The Baha'i World, Vol. 18, Part 4: The Hands of the Cause of God and the Extension of the4ir Functions into the Future
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I I
THE HANDS OF THE CAUSE OF GOD
1. THE HANDS OF THE CAUSE OF GOD AND THE EXTENSION OF THEIR FUNCTIONS INTO THE FUTURE
A. THE RULERS AND THE LEARNED
IN every society and community of human beings are those who are revered for their learning and wisdom, and there are those who are invested with authority to govern. In religious communities it has been usual for the legislative and governing authority to be held by the learned who have thus, as priests or as doctors of religious law, combined both capacities in the same persons. Other communities have, only too often, been riven by the conflict between church and state, between priests and kings, or, in more modern terms, between intellectuals and the establishment. In the World Order of Bah‡`u'll‡h these two extremes, of the over-concentration of authority on the one hand and of division and conflict on the other, are eliminated. The way this is achieved is one of the unique features of that Order and confers unimagined benefits upon the Bah‡`’ community.
In the Kit‡b-i-`Ahd (the Book of the Covenant) Bah‡`u'll‡h wrote, Blessed are the rulers and the learned in Bah‡. The Guardian, interpreting this passage, stated on 4 November 1931:
In this holy cycle the `learned' are, on the one hand the Hands of the Cause of God and, on the other, the teachers and diffusers of His teachings who do not rank as Hands, but who have attained an eminent position in the teaching work. As to the `rulers' they refer to the members of the Local, National and International Houses of Justice. The duties of each of these souls will be determined in the future. (Translated from the Persian.)
Since those words were written the Bah‡`’ Administrative Order has developed rapidly and is now functioning throughout the world. Under the supreme authority of the revealed Law of God the Bah‡`’ community is governed by its elected institutions: Local and National Spiritual Assemblies and the Universal House of Justice, while the institutions of the `learned', which exercise no governing authority over the believers, are accorded an exalted rank which enables them to exert their beneficent influence over all parts of the community. Commenting on this feature of the Bah‡`’ Administrative Order, the Universal House of Justice wrote in its message of 24 April 1972:
The existence of institutions of such exalted rank, comprising individuals who play such a vital role, who yet have no legislative, administrative or judicial authority, and are entirely devoid of priestly functions or the right to make authoritative interpretations, is a feature of Bah‡`’ administration unparalleled in the religions of the past . . .
Developing this theme, the Universal House of Justice referred in that same message to a letter written on behalf of the Guardian on 14 March 1927, to the Spiritual Assembly of Istanbul, in which he expounded the Bah‡`’ principle of action by majority vote. In this letter Shoghi Effendi points out how, in the past, it was certain individuals who `accounted themselves as superior in knowledge and elevated in position' who caused division, and that it was those `who pretended to be the most distinguished of all' who `always proved themselves to be the source of contention'. He praises God that Bah‡`u'll‡h had withdrawn authority from `the unyielding and dictatorial views of the learned and the wise', rejected the assertions of individuals, even though recognized as the most accomplished and learned among men, as authoritative criteria, and `ordained that all matters be referred to authorized centres and assemblies'. Thus the institutions of the learned in the Bah‡`’ Faith, while invested with high rank and exercising invaluable moral authority and influence, have no executive
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power other than in the direction of their own institutions. The difficulty of establishing a clear understanding of this administrative concept, new in the history of religion, is reflected in the concluding passage of the message of the Universal House of Justice, of 24 April 1972, quoted above:
. . . The newness and uniqueness of this concept make it difficult to grasp; only as the Bah‡`’ community grows and the believers are increasingly able to contemplate its administrative structure uninfluenced by concepts from past ages, will the vital interdependence of the `rulers' and `learned' in the Faith be properly understood, and the inestimable value of their interaction be fully recognised.
Only now, as these two arms of the world-embracing system of Bah‡`u'll‡h begin to function in their separate but complimentary roles towards a common achievement, are intimations caught of the divine beneficence of that system.
