Next stage of growth: Developments and needs

Youth offering a year of service to help begin programmes of growth in emerging clusters study the junior youth texts with three junior youth in North Bay, Ont.
Photo: Maya Mostaghim-Vaezi

At this midpoint of the Plan, the National Assembly is moved to share with you the thrilling news of progress over the last few months and to outline some of the needs emerging in this exciting next stage of growth in Canada.

Youth conference and youth service

Over the last four months, Bahá’ís and their friends around the world have marvelled at the reports of the youth conferences (which can be found at http://news.bahai.org/community-news/youth-conferences). One of the videos posted on that site shares the reflections of a youth who attended the Otavalo, Ecuador conference:

 . . . I think that, throughout history, various civilizations have appeared and disappeared. And in that moment, there is always a strong tension, a strong discomfort. That discomfort allows people to start thinking in a different way. And that discomfort also allows people to see the possibility that there could be a different civilization. I think that we have to understand how this process works and what are the forces that are influencing it. And if we don’t do anything, if we don’t move a finger, we are contributing to those forces of disintegration, because society will simply stay as it is. But, if we dedicate ourselves to doing something, we can fulfil a role, even if it’s small, in the construction of a new civilization.

 This simple, powerful statement points to the majestic process of civilization-building that is unfolding under the unerring guidance of the Universal House of Justice, and of which the youth conferences are an integral part. In a later segment of the video, this same youth says:

 The idea of helping to illuminate a soul can have an incredible influence. For example, one does not know what that child or junior youth, who is now studying will be when he grows up. It might be that he’s in a position of making important decisions for the future of humanity. So, really, those small efforts, multiplied by all of the people who are helping, they become like . . . like bricks in the building of a new civilization. And maybe someone places a brick and others will place five bricks, ten bricks, but we are all participating in this. Now what is important is to have the plan of the construction. Because otherwise we could be placing bricks anywhere without knowing what we are doing. And that plan comes from the Universal House of Justice and from the Bahá’í Writings.

 The establishment of programmes of growth requires years in most clusters. Happily, the process has already begun in many of Canada’s clusters that are expected to achieve that stage of development by the Plan’s end. Through their efforts to engage in meaningful conversation with their neighbours and friends, resident believers have seen the first stirrings of activity: a children’s class, a junior youth group, study circle, or a devotional gathering.

Recently, we have seen how the presence of youth year of service volunteers lends impetus to this process, as a youth or team of youth settle and work with local youth to establish the junior youth programme. Among the reasons for this emphasis on the junior programme is its potential to reach out to those of all ages: to give hope to parents and grandparents, channel the energies of youth in service, build capacity in junior youth at a critical time in their lives, and tend to the spiritual education of children.

Revitalizing homefront pioneering

Now it is time for this flow of fulltime youth to be accompanied by longer-term pioneers who will be able to find work or engage in studies and settle for two or three years in a cluster. Many of these pioneers will be young couples or families who are solidly grounded in the institute process and prepared to carry on a brilliant tradition that has characterized the Canadian community since the Ten Year Crusade. This is the next stage in this process, described by the House of Justice in its 23 May 2011 message to the Bahá’ís of the World: “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.”

The movement of these consecrated souls needs both loving encouragement and material support.

Call for contributions: Youth conference costs and deputization

We return to the youth conferences, such potent sources of inspiration and encouragement for those working in their own clusters or planning a move to another. The participation of over 2,000 youth in Canada’s youth conferences included those from diverse cultural and economic backgrounds, from villages and cities. Bahá’í communities across the country sacrificed to provide travel for those who were unable to be self-supporting, and the arrangement whereby the friends did not pay a set price for meals and accommodation, but offered what they could, allowed many more to attend than would otherwise have been possible. Of the $800,000 conference costs, $230,000 was contributed by those participating or through earmarked donations, leaving a $570,000 shortfall, towards which we now, with utmost confidence, call the friends to make extraordinary effort to contribute.

For this next stage will draw even more heavily on our capacity to provide the material means for this spiritual enterprise, at a critical time. A call is being raised for pioneers and youth service volunteers who must arrive at their posts as soon as possible. Many will leave their homes and jobs and will not be self-supporting at the outset. Through contributions to the deputization fund, every individual, community and institution can be part of the flow of pioneers and teachers of the Cause.

The response of the friends in recent months, both those who are arising in service and those who are supporting through a flow of funds, is promising. Special care has been taken in the allocation of budgets so that they do not exceed what can be expected in contributions, with cutbacks at every level to ensure that sufficient funds are available for this movement. In response to the pressing needs, the National Assembly has suspended plans, already long-deferred, to repair and renovate the Bahá’í National Centre and other properties.

In the concluding paragraph of its 8 February 2013 letter to the Bahá’ís of the world, the House of Justice underlined the precious nature of this moment:

 Beloved friends: To every generation of young believers comes an opportunity to make a contribution to the fortunes of humanity, unique to their time of life. For the present generation, the moment has come to reflect, to commit, to steel themselves for a life of service from which blessing will flow in abundance.

 It is our prayer that individuals, communities and individuals in every region will carefully consider the needs of the hour and respond as their spirits prompt and circumstances allow. May the warm glow of support evident across the country become a roaring blaze, removing all obstacles from the path of His willing servants.

National Spiritual Assembly of the  Bahá’ís of Canada