24 May 2022 - The Universal House of Justice: Pioneering imperatives of the NIne Year Plan

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THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE

24 May 2022

 

To the Bahá’ís of the World

Dearly loved Friends,

Since ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s clarion call in His Tablets of the Divine Plan for the believers to arise and travel far and wide, to plant the “pure seeds” of the divine teachings, and to “become the cause of the illumination of the world of humanity”, wave upon wave of His loved ones have responded enthusiastically to enter the pioneering field. The Divine Plan—whose unfoldment is now in its third epoch—as well as the global Plans of the Bahá’í community that constitute its successive stages, continue to inspire and channel the efforts of the friends and reinforce their sense of mission and commitment to creating a world materially and spiritually prosperous. Indeed, through these dedicated efforts the Faith has taken root in the farthest corners of the earth and is flourishing in numerous settings, and where the soil of the human heart has been especially fertile, the release of its society-building power is increasingly evident. Owing to the requisites of the last two Plans, greater emphasis was given to homefront pioneering, resulting in over 7,000 friends entering this field of service, while some 700 responded to the call for pioneers in the international arena. Considering the restrictions on movement and travel in place for a significant part of this period, this achievement is truly remarkable. Even more astounding is the fact that these pioneers were raised in 169 countries—a testament to the spiritual capacity, consecration, and resolve of the followers of Bahá’u’lláh.

As indicated in our message of 30 December 2021 addressed to the Conference of the Continental Boards of Counsellors, countries or regions where the Faith is at an early stage of development can greatly benefit from what is being learned in Bahá’í communities around the world about accelerating the work of expansion and consolidation. What has become apparent in this respect is the advantage of having a cluster where the third milestone has been passed. In this light, one of the chief objectives of the Nine Year Plan is to have at least one such cluster in every country and region. There are some 160 places where this goal remains to be achieved; several hundred pioneers, mostly in the international arena, are needed early on to ensure that this objective is attained by the end of the Plan. In this regard, Bahá’í communities in countries where the processes of growth are firmly established are expected to provide the majority of such pioneers. It is anticipated that these friends would come from stronger clusters, settle in less advanced centres of activity in receiving countries or regions, and quickly become part of an emerging nucleus of individuals committed to cultivating a vibrant pattern of community life. The spiritual forces released by such movement and the experience that a pioneer is able to bring to the community are potent catalysts for progress. The National Spiritual Assemblies and Regional Bahá’í Councils in the countries from which pioneers are expected to arise bear a special responsibility to facilitate this movement and to offer support to the goal clusters, such as by facilitating visits by travelling teachers and institute resource persons, or connecting active participants in a pioneer’s new community to the process of learning under way in the advanced clusters in their country.

As outlined in our message to the Bahá’ís of the world at Riḍván, it is anticipated that over the course of the current Plan, programmes of growth will be established in thousands of new clusters, that the number of clusters with an intensive programme of growth will more than double to 11,000, and that over 5,000 of these will have advanced further. The achievement of these formidable global objectives, based on forecasts made by the National Assemblies themselves, calls for urgent advances on many fronts, among them generating a steady flow of homefront pioneers who can arise and move to neighbourhoods or clusters where help is required. In this connection, results are more easily obtained when these pioneers move from a cluster with a well-established programme of growth to a locality that is nearby or within the same region, thus taking advantage of similarities in culture and language, and building on social and familial connections that may exist. One pattern of service that developed during the last two Plans and brought us great joy concerned the movement of youth who, taking advantage of their relative freedom, would spend several months in a nascent community, making a valuable contribution to its development. This pattern holds great promise for the Nine Year Plan.

Beyond what is described above, believers who are moved to offer a period of service as a pioneer can, of course, arise from anywhere and settle wherever in the world they feel they can make a contribution to the development of the Faith. Familiarity with the provisions of the global Plans and experience with teaching the Cause and community-building activities in one’s own cluster can be of tremendous advantage in this field of service.