B. THE HANDS OF THE CAUSE OF GOD
Bah‡`u'll‡h Himself created the institution of the Hands of the Cause and appointed a few of His followers to serve Him as Hands in His own lifetime. In the Tablet of the World He refers to the Hands of the Cause in words descriptive of the station of service to which they are called:
Light and glory, greeting and praise be upon the Hands of His Cause through whom the light of fortitude hath shone forth and the truth hath been established that the authority to choose rests with God, the Powerful, the Mighty, the Unconstrained, through whom the ocean of bounty hath surged and the fragrance of the gracious favours of God, the Lord of mankind, hath been diffused. We beseech Him-- Exalted is He--to shield them through the power of His hosts, to protect them through the potency of His dominion and to aid them through His indomitable strength which prevaileth over all created things. Sovereignty is God's, the Creator of the heavens and the Lord of the Kingdom of Names.
The Will and Testament of `Abdu'l-Bah‡ contains many references to the Hands of the Cause, including explicit definitions of their station and functions, as well as various admonitions addressed to them:
Salutation and praise, blessing and glory rest . . . upon the Hands of the Cause of God that have diffused widely the Divine Fragrances, declared His Proofs, proclaimed His Faith, published abroad His Law, detached themselves from all things but Him, stood for righteousness in this world, and kindled the Fire of the Love of God in the very hearts and souls of His servants; . . . the Hands of the Cause of God must be ever watchful and so soon as they find anyone beginning to oppose and protest against the Guardian of the Cause of God cast him out from the congregation of the people of Bah‡ and in no wise accept any excuse from him . . . . . . The Hands of the Cause of God must elect from their own number nine persons that shall at all times be occupied in the important services in the work of the Guardian of the Cause of God. The election of these nine must be carried either unanimously or by majority from the company of the Hands of the Cause of God and these, whether unanimously or by a majority vote, must give their assent to the choice of the one whom the Guardian of the Cause of God hath chosen as his successor . . . O friends! The Hands of the Cause of God must be nominated and appointed by the Guardian of the Cause of God. All must be under his shadow and obey his command. . . . The obligations of the Hands of the Cause of God are to diffuse the Divine Fragrances, to edify the souls of men, to promote learning, to improve the character of all men and to be, at all times and under all conditions, sanctified and detached from earthly things. They must manifest the fear of God by their conduct, their manners, their deeds and their words. This body of the Hands of the Cause of God is under the direction of the Guardian of the Cause of God. He must continually urge them to strive and endeavour to the utmost of their ability to diffuse the sweet savours of God, and to guide all the peoples of the world, for it is the light of Divine Guidance that causeth all the universe to be illumined. To disregard, though it be for a moment, this absolute command which is binding upon everyone, is in no wise permitted, that the surface of the earth may become heavenly, that contention and conflict amidst peoples, kindreds, nations and governments may disappear, that all the dwellers on earth may become one people and one race, that the world may become even as one home.
`Abdu'l-Bah‡ did not Himself appoint any additional Hands of the Cause. He did, however, refer to certain outstanding teachers of the Faith as Hands. During the first three decades of his ministry as Guardian of the Faith, Shoghi Effendi
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designated certain outstanding Bah‡`’s as Hands posthumously. Then, in December 1951, he raised twelve living believers to this exalted rank, a development of the Administrative Order which thrilled the entire Bah‡`’ world. In February 1952 he appointed a further seven, and in 1957 eight more, bringing the total number to twenty-seven.1 In these brief six years the Guardian not only established this institution on a firm foundation throughout the world, with a body of four Hands of the Cause residing in the Holy Land to act as the liaison between himself and the Hands in each continent, but he brought into being in each continent two Auxiliary Boards, one for the protection and one for the propagation of the Faith, to act as the `assistants, deputies and advisors' of the Hands of that continent. The epic story of how in November 1957, the Hands of the Cause of God, called by the Guardian the `Chief Stewards of Bah‡`u'll‡h's embryonic World Commonwealth', rallied the grief-stricken and stunned Bah‡`’s of the world, guided them to the victorious accomplishment of the Ten Year Crusade which he had launched, and convened the members of the National Spiritual Assemblies for the first election of the Universal House of Justice in April 1963, has been told in befitting detail in Volume XIII of this publication.
