The gathering of the representatives of the Baha'i world at
the International Convention last Ridvan was held in an atmosphere charged with
awareness of the sacrifices being made by our fellow believers in Iran and with
eager anticipation of the new prospects opening before the Cause as a result of
changing conditions in the world, the widespread publicity that the Faith has
received in all continents, and the growing maturity of its administrative
institutions.
During the succeeding eight months we have been developing
the agencies and formulating the plans to enable the Faith to seize the
unprecedented opportunities now before it, but we are confronted with a
shortage of funds which, if not remedied, could frustrate these plans. For the
last two years there has been a decline in the amount of contributions to the
international funds of the Faith, and we note that many national funds also are
facing the danger of deficits.
Beyond carrying on the general work of the Cause there are
four areas where immediate action is required.
The first is the completion of the Mashriqu'l-Adhkars in
India and Samoa. Any delay in this work can but make it more expensive and also
seriously injure the reputation of the Faith in these two vital areas.
The second is the development of the World Centre, the focal
point of the entire Administrative Order of the Faith where, in the words of
Shoghi Effendi, "the dust of its Founders reposes, where the processes
disclosing its purposes, energizing its life and shaping its destiny all
originate."
The third is in the prosecution of programmes of social and
economic development. Baha'i communities
in many lands have attained a size and complexity that both require and make
possible the implementation of a range of activities for their social and
economic development which will not only be of immense value for the
consolidation of these communities and the development of their Baha'i life,
but will also benefit the wider communities within which they are embedded and
will demonstrate the beneficial effects of the Baha'i Message to the critical
gaze of the world. Funds for the initiation and carrying out of these projects
will be dispensed very gradually and with great care in order not to undermine
the natural growth and sense of responsibility of these communities, but the
field is so vast, the opportunities so far-reaching, that the need will stretch
the resources of the Cause to the uttermost.
The fourth area is in the development and co-ordination of
world-wide efforts to present to a far more extensive audience than ever before
the divine remedy for the problems besetting society and its individual
members, to establish the universality of the Faith and the implications of its
teachings in the eyes of statesmen, and to ensure that the leaders of thought
become thoroughly aware of the Baha'i Revelation and the profundity of its
message.
The work on the Temples is already well advanced and must
not be stopped; the development of the agencies of the World Centre, located in
one of the principal trouble-spots of the world, cannot be indefinitely held
back; the time for the expansion of social and economic development as an
aspect of the work of the Cause has arrived and it cannot be neglected without
grave consequences to the life of Baha'i communities; the unprecedented
opportunity for proclamation of the Faith has been given to us as a direct
result of the persecutions inflicted on the believers in the Cradle of the
Faith. If we are to be worthy of the
sacrifices of these valiant friends, and if we are not to betray the trust that
Baha'u'llah has placed upon us for the redemption of mankind in this hour of
its acute need, we must not fail to seize the opportunities now before us.
This fourfold challenge faces us at the very time when the
world is in the midst of an economic crisis and is overshadowed with threats of
war and other disasters. These
conditions, far from daunting the followers of Baha'u'llah, can only drive home
to us the urgency for our response.
We therefore call upon every true-hearted Baha'i to
consecrate his life anew to the service of God and the betterment of the lot of
mankind, so that manpower will not be lacking in the fields of pioneering,
teaching and administrative service. Most urgently, may every believer give
sacrificially of his substance, each in accordance with his means, to the funds
of the Cause, local, national, continental and international, so that the
material resources -- the lifeblood of all activities -- will be adequate to
the tremendous work that we have to perform in the months and years immediately
ahead. It requires a concentration of effort, a unity of purpose and a degree
of self-sacrifice to match the heroic exertions of the victors of past plans in
the progress of the Cause.
With loving Baha'i greetings,
Universal House of Justice
(Messages from the Universal House of Justice 1963-1986’)
