Administrative efficiency and order should always be accompanied by an equal degree of love, of devotion and of spiritual development. Both of them are essential and to attempt to dissociate one from the other is to deaden the body of the Cause. In these days, when the Faith is still in its infancy, great care must be taken lest mere administrative routine stifles the spirit which must feed the body of the Administration itself. That spirit is its propelling force and the motivating power of its very life.
But as already emphasized, both the spirit and the form are essential to the safe and speedy development of the Administration. To maintain full balance between them is the main and unique responsibility of the administrators of the Cause.
- Shoghi Effendi (From a letter dated 10 December 1933 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer; compilation: ‘The National Spiritual Assembly’, prepared by the Research Department of the Universal House of Justice, revised October 2023; online Baha’i Reference Library of the Baha’i World Centre)
