Dear Baha'i friends,
Our Ridvan message this year called attention to the
impending fiftieth anniversary of the passing of 'Abdu'l-Baha, "an event
which signalized at once the end of the Heroic Age of our Faith, the opening of
the Formative Age and the birth of the Administrative Order, the nucleus and
pattern of the World Order of Baha'u'llah."
We now call upon all National Spiritual Assemblies to
formulate and implement plans designed to educate the friends everywhere in
their understanding of the significance of the Formative Age of our Faith. As
an aid to this programme we attach extracts from the writings of the beloved
Guardian on this general theme, and we suggest that these and similar excerpts
from the Writings be studied and expounded at the forthcoming Summer Schools,
at special sessions of Teaching Institutes, at conferences of the friends, and
indeed on any occasions which you may deem suitable.
We leave it
to you to use the wonderful material bequeathed to us by the beloved Guardian
on this theme in whatever manner you deem best for your own communities. The
study and understanding of this subject will immensely strengthen the faith of
the believers as well as their ability to present the message to a waiting
world.
With loving Baha'i greetings,
The Universal House of Justice
Extracts from the Writings of Shoghi Effendi on the
Significance of the Formative Age of our Faith
