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Five year plans developed by National Assembly
Committees get long-term assignments
National Teaching Committee
Dear Bahá’í Friends:
The National Teaching Committee, designated by our beloved Guardian as the “chief auxiliary institution” of the National Spiritual Assembly, bears the preponderating share of the responsibility to assist the Assembly to win the homefront objectives of the Five Year Plan for the American Bahá’í community. In eager response to that Plan and through a redoubled effort to further the realization of its rich potentialities for service , your Committee must arise to the glory-inducing challenge now placed before it in the following Five—Year-Plan mandate:
1. Raise the number of localities where Bahá’ís reside to at least 7,000.
In planning for this objective, your Committee should be sure to consider the geographical distribution of localities. In its Naw-Rúz 1974 letter addressed to all National Spiritual Assemblies, The Universal House of Justice wrote:
When choosing localities to be opened to the Faith and when deciding which localities should have Local Spiritual Assemblies, you should bear in mind the need to have the Bahá’í community represented broadly across the area under your jurisdiction. It is likely that some areas will show themselves particularly receptive and numerous local Bahá’í communities will speedily arise there, but while fostering such growth you should not neglect those areas in which the Faith is as yet unrepresented.
Your Committee should acquaint itself with and follow up the effort in this direction which it initiated in 1969. Please refer to the issues ofNational Bahá’í Review for that year to find the listing of localities adopted as goals. We suggest a similar effort be carried forward in phasing the achievement of the
localities goal of the Five Year Plan. We further suggest that a plan be adopted to open every county in the continental United States and that this become a compelling consideration of all teaching committees. Though the objective of opening every county in the United States may not reasonably be attained in the Five Year Plan alone and must necessarily cut across future plans, our intention must be: 1) To pursue this general objective relentlessly; and 2) to achieve it partially at least by opening every county in the three states which have been selected for intensive teaching and consolidation activities. (We even thought of a slogan, “Conquer the Counties!”, as a possible rallying cry.)
2. Raise the number of Local Spiritual Assemblies to a minimum of 1,400 including at least 25 on Indian reservations.
The principle cited by the Supreme Institution and quoted above also applies to the establishment of Local Spiritual Assemblies: Bahá’í communities must be represented broadly across the continental United States. This principle must undoubtedly influence the long-range planning for the geographical distribution of Local Spiritual Assemblies.
Here are some requisites of planning toward this objective:
a. It will be necessary for your Committee to assist the National Spiritual Assembly in stopping the losses of Local Assemblies. Whenever an Assembly is in numerical jeopardy, the National Assembly will call upon the National Teaching Committee and its auxiliaries to supply all the assistance necessary to remove this state of jeopardy.
b. Your Committee should select each year, in accordance with your systematic: phased planning, those promising groups which should become Assemblies within a specified period. In this regard, care should be taken to assess the viability
of the locality to sustain a future Assembly; the F
resources of your Committee should not be
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squandered on establishing an Assembly in a conspicuously deficient locality-—for example, an
army base, “bedroom” town, and the like. But
you must be sure not to curtail the spontaneous
efforts of believers living in such places.
c. Now that a new Assembly may be formed at any time during the year when the requisite number of adults reside in a locality, your Committee must make a great effort to prevent haphazard formations. Institutes similar to those held in the final year of the Nine Year Plan should be held for each qualified group prior to its establishment of a Local Spiritual Assembly. The National Teaching Committee should ensure the best possible preparation of such a group by acquainting its members with information concerning the basic responsibilities, obligations, and procedures of a Local Assembly. It must also ensure that any method it adopts will not unnecessarily delay the formation of any Assembly.
d. Your Committee must initiate a vigorous program to achieve the objective of establishing at least 25 Local Spiritual Assemblies on Indian reservations. Plans toward this objective should be coupled with the mandate from The Universal House of Justice requiring us to “develop special expansion and consolidation projects among Indian tribes”.
e. As Local Spiritual Assemblies adopt extension teaching goals, they should feel free and be encouraged to request assistance of the National Teaching Committee and its auxiliaries.
