Dear Baha'i friends,
A number of questions have been raised concerning the work
of the Counsellors and Auxiliary Board members, and it has been suggested that
Auxiliary Board members be permitted to work regularly with National Spiritual
Assemblies and national committees. We have carefully considered again the
various factors involved and have decided that we must uphold the principle
that such direct consultations should be exceptional rather than the rule.
It is the responsibility of Spiritual Assemblies, assisted
by their committees, to organize and direct the teaching work, and in doing so
they must, naturally, also do all they can to stimulate and inspire the
friends. It is, however, inevitable that the Assemblies and committees, being
burdened with the administration of the teaching work as well as with all other
aspects of Baha'i community life, will be unable to spend as much time as they
would wish on stimulating the believers.
Authority and direction flow from the Assemblies, whereas
the power to accomplish the tasks resides primarily in the entire body of the
believers. It is the principal task of the Auxiliary Boards to assist in
arousing and releasing this power. This is a vital activity, and if they are to
be able to perform it adequately they must avoid becoming involved in the work
of administration. For example, when Auxiliary Board members arouse believers to
pioneer, any believer who expresses his desire to do so should be referred to
the appropriate committee which will then organize the project. Counsellors and
Auxiliary Board members should not, themselves, organize pioneering or travel
teaching projects. Thus it is seen that the Auxiliary Boards should work
closely with the grass roots of the community: the individual believers, groups
and Local Spiritual Assemblies, advising, stimulating and assisting them. The
Counsellors are responsible for stimulating, counselling and assisting National
Spiritual Assemblies, and also work with individuals, groups and Local
Assemblies.
It is always possible, of course, for Counsellors to depute
an Auxiliary Board member to meet with a National Spiritual Assembly for a
particular purpose, but this should not become a regular practice. Similarly,
if the National Spiritual Assembly agrees, it may be advisable for an Auxiliary
Board member to meet occasionally with a national committee to clarify the
situation in the area and share information and ideas thoroughly. But this also
should not become regular. Were it to do so there would be grave danger of
inhibiting the proper working of these two institutions, vitiating and
undermining the collaboration that must essentially exist between the
Continental Boards of Counsellors and National Spiritual Assemblies. It would diffuse the energies and time of the
Auxiliary Board members through their becoming involved in the administration
of teaching. It could lead to the Auxiliary Board member's gradually taking
over the direction of the national committee, usurping the function of the
National Assembly, or to his becoming merely a travelling teacher sent hither
and thither at the direction of the committee or National Assembly.
It is, of course vital that information be shared fully and
promptly, as has been explained in the compilation on the work of Auxiliary
Board members that was circulated on 25 March 1969. The ways of ensuring this
should be worked out by the Counsellors and National Spiritual Assemblies and
methods may vary from area to area.
Reports and recommendations for action, however, are quite
different. Auxiliary Board members should send theirs to the Counsellors and
not, to National Assemblies or national committees directly. It is possible
that the Counsellors may reject or modify the recommendation; or, if they
accept it and pass it on to the National Spiritual Assembly, the National
Assembly may decide to refuse it. For an Auxiliary Board member to make recommendations
directly to a national committee would lose the benefit of knowledge and
experience in a wider field than that of which the Auxiliary Board member is
aware, and would short-circuit and undermine the authority of both the
Counsellors and the National Assembly.
Similarly, although an Auxiliary Board member can and should
receive information from the National Assemblies and national committees, his
primary source of information about the community should be his own direct
contacts with Local Spiritual Assemblies, groups and individual believers. In
this way the Counsellors as well as the National Spiritual Assemblies have the
benefit of two independent sources of information about the community: through
the Auxiliary Board members on the one hand, and through the national
committees on the other.
Assemblies sometimes misunderstand what is meant by the
statement that Counsellors and Auxiliary Board members are concerned with the
teaching work and not with administration. It is taken to mean that they may
not give advice on administrative matters. This is quite wrong. One of the
things that Counsellors and Auxiliary Board members should watch and report on
is the proper working of administrative institutions. The statement that they
do not have anything to do with administration means, simply, that they do not
administer. They do not direct or organize the teaching work nor do they
adjudicate in matters of personal conflict or personal problems. All these
activities fall within the sphere of responsibility of the Spiritual
Assemblies. But if an Auxiliary Board member finds a Local Spiritual Assembly
functioning incorrectly he should call its attention to the appropriate Texts;
likewise if, in his work with the community, an Auxiliary Board member finds
that the teaching work is being held up by inefficiency of national committees,
he should report this in detail to the Counsellors who will then decide whether
to refer it to the National Spiritual Assembly concerned. Similarly, if the
Counsellors find that a National Spiritual Assembly is not functioning
properly, they should not hesitate to consult with the National Spiritual
Assembly about this in a frank and loving way.
It is the Spiritual Assemblies who plan and direct the work,
but these plans should be well known to the Counsellors and Auxiliary Board
members, because one of the ways in which they can assist the Assemblies is by
urging the believers continually to support the plans of the Assemblies. If a
National Spiritual Assembly has adopted one goal as pre-eminent in a year, the
Auxiliary Board members should bear this in mind in all their contacts with the
believers and should direct their attention to the plans of the National
Assembly, and stimulate them to enthusiastically support them.
The Counsellors in each continental zone have wide latitude
in the carrying out of their work. Likewise they should give to each Auxiliary
Board member considerable freedom of action within his own allocated area.
Although the Counsellors should regularly direct the work of the Auxiliary
Board members, the latter should realize that they need not wait for direction;
the nature of their work is such that they should be continually engaged in it
according to their own best judgement, even if they are given no specific tasks
to perform. Above all the Auxiliary Board members should build up a warm and
loving relationship between themselves and the believers in their area so that
the Local Spiritual Assemblies will spontaneously turn to them for advice and
assistance.
We assure you all of our fervent prayers in the Holy Shrines
for the blessings of Baha'u'llah upon the strenuous and highly meritorious
services that you are performing with such devotion in His path.
The Universal House of Justice
(Messages from the Universal House of Justice, 1963-1986’)
