Dear Friends,
FACILITATING INDIVIDUAL INITIATIVE
The Five Year Plan is calling on every individual Bahá’í throughout the world to take the initiative in the progress of the Faith. In “Building Momentum” the International Teaching Centre states: “The multiplication of core activities in well-developed clusters, growing out of increased individual initiative, has been identified as an important step in advancing toward a program of intensive growth.”
One may wish to start a devotional, children’s class or begin another study circle open to all. Through the increase and interconnection of these simple projects and with the inclusion of enquirers a powerful teaching process will emerge that will gather its own momentum. Local Spiritual Assemblies, with the help of the Auxiliary Board members and their assistants, are being asked to arise and utilise the new energies and talents that are emerging as a result of the training institute process. This growing human resource will create a vibrant community life that will begin to influence the entire society.
The Council has recently collated statistics of the progress of the three core activities. The results are impressive, demonstrating the way that the core activities are multiplying. We now urge all communities to consider how the core activities can be further multiplied. The data that has been collected indicates a significant change in the Bahá'í community in Northern Ireland. In “Building Momentum” the Teaching Centre explains the driving force behind the change that we are experiencing:
“At the end of the Four Year Plan the Universal House of Justice wrote that ‘the culture of the Bahá’í community [had] experienced a change.’ The ‘new patterns of thought and action’ introduced by the training institutes were having a profound impact on individuals, institutions, and communities. Fundamental to this new orientation was an attitude of learning, along with an appreciation of systematization and focus, a commitment to enlisting a greater number of believers in the work of the Cause, and a conscious outreach to society at large. At the level of the cluster and the community, where the culture of learning is taking root, a new dynamic has emerged whereby the friends are engaged in actions that are purposeful, systematic, and energizing.”
In Northern Ireland our Training Institute Board has made outstanding progress in training large numbers in the various courses in the main sequence. In addition to the development of human resources within the Bahá'í community, there is also a need to increase the opportunities for enquirers to engage in Bahá'í activities. There in a great need for Bahá'ís to provide firesides and devotionals in their own homes and to ensure that the new contacts who are engaging with the Faith through the core activities also have other opportunities to enquire and develop their understanding of the Faith.
It is vital that we arise to take the initiative through our own individual plans to create sustainable devotionals, children’s classes, study circles and firesides that are a resource for the community around us who are crying out for the healing message of Bahá’u’lláh. As the Universal House of Justice wrote on 9th January 2001:
“So enkindled do their hearts become with the fire of the love of God that whoever approaches them feels its warmth. They strive to be channels of the spirit, pure of heart, selfless and humble, possessing certitude and the courage that stems from reliance on God. In such a culture, teaching is the dominating passion of the lives of the believers.”
With warmest Bahá'í greetings, Bahá'í Council for Northern Ireland.
For some time the Bahá'í Council for Northern Ireland has operated an email news list, called bahai-ni, for those people who have access to the internet. All Bahá'ís in Northern Ireland with email accounts are encouraged to subscribe to it. All committees are encouraged to use bahai-ni to share information with the Friends and the communities (and individuals) are encouraged to post news of events on the bahai-ni list. To join or post a message simply send an email to the Council email address: bcni@bahai.org.uk. The Council would very much like to see bahai-ni being used as a way of spreading information through the Bahá'í community. Being intended for NI news it is a supplement, and not a replacement, for NEWS, the e-announce service of the National Spiritual Assembly and its agencies. The NSA has asked that all Bahá'ís who have e-mail subscribe to NEWS—to do this send your personal details to NEWS.admin@bahai.org.uk
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