3. Expand the teaching work among those of Armenian, Basque, Chinese, Greek, Japanese and Spanish—speaking background.
Achievement of this goal will require careful and systematic long-range planning built on an adequate base of information about the populations to be taught. Thus, the first task of the National Teaching Committee is to gather as much information as possible about these minorities in the United States, including the identification of Bahá’ís who come from these backgrounds and who may serve as special resources in the projection of detailed plans.
It is noteworthy that a large percentage of the members of each minority listed are Englishspeaking and, therefore, your Committee should feel no immediate compulsion to translate more literature than now exists in the languages of these groups; most of the teaching work among them can be conducted in English. Concerning those who speak Spanish, a wealth of Bahá’í literature is available in this language through the facilities of our Bahá’í Publishing Trust. If the need for new translations is established, your Committee should make approp NOVEMBER 1974
riate recommendations to the National Spiritual Assembly.
4. Expand the use of radio and television for Bahá’í’ broadcasts aimed at proclamation of the Faith to greater numbers of listeners, as well as for deepening the faith of the believers particularly in rural areas.
Your Committee must collaborate with the National Information Committee in developing this objective. This collaboration implies that you will consult with the Information Committee to provide input for the development of radio and television programs and that you will foster the utilization of these programs as they are produced by the Information Committee. The actual production of the radio and television programs will be the responsibility of the National Information Committee.
5. Encourage and offer guidance to Bahá’í Youth to plan their lives to be of greatest service to the Faith and provide means whereby their offers of specific periods of teaching and other service beyond their normal teaching activities can be organized and used to the best advantage.
The objectives of the Five Year Plan pertaining to .
youth will be coordinated by the National Youth
-Committee. The National Teaching Committee, as well as the National Education Committee and other agencies, will be called upon to cooperate with the Youth Committee in a variety of ways to achieve the goals of the Plan which involve the youth.
6. Develop intensive teaching and consolidation plans in at least three states, chosen from among those visited by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, designed to attract great numbers to the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh thereby initiating aprocess leading to the entry into the Faith
by troops alluded to by the Master.
The states chosen as an initial response to this requirement of the Plan are: California, Illinois, and New York. At a later time in the Plan consideration will be given to choosing another or other states. Because of the amount of time and resources which will be required to plan and execute this objective, the National Teaching Committee will be spared direct responsibility at the outset, but the Committee should fully expect to inherit the responsibility for coordinating this project at a time to be determined by the National Spiritual Assembly. Meanwhile, the Committee will be kept informed of the Assembly’s plans and decisions and of the part it is to play in such plans.
It is important that the National Teaching Com
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mittee make every attempt to use all the teaching '
materials now available for the community rather than produce new materials. If special materials are required for some reason, a proposal for their development and production should be submitted to the National Spiritual Assembly for approval and the actual production then handled by the Bahá’í Publishing Trust.
For your Committee to succeed, it must approach its tasks with a mature view toward systematic, phased, measurable, extended planning throughout the five years, always anxious to exploit unexpected opportunities but wary of impulsive, frantic, haphazard divergencies. It must impart to its valued co-workers and auxiliaries a sense of sustained dynamic purpose, orderliness and practicality within the framework of the Five Year Plan. Thus, your Committee must, at the outset and in successive attempts at refinement, carefully conceive its precise part in the Plan in relation to Regional Teaching Committees, District Teaching Committees, and other subcommittees. Though at first an orderly approach will appear slow, your Committee must resist any temptation to be seduced by actions which ensure instant gratification but lack substance and pander to ephemeral glitter. Your Committee should rather rest assured that a systematic, phased approach will in due course inspire confidence, which in turn will free the believers of any fear or anxiety and liberate the power inherent within them to attain great victories for the Five Year Plan. V
Your Committee must help District Teaching Committees to break down the Plan into specific, manageable objectives and monitor their efforts to achieve these objectives by fixing tentative dates within the five years when isolated believers will develop into groups and specific groups will develop into Local Spiritual Assemblies. In a word, each District must have a completely phased plan for the five years. It will be crucial to your success for your Committee to provide a thorough and well-prepared annual briefing of all District Teaching Committees. These Committees must be trained, constantly monitored, and directed lest they lose sight of their phased objectives.
