Message from the National Spiritual Assembly to all the friends serving the Cause in Canada – 21 June 2021

21 June 2021 / 18 Light 178

To all the friends serving the Cause in Canada Dear Friends,

Over the last few weeks, the peoples of Canada have awakened to a truth that has long been a reality in the living memory of its Indigenous peoples. Praise God, consciousness is rising and a longing for action has been unlocked. As groups of friends have turned towards the Creator in focused prayer, they have nurtured this consciousness. By expanding their circles, opening space for meaningful and challenging conversation, they have watered seeds of a kind of friendship that bears the fruit of change in the world.

The first two months of the One Year Plan have been months of reckoning in our country. This initial period in a year-long reflection on the life of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and the strength of His Covenant, has already borne His mark: “Verily with exceeding joy, with heart and soul, do these oppressed of Thine offer themselves up for all mankind in every land. Thou seest them, O my Lord, weeping over the tears Thy people shed, mourning the grief of Thy children, condoling with humankind, suffering because of the calamities that beset all the denizens of the earth.”[i] We see in your actions a response to His call in that same prayer: “Make haste to love! Make haste to trust! Make haste to give! To guidance come!”.

In recognition of this swiftly-passing moment in history and the rising capacity of a growing community, the National Spiritual Assembly now raises a simple call to each one who has been touched by the beloved Master: to summon the peoples of Canada to the threshold of oneness, in the name of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá.

Over the last year, the community has extended its embrace to an unprecedented number of friends and neighbours, families and acquaintances. The number of core activities and those involved in them has more than doubled since the beginning of the Five Year Plan, with the greatest part of this increase over the past eighteen months, under conditions of great constraint. The implications are clear. A marked acceleration in the processes of growth is underway in Canada.

We are emboldened by these developments to ask: might we aim in this one year to double once more? Might each family that has not yet established a regular space for prayers in their home, now do so? Might each household with one such weekly or monthly gathering, consider assisting someone in their circle to begin one with a few friends? Might each group gathering for prayers initiate a Book 1 study circle and welcome others to the direct study and application of the Revelation of Bahá’u’lláh?

Might each one in a devotional gathering or study circle, inspired by a vision of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s kindness to the young ones, turn a loving gaze to the children and youth in the participating families and learn how to engage them?

This One Year Plan will need dedicated time. Whether a youth or no longer so, each must weigh the complex priorities of life to decide what regular or extended time can be offered up to the teaching work in this year. Pioneering to another cluster may be a possibility for one individual, or to a neighbourhood in their own cluster. A family might be able to set aside a weekend a month, or an evening a week, for home visits or for visits to another cluster. A period of service could be offered over the summer months. And always, a special contribution to the Deputization Fund could assist someone to arise in one’s place. Whether as part of a formal programme sponsored by a Regional Council or simply as a personal or family commitment, each pledge of time and substance is sacred, a response to the call of the Tablets of the Divine Plan, a loving commitment to ‘Abdu’l-Bahá during this period of profound reflection on His life and the strength of the Covenant.

In its message on the centenary of the revelation of the Tablets of the Divine Plan, the House of Justice described a thrilling vision “of a grassroots stirring, an organic flowering, a resistless movement that has grown imperceptibly at times and at others in great surges to eventually embrace the entire world: God-intoxicated lovers exceeding their personal capacities, embryonic institutions learning to exercise their powers for the well-being of humanity, communities emerging as shelters and schools in which human potential is nourished.”[ii] In this season, a great surge is possible. As His loved ones make efforts to extend their circle in the name of ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, in united action, each according to his or her circumstances, He has promised: “Whensoever holy souls, drawing on the powers of heaven, shall arise with such qualities of the spirit, and march in unison, rank on rank, every one of those souls will be even as one thousand, and the surging waves of that mighty ocean will be even as the battalions of the Concourse on high. What a blessing that will be—when all shall come together, even as once separate torrents, rivers and streams, running brooks and single drops, when collected together in one place will form a mighty sea.”[iii]

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

Karen McKye, Secretary

[i] ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá, Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá, no. 218

[ii] 26 March 2016, Universal House of Justice to the Bahá’ís of the world acting under the Mandate of ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá

[iii] ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá, Selections from the Writings of ‘Abdu’l‑Bahá, no. 207