The culture now emerging is one in which groups of Bahá’u’lláh’s
followers explore together the truths in His Teachings, freely open their study
circles, devotional gatherings and children’s classes to their friends and
neighbours, and invest their efforts confidently in plans of action designed at
the level of the cluster, that makes growth a manageable goal… Where Bahá’í
communities are unable to free themselves from an orientation to Bahá’í life
that has long outlived whatever value it once possessed, the teaching work will
lack both the systematic character it requires, and the spirit that must
animate all effective service to the Cause. To mistakenly identify Bahá’í
community life with the mode of religious activity that characterizes the
general society—in which the believer is a member of a congregation, leadership
comes from an individual or individuals presumed to be qualified for the
purpose, and personal participation is fitted into a schedule dominated by
concerns of a very different nature—can only have the effect of marginalizing
the Faith and robbing the community of the spiritual vitality available to it.
- The Universal House of Justice (From a letter dated 22 August 2002 written on behalf of the Universal House of
Justice to an individual believer)