Dear friends, again we mount our steeds in a time which is critical to the future of mankind. Our community, singled out by Providence to be the “chief executors” of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s world-embracing, world-civilizing Divine Plan and to be the “cradle” of a vast but still largely unrealized Administrative Order, must press onward towards the luminous destiny forecast for it in the Master’s own words. We take this new step with the confidence that your invaluable assistance will embolden our conquest of untouched frontiers; you should, therefore, feel the
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assurance of our prayers that your every effort will receive the rich confirmations of the Lord of Hosts.
NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY or THE BAHA1’I’s OF THE UNITED STATES Glenford E. Mitchell, Secretary
May 17, 1974
National Education Committee
Dear Bahá’í Friends:
Of the three major objectives identified in the Five Year Plan, two have significant bearing on the work of your Committee; these are: preservation and the consolidation of the victories won, and development of the distinctive character of Bahá’í' life particularly in local communities. The amplification of these objectives comprises a number of general and specific tasks outlined in the messages of Naw-Rúz 1974 written by The Universal House of Justice to the Baha’ is of the world and the Bahá’ís of the United States. We have cited the relevant tasks hereunder in the form of a mandate to which your Committee is now called to address itself with all the anxious attention and sober purpose implied in your appointment.
1. Encourage and organize regular Bahá’í activities and classes for adults, youth and children.
Although the regularity and organization of such activities and classes fall primarily within the sphere of action of Local Spiritual Assemblies, it is a signal purpose of your Committee to stimulate the holding of such activities by the following means: 1) drawing the attention of the Assemblies and believers to specially prepared materials, such as the Comprehensive Deepening Program; 2) suggesting a variety of ways in which _they might be aided and encouraged to use such materials; 3) training resource persons to assist the community’s efforts toward consolidation.
The regular activities for which your Committee is directly responsible are summarized in the following directives:
a. Stimulate, guide, supervise and coordinate the programs and activities of Bahá’í schools. Attention to this task should be influenced by the instruction given on behalf of the beloved Guardian to a National Spiritual Assembly on October 17, 1936, that, “The institution of the Summer School constitutes a vital and inseparable part of any teaching campaign, and as such ought to be given the full importance it deserves in the teaching plans and activities of the believers.”
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NOVEMBER 1 974
b. Train resource persons who can assist local communities to put the Comprehensive Deepening Program to use.
c. Plan and conduct throughout the country as I
necessary weekend training institutes for a variety of purposes in keeping with the educational objectives of the Five Year Plan.
2. The education of children in the Teachings of the Faith must be regarded as an essential obligation of every Bahá’í parent, every local and national community, and it must become a firrnly-established Bahá’í activity during the course of this Plan. It should include moral instruction by word and example and active participation by children in Bahá’í community life.
To assist the friends in their achievement of this objective, your Committee should use the facilities offered at Bahá’í schools and plan institutes to implement the following programs:
a. Train teachers of Bahá’í children who can then be used at the local level to organize programs for the education of children in the Teachings of the Faith. These teachers may also be used to staff children’s programs in summer schools, weekend institutes and at all other Bahá’í events where children are present, such as District Conventions. b. Train Bahá’í parents to apply Bahá’í principles to the organization of the home , to foster a Bahá’í atmosphere in the home, and to develop a Bahá’í approach to rearing children. '
c. Assist the National Spiritual Assembly to develop long-range plans for the establishment of a center for the training of Bahá’í children. The work of this center would be to train parents and teachers of young children.
d. Collaborate with the Office of Membership and Records in taking a census of all Bahá’í children which will provide such information as sex, age, and ethnic origin. The intent is to plot the growth curves of the Bahá’í community in terms of its internal expansion so that adequate advanced plans for the training and care of the children of the community can be competently undertaken.
