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VII
YOUTH ACTIVITY
A MIGHTY crescendo of activity among Bahá’í youth coupled with increased receptivity to the Teachings by their non-Bahá’í contemporaries was a significant development during the period covered by this report (1963—1968). The upward trend in the enrollment of youth indicated that a period of rapid expansion of the Faith was in prospect.1
This ever-increasing interest by youth in the Bahá’í Teachings was set against the wave of immorality and permissiveness sweeping through the ranks of young people the world over—the rise in the incidence of drug use among teenagers, resentment of parental authority, sexual promiscuity, campus unrest and rioting, excesses in deportment and dress, affronts to law and order, and a general revolt against what was ambiguously referred to as “the establishment”. In an effort to fortify Bahá’í youth in their teaching activity and to enable them to resist the temptations of the wave of materialism engulfing contemporary society, the Universal House of J ustice sent out the following letter:
June 10, 1966 To the Bahá’í Youth in Every Land. Dear Bahá’í Friends,
In country after country the achievements of Bahá’í youth are increasingly advancing the work of the Nine Year Plan and arousing the admiration of their fellow believers. From the very beginning of the Bahá’í Era, youth have played a vital part in the promulgation of God’s Revelation. The Báb Himself was but twentyfive years old when He declared His Mission, while many of the Letters of the Living were even younger. The Master, as a very young man, was called upon to shoulder heavy responsibilities in the service of His Father in ‘Iráq and Turkey; and His brother, the Purest Branch, yielded up his life to God in the Most Great Prison at the age of twenty-two that the servants of God might “be quickened, and all that dwell on earth be united”. Shoghi Effendi was a student at Oxford when called to the 1 For example, during the year 1966—67 the United States
Bahá’í community increased by 13% while the increase among youth was nearly 35 %.
throne of his Guardianship, and many of the Knights of Bahá’u’lláh, who won imperishable fame during the Ten Year Crusade, were young people. Let it, therefore, never be imagined that youth must await their years of maturity before they can render invaluable services to the Cause of God.
For any person, whether Bahá’í or not, his youthful years are those in which he will make many decisions which will set the course of his life. In these years he is most likely to choose his life's work, complete his education, begin to earn his own living, marry, and start to raise his own family. Most important of all, it is during this period that the mind is most questing and that the spiritual values that will guide the person’s future behaviour are adopted. These factors present Bahá’í youth with their greatest opportunities, their greatest challenges, and their greatest tests—opportunities to truly apprehend the teachings of their Faith and to give them to their contemporaries, challenges to overcome the pressures of the world and to provide leadership for their and succeeding generations, and tests enabling them to exemplify in their lives the high moral standards set forth in the Bahá’í writings. Indeed, the Guardian wrote of the Bahá’í youth that it is they “who can contribute so decisively to the virility, the purity, and the driving force of the life of the Bahá’í community, and upon whom must depend the future orientation of its destiny, and the complete unfoldment of the potentialities with which God has endowed it.”
Those who now are in their teens and twenties are faced with a special challenge and can seize an opportunity that is unique in human history. During the Ten Year Crusade —the ninth part of that majestic process described so vividly by our beloved Guardian—the community of the Most Great Name spread with the speed of lightning over the major territories and islands of the globe, increased manifoldly its manpower and resources, saw the beginning of the entry of the peoples by troops into the Cause of God, and completed
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the structure of the Administrative Order of Bahá’u’lláh. Now, firmly established in the world, the Cause, in the opening years of the tenth part of that same process, is perceptibly emerging from the obscurity that has, for the most part, shrouded it since its inception and is arising to challenge the outworn concepts of a corrupt society and proclaim the solution for the agonizing problems of a disordered humanity. During the lifetime of those who are now young the condition of the world, and the place of the Bahá’í Cause in it, will change immeasurably, for we are entering a highly critical phase in this era of transition.
Three great fields of service lie open before young Bahá’ís, in which they will simultaneously be remaking the character of human society and preparing themselves for the work they can undertake later in their lives.
