Universal
House of Justice
1995-12-31
To the Bahá'ís of the World
Dearly loved Friends,
1. In the wake of the dynamic spirit animating the six-day-long Counsellors'
Conference at the World Centre, now in its final session as we address you, we
take the occasion to announce our decision which has been the subject of their
deliberations: At Ridvan 1996 a global plan of expansion and consolidation will
be launched, to end four years later at Ridvan 2000.
2.
It is this anticipation that has focused the thoughts of the seventy-eight
Counsellors from the five continents, who have been conferring together in the
presence of the Hands of the Cause of God Amatu'l-Baha Ruhiyyih Khanum,
`Ali-Akbar Furutan and `Ali-Muhammad Varqa, the members of the Universal House
of Justice and the Counsellor members of the International Teaching Centre.
Their consultations on the challenges and prospects facing the Bahá'í world
community have been of such calibre and content as to have emboldened our
expectations of a mighty thrust in the growth and development of that community
during the crucial years immediately ahead.
The
whole Plan will be announced at Ridvan. However, we wish you to have some
information about it now within the measure of the discussions which have been
taking place at the Counsellors' Conference.
3. The Four Year Plan will aim at one major accomplishment: a significant
advance in the process of entry by troops. This is to be achieved through
marked progress in the activity and development of the individual believer, of
the institutions, and of the local community. Keen attention to all three will
ensure a greatly expanded, visibly united, vibrant and cohesive international
community by the end of the twentieth century. The basic requisites can be
summarized as follows.
Three
areas of development
4.
The first calls for a vitality of the faith of each believer that is expressed
through personal initiative and constancy in teaching the Cause to others, and
through conscientious, individual effort to provide energy and resources to
upbuild the community, to uphold the authority of its institutions, and to
support local and regional plans and teaching projects. The second requires
that local and national Bahá'í institutions evolve more rapidly into a proper
exercise of their responsibilities as channels of guidance, planners of the
teaching work, developers of human resources, builders of communities, and
loving shepherds of the multitudes. The third, the flourishing of the community
especially at the local level, demands a significant enhancement in patterns of
behaviour by which the collective expression of the virtues of the individual
members and the functioning of the Spiritual Assembly is manifest in the unity
and fellowship of the community and the dynamism of its activity and growth.
5.
Towards these ends, the work of the Continental Counsellors must assume new
dimensions. Thus, at their conference, they have been deliberating on such
matters as:
Developments
in the mode of the functioning of the Continental Boards of Counsellors.
The
process for the elaboration of the Plan through the formulation of derivative
plans and strategies at the national, regional, and local levels. Joint
consultations between the Continental Counsellors and National Spiritual
Assemblies will begin immediately after Ridvan, and the planning process will
move quickly to the regional level, involving Auxiliary Board members, Local
Spiritual Assemblies and committees.
6.
The development of human resources to meet the needs of a rapidly expanding
community. Large-scale growth necessitates sustained measures of consolidation.
The urgent requirement is for formally conducted programmes of training through
institutes and other centres of learning, in the establishment and operation of
which the Counsellors and Auxiliary Board members will become more intimately
involved.
7.
Effective approaches to the raising up and consolidation of Local Spiritual
Assemblies. In accordance with the objective of fostering the maturation of
these Assemblies, a greater effort is required to uphold a vital principle,
which is that the responsibility for electing a Local Spiritual Assembly rests
primarily on the Bahá'ís in the locality. The Auxiliary Board members and their
assistants are to increase their efforts to improve the general understanding
of this principle and will devote more attention to assisting the development
of Local Assemblies. As of Ridvan 1997, all Local Spiritual Assemblies
throughout the world will have to be elected on the First Day of Ridvan.
8.
Further means for the development of local Bahá'í communities. The needs in
this respect will be met in part by an immediate increase in the membership of
the Auxiliary Boards for Protection to equal that of the Auxiliary Boards for
Propagation, so that Protection Board members can directly and systematically
assist on a wide scale the fundamental activities of the community, such as the
spiritual nurturing of individual believers, the participation of women in all
aspects of community life, the observance of the Nineteen Day Feasts and Holy
Days, the holding of children's classes, the fostering of youth activities.
Three
inseparable participants
9.
The seven objectives specified in previous Plans describe essential,
interacting directions that must advance simultaneously into the foreseeable
future. The Four Year Plan's aim at accelerating the process of entry by troops
identifies a necessity at this stage in the progress of the Cause and in the
state of human society. With this perspective, the three inseparable
participants in the evolution of the new World Order -- the individual, the
institutions, and the community must now demonstrate more tangibly than ever
before their capacity and willingness to embrace masses of new adherents, to
effect the spiritual and administrative transformation of thousands upon
thousands, and, above all, to multiply the army of knowledgeable, consecrated
teachers of a Faith whose emergence from obscurity must be registered on the
consciousness of countless multitudes throughout the earth. These are among the
detailed considerations that have occupied the deliberations of the Continental
Counsellors, who, upon their return home and in the course of their work, will
have occasion to share the results of their conference with the friends.
10.
An auspicious beginning for the new Plan will largely depend on the results of
the current one, which will end in just a few months. The adequacy of these
results will owe much to the degree to which the Local Spiritual Assemblies and
the friends carry out the directions of their National Spiritual Assemblies,
the generals of every Plan. Time is slipping away. This reality should prod us
all to maximum action. Hence, in preparation for what beckons us on the near
horizon, we cannot, we must not, hesitate to expend every energy to bring the
Three Year Plan to a successful conclusion. The urgency which intensifies our
desire for such an outcome is not merely pride of victory, gratifying as that
may be. There are divine deadlines to be met. Our work is intended not only to
increase the size and consolidate the foundations of our community, but more
particularly to exert a positive influence on the affairs of the entire human
race. At so crucial a moment in world affairs, we must not fail in our duty to
take timely action on the goals set before us in the Three Year Plan.
11. With the full fervour of our expectant hearts, we call upon you all,
individually and collectively, to arise to the summons of the Lord of Hosts to
teach His Cause. Do so with love, faith and courage; and the doors of heaven
will open wide to pour forth benedictions upon your efforts.
With loving Bahá'í greetings
[signed: The Universal House of Justice]