Second, the administrative portion of the Feast should not
be laborious or burdensome. It can become so because too many reports by too
many local Bahá'í committees are presented at one Feast. Such reports could
perhaps be conveyed in bulletins. Also, there can be too many messages from
agencies of the national administration. While it lies within the discretion of
the National Spiritual Assembly to send a message or items of information to be
shared at the Feast, care must be taken not to overburden these events with a
multiplicity of items from the National Assembly and its auxiliary agencies.
Some National Assemblies have developed the practice of sending a message to
every Feast; this is, of course, not wrong in principle, but they may need to
examine their methods of communicating with the believers and see whether
occasional messages might not be sufficient. The idea is that the local Bahá'í
communities should exercise control over the Feast and not be made to feel that
they are being overrun by messages, instructions and assignments from the
national administration of the Faith. This whole matter needs to be studied by
the National Spiritual Assembly with a balanced perspective, so that while
important national issues are not ignored, the potentialities of the Feast for
development of the local community are fully realized.
(The Universal House of
Justice, 1989 Aug 28, Issues Related to the Nineteen Day Feast)
