Community III

At this time, the building of the community revolves around four activities:

• Study Circles

• Devotionals

• Children's Classes

• Junior Youth Groups

Each serves its own purpose in the progression of society. Many times before, we have looked at the Bahá'í Writings and tried to understand topics as complex as the progression of the soul and justice. Such topics are admirable, but we cannot get into the heart of the meaning of the Bahá'í Faith without looking at the core principle.

As a Bahá'í, I believe that I was created to know God and to obey His Teachings. It seems a little strange, believing in an unknowable essence. I cannot see God. I cannot taste, touch nor understand Him. In fact, if it were not for His Manifestations, I doubt I would have ever thought of His existence. The world would simply find me wandering the planet as an animal, looking for my next meal. Each of the Manifestations give us a glimpse at the Power of God's Word. They come and bring down with them Teachings which allow us to progress as a society. Confirmation such as this is why I believe in God. These Great Beings come with Teachings, all claiming to come from One Source; if it works, why should I not believe?

Obeying the Teachings of God is another story. To do so, we need to serve our fellow man. And how do we do this? The core principle of the Faith of Bahá'u'lláh is to unite all the peoples of the earth. This grand scheme seems near impossible. With the constant violence, unending prejudice and injustice enthroned within our hearts and minds, it is impossible. That is why we must start at the grassroots.

Would it not be wonderful to go to the kings and rulers of the earth and say, "The tabernacle of unity hath been raised; regard ye not one another as strangers. Ye are the fruits of one tree, and the leaves of one branch, " or "O rulers of the earth! Be reconciled among yourselves, that ye may need no more armaments save in a measure to safeguard your territories and dominions."? And better yet, "Be united, O kings of the earth, for thereby will the tempest of discord be stilled amongst you, and your peoples find rest, if ye be of them that comprehend. Should any one among you take up arms against another, rise ye all against him, for this is naught but manifest justice."

Unfortunately, much of this has already been advised to the rulers of the earth, but they refused to heed to the call of Bahá'u'lláh. This means the normal layman must go out and teach the Cause and serve humanity-hence going to the grassroots.

Society is based on the community which is based on the family. A family needs a mother, the first educator of the child. The family needs a father, the bread winner and the enforces of education for the child. This does not mean that the mother does not work and that the father does not help the mother with the initial education. Since the child has been reared by the mother for nine months, he has a special connection with her, hence the first educator. The child in turn must be obedient to his parents for they have his best interest at heart. Obedience to the parents is the child's proof of Faith and love.

If the family unit is united, then the next step can be taken to the community and this is where the core activities mentioned at the very beginning come into place.

First we have Study Circles. Here, the community members come together to study the words of God or learn various skills which help with the building of the community. The current set of books used by Bahá'ís is called the Ruhi books, printed by Palabra Publications, and created initially in Colombia. Here is the list of the books:

• Book 1: Reflections on the Life of the Spirit. In this book, the participant learns the importance of prayer and spirituality in life and the continuation of life after the passing of the physical body. The skill learned from this book is the creation of devotionals.
• Book 2: Arising to Serve. The key of this book is to learn the joy of service and its importance in daily life. The skill learned from this book is simply how to serve.
• Book 3: Teaching Children's Classes. Here, as the title states, the participants learn how to teach classes for children. Currently, there are two books available, for grades I and II respectively, with a grade III becoming geared up for publication.
• Book 4: The Twin Manifestations. Here, the participant learns the history of the Bahá'í Faith and its implications for the future. They key is to learn to tell the stories from the Faith with eloquence-in this way, we can improve our public speaking and also allow others to learn about the history.
• Book 5: Releasing the Powers of Junior Youth. The participant learns the psychology first of being a Youth and the of being a Junior Youth; they learn what the goal is (the stage of youth, a servant to the community), and see what they will be working with (the junior youth, full of potential-but stuck in a conflicted point of life). From here, the participant will learn how to animate a group of Junior Youth (12-14 year olds)-more on this in a little bit.
• Book 6: Teaching the Cause. Multiple times in previous posts we have learned that teaching is the greatest gift of God. Through teaching, we find receptive souls who desire to serve the community alongside us. Teaching the Cause does not mean we make people Bahá'ís. It means we find people who want to serve.
• Book 7: Walking Together on a Path of Service. In this book, one learns how to become a tutor for Ruhi Books 1-6. Being a tutor does not mean one has the material mastered, but rather can give ideas and take ideas from the participants.
  