C. THE CONTINENTAL BOARDS OF COUNSELLORS
The establishment of the Universal House of Justice in 1963 ushered in a new phase in the evolution of the institution of the Hands of the Cause. In October 1963 the House of Justice decided `that there is no way to appoint or legislate to make it possible to appoint a second Guardian to succeed Shoghi Effendi'. Therefore, among the first questions which it was necessary for it then to consider were the manner in which the institution of the Hands of the Cause was to continue to perform its appointed functions, the relationship which should exist between the House of Justice and the Hands of the Cause, and how the indispensable functions of the Hands of the Cause could be extended into the future, since, according to the text of the Will and Testament of `Abdu'l-Bah‡, The Hands of the Cause of God must be nominated and appointed by the Guardian of the Cause of God. Following consultation with a conclave of the Hands in October-November 1964, the Universal House of Justice announced to the believers in its message of November 1964 the following decisions:
There is no way to appoint, or to legislate to make it possible to appoint, Hands of the Cause of God.
Responsibility for decisions on matters of general policy affecting the institution of the Hands of the Cause, which was formerly exercised by the beloved Guardian, now devolves upon the Universal House of Justice as the supreme and central institution of the Faith to which all must turn.
That same message announced increases in the number of the members of the Auxiliary Boards for propagation in every continent, and the Hands were requested to appoint one or more members of each Auxiliary Board to act in an executive capacity on their behalf and in the name of each Hand, for the direction of the work of the Boards. The message continued:
The exalted rank and specific functions of the Hands of the Cause of God make it inappropriate for them to be elected or appointed to administrative institutions, or to be elected as delegates to national conventions. Furthermore, it is their desire and the desire of the House of Justice that they be free to devote their entire energies to the vitally important duties conferred upon them in the Holy Writings.
At the same time the House of Justice confirmed the request of the Hands of the Cause that, henceforth, members of the Auxiliary Boards should be freed from administrative responsibilities, including service on committees and as delegates to conventions. On 21 June 1968 the House of Justice announced by cable to the Bah‡`’ world the decision to establish eleven Continental Boards of Counsellors for the protection and propagation of the Faith and, in a written message issued on 24 June, outlined in detail the nature and scope of this action. Because of its great significance to the evolution of the Administrative Order, the entire text of this message is quoted:
1 See `The Institution of the Hands of the Cause of God', The Bah‡`’ World, vol. XIII, p. 334.
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The majestic unfoldment of Bah‡`u'll‡h's world-redeeming administrative system has been marked by the successive establishment of the various institutions and agencies which constitute the framework of that divinely-created Order. Thus, more than a quarter-of-a-century after the emergence of the first National Spiritual Assemblies of the Bah‡`’ world the institution of the Hands of the Cause of God was formally established, with the appointment by the beloved Guardian, in conformity with the provisions of `Abdu'l-Bah‡'s Will and Testament, of the first contingent of these high-ranking officers of the Faith. Following the passing of the Guardian of the Cause of God, it fell to the House of Justice to devise a way, within the Administrative Order, of developing `the institution of the Hands of the Cause with a view to extension into the future of its appointed functions of protection and propagation', and this was made a goal of the Nine Year Plan. Much thought and study has been given to the question over the past four years, and the texts have been collected and reviewed. During the last two months, this goal, as announced in our cable to the National Conventions, has been the object of prolonged and prayerful consultation between the Universal House of Justice and the Hands of the Cause of God. All this made evident the framework within which this goal was to be achieved, namely:
The Universal House of Justice sees no way in which additional Hands of the Cause of God can be appointed.
The absence of the Guardian of the Faith brought about an entirely new relationship between the Universal House of Justice and the Hands of the Cause and called for the progressive unfoldment by the Universal House of Justice of the manner in which the Hands of the Cause would carry out their divinely-conferred functions of protection and propagation.
Whatever new development or institution is initiated should come into operation as soon as possible in order to reinforce and supplement the work of the Hands of the Cause while at the same time taking full advantage of the opportunity of having the Hands themselves assist in launching and guiding the new procedures.
Any such institution must grow and operate in harmony with the principles governing the functioning of the institution of the Hands of the Cause of God.
In the light of these considerations the Universal House of Justice decided, as announced in its recent cable, to establish Continental Boards of Counsellors for the protection and propagation of the Faith. Their duties will include directing the Auxiliary Boards in their respective areas, consulting and collaborating with National Spiritual Assemblies, and keeping the Hands of the Cause and the Universal House of Justice informed concerning the conditions of the Cause in their areas. Initially eleven Boards of Counsellors have been appointed, one for each of the following areas: Northwestern Africa, Central and East Africa, Southern Africa, North America, Central America, South America, Western Asia, Southeastern Asia, Northeastern Asia, Australasia and Europe.
