The onrush of happenings within and without the Faith at the beginning
of the Fifth Epoch of the Formative Age presents a spectacle that is
awe-inspiring. Inside the Cause, the historic importance of the events
last May that marked the completion of the edifices on Mount Carmel
dazzled the senses as their impact was instantly communicated throughout
the planet by satellite broadcasts and by the most extensive media
coverage ever accorded a Bahá'í occasion. As the latest evidences in the
tangible unfolding of the Tablet of Carmel were laid bare in
breathtaking splendour before the eyes of the world, the Cause of
Bahá'u'lláh leapt to new prominence in its continuing rise from
obscurity. An indelible impression was thus registered in the annals of
the Dispensation.
This outward manifestation of the vitality animating our irrepressible
Faith has had its counterpart in the thrust of the internal processes at
work since the inception last Ridvan of the Five Year Plan. We are
therefore moved to invite the delegates assembled at National
Conventions and all other followers of Bahá'u'lláh throughout the world
to join us in reflecting on a few potent highlights of the operation of
the Plan during its first year--highlights that cannot but rejoice
hearts and inspire confidence in the incalculable potentialities of the
course on which the Plan is set.
In their eager response to its requirements, National Spiritual
Assemblies engaged in a series of planning sessions with Continental
Counsellors before and immediately after Ridvan. These set the pace for
a vigorous launching distinguished by the steps taken to effectuate a
new feature of the process of entry by troops. In each national
community, Bahá'í institutions began the task of systematically mapping
their country with the aim of sectioning it into clusters, each one
being of a composition and size consonant with a scale of activities for
growth and development that is manageable. Such a mapping, as has
already been reported by some 150 countries, makes it possible to
realize a pattern of well-ordered expansion and consolidation. Thus it
creates as well a perspective, or vision, of systematic growth that can
be sustained from cluster to cluster across an entire country. With
this perspective, virgin clusters, like virgin territories identified in
past campaigns, become goals for homefront pioneers, while opened
clusters focus on their internal development mobilized by the mutually
reinforcing work of the three constituent components of the Plan: the
individual, the institutions and the community.
It is most encouraging to see that the progress of this work is being
energized through the training institute process, which was considerably
strengthened last year by the campaigns undertaken in many countries to
increase the number of trained tutors. Where a training institute is
well established and constantly functioning, three core
activities--study circles, devotional meetings, and children's
classes--have multiplied with relative ease. Indeed, the participation
of seekers in these activities, at the invitation of their Bahá'í
friends, has lent a new dimension to their purposes, consequently
effecting new enrolments. Here, surely, is a direction of great promise
for the teaching work. These core activities, which at the outset were
devised principally to benefit the believers themselves, are naturally
becoming portals for entry by troops. By combining study circles,
devotional meetings and children's classes within the framework of
clusters, a model of coherence in lines of action has been put in place
and is already producing welcome results. Worldwide application of this
model, we feel confident, holds immense possibilities for the progress
of the Cause in the years ahead.
These thrilling prospects were made the more viable by the enormous
energy the International Teaching Centre invested in enriching the world
community's understanding of systematic growth. Seizing the advantage
afforded by the recent commencement of a new term of service for
Auxiliary Board members, the Teaching Centre called for 16 regional
orientation conferences to be held during the closing months of the
year. To each of these it dispatched two of its members. In giving
much focus to the theme "training institutes and systematic growth", the
conferences, attended by all but a few of the Board members throughout
the world, provided the participants with a wealth of information that
will, through their tireless labours, suffuse the entire fabric of the
community.
A community so richly endowed, so experienced, so focused on a
divinely-inspired plan of action looks outward to a world whose
inhabitants have, since the May 2001 events in the Holy Land, sunk more
deeply into a slough of multiple disorders. And yet it is precisely
under these seemingly inhospitable conditions that the Cause is meant to
advance, and will thrive. The Summons of the Lord of Hosts, the newly
released volume containing English translations of the full texts of
Bahá'u'lláh's Tablets to the kings and rulers of the world, has come as
a propitious reminder of the dire consequences of ignoring His warnings
against injustice, tyranny and corruption. The violent shocks being
inflicted on the consciousness of people everywhere emphasize the
urgency of the remedy He has prescribed. We, the scattered bands of His
loyal servants, have thus come again to a time of irresistible
opportunities--opportunities to teach His Cause, to build up His
wondrous System, to provide sacrificially the urgently needed material
means on which the progress and execution of spiritual activities
inevitably depend.
Our inescapable task is to exploit the current turmoil, without fear or
hesitation, for the purpose of spreading and demonstrating the
transformational virtue of the one Message that can secure the peace of
the world. Has the Blessed Beauty not empowered and reassured us with
potent words? "Let not the happenings of the world sadden you" is His
loving counsel. "I swear by God," He continues; "The sea of joy
yearneth to attain your presence, for every good thing hath been created
for you, and will, according to the needs of the times, be revealed unto
you."
Unhampered by any doubts, unhindered by any obstacles, press on, then,
with the Plan in hand.
