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NSA Announces Publication of U. 5. Supplement to “Bahá’í News"
Beginning with this issue, Bahá’í News will henceforth carry as an insert a United States Supplement, which will be devoted to subjects of particular interest and concern to the believers of this country. This action brings BAHA’l News more in conformity with the wishes of the beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi, who expressed the hope years ago that Bahá’í News would become “the foremost Bahá’í journal of the world.”
Up to this time, Bahá’í News has been designed to meet that purpose so far as possible, depending upon the material received from all parts of the world, but in addition it has been the medium of communication between the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States and its committees and the individual mem bers of the American Bahá’í community.
This new plan means that from now on any information, suggestions, recommendations, and requests that concern the believers in the United States only will be concentrated largely in the Supplement, but the main body of Bahá’í News will continue to carry news and reports of Bahá’í activities in the United States which are of interest to the friends throughout the world and which reflect progress in the World Crusade.
Among the items that will appear in the supplement are such things as the “In Memoriam” listing, announcements of legal Bahá’í marriages, committee appointments, directory changes, reports of actions taken on recommendations adopted at state and national conventions,
announcements and instructions concerning special campaigns and national activities, etc. The supplement in this February issue illustrates how such items will be reported.
It is recommended that secretaries of local spiritual assemblies, group correspondents, and individual Bahá’ís also, remove the supplement and file it separately from Bahá’í News, since the supplement will contain items to which it will be necessary to refer from time to time in the conduct of local Bahá’í activities. Furthermore, the announcements and other materials relating to the home front teaching work should be the subject of consultation at the Nineteen-Day Feasts, in conferences, and in Bahá’í summer schools.
--NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY
Recommendations from State Conventions and Actions Taken by the NSA
All of the recommendations received from the 1957 State Conventions were carefully considered by the National Spiritual Assembly at its January meeting. Those that were directed to the area teaching committees or other committees, or to the details of arrangments for future State Conventions have been referred to the appropriate committees for action.
Following are the recommendations acted upon by the National Spiritual Assembly:
1. That the messages read at the Convention from the Hands of the Cause in America and from the National Spiritual Assembly be pub lished in Bahá’í News.
Action: The message from the Hands of the Cause was published in the January issue of BAH.-Ti NEWS. This issue (February) carries the message from the National Spiritual Assembly.
2. That the National Spiritual Assembly study the possibility of publishing any personal letters of general interest from Shoghi Effendi that are in the National Bahá’í Archives.
Action: It is recorded that it has been the practice for many years for the National Spiritual Assembly to publish such letters in the Bahá’í News for the information of all the friends. It is further recorded that
steps were initiated at the January meeting of the National Spiritual Assembly to publish in book form all the messages from the Guardian addressed to the Bahá’í world between 1950 and 1957, including in addition the letters addressed specifically to the American Bahá’í community. 3. That the National Spiritual Assembly make the necessary arrangements to refer to the local assemblies the names and addresses of visitors to the Temple from their localities for purposes of follow-up. Action: It is recorded that the names and addresses of visitors to the Temple who indicate on the register their desire to receive further
information are forwarded to the local spiritual assemblies or to the appropriate area teaching committee or Bahá’í group, depending upon the circumstances.
4. That provisions be made during the National Convention for local treasurers and delegates acting on behalf of local treasurers to meet with the Treasurer of the National Spiritual Assembly for consulattion on specific problems relating to the Bahá’í Fund.
Action: It is recorded than an effort will be made to carry out this recommendation at the next Annual Convention.
5. That the calendar produced by the Bahá’í Publishing Trust be made more functional by arranging it according to the 19 Bahá’í months rather than the regular 12 months, and that more space be provided for notations.
Action: This recommendation has been considered from time to time both by the National Spiritual Assembly and the Bahá’í Publishing Trust, and has been found to be impracticable as well as very costly.
6. That some way be devised to provide Bahá’ís who are traveling with the names and addresses of isolated believers and Bahá’í groups.
Action: The friends are reminded that members of the American Bahá’í community contemplating a trip that will make it possible for them to assist groups and isolated believers in their teaching work may get in touch with the Area Teaching Committee, who will supply them not only with the necessary names and addresses but such facts as will enable them to be of maximum assistance in these places.
7. That the status of “inactive believers" be clarified.
Action: Since there are many degrees and types of inactivity, the local assembly or group faced with the problem of determining the status of any particular believer should communicate with the National Spiritual Assembly, which deals with each case on its own merit.
