25 February 1986
To all National Spiritual Assemblies
Dear Baha'i friends,
On 2 January 1986, on the closing day of the Counsellors' Conference, the Universal House of Justice announced certain features of the Six Year Plan and the methods by which the national goals were to be worked out in consultation between the Counsellors and National Spiritual Assemblies. Before Ridvan you will receive a message from the Universal House of Justice to the entire Baha'i world and also one addressed specifically to the Baha'is within the jurisdiction of each National Spiritual Assembly.
In the meantime the House of Justice wishes you to begin your consultations on the goals of the Six Year Plan for your country. The preliminary steps in goal-setting have already been taken, namely the assessment of each country's strengths and weaknesses which the National Spiritual Assemblies recently made at the request of the Universal House of Justice, and which will undoubtedly be of great assistance to each one of you as you enter the next stage of the process.
The House of Justice has instructed us to send you the following additional guidelines together with the enclosed statement of the major objectives of the plan at the national level, which includes some suggestions for specific goals to provide a basis for your consultations. You should not, however, confine yourselves to those suggestions.
A special characteristic of the Six Year Plan is that the conceiving of the detailed national goals is itself to be one of the tasks of the Plan, but this fact should not hold up in any way the activities of your communities. With this letter you are being acquainted with the major objectives of the plan, and every believer, every Local Spiritual Assembly, and all the national committees can pursue immediately, with increasing vigour, many projects towards their attainment, both projects already in process and others which will be newly conceived, so that when the specific national goals for each community are announced they will be received by a united company of devoted followers of Baha'u'llah already in the full flood of activity.
It is the hope of the Universal House of Justice that each National Assembly will be able to meet before Ridvan with a representative of the Continental Board of Counsellors so that from this initial consultation a basis will be laid for consultation on the goals at the National Conventions.
Other consultations will no doubt continue following the Ridvan Festival. Their duration will depend on the condition of each national community, its size and the complexity of its circumstances. As soon as specific goals have been formulated and agreed, they should be immediately sent to the World Centre. They will then be considered by the Universal House of Justice and the International Teaching Centre, and, as soon as possible, the National Assembly will be informed of the approval or modification of its proposal. Each submission will be considered on its arrival; the earlier they arrive the better, and in no case should a submission reach the World Centre later than 1 November 1986.
Among the elements of the plan which are not covered by the list of major objectives are the goals for international assistance including pioneering, resident teaching projects, travelling teaching, assistance for development projects, and for the acquisition of properties and vehicles. Notes relating to these elements have been provided to the Continental Boards of Counsellors, who will share them with National Assemblies during the process of consultation. Since they are international in nature, these goals will have to be consolidated and approved at the World Centre before being generally announced.
Though the institutions of the Faith are responsible for planning the goals and activities of the Cause, for stimulating and encouraging the believers to arise, and for supporting and unifying them in their services, it is, in the final analysis, through the spiritual decisions and actions of the individual believers that the Faith moves forward on its course to ultimate victory. It is the ardent hope of the Universal House of Justice that every faithful follower of Baha'u'llah will search his or her heart and turn with full attention and loving self-sacrifice to the consideration of the goals of the Six Year Plan, and determine how to play a part in their achievement.
The prayers of the Universal House of Justice and the International Teaching Centre at the Sacred Threshold will surround the institutions of the Faith in every continent and nation as you assume your weighty task of conceiving the goals which will guide the national communities of the Faith through the next six years.
With loving Baha'i greetings,
Department of the Secretariat
The Six Year Plan 143-149 B.E. (1986-1992)
The major objectives of the Six Year Plan include: carrying the healing Message of Baha'u'llah to the generality of mankind; greater involvement of the Faith in the life of human society; a world-wide increase in the translation, production, distribution and use of Baha'i literature; further acceleration in the process of the maturation of national and local Baha'i communities; greater attention to universal participation and the spiritual enrichment of individual believers; a wider extension of Baha'i education to children and youth and the strengthening of Baha'i family life; and the pursuit of projects of social and economic development in well-established Baha'i communities.
Set out below are suggestions for possible ways of achieving the above objectives to act as a basis for consultation and a stimulus for thinking. National Assemblies should not confine themselves to these points if they feel that there are other matters which deserve attention.
1. Carrying the healing Message of Baha'u'llah to the generality of mankind
- Increase the number of believers from all strata of society, identifying as goals of the plan those specific sectors, minority groups, tribal peoples, etc. which are at present underrepresented in the Baha'i community and which will, therefore, be given special attention during the plan.
- Increase the number of localities where Baha'is reside, opening, in the process, virgin states, provinces, islands or other major civil subdivisions of the country.
- Seize teaching opportunities by planning projects in areas where receptivity is found, aiming at large-scale enrolment and entry by troops where possible.Be alert to opportunities for international collaboration with other Baha'i communities in the promotion of the Faith through: border teaching projects; the sending of travelling teachers; and the teaching of special groups such as those temporarily abroad for study or work, particularly those from countries which are difficult of access, such as China or countries in Eastern Europe.
- Raise up home-front pioneers and travelling or resident teachers to assist in the fulfilment of teaching goals and plans.
- Utilize mass media systems for greater proclamation.
- Make use of drama and singing in the teaching and deepening work and in Baha'i gatherings, where advisable.
2. Greater involvement of the Faith in the life of human society
- Develop the proper understanding and practice of consultation among members of the Baha'i community and in the work of Baha'i institutions, and foster the spirit of consultation in the conduct of human affairs and the resolution of conflicts at all levels of society.
- Foster association with organizations, prominent persons and those in authority concerning the promotion of peace, world order and allied objectives, with a view to offering the Baha'i teachings and insights regarding current problems and thought.