• Book 8: The Covenant of Bahá'u'lláh. Currently in production, this book focuses on the idea of the Covenant and what it truly means to follow the Bahá'í Faith.

Through these books, we gain the skills to do the next three core activities, along with various other acts of service.

The second of the activities is devotionals. The community comes together to pray and meditate. They converse on spiritual ideas which are often neglected and, this way, become more spiritually close to one another.

The third of the activities is Children's Classes. It is easy to mold children. Through children's classes, the child learns various spiritual qualities which he would not gain through modern education. These spiritual qualities will last the child through the rest of their lives. Imagine a future community where all children have learned to be truthful, detached, steadfast, determined, loving, kind, etc. to all people. This vision is only enhanced with the following program-the Junior Youth Animating program.

The forth of the core activities is the Junior Youth Group. These groups aim at empowering those who are no longer children yet not yet adults. They will learn their potentials and capacities which they can use for their futures. There are four aspects of the Junior Youth Group.

• Art activities-to enhance the creativity of the Junior Youth
• Outdoor activities-to allow Junior Youth to exert energy
• A set of books. There are 8 titles planned for each age (12, 13 and 14)-2 from each of the below sub groups:

1. Continuation of Bahá'í Children's Classes. The title says it all. This set allows the Junior Youth to cover issues that range from evolution to the existance of God. Only groups with Bahá'í Junior Youth are obligated to complete this sequence.
2. Language. The Junior Youth learn the power of expression and the proper method to execute such expression. They then will become great teachers and great animators of Junior Youth Groups in the future. The power of language is extremely important. A proper understanding of various forms of argumentation from logos, pathos and ethos must be learned and administered properly. Otherwise, one becomes corrupt like the modern politician.
3. Science and Mathematics. Logic and rational thinking are absent from scientific education many times until a person hits upper level science classes in high school or even college. Here the Junior Youth learns to think scientifically from a younger age-thus progressing science (think about it, training people from a younger age mean they have more room and time to advance by the time they hit college).
4. Living in Society. Growing up in today's world is not easy, thus learning how to stand up morally in society and also thinking about the implications of one's actions on the future are key to assist with progression. The more people we have who live life with high standards, the more we will see society progress.

• Service projects make up the forth activity of Junior Youth Groups. Service is how one puts into action everything they have learned. With everything mentioned beforehand, there is much to put into action. Projects are dedicated to assist with the building of the community. Junior Youth have been to start classes for children, community learning projects (i.e. importance of recycling and caring for the environment), fundraisers, painting murals, clothes drives, etc. It is the culmination of the Junior Youth Animating program and prepares Junior Youth for a life of service.

Once a community dedicated to united service is established, it can be expanded to the level of the city (which is made much easier when there are dozens, if not hundreds, of neighborhoods dedicated to the same thing). And from the city, to the region, to the nation and finally to the world. None of this is conditional to people becoming Bahá'ís. It is conditional on people following the Word of Bahá'u'lláh and desire to serve humanity.

And it will not end here. After a thousand years or so have passed, another Manifestation will come to continue assisting us with the progression of mankind through its various stages.

Next, we will discuss the various institutions of the Bahá'í Faith and how they assist with the entire process of community building and the creation of a new world civilization.

Community II

Before I do any sort of analysis on the idea of community, let us look at the 2010 Ridvan (pronounced Rez-van) Letter.*

What the establishment of 1,500 intensive programmes of growth has made evident is how courageous and deliberate the rank and file of the believers have become in stepping outside their immediate circle of family members and friends, ready to be led by the guiding Hand of the All-Merciful to receptive souls in whatever quarter they may reside.


To the extent that the conversation continues beyond the initial encounter and veritable friendships are formed, a direct teaching effort of this kind can become a catalyst for an enduring process of spiritual transformation. Whether the first contact with such newly found friends elicits an invitation for them to enrol in the Bahá’í community or to participate in one of its activities is not an overwhelming concern. More important is that every soul feel welcome to join the community in contributing to the betterment of society, commencing a path of service to humanity on which, at the outset or further along, formal enrolment can occur.