The members of these Boards of Counsellors will serve for a term, or terms, the length of which will be determined and announced at a later date, and while serving in this capacity, will not be eligible for membership on national or local administrative bodies. One member of each Continental Board of Counsellors has been designated as Trustee of the Continental Fund for its area. The Auxiliary Boards for protection and propagation will henceforth report to the Continental Boards of Counsellors who will appoint or replace members of the Auxiliary Boards as circumstances may require. Such appointments and replacements as may be necessary in the initial stages will take place after consultation with the Hand or Hands previously assigned to the continent or zone.
The Hands of the Cause of God have the prerogative and obligation to consult with the Continental Boards of Counsellors and National Spiritual Assemblies on any subject which, in their view, affects the interests of the Cause. The Hands residing in the Holy Land will act as liaison between the Universal House of Justice and the Continental Boards of Counsellors, and will also assist the Universal House of Justice in setting up, at a propitious time, an international teaching centre in the Holy Land, as anticipated in the Guardian's writings. The Hands of the Cause of God are one of the most precious assets the Bah‡`’ world possesses. Released from administration of the Auxiliary Boards, they will be able to concentrate their energies on the more primary responsibilities of general protection and propagation, `preservation of the spiritual health of the Bah‡`’ communities' and `the vitality of the faith' of the Bah‡`’s throughout the world. The House of Justice will call upon them to undertake special missions on its behalf, to represent it on both Bah‡`’ and other occasions and to keep it informed of the welfare of the Cause. While the Hands of the Cause will, naturally, have special concern for the affairs of the Cause in the areas in which they reside, they will operate increasingly on an intercontinental level, a factor which will lend tremendous impetus to the diffusion throughout the Bah‡`’ world of the spiritual inspiration channelled through them--the Chief Stewards of Bah‡`u'll‡h's embryonic World Commonwealth. With joyful hearts we proclaim this further
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unfoldment of the Administrative Order of Bah‡`u'll‡h and join our prayers to those of the friends throughout the East and the West that Bah‡`u'll‡h may continue to shower his confirmations upon the efforts of His servants in the safeguarding and propagation of His Faith.
A clarification of the status of Counsellors and their relationship to National Spiritual Assemblies was made by the House of Justice in a letter to a National Spiritual Assembly in May 1975:
. . . (it) must be one of warm and active collaboration, a full sharing in the excitement and the challenge of the teaching work and the establishment of living and growing Bah‡`’ communities . . . While the role of the Counsellors is normally to advise, encourage and reinforce, and they have no legislative or administrative authority, they nevertheless occupy a rank superior to that of the National Assembly or its members and each individual Counsellor is a high officer of the Faith entitled to the respect, honour and courtesy due to his rank. Each country which is privileged to have a resident Counsellor should prize that privilege. Each National Assembly which has a Counsellor at hand for frequent consultations should, without relinquishing any portion of its divinely assigned authority, call upon him often for his views and accord great weight to his advice.
On 8 June 1973 a further directive was sent to the Continental Boards of Counsellors which answered the need discussed by the Counsellors during their sessions in the Holy Land, at the time of the International Convention of that year, for some method to enable their institution to reach more deeply into the fabric of the Bah‡`’ world community. The House of Justice authorized each Board of Counsellors, at its discretion, to permit Auxiliary Board members to appoint assistants, whose duties would be to activate and encourage Local Spiritual Assemblies, to call the attention of Local Spiritual Assembly members to the importance of regular meetings, to encourage local communities to gather for Nineteen Day Feasts and Holy Days, to help deepen their fellow-believers' understanding of the teachings, and generally to assist the Auxiliary Board members in the discharge of their duties. The advice, at that time, was to proceed gradually with this new step so that experience could indicate the most effective manner of its operation. Since then, as a result of the proven value of this expanded service, appointments of assistants in each zone have been steadily and rapidly augmented. The letter of 8 June 1973 stated that `believers can serve at the same time both as assistants to Auxiliary Board members and on administrative institutions'. Adjustments to the number of Continental Boards of Counsellors are made as the Universal House of Justice deems necessary, entailing adjustments to zones assigned to the Boards, to the numbers of Counsellors and to the numbers of Auxiliary Boards and Auxiliary Board members.1 Thus the institution operates at all levels throughout the world, reaching into the basic structure of local community life and exerting its encouraging and uplifting influence upon the lives of individuals and the deliberations of institutions, constantly watching over the security of the Faith, pointing the way to the promotion of its best interests, and to the ever wider dissemination of its healing message.