- Train suitable Baha'is to undertake public relations activities.
- Foster appreciation of the Faith in scholarly and academic circles by developing Baha'i scholarship, by endeavouring to have the Faith included in the curricula and textbooks of schools and universities, and by other means.
- Encourage Baha'i youth to move towards the front ranks of those professions, trades, arts and crafts necessary to human progress.
- Promote the establishment of Baha'i clubs in universities and other similar educational institutions.
- Foster the practice of the equality of the sexes both in the life of the Baha'i community and in society as a whole and, for this purpose, hold special conferences and training programmes for women and for men.
3. A world-wide increase in the translation, production, distribution and use of Baha'i literature
- Foster the use of Baha'i literature, especially in local languages, supplemented as need be by tape recordings and visual aids.
- Improve the distribution of Baha'i literature by taking specific steps, such as the establishment of regional depots where necessary, and the education of Local Spiritual Assemblies in the responsibilities to acquaint the friends with Baha'i literature and ensure its easy availability.
- Produce greater supplies of Baha'i literature in accordance with well-thought-out plans of translation, production and distribution.
- Produce, where required for translations into vernacular languages, simplified versions of the Sacred Scriptures, the writings of the Guardian and the statements of the Universal House of Justice.
- Establish Baha'i lending libraries.
4. Further acceleration in the process of the maturation of local and national Baha'i communities
- Adopt specific programmes to assist and encourage the development of isolated centres into groups, and groups into communities with Local Spiritual Assemblies, resulting in a steady increase of such Assemblies.
- Adopt specific goals and programmes to consolidate and strengthen Local Spiritual Assemblies, so that they will:
- Hold regular meetings with harmonious and productive consultation,
- Properly organize and conduct the work of their secretariat and treasury,
- Appoint and co-ordinate the work of local committees for special aspects of their work, such as teaching, child education, youth activities, literature distribution, etc.,
- Win the respect and confidence of their local communities so that the believers will turn to them for the resolution of problems and advice in their services to the Cause,
- Where appropriate, acquire and develop the use of local centres,
- Obtain incorporation or equivalent recognition as a legal entity,
- Exercise their responsibilities in relation to marriages, births, transfers of membership, marriages and deaths.
- Maintain registers of declarations, births, transfers of membership, marriages and deaths.
- Adopt specific goals and programmes to consolidate communities with Local Spiritual Assemblies so that the believers will be encouraged to:
- Attend regularly Nineteen Day Feasts and the observances of Baha'i Holy Days, and enhance the spiritual quality of such gatherings,
- Pursue local teaching and deepening activities,
- Foster the realization of the equality of then and women,
- Develop local activities for children and youth,
- Support the fund,
- Carry out extension teaching projects.
- Develop the functioning of National Spiritual Assemblies, adopting specific plans and programmes to:
- Improve their standard of united, productive, loving consultation,
- Develop efficiently functioning national secretariats,
- Enhance the standard of the functioning of national treasuries and promote the goal of financial independence of the national Baha'i community,
- Appoint strong national committees to carry out, under the general supervision of the National Spiritual Assembly, the many specialized aspects of the work of the Cause, including the detailed planning and prompt execution of the work necessary to achieve all the goals of the Six Year Plan.
- Acquire, where needed and feasible, national and local properties, such as Haziratu'l-Quds, teaching institutes, summer schools, Baha'i cemeteries, etc. and ensure their proper care and maintenance.
- Obtain, where legally possible, official recognition for Baha'i marriage and holy days and exemption from the payment of taxes on Baha'i institutions and their activities.
- Ensure the rapid and regular dissemination of news to all believers.
- Hold regular, well-planned and well-run summer and winter schools and conferences at costs and in localities which will permit the largest attendance.
- Encourage collaboration between or amongst Local Spiritual Assemblies in mutually agreed projects.
- Develop and administer correspondence courses for teaching and deepening.
5. Greater attention to universal participation and the spiritual enrichment of individual believers
- Promote universal participation in the life of the Faith and an increased sense of their Baha'i identity among children, youth and adults.
- Encourage, where feasible, the practice of dawn prayer.
- Encourage individual believers to adopt teaching goals for themselves.
- Carry out activities designed to deepen the believers in both a spiritual and intellectual understanding of the Cause.
- Encourage believers to make greater use of Baha'i' literature.
- Encourage the believers to enhance their command of language to assist them to understand the Baha'i writings ever more clearly.
- Develop and foster Baha'i scholarship and lend support to the Associations for Baha'i Studies.
- Foster obedience to the Baha'i laws of personal behaviour such as abstention from the drinking of alcoholic beverages and from the taking of habit-forming drugs, and inspire the believers to follow the Baha'i way of life.
6. A wider extension of Baha'i education to children and youth, and the strengthening of Baha'i family life
- Encourage the holding of regular classes for the Baha'i education of children.
- Develop systematic lesson plans and other materials for the Baha'i education of children.
- Train believers to teach Baha'i children's classes.
- Establish a programme for the guidance of parents, especially mothers, in the care and training of Baha'i children.
- Sponsor institutes on Baha'i marriage and family life.
- Encourage community activities involving Baha'i families.
7. The pursuit of projects of social and economic development in well-established Baha'i communities
- Encourage Local Spiritual Assemblies and the rank and file of the believers to consider ways in which they can advance the social and economic development of their communities.
- Establish tutorial schools and pre-schools where needed and feasible.
- Encourage and sponsor adult literacy programmes where needed, especially for women.
- Foster collaboration with other agencies involved in social and economic development in areas where the Baha'i communities can contribute to the work.
(‘Messages from the Universal House of Justice, 1963-1986’)