Confident of the community’s appreciation of the significance of this historical juncture and in its capacity to respond to the demands of the hour, we now call on the friends to consider how they can contribute to the pioneering imperatives of the Nine Year Plan—both on the home front and in the international field. In preparing to enter this vital arena, they will find the counsels of the institutions indispensable. As they arise to shed abroad ever more widely the divine fragrances, the words of the Guardian to the followers of the Blessed Beauty some seven decades ago at the opening of the World Crusade will no doubt resound in their ears: “‘Light as the spirit,’ ‘pure as air,’ ‘blazing as fire,’ ‘unrestrained as the wind’—for such is Bahá’u’lláh’s own admonition to His loved ones in His Tablets, and directed not to a select few but to the entire congregation of the faithful—let them scatter far and wide, proclaim the glory of God’s Revelation in this Day, quicken the souls of men and ignite in their hearts the love of the One Who alone is their omnipotent and divinely appointed Redeemer.”
 

[signed] The Universal House of Justice

23 May 2016 - The Universal House of Justice, Two pioneering imperatives

THE UNIVERSAL HOUSE OF JUSTICE

23 May 2016

To the Bahá’ís of the World

Dearly loved Friends,

        In our letter dated 26 March 2016, we described the response of the Baha'i world to the Tablets of the Divine Plan, in which 'Abdu'l-Baha urged the friends to travel "toward the East and toward the West and enlighten the people with the light of the Most Great Guidance, so that they may take a portion and share of eternal life." In the decades following the issuance of those weighty Tablets, a stream of believers settled in far-flung corners of the world and planted the banner of the Cause of Baha'u'llah amidst divers peoples and nations. While devoted pioneers serving in the international arena initially came mainly from North America, Iran and Europe, as the Faith has advanced globally, they now hail from numerous spots across the planet. Indeed, over the course of the last Five Year Plan, some 1,500 friends from over 110 countries ventured into this field. At the same time, capacity has gradually grown in national communities to foster a systematic process of building vibrant communities, and the task of propagating the Faith has come to rest primarily on the shoulders of local inhabitants labouring on the home front, where they have the advantage of familiarity with the language and culture and can settle more readily in nearby clusters as well as remote areas. That nearly 5,000 believers arose to serve as homefront pioneers during the last Plan bears testimony to this greatly increased capacity and is a source of immense joy to us.

        Although in recent years an increasing proportion of pioneers are serving on the home front, it is our hope that the friends will continue to consider entering the international arena, whenever their circumstances allow. Opportunity is, of course, open to any believer to arise and settle where he or she can contribute to the progress of the Plan, yet in some countries the need for international pioneers is particularly pressing. In this regard, as anticipated in the last pioneer call, throughout the previous Five Year Plan we drew the attention of selected National Spiritual Assemblies to specific pioneering needs that arose in relation to ten special initiatives that were launched to support the growth and development of the Faith in certain regions with the help of friends from several countries. These devoted servants of Baha'u'llah, working alongside the local friends, have helped to strengthen the roots of the Cause in all the countries covered by these initiatives, bringing greater dynamism to the institute process and local community life and, in a number of instances, aiding in the emergence of institutions. Over the coming five years, the International Teaching Centre will continue to identify areas that would benefit from such endeavours with the expectation that, as a result, by the end of the Plan there will be at least one well-advanced intensive programme of growth in every country in the world where external conditions allow for such a development.

        The deployment of homefront pioneers over the next five years will be largely guided by the requirements set out in our message dated 29 December 2015 to the Conference of the Continental Boards of Counsellors. As stated in that message, the Five Year Plan just launched aims at raising the number of clusters with an intensive programme of growth to 5,000. A continuing flow of homefront pioneers will contribute significantly to this monumental goal. Whatever assistance they are able to provide to further the work of the Plan is, of course, most welcome; nevertheless, their efforts will have an even greater effect if, guided by the institutions, their capabilities are directed towards specific needs in clusters where the friends are labouring to intensify the growth process. While many friends who wish to serve as homefront pioneers can make commitments that span years, there are those who may only be able to offer shorter periods, sometimes as little as three months. Such friends can kindle a spirit of selfless service and transmit valuable experience from stronger clusters to emerging ones. In time, they return to their communities much inspired and enriched, able to contribute even more effectively to the advancement of their own clusters. We hope that the friends, especially the youth who may have the time and determination to do so during their extended holidays, will take advantage of the opportunity to enter the pioneering field in this way.