8. That the National Spiritual Assembly allow more time for local communities to work on special Bahá’í events by mailing out a calendar of the special events early in the year and sending materials and releases at least three months in advance of the particular event.
Action: Attention is called to the
fact that the calendar of Bahá’í events for the entire Bahá’í year has, for several successive years, been published in the June issue of Bahá’í NEWS. (See page 21, Bahá’í News, June 1957, for the events for the year 1957-1958.) Every effort is made to provide releases and other materials well in advance of each event.
9. That the National Spiritual Assembly urge the believers to coordinate their efforts, encourage the talents of the individual Bahá’ís, and urge the sharing at the Nineteen Day Feasts of teaching experiences, news, letters from pioneers, and the effectiveness of different teaching techniques.
Action: The National Spiritual Assembly records that it has always made efforts to encourage this type of activity on the part of the local spiritual assemblies.
10. That consideration be given to the establishment of a permanent Bahá’í summer school in the Plains states and eastern Colorado area.
Action: The National Spiritual Assembly is not authorized to establish another permanent Bahá’í summer school, owing to the sparsity of Bahá’í population. It has recommended to the area teaching committees in that area to consider holding a series of weekend conferences to help meet the need expressed in this recommendation.
11. That a textbook or study guide be prepared containing specific information that youth should know in order to qualify for registration as a Bahá’í youth.
Action: It is recorded that the National Bahá’í Youth Committee has had such a guide (available on request) for many years. The National Spiritual Assembly has requested the National Bahá’í Youth Committee to give wider publicity to this outline.
12. That each local spiritual assembly consider placing Bahá’í books in Braille and Bahá’í records in their public libraries to make the Bahá’í teachings more readily accessible to the blind.
Action: The National Spiritual Assembly strongly approves this recommendation and suggests that Bahá’í communities able to provide this service get in touch with the Bahá’í Committee on Service to the Blind.
13. That there be published in BAHA’l News, as an insert, a list of the specific places where pioneers
FEBRUARY I 958
are needed in the foreign field and where the individual believers may go as soon as they can be replaced in their own small communities.
Action: Because of constantly changing conditions in the foreign areas, the National Spiritual Assembly finds it is impractical to prepare a list of foreign goals that would be of any real value in helping prospective pioneers to choose a goal to which they might go several months hence. Any believer desiring to go pioneering immediately or in the future should communicate with the intercontinental teaching committee for the area of the globe in which he is especially interested.
14. That the area teaching committees throughout the country be given opportunity to present orally and visually their goals and critical areas to the larger communities in their respective areas.
Action: The National Spiritual Assembly strongly urges the local spiritual assemblies to provide such opportunities for the area teaching committees. The purpose of this recommendation is being carried out to some degree by the National Spiritual Assembly itself, which is asking each of the larger Bahá’í communities to be responsible for bringing into being one or more new local spiritual assemblies by 1960.
15. That the National Bahá’í Youth Committee supply the area teaching committees with information for their bulletins concerning youth activities in order to stimulate adult cooperation.
Action: The National Spiritual Assembly has asked the National Bahá’í Youth Committee to make every effort to supply such information.
16. That the National Spiritual Assembly give consideration to the reprinting of Promulgation of Universal Peace, by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and “The Tablet to the Christians” by Bahá’u’lláh.
Action: The National Spiritual Assembly wishes to record that initial steps have been taken for the reprinting of Promulgation of Universal Peace. The balance of the recommendation has been earmarked for special consideration.
17. That the National Spiritual Assembly appoint a committee to study and analyze our Bahá’í literature with a view to increasing its effectiveness among the non-Bahá’í public.
[Page 3]
U. S. SUPPLEMENT
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Action: It is recorded that such a committee exists and is constantly engaged in this matter. Suggestions from the believers are always welcome and are given careful consideration.
18. That the National Spiritual Assembly ask the area teaching committees to include in their bulletins information about the experiences of pioneers all over the world in establishing the Faith and starting new assemblies.
Action: The National Spiritual Assembly considers Bahá’í News the appropriate organ for this type of information, and the BAHA'I News Editorial Committee is making a constant effort to secure inspirational material of this kind.
19. That the Treasurer be asked to include in his report to the state conventions more detailed information concerning budget allocations in order that there may be more intelligent discussion of the National Bahá’í Fund and its uses and needs.