The significance of this development should not be underestimated. In every cluster, once a consistent pattern of action is in place, attention needs to be given to extending it more broadly through a network of co-workers and acquaintances, while energies are, at the same time, focused on smaller pockets of the population, each of which should become a centre of intense activity. In an urban cluster, such a centre of activity might best be defined by the boundaries of a neighbourhood; in a cluster that is primarily rural in character, a small village would offer a suitable social space for this purpose. Those who serve in these settings, both local inhabitants and visiting teachers, would rightly view their work in terms of community building. To assign to their teaching efforts such labels as "door-to-door", even though the first contact may involve calling upon the residents of a home without prior notice, would not do justice to a process that seeks to raise capacity within a population to take charge of its own spiritual, social and intellectual development. The activities that drive this process, and in which newly found friends are invited to engage—meetings that strengthen the devotional character of the community; classes that nurture the tender hearts and minds of children; groups that channel the surging energies of junior youth; circles of study, open to all, that enable people of varied backgrounds to advance on equal footing and explore the application of the teachings to their individual and collective lives—may well need to be maintained with assistance from outside the local population for a time. It is to be expected, however, that the multiplication of these core activities would soon be sustained by human resources indigenous to the neighbourhood or village itself—by men and women eager to improve material and spiritual conditions in their surroundings. A rhythm of community life should gradually emerge, then, commensurate with the capacity of an expanding nucleus of individuals committed to Bahá’u’lláh's vision of a new World Order.

Within this context, receptivity manifests itself in a willingness to participate in the process of community building set in motion by the core activities. In cluster after cluster where an intensive programme of growth is now in operation, the task before the friends this coming year is to teach within one or more receptive populations, employing a direct method in their exposition of the fundamentals of their Faith, and find those souls longing to shed the lethargy imposed on them by society and work alongside one another in their neighbourhoods and villages to begin a process of collective transformation. If the friends persist in their efforts to learn the ways and methods of community building in small settings in this way, the long-cherished goal of universal participation in the affairs of the Faith will, we are certain, move by several orders of magnitude within grasp.

In this light, local deepening classes, winter and summer schools, and specially arranged gatherings in which individual believers knowledgeable in the writings were able to share with others insights into specific subjects emerged naturally as prominent features of Bahá’í life. Just as the habit of daily reading will remain an integral part of Bahá’í identity, so will these forms of study continue to hold a place in the collective life of the community. But understanding the implications of the Revelation, both in terms of individual growth and social progress, increases manifold when study and service are joined and carried out concurrently. There, in the field of service, knowledge is tested, questions arise out of practice, and new levels of understanding are achieved. In the system of distance education that has now been established in country after country—the principal elements of which include the study circle, the tutor and the curriculum of the Ruhi Institute—the worldwide Bahá’í community has acquired the capacity to enable thousands, nay millions, to study the writings in small groups with the explicit purpose of translating the Bahá’í teachings into reality, carrying the work of the Faith forward into its next stage: sustained large-scale expansion and consolidation.

That the Bahá’í world has succeeded in developing a culture which promotes a way of thinking, studying, and acting, in which all consider themselves as treading a common path of service— supporting one another and advancing together, respectful of the knowledge that each one possesses at any given moment and avoiding the tendency to divide the believers into categories such as deepened and uninformed—is an accomplishment of enormous proportions. And therein lie the dynamics of an irrepressible movement.

Concern for the spiritual education of children has long been an element of the culture of the Bahá’í community, a concern that resulted in two, coexisting realities. One, emulating the achievements of the Bahá’ís of Iran, was characterized by the capacity to offer systematic classes, from grade to grade, to children from Bahá’í families, generally with the aim of imparting basic knowledge of the history and teachings of the Faith to rising generations. In most parts of the world, the number who benefited from such classes has been relatively small. The other reality emerged in areas where large-scale enrolments took place, both rural and urban. A more inclusive attitude dominated that experience. Yet while children from households of all kinds were at once eager and welcome to attend Bahá’í classes, various factors prevented lessons from being conducted with the required degree of regularity, year after year. How pleased we are to see this duality, a consequence of historical circumstances, begin to fall away as friends trained by institutes everywhere strive to offer classes, open to all, on a systematic basis.

Such promising beginnings have now to be vigorously pursued. In every cluster with an intensive programme of growth in operation, efforts need to be made to systematize further the provision of spiritual education to increasing numbers of children, from families of many backgrounds—a requisite of the community-building process gathering momentum in neighbourhoods and villages. This will be a demanding task, one that calls for patience and cooperation on the part of parents and institutions alike. The Ruhi Institute has already been requested to expedite plans to complete its courses for training children's class teachers at different levels including the corresponding lessons, starting with youngsters aged 5 or 6 and proceeding to those aged 10 or 11, in order to close the present gap between existing lessons and its textbooks for junior youth, such as Spirit of Faith and the forthcoming Power of the Holy Spirit, which provide a distinctly Bahá’í component to the programme for that age group. As these additional courses and lessons become available, institutes in every country will be able to prepare the teachers and the coordinators required to put in place, grade by grade, the core of a programme for the spiritual education of children, around which secondary elements can be organized. Meanwhile, institutes should do their best to provide teachers with suitable materials, from among others currently in existence, for use in their classes with children of various ages, as necessary.