3. Encourage and offer guidance to Bahá’í Youth to plan their lives to be of greatest service to the Faith. . . .
Your Committee is requested to collaborate with the National Youth Committee by means of the following actions:
a. Develop programs for the general education of
youth in the Teachings of the Faith;
b. Provide programs for youth at Bahá’í schools; Ac. Train youth who are interested in becoming
teachers of young children at summer schools,
4
weekend institutes, District Conventions, etc.; d. Train youth counsellors and in so doing make use of the Comprehensive Deepening Program materials, particularlyA Fortress for Well—Being, which deals with marriage, and The Dynamic F orce of Example, which concentrates on the distinctive characteristics of Bahá’í’ life.
4. Expand the use of radio and television for Bahá’í broadcasts aimed at . . . deepening the faith of the believers particularly in rural areas.
Your Committee must collaborate with the National Information Committee in developing this objective. This collaboration implies that you will consult with the Information Committee to provide input for the development of radio and television programs and that you will foster the utilitization of these programs as they are produced by the Information Committee. The actual production of the radio and television programs will be the responsibility of the National Information Committee.
5. . . . Extend pioneer assistance to countries throughout the world. . . .
In this regard, you should collaborate with the International Goals Committee in conducting training programs for pioneers. Your actions should be guided by the following statement written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to the National Spiritual Assembly on May 23, 1954: “He feels that the most important thing for the Bahá’í schools all over the world at present to do is to strongly impress upon the Bahá’í attendants the urgency of arising not only to fulfill pioneer goals and to consolidate the work on the
homefront . . . but also to bring home to the friends
the necessity of dispersing . . . .”
We urge you in the pursuance of your objectives to make every attempt to use all the published materials rather than produce new materials. If for some reason new materials are needed, specific plans for their development should be presented to the National Spiritual Assembly with a detailed rationale along with the recommended personnel for developing them. The actual production of approved materials would then be handled by the Bahá’í Publishing Trust.
In summary, the signal effect of your work must be the development in the members of our national community of the distinctive character of Bahá’í life. This supreme accomplishment will require a wide range of systematic, phased, carefully planned programs bearing the stamp of excellence both in content and execution. As you conceive these programs you should think of how they can be successfully applied in local communities, since it is here that the distinctive character of Bahá’í life must be fully demon-_
‘W
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strated. The permanent Bahá’í schools are your
. workshops, the bases of your operation; you would
be wise to exploit the opportunities they provide for testing new educational approaches and for developing training programs which can be adopted for use in local communities. '
Please present your particular plans to the National Spiritual Assembly for approval along with suggested implementation schedules and materials to be used.
We are confident that a diligent attention to your vital responsibilities will attract the bountiful confirmations of the Lord of Hosts, and we assure you of our fervent prayers at the House of Worship in your behalf.
With loving Bahá’í greetings,
NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY OF THE Bahá’ís OF THE UNITED STATES Glenford E. Mitchell, Secretary
May 25, 1974
National Youth Committee
Dear Bahá’í Friends:
/“ The unequivocal emphasis in the Five Year Plan
on youth activities and development is powerfully conveyed by the assertion of The Universal House of Justice in its message of Naw-Rúz 1974 to the Bahá’ís of the world that, “The vast reservoir of spiritual energy, zeal and idealism resident in Bahá’í’ youth, which so effectively contributed to the success of the Nine Year Plan, must be directed and lavishly spent for the proclamation, teaching, and consolidation of the Cause.” Moreover, the Supreme Institution’s message outlining the goals of the Plan for the United States requires us specifically to:
Encourage and offer guidance to Bahá’í youth to plan their lives to be of greatest service to the Faith and provide means whereby their offers of specific periods of teaching and other service beyond their normal teaching activities can be organized and used to the best advantage.
