Message from the National Spiritual Assembly
10 February 2022
5 Mulk 178 B.E.
GC-36267
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All believers in the United Kingdom
Dearly loved Friends,
A further stage in the launching of the Nine Year Plan occurred last weekend with the holding of a momentous Institutional Meeting in London. The three-day gathering was hosted by the National Spiritual Assembly and was closely guided by the Continental Board of Counsellors. Participants included members of certain national and regional institutions and agencies alongside others from across the four regions of the United Kingdom, as well as guests from Denmark, Finland, Greenland, Iceland, Ireland, Norway and Sweden. Mr. Andrej Donoval – a Counsellor member of the International Teaching Centre – illumined the consultation with extraordinary insights and guidance, together with Dr. Lori Noguchi, a Director of the Bahá’í International Development Organisation, and four European Counsellors: Mrs. Hedyeh Nadafi-Stoffel, Mr. Sabà Mazza, Mr. Paul Verheij, and our own resident Counsellor, Dr. Varqá Khadem.
More than 180 friends were joined by up to 40 friends online to reflect upon the Universal House of Justice’s letter of 30 December 2021 to the Conference of the Continental Boards of Counsellors, which sets out the provisions of the Nine Year Plan commencing this Riḍván. Participants strove to gain more clarity on the key concepts and approaches outlined in that message, and deep thought was given to the implications of the message for each country and region. Over the coming months, it is intended that this conversation will be extended to other institutions, agencies and friends across the United Kingdom.
Those present reflected on the statement of the House of Justice that, “however bright the achievements” of the last quarter century, “they must be eclipsed by what is to come” and that the “the Bahá’í community will need to have acquired capacities that can scarcely be glimpsed at present.”[1] It was clear to all that the “page is turned”[2], and a new chapter, a new Epoch, a new century and a new series of Plans had begun.
The task now is to build upon the foundation that has been laid over the past quarter of a century of Plans, which witnessed profound changes in our understanding of how the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh must be advanced. The next 25 years will further demand of us a new way of thinking – a leap in consciousness – to embrace and learn about concepts, language and approaches that will take the Cause to its next stage of development. How could it be otherwise, if we reflect deeply on the mission given by the Supreme Body to the Bahá’í community for this period: “the release of the society-building power of the Faith in ever-greater measures”?[3]
The conference was imbued with the spirit of teaching, its participants mindful that the “doors of the Faith are wide open” and that our task is “to give encouragement to those that stand at the threshold.”[4] to enter the Faith. The movement of clusters and related milestone goals for the next nine years were consulted upon earnestly; the role of pioneering in the advancement of clusters and the United Kingdom’s responsibility in contributing to this was considered; the need to learn from the more advanced clusters and the arrangements for this to happen were understood more deeply; the centrality of education in our endeavours and the implications of the “more expansive view“[5] of the training institute set out in the message was explored, as well as the role of youth; the contribution that the Bahá’í community must learn to make to social transformation – and its participation in the discourses of society – was reflected upon; and finally, the necessity of raising capacity for administration at all levels was considered, with particular emphasis on Local Spiritual Assemblies.
What was particularly notable, however, was the palpable spirit of love and fellowship that permeated the gathering. Friends were reminded of the words of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá from the Tablets of the Divine Plan about the three conditions for success in teaching the Faith, the second being “Fellowship and love amongst the believers.” The Master continues,
The divine friends must be attracted to and enamoured of each other and ever be ready and willing to sacrifice their own lives for each other. Should one soul from amongst the believers meet another, it must be as though a thirsty one with parched lips has reached to the fountain of the water of life, or a lover has met his true beloved.[6]
Truly, such was the spirit of these days spent together.
All present were conscious of the severe difficulties that humanity will face in the immediate years ahead. In a recent message, the Universal House of Justice wrote: “There is a mounting realization on the part of the world’s people that the decades ahead are set to bring with them challenges among the most daunting that the human family has ever had to face.”[7] In this light, Counsellor Donoval drew attention to a passage from the Guardian of the Bahá’í Faith, which inspired those assembled as they departed with an urgent sense of mission and a more heightened understanding of the implications for humanity of this new series of Plans that will take us to the year 2046:
The champion builders of Bahá’u’lláh’s rising World Order must scale nobler heights of heroism as humanity plunges into greater depths of despair, degradation, dissension and distress. Let them forge ahead into the future serenely confident that the hour of their mightiest exertions and the supreme opportunity for their greatest exploits must coincide with the apocalyptic upheaval marking the lowest ebb in mankind’s fast-declining fortunes.[8]
With loving Bahá’í greetings,
Patrick O’Mara,
Secretary
References
1 Universal House of Justice, 30 December 2021, To the Conference of the Continental Boards of Counsellors,
2 Universal House of Justice, Riḍván 2021, To the Bahá’ís of the World3 Universal House of Justice, 30 December 2021, To the Conference of the Continental Boards of Counsellors, par.3
4 ibid., par.9
5 ibid., par.22
6 ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, Tablets of the Divine Plan.www.bahai.org/r/1412109357 Universal House of Justice, 25 November 2020, To the Bahá’ís of the World8 Shoghi Effendi, Citadel of Faith. www.bahai.org/r/417470573
