Other believers may attend, but would not take part in the voting. However, through their frequent reports and the minutes of their meetings, the National Assembly is kept informed of their activities and maintains its overall supervision of the affairs of the Cause in all parts of the country.
The National Assembly allows the Council a wide latitude for autonomous action, intervening in its work only in matters which the Assembly regards as being of major importance. In any case the authority to deprive a believer of his or her administrative rights, or to restore them, remains with the National Assembly. In this respect the Council may perform the following functions. The capacity of the National Teaching Committee to monitor the effectiveness of the teaching work throughout the country could be enhanced.
There are also a number of specific matters, such as the analysis of opportunities for expansion and consolidation in rapidly changing conditions, the identification of successful approaches to teaching, and the dissemination of promising teaching methods, which would benefit from the constant attention of a vibrant and competent National Teaching Committee.
A parallel can be seen in the work of a national training institute, to which the National Assembly assigns the task of developing human resources: the institute assists the Councils by offering them programs for the training of the human resources needed to carry out their plans in each region.
The National Teaching Committee would, similarly, offer services to the Councils in support of the teaching work. Dear Friends,. Building on the accomplishments of the generations before, youth must devise ways to take advantage of the opportunities presented to them. A discourse in consonance with the requirements of the time has to be refined, and activities aimed at transforming society have to be pursued with vigor.
To accomplish such tasks during the brief span of time afforded youth requires resolve, spiritual discipline, energy, reliance on the power of divine assistance, and constant immersion in the Word of God. Over the next few days you will be contemplating the special opportunities which the Hand of Providence has laid before you. An essential component of any strategy you devise is training. In all your countries, this question is being enthusiastically addressed as institutes learn to operate with increasing effectiveness.
You yourselves are participating, as students and as teachers, in building capacity in your communities to train thousands and thousands of believers, many of whom will be young people. With this vision in mind, you should devise actions, characteristic of your youth movement, in which your swelling numbers will engage. How will you teach the Cause and advance the process of entry by troops? And how will you accelerate the transformation of Latin American society to achieve its high destiny?
As you contemplate these questions, be assured that our prayers will surround you. The process of entry by troops, upon which its energies are focused, is clearly advancing. Three developments brighten our expectations. One is in the solid results being produced wherever training institutes are in operation. Tens of thousands of individuals have over the last two years completed at least one institute course. The second pertains to the notable improvement in the conditions affecting the establishment and renewal of Local Spiritual Assemblies.
While there was an immediate but not unexpected drop in the number of Local Assemblies worldwide, the decrease was not very large; in fact, increases were recorded in some countries. This outcome indicates that the process of maturation of these divinely ordained institutions is on course.
The third is that a new confidence in teaching is stirring the friends, yielding impressive results in various regions. The potential for a steady and ever-expanding influx of new believers has always been great, and we are able to say with assurance that the capacity to actualize it is methodically being developed more than ever before with the prosecution of the current Plan. Further to these signs of progress, we are gratified by the marvelous speed with which the construction projects on Mount Carmel proceeded to fulfill the schedule which had been set for the year just ended.
Immediately ahead are the establishment in May of three new National Spiritual Assemblies—Sabah, Sarawak, and Slovakia—and the reestablishment of the National Spiritual Assembly in Liberia, raising to the pillars of the Universal House of Justice. In contemplating the divine favors being bestowed on our community, we acknowledge with deep gratitude the constancy of the acts of service being performed by the individual Hands of the Cause of God, by the International Teaching Centre, and by the Counsellors and their auxiliaries on all continents.
The increasing strength of National Spiritual Assemblies also bolsters our certitude in the imminence of resounding victories. And yet, amid the widespread desolation of the human spirit, it is apparent that at some level of consciousness there is among the peoples of the world a growing sense of an irresistible movement towards global unity and peace.
This sense is being aroused as the physical barriers between peoples are being virtually eliminated by breathtaking advances in science and technology. Nevertheless, a mixed catalogue of world-shaking tribulations and world-shaping developments keeps humanity concurrently dazed and dazzled.