Action: The National Spiritual Assembly wishes to point out that with the June issue of Bahá’í News during the past several years each believer received a full statement concerning the National Bahá’í Fund and what the various budget allocations are intended to cover. (Refer to the insert in the June 1957 issue for this information for the year 1957-1958.)
20. Since the area teaching committees do not get close enough to
the “grass roots” to conduct a thorough teaching campaign, it is recommended that the area teaching committees as now constituted be replaced by state teaching committees whose membership will comprise people of all geographical locations and thus create closer cooperation.
Action: The National Spiritual Assembly finds it necessary to again remind the friends, as it has done frequently in the past several years, that the Guardian definitely instructed the National Spiritual Assembly some years ago to discontinue the regional teaching structure by appointing a National Teaching Committee and a limited Iiumber of area teaching committees, thus releasing more believers from administrative work for active teaching service. In this connection, the friends are reminded that the state is not a Bahá’í administrative unit except for the State Convention.
21. That a fact sheet be prepared by all weak communities, to be cleared through the area teaching committees, to help would-be pioneers get acquainted with critical locations, and that consideration be given to publishing one or two descriptions each month.
Action: It is recorded that steps have been initiated to make such material available through Bahá’í NEWS.
22. That the National Spiritual As sembly reprint, re-emphasize, and make known to the believers, young and old, the availability of Rúḥíyyih Khánum’s article, Teaching Problems under the new title, Success in Teaching.
Action: The National Assembly calls attention to the fact that the reprinting of this article, which contains many helpful teaching suggestions, was announced in the June 1955 issue of BAH/3.i News and is listed in the current catalog of Bahá’í Publishing Trust. The price is 15 cents per copy or 8 copies for $1.00.
23. That all the Guardian’s instructions on administration be compiled into a book.
Action: The National Spiritual Assembly is unable to act on this recommendation for the reason that the Guardian disapproved the publication of any more administrative material as well as the repetition of administrative instructions already printed.
24. That the National Spiritual Assembly clarify what action should be taken by a Bahá’í who, in his will, has left property to Shoghi Effendi as Guardian of the Faith.
Action: Since it is impossible to answer this question in a manner that will be applicable in all cases. the National Spiritual Assembly recommends that in each instance the question be submitted to the National Assembly for clarification.
—NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY
The World Crusade—The Fourth Phase
Statement for the State Conventions, December 8, 1957
Dear Friends:
Since the American believers met in State Conventions a year ago, and indeed since the agenda for this very Convention was distributed, the Bahá’í world has been shocked and shaken by the sudden passing of our beloved Guardian, Shoghi Effendi. For thirty-six years we have relied completely for the direction of our Faith upon him, appointed to the station of Guardianship and invested with his special mission by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, whose own passing on November 28, 1921, also cast the believers of the world into temporary gloom and confusion.
But as we study the successive
messages of Shoghi Effendi and recount the magnificent victories of the Cause under his guardianship, we cannot help but see how he has led us, step by step and with loving and painstaking care, to a degree of maturity which now makes it possible for us to accept instantly and with complete confidence the provision for the future direction of the work of the Faith as set forth in the Proclamation to the Bahá’í world by the Hands of the Cause of God on November 25, 1957.
Furthermore, we find that since 1921, and particularly during the past four years, the Guardian has set forth clearly and unmistakably
by his own pen, the part that each
and every believer must play in
building the World Order of Bahá’u’lláh, the immediate task’ of
which is the establishment of the
Faith throughout the world on an
impregnable foundation and according to the explicit plan of the TenYear Global Crusade. Under his direct, personal guidance the most
difficult goals of the World Crusade
have been accomplished. There now
remains that part of the Plan which
only we, the individual Bahá’ís, can
complete, namely, those four tasks
defined in the blessed Guardian’s
letter to us of July 19, 1956, “of winning over an infinitely greater num
[Page 4]
4
ber of recruits to the army of Bahá’u’lláh fighting on the homefront, of swelling to an unprecedented degree the isolated centers now scattered within its confines, of converting an increasing number of them into firmly grounded groups, and of accelerating the formation of local assemblies, while safeguarding those in existence.”
To these must be added our responsibility for preserving and increasing, through a continuous flow of pioneers, hundreds of centers in the newly opened countries and islands of the world, in many of which only a lone pioneer or a very tiny group of believers is struggling to hold aloft the first gleam of the Light of Bahá’u’lláh to the masses surrounding them.
