Dear Bahá’í Friends,
With the greatest of happiness we extend our loving greetings to you on the long-awaited occasion of the restoration of the National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Indonesia after a lapse of almost three decades.
Your Bahá’í community owes its origin to the arrival in Batavia over a century ago of Jamal Effendi and Mustafa Rumi and their subsequent travel to many parts of the region. It entered a period of accelerated growth during the Ten Year Crusade, aided by an influx of dedicated pioneers from other lands, including the Hand of the Cause Rahmatu’llah Muhajir, but its progress was arrested by the enforced dissolution of the elected Bahá’í institutions.
Although deprived of their institutions, members of your community held fast to the Cause of God in the face of misunderstanding and hostility in some quarters. We are moved to express our admiration and gratitude for the heroism and tenacity manifested during the years of adversity. Who can doubt that it was this fidelity and steadfastness which attracted the limitless blessings of Bahá’u’lláh through which the barriers to your progress have been removed? Our profound gratitude is offered also to the dear friends who guided your activities with consummate wisdom during the years of deprivation, most recently as members of the Bahá’í Committee for Indonesia, and whose endeavors were powerfully reinforced by the Continental Counselors and their helpers.
An exciting new chapter now commences, in the annals of the Faith in Indonesia, leading it forward inexorably to that blessed time when the Faith can be openly proclaimed and multitudes will find spiritual fulfillment by entering the sanctuary of the Cause of Bahá’u’lláh. However, at this time, it is most important that the believers throughout Indonesia continue to avoid actions which could attract attention from unfriendly elements and could even lead to calls for the reimposition of the restrictions from which you so recently emerged. Through turning to your National Assembly, cooperating fully with it, and offering it your wholehearted obedience, your community will be able to develop along sound lines.
The continued striving to effect the spiritual transformation prescribed by Bahá’u’lláh; the persistent endeavor to acquire a deeper understanding of the Teachings of Bahá’u’lláh; the conducting of regular classes for Bahá’í children; the encouragement and orientation of youth; the strengthening of your training institutes; teaching the Faith with discretion and restraint; the consolidation and multiplication of your Local Spiritual Assemblies—these must rank among the major duties to which you are summoned at this auspicious time, as your national community takes its rightful place with its sister communities throughout the world embarking on the One Year Plan.
Be assured of our ardent prayers on your behalf in the Holy Shrines, that the divine confirmations may continually be showered upon you.
With loving Bahá’í greetings,
The Universal House of Justice
(Messages from the Universal House of Justice 1986-2001)