The Major Plan is associated with turbulence and calamity and proceeds with an apparent, random disorderliness, but is, in fact, inexorably driving humanity towards unity and maturity. Its agency for the most part is the people who are ignorant of its course and even antagonistic towards its aim.
Its ultimate goal is the Most Great Peace. The four-year-long campaign, at the mid-point of which we have arrived, constitutes the current stage in the Minor Plan. It is to the achievement of its purpose that we must all devote our attention and energies. At times it may seem that the operation of the Major Plan causes a disruption in the work of the Minor Plan, but the friends have every reason to remain undismayed. For one thing, amid the din of a society in turmoil can be discerned an unmistakable trend towards the Lesser Peace.
An intriguing inkling is provided by the greater involvement of the United Nations, with the backing of powerful governments, in attending to long-standing and urgent world problems; another derives from the dramatic recognition by world leaders in only recent months of what the interconnectedness of all nations in the matter of trade and finance really implies—a condition which Shoghi Effendi anticipated as an essential aspect of an organically unified world.
Several recently published studies have been devoted to this phenomenon. This spiritual hunger is characterized by a restlessness, by a swelling dissatisfaction with the moral state of society; it is also evident in the upsurge of fundamentalism among various religious sects, and in the multiplication of new movements posing as religions or aspiring to take the place of religion. Here are observations that enable one to appreciate the interaction between the two divinely propelled processes at work on the planet.
The implications for the task at hand are immensely encouraging. Our hopes, our goals, our possibilities of moving forward can all be realized through concentrating our endeavors on the major aim of the Divine Plan at its current stage—that is, to effect a significant advance in the process of entry by troops. This challenge can be met through persistent effort patiently pursued. Entry by troops is a possibility well within the grasp of our community.
But also of vital importance to bringing about entry by troops is a realistic approach, systematic action. There are no shortcuts. Systematization ensures consistency of lines of action based on well-conceived plans. While allowing for individual initiative and spontaneity, it suggests the need to be clear-headed, methodical, efficient, constant, balanced and harmonious.
Systematization is a necessary mode of functioning animated by the urgency to act. The establishment of training institutes is critical to such effort, since they are centers through which large numbers of individuals can acquire and improve their ability to teach and administer the Faith. The facts at hand confirm that the Four Year Plan works where a systematic approach is understood and applied.
These same facts show that the institutions of the Faith, in their collaborative efforts at national, regional, and local levels, have clearly been adhering to this understanding.
However, with individuals, on whom rests the ultimate success of the Plan, this understanding is less clear. For this reason, we must emphasize to our fellow-believers the importance to their individual effort of this prerequisite of success in teaching and in other undertakings. As translated into programs and projects by national and local institutions, the Plan, among other things, gives direction, identifies goals, stimulates effort, provides a variety of needed facilities and materials to benefit the work of teachers and administrators.
The impetus given to the institute process in the past two years and, in particular, to having the believers proceed through a sequence of courses was felt on all continents. The number of participants who have completed at least one institute course in the basic sequence continues to rise, but the most significant achievement is that a swelling stream of friends has proceeded through higher level courses.
For example, 18 months into the Five Year Plan, more than 10, believers had completed Ruhi Institute Book 6, accounting for an increase of over percent since April , and more than 8, had completed Ruhi Institute Book 7, resulting in a dramatically enlarged pool of trained tutors. Gradually most national communities around the world adopted for their basic sequence of courses the Ruhi Institute curriculum, which had been developed over many years specifically in response to large-scale expansion.
In light of the focus and energy being devoted to furthering the institute process in every national community, concerns were expressed by some believers about the emphasis on training and the use of a uniform curriculum.
In such a wide-scale enterprise of taking great numbers of friends through a set curriculum, it is to be expected that some individuals might not find the materials suited to their learning style. Responding to this circumstance, the House of Justice made the following comment in a letter written on its behalf to an individual believer:. It is natural that any given educational program would not appeal to everyone and that some would not wish to participate. The House of Justice is happy to see from your letter that you respect this decision and do not want to make your own evaluation of the program a cause for disunity.