To us has Shoghi Effendi willed responsibility for the complete success of the Ten-Year Crusade. The guardianship of the Faith is still vouchsafed, and the direction of the work is safeguarded though the institution of the Hands of the Cause which he himself perfected within months prior to his ascension. As we consult on the remaining tasks of the World Crusade, now entering its fourth phase—tasks so clearly and urgently restated in the Guardian’s last communications to the Bahá’í world and to the American believers, let us read again the words of our revered Rúḥíyyih Khánum in her cablegram to the Bahá’í world of November 12, 1957:
“(The) light (of) our lives departed, we must now stand firm,
remembering (the) peerless example (of) his dedication (to the) work (of the) Blessed Perfection, (the) glorious victories he won, (and the) plans he longed (to) see completed. Only rededication, greater unity, steadfast service can befittingly show our grief (and) make us acceptable (at the) Holy Threshold.” In our consultations on the four forms of service, let us consider practical plans by which we can fulfill our sacred task. Let us discuss specifically how to accomplish the spiritual regeneration, the administrative expansion, and financial replenishment of the homefront; how to fan and maintain the flame of devotion to our beloved Faith throughout the entire American Bahá’í community and how to recapture the spirit of pioneering; how to multiply the number of local assemblies, and how to aid them to arise above elements of confusion and disunity that arise both from within and without; how to become truly the local Houses of Justice anticipated in the teachings of Bahá’u’lláh and equally important, how to fully awaken the friends to the need and
WORLD CRUSADE BUDGET
Fifth Year— 1957 - 1958 Annual Budget . . . . . . . ..$'-125,000.00 Total Requirements
May 1 to December 31 . 283,335.00 Total Contributions May 1 to December 31 . 215,000.00
—NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY
FEBRUARY 1958
importance of the National Fund, without which the complete victories of the Crusade could be crippled and possibly lost.
Let us not overlook either the specific activities approved and called for by the National Spiritual Assembly during the current year, of ways and means for deepening the knowledge of both new and long-time believers, increased local teaching efforts, extension and circuit teaching, dispersal from the larger communities, and for “a steady and marked influx of active and wholehearted supporters from all ranks of society” in all states and local communities throughout the length and breadth of the United States.
The measure of our love and gratitude to God for “the Dayspring of Divine Guidance, his utter self-sacrifice, ceaseless labors (and) constant vigilance” will be the degree to which we, one and all, respond to this challenge in Shoghi Effendi’s last letter to the American Bahá’í community: “A golden opportunity, a glorious challenge and inescapable duty, a staggering responsibility confront them (the American believers), at this fresh turning point in the fortunes of a Crusade, for which they have so unremittingly labored, whose Cause they have so notably advanced, in the further unfoldment of which they must continue to play a leading part, and in whose closing stages they will, I feel confident, rise to heights never before attained. . .”
-—NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY
BAHA'l DIRECTORY CHANGES
ASSEMBLY SECRETARIES
Northern California Oakland: Mrs. Ruth Williams. Actg. Secy.. 1710 E. 24th St., Z 6
Southern California Antelope J. D.: Mrs. Harry E. Brock, Actg. Secty., 40102-13th St., West, — Palmdale West Hollywood: Mrs. Gertrude Tetreault. 7706 W. Norton Ave., Z 46
Massachusetts Cambridge: Mrs. Mimi McClellan, Temp. Secty., 95 Avon Hill St. Michigan Pontiac: Mrs. Emily C. Higgins. Actg. Secty., 29 Douglas St. New Hampshire Portsmouth: (New secretary to be reported)
Pennsylvania Pittsburgh: Mrs. Thelma Bradenbaugh. Actg. Secty., 538 N. Homewood Ave.. Z 8 Virginia Arlington: Mrs. Lucy G. Skelton. 4634 S. 31st Rd.. Z 6
CHANGE OF NAME AND ADDRESS
Iowa Davenport: Mrs. Lucille Eurich, 2406 Marquette
RESIGNATIONS FROM COMMITTEES
Area Teaching Committee—North Atlantic States: Mr. Robert C. Bartlett Miss Alice Tyler Miss Ellen Weintrob
Blue Ridge Summer School Committee: Mr. Rex Parmelee
ADDITIONS TO COMMITTEES
Area Teaching Committee North Atlantic States: Dr. Hamilton Niss Mr. Lee Tichenor
National Child Education: Miss Gwili Posey BAHA'l SUMMER SCHOOL PROGRAM COMMITTEE
Green Acre Institute Program Committee Mrs. Mary Swan, Secty., Barton Lane, Cos Cob, Conn.