The special nature of these objectives, which call, on the one hand, for the participation of youth in the broad goals of the Plan and require, on the other, that particular attention be given to the peculiar needs and opportunities of youth, has prompted the National Spiritual Assembly to invest the National Bahá’í Youth Committee with the purpose of stimulating the entire Administration of the Cause in America toward fulfillment of the expectations of The Universal House of Justice. The pre-eminent challenge to
5
your Committee is to ensure that the activities of the
Bahá’í Youth permeate the life of the community and receive the proper cognizance of all instruments of the Administration; thus the Committee will work through Local Spiritual Assemblies and existing Committees to stimulate, encourage and aid youth participation in all phases of Bahá’í community life and of the Five Year Plan.
Drawing fully upon the rich resources to which you have immediate access by reason of the unique composition of your membership, your Committee must act vigorously and with ever-increasing confidence to realize the following mandate:
1. Concerning the general activities of the youth, your Committee is requested to draw up and recommend to the National Spiritual Assembly a two-year plan for youth which will incorporate the proclamation, teaching, and consolidation features and remain within the framework of the Five Year Plan. The youth plan should include statistical objectives, such as number of localities to be opened and pioneer goals to be filled, which can be monitored periodically and whose progress can be reported from time to time.
Your recommendations should be submitted in time so that they can be approved by the National Spiritual Assembly and announced at the forthcom , ing National Conference in St. Louis. At the conclu sion of this plan, a second plan of similar length may be developed and launched, thus ensuring that the youth have a specific set of goals throughout the five years.
2. One of the tasks assigned to the United States in the Five Year Plan is to: Encourage and organize regular Bahá’í activities and classes for adults, youth and children.
The foundation and purpose of such activities must be the internalization “in their manifold aspects” of “the splendor of those eternal principles proclaimed by Bahá’u’lláh”. Your Committee should, therefore, guide the youth to the distinctive Bahá’í characteristics which they must incorporate in their own personal lives and which must become the basis of all their normal and special activities in the Bahá’í community. In addition to the available Sacred Texts and their interpretations, there exist publications which apply particularly to youth development: Bahd’ 1’ Youth: A Compilation is one such
publication to which they may refer for practical’
guidance and encouragement from the statements of the beloved Guardian and The Universal House of Justice. A Fortress for Well-Being, which deals with
preparation for marriage, and The Dynamic F orce of '
Example, which outlines characteristics of Bahá’í life alluded to by Shoghi Effendi in The Advent of
Divine Justice, are portions of the Comprehensive Deepening Program which should be included in the instructional materials for Bahá’í youth.
A variety of youth activities are called for, and in generating them, the National Youth Committee should consider the following actions:
a. Generally encourage the full participation of the youth in activities to achieve the objectives of the Five Year Plan through regional and local youth conferences. A national youth conference may be held midway through the Plan, perhaps at the end of the two-year youth plan.
b. Carry forward, at first on a pilot basis, the establishment of local Bahá’í Youth clubs specifically designed to provide the youth with a peer group of social support that are required to reinforce the orientation of youth to the Bahá’í way of life and provide them with encouragement to develop a life of productive work, moral excellence, and service to the Cause. The idea behind these clubs is to provide a viable alternative to the socially and spiritually harmful influences of a rapidly deteriorating old world order.
c. Encourage and monitor the activities of Bahá’í’ college clubs and high school clubs.
d. Collaborate with the National Teaching Committee in planning and implementing special teaching and service projects which will fulfill the Five Year Plan objectives to “provide means whereby their offers of specific periods of teaching and other service beyond their normal teaching activities can be organized and used to the best advantage.” Such special teaching and service projects might include: road shows; projects initiated and directed by Local Spiritual Assemblies; teaching children at summer schools and conferences; traveling as Bahá’í’ teachers on the homefront or in foreign lands; work/study projects at summer schools, in local Bahá’í communities, or at the National Bahá’í Center which might include efforts to maintain, clean up and beautify Bahá’í’ properties.