D. THE INTERNATIONAL TEACHING CENTRE
Assurance of the extension into the future of the appointed functions of protection and propagation conferred upon the Hands of the Cause was accomplished by the establishment of the Continental Boards of Counsellors. However, that vital goal having been accomplished, the problem remained of ordering the work of the new institution so that it would grow organically with the Faith itself. In a letter addressed to all National Spiritual Assemblies on 24 June 1968 the Universal House of Justice confirmed that `the relationship of Continental Boards of Counsellors to National Spiritual Assemblies will follow the pattern of the relationship between the Hands of the Cause and National Spiritual Assemblies, outlined by the beloved Guardian in various communications'. The cablegram addressed by the Universal House of Justice to all National Spiritual
1 In November 1980 the thirteen Boards of Counsellors were consolidated into five, each Continental Board having two Auxiliary Boards, one for protection and one for propagation; and each Auxiliary Board member having assistants as needed and authorized.
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Assemblies on 21 June 1968 announcing the establishment of Continental Boards of Counsellors had contained a reference to the `future establishment international teaching centre Holy Land foreshadowed writings beloved Guardian.'
In October 1971 the Hands of the Cause were notified that after the International Convention for the election of the Universal House of Justice during Ridv‡n 1973, their presence in the Holy Land for a period of time in order to consult on a number of important subjects would be most welcome. The foremost topic would be the establishment of the international teaching centre about which the Hands had previously been requested to submit their written views. The Universal House of Justice, in its letter to the Hands of the Cause in October 1971, cited, amongst others, the following three quotations from the Guardian which anticipated the evolution of the World Administrative Centre of the Faith on Mount Carmel and the establishment there of an international teaching centre as the seat of the Hands of the Cause of God:
. . . it must be clearly understood, nor can it be sufficiently emphasized, that the conjunction of the resting-place of the Greatest Holy Leaf with those of her brother and mother incalculably reinforces the spiritual potencies of that consecrated Spot which, under the wings of the B‡b's overshadowing Sepulchre, and in the vicinity of the future Mashriqu'l-Adhk‡r, which will be reared on its flank, is destined to evolve into the focal centre of those world-shaking, world-embracing, world-directing administrative institutions, ordained by Bah‡`u'll‡h and anticipated by `Abdu'l-Bah‡, and which are to function in consonance with the principles which govern the twin institutions of the Guardianship and the Universal House of Justice. Then, and then only, will this momentous prophecy which illuminates the concluding passages of the Tablet of Carmel be fulfilled: Ere long will God sail His Ark upon thee (Carmel) and will manifest the people of Bah‡ who have been mentioned in the Book of Names.1
In this great Tablet which unveils divine mysteries and heralds the establishment of two mighty, majestic and momentous undertakings--one of which is spiritual and the other administrative, both at the World Centre of the Faith--Bah‡`u'll‡h refers to an `Ark', whose dwellers are the men of the Supreme House of Justice, which, in conformity with the exact provisions of the Will and Testament of the Centre of the Mighty Covenant is the body which should lay down laws not explicitly revealed in the Text. In this Dispensation, these laws are destined to flow from this holy mountain, even as in the Mosaic Dispensation the law of God was promulgated from Zion. The `sailing of the Ark' of His laws is a reference to the establishment of the Universal House of Justice, which is indeed the Seat of Legislation, one of the branches of the World Administrative Centre of the Bah‡`’s on this holy mountain. It will be housed in a separate building near the International Archives building, now under construction, on a site in the neighbourhood of the Shrine of the B‡b, and overlooking the sacred and illumined Monuments. In the neighbourhood of these two stately edifices and two mighty Institutions (i.e. the Archives Building and the edifice for the House of Justice), another