2003 Jan 17, Progress of Five Year Plan -- Learning in Action

The Universal House of Justice
Department of the Secretariat
17 January 2003
To all National Spiritual Assemblies
Dear Bahá'í friends

We have been directed by the Universal House of Justice to send

you the enclosed copy of its message of today's date to the Bahá'ís of the

World regarding the progress of the Five Year Plan. The Bahá'í world

community has made significant strides since the launching of the Plan, and

the House of Justice is conscious of the role that the institutions of the

Faith have played in keeping the friends focused on the vital work before

them. It hopes that the attached message will offer them an exciting

vision of the future unfoldment of the Plan and the tasks they are being

called upon to accomplish. That through your wise leadership their efforts

will reach the level of intensity required to bring about and sustain

accelerated expansion and consolidation is the object of its most fervent

prayers at the Sacred Threshold.
With loving Bahá'í greetings,
For Department of the Secretariat
Enc.
c.c. The Hands of the Cause of God
International Teaching Centre
Continental Boards of Counsellors
Counsellors
17 January 2003
To the Bahá'ís of the World
Dearly loved Friends

We have followed, with immense gratitude to Bahá'u'lláh, the

unfoldment of the Five Year Plan in the two years since our message of 9

January 2001 to the Conference of the Continental Boards of

Counsellors. It is heartening, indeed, to see the culture of learning that

is taking root everywhere, as the Bahá'í world community focuses on

advancing the process of entry by troops. At this juncture, when the

collective experience of the community has taken so significant a step

forward, we think it timely to review with you the insights thus far gained

and to clarify the issues that have arisen.

During the initial months of the Plan, National Spiritual

Assemblies proceeded with relative ease to divide the territories under

their jurisdiction into areas consisting of adjacent localities, called

clusters, using criteria that were purely geographic and social and did not

relate to the strength of local Bahá'í communities. Reports received at

the World Centre indicate that there are now close to 17,000 clusters

worldwide, excluding those countries where, for one reason or another, the

operation of the Faith is restricted. The number of clusters per country

varies widely from India with its 1,580 to Singapore, which necessarily

sees itself as one cluster. Some of the groupings are sparsely populated

areas with only a few thousand inhabitants, while the boundaries of others

encompass several million people. For the most part, large urban areas

under the jurisdiction of one Local Spiritual Assembly have been designated

single clusters, these in turn being divided into sectors, so as to

facilitate planning and implementation.

With the various countries and territories divided into manageable

areas, national communities moved quickly ahead to categorize clusters

according to the stages of the development of the Faith mentioned in our 9

January message. The exercise afforded a realistic means for viewing the

prospects of the community, but the task of refining the criteria needed

for valid assessments is proving to be an ongoing challenge to

institutions. To assign a cluster to one or another category is not to

make a statement about status. Rather, it is a way of evaluating its

capacity for growth, in order that an approach compatible with its evolving

development can be adopted. Rigid criteria are obviously

counterproductive, but a well-defined scheme to carry out evaluation is

essential. Two criteria seem especially important: the strength of the

human resources raised up by the training institute for the expansion and

consolidation of the Faith in the cluster, and the ability of the

institutions to mobilize these resources in the field of service.

Focus in almost every country has now turned to stimulating the

movement of its priority clusters from their current stage of growth to the

next. What has become strikingly clear is that progress in this respect

depends largely on the efficacy of the parallel process aimed at helping an

ever-increasing number of friends to move through the main sequence of

courses offered by the institute serving the area. The rise in activity

around the world testifies to the success of these courses in evoking the

spirit of enterprise required to carry out the divers actions that growth

in a cluster, at whatever stage, demands.

Particularly heartwarming to observe is a growing sense of

initiative and resourcefulness throughout the Bahá'í world, along with

courage and audacity. Consecration, zeal, confidence and tenacity these

are among the qualities that are distinguishing the believers in every

continent. They are exemplified by, but are certainly not limited to,

those who are arising to pioneer on the home front. As we had hoped, goals

for the opening of virgin clusters are being readily met by enthusiastic

participants of institute programmes who, equipped with the knowledge and

skills acquired through training courses, set out to establish the Faith in

a new area and bring a fledgling community into being.

