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Notes:
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Paul Lample, comp.
ContentsBe anxiously concerned with the needs of the age ye live in, and center your deliberations on its exigencies and requirements. page iv page vi is intentionally blank page vii PrefaceEach year the Bahá'í world receives a wonderful gift at Ridván. That gift is a message from the Universal House of Justice, the Supreme Body of Bahá'u'lláh's new World Order, the "source of all good" that is "freed from all error." Upon receiving this gift we admire its beauty and hungrily take our portion from the spiritual sustenance it contains. We find within the letter pearls of wisdom and guidance that we can apply to the challenges and opportunities facing us in our various arenas of service. The guidance of the Universal House of Justice offers us encouragement in our successes, advice for improving our weaknesses, and directives for undertaking what lies ahead. We study the letter for such advice, and strive the best we can to implement its guidance. There is another level from which we might view any letter we receive from the Universal House of Justice. Rather than seeing the letter as an isolated message, we can consider it a part of a continuous flow of guidance that comes from the Supreme Body. In this light, a letter provides an orientation to the Bahá'í world of its challenges and opportunities in relation to the accomplishments of the past and with a vision of the future. Major themes raised in a previous letter are explored anew, examined in more detail, and eventually summarized and concluded. The reader begins to see the sweep of history in which the Faith overcomes obstacles and achieves new levels in its organic growth. The seed planted by the Universal House of Justice in one message is carefully watered by guidance in subsequent messages until it finally bears fruit. The world community is able to see how its efforts to follow the instructions of the House of Justice provide the victories of future years — often in ways that could not be envisioned at the start. page viii The central purpose of this book is to help the reader acquire this sense of continuity when reading and studying the messages of the Universal House of Justice. It is also hoped that the reader will acquire a specific understanding of the significance of the past decade in the evolution of the Faith and of the major challenges that the Faith is facing today in order to be able to more effectively serve its needs. For it is clear in the messages that follow that the Cause of God, pursuing its inherent nature of organic growth and development, is quite a different entity than it was in 1983. It has radically changed in its stature in the eyes of the world; it has grown dramatically; it has brought to a close tasks of expansion pursued since 1954; and it has had to grapple with new demands for maturity in the operation of its institutions, in its involvement in the life of society, and in its fundamental processes of expansion and consolidation. This book might be considered a cross between a standard book of messages, a compilation, and a study guide. Part I offers 23 messages, including all of the Ridván messages from 1983-1992 and selected letters that explore in more detail some of the themes raised in the Ridván messages. This section does not replace the need for the production, in the future, of a more exhaustive compilation of letters to cover this time period, for many important messages are not included because of the specific nature of this book. Among the most obvious are the 1985 statement on peace and the December 29, 1988 letter to the American Bahá'ís, written to assist them, as individuals and institutions, to achieve a greater understanding of individual rights and freedom of expression in the Bahá'í community. Part II of this book provides a compilation based on major themes raised in the letters in Part I. It thus replicates thematically the content of the messages, although a number of extracts of other letters written page ix by the Universal House of Justice or on its behalf have been used to further develop the themes. Finally, an appendix is included with questions and activities that could be used for individual or group study of the letters. In its Ridván 1983 message the Universal House of Justice noted that "a wider horizon is opening before us" in which "can be discerned not only our immediate tasks but, more dimly, new pursuits and undertakings upon which we must shortly become engaged." Thus the stage was set for the dramatic changes that altered the condition of the world and the Bahá'í community in the short span of nine years. The start of such changes, however, might more accurately be traced to a point just a few months earlier, which together with the sacrifices of the believers in Iran, surely upset the spiritual equilibrium of the entire creation. On February 1, 1983 the Universal House of Justice announced to the Bahá'í world that the Supreme Body had occupied its newly-constructed seat on Mt. Carmel. "This auspicious event," the House of Justice informed us, "signalizes another phase" in the process of the fulfillment of "sailing God's Ark" on the "mountain of the Lord" as anticipated by Bahá'u'lláh in the Tablet of Carmel. The Supreme Body continued: "LET ALL REJOICE. LET PRAISES ANCIENT BEAUTY RESOUND. MAY UNRELENTING EFFORTS FRIENDS EVERYWHERE HASTEN ADVENT THAT DAY WHEN WONDROUS POTENTIALITIES ENSHRINED IN TABLET CARMEL WILL BE FULLY REVEALED AND WHEN FROM GOD'S HOLY MOUNTAIN, AS ENVISAGED BY BELOVED GUARDIAN, WILL STREAM FORTH RIVERS OF LAWS AND ORDINANCES WITH ALL-CONQUERING POWER AND MAJESTY." Just four years later the Universal House of Justice noted that "already we see the effect of the spiritual energies which the page x completion of the Seat of the Universal House of Justice has released, and the new impulse this has given to the advancement of the Faith." This book offers a record of those changes, and a prelude to the future "transformations" that "will be effected as a result of the completion of each successive stage of this great enterprise." By the time you read this book, new messages that extend the vision of the Universal House of Justice will have appeared. It is hoped that, as a result of the study of this book, such messages will be viewed with a new eye and a new understanding.
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METADATA | (contact us to help add metadata) |
VIEWS | 42027 views since posted 2002; last edit 2012; previous at archive.org.../uhj_wider_horizon; URLs changed in 2010, see archive.org.../bahai-library.org |
PERMISSION | open copyright |
HISTORY | Formatted 2002-08 by T. Liebermann; Proofread 2002-08 by T. Liebermann. |
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