The rapid spread of the programme for the spiritual empowerment of junior youth is yet another expression of cultural advance in the Bahá’í community. While global trends project an image of this age group as problematic, lost in the throes of tumultuous physical and emotional change, unresponsive and self- consumed, the Bahá’í community—in the language it employs and the approaches it adopts—is moving decidedly in the opposite direction, seeing in junior youth instead altruism, an acute sense of justice, eagerness to learn about the universe and a desire to contribute to the construction of a better world. Account after account, in which junior youth in countries all over the planet give voice to their thoughts as participants in the programme, testifies to the validity of this vision. There is every indication that the programme engages their expanding consciousness in an exploration of reality that helps them to analyse the constructive and destructive forces operating in society and to recognize the influence these forces exert on their thoughts and actions, sharpening their spiritual perception, enhancing their powers of expression and reinforcing moral structures that will serve them throughout their lives. At an age when burgeoning intellectual, spiritual and physical powers become accessible to them, they are being given the tools needed to combat the forces that would rob them of their true identity as noble beings and to work for the common good.

Further knowledge is sure to accrue in this area of endeavour, although a pattern of action is already clear. Only the capacity of the Bahá’í community limits the extent of its response to the demand for the programme by schools and civic groups. Within the clusters that today are the focus of an intensive programme of growth, there is a wide array of circumstances, from those with a few sporadic junior youth groups to those maintaining a number sufficient to require the services of a dedicated coordinator, who could receive ongoing support from a site for the dissemination of learning. To ensure that this capacity increases across the entire spectrum of these clusters, we are calling for 32 learning sites, each serving some twenty clusters with full-time coordinators, to be in operation by the end of the current Plan. In all other such clusters, priority should be given to creating the capacity over the coming year to offer the programme,multiplying the number of groups systematically.

It signals the significant strengthening of a culture in which learning is the mode of operation, a mode that fosters the informed participation of more and more people in a united effort to apply Bahá’u’lláh's teachings to the construction of a divine civilization, which the Guardian states is the primary mission of the Faith.

Not only does this advance in culture influence relations among individuals, but its effects can also be felt in the conduct of the administrative affairs of the Faith. As learning has come to distinguish the community's mode of operation, certain aspects of decision making related to expansion and consolidation have been assigned to the body of the believers, enabling planning and implementation to become more responsive to circumstances on the ground. Specifically, a space has been created, in the agency of the reflection meeting, for those engaged in activities at the cluster level to assemble from time to time in order to reach consensus on the current status of their situation, in light of experience and guidance from the institutions, and to determine their immediate steps forward. A similar space is opened by the institute, which makes provision for those serving as tutors, children's class teachers, and animators of junior youth groups in a cluster to meet severally and consult on their experience. Intimately connected to this grassroots consultative process are the agencies of the training institute and the Area Teaching Committee, together with the Auxiliary Board members, whose joint interactions provide another space in which decisions pertaining to growth are taken, in this case with a higher degree of formality. The workings of this cluster-level system, born of exigencies, point to an important characteristic of Bahá’í administration: Even as a living organism, it has coded within it the capacity to accommodate higher and higher degrees of complexity, in terms of structures and processes, relationships and activities, as it evolves under the guidance of the Universal House of Justice.

On previous occasions we have explained that the maturity of a Spiritual Assembly cannot be assessed by the regularity of its meetings and the efficiency of its functioning alone. Rather its strength must be measured, to a large extent, by the vitality of the spiritual and social life of the community it serves—a growing community that welcomes the constructive contributions of both those who are formally enrolled and those who are not.

The development that we are sure to witness in Local Spiritual Assemblies over the next several years is made possible by the growing strength of National Spiritual Assemblies, whose ability to think and act strategically has risen perceptibly, especially as they have learned to analyse the community-building process at the grassroots with increasing acuity and effectiveness and to inject into it, as needed, assistance, resources, encouragement, and loving guidance. In countries where conditions demand it, they have devolved a number of their responsibilities in this respect to Regional Councils, decentralizing certain administrative functions, enhancing institutional capacity in areas under their jurisdiction, and fostering more sophisticated sets of interactions. It is no exaggeration to say that the full engagement of National Assemblies was instrumental in creating the final thrust required to attain the goal of the current Plan, and we expect to see further developments in this direction as, in concert with the Counsellors, they exert in the course of the critical, fleeting months ahead a supreme effort to ready their communities to embark on the next five-year enterprise.