e. Collaborate with the International Goals Committee in the selection and training of youth as pioneers to fill goals of the Five Year Plan. (One of the statistical objectives of the youth plan may be to send out a specific number of pioneers.) f. Collaborate with the National Education Committee in: 1) developing programs for the general education of youth in the Teachings of the Faith; 2) providing programs for youth at Bahá’í’ schools; 3) training youth who are interested in becoming teachers of young children at summer schools, weekend institutes, District ‘Conventions, etc. Since these youth are the parents of tomorrow,
NOVEMBER 1974
such involvement will help them gain experience with young children and thereby prepare them for , parenthood; and since teaching consolidates learning, the participation of youth in programs to educate young children will also have a direct influence on their own understanding of the Bahá’í Faith and, therefore, on shaping their own lives. ,
g. Ensure that stories and particular notices about the activities of youth appear inBahá’í News, The American Bahd’ 1’, and bulletins published by District Teaching Committees.
3. The Universal House of Justice has said in its letter of Naw—R1’1z 1974 to National Spiritual Assemblies that, “Bahá’í Youth should be encouraged to think of their studies and of their training for a trade or profession as part of their service to the Cause of God and in the context of a lifetime that will be devoted to advancing the interests of the Faith-. At the same time, during their years of study, youth are often able to offer specific periods of weeks or months, or even of a year or more, during which they can devote themselves to travel teaching or to serving the Bahá’í community in other ways, such as conducting children’s classes in remote villages. They should be encouraged to offer such service, which will in itself be admirable experience for the future, and the Na-,. tional Assembly should instruct an appropriatt committee to receive such offers and to organize their implementation so as to derive the greatest possible advantage from them.” In response to this instruction, the National Youth Committee is charged to:
a. Collaborate with the National Education Committee in the training of youth counsellors, who may then be used by Local Spiritual Assemblies, weekend institutes, summer and winter schools. One of the responsibilities of these counsellors would be to “encourage and offer guidance to Bahá’í youth to plan their lives to be of greater service to the Faith.” With the aidof these counsellors, your Committee will also encourage the youth to plan careers and to organize their schooling or training in terms of career aspiration. Moreover, you will assist them to understand the Bahá’í’ attitude towards work, earning a living, industriousness, initiative, and the duty of Bahá’í’ young people to develop fully their talents and abilitiesso that the needs of an emerging Bahá’í world community can be met by adequate human resources.
b. Identify the most promising and talented among Bahá’í Youth and recommend the names of these youth to the National Spiritual Assembly with indications of the ways in which their talents
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-:_
might be utilized in activities beyond the local level.
We strongly encourage you in the pursuance of your objectives to make every attempt to use all the teaching and deepening materials now available through the Bahá’í Publishing Trust. If special materials are required for some reason, a proposal for their development and production should be submitted to the National Spiritual Assembly for approval and the actual production then handled by the Publishing Trust.
The success of your Committee resides in its ability to bring to the service of the youth and to the related actions of Local Spiritual Assemblies the abundant resources of three major Committees—the National Teaching Committee, National Education Committee, and the International Goals Committee—and especially in encouraging and aiding Local Spiritual Assemblies to assume their proper responsibilities in relation to youth. Assurance of this success is evident in the unique composition of your membership, which establishes direct links with these three powerful Committees.
Another purpose is also to be served by the nature of your membership: rather than create a particular administrative sub-structure for youth activities, your Committee should consider it one of its primary
/-duties to mesh the activities of the youth into the
.-stablished framework of the Administrative Order and show them the way to develop within that Order while at the same time making use of the channels it provides for the full expression and realization of their talents. Thus, wherever and whenever possible, the sponsorship of Local Spiritual Assemblies should be sought for local and regional youth committees and conferences; and your Committee should assist these Assemblies to rise to the challenges of such sponsorship. You should not directly sponsor committees and conferences, although you may originate ideas-calling for such committees and conferences.
