As we enter the final year of the Seven Year Plan,
confidence of victory and a growing sense of the opening of a new stage in the
onward march of the Faith must arouse in every Baha'i heart feelings of
gratitude and eager expectation. Victory in the Plan is now within sight, and
at its completion the summation of its achievements may well astonish us all.
But the great, the historic feature of this period is the emergence of the
Faith from obscurity, promoted by the steadfast heroism of the renowned, the
indefatigable, dearly loved Baha'i community of Baha'u'llah's and the Bab's
native land.
This dramatic change in the status of the Faith of God,
occurring at so chaotic a moment in the world's history when statesmen and
leaders and governors of human institutions are witnessing, with increasing
despair, the bankruptcy and utter ineffectiveness of their best efforts to stay
the tide of disruption, forces upon us, the Baha'is, the obligation to consider
anew and ponder deeply the beloved Guardian's statement that "The
principle of the Oneness of Mankind -- the pivot round which all the teachings
of Baha'u'llah revolve -- ... implies an organic change in the structure of
present-day society, a change such as the world has not yet experienced."
Intimations in the non-Baha'i world of a rapidly growing
realization that mankind is indeed entering a new stage in its evolution
present us with unprecedented opportunities to show that the Baha'i world
community is not only "the nucleus but the very pattern" of that
world society which it is the purpose of Baha'u'llah to establish and towards
which a harassed humanity, albeit largely unconsciously, is striving.
The time has come for the Baha'i community to become more
involved in the life of the society around it, without in the least supporting
any of the world's moribund and divisive concepts, or slackening its direct
teaching efforts, but rather, by association, exerting its influence towards
unity, demonstrating its ability to settle differences by consultation rather
than by confrontation, violence or schism, and declaring its faith in the
divine purpose of human existence.
Baha'i Youth are taking advantage of the United Nations'
designation of 1985 as the Year of Youth to launch their own campaign of active
co-operation with other youth groups, sharing with them Baha'i ideals and a vision
of what they intend to make of the world. The Baha'i community will be strongly
represented at the culminating event of the United Nations' Decade of Women in
this same year. 1986 has been named the Year of Peace, and the Faith will be
far from silent or obscure on that issue. Even now the House of Justice is
making plans for the presentation of the Baha'i concepts on peace to the
governments and leaders of the world and, through the Baha'i world community,
to its national and local authorities and to all sections of the variegated
world society. But it is in the local Baha'i communities that the most
widespread presentation of the Faith can take place. It is here that the real
pattern of Baha'i life can be seen. It is here that the power of Baha'u'llah to
organize human affairs on a basis of spiritual unity can be most apparent.
Every Local Spiritual Assembly which unitedly strives to grow in maturity and
efficiency and encourages its community to fulfil its destiny as a foundation
stone of Baha'u'llah's World Order can add to a growing ground swell of
interest in and eventual recognition of the Cause of God as the sole hope for
mankind.
Such considerations as these are now occupying the earnest
attention of the Universal House of Justice. Their specific implementation will
form a large part of the next Plan which will follow immediately on the
completion of the present one and will be of six years' duration. By winning
the Seven Year Plan, by consolidating our local communities, and above all by
strengthening and deepening our understanding of the purpose of Baha'u'llah's
Revelation we shall be preparing ourselves to play our part in bringing about
that transformation of human life on this planet which must take place ere it
becomes fit to receive the bounties and blessings of God's own Kingdom.
With loving Baha'i greetings,
The Universal House of Justice
(Messages from the Universal House of Justice 1963-1986’)