Bahá’u’lláh's Revelation is vast. It calls for profound change not only at the level of the individual but also in the structure of society. "Is not the object of every Revelation", He Himself proclaims, "to effect a transformation in the whole character of mankind, a transformation that shall manifest itself, both outwardly and inwardly, that shall affect both its inner life and external conditions?" The work advancing in every corner of the globe today represents the latest stage of the ongoing Bahá’í endeavour to create the nucleus of the glorious civilization enshrined in His teachings, the building of which is an enterprise of infinite complexity and scale, one that will demand centuries of exertion by humanity to bring to fruition. There are no shortcuts, no formulas. Only as effort is made to draw on insights from His Revelation, to tap into the accumulating knowledge of the human race, to apply His teachings intelligently to the life of humanity, and to consult on the questions that arise will the necessary learning occur and capacity be developed.

In this long-term process of capacity building, the Bahá’í community has devoted nearly a decade and a half to systematizing its experience in the teaching field, learning to open certain activities to more and more people and to sustain its expansion and consolidation. All are welcome to enter the community's warm embrace and receive sustenance from Bahá’u’lláh's life-giving message. No greater joy is there, to be sure, than for a soul, yearning for the Truth, to find shelter in the stronghold of the Cause and draw strength from the unifying power of the Covenant. Yet every human being and every group of individuals, irrespective of whether they are counted among His followers, can take inspiration from His teachings, benefiting from whatever gems of wisdom and knowledge will aid them in addressing the challenges they face. Indeed, the civilization that beckons humanity will not be attained through the efforts of the Bahá’í community alone. Numerous groups and organizations, animated by the spirit of world solidarity that is an indirect manifestation of Bahá’u’lláh's conception of the principle of the oneness of humankind, will contribute to the civilization destined to emerge out of the welter and chaos of present-day society. It should be clear to everyone that the capacity created in the Bahá’í community over successive global Plans renders it increasingly able to lend assistance in the manifold and diverse dimensions of civilization building, opening to it new frontiers of learning.

A rich tapestry of community life begins to emerge in every cluster as acts of communal worship, interspersed with discussions undertaken in the intimate setting of the home, are woven together with activities that provide spiritual education to all members of the population—adults, youth and children. Social consciousness is heightened naturally as, for example, lively conversations proliferate among parents regarding the aspirations of their children and service projects spring up at the initiative of junior youth.

it will prove fruitful to think in terms of two interconnected, mutually reinforcing areas of activity: involvement in social action and participation in the prevalent discourses of society.

The scope and complexity of social action must be commensurate with the human resources available in a village or neighbourhood to carry it forward. Efforts best begin, then, on a modest scale and grow organically as capacity within the population develops. Capacity rises to new levels, of course, as the protagonists of social change learn to apply with increasing effectiveness elements of Bahá’u’lláh's Revelation, together with the contents and methods of science, to their social reality. This reality they must strive to read in a manner consistent with His teachings—seeing in their fellow human beings gems of inestimable value and recognizing the effects of the dual process of integration and disintegration on both hearts and minds, as well as on social structures.

And that is only part of the entire letter! (11 pages, 33 paragraphs in total).

Think about what is given here, leave a response if you would like. I will give my take on it next time.



*Ridvan is a celebratory time for the Bahá'í Faith as it is the commemoration of the Declaration of Bahá'u'lláh that it was He who was in fact "Him Whom God Shall Make Manifest." Every year during this time, it is common place for the Universal House of Justice (world governing body-democratically elected-for the Bahá'ís) to write a letter congratulating the Bahá'ís for achieving certain goals (the goals are all leading to the unification of the world in a step by step process) over the past year. Along with this, the House shares various items which have been learned across the globe which allow for future goals to be achieved with greater ease.

Community I

What makes a community? Does it require geographic boundaries or can it simply be people bounded by a singular idea? Social network sites such as Facebook thrive on the fact that they bring together much of the users on the internet as a one giant global community. I personally don't buy it as much. Sure we are all connected together in a more easier fashion, but does this single website make us a community or is there a greater power or force which does this job?

Sit on this for a little while-I'll be back in a few days with my response.