of community development. This activity should be taken to new levels
of intensity during these twelve months and then be further raised in the years
immediately after. That the programmes of most institutes in the world provide
for the training of childrenfs class teachers represents an element of
strength. Spiritual Assemblies and Auxiliary Board members will need to
mobilize these newly trained human resources to meet the spiritual requirements
of children and junior youth.
8. The period of the Twelve Month Plan will be marked by great activity
in society at large as the twentieth century draws to a close. Already keen
interest is being shown by leaders of thought in the destiny of the coming
generations, and we hope that the fervour of the Baháfí community, both in its
internal operation and its interactions with society, will convey a sense of
confidence in the future of humanity.
9. We will pray ardently in the Holy Shrines that Baháfuflláh will
bless your exertions to bring the Four Year Plan to a triumphal conclusion.
With
loving Baháfí greetings,
[signed:
The Universal House of Justice]