Message to Canada’s unit conventions

| 2025/01/31

30 January 2025 / 13 Sovereignty 181

To all those gathered at Canada’s unit conventions

Dear Bahá’í Friends,

In the opening paragraphs of the 2024 Riḍván message, the Universal House of Justice reflected on how swiftly the first two years of the Nine Year Plan had passed and how resolutely the Bahá’í community had embraced its objectives. Against the backdrop of a world in anguish, with escalating tensions and deepening divisions affecting peoples and places in so many ways, “society’s ‘ultimate haven’ is being built up”. The House of Justice describes its joy in witnessing

“… in every country and region, true practitioners of peace occupied with building this haven. We see it in every account of a heart being enkindled with the love of God, a family opening up its home to new friends, collaborators drawing on Bahá’u’lláh’s teachings to address a social problem, a community strengthening a culture of mutual support, a neighbourhood or village learning to initiate and sustain the actions necessary for its own spiritual and material progress, a locality being blessed with the emergence of a new Spiritual Assembly.”

In Canada, we might add another shining example to this list: the enthusiastic and generous response to the call to raise up Canada’s national House of Worship. These two endeavours—building a Temple and building a community—are described by the House of Justice as “mutual elements of one divine project” that is now in our hands.

As you gather for Canada’s unit conventions, another ten months have flown by—each day and each moment presenting a precious opportunity to respond with purpose to the desperate state of the world. In the Riḍván message, the House of Justice continued:

“The methods and instruments of the Plan allow every soul to contribute a share of what humanity needs in this day. Far from offering a temporary salve for the ills of the moment, the prosecution of the Plan is the means by which long-term, constructive processes, unfolding over generations, are being set in motion in every society. All of this points to an urgent, inescapable conclusion: There must be a sustained, rapid rise in the number of those committing their time, their energy, their concentration to the success of this work.”

The implications of this inescapable conclusion prompted the National Assembly to turn to the community in September with an estimate of the financial support that would be needed for this pivotal stage of a mighty spiritual enterprise. By the end of December, the thoughtful, sacrificial response of individuals, communities and institutions was clear. A substantial rise in contributions to the National Fund has thus been able to support a marked increase in the “number of those committing their time, their energy and their concentration to the success of the work”, especially youth and those who accompany them. In addition, support has extended to a myriad activities that embrace the participation of some 33,000 fellow-builders of havens of peace, and the various community and educational properties that serve this growing community.

At the same time, we observe that contributions to the Deputization Fund have not kept pace with the increased support to some of the other funds. As we feel that this may be partly due to a misunderstanding about the nature of this Fund, we offer a few reflections on the unique relationship between the teaching work and the Deputization Fund. In the words of Bahá’u’lláh:

“Center your energies in the propagation of the Faith of God. Whoso is worthy of so high a calling, let him arise and promote it. Whoso is unable, it is his duty to appoint him who will, in his stead, proclaim this Revelation, whose power hath caused the foundations of the mightiest structures to quake, every mountain to be crushed into dust, and every soul to be dumbfounded.…”

Teaching is a personal and sacred obligation, yet also one that can be fulfilled on one’s behalf by someone else. In 1990, the Universal House of Justice observed that, “Many of the friends have, ever since these words were revealed by Bahá’u’lláh, succeeded in responding to the call. A great number have not found it easy to select suitable and qualified deputies willing to undertake such a task for them.”[i] To address this challenge, the Deputization Fund was created as a channel for every believer to fulfill a longing to contribute to the teaching work. In 1996, the House of Justice further clarified: “Just as one deputizes another to teach in one’s stead by covering the expenses of a pioneer or traveling teacher, one can deputize a teacher serving an institute, who is, of course, a teacher of teachers.”[ii] Through this framework, the Deputization Fund in Canada has supported pioneers, youth service volunteers, and institute personnel who accompany an army of children’s class teachers, junior youth animators, and tutors on their path of service. The field of teaching is vast.

How beautifully the Riḍván message provides a framework for reflection and consultation on this theme! We have attached it for your review as you prepare for the unit convention, and invite your insights and experience on any of the following topics that will also be the subject of consultation at the National Convention:

• The ways we are learning to work with others to widen the circle of participation in our activities, extending “the hand of friendship, of common endeavour, of shared service, of collective learning”.
• How the patterns of life of individuals and families are changing, whether modestly or dramatically, in response to the urgent need for a rapid and sustained rise in the number of those dedicating time, energy, and concentration to this work.
• How youth awakened to Bahá’u’lláh’s vision are being supported as they arise to serve.
• How a consistent and sacrificial response to the Plan’s material requirements can be provided.

Dear friends, in closing we turn to the end of the Riḍván message, praying that your consultation today will be among those “sweetest moments of all for any enkindled heart”, “spent with spiritual sisters and brothers, tending to a society in need of spiritual nourishment.” We look eagerly forward, with gratitude and love, to hearing of your discussions.

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

 

Ridván message 2024

 

[i] From a letter written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to all National Spiritual Assemblies, 20 April 1990

[ii] The Universal House of Justice to the Bahá’ís of the world, Riḍván 1996

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Category: Institutions, Messages, National Spiritual Assembly

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