The Universal House of Justice
To all National Spiritual Assemblies
The Holy Year is approaching its midway point and the time is ripe for all National Spiritual Assemblies to consult with the Counselors to formulate national goals for the Three Year Plan which will be launched next Riḍván.
The experience you gained in formulating and then carrying out the goals of the Six Year Plan can now enable you to refine the process in relation to the Three Year Plan. The main theme for the Bahá’í community during the Three Year Plan will be to pursue three closely related developments which can be summarized as enhancing the vitality of the faith of individual believers, greatly developing the human resources of the Cause, and fostering the proper functioning of its local and national institutions.
We are asking the Counselors to make a special point of consulting with each National Spiritual Assembly on how this challenge can best be met through the instrumentality of goals based on the seven major objectives set forth in 1986, which still provide a valid framework for your planning, and to ensure that no essential element of your community’s development is overlooked.
Each National Spiritual Assembly is to formulate specific goals towards the attainment of the objectives in light of the present conditions and opportunities in each country—goals that match the urgent needs and that can be achieved in the short space of three years. No doubt each country will require its specific emphasis among these objectives, and your consultations with the Counselors will be invaluable in assisting you to focus the endeavors of the friends in each of your communities.
For ease of reference, we repeat the objectives as originally stated:
1 Carrying the healing Message of Bahá’u’lláh to the generality of mankind
2 Greater involvement of the Faith in the life of human society
3 A worldwide increase in the translation, production, distribution and use of Bahá’í literature
4 Further acceleration in the process of the maturation of local and national Bahá’í communities
5 Greater attention to universal participation and the spiritual enrichment of individual believers
6 A wider extension of Bahá’í education to children and youth, and the strengthening of Bahá’í family life
7 The pursuit of projects of social and economic development in well-established Bahá’í communities.
As a further element in the responsibility conferred upon National Spiritual Assemblies for the formulation of goals, each National Assembly able to do so is encouraged, in addition to setting goals for its homefront, to propose to the World Center those goals and activities which it judges its community can undertake in assisting other national Bahá’í communities. These proposals for international collaboration goals will then be considered at the World Center before they are finally approved.
During the course of the Six Year Plan we have seen a notable evolution of the capacity of National Spiritual Assemblies as well as a marked increase in their number. The believers throughout the world have paid special attention to deepening their understanding of and loyalty to the Covenant, and they have now been blessed by the worldwide application of the law of Ḥuqúqu’lláh.
The Holy Year has already raised high the call of Bahá’u’lláh to mankind and has been a source of infinite bounty to those who are enlisted under His Banner. By its close, the World Congress will have been held and the English translation of the Most Holy Book will have been published to the community of the Most Great Name and to all the world.
It is yet too soon to evaluate the effect of these momentous events, but under the driving power of God’s Great Plan the world is passing through a period of rapid change. The Bahá’í community alone knows clearly the direction that this is taking and it must now, as never before, demonstrate in its community life and the lives of its individual members the reality of the transformation that Bahá’u’lláh intends for all humankind. To achieve this we must know well His Teachings and put them into practice with ardor and conviction in every aspect of our behavior. It is our fervent prayer that the Three Year Plan will effect a transformation in the character of the worldwide Bahá’í community that will inspire admiration and emulation on every side and greatly increase the number of those who acclaim the coming and follow the Teachings of Bahá’u’lláh.
We eagerly look forward to receiving a report of your goals as soon as you have set them down following consultation with the Counselors.