The pattern of
spiritual and social life taking shape in clusters that involves study circles,
children's classes, junior youth groups, devotional meetings, home visits,
teaching efforts, and reflection meetings, as well as Holy Day observances,
Nineteen Day Feasts, and other gatherings, provides abundant opportunities for
engagement, experience, consultation, and learning that will lead to change in
personal and collective understanding and action. Issues of prejudice of race,
class, and color will inevitably arise as the friends reach out to diverse
populations, especially in the closely knit context of neighborhoods. There,
every activity can take a form most suited to the culture and interests of the
population, so that new believers can be quickened and confirmed in a nurturing
and familiar environment, until they are able to offer their share to the
resolution of the challenges faced by a growing Bahá’í community. For this is
not a process that some carry out on behalf of others who are passive recipients—the
mere extension of a congregation and invitation to paternalism—but one in which
an ever-increasing number of souls recognize and take responsibility for the
transformation of humanity set in motion by Bahá'u'lláh.
(From a letter dated April
10, 2011 written on behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual
believer)
