The Universal House of Justice
The International Teaching Centre
Twenty-five years have passed since the establishment of the International Teaching Centre, during which time its structure, including that of the institution of the Continental Boards of Counselors, has been steadily consolidated. The Counselors and their auxiliaries have assumed their responsibilities for the protection and the propagation of the Faith with increasing vigor. Their role in the advancement of the Cause, whether through contacts with the individual believers or consultations with Assemblies, has been crucial, and the animating influence of their institution can now be felt in every area of Bahá’í endeavor. The contributions they are making to the execution of the Four Year Plan are ample evidence of the maturation taking place. This impressive record stands as a testimony to the diligence and wisdom with which the Teaching Center has guided their efforts.
The enclosed overview of the duties assigned to your institution, expressed in broad terms, will provide the general framework for your operations. The focus of your work will, of course, be determined by the specific requirements of the Faith at any given period in its development.
In the matter of protection, the current procedures for determining the expulsion and reinstatement of Covenant-breakers remain unchanged, and you will continue to exercise the responsibility for evaluating the reports of the Counselors and submitting your decision in each case to us for our consideration and approval before it is announced.
In recent years, opposition to the Cause has taken forms unfamiliar to the Bahá’í community, and this poses new challenges to your institution. You will have to take measures to help the Counselors to develop, in collaboration with National Spiritual Assemblies, the ability to detect these subtle attacks and to counter their negative influence. In this connection, their efforts to encourage promising young scholars and promote within the Bahá’í community an appropriate appreciation of intellectual attainment will represent yet another invaluable service to the Cause.
In the field of propagation, during the first two years of this term, you need to center your energies on the prosecution of the Four Year Plan. This is a decisive moment in the history of the world and in the fortunes of the Faith, and it is apparent that the Bahá’í community has become endowed with a new strength. The Bahá’ís of the world have their eyes fixed on one single aim. In order to significantly advance the process of entry by troops, they have been asked to concentrate on the discharge of two immediate tasks: to multiply the human resources of the Cause on an unprecedented scale and, in ever-increasing numbers, to devote themselves to teaching. Since the commencement of the Plan, the friends everywhere have been laboring assiduously, acquiring the powers needed to accomplish these tasks. Through the imaginative use of the means at your disposal, you will be able to reinforce their exertions and ensure that they forge ahead with vision and resolve.
To this end, it will be important for the Teaching Center to keep careful watch over the progress being made worldwide, analyzing the situation of the Faith region by region and, if necessary, in specific countries. In this way, you can determine the extent to which the capacity of each national community to promote the process of entry by troops is being developed and exercised. You will be able to identify specific needs, for example, in the strengthening of institutes, in the implementation of teaching projects, and in the production and distribution of literature, and to respond to them by making recommendations to us, offering advice to the Counselors, deploying pioneers and traveling teachers, and disbursing financial resources.
Throughout the world, evidences multiply of a new energy at work in the life of the Cause. You have every reason to feel confident of the ability of your institution to help the friends seize the extraordinary possibilities thus opening before them. Be sure of our ardent prayers that Bahá’u’lláh will confirm you in this great endeavor.