First, the foundation of all their other accomplishments, is their study of the teachings, the spiritualization of their lives, and the forming of their characters in accordance with the standards of Bahá’u’lláh. As the moral standards of the people around us collapse and decay, whether of the centuries-old civilizations of the East, the more recent cultures of Christendom and Islam, or of the rapidly changing tribal societies of the world, the Bahá’ís must increasingly stand out as pillars of righteousness and forbearance. The life of a Bahá’í will be characterized by truthfulness and decency; he will walk uprightly among his fellowmen, dependent upon none save God, yet linked by bonds of love and brotherhood with all mankind; he will be entirely detached from the loose stand ards, the decadent theories, the frenetic experimentation, the desperation of present—day society, will look upon his neighbours with a bright and friendly face, and be a beacon light and a haven for all those who would emulate his strength of character and assurance of soul.
The second field of service, which is linked intimately with the first, is teaching the Faith, particularly to their fellow youth, among whom are some of the most open and seeking minds in the world. Not yet having acquired all the responsibilities of a family or a longestablished home and job, youth can the more easily choose where they will live and study or work. In the world at large young people travel hither and thither seeking amusement, educa THE Bahá’í WORLD
tion, and experiences. Bahá’í youth, bearing the incomparable treasure of the Word of God for this Day, can harness this mobility into service for mankind and can choose their places of residence, their areas of travel, and their types of work with the goal in mind of how they can best serve the Faith.
The third field ofservice is the preparation by youth for their later years. It is the obligation of a Bahá’í to educate his children; likewise it is the duty of the children to acquire knowledge of the arts and sciences and to learn a trade or a profession whereby they, in turn, can earn their living and support their families. This, for a Bahá’í youth, is in itself a' service to God, a service, moreover, which can be combined with teaching the Faith and often with pioneering. The Bahá’í community will need men and women of many skills and qualifications; for, as it grows in size the sphere of its activities in the life of society will increase and diversify. Let Bahá’í youth, therefore, consider the best ways in which they can use and develop their native abilities for the service of mankind and the Cause of God, whether this be as farmers, teachers, doctors, artisans, musicians, or any one of the multitude of livelihoods that are open to them.
When studying at school or university Bahá’í youth will often find themselves in the unusual and slightly embarrassing position of having a more profound insight into a subject than their instructors. The Teachings of Bahá’u’lláh throw light on so many aspects of human life and knowledge that a Bahá’í must learn, earlier than most, to weigh the information that is given to him rather than to accept it blindly. A Bahá’í has the advantage of the Divine Revelation for this age, which shines like a searchlight on so many problems that baffle modern thinkers; he must therefore develop the ability to learn everything from those around him, showing proper humility before his teachers, but always relating what he hears to the Bahá’í teachings, for they will enable him to sort out the gold from the dross of human error.
Paralleling the growth of their inner life
through prayer, meditation, service, and study
of the teachings, Bahá’í youth have the opportunity to learn in practice the very functioning
of the Order of Bahá’u’lláh. Through taking
part in conferences and summer schools as well
as Nineteen Day Feasts, and in service on com
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- . , , ¥ 3'4“ ‘ W
Michigan; 1965.
Youth Project Training Session, Bahá’í Summer S hool, Davison,
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Baha”: Youth Conference, Sarasota, Florida; February, 1968.
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mittees, they can develop the wonderful skill of Bahá’í consultation, thus tracing new paths of human corporate action. Consultation is no easy skill to learn, requiring as it does the subjugation of all egotism and unruly passions, the cultivation offrankness and freedom ofthought as well as courtesy, openness of mind, and wholehearted acquiescence in a majority decision. In this field Bahá’í youth may demonstrate the efficiency, the vigour, the access of unity which arise from true consultation and, by contrast, demonstrate the futility of partisanship, lobbying, debate, secret diplomacy, and unilateral action which characterize modern affairs. Youth also take part in the life of the Bahá’í community as a whole and promote a society in which all generationselderly, middle-aged, youth, children—are fully integrated and make up an organic whole. By refusing to carry over the antagonisms and mistrust between the generations which perplex and bedevil modern society, they will again demonstrate the healing and life—giving nature of their religion.
The Nine Year Plan has just entered its third year. The youth have already played a vital part in winning its goals. We now call upon them, with great love and highest hopes and the
assurance of our fervent prayers, to consider, individually and in consultation, wherever they live and whatever their circumstances, those steps which they should take now to deepen themselves in their knowledge of the Divine Message, to develop their characters after the pattern of the Master, to acquire those skills, trades, and professions in which they can best serve God and man, to intensify their service to the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh, and to radiate its Message to the seekers among their contemporaries.
