Message from the National Spiritual Assembly regarding Canada’s pioneer goals

7 July 2022 / 14 Mercy 179

All Local Spiritual Assemblies,
All Regional Bahá’í Councils
All Registered Groups

Dear Bahá’í Friends,

On 24 May 2022, the Universal House of Justice issued this stirring call to the Bahá’ís of the world:

“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.”

The National Assembly promised to share with you the details of our international responsibilities once the specific countries requiring pioneers had been identified by the Universal House of Justice.

That moment has come.  Beyond ensuring the flow of pioneers on our home front, Canada has been asked to raise at least 28 pioneers from our advanced clusters to be dispatched as early as possible in the first four-year phase of the Nine Year Plan to Belize, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Denmark, Dominica, Estonia, Greenland, Japan, Latvia, Lebanon, the Leeward Islands, Lithuania, Morocco, and Tunisia.  In addition, we have been asked to offer ongoing support to these clusters.  The National Assembly is in consultation with the Counsellors to identify these teams of pioneers, whose experience in contributing to the movement of a cluster past the third milestone in Canada will now serve our sister communities around the world.

Dear friends, though not every believer is called or able to directly contribute to this goal as a pioneer, the endeavour is truly a collective one in which all can participate.  The first and most immediate way is clear:  new levels of support for the Deputization Fund will be needed to help pioneers settle internationally and on the home front, and to support the movement of travelling teachers and institute resource persons.  In the 24 May 2022 message to the Bahá’ís of the world, the House of Justice noted that “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.”  This ongoing support and connection between clusters is a new feature of this Plan, and the House of Justice has said that as the implementation of the Plan progresses and as we learn to support developments in other countries, the House of Justice may assign additional pioneering goals.

Thus, by continuing to build strength on the home front and settling pioneers to strengthen the most advanced clusters in Canada as well as in those that will move towards the third milestone in the early years of the Nine Year Plan, we build a strong foundation for our continued connection with clusters in other countries. [1]  The determination of the friends to walk a path of service, see themselves as pioneers in their own neighbourhoods and clusters and widen their embrace by engaging neighbours and friends, nurtures the very conditions from which progress springs and generations of pioneers emerge.  This is a very practical expression of the words of the House of Justice, speaking of Bahá’u’lláh’s admonition “directed not to a select few but to the entire congregation of the faithful”, uniting the entire company of the friends who seek to teach His Cause, to learn about building vibrant communities and to release the society-building powers of the Faith in ever greater measures.

We ask you to share this message with your communities, dear friends, and invite their ardent prayers for this mighty, historic endeavour.

With loving Bahá’í greetings,
NATIONAL SPIRITUAL ASSEMBLY
OF THE BAHÁ’ÍS OF CANADA
Karen McKye, Secretary

[1] For a current list of these homefront goals, please write to either the National Pioneer Desk at pioneer@bahai.ca or the Pioneer Task Forces of the Ontario and British Columbia Bahá’í Councils at pioneering@ontariobahai.org and pioneering@bc.bahai.ca .