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.
(From a letter dated 22 August 2002 written on
behalf of the Universal House of Justice to an individual believer)