edifice will gradually be erected which will be the Seat of the Guardianship, the Centre which will interpret, expound and prepare commentaries on explicitly revealed laws, and will reinforce and supplement the legislative body. Yet another edifice to supplement these three edifices will be the Centre for the propagation and teaching of the Faith, the Seat for the Hands of the Cause, who, in accordance with the explicit text of the Will and Testament are charged with the security, the preservation and protection of the Cause, the safeguarding of the unity of the community, the promotion of God's religion and the spread of His Word. These majestic and mighty edifices, which will be constructed gradually in accordance with a beautiful and unique style of architecture around the sacred Monuments, are all considered as branches of this highly-exalted, firmly-grounded and broadly-based World Administrative Centre of the followers of the Cause of Him Who is the Lord of this Age and the Ruler of Creation.2
The raising of this edifice (International Bah‡`’ Archives) will in turn herald the construction, in the course of successive epochs of the Formative Age of the Faith, of several other structures, which will serve as the administrative seats of such divinely appointed institutions as the Guardianship, the Hands of the Cause, and the Universal House of Justice. These edifices will, in the shape of a far-flung arc, and following a harmonizing style of architecture, surround the resting places of the Greatest Holy Leaf, ranking as foremost among the members of her sex in the Bah‡`’ Dispensation, of her brother, offered up as a ransom by Bah‡`u'll‡h for the quickening of the world and its unification, and of their mother, proclaimed by Him to be His chosen `consort in all the worlds of God'. The ultimate completion of this stupendous undertaking will mark the culmination of
1 Shoghi Effendi, letter to the National Spiritual Assembly of the United States, 21 December 1939; see Messages to America, pp. 32-33. 2 Shoghi Effendi, letter in Persian to the Bah‡`’s of the East, Naw-Rœz 111 (1954).
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the development of a world-wide divinely-appointed Administrative Order whose beginnings may be traced as far back as the concluding years of the heroic Age of the Faith.1
On 5 June 1973, following the International Convention and the consultations with the Hands of the Cause, and less than a month after the Counsellors had left the Holy Land to resume their services within their zones, the following announcement was cabled by the Universal House of Justice to all National Spiritual Assemblies:
ANNOUNCE ESTABLISHMENT HOLY LAND LONG ANTICIPATED INTERNATIONAL TEACHING CENTRE DESTINED EVOLVE INTO ONE THOSE WORLD SHAKING WORLD EMBRACING WORLD DIRECTING ADMINISTRATIVE INSTITUTIONS ORDAINED BY BAHA`U'LLAH ANTICIPATED BY `ABDU'L-BAHA ELUCIDATED BY SHOGHI EFFENDI STOP MEMBERSHIP THIS NASCENT INSTITUTION COMPRISES ALL HANDS CAUSE GOD AND INITIALLY THREE COUNSELLORS WHO WITH HANDS PRESENT HOLY LAND WILL CONSTITUTE NUCLEUS ITS VITAL OPERATIONS STOP CALLING UPON HOOPER DUNBAR FLORENCE MAYBERRY AZIZ YAZDI PROCEED HOLY LAND ASSUME THIS HIGHLY MERITORIOUS SERVICE STOP OFFERING PRAYERS HEARTFELT GRATITUDE SACRED THRESHOLD THIS FURTHER EVIDENCE ORGANIC EVOLUTION ADMINISTRATIVE ORDER BAHA`U'LLAH.
It was followed three days later by this expanded announcement to the Bah‡`’s of the world:
The centennial year of the revelation of the Kit‡b-i-Aqdas has already witnessed events of such capital significance in the annals of the Bah‡`’ Dispensation as to cause us to contemplate with awe the rapidity with which Divine Providence is advancing the Cause of the Most Great Name. The time is indeed propitious for the establishment of the International Teaching Centre, a development which, at one and the same time, brings to fruition the work of the Hands of the Cause residing in the Holy Land and provides for its extension into the future, links the institution of the Boards of Counsellors even more intimately with that of the Hands of the Cause of God, and powerfully reinforces the discharge of the rapidly growing responsibilities of the Universal House of Justice. This International Teaching Centre now established will, in due course, operate from that building designated by the Guardian as the Seat for the Hands of the Cause, which must be raised on the arc on Mount Carmel in close proximity to the Seat of the Universal House of Justice.