The effect of this letter is indicated in the following extract from a report, written by a Bahá’í youth in the United States for the National Spiritual Assembly of that country:
“These formative years (1963—68) of the American Bahá’í youth movement were punctuated by a letter from the Universal House of Justice dated June 10, 1966 and addressed ‘To the Bahá’í Youth in every Land.’ It was the first communication of its kind to be sent out from the World Centre of the Faith. The letter, written in masterful prose, outlined three great fields of service to the Faith which lie before all
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youth. . . The letter came without warning at a time when many youth were gathered at summer project training sessions where it was quickly reproduced and distributed. It was received with surprise and awe, almost with disbelief, by youth gathered at these sessions. The words of this letter, though only dimly understood at the time, sunk deeply into the consciousness of all youth who read them. This letter . . . became a standard of youth identity and set a tone for youth activities for some time . . . it was distributed to every Bahá’í youth in the country and was studied again and again at youth conferences and institutes. In later years, quotations from ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and Shoghi Effendi on Bahá’í youth and their special mission in the Faith were to become more common. But for a time this letter was the primary source of direction for Bahá’í youth activities. . .
“During the years from 1963 to 1968, within the American nation as a whole, youth in huge numbers were shaken to a new awareness of the decay and corruption of their society. A new youth culture grew to claim the allegiance of millions of alienated young people who had rejected the old order, but had not yet discovered the new one. This mood of the youth culture within the United States was reflected in the young Bahá’ís. Its positive elements affected the Bahá’í community as a whole, revitalizing and strengthening it and advancing Bahá’í youth to new levels of commitment and sacrifice and eagerness for direct action and service. Its negative elements were largely eliminated by the laws and standards of Bahá’u’lláh and the guidance of the Administrative Order. By 1964, many Bahá’í youth had been infected by this spirit of urgency and activism. They brought their concerns to the National Convention of that year where a responsive chord was struck in many adult Bahá’ís who were also aroused by the racial struggles which gripped the nation. As a result, the National Spiritual Assembly promptly developed a program of summer youth projects into which this new energy could be channelled. The area of activist service to the Cause, especially in the form of summer service projects, became the domain of Bahá’í youth. Youth were, almost universally, thrilled and challenged by this new arena of service . . . the opportunity to completely dedicate six or eight weeks to a Bahá’í
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Summer Youth Project, Martha Root Institute, Muna, Yucatdn;
1 96 7.
Bahá’í Children’s Class, Quezaltenango, Guatemala; 1965.
Bahá’í Children’s Class, Summer School, Turkey;
1965.
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Youth Conference, Sucre, Bolivia; 1966.
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project was enthralling. Youth listened eagerly to the reports of the successes of theprojects and swelled with pride that youth could win such victories for the Cause of God.
“The political pressure of American society had another effect upon Bahá’í youth. Stirred to a new awareness of political realities, youth began to read the writings of Shoghi Effendi with new eyes. The revolutionary scope of the Faith suddenly came into view and was appreciated, as Bahá’ís began to explore the implications of the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh. Bahá’í youth began to understand that the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh demanded changes more complete and more radical than those demanded by the movements that made the headlines. They discovered that the foundation of such changes lay in their own personal conduct. Such books as The World Order of Bahá’u’lla’h and The Advent of Divine Justice became the center of attention. These discoveries stimulated both a more clear and complete rejection of the values of a dying order and a firmer commitment to a fully Bahá’í identity.”
Bahá’í youth served the Faith in a wide variety of ways. The most obvious and most direct, of course, was in teaching and these activities ranged all the way from simple firesides at home to long—distance travel—teaching projects in far off lands. In between were summer youth projects involving travellin g through their own countries or settling for a few weeks in a single locality where assistance was needed.
Two of the more ambitious travel-teaching projects were those of groups of American youth to Yucatan and Bolivia. A team of four youths embarked on a six—week pilot project in the native villages of Yucatan in the summer of 1967. They made daily trips to the villages with Auxiliary Board member Artemus Lamb, a week-end trip to the territory of Quintana Roo, assisted in two courses in the Martha Root Bahá’í Institute in Muna, and held an institute in Komchen. The account of their project in Bahá’í News stated: “The inspiration of the example of their lives, their knowledge of the Teachings and their loving dedication brought rich confirmations. Their visit has given a great surge forward to youth activities.” Among other accomplishments they, with the help of an enthusiastic group of Mayan youth, opened a new village to the Faith.