The youth themselves will succeed by zealously developing a proper relationship between themselves and the institutions of the Faith, a development which must begin inevitably in their local com munities with their immediate links to Local '
Spiritual Assemblies. The youth must demonstrate their love for and submissiveness to these Spiritual Assemblies, which operate at the level of society that may be regarded as the matrix of their social and spiritual development. Writing of these “shining lamps” which illumine local Bahá’í communities, the Supreme Institution of our Faith asserts that,
K‘ “This great prize, this gift of God within each com munity must be cherished, nurtured, loved, assisted, obeyed and prayed for.”
7,
The time has come for the regenerative potentialities of these local institutions to be more readily recognized by Bahá’í’s and non-Bahá’ís alike. Hence, appreciating the immeasurable spiritual endowment of Local Assemblies as “potent sources of the progress of man at all times and under all conditions”, the youth should bring the full force of their “spiritual energy, zeal and idealism” to the aid of these institutions which are struggling with their own
_ growth, and by a disciplined and radiant response to '
their rule demonstrate to non-Bahá’í youth and to a disillusioned nation bereft of respect for timehonored institutions the power of Bahá’u’lláh’s system toregenerate society and invest fresh life into the institutions of a new civilization.
In so doing, the Bahá’í youth will undoubtedly lend credence to the observation of our beloved Guardian that,
No greater demonstration can be given to the peoples of both continents of the youthful vitality and the vibrant power animating the life, and the institutions of the nascent Faith of Bahá’u’lláh than an intelligent, persistent, and effective participation of the Bahá’í Youth, of every race, nationality, and class, in both the teaching and administrative spheres of Bahá’í activity. Through such a participation the critics and enemies of the Faith, watching with varying degrees of skepticism and resentment, the evolutionary processes of the Cause of God and its institutions, can best be convinced of the indubitable truth that such a Cause is intensely alive, is sound to its very core, and its destinies in safe keeping.
We assure you of the fervor of our supplications at the House of Worship that your endeavors to assist the youth to achieve these ends will merit the rich confirmations of the Blessed Beauty.
With loving Bahá’í greetings,
NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY or THE BAHA’I’s or THE UNITED STATES Glenford E. Mitchell, Secretary
May 25, 1974
Committee reports available
The Annual Reports of the Committees of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of the United States for the year 1973-74 are now available upon request. Any Bahá’í' who would like to receive a copy should write to the National Bahá’í Center, 1l2 Linden Avenue, Wilmette, IL 60091.
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NOVEMBER 1974
National Bahá’í
Fund
A Materialism a great
To: All Local Spiritual Assemblies and Bahá’í Groups
Dear Bahá’í Friends:
The beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, repeatedly urged the friends to draw upon each other’s love for strength and inspiration. In this spirit, we ‘would like to share with you the following letter from a Bahá’í of Spanish-speaking background:
“How I wish I could see you in person or talk to you on the phone. I’ve never visited the National Center, but I recall the voice of the beautiful woman who spoke to me once when I was planning my pilgrimage to Haifa. Such a pleasant person—I think of that voice now as I write to you.
“I was reading an article today in the National Observer about the troubles facing President Ford and more important—the world. While millions starve, we complain about the high price of new automobiles. The article plainly depicted the rapid
test for believers
decay of the present world order which Bahá’u’lláh has promised to roll up . . .
“I have no complaints. I am blessed with good fortune, and yet Bahá’u’lláh says, ‘ . . . with fire We test the gold, and with gold'We test Our servants.’ The test of materialism is great. It is so plain—our worldly desires against the needs of the Cause of God.
“I would like to double my contribution of last month to assist the Cause in my small way — it is my hope that the American Bahá’íCommunity will rise to the call and by contributing time, money, and effort, aid in winning great victories.” I
With warmest Bahá’í love,
NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY or THE BAHA’IS’OF THE UNITED STATES Dorothy W. Nelson, Treasurer
October 25, 1974
National Fund charts
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