2017 elections for delegates – a special privilege
National Spiritual Assembly
nsa@bahai.org.uk
19 December 2016
9 Masá’il 173 B.E.
All believers in the United Kingdom
Dearly loved Friends,
In a few weeks’ time, every adult believer will be carrying out the sacred responsibility of choosing the delegates who will participate in next year’s National Convention, during which they will elect the National Spiritual Assembly.
It is indeed a priceless blessing to take part in the raising up of the Bahá’í Administrative Order, described by Shoghi Effendi in The Dispensation of Bahá’u’lláh, “not only as a nucleus but the very pattern of the New World Order destined to embrace in the fullness of time the whole of mankind.” Taking part in a Bahá’í election is “a bounden duty that confers a high privilege upon every Bahá’í to select, as a responsible citizen of the new world being brought into existence, the composition of the institutions having authority over the functioning of the Bahá’í community.” (Universal House of Justice, 25 March 2007)
Participating in the forthcoming election, however, is particularly special since the delegates elected will decide the membership of that National Spiritual Assembly which will, in turn, elect the Universal House of Justice at International Convention in 2018. In this way, every adult believer has the privilege of participating in the wondrous process which culminates in the election, once every five years, of the Supreme Body.
The upcoming unit conventions are now being organised to respond to the request of the Universal House of Justice to establish electoral units that reflect the cluster boundaries. It is hoped this new arrangement will re-invigorate the convention and encourage the participation of a large number of electors, as well as youth and children. Please be sure to read carefully the guidance you may already have received, or will shortly receive, in the post from your Convention host.
In calling upon each and every one of you to participate fully in the forthcoming election and unit convention, the National Spiritual Assembly can only echo the “ardent hope of the Universal House of Justice” that “the friends will come forward, in ever-increasing numbers, to perform this sacred obligation…”
With loving Bahá’í greetings,
Patrick O’Mara,
Secretary