Gatherings for reflection are increasingly seen as occasions
where the community’s efforts, in their entirety, are the subject of earnest
and uplifting deliberation. Participants learn what has been accomplished
overall, understand their own labours in that light, and enhance their
knowledge about the process of growth by absorbing the counsels of the
institutions and drawing on the experience of their fellow believers. Such
experience is also shared in numerous other spaces that are emerging for
consultation amongst friends intensely engaged in specific endeavours, whether
they are pursuing a common line of action or serving in a particular part of
the cluster. All these insights are located in a wider appreciation that
progress is most easily achieved in an environment imbued with love—one in
which shortcomings are overlooked with forbearance, obstacles are overcome with
patience, and tested approaches are embraced with enthusiasm.
- The Universal House of
Justice (Ridvan 2013 message)