The duties now assigned to this nascent institution are:
To co-ordinate, stimulate and direct the activities of the Continental Boards of Counsellors and to act as liaison between them and the Universal House of Justice.
To be fully informed of the situation of the Cause in all parts of the world and to be able, from the background of this knowledge, to make reports and recommendations to the Universal House of Justice and give advice to the Continental Boards of Counsellors.
To be alert to possibilities, both within and without the Bah‡`’ community, for the extension of the teaching work into receptive or needy areas, and to draw the attention of the Universal House of Justice and the Continental Boards of Counsellors to such possibilities, making recommendations for action.
To determine and anticipate needs for literature, pioneers and travelling teachers and to work out teaching plans, both regional and global, for the approval of the Universal House of Justice.
All the Hands of the Cause of God will be members of the International Teaching Centre. Each Hand will be kept regularly informed of the activities of the Centre through reports or copies of its minutes, and will be able, wherever he may be residing or travelling, to convey suggestions, recommendations and information to the Centre and, whenever he is in the Holy Land, to take part in the consultations and other activities of the Centre.
In addition, we now appoint Mr. Hooper Dunbar, Mrs. Florence Mayberry and Mr. `Az’z Yazd’ to membership of the International Teaching Centre, with the rank of Counsellor. These believers, who have been serving with distinction on the Continental Boards of Counsellors in South America, North America and Central and East Africa respectively, will henceforth reside in Haifa and will, together with the Hands present in the Holy Land, constitute the nucleus of the operations of the Centre. Authority for the expulsion and reinstatement of Covenant-breakers remains with the Hands of the Cause of God. All such matters will be investigated locally by the relative Continental Board of Counsellors in consultation with any Hand or Hands who may be in the area. The Continental Board of Counsellors and the Hands concerned will then make their reports to the International Teaching Centre where they will be considered.. The decision whether or not to expel or reinstate will be made by the Hands of the Cause residing in the Holy Land who will, as at
1 Shoghi Effendi, letter to the Bah‡`’s of the world, 27 November 1954; see Messages to the Bah‡`’ World, p. 74.
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present, submit their decision to the Universal House of Justice for approval. . .
The decisions now announced are the outcome of deliberation extending over a number of years, reinforced by consultations with the Hands of the Cause of God, and especially with the Hands residing in the Holy Land who were requested in 1968 to assist the Universal House of Justice in the establishment of the International Teaching Centre, a task that now increases in magnitude as that Centre begins its work.
One of the first tasks assigned by the Universal House of Justice to the International Teaching Centre was to devise the broad outlines of the global teaching plan to begin at Ridv‡n 1974 and conclude five years later at Ridv‡n 1979. This comprehensive and detailed survey of the entire Bah‡`’ world community provided an opportunity for the Teaching Centre to become thoroughly acquainted with the conditions, needs and potentialities of the one hundred and thirteen national Bah‡`’ communities which made up the Bah‡`’ international community at Ridv‡n 1973. A greatly increased flow of vital information from the Continental Boards of Counsellors was called for by the International Teaching Centre, which promised, in turn, the development of an increasingly close relationship between itself and the Boards through a similarly increased flow of materials from the Teaching Centre. At the request of the House of Justice the Teaching Centre also evolved a plan for international collaboration on travelling teaching projects.
The divinely ordained institution of the Hands of the Cause of God, having been brought into active reality by the Guardian of the Faith according to the directives of `Abdu'l-Bah‡'s Will and Testament was confronted in its infancy with an appalling crisis in the life of that Faith whose protection was its prime duty. During the interregnum between the passing of the Guardian and the election of the Universal House of Justice, the Hands of the Cause as its Chief Stewards, maintained the integrity and unity of the Faith. The functions of protection and propagation appointed to this great institution have now been extended into the future in a manner consonant with the principles of the Faith. The Continental Boards of Counsellors with their attendant Auxiliary Boards for protection and propagation, the assistants to the Auxiliary Board members, all co-ordinated and kept in relationship to the Universal House of Justice by the International Teaching Centre, form the fabric of the appointive arm of the Administrative Order of the Faith, which will in increasing measure exert its spiritualizing influence upon the development of the Bah‡`’ community and of all mankind.
Picture at Bottom of the Page with the Caption: The Hand of the Cause `Al’-Akbar Furœtan with delegates to the Fifth International Convention from Taiwan.