Announcement of youth conferences and call for homefront pioneers
Auxiliary Board members sing together at a Canadian institutional meeting in February.
Photo: Louis Brunet
A wonderful three-day national institutional meeting has recently concluded, and, further to our letter dated 13 November 2013, the National Spiritual Assembly wishes to share with you some exciting developments to which the entire Canadian community has contributed.
These institutional meetings provide a space for members of Regional Bahá’í Councils, Regional Institute Boards, regional coordinators and Auxiliary Board members to consult about the progress of the Cause in the country. This year, in light of the Universal House of Justice’s 5 December 2013 observation of an “advance in the process of entry by troops of a kind not experienced heretofore,” the participants examined how that advance was experienced in Canada.
On the first day, the friends reviewed guidance about the movement of clusters along a continuum, with special attention to statements in the document “Insights from the Frontiers of Learning” about the first milestone. With fresh eyes and a deeper understanding of the capacities that propel this movement, the regions reviewed each of their clusters. In hearing the summaries of these consultations, we rejoiced at a signal victory of the year: of the 107 clusters in Canada that aim to establish programmes of growth by the end of this Plan, 63 have already passed the first milestone on their journey, and at least another 20 are very close to that milestone.
As has been the case worldwide, the youth have made a spectacular contribution to the movement of clusters along the rich and dynamic continuum of growth, whether serving in their home clusters or as homefront pioneers and visiting teachers. They have been supported, encouraged and championed by a community which “now rejoices to see itself progress as an interdependent, organic whole, readier to meet the imperatives of this day” and accompanied by institutions which stood ready to furnish the necessary means. After a rich consultation with our three Counsellors, the National Assembly was moved to call for six youth conferences to take place this summer in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Saskatoon, Calgary and Vancouver, to lend impetus to this process and welcome many more youth into it. Our message calling these conferences is attached, and further details will be provided in due course.
At the beginning of the Plan, the House of Justice underlined the continued importance of pioneering, particularly on the homefront: “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.”[i] This “indispensable feature” of the Plan received renewed attention on the second day of the institutional meeting, when the National Assembly raised a call for 19 pioneers to arise from British Columbia and Ontario to assist in the establishment of programmes of growth in the Atlantic Provinces, Quebec, Saskatchewan/Manitoba and Alberta. At the same time, the Assembly noted the vast potential of and unique conditions in the three northern territories and alerted the friends that we would be giving further consideration to a special initiative aimed at supporting the advancement of the six clusters in Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut before the end of the Plan.
Dear friends, the next two years carrying us to the end of the current Five Year Plan are full of potential, waiting to be unlocked by the selfless service of His loved ones. During these sacred and swiftly-passing hours of the Fast, we remember you and pray that He will confirm every step in His path, every movement for His sake, every deed done in His Name.
National Spiritual Assembly of the Bahá’ís of Canada
