Ridván 2013
To the Bahá’ís of the World
Dearly loved Friends,
“The Book of God is wide open, and His Word is summoning
mankind unto Him.” In such exhilarating terms does the Supreme Pen describe the
advent of the day of union and ingathering. Bahá’u’lláh continues: “Incline
your ears, O friends of God, to the voice of Him Whom the world hath wronged,
and hold fast unto whatsoever will exalt His Cause.” He further exhorts His
followers: “With the utmost friendliness and in a spirit of perfect fellowship
take ye counsel together, and dedicate the precious days of your lives to the
betterment of the world and the promotion of the Cause of Him Who is the
Ancient and Sovereign Lord of all.”
Beloved co-workers: This stirring pronouncement comes to
mind unbidden when we see your consecrated efforts around the world in answer
to the call of Bahá’u’lláh. The splendid response to His summons can be
witnessed on every side. To those who pause to reflect on the unfoldment of the
Divine Plan, it becomes impossible to ignore how the power possessed by the
Word of God is ascendant in the hearts of women and men, children and youth, in
country after country, in cluster after cluster.
A worldwide community is refining its ability to read its
immediate reality, analyse its possibilities, and apply judiciously the methods
and instruments of the Five Year Plan. As anticipated, experience is most
rapidly accumulating in clusters where the frontiers of learning are being
consciously advanced. In such places, the means for enabling an ever-rising
number of individuals to strengthen their capacity for service are well
understood. A vibrant training institute functions as the mainstay of the community’s
efforts to advance the Plan and, as early as possible, skills and abilities
developed through participation in institute courses are deployed in the field.
Some, through their everyday social interactions, encounter souls who are open
to the exploration of spiritual matters carried out in a variety of settings;
some are in a position to respond to receptivity in a village or neighbourhood,
perhaps by having relocated to the area. Growing numbers arise to shoulder
responsibility, swelling the ranks of those who serve as tutors, animators, and
teachers of children; who administer and coordinate; or who otherwise labour in
support of the work. The friends’ commitment to learning finds expression
through constancy in their own endeavours and a willingness to accompany others
in theirs. Further, they are able to keep two complementary perspectives on the
pattern of action developing in the cluster firmly in view: one, the
three-month cycles of activity—the rhythmic pulse of the programme of
growth—and the other, the distinct stages of a process of education for
children, for junior youth, and for youth and adults. While understanding
clearly the relationship that connects these three stages, the friends are
aware that each has its own dynamics, its own requirements, and its own
inherent merit. Above all, they are conscious of the operation of powerful
spiritual forces, whose workings can be discerned as much in the quantitative
data that reflect the community’s progress as in the array of accounts that narrate
its accomplishments. What is especially promising is that so many of these
distinctive and salient features which characterize the clusters furthest
advanced are also evident in communities at much earlier points in their
development.