In another letter written on behalf of the House of Justice, the relationship of the individual believer to the institute process is given further clarification:. To say that the institute is only useful for newly enrolled believers and those who read little is not correct. Many mature and deepened believers are participating in the institute process, both as students and as teachers of various courses, in an effort to contribute directly to the promotion of entry by troops in their respective countries.
Through such participation they have furthered their understanding of the requisites of growth and of the action required to maintain it, have caught fresh glimpses of spiritual truths, and have developed their skills and abilities of service.
Far from interfering with their own study of the Writings, each according to his or her own capacity and needs, their association with a training institute has enhanced the process. What is essential is that the institute process be supported even by those who do not wish to take part in it.
At the same time the House of Justice has explained that no special designation should be accorded to those who are studying in the institute or serving as tutors, nor should the friends feel any demarcation based on participation in the institute:.
It is quite reasonable to expect that, as far as training by the institute is concerned, certain courses would have as their prerequisite the completion of other courses. That for certain types of service the qualifications of the believers would need to be taken into account is natural. Yet the way should be open for all the friends, irrespective of the degree of their knowledge and experience, to participate in the affairs of the Faith.
Those communities that did not become absorbed with issues of curriculum but turned their attention to putting a system in place were able to learn more quickly how to deliver their courses to large numbers of believers and to consolidate the institute process. Nevertheless, by the outset of the Five Year Plan the believers in most countries had not proceeded beyond the first few courses of the institute.
The challenge for National Spiritual Assemblies of furthering the institute process and maintaining a clear focus was aptly described in a letter written on behalf of the House of Justice to a National Assembly:. To help large numbers of believers go through a sequence of courses is a formidable task, involving systematic work with an increasing number of tutors, the establishment of study circles, and measures for monitoring the progress of the participants.
The friends in charge of the process need to have clarity of vision and should be allowed to carry out their mission without distraction. During the Four Year Plan, guidance from the House of Justice had stressed that as the believers completed higher courses in the sequence, their capacity to serve the Cause would be enhanced. In its message of 17 January this dynamic was confirmed:. The rise in activity around the world testifies to the success of these courses in evoking the spirit of enterprise required to carry out the divers actions that growth in a cluster, at whatever stage, demands.
For the most part this proliferation of community activities was the expression of individual initiative by believers who translated into action what they had internalized from their training institute courses. The newfound zeal and initiative of the believers have been manifested at one level in the opening of virgin clusters. Although in the first two years of the Five Year Plan most countries have focused on advancing well-developed clusters toward intensive programs of growth, whenever virgin areas were opened to the Faith, a concentrated effort was made to lay a solid foundation for systematic expansion.
In general, study circles represented a principal means of teaching in these areas, along with devotional gatherings and firesides, as human resources began to emerge. This met with a warm response from the House of Justice:.
As we had hoped, goals for the opening of virgin clusters are being readily met by enthusiastic participants of institute programs who, equipped with the knowledge and skills acquired through training courses, set out to establish the Faith in a new area and bring a fledgling community into being. As of September , all the homefront goals were achieved.
Foremost among the strategies for virgin clusters, therefore, have been encouraging homefront pioneers to become trained as tutors and implementing homefront pioneering projects that emphasize the establishment of the institute process in these areas. It has sometimes proved advantageous to identify goal areas adjacent to well-developed clusters, as these are more accessible to believers who can facilitate study circles.
In fact, with a growing number of tutors being trained in the well-developed clusters, homefront goals can increasingly be met when such friends come forward to offer this kind of service. Reports on pioneer movement during the first year of the Five Year Plan indicate that about believers arose to pioneer on the home front, nearly half of them in the Americas. Two different conditions have predominated in this category. There are a number of clusters that experienced large-scale growth in the past but had no functioning Local Spiritual Assemblies and very few active believers.
Also prevalent are clusters that had, in addition to isolated localities and groups, functioning Local Assemblies, some with only basic capacity and others with longstanding experience and active communities, but with minimal or no institute activity. The general approach in both these types of clusters has been to strengthen the institute process, but the means and pace have differed according to their particular circumstances.
In clusters that have experienced large-scale expansion, an approach that has proved effective is for a teaching team to reestablish contact with responsive friends and gradually introduce institute courses in the area.