In September 1966 two young Bahá’í men
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set out from Miami on a pilot youth teaching project to the high altiplano of Bolivia. They soon learned that Bolivia is a country almost entirely bereft of the material advancements and personal comforts to which they had been accustomed. They travelled by steam train, open trucks, in “rickety over-crowded” buses and on foot to reach the remote villages where they were to teach, and once there they stayed in very simple accommodations and observed that even some of the larger towns were not yet blessed with running water, electricity or sanitary facilities. The purpose of the project was to give them experience in Bahá’í teaching, to expose them to the problems and the rewards of work in an isolated mass teaching area, and to test the feasibility of future youth projects of a similar nature. In participating in the project the youths were to contribute as much as they could to the difficult teaching and consolidation work in Bolivia and to encourage the local believers in their endeavours. In addition to the physical privations which they had to endure, the youths experienced the difficulties of speaking through an interpreter, and they learned of the problems associated with teaching among primitive peoples who cannot read or write. Teachers must be sent to each of the hundreds of villages where Bahá’ís reside to train and deepen the believers, and yet there are so few teachers available. The report in the United States Bahá’í News stated:
“The rural-dwelling Bahá’í of Bolivia farm the barren land and herd sheep and llamas, raising potatoes to eat and fibers to protect them from the freezing cold and mountain winds. They have only wooden plows for tilling the soil, the wood itself being scarce in a land of few trees, and there is no wheel in their daily life. Disease, hard work and hunger serve to shorten theirlife expectancy to afraction of ours, and many die at birth or in childhood. And yet their hearts are so pure that they are truly thankful for that which God has given them, and they were able to teach their North American brothers to appreciate deeply the beauty and peace of their life and attitude, the perfection of their hospitality and the light in their worn faces. These were experiences never to be forgotten.”
American Bahá’í youth engaged in a number of summer projects. The following are excerpts from some of the reports:
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First National Bahá’z’ Youth Conference afBrazil; 1965. The Hand of the Cause Jaldl Khdzeh is seen seated in the centre of the photograph.
3». t268 THE BAH
WORLD
L
Bahá’í Youth Conference, Belle Rose, Mauritius Island; June, 1967. The Hand of the Cause Amatu’I-Bahd Rdlu'yyih fldnum is seen seated in the centre foreground of the photograph.
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“South Carolina—Youth Teachers—In the South there is a rapid social evolution which focuses upon the emergent Negro minority. It is a place of bright hope for Bahá’í progress through interracial teaching and living . . . a team of six youth was sent to Greenville, South Carolina to undertake, under the guidance of the Local Spiritual Assembly, a six-week combined program of tutorial assistance to Negro students, of rural Bahá’í teaching, and Of Bahá’í human rights activities . . . fifty—five Negro students of primary and secondary school age had applied for transfer to heretofore all-white schools. Their tutoring program, designed to prepare them for the stifl‘er requirements of the new schools was staffed by four youth . . . the six weeks were rich in experience, in the planting of Bahá’í seeds, in the public recognition of the unequivocal Bahá’í position on the oneness of mankind, in new declarations, and in the opportunities to serve the community and its neediest citizens.
“New Mexico—Arizona—At Gallup, in two periods of two weeks each, the girls undertook to canvass the town to inform about the Cause, and helped to recruit students for a free art class conducted at the Bahá’í Center. . . They worked with the juvenile probation ofl‘icer . . . accompanying him on his rounds and contacting Indian parents . . . to staff the Bahá’í booth full time, there to make friends for the Faith . . . in Phoenix, tutoring of high school drop-outs and work in the Golden Gate Settlement House was combined with Bahá’í discussion meetings both in the city and in nearby Tempe.
“Canada—Across eastern Canada went a handsome teaching-by-singing group whose enthusiasm was so infectious that ‘it brought an absolute transformation of the Canadian communities’ which they visited.”
No less spectacular were some of the summer youth projects undertaken elsewhere. The National Bahá’í Youth Committee of Malaysia requested youth groups to elect state representatives to consolidate activities within the state and also to furnish regular reports from their districts. Very high standards were fixed for the representatives. They were expected to read and study selected books, to memorize a number of prayers, and to be prepaled to travel in their state to arrange youth activities. One of the youth projects of Malaysia was to help with
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the cleaning of the newly-acquired national Ḥaẓíratu’l-Quds. The youth of Kuala Lumpur are permitted to use it for their activities.
