…in addition to the Spiritual Assemblies, the Bahá’í
Administrative Order also contains the institutions of the Continental Boards
of Counselors and their Auxiliary Boards. Their endeavors, with the
individuals, the community and the institutions, are intended to help maintain
the true spirit of the Faith, to counsel the governing institutions and to
assist them to attain the high ideals set before them by Bahá’u’lláh and the
Master. As the House of Justice wrote in a letter dated 24 April 1972: “The
existence of institutions of such exalted rank, comprising individuals who play
such a vital role, who yet have no legislative, administrative or judicial
authority, and are entirely devoid of priestly functions or the right to make
authoritative interpretations, is a feature of Bahá’í administration
unparalleled in the religions of the past.” The House of Justice went on to
comment that, only as the Bahá’í community grows, and the believers are
increasingly able to contemplate its administrative structure uninfluenced by
concepts from past ages, will the vital interdependence of these two arms of
the administration be properly understood and the value of their interaction be
fully recognized.
(From a letter dated 18 July 2000 written on behalf of the
Universal House of Justice to an individual believer)