It is to the two pioneering imperatives set out above--one primarily in the international field, the other on the home front--that we now call the friends, confident that their response, which with each stage of the Divine Plan grows in both quantity and quality, will be equal to the demands before the community of the Greatest Name. The friends who arise to foster, with tact, love, unity and fortitude, a pattern of community life in clusters across the globe will undoubtedly draw inspiration from the Master's heartfelt cry expressed in the Tablets of the Divine Plan: "O that I could travel, even though on foot and in the utmost poverty, to these regions, and, raising the call of 'Ya Baha'u'l-Abha' in cities, villages, mountains, deserts and oceans, promote the divine teachings! This, alas, I cannot do. How intensely I deplore it! Please God, ye may achieve it."

[signed: The Universal House of Justice]

23 May 2011 - The Universal House of Justice, role of pioneers in the Five Year Plan

The Universal House of Justice

23 May 2011

To the Baha'is of the World

Dearly loved Friends,

Our message dated 28 December 2010 to the Conference of the Continental Boards of Counsellors briefly described the process of growth which begins to unfold in a cluster, frequently as the result of a single homefront pioneer entering into meaningful conversation with local residents.  We also indicated that more advanced clusters, in which the pattern of action associated with an intensive programme of growth has been firmly established, will often serve as reservoirs of pioneers who can be dispatched to other clusters, especially on the home front--in some to initiate a systematic approach to sharing Baha'u'llah's teachings and in others to strengthen the processes of expansion and consolidation that have already been established.  There is no doubt that the movement of pioneers remains an indispensable feature of the spiritual enterprise in which the community of the Most Great Name is engaged.

During the Five Year Plan recently concluded, over 3,500 international pioneers entered the arena of service to reinforce the work of the Faith in myriad ways across the globe.  At the same time, we were most pleased to see a surge in the movement of homefront pioneers, their numbers matching those who arose to serve in the international field and their sacrificial efforts making a distinctive contribution to the early attainment of the goal of the Plan.  In the next five years, the successful prosecution of the Plan will require the services of several thousand consecrated souls who, spurred on by their love for the Blessed Beauty, will forsake their homes to settle in villages, towns and cities in order to raise to 5,000 the number of clusters with programmes of growth.

National Spiritual Assemblies, in close collaboration with Continental Counsellors and Continental Pioneering Committees, will continue to play a crucial role in expanding the awareness of the believers about the critical needs of the Cause and in assisting with the settlement of pioneers in designated clusters.  They will not, however, be asked to establish numerical goals at the outset, as was the practice in the past, for those to be dispatched beyond their borders during the coming five years.  Rather, we will regularly call the attention of selected National Assemblies in different parts of the world to specific urgent pioneer needs, identified by the International Teaching Centre in the course of its ongoing endeavours to follow the progress of the Faith around the globe.  It is hoped that National Assemblies will then be able to quickly send pioneers who respond to that particular appeal.  In this regard, a promising pattern is developing in certain regions whereby believers arise to serve in a neighbouring country or in one that is further afield but within the same continent.  This development brings with it the advantage of a more intimate familiarity with the culture and language of the country in which they settle, thereby increasing their effectiveness and the efficiency with which their services can be utilized.

Beyond responding to the specific appeals for homefront and international pioneers that are issued from time to time by the institutions, the friends are of course welcome to arise at any time and from any place to settle in any area where they feel they can best contribute to the advancement of the Cause.  Even so, their endeavours would yield greater effect if, drawing on the advice of institutions, they were to direct their efforts to clusters--indeed, villages and neighbourhoods within clusters--that are the focus of systematic attention. 

It is our ardent hope that the believers will arise rank upon rank, with a clarity of vision born of experience and with complete reliance on the confirmations of God, to offer His life-giving Message to every eager soul, to every receptive population.  Our prayers at the Sacred Threshold will accompany them as they strive to seize the abundant opportunities now opening before them.


[signed:  The Universal House of Justice]