In Kenya the services of Bahá’í youth are summed up in the following adaptation from an article by Samuel Obura:
“The first Kenya Africans to embrace the Bahá’í Faith were four youths studying at a medical training school in 1953. F10m these four, the beloved Faith of God has now spread to more than twenty thousand believers (residing in approximately two thousand localities). Many of these believers are youth under thirty years of age. Through the unfailing guidance and assistance of the Blessed Perfection, Bahá’í youth in Kenya have played a vital role in achieving this wonderful success. Two main obstacles came in the way of teaching progress: First of all, there is poor public transport especially in remote rural areas, and a lack of adequate private transport among the Bahá’ís. Consequently, a good part of any teaching trip included travelling on foot or by bicycle. Secondly, in a country with probably fifty spoken languages and dialects, and where academic education came only recently, when the Faith reached Kenya, only the youth had any reasonable educational standard and could read and speak English. Thus the English language, in which most of the literature is available, was not linguafranca, and the task of translating pamphlets and a few books into the local languages was enormous.
“Through the divine love, and devotion, different Regional Teaching Committees organized the youth into teaching groups, and these groups arranged regular teaching trips to the rural areas. Many a time they stayed the weekends with the villagers, spending most of the evenings (when the villagers had finished their day’s work), sitting and discussing with them till very late in the night. It was during one of such trips to a semi-nomadic pastoral tribe (the Masai) who had rejected all previous Faiths, and who in this particular part had forced Christian missionaries to abandon their enterprise in the face of failure after twenty years of strenuous effort, that a significant victory was won. On the second teaching trip to this same place, a group of Masai accepted the Bahá’í Faith, declaring that it was the one they have been waiting for all these years. And with subsequent trips many of them embraced
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Bahá’í Youth Winter School, Freudenstadt, Germany; 1967.
Bahá’í Youth Symposium, Rimini, Italy; March, 1967.
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the Faith despite the hostile attitude of and propaganda by missionaries and priests.
“At the same time, weekly fireside meetings were held, and every youth made it a point to bring a friend or interested inquirer. On the occasions of Bahá’í Anniversaries, or when a Hand of the Cause, Auxiliary Board member or Bahá’í teacher from another country was present, round table discussions were sometimes organized, and these attracted large crowds. Many of those who attended became interested and keen investigators, who ultimately found the one truth and accepted the Bahá’í Faith. It is mainly through the tireless efforts of the youth, supported by the unfailing assistance of the Blessed Beauty, that such tremendous achievements were registered and could be pointed to with joy.
“It is indeed very wonderful how through the invisible power of God, His Cause spread so rapidly in a most difficult environment. The Mau Man rebellion had begun two years before the first Bahá’í pioneer set foot in Kenya, and the country was torn with bitter strife, ruled by stringent emergency regulations, and race relations were at the lowest ebb. The churches which used to overflow with enthusiastic African Christians were half empty as the attendance dwindled Sunday after Sunday. Many of those in authority looked at the Bahá’í Faith with dislike, and most of the rebel Christians were very sceptical about anything to do with religion because they had identified Christianity with the decadent Colonial rule, but they gave a very sympathetic hearing to the wonderful message of the Bahá’í Faith.”
By 1964 there were active Youth Cemmittees working throughout the British Isles, some publishing their own newsletters and magazines. In the year 1964-65 in Ireland, sixty per cent of the new declarants were youth who actively assisted in accomplishing many of the important and difficult goals of the Nine Year Plan. After a special mass in one of the city’s most important Catholic churches, the youth of Belfast were asked to have tea with the Monsignor, several priests and a few Catholic businessmen, thus establishing a friendly and important relationship with the Catholic church in Belfast. The youth of Dublin were equally active despite the problems of teaching in that community. Weekend schools, workshops, seminars were organized throughout
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the British Isles; book displays were arranged and there was participation in youth discussion panels. Youth teaching teams were active in 1965—66 visiting weak Assembly areas to establish new friendships and aid the teaching effort. Teaching projects sponsored by youth were undertaken in villages throughout the country and to some of the remote islands ofl‘ the coast of Scotland. A number of Youth Conferences were held during 1966—67 under the auspices of the National Youth Committee. Youth were quick to consult with the National Teaching Committee about summer teaching projects and to participate in its plans during the summer vacations. Discussions were commenced with the National Youth Committees of several European countries to foster international youth teaching projects, which led to tremendous activity in later years.