In recommending such an approach to a National Assembly that faced the challenge of having areas with great numbers of believers who had not been contacted for years, the House of Justice explained:. In your case you would do well to establish a specific program according to which teams of able teachers would visit such communities one after another, spend time with the believers they can locate, and teach receptive souls until the conditions become favorable for the institute to enter and offer its courses.
In the letter cited above, the House of Justice elaborated further on this approach:. The list of names should be considered, rather, as a starting point, leading to opportunities to meet individuals who are willing to engage in meaningful conversation, exploring spiritual realities and learning more and more about the Faith.
In clusters that had active communities but lacked a strong presence of the institute, a first requirement has been for the institutions and believers in such areas to acquire a clear vision of the pivotal role of the training institute in the implementation of the Plan and to commit themselves to this priority. Once this is grasped, these clusters can progress fairly rapidly to develop the institute process.
In practical terms, advancing the institute process in this category of clusters has meant increasing the number of tutors and study circles so that more believers become involved in the institute process.
This objective can be achieved in a number of ways, depending on the level of human resources in the cluster—for example, by short-term homefront pioneers serving as tutors, by tutors from a nearby cluster facilitating study circles, or by friends from these emerging clusters participating in centralized training courses or extension courses in their area.
As more study circles have been established in these clusters, a growing number of friends have become engaged in the study of the first one or two books of the institute.
However, the House of Justice highlighted the value of putting in place a system for taking believers through a full sequence of courses and the potential impact of this arrangement:.
The challenge is not simply to have a certain percentage study one or two courses, but a sequence of several courses through an effective system of distance education. And if the institute succeeds in accomplishing this, there should be a corresponding increase in the tempo of the teaching work as more and more friends arise to serve the Faith.
The principal means to advance these clusters have been institute campaigns, reflection meetings, and a gradual multiplication of core activities. This latter objective is most easily fulfilled by inviting seekers to these activities. The experience of the institutions and believers in this category of clusters has been substantial and instructive. In some instances this has been swiftly and effectively accomplished through institute campaigns, which have augmented ongoing efforts to expand the number of study circles.
In most instances these campaigns have been designed to enable the believers who have already completed the first few books in the sequence, and preferably have served as tutors, to move in an accelerated manner through the remaining books.
In Asiatic Russia an institute campaign in the first few months of the Five Year Plan resulted in 76 believers completing all six books of the institute and becoming prepared to act as tutors for any of the books in the sequence. Urban clusters such as Perth, Australia; Minsk, Belarus; Vancouver, Canada; Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia; Karachi, Pakistan; and Los Angeles, the United States; and well-developed rural or semi-urban clusters in, for example, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Kenya, India, and Italy undertook such campaigns and registered immediate gains in the number of study circles in the clusters.
The House of Justice commented on this type of endeavor:. It is most encouraging to see that the progress of this work [the internal development of the clusters] is being energized through the training institute process, which was considerably strengthened…by the campaigns undertaken in many countries to increase the number of trained tutors.
In areas with active, deepened believers, the progression of individuals through the sequence of courses has moved quickly, once the community members committed themselves to the process. A good example of this dynamic is evidenced in the experience of Western Australia. A concentrated focus in this state on involving increasing numbers of friends in the institute, aided by a series of campaigns, resulted in more than half of its 1, believers participating in institute courses.
This was three times the number of new enrollments recorded for each of the previous two years. As indicated, the attention given in the past two years to training more tutors has had a measurable impact on the number of study circles worldwide.
Efforts to bring new believers and seekers into the institute process have created a fresh dynamic in clusters. Devotional meetings begin to flourish as consciousness of the spiritual dimension of human existence is raised among the believers in an area through institute courses.
In various parts of the world, special endeavors to increase the number of devotional meetings often begin with encouraging believers inspired by their institute course on spiritual life to undertake such meetings on their own.
Employing this arrangement over a six-month period, the believers in Malaysia were able to increase tenfold the devotional meetings in their advanced clusters and the level of participation by 40 percent. The multiplication of devotional gatherings has taken place with seeming ease in both rural and urban areas.
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