In most clusters, movement from one stage of growth to the next is

being defined in terms of multiplication of study circles, devotional

meetings and children's classes, and the expansion they

engender. Devotional meetings begin to flourish as consciousness of the

spiritual dimension of human existence is raised among the believers in an

area through institute courses. Children's classes, too, are a natural

outgrowth of the training received early in the study of the main

sequence. As both activities are made open to the wider community through

a variety of well-conceived and imaginative means, they attract a growing

number of seekers, who, more often than not, are eager to attend firesides

and join study circles. Many go on subsequently to declare their faith in

Bahá'u'lláh and, from the outset, view their role in the community as that

of active participants in a dynamic process of growth. Individual and

collective exertions in the teaching field intensify correspondingly,

further fuelling the process. Established communities are revitalized, and

newly formed ones soon gain the privilege of electing their Local Spiritual

Assemblies.

The coherence thus achieved through the establishment of study

circles, devotional meetings and children's classes provides the initial

impulse for growth in a cluster, an impulse that gathers strength as these

core activities multiply in number. Campaigns that help a sizeable group

of believers advance far enough in the main sequence of courses to perform

the necessary acts of service lend impetus to this multiplication of activity.

It is evident, then, that a systematic approach to training has

created a way for Bahá'ís to reach out to the surrounding society, share

Bahá'u'lláh's message with friends, family, neighbours and co-workers, and

expose them to the richness of His teachings. This outward-looking

orientation is one of the finest fruits of the grassroots learning taking

place. The pattern of activity that is being established in clusters

around the globe constitutes a proven means of accelerating expansion and

consolidation. Yet this is only a beginning.

In many parts of the world, bringing large numbers into the ranks

of Bahá'u'lláh's followers has traditionally not been a formidable

task. It is therefore encouraging to see that, in some of the more

developed clusters, carefully designed projects are being added to the

existing pattern of growth to reach receptive populations and lift the rate

of expansion to a higher level. Such projects accelerate the tempo of

teaching, already on the rise through the efforts of individuals. And,

where large-scale enrolment is beginning to result, provision is being made

to ensure that a certain percentage of the new believers immediately enter

the institute programme, for, as we have emphasized in several messages,

these friends will be called upon to serve the needs of an ever-growing

Bahá'í population. They help deepen the generality of the Bahá'ís by

visiting them regularly; they teach children, arrange devotional meetings

and form study circles, making it possible to sustain expansion.

All of this opens thrilling opportunities for Local Spiritual

Assemblies. Theirs is the challenge, in collaboration with the Auxiliary

Board members who counsel and assist them, to utilize the energies and

talents of the swelling human resources available in their respective areas

of jurisdiction both to create a vibrant community life and to begin

influencing the society around them. In localities where Spiritual

Assemblies do not exist or are not yet functioning at the necessary level,

a step-by-step approach to the development of communities and Local

Spiritual Assemblies is showing excellent promise.

It is especially gratifying to note the high degree of

participation of believers in the various aspects of the growth

process. In cluster after cluster, the number of those shouldering the

responsibilities of expansion and consolidation is steadily

increasing. Meetings of consultation held at the cluster level serve to

raise awareness of possibilities and generate enthusiasm. Here, free from

the demands of formal decision-making, participants reflect on experience

gained, share insights, explore approaches and acquire a better

understanding of how each can contribute to achieving the aim of the

Plan. In many cases, such interaction leads by consensus on a set of

short-term goals, both individual and collective. Learning in action is

becoming the outstanding feature of the emerging mode of operation.

Let there be no doubt that what we are witnessing is the gathering

momentum of that process of the entry of humanity into the Cause by troops,

foreshadowed by Bahá'u'lláh's Tablet to the King of Persia, eagerly

anticipated by the Master, and described by the Guardian as the necessary

prelude to mass conversion. In the vanguard of the process are those

clusters which, although still relatively few in number, are now ready to

launch intensive programmes of growth. The scale of expansion that is to

mark the next stage of growth in these clusters calls for an intensity of

effort yet to be achieved. May the prodigious output of energy devoted to

this mighty undertaking be reinforced by the power of Divine assistance.

Be assured of our heartfelt prayers in the Holy Shrines that

Bahá'u'lláh may bless and confirm your endeavours to realize, to the

fullest, the extraordinary opportunities of these precious days.

[The Universal House of Justice]