Significant increases in the tempo of Bahá’í activity in high schools and on college campuses throughout the world kept pace with other advances. More college clubs were organized than ever before, many opportunities were offered to talk about the Faith from the college lecture platform and in classroom situations, the Faith was proclaimed in many ways, and enrollments among high school and college students multiplied. Throughout the five continents it was evident that Bahá’í youth were on the move. An outstanding example of this vitality was the news from Ujjain, India, that sixty college students, some of whom were from the government Polytechnic College, had accepted the Faith.
Enthusiasm, knowledge and inspiration were freely dispensed at innumerable Youth Conferences, institutes, summer schools, retreats, workshops and rallies in all parts of the Bahá’í world. Here youth shared experiences, discussed topics of particular interest to them, studied the Writings, planned their teaching objectives, and prayed for success.
Music became an increasingly important medium by which Bahá’í youth shared with the world the Glad Tidings of the coming of Bahá’u’lláh. Many composed songs with a Bahá’í theme or set to music extracts from the Sacred Writings. Pioneers and travelling teachers carried the songs of the .Bahá’ís of Africa, Persia and North America to every part of the globe and eagerly added to their repertoire a new song written bythe Bahá’ís of Asia, Europe,
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Bahá’í Yomh of Bombay, India; 1968.
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1 E ‘ f ' ‘3 p ‘1 .5} g? ‘
I
World Peace Symposium sponsored by the Bahd’z Youth of Karachi, Pdkista’n; 1967.
a.\ m W m AL law.
Bahá’í Choir of the Mother T ample of the Antipodes, Sydney, Australia; December, 1966.
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Latin America. or the South Pacific. Both formal and informal music groups were formed, some travelling widely to proclaim the Faith. Spontaneous musical firesides were held, public musical programmes were arranged, and ambitious and creative sound—and-light presentations were designed and staged by youth. A successful and widely publicized youth chorus sprang up, the California Victory Chorus, which soon found a. counterpart in the Dawn Breakers Chorus of Australia, and later in the United Kingdom. These groups were interviewed by the press, radio and television in various places they visited. Attractively attired, enthusiastic, interracial, these singing groups were widely acclaimed as “the happy people”, “musical ambassadors,” and their message of hope, joy and confidence in a dissonant age attracted a warm response among all age groups. In December 1966 a Young Peoples’ Choir was organized to sing at the public
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services held every Sunday at the Bahá’í House of Worship in Sydney, Australia, and at the Intercontinental Conference in 1967 “The Dawn-Breakers” of Australia presented their first concert of Bahá’í songs. They later toured through the states of Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia, visiting major towns, presenting their “Musical Fireside” and several songs adapted to the sing—along format with audience participation.
A compelling testimony to the striking flexibility of the divinely-conceived administrative order was the remarkable capacity of the newly-enriched Bahá’í world community to absorb such a large influx of youth and harness their zeal and dynamism to the task of speedily accomplishing the goals of the Nine Year Plan. The problems arising from this challenging situation, one youth observed, “never failed to resolve themselves when brought into the open
(,I
and frankly and lovingly discussed. Baha is of
A group of Bahá’í youth and friends at the Inter— Continental Conference in New Delhi, 1967.
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all ages were to discover that the unifying power of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh was awesome indeed!” An adult believer who served actively with youth in this period affirms: “Bahá’í youth respected the authority of Bahá’í institutions and trusted the integrity of adult Bahá’ís . . . they vitalized and strengthened the community and gave invaluable support and assistance . . . the Bahá’í spirit, young and old, demonstrated its power to meld into dynamic unity elements locked in a cycle of accelerating animosity outside the refuge of the Faith of Bahá’u’lláh.” Wherever they laboured the Bahá’í youth had before them a vision of the magnitude of their role in the words of Shoghi Effendi written on October 26, 1932, to which the Universal House of Justice had directed their
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attention by having his letter reprinted in Bahd’z' News:
“The activities, hopes and ideals of the Bahá’í youth . . . of the world, are close and dear to my heart. Upon them rests the supreme and challenging responsibility to promote the interests of the Cause of God in the days to come, to coordinate its world-wide activities, to extend its scope, to safeguard its integrity, to exalt its virtues, define its purpose, and translate its ideals and aims into memorable and abiding achievements. Theirs is a mighty task at once holy, stupendous and enthralling. May the spirit of Bahá’u’lláh protect, inspire and sustain them in the prosecution of their divinely appointed task!”
